christian?

OR CALCULATED CHRISTIAN?

He’d rather talk about sex than God
George Bush built his career on his faith. But his key religious adviser tells of a different man behind the born-again image
Jacob Weisberg
One of the defining aspects of George W Bush’s presidency is his professed belief in God. Yet what really are his religious beliefs? The question, which seems central to understanding his presidency, never receives a satisfactory answer. Indeed, one religious figure close to him soon after his conversion was shocked to find that he talked about sex rather than theology and says that a lot of his faith seemed to be politically calculated.
Bush’s religion has often been described as evangelical. But unlike most other evangelicals, he blithely uses profanity and as governor of Texas he would play poker. He doesn’t pay tithes, he doesn’t try to convert others – one of the central obligations in most evangelical denominations. And he didn’t raise his daughters in the faith.
What Bush clearly does believe in is the personal, transforming and sustaining power of belief in God. Having a personal relationship with God, praying and reading the Bible daily were the tools he used to get control of his life more than 20 years ago.
They made it possible for him to control his drinking, keep his family together after his wife Laura threatened to leave him, manage his aggressive behaviour, cope with the burden of a heroic father and attain success. ...........

sunday with mississippi john hurt

i don't want him to be forgotten. he came before. he came before all of them

here he is with pete seeger (a VERY YOUNG pete seeger)

i was at my pop's house yesterday

my sister lives there with him. he's 80, soon to be 81 and i'm very comfortable with them living together. i visit almost every day although he is rarely home. he has a girlfriend! it's been over 2 years and they are constant companions. i couldn't be happier she is an absolute angel. taking care of him after both hip replacement surgeries (her house is on one level, his isn't. she has a walk in shower, he has a high sided bathtub). anyway, the other day my sister asked me who i was voting for. i told her what i told everyone. i WANT to vote for al gore, but he's not running. i'd like to vote for edwards but i don't think he will get the nomination. so i am going to vote for barack obama. she started screaming at me. how she and my father were voting for hillary and she couldn't understand how i was NOT going to vote for her. yesterday (alone at my popi's), i got a call from hillary's camp. it was a recorded message. usually i hang up but i didn't have a chance. they only asked one question. push 1 for hillary, 2 for obama. i pushed 2 and then the disembodied voice said thank you and hung up. i am going to watch my father's mail like a hawk. i shouldn't feel like this but i do have a deep feeling he will be getting some ugly mail about obama. if he does, i know who is responsible and i will be doubly pissed.

caroline kennedy speaks:
A President Like My Father
By CAROLINE KENNEDY
OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama. My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.
Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible. My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.
Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible. ...............

question:

how the HELL is cbs going to broadcast dexter??????
SHOWTIME'S CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED DRAMA "DEXTER" PREMIERES SUNDAY, FEB. 17, 10:00-11:00 PM ON THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK
In an Unprecedented Move, a Premium Cable Drama To Air On Network Television

number one

canada and california are TWO DIFFERENT words and places. i don't see how they can be confused. number two, CAN canadians be on an american jury (if they are still canadians that is)? doesn't one have to be an american citizen to be on a jury? i should know i was called about seven times. i believe they ask on the initial form (i could be wrong). of course i'm NOT wrong. i found the answer see below: (and shite, one would think a da or an assistant da would sure as shite know a 'canadian' could NOT serve on an american jury)
Is term 'Canadian' used as racist word? Email lands Texas district attorney in hot water
Brett Popplewell Staff Reporter
Is "Canadian" the new black? Perhaps – that is if you're a racist speaking in code.
Recent revelations that the term "Canadian" is being used to replace racist names for black people have got a Texas assistant district attorney into trouble and have left others wondering what exactly it means to be labelled a Canadian in the American south.
Long derogated as weak-kneed liberals with lax laws and funny monopoly money, Canadians have carried a negative connotation in certain regions of America – but not as a replacement for the N-word.
Earlier this week a columnist with the Houston Chronicle uncovered an email from Harris County assistant district attorney Mike Trent who, in a congratulatory note to a junior prosecutor, used the word "Canadians" to describe blacks on a jury.
Trent wrote of the prosecutor in a 2003 email: "He overcame a subversively good defence by Matt Hennessey that had some Canadians on the jury feeling sorry for the defendant and forced them to do the right thing.".........

Juror - Can a non United State citizen serve as a juror?

The statute which covers qualification to serve as a juror is as follows:
Sec. 1307a.
(1) To qualify as a juror a person shall:
(a) Be a citizen of the United States, 18 years of age or older, and a resident in the county for which the person is selected, and in the case of a district court in districts of the second and third class, be a resident of the district, and in the case of municipal courts of record, be a resident of the municipality.
(b) Be conversant with the English language.
(c) Be physically and mentally able to carry out the functions of a juror. Temporary inability shall not be considered a disqualification.
(d) Not have served as a petit or grand juror in a court of record during the preceding 12 months.
(e) Not be under sentence for a felony at the time of jury selection.(2) A person more than 70 years of age may claim exemption from jury service and shall be exempt upon making the request.
(3) For the purposes of sections 1371 to 1376 a person has served as a juror if that person has been paid for jury service.

MORE proof

there is NO global warming........
proof in the land of all that is oprah

Great Lakes' Lower Water Levels Propel a Cascade of Hardships

By Kari Lydersen Washington Post Staff Writer
CHICAGO -- A decade ago, Chicago winters meant monumental ice hillocks and caves forming along the lakeshore, skirted by interlocking ice sheets like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
Today, it is rare to see more than a thin frozen shelf or a few small ice floes sloshing in Lake Michigan below the city's skyline.
Decreased ice cover on the Great Lakes, probably caused by increasing air and water temperatures and high winds, is a major culprit in lowering water levels, which have hurt the shipping industry, forced lakeside power plants to extend their cooling pipes, frustrated recreational boaters, dried up wetlands and left coastal landowners with docks extending over yards of unsightly muck. .........

i like this

flowfield unity

(hat tip to bifurcated rivets)

from 2003

the fcc wants to fine abc for showing buttocks on nypd blue. aren't there OTHER things they could worry about? have a rash of 'kids' who saw the program in question in 2003, grown up to be mass murderers? has the country gone off of the deep end? well YES it has but i most seriously doubt it was because of an ass-shot on nypd blue in 2003. (it's because of the good ol' white boy network lead by king george. and they all have TIGHT asses, even the flabby ones)

US network faces $1m nudity fine
US television network ABC may have to pay a fine of $1.4m (£707,000) for airing an episode of NYPD Blue which depicted female nudity.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said the 2003 show had "multiple, close-up views" of a woman's buttocks before the US watershed.
The FCC deems "sexual or excretory activities" shown in an "offensive" way before 2200 as indecent.
ABC has rejected the claims, saying the buttocks are not a sexual organ.
The proposed penalty has been imposed on all 52 of ABC's stations who broadcast the episode. .........

put this on the list

of yet ANOTHER absurd AND DANGEROUS thing we're allowing king george to get away with
Disgraced Warmonger Wolfowitz to Chair US Panel on Arms Control
Posted by GottaLaff , Cliff Schecter's Blog
When in doubt, put a corrupt thug in charge of delicate matters to further illegal causes, encourage conflict, and create more alienation from the US.
Paul "Spit On My Comb" Wolfowitz has a brand new job!
Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq war who was forced to resign from the World Bank because of an ethics scandal, will chair a U.S. advisory panel on arms control, the State Department said on Thursday.
How wise, hiring WolfaHalfWitz for a position that he will no doubt use to bungle and/or further endanger the U.S. Well, at least he'll be able to afford a new comb.
The former deputy secretary of defense and advocate of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq will head the State Department's International Security Advisory Board, which gives the department independent advice on arms control, disarmament, international security and other matters.
Wolfowitz was forced to resign as president of the World Bank last year after a bank panel found he broke several of its rules by involving himself in the promotion of his companion Shaha Riza, a Middle East expert at the bank.
............

we'll do what we want

when we want and how we want. AND

you'll effing LIKE IT
so what if we blow up your country. so what if we bring you 'democracy'. so what if we kill your sons and daughters. so what if we drive millions of your citizens out of their own country. so what if we kill MURDER innocents? so effing what. when we say jump - YOU SAY HOW HIGH

US quietly demands Iraq give defense contractors, US military immunity from prosecution
John Byrne and Gavin McNett
US officials are dragooning Iraq into accepting immunity for US civilian contractors in new negotiations with the Iraqi government just months after a feud over a private defense contractor exploded into an international outcry.
The Bush administration insists that Baghdad give the US "broad authority to conduct combat operations and guarantee civilian contractors specific legal protections from Iraqi law, according to administration and military officials," a front page story in Friday's New York Times reports.............

scientific whaling?

no, it's not. it's whale killing specifically for sushi, sashmi and for all i know, whale b-b-q. putting everything else aside (moral reasons i mean), a lot of whales are endangered OR recovering (if taken off the endangered list). there are bans on hunting to protect them. japan doesn't obey them.
A Clash of Views On Whale-Loving
Creature Is a Delicacy in Japan, a Cause in the West

By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service
TOKYO, Jan. 25 -- At Ohana, a restaurant not far from the Japanese parliament in central Tokyo, a small plate of chilled raw whale costs $17.50. Grilled whale is $9, while whale in a hot pot goes for $29. The mammalian flesh for these dishes -- available year-round and served mostly to businessmen older than 40 -- comes from Japan's annual whale hunt, carried out, the government here declares, to advance "scientific" knowledge of cetaceans...............
.............The Japanese originally announced that they would take up to 50 humpback whales in the current hunt in addition to 800 minke and 50 fin whales. The humpback kill would have been the first in more than 40 years for a recovering species whose numbers had been reduced by about 90 percent by industrial whaling.
Under pressure from the United States and the European Union, where the humpback holds a special place in environmentalists' hearts, Japan backed away from that hunt. But the fleet is proceeding against the rest of the prey. ..

i've quoted it before and here it is again, from star trek iv: the voyage home
scotty to admiral kirk: 'Admiral, there be whales here'
and here is the amazing judy collins singing farewell to tarwathie accompanied by visions of whales.........

oh no they di'ent

faux 'news' soooooooooooo really di'ent say this shite............DID THEY?
from greg mitchell's blog;

Fox News: U.S. economy tanking because of fear of Democrats taking White House

Jon Stewart tonight played clips of various "experts" on Fox declaring that the main culprit behind our sinking financial picture and the selloffs on Wall Street is fear of a Democratic victory in November. Stewart's comment: "How bad do the Democrats have to be to pre-fuck the economy?"He also played statements by numerous pundits hailing Fred Thompson's chances last summer, closing with Bill Kristol calling him truly "formidable." Stewart: "Oh, Bill Kristol, aren't you ever right?" .......

just when you thought it was safe

(to make a phone call or send an email or a real live written letter) HE'SSSSSSSSSSSSS BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKKK

the big dick that is
Cheney Pushes for Renewed Wiretap Powers
WASHINGTON - US Vice President Dick Cheney called on Congress Wednesday to make permanent legislation permitting security agencies to tap foreign telephone calls and emails in the US “war on terror.”As Congress geared up to weigh new legislation permitting the warrantless wiretaps, Cheney said it was “urgent” to renew and update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) “immediately and permanently” before a key modification from last year expires on February 1.
But the legislation could stall over objections to the White House’s desire to grant US telecommunications companies which assist in the wiretaps retroactive immunity for possible rights violations.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the White House Wednesday that a short-term extension would likely be necessary first......

gibson says he's sorry

but we all know that 'apology' just about killed him AND he didn't mean an effing word of it. what an insincere piece of steamin' shite

(video at link)
Gibson: ‘To anyone offended by my comments, I’m sorry.
On his Fox News show today, John Gibson apologized for his recent comments mocking the death of actor Heath Ledger. “I’m sorry that some took my comments as anti-gay and insensitive,” said Gibson. “Once again, to anyone offended by my comments, I’m sorry.” ......

(original posting)

he got what he deserved

and they're right, HE AIN'T JIMMY STEWART and this AIN'T mr smith goes to washington

Lawmaker censured for kicking photog
Colorado House Censures Lawmaker for Kicking Newspaper Photographer

STEVEN K. PAULSON

The state House voted Thursday to censure a lawmaker who kicked a newspaper photographer taking his picture — and refused to apologize. The resolution, passed 62-1, was the first censure in the history of the Legislature. It says Rep. Douglas Bruce "failed to uphold the honor and dignity of the House of Representatives and reflects poorly on the state."
Bruce, a Colorado Springs Republican, kicked Rocky Mountain News photographer Javier Manzano for snapping his photo during the traditional session-opening prayer on Jan. 14. Bruce was sworn in as a midterm replacement hours later............



...........As the censure was read, Bruce stood in front of his colleagues toward the side of the chamber, his lips pursed and his arms folded.
He then delivered a speech, again blaming the photographer and comparing himself to Jimmy Stewart in the 1939 movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Stewart played a freshman congressman who punches out a photographer and becomes a hero after launching a filibuster and collapsing on the floor.
Republican Rep. Al White responded: "Representative Bruce, you're not Jimmy Stewart, this is not a 1939 movie. This is today. Your actions were wrong."
The lone vote against censure was by Rep. Kevin Lundberg, a Republican who said Bruce deserved to be punished but that censure was too strong..........

(my original posting)

oh shite

now we're going to invade 'help' ANOTHER country? oh shite shite shite

U.S. ready to fight militants with Pakistani troops
By Andrew Gray
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would be willing to send troops to Pakistan to fight alongside the South Asian country's forces against Islamist militants, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.
Gates said Pakistan had not requested such a move and Washington had not presented proposals to Pakistan's leaders. But he made clear the United States was open to providing more direct assistance.
"We remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them, to provide additional training, to conduct joint operations, should they desire to do so," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.
The United States, waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan against Islamist militants that have strained its military, is increasingly concerned about the rise of insurgents in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan........

very interesting

(and i do NOT promote the destruction or hacking of other's websites. no, not even scientologist ones). however, i DO promote free speech and i DO support saying anything you want about scientology without fear of being sued. as i said, if their 'religion' is the MOST PERFECT one in the entire universe, why be afraid to share it with all? oh, cause 'all' doesn't chip in some moolah?

Anonymous hackers take on the Church of Scientology
Posted by Robert Vamosi
A copyright violation claim by the Church of Scientology against the posting of one of its videos to YouTube has prompted a full-on assault by a group calling itself Anonymous.
The video, in which Tom Cruise proclaims, in part, that Scientologists are the only experts on the mind, was pulled by YouTube over the weekend at the request of the Church of Scientology as part of a long-standing effort to keep copyrighted material from appearing on the Internet. Other sites have since posted the Cruise video in full.
In response to the take-down of the Cruise video, a group of vigilantes--calling themselves Anonymous, or Anon--have retaliated against what they consider to be Internet censorship. The group includes computer experts capable of Internet mischief. In recent days, local chapter sites for the Church of Scientology have been defaced, and in some cases denial of service attacks have also prevented access to the same sites. Real-world attacks have included fax-spamming those same offices..........

taxi to the dark side

i'm not sure i can watch this movie. i went to the website and even the music was going to make me cry
Documentary highlights detainee abuses in Iraq, Afghanistan
Nick Langewis and David Edwards Published: Thursday January 24, 2008
"'Soldiers are dying. Get the information.' That's all you're told: Get the information." --Pfc. Damien Corsetti
Oscar-nominated documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" highlights what prisoners of war in Iraq and Afghanistan endure as it tells the story of Dilawar, a 22-year-old Afghan cab driver who was killed while in American custody.
Dilawar and his passengers had been stopped near Bagram Air Base and detained under suspicion of involvement in a rocket attack against US forces. Dilawar's prompt death was ruled a homicide due to evidence of blunt force trauma inflicted while he was in custody at Bagram.
Dilawar's three passengers would be deemed no threat to American forces... after fifteen months at Guantanamo Bay.
"This is a kid who'd never spent...a night away from home in his life," says writer/director Alex Gibney, "until he was taken forcibly from his taxicab, thrown into Bagram Prison, and five days later he was dead."........

who is one of THE most tasteless people

on this entire planet? faux new's own;
(you know i'd write to faux but we all know they don't give a flyin' f**k)
Fox News Host Gibson Cracks a Series of Tasteless Jokes About Heath Ledger's Death
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress
Opening his radio show with funeral music yesterday, Fox News host John Gibson callously mocked the death of actor Heath Ledger, calling him a "weirdo" with a "serious drug problem."
Playing an audio clip of the iconic quote, "I wish I knew how to quit you" from Ledger's gay romance movie Brokeback Mountain, Gibson disdainfully quipped, "Well, he found out how to quit you." Laughing, Gibson then played another clip from Brokeback Mountain in which Ledger said, "We're dead," followed by his own, mocking "We're dead" before playing the clip again.
Throughout the course of the show, Gibson continued to bring up Ledger's death while discussing current events, jokingly claiming that current events may have caused him to commit suicide.......

chief marie smith jones

goodbye and thank you

Eyak language dies with its last speaker

The last traditional speaker of the Eyak language died yesterday, making the language extinct. Eyak Chief Marie Smith Jones was 89 years old. She was the last person to have learned the language the traditional way, taught as a child from her parents.
Her long-time language documentarian, linguist Dr. Michael Krauss began working with her in 1962. He says Chief Marie kept the language going for many years after her older sister died in the early 1990s.............

Last Native speaker of Eyak language is dead at 89

Marie Smith Jones was a well-known activist and leader
By DEBRA McKINNEY

Chief Marie Smith Jones, the last full-blooded Eyak and last Native speaker of the Eyak language, died Monday at her Fairview apartment.

She was 89.
According to her son, Leonard Smith, she was found in her bed. Her family believes she died in her sleep.
"Everyone is like, she not in pain anymore," said granddaughter Sherry Smith. "Because she has been in pain a lot."
Smith Jones was well-known in Alaska and beyond as an activist, and a feisty one. She took on her own Native corporation in a fight against clear-cutting on ancestral lands near Cordova. She oversaw the repatriation of bones when the Smithsonian Institution was forced to give them back. And she spoke at a United Nations conference on indigenous peoples. ........

(picture: alaska public radio network)