more of the same

(and i heard on npr yesterday, while i was driving home) king george was offering china $500,000. yes, that's right 500,000. what a fucking insult
think of how much money we've WASTED in iraq (and just toss to pakistan every month. i mean we're just tossin' it to 'em)

US coverup of corruption in Iraq alleged
Ex-State Dept. workers criticize defunct office
By Anne Flaherty
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees.
more stories like this
Arthur Brennan, who briefly served in Baghdad as head of the department's Office of Accountability and Transparency last year, and James Mattil, who worked as the chief of staff, told Senate Democrats yesterday that their office was understaffed and its warnings and recommendations ignored.
Brennan also alleged the State Department prevented a congressional aide visiting Baghdad from talking with staffers by insisting they were too busy. In reality, Brennan said, office members were watching movies at the embassy and on their computers. The staffers' workload had been cut dramatically because of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "evisceration" of Iraq's top anticorruption office, he said.
The State Department's policies "not only contradicted the anticorruption mission but indirectly contributed to and has allowed corruption to fester at the highest levels of the Iraqi government," Brennan told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee........

hmmmmmmmmmmm 4,500

is almost the same number as the united states service members who have lost their lives in an unjust, illegal and immoral iraq war
THAT
the american public and lawmakers will NOT demand a halt to

4,500

Military analysts named in Times exposé appeared or were quoted more than 4,500 times on broadcast nets, cables, NPR
....................On April 20, The New York Times published an article by investigative reporter David Barstow that detailed the connection between numerous media military analysts and the Pentagon and defense industries. Barstow reported that "the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform" media military analysts, many of whom have clients or work for companies with an interest in obtaining Pentagon contracts, "into a kind of media Trojan horse -- an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks." A Media Matters review found that since January 1, 2002, the analysts named in Barstow's article -- many identified as having ties to the defense industry -- collectively appeared or were quoted as experts more than 4,500 times on ABC, ABC News Now, CBS, CBS Radio Network, NBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR in segments covering the Iraq war both before and after the invasion, as well as numerous other national security or government policy issues.
A spreadsheet listing each of the analysts' appearances documented by Media Matters is available here...................

1808 or 2008?

real or made up? (real). next thing you know, people 'of color' will have to use a different toilet (again). a different drinking fountain (it's catchy you know. the darker skin tones AND homosexuality). then men and women will be separated. in schools, in social functions etc. i for one can't wait. we're far too liberal with women, gays, anyone who is not a fundamentalist christian, people whose skin tone isn't in the range of mr bayes and while we're at it, let's either lock all these infidels up or kill 'em all! yeah! they don't deserve to live because god told me her own damn self! (by the way for any idiot who's reading this and thinking i'm serious - and yes that's possible - I'M NOT SERIOUS)

State House candidate: Separate bathrooms for gay kids
by Nick Langewis
A Republican seeking a state House seat in the land of Larry Craig advocates segregation based on sexual orientation.
Retired Idahoan Walt Bayes, 70, says in campaign literature that it is "absolutely wrong to force any student to share the same bathrooms and showers with homosexual teachers or students."
"I don't really have an answer for it," the Wilder resident told the Idaho Press-Tribune Saturday, "but we're going to have to do something if there's going to be a considerable number of our people who are going to [be gay]."
It would have been "an absolute catastrophe," Bayes said, if he were allowed to shower with girls when he was 18 years old, which is the rationale he uses to advocate such a "separation."..........

what a giant steamin' piece o' shite

HE gave up effing golf? that's HIS contribution to end the war on terror? he's not putting HIS life on the line defending his country against the weapons of mass destruction (which were phantom weapons i might add) in iraq. he's not defending his country against the 9/11 terrorists (who almost ALL came right out of saudia arabia -trained there and were funded there - i might add). he, our king, is directly responsible (along with big dick and a handful of others) of the deaths of more than 4,000 of our men and women. the deaths of countless INNOCENT iraqis (sure some guilty ones too). the maiming both inside and out of THOUSANDS of american serivce men and women and their families.

yet he thinks giving up effing golf will absolve him? fuck it.
Bush Says He's Not A Golfer In Wartime

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
President Bush said yesterday that he gave up golfing in 2003 "in solidarity" with the families of soldiers who were dying in Iraq, concluding that it was "just not worth it anymore" to play the sport in a time of war.
"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," Bush said in a White House interview with the Politico. "I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."
Bush said he decided to stop playing golf on Aug. 19, 2003, when a truck bomb in Baghdad killed U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and more than a dozen others.
He said he received word of the attack while playing golf during a stay at the family ranch near Crawford, Tex. Press reports at the time indicate he took the call from Condoleezza Rice, then his national security adviser. ...........

stop by lucy and bart

to see some truly amazing photographs
(this one is called dripping color)

shout out to dark roasted blend

another great idea to cross post!!!

#links an ENTIRE lunch bag (not just the sandwich wrap)

oh no no no

and no

(shout out to boing boing)

lest we not forget

U.S. wounded in Iraq hits 30,000; Number of U.S. dead in Afghanistan reaches 500
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
There was plenty of fanfare when the number of dead soldiers in Iraq reached 4,000. The MSM actually paid (some) attention to the war in Iraq.
But two other round numbers were reached over the weekend: The number of U.S. wounded from Iraq stands at 30,004, as of May 7. And the number of U.S. dead from Afghanistan is now at 500.
Whether they are round numbers, or not-so-round, there are still human beings suffering in a situation in Iraq that wasn't justified. And that ignores the continuing discrepancies between the official Iraqi dead (91,094) and unofficial Iraqi dead (1,206,950), a current difference of 1,115,856. The official numbers are 7.6% of the unofficial numbers. ...........

gonna make me another tee

(don't know who did this, but i got it from a story on alternet)

hey da liebs

there are PLENTY of countries and people (take saudia arabia for instance. take libya for instance . take your best bud king george for instance.) who are responsible for the deaths of americans. why aren't you bombing THEM i must ask myself?
Lieberman 'hopes' Iran is aware US airstrikes are 'distinct possibility'
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
After General David Petraeus testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in April, conservative pundit Pat Buchanan
warned that "the neocons may yet get their war on Iran."
Buchanan particularly singled out Petraeus's agreement with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) when he suggested, "Is it fair to say that the Iranian-backed special groups in Iraq are responsible for the murder of hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians?"
When Lieberman appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Monday, Buchanan reminded him of that question and asked, "Do you believe that the United States should conduct air strikes on the al-Quds force in Iran if they do not stop this, and do you expect President Bush to do something like that?"
"I hope we don't have to get to the point of moving in any way into Iran to strike at the base of the people who are responsible for killing Americans," Lieberman replied. "But I hope that the Quds Force and the Iranian government has in mind that that is a distinct possibility.".............

'vexed' makes it sound

almost whimsical. 'vexed' makes it sound like they're brushing a fly away. well, they think of women as possessions. they think of women as below a pet. they, without hiding it, ridicule a woman for SITTING AT A TABLE IN A RESTAURANT (even while wearing the veil). they KILL women for simply talking to a man who is not related to her.

they are pieces of steamin shite in my book. fuck them and fuck every man who is afraid of women (as these 'men' obviously are) and takes that fear and uses it AGAINST an entire gender.

that's right fuck them all

Generation Faithful
Young Saudis, Vexed and Entranced by Love’s Rules
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
............................That suggests that Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islam, largely uncontested at home by the next generation and spread abroad by Saudi money in a time of religious revival, will increasingly shape how Muslims around the world will live their faith. Young men like Nader and Enad are taught that they are the guardians of the family’s reputation, expected to shield their female relatives from shame and avoid dishonoring their families by their own behavior. It is a classic example of how the Saudis have melded their faith with their desert tribal traditions.
“One of the most important Arab traditions is honor,” Enad said. “If my sister goes in the street and someone assaults her, she won’t be able to protect herself. The nature of men is that men are more rational. Women are not rational. With one or two or three words, a man can get what he wants from a woman. If I call someone and a girl answers, I have to apologize. It’s a huge deal. It is a violation of the house.”.............

.....................Three days later, in a nearby restaurant, Nader and Enad were concentrating on eating with utensils, feeling a bit awkward since they normally eat with their right hands.
Suddenly, the young men stopped focusing on their food. A woman had entered the restaurant, alone. She was completely draped in a black abaya, her face covered by a black veil, her hair and ears covered by a black cloth pulled tight.
“Look at the batman,” Nader said derisively, snickering.
Enad pretended to toss his burning cigarette at the woman, who by now had been seated at a table. The glaring young men unnerved her, as though her parents had caught her doing something wrong.
“She is alone, without a man,” Enad said, explaining why they were disgusted, not just with her, but with her male relatives, too, wherever they were. ......................

a great little piece here

from kathy g at the g spot

The Hillary-ization of Michelle Obama
By Kathy G.
Before I get to the main subject of this post, I wanted to share my enthusiasm about my favorite new blog: Ta-Nehisi Coates. Though Ta-Nehisi's blog centers on politics, he is also the author of a fascinating-sounding new memoir, The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood. (You can watch an engaging video about the memoir here). He's had some especially smart things to say about the presidential race. Read this post, for example, about Hillary Clinton's instantly infamous "hard-working white people" remark, and why "the obligatory 'not a racist' defense" is irritatingly beside the point, and offensive to boot.
All this is by way of introduction to my favorite of his most recent posts, this expert takedown of Christopher Hitchens' recent nasty, dishonest, and embarrassing attempt at a hit job on Michelle Obama (which appeared in Slate, wouldn't you know. And just when I thought Slate couldn't possibly suck any harder). Ta-Nehisi has a much, much higher opinion of Hitchens than I do (I think the man descended into disgraceful hackdom long ago), but that doesn't stop him from seeing very clearly what Hitchens was trying (and pathetically failing) to do in that piece, and calling him on it. Among other things, Ta-Nehisi points out that if you want to smear someone for the non-existent radical views they allegedly had in college, it would help matters if you yourself don't have a lengthy and well-documented past as a Trotskyite Trotskyist, as Hitchens himself does. D'oh!.......

hmmmmmmmmmm

not too very much to say here except EFF YOU (i'm even giving you the abortion part. i actually CAN understand that. but birth control? nope nope and nope)

Higher Education and Higher Law: Planned Parenthood Is a No-No for Pro Bono at St. Thomas

By Kashmir Hill
Catholic law schools uphold two legal regimes: the laws of the U.S. legal system, and the laws from the big guy upstairs. Some students are just there for the former, and discomforted by the influence of the latter.
A tipster writes to us about a debate at Minnesota's St. Thomas School of Law. We notice that in their motto -- "Faith, Reason, Community" -- faith comes first. So students probably should have expected something like this:
At Minnesota's new law school, St. Thomas, the students have a 50-hour pro bono requirement. The school just announced that students can't get credit if they do pro bono work for an organization that supports birth control or abortion. It seems kind of goofy................

chances are

if his name was jmmy bob boy he sure as shite would NOT have been court martialed (look at the rape charges against some kbr contractors)
oh, and i'm not saying he shouldn't be court martialed. what i'm saying is ALL of those that are guilty (including king george and the big dick) SHOULD be tried and appropriately punished

US military orders court-martial for contractor in Iraq
BAGHDAD - The U.S. military on Sunday ordered a court-martial for a civilian contractor charged with aggravated assault while working as an Army translator in Iraq — the first such military prosecution since the Vietnam War. Alaa "Alex" Mohammad Ali, who holds dual Iraqi-Canadian citizenship, is accused of stabbing another contractor four times during a fight Feb. 23 on a base near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad. The victim suffered chest wounds.
In 2006, Congress gave the military authority to prosecute crimes allegedly committed by civilians working for the armed forces.
Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, referred the case, the military said in a statement.......

sometimes

i think we're nothing more than animals.

these are two cases we know about. how many cases DON'T we know about?
question: shouldn't ALL people be treated with respect? with dignity? with COMPASSION?

Electronic trail incriminates government in detainee's cancer death
Nick Langewis
Damning electronic evidence has been brought to light that incriminates the federal government in the neglect of a detainee in the months preceding his cancer death.
Having fled his native El Salvador with his family at age 10, Francisco Castaneda, 36, was an illegal immigrant, though he had lived in Los Angeles for close to 25 years, and fathered his daughter Vanessa, before a drug possession conviction found him incarcerated and facing deportation.
In March of 2006, while Castaneda was in custody, his assigned doctor wanted him immediately admitted to a hospital and a biopsy done on a painful lesion on his penis, suspicious that it was cancerous. Division of Immigration Health Services refused the request, seeking more "cost-effective" treatment options. An emergency circumcision and biopsy of the lesion, later recommended by a urologist, were refused as "elective" treatment, according to Castaneda's testimony to Congress on October 4, 2007. The cancer would go untreated throughout 2006, despite repeated requests for help, and it had visibly spread by the end of the year...........

In Custody, In Pain
Beset by Medical Problems as She Fights Deportation, A U.S. Resident Struggles to Get the Treatment She Needs
by Amy Goldstein and Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writers

FLORENCE, Ariz. -- Underneath her baggy jail-issue pants, Yong Sun Harvill feels the soft lump just below her left knee. Sometimes it tingles. Sometimes it is numb. Like her cancer felt when it arrived behind the knee a few years ago.
She noticed the lump under the thin, blue cotton in August, five months after federal immigration officers, to her amazement, took her into custody to try to deport her for buying stolen jewelry more than a decade ago. The lump grows slowly. It is now three inches across. And though she keeps asking, no one has done a test to see whether her sarcoma has come back.
Her leg is painful and swollen from hip to foot, damaged by past surgeries and radiation treatments. Some nights, liquid seeps through cracks in her distended skin. Her left ankle is three times as big as her right. For years, she relied on a leg pump to boost her circulation and keep the swelling in check. But as an immigration detainee in this desert prison town, Harvill, 52, has been unable to persuade anyone to get her a pump, or to let her family back in Florida send hers from home.........

o b a m a

(shout out to at largely)

oh i'm not just pissed at THEM

i'm pissed at now and any other group or individual who/that thinks someone should get the job JUST because of their gender. i demand equality, i do NOT demand special treatment. i do not want special treatment. i want the SAME treatment. i do NOT like hillary. i DO like barack. it has NOTHING to do with one being a woman and one not being a woman. it has NOTHING to do with one being black and one being white. it DOES have to do with one (at least in my eyes) being MORE HONEST than another. with one caring more than another. with one not owing favors more than another. with one MORE SINCERE THAN ANOTHER. and on and on.

Women are pissed at EMILY's List
by John Aravosis (DC) ·
I wrote late last night about an op ed in today's Washington Post, written by Ellen Malcolm, the head of EMILY's List (an organization that supports pro-choice Democratic women for elected office). The thrust of Malcolm's piece was that Hillary hasn't lost yet and is only being asked to leave the race because she's a woman, and, you know, we all hate women. Well, our female readers had something to say about this, I excerpted some of their 67 Comments below.

As an aside, as an organization that claims it cares about the right to choose (I mean, pro-choice Democratic women is EMILY's List's reason for existing), EMILY's List doesn't seem that interested in the fact that John McCain plans to overturn Roe v. Wade. No, EMILY's List is more interested in helping Hillary destroy our nominee, Barack Obama, so that McCain can win the election and ban all abortions, without exceptions. If you donate to EMILY's List, think twice. And rather than just take my word for it, Chris Bowers did a fascinating, and disturbing, analysis of EMILY's List's success rate (or should I say "failure rate") in the last election. It isn't pretty. Though maybe now we're understanding better why EMILY's List isn't winning more races. But I'm sure Ellen Malcolm will blame that on men too.
................

i'd like to meet

you mark wooden. anytime you're in the united states, in the north east, please let me know. i'd REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVE TO MEET YOU. yup. that is when i'm not cookin' and cleanin' and layin on my back and birthin babies oh and sittin in front of the tv eatin bon bons

Women don't work enough: expert

The pay equity gap between men and women in Australia will not close until women are prepared to work longer hours, an academic says.

Social researcher for the University of Melbourne Mark Wooden said men were earning on average 15 per cent more than women because they put in more time at the workplace.

"All high achievers in all walks of life ... put in long hours into their activity," Professor Wooden said.

"It's (the pay equity gap) got a lot to do with the fact that women are not prepared to work longer hours."

Prof Wooden said even if workplaces were family friendly, "many women would not pursue long-hour jobs".

The only male taking part in a National Press Club panel discussion about the pay equity gap, Prof Wooden's remarks drew gasps from the mostly female audience...........

more and more and more

proof, THEY JUST DON'T CARE about our service men and women. they just don't (and once again i must ask myself, why oh why, do people STILL enlist after ALL they must endure)
personally, i would have no issues being cremated in a facility for animals BUT i understand how everyone else is NOT like me. i understand it is NOT respectful to our men and women who have given their lives to us

War dead cremated at facility for pets

By Ann Scott Tyson

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has, since 2001, cremated some of the remains of U.S. service members killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in a Delaware facility that also cremates pets, a practice that ended Friday when the Pentagon banned the arrangement.

The facility, in an industrial park near Dover Air Force Base, has cremated about 200 service members, manager David Bose said Friday night. It uses separate crematories a few feet apart to cremate humans and animals, he added.

Pentagon officials said they do not think any humans were cremated in the pet crematory. "We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever at this point that any human remains were at all ever mistreated," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said late Friday.

Despite Bose's estimate, officials said they do not know the number of service members cremated at the Kent County facility, identified on a billboard as Friends Forever Pet Cremation Service.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates found "the site and signage insensitive and entirely inappropriate for the dignified treatment of our fallen," Morrell said. "The families of the fallen have the secretary's deepest apology," he said.

The revelation came to light when an Army officer who works at the Pentagon traveled to Delaware on Thursday to attend the cremation of a military comrade.............

a shout out to U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison

f**k kbr and f**k halliburton. when someone signs an agreement with you and that agreement says they won't bring you to court, i KNOW they don't believe being raped is part of the deal.
Judge: Woman's rape case against Halliburton can go to trial
Judge: Lawsuit against Halliburton by woman claiming rape in Iraq can go to trial
Staff
A woman who said she was raped by co-workers while employed by a contractor in Iraq can take her claims to trial, a federal judge ruled Friday

Jamie Leigh Jones filed a federal lawsuit last year, saying she was attacked while working for a Halliburton Co. subsidiary at Camp Hope, Baghdad, in 2005. Her lawsuit claims that after she endured harassment from some of the men where she lived in coed barracks, she was drugged and raped by Halliburton and KBR firefighters.
Jones, a former Conroe resident, said a KBR representative imprisoned her in a shipping container for a day so she wouldn't report the assault.
Attorneys for Halliburton, KBR and other subsidiaries that have been sued have disputed Jones' allegations. KBR split from Halliburton last year.
Washington-based attorney Stephanie Morris said her client is pleased that she will have the opportunity to bring attention to the case........