some wicked cool paper projects here too
compiled by artist jaime zollars
(at left is the work of taylor mckimens )
Posts
DEBTOCRACY- A GREEK FILM WITH LESSONS FOR IRELAND
15 years ago
Saturday, March 18, 2006
the paper forest blog
some wicked cool paper projects here too
compiled by artist jaime zollars
(at left is the work of taylor mckimens )
paper toys
Taj Mahal Facts:
The Taj Mahal is a monument to love constructed from 1632-54 at Agra in Uttar Pradesh, India, as a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal, the favorite wife of Shah Jahan. It was built of white marble and inlaid with semi-precious stones and elaborate mosaic work. The structure consists of a huge central dome surrounded by four smaller domes, flanked by four slim minarets. The whole is mirrored in an ornamental pool.
Friday, March 17, 2006
next week is NO POLITICS WEEK (for YOU lily)
monday-friday i'll be posting on subjects OTHER than politics (i hope i can do it for all of five days. remain politics free that is)
wish me luck
wish me luck
i have always loved gustav klimt
so what wonderful news this is!
Looted Klimts returned to owner
Paintings by Gustav Klimt are on their way to the US from a Vienna museum following more than 60 years after they were looted by Nazis in World War II.
The five pictures, worth at least $100m (£59m), will be returned to Maria Altmann, the niece of a former factory owner who had his possessions seized.
Among the pictures are two famous portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer. ................
i have the absolute worst handwriting in the entire cosmos
so i was quite pleased to come across this article. i've never heard of 'italic' writing. i think i just might pick up the self-study book
Rewriting handwriting
Some say italic is the answer to America's illegibility
By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News March 13, 2006
Every young kid suffers through the loop-de-loop of cursive handwriting, a bumpy and sometimes traumatizing ride.
By adulthood, though, most people have abandoned the torturous exercise for a slapdash mishmash of printing and script that ranges from barely legible to completely incomprehensible.
"We have a national affliction, and it's called cacography - that means 'illegible handwriting,' " says Barbara Getty, handwriting expert, former elementary-school teacher and co-creator of a method she believes can solve the problem. "That's why we're a 'Please print' nation. Nobody says, 'Please write in your lovely cursive handwriting.' "
At a time when the computer is king and toddlers type, some educators believe it's even more imperative to teach a speedy handwriting technique that others can read.
Enter italic, a zippy hybrid of print and cursive that Getty and fellow Oregon calligrapher Inga Dubay consider a simple, elegant solution to the massive modern handwriting malaise. .......
Rewriting handwriting
Some say italic is the answer to America's illegibility
By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News March 13, 2006
Every young kid suffers through the loop-de-loop of cursive handwriting, a bumpy and sometimes traumatizing ride.
By adulthood, though, most people have abandoned the torturous exercise for a slapdash mishmash of printing and script that ranges from barely legible to completely incomprehensible.
"We have a national affliction, and it's called cacography - that means 'illegible handwriting,' " says Barbara Getty, handwriting expert, former elementary-school teacher and co-creator of a method she believes can solve the problem. "That's why we're a 'Please print' nation. Nobody says, 'Please write in your lovely cursive handwriting.' "
At a time when the computer is king and toddlers type, some educators believe it's even more imperative to teach a speedy handwriting technique that others can read.
Enter italic, a zippy hybrid of print and cursive that Getty and fellow Oregon calligrapher Inga Dubay consider a simple, elegant solution to the massive modern handwriting malaise. .......
i have the absolute worst handwriting in the entire cosmos
so i was quite pleased to come across this article. i've never heard of 'italic' writing. i think i just might pick up the self-study book
Rewriting handwriting
Some say italic is the answer to America's illegibility
By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News March 13, 2006
Every young kid suffers through the loop-de-loop of cursive handwriting, a bumpy and sometimes traumatizing ride.
By adulthood, though, most people have abandoned the torturous exercise for a slapdash mishmash of printing and script that ranges from barely legible to completely incomprehensible.
"We have a national affliction, and it's called cacography - that means 'illegible handwriting,' " says Barbara Getty, handwriting expert, former elementary-school teacher and co-creator of a method she believes can solve the problem. "That's why we're a 'Please print' nation. Nobody says, 'Please write in your lovely cursive handwriting.' "
At a time when the computer is king and toddlers type, some educators believe it's even more imperative to teach a speedy handwriting technique that others can read.
Enter italic, a zippy hybrid of print and cursive that Getty and fellow Oregon calligrapher Inga Dubay consider a simple, elegant solution to the massive modern handwriting malaise. .......
Rewriting handwriting
Some say italic is the answer to America's illegibility
By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News March 13, 2006
Every young kid suffers through the loop-de-loop of cursive handwriting, a bumpy and sometimes traumatizing ride.
By adulthood, though, most people have abandoned the torturous exercise for a slapdash mishmash of printing and script that ranges from barely legible to completely incomprehensible.
"We have a national affliction, and it's called cacography - that means 'illegible handwriting,' " says Barbara Getty, handwriting expert, former elementary-school teacher and co-creator of a method she believes can solve the problem. "That's why we're a 'Please print' nation. Nobody says, 'Please write in your lovely cursive handwriting.' "
At a time when the computer is king and toddlers type, some educators believe it's even more imperative to teach a speedy handwriting technique that others can read.
Enter italic, a zippy hybrid of print and cursive that Getty and fellow Oregon calligrapher Inga Dubay consider a simple, elegant solution to the massive modern handwriting malaise. .......
Thursday, March 16, 2006
more good news about our FAVORITE company: halliburton
let's just keep on awarding them contract after contract after contract. let's keep on makin' the big DICKS of the world rich......
Firm Failed to Protect U.S. Troops' Water
Mar 16, 7:27 AM (ET)By LARRY MARGASAK
WASHINGTON (AP) - Halliburton Co. (HAL) failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused "mass sickness or death," an internal company report concluded.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the company failed to assemble and use its own water purification equipment, allowing contaminated water directly from the Euphrates River to be used for washing and laundry at Camp Ar Ramadi in Ramadi, Iraq.
The problems discovered last year at that site - poor training, miscommunication and lax record keeping - occurred at Halliburton's other operations throughout Iraq, the report said.
"Countrywide, all camps suffer to some extent from all or some of the deficiencies noted," Wil Granger, Theatre Water Quality Manager in the war zone for Halliburton's KBR subsidiary, wrote in his May 2005 report..
....AP reported earlier this year allegations from whistleblowers about the Camp Ar Ramadi incident, but Halliburton never made public Granger's internal report alleging wider problems..............
......The contaminated, non-chlorinated water at Ar Ramadi was discovered in March 2005 in a commode by Ben Carter, a KBR water expert at the base. In an interview, Carter said he resigned after KBR barred him from notifying the military and senior company officials about the untreated water.......
Firm Failed to Protect U.S. Troops' Water
Mar 16, 7:27 AM (ET)By LARRY MARGASAK
WASHINGTON (AP) - Halliburton Co. (HAL) failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused "mass sickness or death," an internal company report concluded.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the company failed to assemble and use its own water purification equipment, allowing contaminated water directly from the Euphrates River to be used for washing and laundry at Camp Ar Ramadi in Ramadi, Iraq.
The problems discovered last year at that site - poor training, miscommunication and lax record keeping - occurred at Halliburton's other operations throughout Iraq, the report said.
"Countrywide, all camps suffer to some extent from all or some of the deficiencies noted," Wil Granger, Theatre Water Quality Manager in the war zone for Halliburton's KBR subsidiary, wrote in his May 2005 report..
....AP reported earlier this year allegations from whistleblowers about the Camp Ar Ramadi incident, but Halliburton never made public Granger's internal report alleging wider problems..............
......The contaminated, non-chlorinated water at Ar Ramadi was discovered in March 2005 in a commode by Ben Carter, a KBR water expert at the base. In an interview, Carter said he resigned after KBR barred him from notifying the military and senior company officials about the untreated water.......
teaching grrrls is a crime punishable by DEATH
to them (see my posts on the former taliban member now a student at yale on my connecticut blog the nutmeg grater to understand why i have issues with taliban members present OR past)
Lessons of life and death
Afghan schools under siege as Taliban maintain grip
By Declan Walsh, Globe Correspondent March 16, 2006
SARKH DOZ, Afghanistan -- Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime have launched a campaign of arson, intimidation, and assassination targeting schools and teachers in southern Afghanistan, forcing some 200 schools to close in recent months, local officials say.
Five teachers have been killed, said Hayat Allah Rafiqi, head of the education department in Helmand province. Hundreds more teachers have received ''night letters" -- threatening notices nailed to their houses under darkness, warning them to quit teaching or die.
''Our teachers are helpless because security is so weak," Rafiqi said. ''By day the government rules, but by night it is the hand of the Taliban."
The attacks, which President Hamid Karzai estimated have idled 100,000 students in the south, have undermined attempts by the government to revive the country's educational system and teach both boys and girls -- a key to Afghanistan's recovery from decades of war. Girls were barred from attending school when the fundamentalist Islamic regime ruled the country in the 1990s.
While schools in Kandahar and Zabol provinces also have been targeted, Helmand has been particularly hard hit. Sixty-six of Helmand's 224 schools -- many of them built or repaired with American aid -- have closed, and others have reduced classes as parents move pupils to the safety of the main towns. Even there, protection is uncertain.
In one of the Helmand attacks, assassins dragged a teacher from his classroom in the village of Nad Ali and shot him at the school gate. His crime: teaching girls...........
Lessons of life and death
Afghan schools under siege as Taliban maintain grip
By Declan Walsh, Globe Correspondent March 16, 2006
SARKH DOZ, Afghanistan -- Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime have launched a campaign of arson, intimidation, and assassination targeting schools and teachers in southern Afghanistan, forcing some 200 schools to close in recent months, local officials say.
Five teachers have been killed, said Hayat Allah Rafiqi, head of the education department in Helmand province. Hundreds more teachers have received ''night letters" -- threatening notices nailed to their houses under darkness, warning them to quit teaching or die.
''Our teachers are helpless because security is so weak," Rafiqi said. ''By day the government rules, but by night it is the hand of the Taliban."
The attacks, which President Hamid Karzai estimated have idled 100,000 students in the south, have undermined attempts by the government to revive the country's educational system and teach both boys and girls -- a key to Afghanistan's recovery from decades of war. Girls were barred from attending school when the fundamentalist Islamic regime ruled the country in the 1990s.
While schools in Kandahar and Zabol provinces also have been targeted, Helmand has been particularly hard hit. Sixty-six of Helmand's 224 schools -- many of them built or repaired with American aid -- have closed, and others have reduced classes as parents move pupils to the safety of the main towns. Even there, protection is uncertain.
In one of the Helmand attacks, assassins dragged a teacher from his classroom in the village of Nad Ali and shot him at the school gate. His crime: teaching girls...........
and we thought michael powell was bad
i knew this dude was worse though. i read some of the interviews he did when he was appointed to the position. i was VERY frightened and i still am.
mmmmm 300,000 letters of complaint between 2002 and 2005. i wonder if these are public record? i wonder if indeed the letters are ALL the same. i wonder if they are mass produced. i wonder when the parents television counsel is going to take their thumbs out of their asses and start acting like responsible united states citizens WITH FULL FUCKING CONTROL OF THEIR OWN TELEVISIONS AND RADIOS. you have ON and OFF buttons, you have the CAPABILITY TO CHANGE CHANNELS. YOU have control over YOUR OWN household. IF YOU DON'T WANT SOMEONE IN YOUR FAMILY TO HEAR A 'NASTY' WORD UTTERED IN A DOCUMENTARY MADE BY MARTIN SCORSESE ON PBS DON'T HAVE IT ON TO BEGIN WITH. (by the way, i edited my own comments quite a bit. i had a few choice 'nasty' words too many thrown into the mix)
FCC slaps CBS with $3.5 million record fine
Spate of sanctions signals tough stance
By David Zurawik Sun television critic March 16, 2006After more than a year of inactivity, the Federal Communications Commission leapt into action yesterday, levying dozens of sanctions for indecency against television broadcasters - including a record $3.5 million fine against CBS for airing an episode of the hit drama Without a Trace that included what the commission labeled a "teen sex orgy."
The rulings, which included fines against NBC, Fox and WB's Washington affiliate, define new and tougher standards on indecency and appear to expand by one the list of words banned from the air.
They also represent the first actions taken by the FCC chairman, Kevin J. Martin, a former White House economic adviser.
"The number of complaints received by the commission has risen year after year," Martin said in a statement. "I share the concerns of the public - and of parents, in particular." Between the years of 2002 and 2005, the agency received 300,000 complaints about television shows. Anyone may file a complaint......
......Party scene The network also said it would appeal the fine against Without a Trace, a prime-time drama about an FBI unit that tracks missing persons.
The episode, broadcast on Dec. 31, 2004, featured a party scene that included "at least three shots depicting intercourse, two between couples and one 'group sex' shot and sounds of people moaning," according to the FCC.
The program in question "aired in the last hour of prime time and carried a 'TV 14' V-Chip parental guideline," stated CBS. It also "featured an important and socially relevant story line warning parents to exercise greater supervision of their teenage children. The program was not unduly graphic or explicit."
While the fines levied against CBS were the largest, the commission also ruled that the Fox network violated decency standards in its broadcast of the 2003 Billboard Music Awards because of language used by Nicole Richie, who appeared as a presenter. ..........
.....Repeated profanity In addition, KCSM-TV, a PBS affiliate in San Mateo, Calif., was fined $15,000 for the graphic language in a documentary by noted filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Titled The Blues: Godfathers and Sons, the film depicted the history of blues music and contained an interview with Marshall Chess, an independent record label owner, who repeatedly used profanity.
Washington's WBDC was fined $27,500 for airing on Feb. 8, 2004, an episode of The Surreal Life 2 titled "Pool Party" that included pixel-ated views of frontal nudity. Although the episode was carried by all the WB affiliates, only WBDC was fined because it was the station against which a complaint was lodged.
Since becoming a member of the FCC in 2001, Martin has been calling for tougher standards. Yesterday's actions were the first of his tenure as chairman and the first taken by the commission since December 2004. Martin replaced Michael Powell, who stepped down last year. .............
hey honey even using your dead father as a sympathy ploy isn't going to work
Harris to stay in Senate race, use $10 mil. of own money
By Larry Wheeler
gannett News Service Originally posted on March 15, 2006
WASHINGTON Republican Rep. Katherine Harris of Florida pledged Wednesday to continue her campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a decision that capped weeks of speculation she might bow out of the high-profile race.The former Florida secretary of state who became a GOP hero in 2000 by certifying the stateĆ’s presidential election results for George W. Bush is trailing Nelson in the polls and is far behind in raising funds for her struggling campaign.Appearing Wednesday night on Fox News Hannity & Colmes program, Harris said she will personally commit $10 million to the campaign, money she said was left to her by her late father.George Harris died of a heart attack Jan. 13."I'm in this race and I'm in it to win," Harris said..........
...Harris appeared to be choking back tears as she discussed spending her father's money on the coming race as a tribute to his legacy."When I lost him I said I would win this for my father," she said.............
hey hon, was daddy a masochistst? good thing he's passed because i certainly cannot imagine he'd be 'honored' you pissed 10 MILLION of his dollars down the toilet
i read some incredibly disturbing stories today
more so than usual. one in particular was so vile, so unspeakable i decided to post THIS instead
from the brad blog (via buzzflash) a little somethin somethin from the daily show - paul hackett is SHOWN HOW TO BE A SPINELESS DEMOCRAT (it really IS very funny even though in reality it's NOT funny how effing spineless the democrats REALLY are)
from the brad blog (via buzzflash) a little somethin somethin from the daily show - paul hackett is SHOWN HOW TO BE A SPINELESS DEMOCRAT (it really IS very funny even though in reality it's NOT funny how effing spineless the democrats REALLY are)
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
i HAD to post this. nothing to add, the article speaks for itself
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican couple were recovering separately after a marital spat got out of control and saw them firing guns, throwing knives and hurling homemade bombs, Mexican daily Milenio said on Monday.
In scenes taken straight out of hit romantic comedy "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Juan Espinosa and Irma Contreras fought until their house blew up in a homemade gasoline bomb explosion, Milenio said.
Police called to the home in the indigenous Mayan Indian town of Oxkutzcab in the southeastern state of Yucatan arrested Espinosa. Contreras was taken to hospital with third-degree burns.
A local police official confirmed the report but declined to provide further information.
In the violence-filled movie about the fictional Smiths, Pitt and Jolie play married assassins ordered to kill each other.
Espinosa told reporters he was glad his wife had suffered burns, while Contreras said she was only sorry she had not "hacked off his manhood" during the fight.
In scenes taken straight out of hit romantic comedy "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Juan Espinosa and Irma Contreras fought until their house blew up in a homemade gasoline bomb explosion, Milenio said.
Police called to the home in the indigenous Mayan Indian town of Oxkutzcab in the southeastern state of Yucatan arrested Espinosa. Contreras was taken to hospital with third-degree burns.
A local police official confirmed the report but declined to provide further information.
In the violence-filled movie about the fictional Smiths, Pitt and Jolie play married assassins ordered to kill each other.
Espinosa told reporters he was glad his wife had suffered burns, while Contreras said she was only sorry she had not "hacked off his manhood" during the fight.
this is odd indeed
this morning at 2 or 2:30 i was flipping channels and landed on a pbs station (in mass). i didn't know the name of the program but it was about chinese immigrants. come to find out it was;
a bill moyers special becoming american the chinese experience
The 1882 Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country and becoming citizens. It also ushered in the most violent decade in Chinese-American history, with assault, arson and murder becoming ever-present dangers for a people marginalized in the eyes of the law. Part Two of BECOMING AMERICAN: The Chinese Experience tells the story of these hostile years when Chinese Americans existed in a kind of limbo, denied the rights of their new country and no longer at home in their former one. They found refuge in Chinatowns, insular worlds that provided a sense of security and the companionship of kinsmen. But as few Chinese women were able to immigrate due to both Chinese custom and U.S. law, the majority of Chinese men could not establish families here. As age, disease and death claimed the earlier immigrants, the number of Chinese declined dramatically almost to the point of vanishing from American life...........
AND as i was looking through the la times online this morning, i found THIS article:
Reminders of Bigotry Unearthed
Remains found at an MTA excavation site shed light on a time rife with anti-Chinese bias
By David Pierson, Times Staff Writer March 15, 2006
They could not marry, they could not own property, and they performed the most undesirable jobs: ditch diggers, canal builders, house boys. They were banned from most shops and public institutions and were the target of racist violence that went unpunished.Los Angeles was home to an estimated 10,000 Chinese in the late 19th century — almost all men who came to America to work on the railroads and ended up in desperate straits, crowded into a filthy Chinese ghetto near what is now Union Station.
A recent discovery by a new generation of railway workers building the extension of the Gold Line commuter rail line through Boyle Heights has unearthed this dark but largely forgotten period in Los Angeles history.Last summer, workers found the skeletal remains of 108 people just outside the Evergreen Cemetery, one of the city's oldest and grandest burial sites..............
did you know the chinese were the first to plant grapes in california? did you know who bred the bing cherry?
a bill moyers special becoming american the chinese experience
The 1882 Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country and becoming citizens. It also ushered in the most violent decade in Chinese-American history, with assault, arson and murder becoming ever-present dangers for a people marginalized in the eyes of the law. Part Two of BECOMING AMERICAN: The Chinese Experience tells the story of these hostile years when Chinese Americans existed in a kind of limbo, denied the rights of their new country and no longer at home in their former one. They found refuge in Chinatowns, insular worlds that provided a sense of security and the companionship of kinsmen. But as few Chinese women were able to immigrate due to both Chinese custom and U.S. law, the majority of Chinese men could not establish families here. As age, disease and death claimed the earlier immigrants, the number of Chinese declined dramatically almost to the point of vanishing from American life...........
AND as i was looking through the la times online this morning, i found THIS article:
Reminders of Bigotry Unearthed
Remains found at an MTA excavation site shed light on a time rife with anti-Chinese bias
By David Pierson, Times Staff Writer March 15, 2006
They could not marry, they could not own property, and they performed the most undesirable jobs: ditch diggers, canal builders, house boys. They were banned from most shops and public institutions and were the target of racist violence that went unpunished.Los Angeles was home to an estimated 10,000 Chinese in the late 19th century — almost all men who came to America to work on the railroads and ended up in desperate straits, crowded into a filthy Chinese ghetto near what is now Union Station.
A recent discovery by a new generation of railway workers building the extension of the Gold Line commuter rail line through Boyle Heights has unearthed this dark but largely forgotten period in Los Angeles history.Last summer, workers found the skeletal remains of 108 people just outside the Evergreen Cemetery, one of the city's oldest and grandest burial sites..............
did you know the chinese were the first to plant grapes in california? did you know who bred the bing cherry?
hey, i think i saw evilis (that's how they say down south ev-a-lis) at the 7-11 yesterday!
is anyone really surprised the government's 'star witness, PAID informer' may be lying? oh i KNOW there are terrorists living in the united states. i'm not naive. but c'mon now. some may be a little too eager for information so they accept EVERYTHING they get without validating it. if i did that, i'd have my ass in a sling. i don't know much about this father - son duo. i've read a couple of other articles about them, but the testimony of the 'star' witness sure doesn't help the fbi
Sighting of Terrorist in Lodi Questioned
Experts doubt an informant's testimony that he saw Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader there.
By Lee Romney, Eric Bailey and Josh Meyer Times Staff Writers March 15, 2006
LODI, Calif. Ć— An FBI informant shocked a Sacramento federal courtroom this week when he testified that he had frequently seen Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader in a mosque here during 1998 and 1999.But terrorism experts and even federal officials expressed serious doubts Tuesday about Naseem Khan's testimony, saying there is little aside from his statements to suggest that Egyptian terrorist Ayman Zawahiri spent time in the sleepy Central Valley farming community. Defense attorneys said the statements raise serious credibility issues about Khan, the government's chief witness against a Lodi ice cream truck driver and his son.If Khan's reliability becomes a factor in the case, the prosecution of Umer Hayat, 48, and his son, Hamid Hayat, 23, could become the latest in a long string of problems the federal government has faced in trying alleged terrorists. Earlier this week, a Virginia judge halted the sentencing trial of Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in order to investigate apparent witness tampering by a federal attorney in the case. Elsewhere, prosecutorial missteps have prompted judges to toss out convictions, and several juries have sided with the accused. Jurors acquitted a Florida college professor whose support of a Palestinian group prompted a terrorism indictment, while a case flopped against an Idaho computer science student facing prison time for designing a website that included information on terrorists.Khan, 32, testified that he first told the FBI about Zawahiri in late 2001. The bureau subsequently hired Khan and paid him more than $200,000 in salary and expenses to infiltrate Lodi's Muslim community and secretly record conversations there between 2002 and 2005.The younger Hayat is charged with providing material support to terrorism by attending a Pakistani training camp in 2003. Both father and son are charged with lying to the FBI..........
Sighting of Terrorist in Lodi Questioned
Experts doubt an informant's testimony that he saw Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader there.
By Lee Romney, Eric Bailey and Josh Meyer Times Staff Writers March 15, 2006
LODI, Calif. Ć— An FBI informant shocked a Sacramento federal courtroom this week when he testified that he had frequently seen Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader in a mosque here during 1998 and 1999.But terrorism experts and even federal officials expressed serious doubts Tuesday about Naseem Khan's testimony, saying there is little aside from his statements to suggest that Egyptian terrorist Ayman Zawahiri spent time in the sleepy Central Valley farming community. Defense attorneys said the statements raise serious credibility issues about Khan, the government's chief witness against a Lodi ice cream truck driver and his son.If Khan's reliability becomes a factor in the case, the prosecution of Umer Hayat, 48, and his son, Hamid Hayat, 23, could become the latest in a long string of problems the federal government has faced in trying alleged terrorists. Earlier this week, a Virginia judge halted the sentencing trial of Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in order to investigate apparent witness tampering by a federal attorney in the case. Elsewhere, prosecutorial missteps have prompted judges to toss out convictions, and several juries have sided with the accused. Jurors acquitted a Florida college professor whose support of a Palestinian group prompted a terrorism indictment, while a case flopped against an Idaho computer science student facing prison time for designing a website that included information on terrorists.Khan, 32, testified that he first told the FBI about Zawahiri in late 2001. The bureau subsequently hired Khan and paid him more than $200,000 in salary and expenses to infiltrate Lodi's Muslim community and secretly record conversations there between 2002 and 2005.The younger Hayat is charged with providing material support to terrorism by attending a Pakistani training camp in 2003. Both father and son are charged with lying to the FBI..........
it's sort of a catch-22
they (you know the federalies) really DO know these are PEACE organizations, but in order to SPY on them, they have to consider them TERRORIST THREATS (oh please). instead of watching these groups why don't these feds get stationed at our ports and start checking containers and the like?
FBI spied on Pittsburgh pacifists, papers show
By Jonathan Barnes Tue Mar 14, 3:13 PM ET
FBI anti-terrorism agents spied on a peace group simply because it opposed the Iraq war, part of an "unprecedented campaign" to spy on innocent citizens, the American Civil Liberties Union said on Tuesday.
FBI documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act and provided to reporters show the FBI conducted surveillance of the Pittsburgh-based Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice at anti-war demonstrations and leaflet distributions in 2002 and 2003.
One of the FBI documents, unveiled at a news conference by the two groups, carried the headline "International Terrorism Matters" and referred to the FBI's work with an anti-terrorism task force that includes several agencies.
Another FBI document said the Pittsburgh Joint Terrorism Task Force had learned that "The Thomas Merton Center ... has been determined to be an organization which is opposed to the United States' war with Iraq."
A separate document noted, "One female leaflet distributor who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, inquired if (confidential source's name withheld) was an FBI agent. No other TMC participants appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent."
FBI officials in Pittsburgh said the bureau was engaged in legitimate investigations, and in one case dropped the probe upon determining a person photographed at one demonstration was not whom they were looking for.
"We had a legitimate purpose for being there," FBI special agent Bill Crowley said, referring to a November 2002 protest........
....The FBI acknowledged the report sounded as if it were reporting on the activities of an anti-war group, but said "such a characterization would be factually misleading."
The agent was pursuing leads "from another source possibly establishing a link between an ongoing investigation and the group engaging in anti-war protests. Finding no such link, he terminated his surveillance," the FBI said in a statement............
and from the aclu
ACLU Releases First Concrete Evidence of FBI Spying Based Solely on Groups’ Anti-War Views
Pennsylvania Group Labeled “Pacifists” Targeted for Handing Out Flyers in Town Square
PITTSBURGH – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Pennsylvania today released new evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting investigations into a political organizations based solely on its anti-war views.
Two documents released today reveal that the FBI investigated gatherings of the Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice just because the organization opposed the war in Iraq. Although previously disclosed documents show that the FBI is retaining files on anti-war groups, these documents are the first to show conclusively that the rationale for FBI targeting is the group's opposition to the war...........
FBI spied on Pittsburgh pacifists, papers show
By Jonathan Barnes Tue Mar 14, 3:13 PM ET
FBI anti-terrorism agents spied on a peace group simply because it opposed the Iraq war, part of an "unprecedented campaign" to spy on innocent citizens, the American Civil Liberties Union said on Tuesday.
FBI documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act and provided to reporters show the FBI conducted surveillance of the Pittsburgh-based Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice at anti-war demonstrations and leaflet distributions in 2002 and 2003.
One of the FBI documents, unveiled at a news conference by the two groups, carried the headline "International Terrorism Matters" and referred to the FBI's work with an anti-terrorism task force that includes several agencies.
Another FBI document said the Pittsburgh Joint Terrorism Task Force had learned that "The Thomas Merton Center ... has been determined to be an organization which is opposed to the United States' war with Iraq."
A separate document noted, "One female leaflet distributor who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, inquired if (confidential source's name withheld) was an FBI agent. No other TMC participants appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent."
FBI officials in Pittsburgh said the bureau was engaged in legitimate investigations, and in one case dropped the probe upon determining a person photographed at one demonstration was not whom they were looking for.
"We had a legitimate purpose for being there," FBI special agent Bill Crowley said, referring to a November 2002 protest........
....The FBI acknowledged the report sounded as if it were reporting on the activities of an anti-war group, but said "such a characterization would be factually misleading."
The agent was pursuing leads "from another source possibly establishing a link between an ongoing investigation and the group engaging in anti-war protests. Finding no such link, he terminated his surveillance," the FBI said in a statement............
and from the aclu
ACLU Releases First Concrete Evidence of FBI Spying Based Solely on Groups’ Anti-War Views
Pennsylvania Group Labeled “Pacifists” Targeted for Handing Out Flyers in Town Square
PITTSBURGH – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Pennsylvania today released new evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting investigations into a political organizations based solely on its anti-war views.
Two documents released today reveal that the FBI investigated gatherings of the Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice just because the organization opposed the war in Iraq. Although previously disclosed documents show that the FBI is retaining files on anti-war groups, these documents are the first to show conclusively that the rationale for FBI targeting is the group's opposition to the war...........
talk about a sore loser bio-tch
i simply couldn't believe this. now if brokeback lost to a steven segal movie or a sly stallone movie or a j-low movie or a julia movie, well then i'd GET the rant. i didn't see brokeback (and now i sort of don't want to because even though i USED to like annie, this pisses me off) but i sure saw crash. i thought crash was an INCREDIBLE movie. great story, great acting.
take it from me, NOT EVERYONE CAN WIN all of the time
'Brokeback' Author Peeved About Oscar Loss
LOS ANGELES, Mar. 14, 2006
(AP) Annie Proulx, whose 1997 short story inspired the film "Brokeback Mountain," has penned a scattershot blast in a British newspaper unleashing her anger over the film's best-picture Oscar loss.Proulx criticizes Oscar voters and the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1,094-word rant, which appeared in Saturday's issue of The Guardian, a liberal paper boasting 1.2 million readers daily.The best-picture Oscar went to "Crash," which focuses on race relations in Los Angeles.Academy members who vote for the year's best film are "out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city," Proulx writes.The 70-year-old Pulitzer-prize winning author points out that "Brokeback," which was nominated for eight Academy Awards, was named best picture at the Independent Spirit Awards one day before the March 5 Oscars."If you are looking for smart judging based on merit, skip the Academy Awards next year and pay attention to the Independent Spirit choices," Proulx advises.She even lashes out at Lionsgate, the distribution company behind "Crash.""Rumour has it that Lionsgate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of Trash _ excuse me _ Crash a few weeks before the ballot deadline," Proulx writes...............
take it from me, NOT EVERYONE CAN WIN all of the time
'Brokeback' Author Peeved About Oscar Loss
LOS ANGELES, Mar. 14, 2006
(AP) Annie Proulx, whose 1997 short story inspired the film "Brokeback Mountain," has penned a scattershot blast in a British newspaper unleashing her anger over the film's best-picture Oscar loss.Proulx criticizes Oscar voters and the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1,094-word rant, which appeared in Saturday's issue of The Guardian, a liberal paper boasting 1.2 million readers daily.The best-picture Oscar went to "Crash," which focuses on race relations in Los Angeles.Academy members who vote for the year's best film are "out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city," Proulx writes.The 70-year-old Pulitzer-prize winning author points out that "Brokeback," which was nominated for eight Academy Awards, was named best picture at the Independent Spirit Awards one day before the March 5 Oscars."If you are looking for smart judging based on merit, skip the Academy Awards next year and pay attention to the Independent Spirit choices," Proulx advises.She even lashes out at Lionsgate, the distribution company behind "Crash.""Rumour has it that Lionsgate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of Trash _ excuse me _ Crash a few weeks before the ballot deadline," Proulx writes...............
Friday, March 10, 2006
koufax awards
don't forget the voting for the koufax awards is open over at wampum
i wish i could have voted for more than one blog in MANY of the categories.
i wish i could have voted for more than one blog in MANY of the categories.
one (south dakota) down, 49 to go (plus guam and puerto rico of course
Tenn. Senate Backs Anti-Abortion Step
Tennessee Senate Makes First Step Toward Amending Constitution to Eliminate Right to Abortion
By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Mar 9, 2006 (AP)— The state Senate on Thursday passed a proposal to amend the Tennessee Constitution so that it doesn't guarantee a woman's right to an abortion.
The 24-9 vote was the first step of many toward officially amending the state constitution. The measure would go before voters if the General Assembly approves it twice over the next two years.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that the Tennessee Constitution grants women a greater right to abortion than the U.S. Constitution.
Abortion rights supporters are attacking the measure as a stepping stone to prohibiting all abortions in Tennessee if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark abortion decision in Roe v. Wade.
"The resolution is an all-out attack on the women of Tennessee and seeks to rob women of their right to make choices about their own health, safety and personal welfare," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.
Sen. David Fowler, a Republican sponsor of the bill, proposed a similar resolution last year that cleared the Senate but stalled in a House committee.
"I regret this will cast me as being hardhearted, unsympathetic and unkind but that's not who I am," Fowler said.......
Tennessee Senate Makes First Step Toward Amending Constitution to Eliminate Right to Abortion
By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Mar 9, 2006 (AP)— The state Senate on Thursday passed a proposal to amend the Tennessee Constitution so that it doesn't guarantee a woman's right to an abortion.
The 24-9 vote was the first step of many toward officially amending the state constitution. The measure would go before voters if the General Assembly approves it twice over the next two years.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that the Tennessee Constitution grants women a greater right to abortion than the U.S. Constitution.
Abortion rights supporters are attacking the measure as a stepping stone to prohibiting all abortions in Tennessee if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark abortion decision in Roe v. Wade.
"The resolution is an all-out attack on the women of Tennessee and seeks to rob women of their right to make choices about their own health, safety and personal welfare," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.
Sen. David Fowler, a Republican sponsor of the bill, proposed a similar resolution last year that cleared the Senate but stalled in a House committee.
"I regret this will cast me as being hardhearted, unsympathetic and unkind but that's not who I am," Fowler said.......
yesterday, i read an article in my local paper the hartford courant. it was about GOVERNMENT CUTS in medicare and how those cuts effect our elderly. the cuts aren't allowing them to live the full active PAIN FREE lives they USED to live. so i say to myself, i says, 'a rose is a rose, the government is thinking soooooooooo much about little fertilized eggs they are putting aside the needs of real LIVE PEOPLE who have REAL LIVE LIVES'. i say to myself i says, 'wtf is up wit dat????' how in the WORLD can they justify that if "life" is so effing important to them? is it only CERTAIN LIVES that are important? is there a cut off age (and is that cut off age the actual BIRTH of the little fertilized egg??????). i had to stop talking to myself because i was making myself mad
Cuts In Medicare Painful For Some
One Treatment Out Of Reach For Thousands
March 9, 2006By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON -- Until a few months ago, Jim Hill led an active life as a retiree involved with his church and family. But lately the 80-year-old has been forced to spend much of the day in a hospital bed. What happened? It's not just the disease attacking his nervous system, he says. It's also Medicare. To remain mobile, the Los Angeles resident depended on regular intravenous infusions of healthy antibodies. But recently, in a budget-cutting move, the government health care program for the elderly has reduced what it will pay for such treatments - to less than what doctors and hospitals say it costs to provide them.As a result, Hill and many others no longer receive their regular treatments. And the medical alternatives are often less effective. Hill's predicament is shared by more than 10,000 Medicare patients nationwide, according to a conservative estimate............
yesterday i was reading what l ron hubbard had to say about gay people
(you can guess because i'm NOT going to link to ANYTHING that has to do with him) and now this. just goes to show ya - the trains better run on time OR ELSE. no it just goes to show you what a bunch of asswipes there are in the world (but we already knew that)
Better fascist that gay - Mussolini's granddaughter
Thu Mar 9, 2006 8:05 PM GMT
ROME (Reuters) - The granddaughter of Italy's wartime dictator Benito Mussolini has defended being a fascist by saying it was better than being a "faggot".
Alessandra Mussolini's televised derogatory remarks came less than a month after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi welcomed her far-right political party into his coalition before a general election in April.
Mussolini, proud of her ancestral ties to "Il Duce", had been criticised by a drag queen-turned-politician about being a fascist on Italian TV talk show Porta a Porta.
"I'm proud of it," she snapped in comments due to be aired later on Thursday.
Vladimir Luxuria, who hopes to be Europe's first "transgender" MP and is running with the Communist Refoundation party, then asked if Mussolini wanted to lock up homosexuals.
"Better to be a fascist than a faggot," Mussolini said, using the highly offensive Italian word "frocio", according to Porta a Porta's press office..............
Better fascist that gay - Mussolini's granddaughter
Thu Mar 9, 2006 8:05 PM GMT
ROME (Reuters) - The granddaughter of Italy's wartime dictator Benito Mussolini has defended being a fascist by saying it was better than being a "faggot".
Alessandra Mussolini's televised derogatory remarks came less than a month after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi welcomed her far-right political party into his coalition before a general election in April.
Mussolini, proud of her ancestral ties to "Il Duce", had been criticised by a drag queen-turned-politician about being a fascist on Italian TV talk show Porta a Porta.
"I'm proud of it," she snapped in comments due to be aired later on Thursday.
Vladimir Luxuria, who hopes to be Europe's first "transgender" MP and is running with the Communist Refoundation party, then asked if Mussolini wanted to lock up homosexuals.
"Better to be a fascist than a faggot," Mussolini said, using the highly offensive Italian word "frocio", according to Porta a Porta's press office..............
Thursday, March 09, 2006
leonard cohen-musican of and sad tale of the day
i grew up with leonard cohen. i love leonard cohen. i listened to him, sang along with him, read him. he inspired me. he crept into my dreams. he soothed me. he upset me. he stimulated me (in many ways)
Cohen 'unlikely' to recover money
Singer Leonard Cohen is "unlikely" to recover $9.5m (£5.4m) which a court has ruled was stolen by his ex-manager.
Kelley Lynch, who worked for the musician for 17 years, has failed to respond to allegations that she plundered his retirement savings.
Ms Lynch, who was fired by Cohen in 2004, refused to return photographs and memorabilia despite a court order.
The 71-year-old's case against Ms Lynch claimed that he was left with funds of approximately $150,000 (£85,592).
Cohen's lawyer Scott Edelman said of Ms Lynch: "She's hard to get in touch with. I don't know where she lives and I don't have a phone number for her.
'Creative endeavours'
"We don't know what she did with the money. But she knows what's going on because she leaves me with phone messages at all hours," he added.
Mr Edelman also said that an attempt to recover Cohen's possessions from her home with a truck and a police presence was unsuccessful.
Ms Lynch was unavailable for comment.
A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles granted the default order in favour of Cohen earlier this week.
A second person named in the legal action, tax expert and lawyer Richard Westin, reached an out-of-court settlement with Cohen last month, the details of which were not disclosed. .
Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm, your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm, yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new, in city and in forest they smiled like me and you, but now it's come to distances and both of us must try, your eyes are soft with sorrow, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye. I'm not looking for another as I wander in my time, walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme you know my love goes with you as your love stays with me, it's just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea, but let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie, your eyes are soft with sorrow, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye. I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm, your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm, yes many loved before us, I know that we are not new, in city and in forest they smiled like me and you, but let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie, your eyes are soft with sorrow, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye. Written by Leonard Cohen, Stranger Music Inc. (BMI).
I met a woman long ago her hair the black that black can go, Are you a teacher of the heart? Soft she answered no. I met a girl across the sea, her hair the gold that gold can be, Are you a teacher of the heart?Yes, but not for thee. I met a man who lost his mind in some lost place I had to find, follow me the wise man said, but he walked behind. I walked into a hospital where none was sick and none was well, when at night the nurses left I could not walk at all. Morning came and then came noon, dinner time a scalpel blade lay beside my silver spoon. Some girls wander by mistake into the mess that scalpels make. Are you the teachers of my heart? We teach old hearts to break. One morning I woke up alone, the hospital and the nurses gone .Have I carved enough my Lord? Child, you are a bone. I ate and ate and ate, no I did not miss a plate, well How much do these suppers cost? We'll take it out in hate. I spent my hatred every place, on every work on every face ,someone gave me wishes and I wished for an embrace. Several girls embraced me, then I was embraced by men, Is my passion perfect? No, do it once again. I was handsome I was strong, I knew the words of every song. Did my singing please you? No, the words you sang were wrong. Who is it whom I address, who takes down what I confess? Are you the teachers of my heart? We teach old hearts to rest. Oh teachers are my lessons done? I cannot do another one. They laughed and laughed and said, Well child, are your lessons done?are your lessons done? are your lessons done? Written by Leonard Cohen, Stranger Music Inc. (BMI).
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