just how does being sworn in using a quran hurt YOU

mr goode? organized religions, MOST organized religions give me the skeeves. it's their way or hell. it's their god or hell. it's their beliefs or hell. what gives them the right to think THEIR god is THE god? funny, no?

so mr goode, how does mr ellison being sworn in using a quran hurt YOU and hurt the rest of america? i'm not going to convert to islam are you? are any of your constituants or anyone in the rest of the united states going to convert to islam simply based on the ONE act of mr ellison using a quran to be sworn in? are earthquakes going to happen because the quran is being used? is your god going to be pissed at YOU mr goode because mr ellison is using the quran to be sworn in? is modern civilazation going to collapse immediately when mr ellison puts his hand on that quran?

you are full of hate and fear and your heart is pumping bile.

oh and mr goode, the bible was written BY man FOR man. just like the quran, it was NOT written by ANY god

Lawmaker stands firm on Quran criticism


By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 22, 9:38 AM ET
A congressman said Thursday that he will not retract a letter warning that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims will be elected" and use the Quran to take the oath of office.
Republican Rep. Virgil Goode (news, bio, voting record) triggered angry responses from a civil rights group and some colleagues with a letter this month to constituents concerned about a decision by Rep.-elect Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, to use the Quran when he is sworn in.
"I will not be putting my hand on the Quran," Goode said at a news conference Thursday at the Franklin County Courthouse.
Goode, who represents Virginia's 5th Congressional District, said he is receiving more positive comments from constituents than negative.
"One lady told me she thinks I'm doing the right thing on this," he told Fox News. "I wish more people would take a stand and stand up for the principles on which this country was founded."
Goode also told Fox News he wants to limit legal immigration and do away with "diversity visas," which he said let in people "not from European countries" and "some terrorist states."
In his letter, Goode wrote that strict immigration polices are necessary "to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America."
"The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran," he wrote........

and i found this in the smirking chimp

WONDERFUL just WONDERFUL, from cenk uygur

Virgil Goode is Directly Attacking Me and I'm Pissed

The more I think about it, the angrier I get. Virgil Goode thinks he can challenge how American I am. Here's an American response - screw you!
Does this barbarian really think we are not equal citizens because of our heritage or our beliefs? Does he really believe people like me need to be kept out of the country?
Look at what he says. He literally says less people like me need to come to America:
[I]f American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran ... I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped. [emphasis added]
My family is Muslim and we immigrated to this country when I was eight years old. We made an active choice to seek this nation out because we believed in its principles and we believed that it was the land of opportunity. America became my home, not just in where I lived, but in my heart. So, I became a citizen sixteen years ago.
I chose America because I love America. It's one thing to be born in Nebraska and call yourself an American. But it's another to move to a country where you weren't born, go through the long legal process, profess your allegiance to that country and adopt it as your own because you believe in it. That's not an accident of birth, it's an act of faith.
I chose to be an American because America is a light unto the world. America is the greatest country on earth because we do not discriminate, we are not a religious state and we do not exclude people based on their race, color or creed. We are an open society that believes in liberty and human dignity..............

Tech Tags: cenk+uygur virgil+goode quran islam christianity bible keith+ellison

here's a good one

Iraqi Fugitive Donated to Bush Campaigns
Contributed Before, After Appointed Iraqi Govt. Minister

IraqSlogger has learned that the ex-Iraqi government minister who is the subject of a nationwide manhunt in Iraq contributed to George W. Bush's presidential campaigns before and after being appointed by U.S. authorities as Iraq's minister of electricity.
Aiham Alsammarae, an Iraqi-American who considered the Chicago area home for 27 years until 2003, escaped his Baghdad Green Zone jail Sunday in an effort to avoid facing prosecution on corruption charges.
After escaping, Alsammarae, in telephone interviews with U.S. newspaper correspondents, taunted Iraqi authorities, said he was fleeing death threats in Iraq, and claimed he had already left the country.
Campaign contribution records show Alsammarae donated $1,000 to the Bush campaign in 1999 and, after being appointed by U.S. Iraq administrator Paul Bremer as Iraq's electricity minister in August 2003, donated $250 to the Bush campaign in April 2004.
Also while serving as Iraq's minister of electricity, he donated $1,500 to the U.S. Republican National Committee and $250 to the Illinois Republican Party...........

photo: White House Photo
Bush-Alsammarae meeting Sept. 2003

Tech Tags: aiham+alsam george+bush us+government iraqi+government

i found a posting on

feministing

and here's the original it came from

Kmart's "Domestic Violence" T-Shirt Irritates Shoppers

A shopper at an Augusta Kmart was shocked, shocked to see a children's t-shirt featuring "two panels of stick figures, with a male figure pushing a female figure out of a box." The shirt is captioned "Problem Solved." Shoppers offended by the shirt have been complaining to the manager.
"I thought that shirt was very offensive, and I'm sure people who made that shirt thought it was cute," District Attorney Evert Fowle said Friday. "But when you prosecute 728 domestic violence cases a year, it's not cute."................

not that i shop at k-mart (i don't even know if there is one around here) but if i ever considered it, i'll do some RE considering now

Tech Tags: k-mart domestic+violence evert+fowle

pom do NOT buy it do NOT drink it

i like to think of myself as sticking up for the rights of animals. however, i would NEVER even dream of causing others harm over this. if i see someone wearing fur, i don't preach to them. i cringe, but i do it privately. IF someone asks about my beliefs, i sure as heck will share them, but i do NOT attack. that never helps. well let's put it this way, i don't attack unless i am attacked first. then WATCH OUT. as a matter of fact, my friend shawn and i were talking about fur yesterday. we both agreed how wonderful it felt, but we both agreed (it's easy for one to understand MY beliefs, but i was SHOCKED shawn agreed with me here. he's quite the carnivore) one should NOT wear fur. it is obtained in such a cruel way. shawn and jen do have two kids you know, monty and lu (english bulldog and pug). i just got this year's christmas card featuring them in all of their holiday finery (they are SO cute. lu was in a bit of an accident while shawn and jen were vacationing. monty accidentally caused lu to lose one of her eyes. she's going as a pirate for halloween next year!!! she's just fine by the way. shawn and jen aren't but lu and monty are doing a-ok)

when i found out pom was using animals to test on (including YES erectile dysfunction) i vowed to NOT drink the shite (and i haven't. there ARE other brands). i won't make threats against them, i think that is just NOT right. what i WILL do is tell people what pom does to animals and post about it on my blog. i may write to them as well. i wouldn't in a million years think to do anything like poisoning their products.

i am unsure it's even been confirmed an animal organization REALLY threatened to poison the juice.......

Activists take credit for juice poisoning

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Animal activists claim they have poisoned 487 bottles of POM Wonderful's juice on the U.S. Eastern seaboard to protest animal testing.
A POM Wonderful spokesman told United Press International the company has not confirmed the validity of the claim, but it was contacted by the FBI regarding the issue. The spokesman said the company is preparing a statement on the matter.
The North American Animal Liberation Press Office distributed a communiqué it received that claimed credit for the juice poisoning and was signed "animal rights militia." POM Wonderful, which makes pomegranate juice, has been a target of animal activists since it was revealed the company uses animals, such as newborn mice and rabbits, to test its juice and show its health benefits. .......


my original posting

Tech Tags: pom+wonderful animal+testing pomegranate+juice animal+activists

iraq violence of the day (yesterday december 20th)

76 anonymous bodies found in baghdad today.........like it's the MOST natural thing in the universe. how sad is this?

Roundup of violence in Iraq - 20 December

By Laith Hammoudi
McClatchy Newspapers
The daily Iraq violence report is compiled by McClatchy Newspapers Special Correspondent Laith Hammoudi in Baghdad from police, military and medical reports. This is not a comprehensive list of all violence in Iraq, much of which goes unreported. It’s posted without editing as transmitted to McClatchy’s Washington Bureau.
Baghdad . According to the Ministry of Interior operation room
-- 11 people were killed including 6 commandos and 30 injured including 9 commandos when a suicide car bomb attacked a commandos checkpoint near Baghdad University in Jadriya neighborhood downtown Baghdad at 7:15 am today.
-- 4 civilians were killed and other 7 injured in a parked car bomb explosion near the Identity directorate building in Al Kasra neighborhood, a part of Adhamiyah neighborhood downtown Baghdad.
-- Anonymous insurgents assassinated early today Mahmood Mohammed Rasheed, the brother of the famous comic actor Zuhair Mohammed Rasheed. Moahmood Rasheed who was a teacher was assassinated near the Al Hikma school where he works in Al Baladiyat neighborhood east of Baghdad. Mohamood is a Palestinian citizen.
-- 4 civilians were injured in two car bomb explosions. Two were wounded in a parked car bomb explosion near Al Baiyaa court in Al Baiyaa neighborhood south of Baghdad. The other two were injured in another car bomb parked near the farmers association in Al Riyadh neighborhood eastern Baghdad.
-- 76 anonymous bodies were found in Baghdad today. 63 were found in the west part of Baghdad ( Karkh) and only 13 found in the east part of Baghdad (Rusafa) ............

wow, this dude got elected?

scary

(by the way, in my connecticut blog i did go off, MORE than once, on an islamic yale student. it wasn't the fact he was muslim i went off on. it was the fact he WAS A MEMBER OF THE TALIBAN)

and who the hell is this dude kidding? saying a muslim student came by his office and asked why there was nothing on his wall about the quran? shoot...........that is almost funny

in MY opinion neither a bible NOR a quran should be used for swearing in ceremonies. there IS a (well supposed to be a) SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

traditional american values? what the hell.......didn't the colonists come to america because THEY were being persecuted for religious reasons? is representative goode a native american i wonder? if not, he better think twice (or make that a million times) before opening his hate and fear filled mouth

Lawmaker won't apologize for 'Islamophobic' letter

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Virginia congressman will not apologize for writing that without immigration reform "there will be many more Muslims elected to office demanding the use of the Quran," his spokesman said.
Republican Rep. Virgil Goode's letter to constituents also warns that without immigration reform "we will have many more Muslims in the United States."
Spokesman Linwood Duncan said Goode's letter was written in response to complaints his office received about Minnesota Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's request to be sworn in using the Quran.
Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress.
Goode's office released the letter to CNN Wednesday.
In it, Goode wrote, "When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Quran in any way........

...........He added, "The Ten Commandments and 'In God We Trust' are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Quran.
"My response was clear, 'As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, the Quran is not going to be on the wall of my office.' ".........

Tech Tags: islam muslim quran virgil+goode virginia

when howard stern was on terrestrial radio

i used to listen to him while i was at work (earphones of course). hey, it made the mornings go by

everyone once in a while he'd have debbie schlussel phone in (or more likely she did it on her own). i thought it then and i think it even more now..............(being careful what i say because i believe she's also a lawyer) the woman is not quite on the same track with reality. she seems to find a conspiracy theory in EVERYTHING.

oh and i didn't know we were fighting a war on islam. i, mistakenly thought it was a war on TERROR we were fighting!

Schlussel: Should Barack Hussein Obama be president "when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam"?

In a December 18 column headlined "Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim" and posted on her website, right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel argued that because Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) middle name is Hussein, his late, estranged father was of Muslim descent, and he has shown interest in his father's Kenyan heritage, Obama's "loyalties" must be called into question as he emerges as a possible Democratic presidential candidate. In the column, Schlussel asked: "So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian ... is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?" She ended her column by asking if Obama becoming vice president instead would be acceptable. Answering her own question, she wrote: "NO WAY, JOSE ... Or, is that, HUSSEIN?"..........

Tech Tags: barack+obama debbie+schlussel islam muslim

the nutmeg grater: AND our senator dodd is doing something about it!!!#links

the nutmeg grater: AND our senator dodd is doing something about it!!!#links

the nutmeg grater: more on 'unfit for duty'#links

the nutmeg grater: more on 'unfit for duty'#links

why

why why why

why is it BREAKING NEWS when some rich asswipe kind of dude with THE worst comb over in the ENTIRE COSMOS says some effing 'beauty queen' can keep her title?

why are the networks, the newspapers, the periodicals and the cable news channels covering this as NEWS?

don't they know the 'beauty pageant' hasn't made money in a LONG time? don't they know the asswipe kind of dude with THE worst comb over in the ENTIRE COSMOS is just out for publicity?

shite. NEWS?

HOW MANY OF OUR MEN AND WOMEN ARE BEING BLOWN UP WHILE THE CHANNELS AND INTERNET AND NEWS MEDIA IN GENERAL are covering this TRIPE?

can you tell how i feel about this?

my friend paulie sent this to me

the penguin show

the nutmeg grater: talking is ALWAYS a good start#links

the nutmeg grater: talking is ALWAYS a good start#links

iraq violence of the day (yesterday december 19th)

i didn't post the violence from the 18th. it was JUST as nasty as the 17th and todays

now it's doctors and actors. shite shite shite

Roundup of violence in Iraq - 19 December

By Mohammed al Awsy
McClatchy Newspapers
The daily Iraq violence report is compiled by McClatchy Newspapers Special Correspondent Mohammed al Awsy in Baghdad from police, military and medical reports. This is not a comprehensive list of all violence in Iraq, much of which goes unreported. It’s posted without editing as transmitted to McClatchy’s Washington Bureau.
Baghdad . -- at 8 o'clock this morning an IED exploded in al zafaraniah area southern Baghdad, 6 civilians were injured.
-- at 9 o'clock this morning 4 employees of the ministry of industry were taking the salaries from al zuiah bank in karada area back to the ministry when unknown gunmen driving 4 vehicles stopped their car near abdul majeed private hospital and force them out from their car and took the car with one billion and two hundred million dinar.
-- at 1:30 this afternoon the head of doctors department at al alwia hospital was kidnapped from inside the hospital by unknown gunmen.
-- the actor MITASHAR AL SUDAMI was found dead today on haifa street, he as kidnapped yesterday.
-- today 53 bodies were found in Baghdad, some were handcuffed and tortured. 3 bodies were found in sadr city, 2 kamaliyah, 1 hussainiyah, 1 talbiyah, 1 aour, 5 dora, 4 kadhumiah, 4 hurriyah, 2 adil, 6 amil, 3 bayaa, 2 saidiyah, 2 risalah, 3 abu atsheer, 3 jihad, 1 mansour, 4 shoala, 5 ghazaliyah,and 1 yarmouk ................

women in iraq

HORROR STORIES, more and more

just what the HELL did we do. it keeps snowballing and snowballing. i am so afraid we can never heal the wound we created

Iraqi Women's Bodies Are Battlefields for War Vendettas

By Kavita N. Ramdas, Global Fund for Women. Posted December 19, 2006.
The United States' so-called "liberation" of Iraqi women has made them less free than they were under the Baathist regime, with abduction, rape, and "honor" killings now a daily reality.

The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) recently issued a frightening report documenting the growing practice of public executions of women by Shia Militia. One of the report's more grisly accounts was a story of a young woman dragged by a wire wound around her neck to a close-by football field and then hung to the goal post. They pierced her body with bullets. Her brother came running trying to defend his sister. He was also shot and killed. Sunni extremists are no better: OWFI members estimate that no less than 30 women are executed monthly for honor related reasons.
Almost four years into the Bush Administration's ill fated adventure in Iraq, Iraqi women are worse off than they were under the Baathist regime in a country where, for decades, the freedoms and rights enjoyed by Iraqi women were the envy of women in most other countries of the Middle East...........

Tech Tags: owfi iraqi+women honor+killings womens+rights

abstinance does NOT work

it never worked nor will it EVER work. i don't have any issues with abstinance being mentioned in sex education classes. what i DO have a problem with is our government ONLY funding abstinance based organizations. it's NOT in the realm of reality. we are a certain type of creature. we are not going to change. what we need is PROPER education on birth control. that includes at the VERY least CONDOMS (and i mean at the VERY least).

Reality check: 95 percent of Americans had premarital sex

NEW YORK (AP) -- More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.
"This is reality-check research," said the study's author, Lawrence Finer. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades."
Finer is a research director at the Guttmacher Institute, a private New York-based think tank that studies sexual and reproductive issues and which disagrees with government-funded programs that rely primarily on abstinence-only teachings. The study, released Tuesday, appears in the new issue of Public Health Reports.
The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people -- about 33,000 of them women -- in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer's analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.
Even among a subgroup of those who abstained from sex until at least age 20, four-fifths had had premarital sex by age 44, the study found...................

Tech Tags: premarital+sex birth+control sex+education abstinance

flipping channels the other morning

as i've mentioned i am up at 12 or 12:30 am most every day. i'm at my laptop with the tv on in the background. sometimes i strike gold

like with this: secrets of the dead: amazons

the little girl above, neiramgul, was found in mongolia. she is blond and she is a decendent of warrior women. yup, she is (not all warrior women were blond mind you. it is just unusual to come across a blond in mongolia. but you do from time to time)

if you ever see a listing for this episode of secrets of the dead. i highly recommend it. wicked cool

which leads me to this......

It Wasn't Feminism That Killed the Neanderthals

in recent days there has been a LOT written about why neanderthals perished. of course it was blamed on WOMEN. of course i don't buy that for ONE second and neither does the author of the piece linked above

.........By Caryl Rivers, Women's eNews

Did Homo sapiens survive because they were a prehistoric version of "Leave It to Beaver," while Neanderthals perished because they practiced an early brand of feminism?
Did unisex hunting doom the big bipeds, while male Homo sapiens played the part of Ice Age Ward Cleaver, marching off to hunt big game while June tidied up the cave in her pearls? Did this behavior ensure that humans would take over the world?
Is it true that, as a headline in the Toronto Star put it, "Equality Killed the Caveman?"
A study in this month's issue of Current Anthropology argues that division of economic labor by sex helped early humans win the survival race.
With Neanderthals, so this story goes, both men and women hunted big game to fuel their large bodies, got themselves whacked too often and went on their unisex way to extinction. Scientists Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner, both of the University of Arizona, authored the article, after examining skeletal remains of Neanderthals, male and female, that bore the marks of rough wear and tear........

...........It's likely that Neanderthals, like early humans, scavenged kills by other predators and often set their sights on the most vulnerable prey. They ate shellfish and tortoises, and probably hunted game like ibex and wild horses. They needed to take in many calories for their large bodies, and communal hunts in which men, women and children took part may have been the most effective way to fend off starvation. They only had stone weapons, which were not optimal for the sort of male pack hunting that developed when iron weapons were invented.
It probably wasn't equality, but climate, that killed off the Neanderthals, some scientists say. Recent deep-sea core research shows that temperatures dropped sharply around 24,000 years ago. This could have created a severe drought that could have reduced the number of prey Neanderthals could catch. This would have been especially damaging to a species that needed a lot of food..............

Tech Tags: neanderthals feminism women homo+sapiens

once again, it's mind boggling

who the HELL are these 31% (except for da liebs, whom i am PROUD to say i did NOT vote for, i really DON'T know)

CNN poll: U.S. support for Iraq war falls to 31 percent

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Fewer than a third of Americans still support the war in Iraq, and more than half say they want U.S. troops out of the country within a year, according to a CNN poll released Monday.Support for the conflict fell to a new low of 31 percent in the poll, conducted Friday through Sunday by Opinion Research Corporation, while a record 67 percent expressed opposition to the nearly 4-year-old war.Nearly three-quarters said Bush administration policy needs a complete overhaul or major changes. But only 11 percent of those polled backed calls to send more American troops to Iraq, as President Bush is said to be considering.Pollsters interviewed 1,019 adults for the survey, which had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.But only 32 percent of those questioned in Monday's poll said they would support keeping U.S. troops in Iraq "as long as necessary" to hand over control to a new Iraqi government. By comparison, 21 percent said they wanted to see Americans leave immediately, and 33 percent said they wanted to see a U.S. withdrawal within a year.Despite that opposition to a continued conflict, a solid majority -- 59 percent -- said they opposed any move by Congress to end the war by cutting off spending for the U.S. deployment.......

Tech Tags: cnn+poll iraq+war george+bush

ah they tell him he MAY have done something not quite legal

and NOW he 'sees the light'. not really of course. the woman in question simply attended a committment ceremony for a LONG TIME NEIGHBOR'S DAUGHTER. i really don't even know how she feels about same-sex couples. i really don't think senator brownback knows how she feels EITHER.

the man makes my skin crawl. especially his views on censorship

NYT: GOP senator removes his block on federal court nominee

A Republican senator with his eyes on the White House has pulled his block on a nominee for federal court, The New York Times will report on the cover of its Tuesday edition.
"Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, who had blocked the confirmation of a woman to the federal bench because she attended a same-sex commitment ceremony for the daughter of her long-time neighbors, says he will now allow a vote on the nomination," writes Neil A. Lewis for the Times.
Brownback is mulling a run for the GOP nomination in the 2008 presidential primary season.
Lewis reports that Brownback, who remarked earlier "that he still believed [nominee Janet Neff's] behavior raised serious questions about her impartiality," now says "he did not realize his proposal -- asking a nominee to agree in advance to remove herself from deciding a whole category of cases -- was so unusual as to be possibly unprecedented.
"Legal scholars," Lewis continues, "said it raised constitutional questions of separation of powers for a senator to demand that a judge commit to behavior on the bench in exchange for a vote."...

and the ny times article:

Senator Removes His Block on Federal Court Nominee

Tech Tags: sam+brownback kansas janet+neff

this man IS an american citizen AND navy veteran

it can't happen to our own citizens? well think again. not only CAN it, it DID happen.

shite shite shite

Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment

By MICHAEL MOSS
One night in mid-April, the steel door clanked shut on detainee No. 200343 at Camp Cropper, the United States military’s maximum-security detention site in Baghdad.
American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.
The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.
Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon’s detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual.
The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.
But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents.
At Camp Cropper, he took notes on his imprisonment and smuggled them out in a Bible.
“Sick, very. Vomited,” he wrote July 3. The next day: “Told no more phone calls til leave.” ........

Tech Tags: donald+vance iraq security+contractor camp+cropper fbi

america, land of the FREE and home of the BRAVE

Army Targets Truthout for Subpoenas in Watada Case

By Jason Leopold t r u t h o u t Report
Wednesday 13 December 2006
In a case that cuts right to the heart of the First Amendment, a US Army prosecutor has indicated he intends to subpoena Truthout Executive Director Marc Ash, a Truthout reporter, and two of the nonprofit news organization's regular contributors, to authenticate news reports they produced and edited earlier this year that quoted an Army officer criticizing President Bush and the White House's rationale for the Iraq War.
Captain Dan Kuecker, the Fort Lewis, Washington-based Army prosecutor, has stated his intent to compel Ash, Truthout reporter Sari Gelzer, and contributors Dahr Jamail and Sarah Olson to testify at the court-martial of First Lieutenant Ehren Watada. Kuecker is actively seeking the journalists' testimony so he can prove that Watada engaged in conduct unbecoming an officer, directly related to disparaging statements the Army claims Watada made about the legality of the Iraq War during interviews with Truthout and his hometown newspaper, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, in June. ...........

Tech Tags: truthout ehren+watada army

december 17 2006 yesterday's violence count in iraq

Roundup of violence in Iraq - 17 December

By MOHAMMED Al AWSY
McClatchy Newspapers
The daily Iraq violence report is compiled by McClatchy Newspapers Special Correspondent Mohammed al Awsy in Baghdad from police, military and medical reports. This is not a comprehensive list of all violence in Iraq, much of which goes unreported. It’s posted without editing as transmitted to McClatchy’s Washington Bureau.
Baghdad · at 12:30 this afternoon 10 police vehicles with people wearing the commandos uniforms stormed inside the red crescent office in park al saadon area near karada and near al andalous square , they kidnapped between 20 -30 employees and visitors and went to unknown place after a while the Iraqi forces locked the area no one leaves and no one comes to the area and starting to search the near by neighborhoods, an employee working at red crescent said that 6 employees were freed by was not conformed by the Iraqi police yet .
· this morning a car bomb exploded in al mahmodiyah area southern Baghdad in front of the main bus station , one civilian was injured and a number of car were burnt. ............

Tech Tags: red+crescent iraq baghdad

two thousand nine hundred and forty six

it's NOT as bad as it looks.

we only lost 2,946 men and women in iraq. it's NOT as bad as it looks

2,946

'Don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks,' Bush reportedly told friend

"Don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks," President Bush reportedly told a friend depressed by the ongoing "unpopular" war and GOP woes, according to an article in Sunday's Washington Post.
"For a man who presides over an unpopular war, just lost Congress and faces a final two years with constrained options, Bush gives little sign of self-pity," Peter Baker writes.
The analysis, entitled "Stubborn or Stalwart, Bush Is Loath to Budge," examines the following questions: "At what point does determination to a cause become self-defeating folly? Can he change direction in a meaningful way without sacrificing principle?"...............

and here's the wapo article

Stubborn or Stalwart, Bush Is Loath to Budge


By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 17, 2006; Page A01
In the late 19th century, the queen of England sent the president of the United States a desk made from the timbers of a decommissioned ship, the HMS Resolute. Almost every occupant of the White House since then has made the Resolute his desk. Perhaps more than most, President Bush has taken its name to heart.
But now, as Bush rethinks his strategy in Iraq and approaches one of the most fateful moments of his presidency, he confronts difficult questions: At what point does determination to a cause become self-defeating folly? Can he change direction in a meaningful way without sacrificing principle?...............

Tech Tags: george+bush iraq war+dead

fetish website of the day

nbak

(i have heard of 'posture collars' in the bdsm world. i've NEVER heard of this fetish in the 'vanilla' world).

the word on the street (about the naked emperor)

or king george in this case. an insightful AND very frightening essay from joseph galloway

Bush's 'new way forward' is into quicksand

BY JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
McClatchy Newspapers
The power brokers in Washington spent the week carefully arranging fig leaves and tasteful screens to cover the emperor’s nakedness while he was busy pretending to listen hard to everyone with an opinion about Iraq while hearing nothing.
Sometime early in the New Year, President Bush will go on national television to tell a disgruntled American public what he's decided should be done to salvage "victory" from the jaws of certain defeat in the war he started.
The word on the street, or in the Pentagon rings, is that he'll choose to beef up American forces on the ground in Iraq by 20,000 to 30,000 troops by various sleight-of-hand maneuvers - extending the combat tours of soldiers and Marines who are nearing an end to their second or third year in Hell and accelerating the shipment of others into that Hell - and send them into the bloody streets of Baghdad.
These additional troops are expected to restore order and calm the bombers and murderers when 9,000 Americans already in the sprawling capital couldn't. They're expected to do this even when Bush’s favorite (for now) Iraqi politician, Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al Maliki, refuses to allow them to act against his primary benefactor, the anti-American cleric Moqtada al Sadr and his Shiite Muslim Mahdi Army militiamen who kill both Americans and Sunni Arabs.
This hardly amounts to a "new way forward" unless that definition includes a new path deeper into the quicksand of a tribal and religious civil war where whatever President Bush eventually decides is already inadequate and immaterial.
The military commanders on the ground, from Gen. John Abizaid, the head of the U.S. Central Command, to his generals in Iraq, have said flatly that more American troops aren't the answer and aren't wanted. For them, it's obvious that only a political decision - an Iraqi political decision - has even the possibility of producing an acceptable outcome.............

...........This president has made it painfully obvious that he has no intention of listening to anyone who doesn’t believe that he's going to win in Iraq. He'll march stubbornly onward without any real change of course until high noon on January 20, 2009, when his successor will inherit both the hard decision to pull out of Iraq and the back bills for his reckless, feckless misadventure. ..........

Tech Tags: joseph+galloway george+bush iraq american+troops

catholics for pizza

whoops, i mean 'catholics for brownback'. ewwwwwwwwwwwww

first monaghan is trying to build his ALL catholic city, now he's going to try to build his ALL catholic president. monaghan and brownback are NO ordinary catholics by the way. they are THE chosen ones

oh, i have nothing against catholics (i was raised one). well nothing more than i have against most (if not all) organized 'religions'. i DO have a thing against people forcing their beliefs upon ME (and others) as the RIGHT AND ONLY WAY.

i don't know much about brownback. i DO know he's a big old fan of censorship though. i know he is BEYOND conservative.


Domino's Pizza founder tosses money, influence to Sen. Brownback

By Matt Stearns
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The passion of Tom Monaghan: Pizza. God. Sam Brownback.
The Domino's pizza founder, one of the nation's richest and most controversial Roman Catholic philanthropists, is putting his money and influence into making Brownback, the Republican Kansas senator, the next president of the United States.
The former pizza magnate is advising the 2008 presidential exploratory committee for Brownback, a longtime social conservative who converted to Catholicism a few years ago. Monaghan, who declined an interview request, is expected to play a lead role in "Catholics for Brownback."
More important, his support is likely to be a big help to Brownback's fundraising, which is currently regarded as the weakest part of Brownback's candidacy.
"He brings to the table recognition in the Catholic community," said Marlene Elwell, a Michigan political activist who used to work for Monaghan. "It's always positive to have a leader in a community endorse you."
But the extent of Monaghan's religious fervor could raise eyebrows among more secular voters.
"In the Catholic community, he's looked upon as kind of on the fringes," said the Rev. Robert Drinan, a liberal Roman Catholic priest and former Democratic congressman who teaches at Georgetown University. "The worldview is, `We have to get back to a Catholic civilization'. They want to go back to a Christian society imposed from above. ... It's just another world they want to build." ..............

and here's a little something something from rolling stone on senator brownback:

God's Senator
Who would Jesus vote for? Meet Sam Brownback

Tech Tags: tom+monaghan sam+brownback 2008+president catholics

laura bush wanted more stories about schools in iraq

well here ya go laura!!! (you see if the twins were sent over to fight in iraq, i wonder if all you'd want to hear are stories about the schools in iraq. yes, i wonder)

Laura Bush Pleads for Positive Media Coverage from Iraq -- But 'L.A. Times' Finds More Bad

By E&P Staff Published: December 16, 2006 1:10 PM ET
NEW YORK In a TV interview this week, Laura Bush, the First Lady, complained about one-sided media coverage in Iraq and, like many others before her, asked for more of a focus on the positive, including "schools opening." The Los Angeles Times today, no doubt coincidentally, presented a major story on schooling in Iraq today, by Baghdad correspondent Solomon Moore. It's called "Battlefield School." It opens this way:"Iraq's schools, long touted by American officials as a success story in a land short on successes, increasingly are being caught in the crossfire of the country's escalating civil war..........

and here's the original la times article:

A battlefield called school
Iraq violence threatens teachers and students. Campuses are closing.

seems laura is JUST as delusional and just as much in a state of denial as her husband, king george. if you don't want to send your grrrls over as soldiers, send 'em over as TEACHERS!!! now THAT'S an idea!!!

Tech Tags: bush+twins laura+bush iraqi+schools