it's sing out tuesday! if birds do it, so can we

This plain-tailed wren sings the most complex harmonies of any known bird (Image: University of St Andrews)

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News

Scientists have heard possibly the most complex vocalising by any creature aside from humans as they stood in an Ecuadorian bamboo forest listening to plain-tailed wrens.The sheer number of singers and their impressive synchronicity put the birds at the top of the world pops, according to researchers from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. "It's already known that some birds duet and that others sing in choruses, but these wrens do both and, furthermore, the choruses are extraordinarily precise and well coordinated," says Peter Slater, a St Andrews biology professor who led the study, which is published online in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Slater says that up to seven birds sing "choruses", with males and females contributing different parts.The song consists of a series of four repeated phrases that follow the pattern ABCDABCD. Males sing A and C, while females sing B and D. Listen to the birdsong here (Sound: mp3, 190kb, Mann et al)All the birds sing around 20 sets of phrases for up to two minutes at a time.............

cool, n'est pas?

one down, how many more to go?

Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Susan SchmidtWashington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, September 20, 2005; A01

The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned
Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal
investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal
government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government
official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff's activities in
Washington.
The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. Safavian,
38, a White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane
Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials
and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002.
It
also contends that he concealed his efforts to help Abramoff acquire control of
two federally managed properties in the Washington area. Abramoff is the person
identified as "Lobbyist A" in a 13-page affidavit unsealed in court, according
to sources knowledgeable about the probe.
Until his resignation on the day
the criminal complaint against him was signed, Safavian was the top
administrator at the federal procurement office in the White House Office of
Management and Budget, where he set purchasing policy for the entire
government.
The arrest occurred at his home in Alexandria. A man who answered
the phone there yesterday hung up when a reporter asked to speak to
Safavian.
Abramoff was indicted by federal prosecutors in Miami last month on
unrelated charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. He remains the linchpin of an
18-month probe by a federal task force that includes the Internal Revenue
Service, the Interior Department and the Justice Department's fraud and public
integrity units. His lawyer did not respond to phone calls seeking
comment.............

replenishing the spirit of the survivors.

God, liquor, and Katrina Coping with the devastation of the mind and spirit at Camp Edwards BY DEIRDRE FULTON

Standing outside the three-story barracks he will call home for the foreseeable future, Don Vavasseur recounts how he navigated the streets of his New Orleans neighborhood, Gentilly, looking for stranded victims. On the first day, Vavasseur and a companion encountered a dead body and covered it with a blanket. Days later, the same body lay in the same place, draped with the same blanket. By then, it was bloated from the water and the heat.
This is just one of countless gruesome images that will haunt thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims, including many of the 209 evacuees who arrived at Camp Edwards, located on Otis Air Force base in Buzzard’s Bay last week.
In the weeks following the category-four storm, government officials and aid workers have concentrated on ensuring physical survival. Rescuing people. Feeding people. Housing people. Clothing people. But volunteers at Camp Edwards, like those at evacuation centers across the country, are trying to create an environment that also replenishes the spirit of the survivors. That could be even more vital for this group since, according to organizers, most of the 209 survivors were among the last hold-outs — those who stayed through the storm and the first part of the aftermath before finally being coaxed away from the devastation. Research shows that approximately five percent of natural-disaster victims develop diagnosable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet others will be at risk for depression, substance abuse, and other disorders.
At Camp Edwards, organizers are doing a number of things to help ease the shock. At breakfast last Friday, for example, they made a last-minute decision to serve grits to help the evacuees feel more at home. On Sunday, residents attended a rousing worship service led by Camp Edwards’s unofficial "mayor," Reverend Jeffrey Brown. They’re also getting cable installed and new recreation equipment.........

my ex-boss is burried at camp edwards/otis afb. the cemetary section, believe it or not, is simply beautiful. the scrub growth (you know how plants grow next to the ocean. it's a different kind of growth) is haunting. the base, when i was there, was not very populated. i did see service people here and there, but NOT many. good luck to all of you katrina survivors and r.i.p. dear bill. i know you're running things in your own way where ever you are now.

a lovely letter from a poet to our first lady

No Place for a Poet at a Banquet of Shame
Sharon Olds
For reasons spelled out below, the poet Sharon Olds has declined to attend the National Book Festival in Washington, which, coincidentally or not, takes place September 24, the day of an antiwar mobilization in the capital. Olds, winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award and professor of creative writing at New York University, was invited along with a number of other writers by First Lady Laura Bush to read from their works. Three years ago artist Jules Feiffer declined to attend the festival's White House breakfast as a protest against the Iraq War ("Mr. Feiffer Regrets," November 11, 2002). We suggest that invitees to this year's event consider following their example. --The Editors

Laura Bush First LadyThe White House
Dear Mrs. Bush,
I am writing to let
you know why I am not able to accept your kind invitation to give a presentation
at the National Book Festival on September 24, or to attend your dinner at the
Library of Congress or the breakfast at the White House. In one way, it's a very
appealing invitation. The idea of speaking at a festival attended by 85,000
people is inspiring! The possibility of finding new readers is exciting for a
poet in personal terms, and in terms of the desire that poetry serve its
constituents--all of us who need the pleasure, and the inner and outer news, it
delivers.
And the concept of a community of readers and writers has long
been dear to my heart. As a professor of creative writing in the graduate school
of a major university, I have had the chance to be a part of some magnificent
outreach writing workshops in which our students have become teachers. Over the
years, they have taught in a variety of settings: a women's prison, several New
York City public high schools, an oncology ward for children. Our initial
program, at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely physically challenged, has
been running now for twenty years, creating along the way lasting friendships
between young MFA candidates and their students--long-term residents at the
hospital who, in their humor, courage and wisdom, become our teachers.
...............................I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear witness--as an American who loves her country and its principles and its writing--against this undeclared and devastating war.
But I could not face the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that if I sat down to eat with you, it would feel to me as if I were condoning what I see to be the wild, highhanded actions of the Bush Administration.
What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be taking food from the hand of the First Lady who represents the Administration that unleashed this war and that wills its continuation, even to the extent of permitting "extraordinary rendition": flying people to other countries where they will be tortured for us. .................

the big payback!

no i'm not talking about the godfather of soul, the hardest workin' man in all of show bid-nez

i'm talking about the NEW YORK TIMES

'NY Times' Introduces New 'Pay' Service Today: Reader Reaction Awaited

By Greg Mitchell Published: September 18, 2005 11:35 PM ET
NEW YORK The New York Times unveiled its great pay experiment Sunday night, when it unveiled TimesSelect and started putting its popular opinion and sports columnists behind the firewall.No doubt thousands have already visited the newspaper’s site and clicked on, for example, the link to the new Paul Krugman column, to find just the title, “Tragedy in Black and White,” and one sentence from his column, then the following: “To continue reading this article, you must be a subscriber to TimesSelect.”Click on the Times Select button and you find that if you subscribe to the paper, or to its International Herald Tribune (three times a week or more) then you can still get Krugman and the other columnists online for free. Otherwise, you have to have to pay $7.95 a month.But to break you in easily—-the paper is offering a 14-day free trial.The question, of course, remains: how quickly, and how many, other Web editors and bloggers will copy the columns in question and put them up on their own sites, daring the Times to sue them. One of the first to put up most of Krugman's column was http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/.The second op-ed columnist behind the firewall for Monday is Bob Herbert. His column is titled “Good Grief” and the one sentence gift is: “The country has put its faith in President Bush many times before, and come up empty.”Joining Krugman and Herbert in the pay-for-play zone are sports columnists Dave Anderson (writing about the football Jets' need for a new stadium) and William Rhoden, who contributes not one but two columns (on the trauma of the Yankees possibly not making the playoffs this year and a rocky road ahead for the Jets on the field)................

a great editorial

Bad Daddy

September 19, 2005 A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

The great downfall of America is not some sort of precipitous moral decline -- unless you take into account the behavior of the offspring of Jeb and George Bush -- but rather that the "theatrical presidency" has been uncoupled from any accountability. How Bush "performs" on television is the criteria by which the media judges him, not how he performs for the people of America. Word and deed have taken two separate paths -- and the media may cover deed for a day or two, but is always diverted back to writing reviews about Bush's dramatic reading of scripts written by Rove and Hughes -- or airing visuals of carefully orchestrated photo-ops. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to put together a pattern of Bush being unable to cope with disaster and protect Americans. There is a straight line going from Bush's paralysis after 9/11 -- sitting in a classroom for nearly 10 minutes reading "My Pet Goat" before his speechwriters could give him something to say, while Dick Cheney oversaw the response, followed by Bush's bizarre odyssey of flying away from Washington, D.C. -- to his failure to respond to the Tsunami disaster for days, to his failure to respond to the disaster in New Orleans for days. We won't even get into the bloody, bankrupting quagmire he got us into in Iraq by lying us into war. Any corporate board would know that they have a total incompetent on their hands and send him packing. We didn't just have Michael Brown as head of FEMA. Michael Brown is our President! The fact is Bush is just a figurehead, with the domestic President being Karl Rove and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney sharing the role of President for foreign affairs. The manner in which the media gobbled up the stage-managed speech from Jackson Square -- in which tremendous resources, including emergency generators to light the cathedral, were brought into a city that had no electricity -- was as reprehensible as it was revealing about how political "reporters" have now pretty much become theatrical reviewers. The whole idea that a man who committed treason, Karl Rove, is openly and brazenly directing the "clean-up" of Bush's image after Rove and Bush failed to rescue the citizens of New Orleans or provide any assistance for four days is intolerable and unacceptable by any norms of accountability, reason, or concern about our national security and survival. Rove is also being given full powers to oversee the doling out of profiteering contracts to campaign contributors -- and to implement a plan of dispersing the black residents of New Orleans around the country to dilute the Democratic voting base in the Crescent City. It is the full intention of Rove to make right wing lemonade out of another Bush Administration lemon. ...............

i try not to preach

Jodi Hilton for The New York Times
Samantha Marley, 9, on a “dream hunt”for bearin Vermont this month, organized by Kevin Hoyt

or wag my finger in the face of another or think because i don't hunt i'm better than someone who does.......BUT it is VERY VERY VERY disturbing to me that someone who is nine years old thinks it is fine to kill an innocent animal with a giant (or otherwise sized) gun. i cannot fathom thinking that way or having parents that would think it is an acceptable way of life. again, i rarely say these things because i try to believe 'each to their own'. it hurts and frightens me. i have been in the green mountains and i love the green mountains, BEAR AND ALL.

Girls and Boys, Meet Nature. Bring Your Gun

By PAM BELLUCK
Published: September 18, 2005
GREEN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST, Vt. - Chomping wad after wad of Bubblicious Strawberry Splash gum and giggling as she tickled people's necks with a piece of grass she pretended was a spider, Samantha Marley could have been any 9-year-old girl.

A couple of things set her apart, though. She was cloaked in camouflage from boots to baseball cap. And propped next to her on the seat of a truck was her very own 20-gauge shotgun.
Samantha, a freckle-faced, pony-tailed fourth grader, was on a bear hunt. Not the pretend kind memorialized in picture books and summer-camp chants, but a real one for black bears that live in the woods of southwestern Vermont and can weigh 150 pounds or more.
She had won a "dream hunt" given away by a Vermont man whose goal is to get more children to hunt, and she had traveled about 200 miles from her home in Bellingham, Mass., and was missing three days of school to take him up on his offer.
"Almost everything you hunt is pretty fun," said Samantha, grinning and perfectly at home with a group of five men, the youngest of whom was nearly three times her age...........

well i'll admit i don't think i have a common ancestor with the 'intelligent design' theorists

Nobel Laureates Frown on Curriculum Plans

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Thirty-eight Nobel Prize laureates asked state educators to reject proposed science standards that treat evolution as a seriously questionable theory, calling it instead the "indispensable" foundation of biology. The group, led by the writer Elie Wiesel, said it wanted to defend science and combat "efforts by the proponents of so-called intelligent design to politicize scientific inquiry."
The proposed standards, which could come up for final Board of Education approval later this year, are designed to expose students to more criticism of evolution but state in an introduction that they do not endorse intelligent design.
That increasingly popular theory argues that some features of the natural world are best explained as having an intelligent cause because they are well-ordered and complex. Its followers attack Darwin's evolutionary theory, which says natural chemical processes could have created the basic building blocks of life on Earth, that all life had a common ancestor and that man and apes shared a common ancestor.........

they HAVE to be kidding me

this is unreal and unbelievable. while i am sorry for the people of iraq (THE INNOCENT ONES and yes, i do believe innocent ones exist everywhere) and i know our troops caused much damage, i cannot fathom our government asking the public for donations to help rebuild iraq. where the hell are our tax dollars (BILLIONS AND BILLIONS) going to? oh yes, they are going into KILLING PEOPLE. we do NOT belong there, we never did. most of our money should be going to re-building our OWN country now. i have never minded paying taxes (really). i only wish i could dictate WHERE they go to

New twist on Iraq aid: U.S. seeks donations
BY CAM SIMPSON Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - From the Indian Ocean tsunami to the church around the corner, Americans have shown time and again they are willing to open their pocketbooks for charity, for a total of about $250 billion last year alone. But now, amid pleas for aid after Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration has launched an unusual effort to raise charitable contributions for another cause: the government's attempt to rebuild Iraq. Although more than $30 billion in taxpayer funds have been appropriated for Iraqi reconstruction, the administration earlier this month launched an Internet-based fundraising effort that it says is aimed at giving Americans "a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq." Contributors have no way of knowing who's getting the money or precisely where it's headed, because the government says it must keep the details secret for security reasons. But taxpayers already finance the projects the administration is seeking charitable donations for, such as providing water pumps for farmers. And officials say any contributions they receive will increase the scope of those efforts, rather than relieve existing taxpayer burdens. The campaign is raising eyebrows in the international development and not-for-profit communities, where there are questions about its timing - given needs at home - and whether it will set the government in competition with international not-for-profits. On a more basic level, experts wonder whether Americans will make charitable donations to a government foreign aid program, and whether the contentious environment surrounding Iraq will make a tough pitch even tougher. "I'm a little skeptical, and the timing certainly isn't the best," said James Ferris, director of the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy at the University of Southern California. "It's going to be a hard sell."........

i didn't take it, i swear

What has happened to Iraq's missing $1bn?
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
Published: 19 September 2005

One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq's defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, The Independent can reveal, leaving the country's army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons.
The money, intended to train and equip an Iraqi army capable of bringing security to a country shattered by the US-led invasion and prolonged rebellion, was instead siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared.
"It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history," Ali Allawi, Iraq's Finance Minister, told The Independent.
"Huge amounts of money have disappeared. In return we got nothing but scraps of metal."
The carefully planned theft has so weakened the army that it cannot hold Baghdad against insurgent attack without American military support, Iraqi officials say, making it difficult for the US to withdraw its 135,000- strong army from Iraq, as Washington says it wishes to do.
Most of the money was supposedly spent buying arms from Poland and Pakistan. The contracts were peculiar in four ways. According to Mr Allawi, they were awarded without bidding, and were signed with a Baghdad-based company, and not directly with the foreign supplier. The money was paid up front, and, surprisingly for Iraq, it was paid at great speed out of the ministry's account with the Central Bank. Military equipment purchased in Poland included 28-year-old Soviet-made helicopters. The manufacturers said they should have been scrapped after 25 years of service. Armoured cars purchased by Iraq turned out to be so poorly made that even a bullet from an elderly AK-47 machine-gun could penetrate their armour. A shipment of the latest MP5 American machine-guns, at a cost of $3,500 (£1,900) each, consisted in reality of Egyptian copies worth only $200 a gun. Other armoured cars leaked so much oil that they had to be abandoned. A deal was struck to buy 7.62mm machine-gun bullets for 16 cents each, although they should have cost between 4 and 6 cents...........

there are NO gay men in italy!

and if you believe that, i have a bridge to sell you

Italy snaps over gay poster excess

Barbara McMahon in RomeSunday September 18, 2005 The Observer
Half-naked models are commonplace on Italy's advertising hoardings but a kiss between two fully dressed men has caused a furore on the streets of its capital.
Photographer Oliviero Toscani has ignited a furious debate over homosexuality with his latest adverts featuring two men kissing and groping on a sofa. The billboards have triggered outrage at a time when the rights of homosexual couples are being hotly debated in Catholic Italy.
In one poster for the men's clothing line Ra-Re, one of the models is clutching another's crotch. Another shows the same model lying across the sofa and pulling his boyfriend on top of him for a kiss.
'These posters are vulgar and a bad example for our children,' said a spokesman for the parents association MOIGE, which wants the adverts banned. 'It's not a matter of sexual orientation. They would be crass even if they featured a man and a woman.' Complaints have flooded in to the offices of Rome city council and an organisation called The Citizens Defence Movement has joined the chorus of criticism. 'Obviously we respect homosexuality but it can be difficult to explain to young children,' a spokesman said.
Toscani, who was behind the controversial Benetton clothing company adverts and whose career has been built on shock tactics, was typically unrepentant. The 63-year-old photographer admitted he had taken advantage of the current debate in Italy about the legal and civil rights of gay couples..................

a picture is worth a thousand words

or more.... i believe these are also the GOD HATES FAGS people (i can't tell them apart)






i am more frightened of THESE types of lunatics than almost anyone else. that is exactly what they are too. however, the good news is (sort of good that is) they are almost all members of the SAME family.

always remember this..

when clinton lied NO ONE DIED!

Clinton launches withering attack on Bush on Iraq, Katrina, budget

Former US president Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush for the Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US budget deficit.

Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq "virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction."

The Iraq war diverted US attention from the war on terrorism "and undermined the support that we might have had," Bush said in an interview with an ABC's "This Week" programme.

Clinton said there had been a "heroic but so far unsuccessful" effort to put together an constitution that would be universally supported in Iraq.

The US strategy of trying to develop the Iraqi military and police so that they can cope without US support "I think is the best strategy. The problem is we may not have, in the short run, enough troops to do that," said Clinton.

On Hurricane Katrina, Clinton faulted the authorities' failure to evacuate New Orleans ahead of the storm's strike on August 29.

People with cars were able to heed the evacuation order, but many of those who were poor, disabled or elderly were left behind.

"If we really wanted to do it right, we would have had lots of buses lined up to take them out," Clinton.

He agreed that some responsibility for this lay with the local and state authorities, but pointed the finger, without naming him, at the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

FEMA boss Michael Brown quit in response to criticism of his handling of the Katrina disaster. He was viewed as a political appointee with no experience of disaster management or dealing with government officials.

"When James Lee Witt ran FEMA, because he had been both a local official and a federal official, he was always there early, and we always thought about that," Clinton said, referring to FEMA's head during his 1993-2001 presidency.

"But both of us came out of environments with a disproportionate number of poor people.".............................

i'm disturbed

i just finished watching a movie entitled sick: the life and death of bob flanagan, supermasochist

bob was a performance artist born with cystic fibrosis. he was also a masochist, spending the last fifteen years of his life (give or take) with a sadist/dominatrix as his partner/mate. the movie to me was not shocking in that sense as i have intimate knowledge of that 'lifestyle'. he was a funny man, great sense of humor. he was someone i think i would have liked to have a cup of coffee with. he knew he was dying. he lived more than twice the lifespan people with cystic fibrosis are supposed to live. i was uncomfortable watching the very last stages of his life and his death AND i was uncomfortable with sheree rose his mistress (there is a scene where she keeps punching him in the stomach over and over. he is begging her not to. people with cycstic fibrosis have stomach and intestinal and pancreatic problems. this WAS abuse, not a doubt in my mind. that area should have been off limits. i had no problems with the cuttings or the play piercings or the ass whippings or the scrotum sewings or the penis nailings. they were ALL WITH his consent. there is also a scene where he is very close to death. she is filming him and asking him to say for the camera she is entitled to all of his possessions. on and on and on. NOT a very heartwarming touching moment in filmdom. another scene with her whining and complaining to bob that he no longer submits to her. he is obviously in a great deal of pain all of the time at that poin. his face is bloated and his hair is all matted. he answers her by saying that he can't even breathe much less submit). just as bob is dying sheree rose leaves the room. you don't know why but she's back in a flash with a still camera. she goes to work shooting his death. including several shots of his genitalia. i do NOT want to go for a cup of coffee with her. not in this lifetime or the next! lest you think ALL dominant woman are like that, let me reassure you THEY ARE NOT. oh i almost forgot to mention sarah the (then) 17 year old from canada who was granted a wish from the make a wish foundation. hers was to meet bob, which she did. under the special features on the dvd you see sarah as she was a couple of years ago (i don't know if she is still alive or not, but she was in 2003 and older than she even thought she would be). the other thing i liked was bob's creation of the invisible man...... you have to see him, i cannot do it justice.

bob's pain journal

bob's nyt obit

bob flanagan

Los Angeles writer and performer, Bob Flanagan (December 27,1952-January 4, 1996) was the author of several books of poetry and prose including The Wedding of Everything, Slave Sonnets, and the infamous Fuck Journal which was destroyed by its printer in India out of fear of reprisals by Indian customs agents. Selections of his last work in progress, Book of Medicine appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including High Risk (Dutton/Plume), Amy Scholder and Ira Silverberg editors and Best American Erotica 1993, Susie Bright, editor. Excerpts from "Pain Journal" have also been published in Unnatural Disasters (Incommunicado Press), Nicole Painter, editor and the magazine Fruit (#3). Flanagan performed throughout the U.S. often in collaboration with his partner Sheree Rose. Together, Flanagan and Rose combined text, video, and live performance in highly personal but universal explorations of sex, illness, and mortality. One of their major collaborations was "Visiting Hours" which premiered in 1993 at the Santa Monica Museum, California traveling the following year to the New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY (1994) and the Museum of the School of Fine Arts in Boston (February, 1995). This installation dealt with Bob's lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis in relation to his sexuality. In addition to performing in art venues, Flanagan also appeared on stage with Los Angeles Groundlings Comedy Improv Ensemble and in numerous films and videos including the Nine Inch Nails music video Happiness is Slavery and in Michael Tolkin's film, The New Age. He also the subject of Kirby Dick's 1997 documentary: SICK: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist and a 1993 RE/Search publication: Bob Flanagan: Supermasochist, a book of interviews with Bob and photographs by Sheree. A forthcoming book of his writings, The Bob Flanagan Reader, will be edited by Sheree Rose Levin.

i'm sorry if the truth hurts

et tu bill? the bbc didn't 'stack' the truth. they REPORTED the truth. we as a nation EFFED UP in our response to katrina. if you're embarrassed tought shite. at least you are fed and clothed and know where your family is.

Blair attacks BBC for 'anti-US bias' James Robinson, David Smith and Ned TemkoSunday September 18, 2005The Observer
Tony Blair has denounced the BBC's coverage of Hurricane Katrina as 'full of hatred of America' and 'gloating' at the country's plight, it was reported yesterday.
Blair allegedly made the remarks privately to Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, which owns the rival Sky News.
The comments threatened a new rift between the government and the BBC following the Andrew Gilligan affair over events leading to the Iraq war and recent criticisms of ministers Today presenter John Humphrys, which were controversially leaked to the press.
Downing Street said last night it had no comment on the report in the Financial Times. The BBC said that its coverage had been 'committed solely to relaying the events fully, accurately and impartially'.
Murdoch, a long-standing critic of the BBC, was addressing the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York. Chuckling, he said: 'I probably shouldn't be telling you this' before recounting a recent conversation with Blair. He said the Prime Minister was in New Delhi when he criticised BBC coverage of the catastrophe in New Orleans: 'He said it was just full of hatred of America and gloating at our troubles.'
Bill Clinton, the former US President who was hosting the conference, also attacked the tone of the BBC coverage at a seminar on the media. He said it had been 'stacked up' to criticise the federal government's slow response............................

great op-ed out of the nyt

Op-Ed Columnist
Message: I Care About the Black Folks

By FRANK RICH
Published: September 18, 2005
ONCE Toto parts the curtain, the Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again. He is forever Professor Marvel, blowhard and snake-oil salesman. Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to endure in the American psyche as long as L. Frank Baum's mythic tornado, has similarly unmasked George W. Bush.

The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of "compassionate conservatism," the lack of concern for the "underprivileged" his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action.
In the chaos unleashed by Katrina, these plot strands coalesced into a single tragic epic played out in real time on television. The narrative is just too powerful to be undone now by the administration's desperate recycling of its greatest hits: a return Sunshine Boys tour by the surrogate empathizers Clinton and Bush I, another round of prayers at the Washington National Cathedral, another ludicrously overhyped prime-time address flecked with speechwriters' "poetry" and framed by a picturesque backdrop. Reruns never eclipse a riveting new show. ................


toto, i don't think we're in kansas any more

missteps (in VERY big shite-encrusted shoes)

'Sun-Sentinel': Katrina Only Latest of FEMA Foul-Ups
Aya Kawano
By Mark Fitzgerald Published: September 16, 2005 5:15 PM ET
CHICAGO A two-day investigative series that the South Florida Sun-Sentinel will publish starting this Sunday says that the wretched performance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during Hurricane Katrina is the rule rather than the exception for the agency.The series comes down hard on FEMA from the first graf: "The federal government's mishandling of Hurricane Katrina is just the latest in a series of missteps by a national disaster response system that for years has been fraught with waste andfraud."FEMA's bungling during Katrina came as no surprise to the Sun-Sentinel, says Editor and Sr. Vice President Earl Mauker."We actually called for [Michael Brown's] resignation a year ago," he said, referring to the FEMA head who resigned earlier this week. The Tribune Co.-owned Fort Lauderdale paper has been on FEMA's case since last year when its computer-assisted investigation turned up massive fraud and waste in the wake of Hurricane Frances. FEMA, the paper found, had paid millions of dollars in claims in Miami-Dade County -- even though the hurricane made landfall 100 miles away."It was absolutely incredible. In Miami, the hurricane never hit, it never came on shore, and we found FEMA paid out $31 million for a storm that never came ashore," Mauker said.The Sun-Sentinel followed up that revelation with continuing reporting of FEMA waste. The paper says the agency paid for funerals for people whose deaths had nothing to do with the hurricane. It reports that FEMA inspectors receive little training -- and that a shocking number of them have criminal records. With this coming investigative series -- titled, "FEMA: A Legacy Of Waste -- the newspaper expands its examination far beyond Florida."We found the same waste in Detroit, Baton Rouge, Cleveland, Los Angeles," Mauker said. One example: After a season of wild fires and mudslides in Los Angeles, FEMA paid $5.2 million in disaster relief to families in Watts, far from the affected areas..................

and the article itself;

FEMA: A LEGACY OF WASTE

The handling of aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina is only the latest in a series of missteps and fraud that has plagued this tax-funded government agency. The Sun-Sentinel took a look at 20 recent disasters and found mismanagement and misallocation abound.

THE FEMA INVESTIGATION This report is the latest in a series by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel examining the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster assistance payments. The newspaper first revealed that FEMA paid $31 million in Miami-Dade County for Hurricane Frances, even though the Labor Day weekend storm made landfall 100 miles to the north. Subsequent reports detailed how FEMA inspectors receive little training; that the agency paid for funerals for deaths unrelated to the storm; and that some criminals were hired to inspect damage. The reports resulted in recommendations by a U.S. Senate committee and the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security for widespread changes in the way the agency administers its program. FEMA announced last month that it was making some alterations in the way it awards aid. The U.S. attorney in Miami has charged 16 Miami-Dade aid recipients with fraud. Fourteen have pleaded guilty and one was found not guilty after trial.
Hundreds of millions paid to people untouched by disasters The federal government's mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe is only the latest bungling in a national disaster response system that for years has been fraught with waste and fraud............

a smile in a sea of frowns

Rescue workers transport 76-year-old Gerald Martin who was found by members of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue, California Task Force 3, Friday, in New Orleans.
76-year-old man found after 18 days
Amazed rescuers say he only had some water, no food

NEW ORLEANS - Day after day, for more than two weeks, the 76-year-old man sat trapped and alone in his attic, sipping from a dwindling supply of water until it ran out. No food. No way out of a house ringed by foul floodwaters.
Without ever leaving home, Gerald Martin lived out one of the most remarkable survival stories of Hurricane Katrina. Rescuers who found him Friday, as they searched his neighborhood by boat, were astounded at his good spirits and resiliency after 18 days without food or human contact.
“It’s an incredible story of survival,” said Louie Fernandez, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency search unit that carried out the rescue..............

why do i hear bob marley in my head

Oldest Buffalo Soldier to be buried at Arlington
Cavalryman fought under Pershing and in the South Pacific
From Larry ShaughnessyCNN Washington Bureau


Saturday, September 17, 2005; Posted: 10:56 p.m. EDT (02:56 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mark Matthews, the oldest Buffalo Soldier, has died at the age of 111.
He'll be buried Monday at Arlington National Cemetery.
Matthews joined the legendary unit of black cavalry troops in 1910 at the age of 16. He soon found himself serving under Gen. John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing in the Army's pursuit of Pancho Villa, the revolutionary from Mexico who was considered a bandit.
Matthews later served in the South Pacific during World War II, rising to the rank of 1st sergeant.
The name Buffalo Soldiers was given to the troops of the all-black 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments by their adversaries in the Indian wars of the late 1800s. The name is believed to have originated either because the Indians thought the soldiers' hair resembled a buffalo's mane or that the Indians respected the soldiers for their courage and fearlessness, qualities they found in the buffalo.
The soldiers wore the nickname with pride. And they earned their reputation. More than 20 Buffalo Soldiers went on to receive the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor. No other unit has won more........................

the holidays are right around the corner

(these are some of the felted purses i made last year for holiday gifts. these are the ones that didn't turn out as i had planned, so i didn't give them away. you get the idea though)


yesterday was going to be a day of knitting. it didn't happen. instead, i got in my car (little green) and took off for the nearest yarn store. i just HAD to have more more more. i have all sorts of ideas in my head and today i WILL start. i'll knit and watch movies. i forgot which movies netflix sent although i believe i have 'and the ship sails on' by my favorite in the entire universe, federico fellini. it's not his finest work but i'll take what i can get. i am going to do an experimental piece based on a pattern i saw on knitty. a beautiful shawl with ribbon yarn woven through it. the experimental part comes in when i don't follow the pattern. i'm not going to follow it at all as a matter of fact. i was just inspired by the BEAUTIFUL piece. i MUST start knitting now. no choice. i plan on making many simple pieces to give as holiday gifts. last year i made a TON of felted handbags (knit or crocheted them then threw them in the washing machine, in a pillow case of course and washed and washed until they came out felted). i was very satisfied with the results of most of them. i'll do more of those too.