Fuck the Right!

My hate level is boiling over.

CNN (at the time of this post) has the Tsunami death toll at 135,000, and they're leaving out the current estimates that now put the death toll at over 400,000. If that estimate holds up, it would make the Tsunami death toll 134 times greater than that of 9/11.

So how has the right reacted?

Well junior has decided to undercut the U.N., by turning Tsunami aid into an international pissing contest.

RawStory has this: A press release from the Westboro Baptist Church titled "Thank God for Tsunami & 2000 Dead Swedes!!!", and be sure to visit their website at GodHatesFags.com


...and then there's Bob Novak.

Novak implied that since the Tsunami affected countries were bad with money and lazy, They Don't Deserve Any Foriegn Aid!

On the topic of Tsunami aid, on the CNN show CrossFire, Bob posed this question to Albert Wynn:

Do you agree with the little bureaucrats at the U.N. that we ought to take the money from the developed parts of the world, where we have good economies and worked hard, and give it to the unsuccessful parts of the world just as a gift?


Fuck all of 'em!



May he rest in peace


Jerry Orbach
October 20 1935 - December 28 2004

from the AP

Jerry Orbach had a gift for charming audiences his entire career — first as a song-and-dance man who starred in musicals on and off Broadway, then for 12 years as a sharp-tongued cop on TV's "Law & Order."

Along the way, he made films as varied as the gritty crime drama "Prince of the City" and the smash romance "Dirty Dancing."

Orbach, who died of prostate cancer Tuesday in Manhattan, was beginning another chapter at age 69: He had taken his signature role as Detective Lennie Briscoe to NBC's upcoming spinoff "Law & Order: Trial By Jury."


From tsunami victims too numerous for my mind to fully comprehend, to the loss of one man who makes death seem all to real again.

I don't know about your house, but in mine Jerry Orbach was a member of the family. For over a decade my family gathered around the TV to watch Law and Order. It was a nightly tradition. My father would even record it for me when I was busy.

...and all these years after my fathers passing, watching Jerry Orbach play Lennie Briscoe was still a near nightly routine. I never met the man, but it sure feels like I knew him.

...he truly will be missed.



100,000

from the AP

Tens of thousands of residents fled coasts in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand after warnings of possible new tsunamis Thursday, and pilots in Indonesia dropped food to cliff-rimmed villages yet to be visited by outsiders four days after the disaster. The Red Cross feared the death toll would surpass 100,000.



also from the AP

"It's just beyond our comprehension to think about how many lives have been lost," Bush said after emerging from a holiday vacation at his Texas ranch to make his first comments on the disaster.


anyone else noticing a recurring theme?

PETA does Gods work.

Their latest Ad Campaign is against a procedure called mulesing.


Big Numbers, Bad Policy



The Quake/Tsunami death toll estimate is now 68,000, and as if that wasn't bad enough, disease and starvation could claim just as many in the aftermath.

Pissed about being called 'stingy', Colin Powell coughed up another 20 million in aid, and lashed out at those who raised an eyebrow at the U.S.'s initial offering of 15 million. For the sake of context, the E.U. has given 30 million. You should also keep in mind that if every American gave the Tsunami victims a dollar, that would make the U.S. donation 295 million.

My two cents falls along the lines of this story posted on MSNBC, in which the authors point out that bush blew it completely. America makes giant strides in world opinion when given an opportunity to show it's generosity. By sitting on his ass out at the ranch, junior has once again made us more enemies than he's worth.

45,000 may be dead

from the AFP

The biggest humanitarian relief operation ever mounted was underway along Asia's devastated shores as the death toll from a massive earthquake and the tidal waves it unleashed was predicted to hit 45,000.

With the scale of the catastrophe still unfolding the confirmed death toll passed 27,000 in nine countries -- but Indonesia warned that it alone could have suffered up to 20,000 more fatalities on top of its official figure of 4,725 deaths.


...and as every republican knows the U.S. will poor money onto the ungreatful pagans in their time of need. Just don't tell the UN Undersecratary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief that, 'cause he thinks the U.S. and the rest of the western world is being 'stingy'.


...hey look at that, the E.U. gave twice as much as the U.S.

The Broken Media...

MSNBC has a BIG problem named Joe Scarborough. It's their own fault too. In their rush to find the next O'reilly, (or as they said in memos they sent to each other explaining the reasoning behind the firing of Phil Donahue, they needed a "presidential cheerleader") so they went out, and hired Joe Scarborough. Despite the fact that he had no experience in the media, they hired him. Despite the fact that a lot of people were still wondering if he had killed his intern, MSNBC hired him.

...and tonight on Scarborough, they're going to interview a reporter who can prove that there was a link between Saddam and Binladen with regards to 9/11.


I'd like to be the first to say BULLSHIT!

...and shame on MSNBC.

I'm sure they'll justify it the same way the media always does; "We report the truth. We are just reporting what said reporter said. We never said that what said reporter said was true."

It's BULLSHIT!

...It's some twisted gossip game. It's like a political version of he said, she said. Is it any wonder that Bill O'reilly, who comes from the world of celebrity gossip, has the highest rated show on a cable news network?

One of the biggest media polling taboos today is to ask the American people a question. Because time and time again the American people get it wrong. They think Saddam planned 9/11. They think bush found WMDs. They think the swift boat vets told the truth. And when confronted with the fact that Americans have been misinformed major media figures feign shock, and pretend to be surprised.

The other day Chris Matthews was asking a guest why the American people believed the swift boat veterans when everyone (in the media) knew they were lying. Well gee Chris, maybe it had something to do with the fact that you had them on your show every night for a week. Chris thought that there was something "deeper" going on. That the American people, and even the swift boat vets, were punishing Kerry for his actions during Vietnam.

I think the American people were misinformed by a man with a head shaped like Tweety Bird.

Red Cross makes an emergency appeal

The Red Cross

The British Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal in response to the widespread flooding caused by a massive earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Our logistics team is ready to fly to the region.

Donation information can be found here

Tsunamis kill up to 23,900 in Asia

That's just the latest estimate form the AP. Who knows how high the number will climb.

Just for some perspective, that's eight times more than that died on 9/11.



So why am I not surprised by this CNN headline: "U.S. begins tsunami relief; 6 Americans among dead"

...I guess it just isn't news worthy if Americans aren't among the dead.



edit:

This just in from CNN:
"'Oprah' regular survives tsunami devastation"

...just a few days 'till Christmas.

Isn't it about time for karl rove to do something disgusting!??



...speak of the devil!

The Newly, 'bush' Ammended National Forest Management Act
(political launguage translated)


_Give regional forest managers more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects within two or three years by streamlining environmental reviews that now take up to seven years. (made forest managers bribable)

_Relaxed (scraped) a requirement to protect fish and wildlife in national forests so species do not become threatened or endangered. Instead, the rules direct forest managers to take into account the best available science to protect air, water, wildlife and other natural resources at a landscape level. (forest managers will now make their decisions based on impact studies provided by logging companies)

_Require independent audits of all forest plans, using a process known as Environmental Management Systems.(always give your 'evil' plans a cute name) The Forest Service says the system accounts for changing forest conditions, while emphasizing science and public involvement. (science = bad, public = loggers)

_Do not promote or discourage any particular forest use, such as recreation, grazing, timber harvest or mineral development. Decisions regarding such uses will be made on a forest-by-forest basis, (as too keep the cost of bribes low), and will be informed by local conditions, science and public input, officials say. (local yokels, and bankrupt municipalities are no threat)


I got a question... If you use your local forest for let's say; recreation, grazing, timber harvest or mineral development, is it still a forest?


The plan also would scrap wildlife protections established under President Reagan and limit public comment into forest management decisions



It seems like bush really likes to limit public comments.

No child left un-drafted

this is cute.

...the Department of Education's annual privacy notice, which says contact information for secondary students as young as sixth-graders may be released to military recruiters unless the student, parent or legal guardian requests otherwise.

[...]

The release of information is part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires all school systems receiving NCLB money to make the contact information available to military recruiters or risk losing federal money. The law also requires schools to give military recruiters the same on-campus access they would give to prospective employers, colleges and other post-secondary education institutions.


bush ordered prisoners tortured

from The American Civil Liberties Union

[A] two-page [FBI] e-mail that references an Executive Order states that the President directly authorized interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc." The ACLU is urging the White House to confirm or deny the existence of such an order and immediately to release the order if it exists.


...of course it exists, so I would like to urge the American People to turn this war criminal over to the Hague for trial.

Man... what a queer...

OOPS! I mean Man of the Year!


As in, bush is Time's Man of the Year

Propagandist of the year is more like it... Have you seen this photo? With bush sittin' in front of a photo of Roosevelt and Winston Churchill?

That's quality propaganda right there. Puttin' junior up there with Roosevelt has to be the ballsiest thing I've ever seen. The man who created Social Security and the shrub who's done everything in his power to destroy it.

...my favorite part about this decision by Time was the mouthpeice they sent out to explain it. He said something like "We're honoring bush for his ability to 'bend reality to his will'"....

Some people would just consider him delusional.

...and people wonder why healthcare costs so much.

Aleve is gonna kill ya!

...or at least that's what the latest study is showing. First Vioxx, then Celebrex, and now Aleve.

how's that quote go again? oh yeah...


When Doctors become Businessmen, who will the people turn to for Doctors?

Testing... 1.2.3.

Just making sure this thing still works ;)

And just for the sake of advertising a friend Robert Jerk (who will always be Bob Jerkerson to me) has started a journal (link)


Right off the bat he makes a good point about Kerry getting over a million more votes in Texas than he did in Massachusetts too.


Tonight on HardBall

MSNBC


A wounded soldier's journey home



We hear about the killed soldiers in Iraq, sometimes. But you never get to hear about the wounded soldiers. There have been more then 10 thousand American soldiers wounded in bush's war on terror, and our media up until now has completely ignored them.

...and don't get me wrong, Matthews has been a big supporter of the "see no evil" clause when it comes to covering the impact of the war on terror. Heaven forbid someone in the media might actually say something that undercuts bush's support. Even if what they reported was Glaringly True, they'd still be labeled partisan or liberal.

Well tonight you'll get a chance to see for yourself what the right has been hiding. Our men and women, our soldiers, our heros coming home from Iraq missing arms, legs, and in one case a soldier missing everything from the waist down. Coming home only to be ignored by their country. Pushed under the rug, with medical bills they could never begin to repay.

Praised as heros, and then left to die.

Just another example of the morals of the religious right.

Pledge Politics

from Local6.com

"I have not been standing for the Pledge of Allegiance due to a conflict I have with the wording of the pledge, specifically the words 'under God,'" Councilman David Habecker said.

Habecker said it's a violation of church and state to include the words in the pledge and for that reason, he won't stand.

[...]other council members and residents are upset about his actions and have enough signatures to hold a recall election. That recall election will occur Tuesday, Feb. 15.


talk about hypocrisy! first they say "if you don't like, don't stand", and then they recall your ass for being "unpatriotic"

ladies and gentlemen behold! ...the moral values of the religious right.

Ostrisization and Persecution.

It's disgusting....

it's too bad I'm totally burned out, or I would be having a field day with this scum bag...

if you haven't heard, bush nominated Bernard Kerik to be head of homeland security, the post Tom Ridge just left, and Bernie declined, and with good reason....

It turns out that he's a total fuckin' scumbag!



First off, he's been cheating on his wife with the slut-bag, holier-than-thou, moralist Judith Regan, who some off you may remember, as the opportunistic wingnut that made a good chunk of her career chastising Bill and Hillary over the whole Monica mess.

...Apparently cheating on your spouse isn't so bad when it's Judith Regan that's doing the cheating.

...and the hypocrisy just keeps coming with this story. 'cause a former Police Commissioner doesn't bang a filthy broad just anywhere. No sir. He bang her in an apartment donated for the use of weary police and rescue workers who were helping at ground zero

Sure looks like the folks at Miramax are gonna have to do one hell of a re-write on the Bernard Kerik story.

Is Limbaugh above the power of the FCC?

On December 13 limbaugh said:

"Miss Plastic Surgery. [...] I didn’t print out both pages, so I don’t know what the... I don’t know what the winner gets. Probably a certificate to go to San Francisco to have an add-a-dick-to-me operation. "



if Howard Stern had used the phrase "add-a-dick-to-me operation" while on the air, the FCC would have fined him on the same day

The right's latest defence of Rumsfeld...

The Evil Liberal Press Tricked Our Soldiers Into Asking Relevant Questions!


from Druwaaage

Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, now in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, and is filing articles for his newspaper. Pitts claims in a purported email that he coached soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld questions!


*GASP!*

Speaking of Media Matters

from Media Matters for America

FOX News host Bill O'Reilly lashed out at Media Matters for America and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on the December 9 Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly. He called Media Matters "the most vile, despicable human beings in the country"; called the ADL "an extremist group that finds offense in pretty much everything"; and labeled ADL president Abraham Foxman "a nut."

The controversy began when Media Matters highlighted a remark that O'Reilly made to a Jewish caller on his December 3 radio show, and ADL president Abraham Foxman wrote to O'Reilly in protest.

[...]

O'Reilly claimed on his December 9 radio show that "the write-ups about this didn't put any of it in context." In fact, Media Matters' original item included the full text and audio of the December 3 exchange. O'Reilly added that the "write-ups" "didn't say it was about Christmas," apparently suggesting that if the public knew that O'Reilly was talking about Christmas when he told a caller to "go to Israel," the remark would seem less offensive.



I guess falafel boy doesn't like it too much when someone actually takes notice of something he says.

And I thought THEY were liberal?

Looks like CBS is really making mountains out of mole hills with regards to Atrios and his working relationship with Media Matters for America.

If you read 3 posts on his blog you can tell that he's a liberal, so you can assume most people reading his blog are liberal too. I'd bet a good number of those people also read Media Matters, so I doubt that they were upset with Atrios, when they found out that he works for Media Matters.

If anyone has a reason to be upset about all of this, it's Media Matters. Not because of any conflicts of interest, but because they run a really nice information based website.

Atrios, on the other hand, is more into giving his opinion. Which is fine, but it gives the right ammunition when they argue that Media Matters is a partisan attack dog.


...in the end, I can't really get to upset with Atrios being mistreated, 'cause I think he's a dick.

...but that's a whole 'nother matter.

Homeless *Iraq vets* showing up at shelters

Full story at The Washington Times

U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.

"When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening, and this nation is not prepared for that."


...and george bush is just the president to cut their "social services" too.

Anti-Defamation Leauge's letter to bill o'reilly

ADL


Bill O'Reilly
The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly
c/o Westwood One
2020 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036


Dear Mr. O'Reilly:

We were deeply offended, as were many of your listeners who have contacted us, at your remark to a Jewish caller on the December 3 Radio Factor that, "if you are really offended" about attempts to convert Jews to Christianity, then "you gotta go to Israel then."

American Jews are Americans. Jews and other religious minorities are part of America's great tradition of religious freedom. The discomfort with proselytizing, or the intrusion of Christian teachings in public schools, is a very legitimate concern.

More dangerously, your remark plays into one of the oldest anti-Semitic canards about Jews, that they are not full citizens of a country and are not entitled to all of the rights afforded to the majority. The notion that religious minorities have no place in a Christian America and should leave may be acceptable for extremists, but it is unacceptable coming from a popular and respected media commentator.

We hope that in future you will be more sensitive to these issues.



Sincerely,

Abraham H. Foxman
National Director


CNN Continues to Smear Howard Dean

Ever since that whole "howl recorded with a directional mic", I've been very leary of the folks at CNN.

Yesterday on their show Crossfire, they had Bob Novak and the Rev. Al Sharpton discussing, amongst other things, Howard Dean.

The never put on trial, traitor Bob Novak attacks Dean often on the show much like the way he rapes the truth, and exploits the country, with zeal. The Rev. Al Sharpton was there to "balance" the ultra-conservative Novak, but his history of attacking Dean is well known. Sharpton has never been one to support those he perceives as political rivals.

...and like so many times before on CNN attack, after attack, on Howard Dean's character was thrown out, and left unanswered.

You may think I'm being petty about this, but I'm not. Again and again, on CNN this same scenario plays out. Ultra-right vs. lame duck. I notice the Dean attacks more, but it happens other topics as well. And just for the record, the regular hosts Paul Begala, and James Carville are right-leaning, "clinton" democrats that often label more traditional democrats as a bunch of "kooks".

So if CNN, again and again, is setting up situations where traditional democrats are treated as out of the main stream, shouldn't they change their name to FOX?

Red State Values, Alabama style

from CNN

A statewide recount showed that Alabama narrowly voted to keep language in the state constitution supporting segregation and poll taxes, according to unofficial totals released Friday.

[...]

The [voted down] amendment would have erased unenforced language from Alabama's constitution that required segregated schools and poll taxes, which were designed to keep blacks from voting.


Just their way of saying "know your role, and shut your mouth"?

Santa molests elf

you can read the about it at the Rutherford County Daily Courier




...just my way of spreading some christmas cheer

Pervert Lashes out at Jewish Caller

FOX News Channel host Bill O'Reilly responded to a Jewish caller to his radio show who objected to "Christmas going into schools" and explained that he "grew up with a resentment because I felt that people were trying to convert me to Christianity."

O'Reilly told the caller that America is "a predominantly Christian nation" and that "if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel." O'Reilly labeled the caller's concerns "an affront to the majority" and insisted that "the majority can be insulted, too." During his exchange with the caller, O'Reilly also mistakenly referred to "the seven candles" of Hanukkah.


You can read the whole thing at Media Matters.

My favorite part is where Falafel Boy pointed out that Christmas is a federal holiday.

That's nice... the Christians can celebrate their religion, and the pagans can reflect on the true meaning of seperation of church and state.

Fun with Genitailia (aka the Rumsfeld Chronicles)

from the AP

U.S. special forces accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq threatened Defense Intelligence Agency personnel who saw the mistreatment, according to U.S. government memos released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The special forces also monitored e-mails sent by defense personnel and ordered them "not to talk to anyone" in the United States about what they saw, said one memo written by the Defense Intelligence Agency chief, who complained to his Pentagon bosses about the harassment.

In addition, the special forces confiscated photos of a prisoner who had been punched in the face.

[...]

The U.S. military [lies when it] says prisoners are treated according to the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit violence, torture and humiliating treatment. Still, at least 10 incidents of abuse have been substantiated at Guantanamo, all but one from 2003 or this year.




Their leader is a religious nut, they want to force feed their religion to our children, and they like to torture prisoners.

Sounds like junior really has stooped to Al Queada's level

I'm a little burned out....

...but when the dems and Terry McAuliffe are still trying to out republican the republicans, who could blame me?

Somewhere I heard the figure that 4 million Rwandians had been killed in the last ten years, and that the rebels that have been killing them, have started to march on Rwanda again...

...and even though America is letting the people in Rwanda die, it did save the Jews all those years ago, so it's still "the greatest country in the world"

Talk about riding a persons coat-tails. Roosevelt's have been good for almost 60 years.

Is Social Security Broke?

Over at Eschaton they're chatty about Social Security, and I got to thinkin'... "Those people are nuts"

Their general premise is that Social Security isn't broken, so there's no reason for junior to try to fix it, and they maybe right about Social Security's condition, but who's gonna believe 'em?

For years now, the left and the right have been playing the game of "Who should fix the ailing Social Security", and the dems have really been over playing it, 'cause they saw it as a winning issue. It wasn't, 'cause they never told you how they were gonna fix it, so the republican told you how the dems would fix it (raise taxes).

...but that's besides the point. What matters is that the general consensus was that Social Security needed fixing.

So now the big, think tank idea for the dems (and by "think tank" I mean Atrios) is that there is nothing to worry about, that Social Security is just fine.

Bullshit!

Social Security is a mess. I don't know how to fix it, but I know it's broke.


What the dems should be talking about, is how junior is going to destroy it.

10,000 is a marker for the stock market. When it goes too much over 10,000 it's inflated, and there needs to be an "adjustment". Which means a whole lotta people are about to lose their ass.

During the Clinton years, the tech companies needed to be "adjusted", because they didn't make any profit. Profit is important to the stock market. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see where Wal-Mart isn't making as much profit as they thought they were. No doubt that there stock will "adjust".

So let's say that you own stock. Today's stock market is floating around 10,000, so if your stock (in general) goes up, you should probably sell it, and let's say that junior dumps a bunch of Social Security money into the stock market, and let's say that your stock doubles in value. You'd sell it wouldn't you? And you'd make a lot of money doing so. And the poor sap who bought the stock with his Social Security money would lose his ass.

And that's called "one hell of an adjustment".

...a long time ago the stock market crashed, and people starved to death because of it. Then some dude named Franklin D. Roosevelt took a good around, and decided that there need to be a form of investment that was independent of the stock market. Something more "secure".

Today some dude named junior has decided that his friends in big business can make a whole lot more money if more people invested in the stock market, and people will starve, and people will die.

...and he doesn't care.

Let's just hope that Canada does the right thing

from the NY Times
(the only news paper to ever comment on one of my opinions)

The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo.

The team of humanitarian workers, which included experienced medical personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantánamo were participating in planning for interrogations, in what the report called "a flagrant violation of
medical ethics."


They should indict bush if for no other reason than he has set the standerd that a war crime is only a war crime if it's done by people who he deems to be "evil"

In junior's mind, if he can justify torture then it's justified.

The problem is he can fuckin justify anything...

EU Worries About China

Telegraph

China's lightning advance into the production of cars, computers and high-tech industry poses a serious threat to Europe's economic base, according to a report by the European Commission.


maybe they should try a free trade policy...

Why is it that everytime I take a look at how the rest of the world does something it screams "they're smarter than us", and by "us" I mean the U.S.

How is it that they can see that having free trade country doesn't automatically increase it's standerd of living?

...free trade with China isn't raising China's standards, it's lowering ours.

Bill O'Reilly Defends Dan Rather

Daily News

I believe Rather, along with Andy Rooney, Walter Cronkite and other guardsmen of the old CBS News, is liberal in his thinking. That is certainly a legitimate debate - how for years CBS News has taken a rather progressive outlook. But holding a political point of view is the right of every American, and it does not entitle people to practice character assassination or deny the presumption of innocence. Dan Rather was slimed. It was disgraceful.


...looks like that whole falafel thing with Andrea Mackris has humbled Bill a bit.

Should Canada Indict Bush as a War Criminal?

Common Dreams

Outside of one well-publicized (and quickly squelched) attempt in Belgium, no one has tried to formally indict Bush. But both Oxfam International and the U.S. group Human Rights Watch have warned that some of the actions undertaken by the U.S. and its allies, particularly in Iraq, may fall under the war crime rubric.

The case for the prosecution looks quite promising. First, there is the fact of the Iraq war itself. After 1945, Allied tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo — in an astonishing precedent — ruled that states no longer had the unfettered right to invade other countries and that leaders who started such conflicts could be tried for waging illegal war.

Concurrently, the new United Nations outlawed all aggressive wars except those authorized by its Security Council.

Today, a strong case could be made that Bush violated the Nuremberg principles by invading Iraq. Indeed, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has already labelled that war illegal in terms of the U.N. Charter.

Second, there is the manner in which the U.S. conducted this war.

The mistreatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison is a clear contravention of the Geneva Accord. The U.S. is also deporting selected prisoners to camps outside of Iraq (another contravention). U.S. press reports also talk of shadowy prisons in Jordan run by the CIA, where suspects are routinely tortured. And the estimated civilian death toll of 100,000 may well contravene the Geneva Accords prohibition against the use of excessive force.



...like the GOP always says:

We don't need new laws. We simply need to enforce the ones we already have.

Black Friday Disappoints Wal-Mart

FT

Worries about the sustainability of the US economic recovery were stoked on Sunday after Wal-Mart, the discount retailer that is a bellwether for the country's retail sector, announced that sales grew by only 0.7 per cent in the year to November.

The world's largest retailer had estimated growth of 2 to 4 per cent just 10 days ago. But Wal-Mart revised its estimates down on Saturday evening after disappointing sales on “Black Friday”, the day after Thanksgiving so called because it is traditionally the time retailers move into profit for the year. It is an indicator of spending for the holiday season, when a quarter of annual retail sales are rung up.

Wal-Mart said sales had fallen “below plan” in the last week of November and sales growth was down on the 2.8 per cent annual rate it had reported for October.


when the option is people spending themselves into debt... who cares?

Ukraine's Supreme Court to Decide Election

AP

Ukraine's Supreme Court debated the validity of presidential election results Monday, while an eastern province scheduled a referendum on autonomy and the opposition threatened to further paralyze the government through a blockade.


wow...

it looks like, for the first time, junior's an expert on foreign affairs.

Paralyzed Woman Cured by Stem Cells

AFP

A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years is walking again after scientists say they repaired her damaged spine using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood.

Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back in an accident two decades ago.

Last week her eyes glistened with tears as she walked again with the help of a walking frame at a press conference where South Korea researchers went public for the first time with the results of their stem-cell therapy.

They said it was the world's first published case in which a patient with spinal cord injuries had been successfully treated with stem cells from umbilical cord blood.


...all I can think about is how happy Christopher Reeve would have been hearing this news.

Haven't quoted Keith Olbermann in a while...

Bloggermann

It was a spectacular irony - a Republican senator using the word “fraud” about the presidential election. More spectacular still, he was visiting his condemnation of apparent election manipulation on the incumbent party. And beyond all that, he and others based their conclusions largely on the incredible disparity between the last exit polls and the vote count itself.  Of course, Indiana’s Richard Lugar was talking about the presidential election in the Ukraine.  But in so doing, he underscored that once again, the exit polls appear to have fulfilled the time-honored international tradition of the canary in the mine shaft.  If only we could have used them in that way here.


Ukraine state TV Rebellion

BBC News

Journalists on Ukraine's state-owned channel - which had previously given unswerving support to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych - have joined the opposition, saying they have had enough of "telling the government's lies".

Journalists on another strongly pro-government TV station have also promised an end to the bias in their reporting. The turnaround in news coverage, after years of toeing the government line, is a big setback for Mr Yanukovych.



Don't you just wish the democrats had this kind of fight in 'em?

worthless, freaking cowards can't even get CNN to take responsibility for it's failed reporting.

when Americans can look to the Ukraine, and see what real freedom looks like, you know that there is something seriously wrong with America.

...and then junior jumps right into his cold war role of an American president taunting the Russians. I'd like to know where these "foreign leaders" get the nerve to stick their noses into someone else's elections!

Hey junior, Shut Your Fuckin' Mouth! That's what freedom looks like!

...maybe he's waiting for their version of a supreme court to "pick the winner".

fucking worthless, neo-con, piece of shit... What the hell would he know about a legitimate election?!?

 Posted by Hello

...no shopping for me today.

I just like to remind the media that not eveyone is doing their Christmas shopping today.

Some people (LIKE ME!) will be job hunting today, and have no intentions of buying Christmas presents for anyone.

Why don't they take a moment to talk about the fact that there are a lot of unemployed Americans that won't be having a very "merry" Christmas this year?

World Health Organization Warns of Pandemic

Reuters

Every country in the world must come up urgently with a plan to deal with an inevitable influenza pandemic likely to be triggered by the bird flu virus that hit Asia this year, a top global health expert said on Friday.

"I believe we are closer now to a pandemic than at any time in recent years," said Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Region of the World Health Organization (WHO).

"No country will be spared once it becomes a pandemic," he told a news conference.

"History has taught us that influenza pandemics occur on a regular cycle, with one appearing every 20 to 30 years. On this basis, the next one is overdue," he said at a conference of 13 Asian health ministers trying to figure out how to avoid one.


It's nice not to haft-ta worry 'bout dat-there kinda stuff since everyone, here in the United States, gets a flu shot.

Thanks Junior!

Stolen Elections

This is what an election stolen in the US looks like...


(link) Bush Wins New Mexico by 5,988 Votes




This is what an election stolen in the Ukraine looks like...


Nationwide Strikes Planned in Ukraine

Krugman predicts "popular tidal wave against" bush economy

Reuters

...he worries the Bush administration's fiscal policies are going to push the world's largest economy into a rut.

The most immediate worry for Krugman is that Bush will simultaneously push through more tax cuts and try to privatize social security, ignoring a chorus of economic thinkers who caution against such measures.

"If you go back and you look at the sources of the blow-up of Argentine debt during the 1990s, one little-appreciated thing is that social security privatization was a important source of that expansion of debt," said Krugman.

In 2001, Argentina finally defaulted on an estimated $100 billion in debt, the largest such event in modern economic history.

[...]

The only bright spot in having Bush in power for another four years, said Krugman, is that further economic mismanagement might trigger some sort of popular outcry.

"I do believe at some point there is going to be a popular tidal wave against what has happened," concluded Krugman. "In the meantime, you keep banging on the drum, you keep telling the truth.

"And then eventually we have the great demonstrations, which I think are important to let the government know that many Americans are not happy with what is happening," he said.


Economic Armageddon

Boston Herald

Stephen Roach, the chief economist at investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, has a public reputation for being bearish.

But you should hear what he's saying in private.

Roach met select groups of fund managers downtown last week, including a group at Fidelity

His prediction: America has no better than a 10 percent chance of avoiding economic ``armageddon.''

It's times like these, when I'm glad America has such a strong leader.

Speaking of whom...

Heeeeere's Junior!



(keep it in your pants, george)

Thank God for Amy Goodman!

All from Democracy Now!

Malnutrition Rate Doubles For Iraqi Children

Washington Post reports the acute malnutrition rate among young children in Iraq has nearly doubled since the US invaded the country 20 months ago. An estimated 400,000 children now suffer from the condition known as "wasting" which is characterized by chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein. The country now has malnutrition rates higher than Uganda and Haiti.

Congress Moves To Further Restrict Access to Abortions

In news from Capitol Hill, Congress approved a massive $388 billion spending bill on Saturday. While the bill curtailed federal spending in most non-defense areas it also included provisions that may restrict the right of women to obtain abortions and the number of students who can receive college aid. The bill includes a provision that will make it easier for health care providers and insurance companies to refuse to provide abortions or offer abortion counseling. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California described the amendment as "essentially a domestic gag rule" that will restrict access to abortion counseling, referral and information. Pelosi criticized the amendment which she said will essentially allow hospitals and health care companies to ignore Roe v Wade.

100,000 College Students To Lose Federal Aid

The New York Times reports another part of the massive spending bill will result in nearly 100,000 college students losing all of their federal grants to go to school. Another million students could lose some of their federal grant funding according to statistics by the American Council on Education.

Tens Of Thousands Protest U.S. Policies Around Globe

Middle East analyst Juan Cole reports that anti-U.S., anti-war protests were carried out around the world this weekend. In Chile, 30,000 took to the streets Sunday to protest President Bush and his visit to Santiago. 5,000 Turks rallied to denounce the Fallujah attack. Thousands protested against the US war in Libya. In Gaza over 4,000 took part in protests against the israeli occupation and the occupation of Iraq. And last Wednesday saw 13,000 Greeks took to the streets to protest the US.


You won't see any of those stories on the Conservative News Network

Ozzy Osbourne Fights off Burglar

Ozzie Osbourne, 55, who fought off one of the burglar, said he acted "on instinct" to protect his wife Sharon's jewelry which he said had "enormous" sentimental value.

The former Black Sabbath front man said he had the burglar in a headlock in the early hours of Monday before the intruder jumped from a first-floor window and escaped with an accomplice.

"At the time that I had a go at the assailant... I was acting purely on instinct," Osbourne said. (link)


who knew he had it in him?

WHOA!!!

There's titties on C-Span!

....ninth anual video game report card. I had no idea about the amount of nudity in video games these days, and I play alot of video games.

I'd heard of the game "Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude", but I just thought it looked stupid. And it is stupid, but who knew it had full frontal, and sex scenes?

The new Grand Theft Auto is way over the top too...


...I can't believe they market this shit to kids.

Intelligent design being taught by idiots.

Reuters

A Pennsylvania school district on Friday defended its decision to discount Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and take a lead in teaching what critics say is a version of creationism.

Dover Area School District in south-central Pennsylvania is believed to be the first in the country to approve the teaching of a new theory called "intelligent design," according to the National Center for Science Education.



In a world where countless people starve everyday, I'd say the only "creator" around here is most likely Satan.

GOP infighting stops reform bill

AP

and a write-up in the USA Today


Duncan Hunter and James Sensenbrenner (republicans) basically told bush to go fuck himself...

I don't know anything about details they're fighting over, and neither does the press. Kinda sad really... these guys are putting their careers on the line, and no one really cares enough to ask "why?".

Well I'll be...

Did you see the cute little story about Bill Gates getting 4 Million E-Mails a Day?


Could it have just been a cover story? Distracting attention from the fact that Bill has been accused of destroying e-mails?

from Sacbee

Microsoft Corp. developed policies stressing the systematic destruction of internal e-mails and other documents crucial to lawsuits it has faced in recent years, a California software company alleges.

Burst.com, in court papers unsealed this week, also accuses Microsoft of destroying e-mails crucial to Burst's lawsuit against the software giant even after the trial judge ordered it to retain the documents.

Burst had previously claimed that Microsoft deleted e-mails it needed for evidence. But the unsealed 50-page motion, filed Oct. 29, provides new details, Burst says, of "institutional policies" by Microsoft "to make sure that incriminating documents disappeared."


ya just can't trust anything these days

Were Florida's poll tapes thrown away?

Scoop

"On the porch was a garbage bag," Bev said, "and so I looked in it and, and lo and behold, there were public record tapes."

Thrown away. Discarded. Waiting to be hauled off.

"It was technically stinking, in fact," Bev added, "because what they had done was to have thrown some of their polling tapes, which are the official records of the election, into the garbage. These were the ones signed by the poll workers. These are something we had done an official public records request for."

When the elections officials inside realized that the people outside were going through the trash, they called the police and one came out to challenge Bev.

Kathleen Wynne, a www.blackboxvoting.org investigator, was there.

"We caught the whole thing on videotape," she said. "I don't think you'll ever see anything like this - Bev Harris having a tug of war with an election worker over a bag of garbage, and he held onto it and she pulled on it, and it split right open, spilling out those poll tapes. They were throwing away our democracy, and Bev wasn't going to let them do it."



Wisconsin Deer Hunter uses assault rifle on fellow hunters

Star Tribune

At least five people were killed and three wounded in a multiple shooting in northwestern Wisconsin Sunday afternoon. After a confrontation over the use of a deer stand, a 36-year-old St. Paul man apparently chased some of the victims through a heavily wooded area, authorities said.

[...]

Zeigle said the bodies were found "a long way from each other," indicating the killer chased them down after the initial confrontation and as several hunters came to assist their colleagues.

Investigators found two bodies next to each other, with a third 50 yards away, the fourth 75 yards from the third and the final body 100 yards from the fourth, Zeigle said.

They were killed with an SKS assault-style rifle, he added



Picture link to an SKS assault rifle

GOP gets caught trying to look at your tax returns

...and then they have the balls to say they'll hold the person who tried to slip it in accountable (CNN)

...and then, when it turns out it was them, they say it was all just a misunderstanding (NY Times)


I guess they'll just have to give it a more "patriotic" name and try again.

...custom made for the right?

Matt Drudge, this morning, is linking to a story in the NY Times about a cross burning in Long Island, New York.

So why is this news? A Google search for "police cross burning" will bring up hundreds of hits. So why does this one case demand so much attention?

Because it happened in the "blue state" of New York, and the story ends with a "morals" lesson:

The wife said that although her husband remained furious about the cross-burning, she felt that discussing the incident could help to prevent a recurrence.

"My feeling is, let's talk about it, let's get it out there," she said, adding that that her anger toward those who set the blaze had subsided after a few hours, and that she had made up her mind to pray for them.

"Vengeance is the Lord's," she said. "God will repay. That's what the Bible says."


Moral, God-fearing Americans attacked by racist, liberal New Yorkers?

The story published in the New York Times?

WTF?!? Is the right having it propaganda taylor made these days?

What is a neocon?

First off the word is spelled "Neocon", and not Neo-con". That being said I will be spelling it "Neo-con" for the rest of my life, because I think it looks better. ...and that's a good enough reason for me.



So what is a Neo-con?

Well if you look up the word "neocon" you'll get wonderful definitions like:

neoconservative: a conservative who subscribes to neoconservativism

...(thanks for nothing)

If you look up "neoconservativism" you'll get:
neoconservativism - an approach to politics or theology that represents a return to a traditional point of view (in contrast to more liberal or radical schools of thought of the 1960s)

(these people are worthless)

If you continue to search, you'll get definitions that are either wrong, worthless, or based on historic events that are not relevant to todays politics. This is one of todays largest political theories, and no one seems to understand it. Or worse, no one cares.

I infact do care. So here is my definition of a Neo-con:


A Neo-con is a person who subcribes to the political theory that America should promote it's "best interest". That "best interest" consisting of, and based on the belief that, America's primary interest is to increase the profitability of American based businesses.

In part, this theory is an evolution of the belief that "a corporation has the responsibility to do everything within it's power to ensure a profit for it's shareholders". In Neoconservativism it is America's responsibility to ensure a political climate in which American businesses can be profitable.

Examples of Neoconservativism in practice include:


-NAFTA

-Free Trade With China

-War

-The Invasion of Iraq

-Arms Proliferation

-Amnesty for Illegal Aliens

-Work visa's for Mexican immigrants

-Tort reform

-Outlawing Personal Bankruptcy

-The Removal of Graduated Tax Systems

-Privatizing Social Security


Although many of the above stated examples of neoconservativism appear to fit into the conservative agenda, they are infact an abomination, and in stark contrast to more traditional conservatist views.

For Example: Traditional conservativism dictates a "hands-off" approach with regards to the internal workings of foreign governments. Neoconservativism, in practice, advocates the use of war, bribery, sanctions, and ostrization when dealing with foreign governments that are opposed to accepting a monetary system based on purist capitalism.

Traditional conservativism also dictates that America's government should only be as large as necessary, should take a "hands-off" approach to the everyday lives of it's citizens, and should be submissive to the values and beliefs of it's citizens. To the contrary, Neoconservativism advocates that the American government should promote American businesses internally, while limiting it's citizens ability to object to the practices of said businesses.

Simply put, Neoconservativism is the belief that nothing should stand in the way of an American companies ability to make a profit...


...not even America.

The Big Three

Have you ever noticed how the republicans are always pushing three big ideas or themes? They change all the time, but there are usually three. During the election it was Terrorism, Gays and Abortion. Since then the Log Cabbin republicans and the Arlen Specters of the GOP have put a stop to two of those themes (maybe).

So now the big three are Iran,
too much sex, and democrats are racist.

...and whether the news cycle favors their agenda or not, really doesn't matter. Those are the three things they want Americans to think about.

...and as far as I can tell, the democrats don't have any themes or ideas. Infact the only DNC stories I can think of at the moment are "who's going to run the DNC?", and "Why does John Kerry still have so much money in his war chest?"

The next election is just two years away, and if the democrats want to win some of those house and senate seats, they'd better start pushing some themes that the 24 hour news networks can talk about.

...otherwise, they're gonna be left out of the conversation.

...again.

Pro-Lifers still promoting Abortions

Washington Times

Republican lawmakers plan to reintroduce a bill to suspend the sale of RU-486, the abortion pill, and probe the process surrounding its approval now that three U.S. deaths have been linked to the drug.

The measure would ban the drug temporarily [and send abortion numbers skyrocketing] while the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, conducts a six-month independent review of the approval process the agency used to declare RU-486 "safe and effective" in 2000

[...]

To date, 360,000 American women have used RU-486 and the FDA has received about 600 complaints about "adverse events" associated with the drug, Dr. Galson said.


Blue States Forgiven!!

The world responds to Sorry Everybody


...with Apologies Accepted

Jim Carrey talks about his spirituality

from Drudge

yes folks, conservatives are rallying behind a man who once made a living bent over, pulling on his ass-cheeks, while pretending to speak from his buttocks.

Whoa...

AP

One-third of President Bush's top 2000 fund-raisers or their spouses were appointed to positions in his first administration, from ambassadorships in Europe to seats on policy-setting boards, an Associated Press review
found.

The perks for 246 "pioneers" who raised at least $100,000 also included overnight stays at the White House and Camp David, parties at the White House and Bush's Texas ranch, state dinners with world leaders and overseas travel with U.S. delegations to the Olympics and other events, the review found.


looks like junior's been doing a lot more than just renting out the Lincoln Bedroom

Oh the shame....





via Over/Spun via The Onion

Cocain's a hell of a drug!

It looks like Rush may have fallen off the wagon...

Just listen to him spout off about this cartoon. He may need to get some therapy

On the left, a very thin and gawky, long-nosed George W. Bush holding on his left hand a parrot, a parrot that is drawn to look like Condoleezza Rice.

The exaggerations that are included here to illustrate Condoleezza Rice are just grotesque. Her hair, her lips, two buck teeth, her eyes, her nose and mouth are one unit, and they are about three inches long compared to the rest of her face, and Bush, as president, says to her, "How woodums wike to be secwetawy of state?" [sic] and the parrot that is a grotesque parody of Condoleezza Rice -- and it is racist and it is bigoted like nothing I have seen in I can't tell you how long. The parrot as Condoleezza Rice says, "Awwrk!! Ok, Chief! Anything you say, Chief! You bet, Chief! You're my hero, Chief!"



So let me get this right... Ridiculing junior's gap tooth, hand-picked yes woman, whose piss poor management skills may have been the cause of the U.S.'s inability to prevent the 9/11 attacks is racist?

She's a butt ugly, Arafat look-a-like because God made her that way, Rush.

...it's got nothing to do with her color.

Powell says...

MSNBC

The United States has intelligence that Iran is working to adapt missiles to deliver a nuclear weapon, further evidence that the Islamic republic is determined to acquire a nuclear bomb, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Wednesday.


...the last time we believed what this idiot said, we ended up in a war over nothing.

I kinda love this woman

Canada.com

Renegade Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish has once again enraged members of the opposition and her own caucus after tossing a George W. Bush doll on the floor and grinding it under her heel on a satirical television show.

Incensed Conservative MPs demanded that Ms. Parrish -- who last year referred to Americans as "bastards" and more recently likened the U.S. war effort in Iraq to "a coalition of the idiots" -- be banished from the Liberal caucus for her anti-American outburst.


I love free speech...

Nice...

I was surfing around at Shake it up Baby, and I came across this video.


it really sums up the neo-con agenda.

800 Billion

from Drudge

Congressional GOP Seeks $800 Billion Debt Ceiling Increase
Wed Nov 17 2004 10:06:02 ET

Republicans want a larger, $800 billion increase in the politically sensitive federal debt limit to ensure the Treasury has sufficient borrowing authority to finance continued high budget deficits through this fiscal year, the WALL STREET JOURNAL reports.

House and Senate Republicans had calculated that they needed an increase of $690 billion to cover funding needs, but party leaders now have chosen to seek the higher figure intended to carry the Treasury until the next fiscal year begins in October 2005.

The increase would be the third in as many years and bring the debt limit to $8.184 trillion -- 37% higher than the ceiling that President Bush inherited in 2001." The Senate is "expected to take up the bill today in anticipation of a final vote tomorrow night.


House GOP change rules to shield DeLay

CNN

House Republicans approved a party rules change Wednesday that could allow Majority leader Tom DeLay to retain his leadership post if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury on state political corruption charges.

By a voice vote, and with a handful of lawmakers voicing opposition, the House Republican Conference decided that a party committee of several dozen members would review any felony indictment of a party leader and recommend at that time whether the leader should step aside.

[...]

Three of DeLay's political associates already have been indicted by that Texas grand jury.


Why am I not surprised?

Democrats Only!

Tapped

Nick Confessore asks the question:
Why doesn't the Democratic Party offer health insurance to its members directly?


That's a really, really good question.

So...

AP

How does the Whitehouse respond to starting a new cold war?

"The fact that we do have a good relationship, enables us to speak very directly to our Russian friends."


Well, isn't that just peachy...

Could you ask them to "direct" those new nukes towards Texas?

Action Alert Issued by FAIR

FAIR

feel free to read it yourself...

I agree with them, but the article sounds like nit-pickin' to me.

How far is junior willing to go to stop people from talking about his failings?

WaPo

The Department of Homeland Security is requiring thousands of employees and contractors to sign nondisclosure agreements that prohibit them from sharing sensitive but unclassified information with the public


...maybe he should issue a gag order to them thar internets

Ya gotta wonder

if Condi is such a prodigy...

then why is she so bad at her job?

Pro-lifers continue to promote abortions

USA Today


Reports of three deaths and 600 cases of problems such as excessive bleeding and infections in women who took RU-486, the so-called abortion pill, have led to new, stronger warnings on its label, a Food and Drug Administration official said Tuesday.

"We don't have information to indicate that the drug caused the event," Steven Galson, acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said at a news conference.


Galson noted that such complications also can occur in women who have had surgical abortions or given birth.


Critics had accused Galson of bowing to political pressure earlier this year when he went against an FDA advisory committee's recommendation and refused to make emergency contraception - which prevents pregnancy after unprotected sex - available over the counter. Galson, who had defended that decision, said the move to strengthen warnings on the abortion pill also was science-based.


"There was absolutely no political pressure on this," he said.



filthy liar

2 more CIA officials quit amid infighting

All I know is... If I was constantly being blamed for juniors failings, I'd quit too

Boeing's bitch quits

Chicago Tribune

Air Force Secretary James Roche, once a key proponent of Boeing Co.'s efforts to win a controversial $23.5 billion contract for refueling tanker aircraft, announced Tuesday that he was resigning.

Roche's announcement came one day after Boeing's former chief financial officer, Michael Sears, pleaded guilty to charges that he helped hire an Air Force official who had assisted in brokering the tanker contract. Under the contract, which has since been scuttled, Boeing would have leased to the Air Force 100 of 767 aircraft converted to fly as aerial tankers. Critics said the cost of the deal was inflated to benefit Boeing.


im surprised junior didn't give him a job in his cabinet

Kmart Buying Sears

Reuters

Discount retailer Kmart Holding Corp. will buy department store operator Sears, Roebuck & Co. in a surprise $11 billion deal that creates the third-largest U.S. retailer, the companies said on Wednesday.


...didn't see that commin'

We're having a Recount!!

TruthOut

On Thursday, David Cobb, the Green Party’s 2004 presidential candidate, announced his intention to seek a recount of the vote in Ohio. Since the required fee for a statewide recount is $113,600, the only question was whether that money could be raised in time to meet the filing deadline. That question has been answered.

“Thanks to the thousands of people who have contributed to this effort, we can say with certainty that there will be a recount in Ohio,” said Blair Bobier, Media Director for the Cobb-LaMarche campaign.

“The grassroots support for the recount has been astounding. The donations have come in fast and furiously, with the vast majority in the $10-$50 range, allowing us to meet our goal for the first phase of the recount effort in only four days,” said Bobier.

[...]

A demand for a recount in Ohio can only be filed by a presidential candidate who was either a certified write-in candidate or on the ballot in that state. Both Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik will be demanding a recount. No other candidate has stated an intention to seek a recount and no other citizen or organization would have legal standing to do so in Ohio. The Cobb-LaMarche campaign is still exploring the possibility of seeking recounts in other states but no decision has been made yet.


It's a bipartisan effort too!

Racial Draft

WD: "The white delegation chooses... Colin Powell!"

Anouncer: "He's not white... He's not even a little bit white"


(Whiteness Under Review)


BD: "The black delegation accepts the white delegation's choice of Colin Powell, but only if they also accept Condoleeza Rice."

WD: "You got yourself a goddamn deal"



(Given Away by Blacks)





if you didn't get it (click here)

War Criminals

Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - Top United Nations human rights official Louise Arbour called on Tuesday for investigation of alleged abuses in Falluja, Iraq, including disproportionate use of force and the targeting of civilians.

Those responsible for any violations -- U.S. and multinational forces, Iraqi government troops or insurgents -- should be brought to justice, the former U.N. war crimes prosecutor said in a statement.


I wonder if Junior will become the first American President convicted as a War Criminal.

...it's no wonder that his administration continuously portrays the U.N. as the enemy.
CNN, BBC

From CNN:
The U.S. military is investigating whether a Marine shot dead an unarmed, wounded insurgent during the battle for Falluja in an incident captured on videotape by a pool reporter.

The man was shot in the head at close range Saturday by a Marine who found him among a group of wounded men. The wounded men were found in a mosque that Marines said had been the source of small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire the previous day.



10 days ago, I was pointing out that U.S. soldiers had executed a 16 year old boy

so...

...if a U.S. Soldier steps forward, and testifies these and other crimes committed during Junior's War, will the Swift Boat Veterans make a comeback, and smear him too?

More soldiers refusing to fight Junior's War

NY Times

The Army has encountered resistance from more than 2,000 former soldiers it has ordered back to military work, complicating its efforts to fill gaps in the regular troops.

Many of these former soldiers - some of whom say they have not trained, held a gun, worn a uniform or even gone for a jog in years - object to being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan now, after they thought they were through with life on active duty.

They are seeking exemptions, filing court cases or simply failing to report for duty, moves that will be watched closely by approximately 110,000 other members of the Individual Ready Reserve, a corps of soldiers who are no longer on active duty but still are eligible for call-up.

In the last few months, the Army has sent notices to more than 4,000 former soldiers informing them that they must return to active duty, but more than 1,800 of them have already requested exemptions or delays, many of which are still being considered.

And, of about 2,500 who were due to arrive on military bases for refresher training by Nov. 7, 733 had not shown up.



Junior's War....

it sounds like the name of a made for TV movie...

...but then again Iraq is a made for TV war, so there ya go

Postings of a Drunken Blogger Pt: 2

Day 2 in the job search... Not good!


Drink 'em, if ya got 'em!

A picture is worth a thousand words






stolen from Conspiracy Penpal

The latest from Democracy Now

Fallujah Devastated: Witnesses Describe Humanitarian Crisis and Civilian Death Toll

The Iraqi city of Fallujah is devastated after a week of intense fighting that has left at least 1200 Iraqis dead. Witnesses describe bloated and decomposing bodies in the streets, smashed homes, ruined mosques and severed power and telephone lines. We go to Baghdad to speak with Dahr Jamail, one of the few independent reporters in Iraq.
(read more)

White House Orders CIA Shakeup to Get Rid of "Soft Leakers and Liberal Democrats"

Reports have emerged over the weekend that the White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. We speak with former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman.
(read more) story also at Common Dreams .Org


Amy Goodman is the greatest.

.

bush's EPA might be pure evil

Organic Consumers Alt Press Online

"Buffalo, NY- Environmentalists are calling for the immediate halt to an EPA study that raises serious environmental justice and racism concerns by enticing low-income families to expose infants and toddlers to harmful pesticides.

The study entitled CHEERS (Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study) pays participants up to $970 and offers them a free camcorder, free VCR, as well as t-shirts, calendars, bibs, and a framed Certificate of Appreciation. Participants are asked to “maintain” their normal pesticide applications throughout their home for two years. The EPA will monitor developmental changes in babies, from birth to 3 years, who are exposed to pesticides in their home. The study looks at 60 children, with less than 10% representing a control group, which consists of children that have low pesticide exposure, rather than no exposure at all.


The EPA's has announcment a temporary suspension till 2005... but still...

Very imformative story on Michael Scheuer

CBS

One of the Central Intelligence Agency's foremost experts on Osama bin Laden has stepped out of the shadows and joined the public debate over past mistakes and future strategy in the war on terror.

Michael Scheuer is the senior intelligence analyst who created and advised a secret CIA unit for tracking and eliminating bin Laden since 1996. He's also been at the center of a battle between the CIA and the White House over Mideast policy and the war on terror.

What is new for Scheuer - who resigned from the intelligence agency on Friday after 22 years - is commenting by name. This summer, he authored a book, "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror," under the pen name Anonymous.

[...]

Scheuer says in May 2003, Osama bin Laden secured a fatwa - an Islamic decree - from a Saudi sheik saying he would be justified in using nuclear weapons against Americans, in retaliation for Muslims who have died.



It really is a really, really good article.

...really.

Drilling approved for Alaska oil reserve

CNN

The U.S. Interior Department on Friday gave final approval to a plan by ConocoPhillips and partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to develop five tracts around the oil-rich Alpine field on Alaska's North Slope.

[...]

The Bush administration believes the new Congress next year will approve oil drilling in the separate Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which may hold up to 16 billion barrels of crude.


I think that junior should have to drill off Florida's coastline before he lays a finger on the Wildlife Refuge.

if it's ok with Jeb, it's ok with me.

High School Band Threatening to Junior?

ABC News

Parents and students say they are outraged and offended by a proposed band name and song scheduled for a high school talent show in Boulder this evening, but members of the band, named Coalition of the Willing, said the whole thing is being blown out of proportion.

The students told ABC News affiliate KMGH-TV in Denver they are performing Bob Dylan's song "Masters of War" during the Boulder High School Talent Exposé because they are Dylan fans. They said they want to express their views and show off their musical abilities.

But some students and adults who heard the band rehearse called a radio talk show Thursday morning, saying the song the band sang ended with a call for President Bush to die.

[cue the thought police]

Threatening the president is a federal crime, so the Secret Service was called to the school to investigate.

[...]

The 1963 song ends with the lyrics:

"You might say that I'm young. You might say I'm unlearned, but there's one thing I know, though I'm younger than you, even Jesus would never forgive what you do;

And I hope that you die and your death'll come soon. I will follow your casket in the pale afternoon. And I'll watch while you're lowered down to your deathbed. And I'll stand o'er your grave 'til I'm sure that you're dead."



Jesus loves the little children...

...even if bush doesn't

I 69

Hoosier Gazette

John Hostettler, the Congressman representing the 8th district of Indiana, has been convinced by local religious groups to introduce legislation in the House that would change the name of an Interstate 69 extension to a more moral sounding number.

[...]

While most believe this highway will be good for the state’s economy, religious conservatives believe “I-69” sounds too risqué and want to change the interstate’s number.


...I wonder what his wife thinks about all of this.

Day of the drunken blogger

...can't find a job so I'm gettin' sloshed

whoo-hoo!!

Colin Powell Quits

AP

Secretary of State Colin Powell has told top aides he intends to resign from President Bush's Cabinet, high-ranking State Department officials said Monday.

Powell, who long has been rumored planning only a single term with Bush, told his aides that he intends to leave once Bush settles on whom to succeed him, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Word of Powell's imminent departure kicked off a new week of Cabinet shuffling for Bush, who is planning his second term.

"I do expect some announcements shortly regarding members of the Cabinet," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters at the White House Monday morning. "There are a few resignation. I expect four today."



Spencer Abraham quit too...

Ann Venamin is expected to quit today, but that may just be rumor at this point.

Ashcroft, and Don Evans already left...


It's getting hard to keep track.

.

Atlantis found?

CNN

An American researcher claimed Sunday to have discovered the remains of the legendary lost city of Atlantis on the bottom of the east Mediterranean Sea. But Cyprus' chief government archaeologist was skeptical.

Robert Sarmast said sonar scanning of the seabed between east Cyprus and Syria revealed man-made walls, one as long as 3 kilometers (2 miles), and trenches at a depth of 1,500 meters (1,640 yards).

"It is a miracle we found these walls as their location, and lengths match exactly the description of the acropolis of Atlantis provided by Plato in his writings," Sarmast said, referring to the ancient Greek philosopher.

[...]

"We cannot yet provide tangible proof in the form of bricks and mortar as the artifacts are still buried under several meters of sediment at a depth of 1,500 meters (1,640 yards), but the evidence is now irrefutable," he added.

Asked if the ruins could not be that of another city that sank beneath the waves, Sarmast said the remains match Plato's description of Atlantis so closely that they could not be anything else.



too cool... Here's more

GOP's Linda Schrenko Indicted

Ledger-Enquirer

A federal grand jury has indicted former state School Superintendent Linda Schrenko on charges of stealing more than $600,000 in federal education funds, which were allegedly spent on cosmetic surgery for herself and on her failed campaign for governor.

Nearly half of the money went to Schrenko's failed bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 2002, said acting U.S. Attorney Sally Yates. The indictment said about $9,300 also was spent on comestic surgery for Shrenko, but authorities declined to elaborate.


what did you expect from a creationist?

Big brother puts radio antennas on medicine bottles

NY Times

he Food and Drug Administration and several major drug makers are expected to announce initiatives today that will put tiny radio antennas on the labels of millions of medicine bottles to combat counterfeiting and fraud.

Among the medicines that will soon be tagged are Viagra, one of the most counterfeited drugs in the world, and OxyContin [Limbaugh's favorite], a pain-control narcotic that has become one of the most abused medicines in the United States. The tagged bottles - for now, only the large ones from which druggists get the pills to fill prescriptions - will start going to distributors this week, officials said.

Experts do not expect the technology to stop there. The adoption by the drug industry, they said in interviews, could be the leading edge of a change that will rid grocery stores of checkout lines, find lost luggage in airports, streamline warehousing and add a weapon in the battle against cargo theft.

[...]

"This is about securing the domestic supply," said Tom McGinnis, the F.D.A.'s chief pharmacist. [from Rush?]


...just too creepy.

I recomend smashing any antenna you come across.


Right wingers attack Keith Olbermann

from Bill Steigerwald, Pittsburgh Live


Olbermann, however, really made a Dan Rather of himself last week.

He never directly charged that Republicans stole the election or demanded that Karl Rove should be picked up for questioning by the U.N. But for 15 minutes on Monday, Olbermann pointed to a "small but blood-curdling group of reports of voting irregularities and possible fraud" from across the country, topped it with some vague partisan innuendo from Democrat Congressman John Conyers, and acted like he deserved a Peabody Award for Civic Journalism.


Bill Steigerwald is clearly a hack. He refers to "The Countdown With Keith Olbermann" as "Keith Olbermann's fake MSNBC news show", and he refers to Keith as "openly liberal" with a style that "is easy to detest".

I'd like to know why it is that when anyone in journalism tells the truth they're instantly liberal. Olbermann's reporting on the screwball results of the e-voting machines was right on the money. The results are out of whack, and the only stories we're hearing about are the "outrageous" ones. The small ones slip by, the small ones aren't noticed. That's where the real fraud can occur.

Missing the point completely, and cherry picking his facts, this idiot tentatively makes the argument that "vote fraud" isn't really fraud if it doesn't change the outcome of the election.

I like to ask him how he can be so damn sure, that no voter fraud was committed. Especially since no one has looked! I'm amazed that he can be so damn arrogant.

...must be a member of the Faith-Based Community

E-voting factoid of the day

(North Caralina is so Screwed)

Heraldtribune

The most noteworthy problem has been the permanent loss of 4,532 early ballots in coastal Carteret County. A machine used to store electronic ballots ran out of storage space and county officials mistakenly continued to try to save ballots to it.

The manufacturer, UniLect Corp. of California, erroneously told elections officials that the early voting unit's storage capacity was 10,500 votes.

Instead, only 3,005 ballots out of 7,537 were saved. State elections officials have said that the glitch could result in a new statewide election for races that end with a margin smaller than the 4,532 votes that were lost.



there is just too much filth these days

I really hate to say it, but Janet Jackson's boob is a perfect example of what's wrong with this country. I just watched "Rambling Rose" on Showtime/HBO/whatever. It's a nice, laid-back, 30's era movie... that is except for the scene where a 13 year old boy fingerbangs Laura Dern's character. Real classy.

I bought Shrek 2, which sucks by the way, talk about phoning it in... The first Shrek had something, some spark that the sequel just does not have. And the second one is just a "Meet the Parents" wannabe combined with a couple of other movies not worth remembering. Though there is one thing that the sequel has, that the first doesn't. Puss-n-boots licking his balls.... Yep, didn't see that commin'

Speakin' of commin'... did Outcast haft to include the line "just wanna make you cumma" in "Hey Ya!"? Try explaining that one to your little sister.

They ran "Saving Private Ryan" on ABC this week. Unedited.

Why? What was the reasoning behind this decision? Is it because you can't spell F.U.B.A.R. without the "fucked-up"?

Or maybe they ran it because it was the only "war movie" they could find that dealt with a war, and not the justification of one.

"Saving Private Ryan" is a good film, but it's no "Schindler's List". It's not even close. Maybe that's why they had to run it. Don't wanna look like your criticizing junior.

Or maybe they were in it for the shock ratings. Sure "Schindler's List" can touch your soul, but it doesn't use the word "fuck" nearly enough for today's audience.

Oh-well, I guess it's no worse than anything else they run in primetime these days.

I know I sound whinny, but there used to be movies and songs so beautiful that they changed your life...

Now it's like being tricked into listening to some pervert's joke... you hear the first part, and just cringe as you wait for the punchline.


Edit: After writing this bitchfest, I noticed that everything in the news today has morals involved in it in some way, so I'm bumping the post time, for this post, up an hour, so that it will be my top story/thought

p.s. kinda creepy how I sometimes wake up "on topic"

Nielsen to moniter DVR's

Slashdot

With 7 million households recording TV shows and watching them on their own schedules, the concept of primetime changes, and the audience reporting is becoming skewed. So now Nielsen is launching a special program for DVR households, which would allow advertisers and TV executives to track the popularity of TV programs. Nielsen plans to distribute paper diaries among the households that use digital video recorder.


Free Speech or filth?

Sunday Herald

America's freedom of speech is under attack. Mickey Mouse and Private Ryan had better watch out, says Ros Davidson in Los Angeles


WHAT do Tom Hanks, sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, U2's Bono, Janet Jackson's boobs and Mickey Mouse have in common? They're all targets in an attack on American popular culture, which is accelerating following George's re-election.

E-mail complaints from angry right-wing viewers are flooding federal regulators this weekend following the unedited broadcast on Remembrance Day of the film Saving Private Ryan.

In fact, one third of the local TV stations affiliated with national network ABC, owned by Disney, refused to air the critically acclaimed second world war blockbuster because it contains swear words. The Oscar-winning film about D-Day, directed by Steven Spielberg, also includes graphic, realistic violence.