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Supersonic plungers
by Angry Annie
| June 7, 2007 |
What the holy hell? Am I living in Bizarro world?
Religious leaders testify in Senate on global warming
Exactly why the bloody hell are Senators listening to "religious leaders -- Episcopal, Catholic, Jewish and evangelical Christian" -- about global warming? Do Senators also solicit testimony from bicyclists on nuclear disarmament, from hula dancers on public education?
Someone get a supersonic plunger and maybe we can suck these Senators' heads out of their asses.
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Angry Annie
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Googled a trick
by pittershawn palmer
| June 7, 2007 |
Google search for delinquent taxpayer not sufficient for government to sell property for back taxes| |
Excerpt: A Pennsylvania court has ruled that a Google search a county performed to locate someone who owed back taxes on a property was insufficient. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania said on May 31 that Northampton County, a mostly suburban area an hour's drive north of Philadelphia, should have used the phone book instead. |
I see clearly where this is going already. This is not a coincidence.
Give it time. Soon, Google will defend itself saying it is a
legitimate source of information and eventually, people will not get
off if a Google search fails. This is clearly laying the ground work
to bring Google into a position of power.
I am not fooled by this circus trick.
Couch sheeple
by Kathy Fisher
| June 7, 2007 |
The couch sheeple love those mushroom clouds!
Jericho' fans assail CBS with 25 tons of peanuts
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I like a good apocalyptic drama as much as anyone, and some of my favorite books and movies are in that genre. But I've had no interest in Jerecho. With the murderous boob in the White House, nuclear armageddon as entertainment is a little like, I don't know ... showing Without A Trace during the 'disappeared' era in Argentina.
The omnipresent vibe on commercial TV in prime time seems to be fear and murder, and I'm so weary of it. Cripes, how many murders are there every night of the week on TV, murders for your entertainment, all solved in an hour with high-tech and a wisecracking detective...
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Helen & Harry
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America's gift to the world: Enron fraud and theft on a global scale
by JR Mooneyham
| June 7, 2007 |
Product loyalty: Consumers mistake familiarity for superiority
I think this often goes for politics, too.
* * *
Most people will have to work for longer and save more| |
Excerpt: Pension reforms in rich countries mean that retirement benefits will be 15-25 percent less than would have been paid, and most people will have to work for longer and save more, the OECD said on Thursday. |
Corporations are making record profits and CEOs are getting paid as much as 500 times what their workers get. But to keep up the momentum of stealing ever more from the poor to give to the rich, the poor must work still more hours, for still less pay, and give up increasingly big chunks of their retirement funds and health insurance.
You know: Enron on a global scale.
* * *
Paris Hilton sprung from jail early
Just yesterday I was telling my nephew Paris had enough money to get out of her jail sentence. All she had to do was use it.
Bananas and vinegar
I've practically stopped reading the 'weird' news 'cause it's all weird...
I think it was at your site that someone pointed out that bananas are so
over-bred that in the US we're only eating one variety and that it
can't reproduce without humans interceding. One true blight and no more
bananas that we would recognize.
The vinegar-dish liquid is working on the fruit flies.
* * *
Cannabis hospital admissions rise| |
Excerpt: The figures include people with a chronic addiction to cannabis, people with an acute cannabis psychosis as well as those with cannabis-related schizophrenia. |
I've never heard of any of these and have worked in the field of
substance abuse. I've heard about panic attacks and paranoia while the
user is high. Many substances used daily [like caffeine or over the
counter allergy medicine] can be habituating without being debilitating.
Long-term users of marijuana have shown short-term memory problems and a
flattened affect. All the evidence I've seen indicates it is much less
harmful than alcohol or other recreational drugs. It sounds like people
with severe mental illness are self-medicating.
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Agreed. That, plus an opportunity for some more fearmongering.
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Helen & Harry
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Exactly the same as everywhere else
by Ann in the UK
| June 7, 2007 |
Which of these corporations is the most abusive, manipulative and harmful?
Coca-Cola
Exxon-Mobil
Ford
Halliburton
Kimberly-Clark
Merck
Nestlé
Wal-Mart
Other-enter your choice below
Other?
Tough field, huh? Or maybe you find it easy. (Halliburton must be high on most peoples list by now -- I hope). Well, now you can have your say.
Corporate Accountability International are the group who first raised awareness about the unscrupulous and unethical the activities of Nestle in the 1970s (dang! I just told you all who I voted for now!) and, they're taking votes on which corporation is the worst. Tough choice, I know. But you can vote for up to 3 (phew!)
I' just wondering, maybe there could be a new take on the usual announcement of the 'winner'. It could go something like: "... And the losers are... the millions of victims of corporate Americaaaaa!!!!... To which there will be raucous booing and a whole load of subpoenas issued...!"
Well, one can dream.
Here's the link: Corporate Hall of Shame
* * *
Re Blockbuster sucks
It's all gone. From everywhere. We're all drones now. Watching the same
crap. Listening to the same crap. Wearing the same crap. Eating the same
crap.
An example: My husband was on a trip to Hong Kong a while back when his
luggage decided it preferred southern Italy. As he was headed for a meeting,
he had to quickly find somewhere to find a suit -- so he jumped a taxi and
asked the driver to take him somewhere he could get one. He ended up in the
local mall -- surrounded by virtually identical shops we have in our local
mall not thirty minutes away: Gap; Marks and Spencer; Harvey Nichols;
H&M..and every brand and designer name that they're full of. And if the
shops looked different on the outside, they were exactly the same as
everywhere else on the inside. Nothing new, nothing different. He bought a
suit we saw the following week in the same store just up the road. The only
good thing? He could get a full refund without travelling halfway round the
world.
This has since been our experience on travels throughout Europe, Scandinavia
and, increasingly, the Middle East. And if the small stores are there,
they're soon elbowed out, or are almost completely over shadowed by the
global behemoths. It's tragic. And no one seems to notice.
We live in a homogenized world, full of homogenized people. A corporate
dream come true.
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George Ritzer calls this phenomenon 'McDonaldization'. I call it infuriating, and sad.
As recently as my childhood, any American city you visited could be distinguished by its unique businesses. Memorable restaurants, a cigar shop downtown, the men's wear shop where your father bought a suit and it was still doing fine, a newspaper that noticeably different than the city's other newspaper, a hamburger dive where the food was a little better or worse than the competition down the street...
Now, thanks to the corporate control of all aspects of the economy, you'd have to spend a week in Cleveland to figure out what's different about that city, compared to Cincinnati or Columbus.
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Helen & Harry
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Lieberman's unreality
In Joe Lieberman's Iraq sectarian deaths are down 50% (forget 167 dead this week)
And then, there are other versions:
Thirty-four bodies also were found strewn about the capital, the latest evidence of a rising toll of sectarian killings more than three months after the beginning of the increase in American troops.
At least 167 bodies have been found in Baghdad in the first six days of June, according to an official at the Interior Ministry. ... LINK
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E13
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Thanks
by Jeff in Illinois
| June 7, 2007 |
Thank you.
I learned more at your site in one day than I did in 6 years.
The Lying Corrupt Politicians and Corporations that own our mass media Are Out of Control.
We all need to stand strong together for Truth and Justice and to continue to expose the Coup_d'état that we have all experienced that has hurt our Country since 2000.
We the People.
Thanks for all you do in documenting this very critical time in our History. Peace to all.
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Jeff in Illinois
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A hero's funeral
Re Sorry, no more individual memorial services for killed soldiers
Any American that this doesn't offend is off their rocker. Too expensive? What about this war? These men and women gave their lives for their country and not they are not even entitled to their own individual funerals? They made the ultimate sacrifice and so did they families. No wonder we have the whole world against us. I thought I had seen every dirty trick but I was most certainly wrong. This is an outrage and an insult to the families that lost so much by the deaths of these loved ones. They all should receive a hero's funeral because that is what they are HEROES. WAKE UP WASHINGTON!!!
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"Hero" seems a bit of a stretch, but every victim deserves to be remembered.
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Helen & Harry
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El Salvador option
by Siskiyousis
| June 6, 2007 |
Re The real surge: Iraq air strikes double
Right. One of the R candidates at the debate advocates a tripartite Iraq, but that idea is old and funky. It won't work because you can't get there from here without doing the other stuff, like winning the war :-) I have long advocated pulling out and letting the Iraqis kill each other if they want -- then the karma is theirs, not ours. The genocide option is of course very attractive, assuming we have enough neutron bombs to kill all Muslims in the world -- can't just genocide the Iraqis because that would piss off the rest (not to mention starting WW3...)
BUT we also know that Rumsfeld and Negroponte have been pursuing the El Salvador Option by arming and training the Death Squads in Iraq. Also, the US has shifted support from anti-Sunni to anti-Shia. So we no longer have any fans except for the Kurds and like 50 Iraqis in the Green Zone citadel.
With butt stupid politicians who appear to be Devos, the U.S. isn't going to come out of this in good shape. We folks at home can't do anything without taking to the streets by the millions, and the system is rigged to ensure that people who fight the system never get good jobs again (or travel, or get benefits, etc.) So we're all going down together. IMO.
* * *
Regardless of what Dr Edw Teller insisted before his death, neutron bombs don't work the way he insisted they would. This article is about a guy who claims that he and not Teller, invented it.
Bomb inventor says U.S. defenses suffer because of politics
Hal says it doesn't work and I can't understand his explanation, but I have never known him to be wrong on anything science.
We are all going down, if not all at the same time and together, going down all the same and by our own hands and devices.
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Siskiyousis
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You can't hide your doggone eyes
I feel so much better that Bush says Russia won't attack Europe because
he's been right so far. Right?
* * *
Look, I know that staring a dog in the eyes can create a challenge on
who is the dominant dog and so forth. But arrest someone who wants to
report an assault because they're staring at a police dog?
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Excerpt: A Vermont State Police sergeant said Hutchinson was intoxicated and stared at his police dog in a "taunting/harassing manner" last July while officers were in the process of investigating a reported melee outside a West Fairlee establishment.
"Prosecuting a woman for staring at a police dog is absurd," said Kelly Green, a public defender appointed by Vermont District Court in Orange County to represent Hutchinson. She likened the act to giving a police officer the finger - a form of expression protected by rights accorded under the First Amendment. |
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Cassandra
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Police vs people
What else does this bill include? And did the Democrats (or the Republicans who are
responsible to their constituents, for that matter....) not read the bill, who put in the
provisions, and what the hell is in doing in a bill for funding of the Iraq war???
Iraq Bill's airline pension provision questioned| |
Excerpt: The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance Committee asked two airlines Wednesday to outline the benefits they will get from a provision extending them pension relief that was put into the Iraq war spending bill at the last minute. |
What else does this bill include? And did the Democrats (or the Republicans who are responsible to their constituents, for that matter....) not read the bill, who put in the provisions, and what the hell is in doing in a bill for funding of the Iraq war???
* * *
(Watching live TV: Thousands of PEACEFUL demonstrators have stymied the German police -
which apparently never considered the possibility of anyone using IMAGINATION against it-
by simply going off the pre set demonstration route and marching toward the fence that
Angie built through the fields and the forests. The forest has rather narrow paths -
according to the TV announcer, who said that they are unable to bring their equipment
through there - which also makes it difficult for the police to get through. This has
created chaos in the transport of the delegations from the airport to the G8 venue, and
has left the Police in their mindbox scratching their heads. Helicopters are now
converging on the area, but so far (1:30 PM German time), neither these demonstrators nor
the police have shown any indications of confrontation.) The official demonstration route
ended over a mile away from the fence, which is 5 miles away from the venue.
I see now that police in full gear has reached the demonstrators, who simply sat down with
arms linked and are doing absolutely nothing to provoke the police.
Demonstrators evade police at G8 summit
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E13
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Blockbuster sucks
by Kathy Fisher
| June 6, 2007 |
I am ready to pull all my hair out! People like us we might as well be
invisible, The body snatchers got to most of them.
I went into Block Busters. The only movie rental place in a huge town of
almost 20 thousand has us over the barrel --No competition. We wanted to
see Letters from Iwo Jima. Well they had none left on Saturday Morn nor
did they have any on Sunday and tonight at 6pm Tuesday they still didn't
have any left. I finally got to talk to one of the two young men working
there and they said that they only had fifty copies. Wow! Needless to say
I was pissed off and disappointed.
What I did notice this week that had
changed in the store was that there were only two people working in
there, not a soul on the floor like there used to be helping you. and in
front of the registers as you walk up to pay they had placed (Very
strategically!) 15 rows of wired shelves full of candy and DVDs for sale
right in your face, four foot high, as so the paying customer couldn't
simply walk up to the customer area and get out fast. It was their new
form of Homeland Security at Block Busters. You can't even walk out the
way you could before because they are using these things like god damn
barriers...
Well screw them. I'm never going back there again. And the
trained seals aka customers don't even notice, they just do as they're
told. It just makes me sick. The people seemed to be like this every
where we go lately, Go with the flow don't make any ruckus, stay mellow, I
can't wait till the shit hits the fan we'll see how mellow they all are
to each other.
That day is not so far off!
And I don't want Netflix ,movies coming to me in the mail. Hell I want it
the way it used to be. I want my old town back!
I want my small stores and my real people back
Not these drones!
His impersonal touch just ain't making it with me, long gone is the day
of thank you mam, come back and shop with us again, Good to see you Mrs
Fisher, how's your daughter. Those times are gone to the four winds!
The local lumber store, gone, the local Ice cream parlor, GONE. the local
hairdresser, the local shoe repair, one left in the entire county, soon it
will be gone, because no one fixes garbage throw away shoes made in
China. The local dress maker and shoe stores, Gone. Gone like the Steel
mills in Allentown PA. The new Phallic symbol THE MALL has risen to be
the church of the Neo Shoppers, The mega company stores Home Depot, Lowes
and Wal-Mart are the new Gods with small Gs they have come to worship.
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I've never been inside a BlockBuster shop. I read years ago that they had ordered and gotten scenes edited out of The Bad Lieutenant, and that was enough for me. Fortunately, we live in a city where there's a good local video store. There are none there?
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The real surge: Iraq air strikes double
by Mr. Chuckles
| June 6, 2007 |
U.S. doubles air attacks in Iraq| |
Excerpt: BAGHDAD --Four years into the war that opened with "shock and awe," U.S. warplanes have again stepped up attacks in Iraq, dropping bombs at more than twice the rate of a year ago. ...
In the first 4 1/2 months of 2007, American aircraft dropped 237 bombs and missiles in support of ground forces in Iraq, already surpassing the 229 expended in all of 2006, according to U.S. Air Force figures obtained by The Associated Press. ...
Air Force figures show that, after the thousands of bombs and missiles used in the 2003 "shock and awe" invasion, U.S. airpower settled down to a slow bombing pace: 285 munitions dropped in 2004, 404 in 2005 and 229 in 2006, totals that don't include warplanes' often-devastating 20mm and 30mm cannon or rocket fire, or Marine Corps aircraft.
The number of Air Force and Navy "close air support" missions, which usually involve a flyover show of force or surveillance work, rather than bombing, also has grown by some 30 to 40 percent this spring, said Army Lt. Col. Bryan Cox, a ground-forces liaison at the regional air headquarters. |
WELL...I watched the first 10 minutes of tonight's Repuglican debate and it was shocking:
1) To a man they believe that starting the Iraq war was the right decision. It was a good choice they believe.
2) Mitt Romney claimed that the IAEA inspectors were not allowed into Iraq, which thus justified the war.
3) McCain and Brownback did not -- like the Demos -- read the NIE report before the war. I've got to say here that almost none of the Senators or Representatives appear to have read *the* definitive report about the situation in Iraq before they voted to authorize Bush to go to war if he chose. Just like most bills, which are not read by the Congress-critters who vote on them.
Our representatives in D.C. have grown fat and stupid, as well as corrupt, and let others do their thinking for them. Why even have elected representatives if they don't even read the laws they are voting on. We might as well have public initiatives like ex-Senator Gravel has been advocating for years! These fat, lazy, pompous asses just really need to be replaced by people who want to do the work that goes along with the office!
Foisted
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| June 6, 2007 |
Re Part cat
Makes sense. As a mass market book foisted on unsuspecting and
unsophisticated readers it can be expected to foster more depressed
apathy and thereby further the aims of our depraved rulers.
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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Connect with your own children
Ritalin use doubles after divorce, study finds| |
Excerpt: Children from broken marriages are twice as likely to be prescribed attention-deficit drugs as children whose parents stay together, a Canadian researcher said on Monday, and she said the reasons should be investigated.
More than 6 percent of 633 children from divorced families were prescribed Ritalin, compared with 3.3 percent of children whose parents stayed together, University of Alberta professor Lisa Strohschein reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The study of more than 4,700 children started in 1994, while all the families were intact, Strohschein said. They followed the children's progress to see what happened to their families and to see what drugs were prescribed.
"It shows clearly that divorce is a risk factor for kids to be prescribed Ritalin," Strohschein said.
Other studies have shown that children of single parents are more likely to get prescribed drugs such as Ritalin. But is the problem caused by being born to a never-married mother, or some other factor?
"So the question was, 'is it possible that divorce acts a stressful life event that creates adjustment problems for children, which might increase acting out behavior, leading to a prescription for Ritalin?"' Strohschein said in a statement. |
I cannot believe that he is even asking this question. Answer.... ABSOLUTELY !!! And it ain't just single or divorced parents but the whole way our society treats children. Why ??? Because most people do not know how to connect with their own children because their parents did not know how to connect with them. So what we wind up with is a bunch of drugged out messed up kids who become the next batch of christo-fascists, right and/or left wing extremists types. More GWs and Cheneys and what not. And no, I do not know how to put an end to it.
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Chris M.
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Trade lawyers for troops
I hope this isn't an old idea, but something just occurred to me that
is hard to ignore. Our president has declared "War on Terror", with
no particular nation as the target of our wrath. The military
tribunal system at Guantanamo has been forced to drop two cases
because the poor folks being "detained" were not declared to be
"unlawful enemy combatants".
If we haven't declared war on a country, what,
exactly, would constitute a _lawful_ enemy combatant? Given that
every Iraqi or Afghani kid who throws a rock at a passing tank would
be considered an unlawful enemy combatant under these circumstances,
it seems to me that we have a golden opportunity here to resolve two
of America's most pressing problems.
We should draft every attorney
in the United States and send them to Iraq, where we can establish
our military tribunal courts. Once there, they can simply order the
arrest and trial of virtually the entire country. Because detention
under American standards requires that a decent standard of living be
applied (well, at least between torture sessions), the lot of the
Iraqi people, nearly all of whom would be rapidly arrestable, would
be vastly improved, and, as an added bonus, our troops could return
home, as there would be no more free Iraqis to protect, and no more
free fighters to defend against.
We give them our lawyers, and get
our troops back in the deal. How's that bumper sticker go -- "Don't
piss us off, or we'll bring democracy to your country, too?" I'm
sure there's a way to polish this notion up and make it presentable.
Enjoy,
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Al D.
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A moment of non-levity
by Kevin Good
| June 5, 2007 |
This comment is a rare serious occasion. We live in a strange time when real
news, an attempt to influence the news or humor of the news becomes a blur.
If the story is believed it becomes the news, if the story is not
discredited it becomes the news, if the story is questioned, it is
'splandered'.
If you're still waiting for a punch line try these:
"Mormon Mitt Romney is the only Republican candidate with only one wife."
"Pissed off homeless people
are the major terrorist threats."
"Giuliani embraces his 9/11 success and divorces it four years later."
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Your opinions I always take seriously, even when cloaked (as they usually are) in humor. But your second link, oy, that's from Front Page Magazine, a hideout for the most mentally deranged of conservatives.
I gotta assume, then, that even when you're not kidding around, you're still pulling my leg? :)
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Helen & Harry
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They finally came for me
by Kathy Fisher
| June 5, 2007 |
Given the sick twisted way Bush/Cheney and their homeland insecurity thinks. I'm surprised this kind of talk isn't considered a threat to OUR SAFETY AND OUR PRECIOUS ECONOMY! Arrest that man for even thinking about such a dangerous thought!!!
And this... All those people coughing and sneezing with colds who have no choice but to go into work and infect thousands of their coworkers and fellow commuters. Aren't they terrorists too, m? Making all those people sick and unable to work hurts our economy and threatens the safety and well being of other fellow human beings! OMG!
Warning:for those of you who don't know me I'm just being sarcastic and absurd:
Head of Arkansas Republican Party: We need more 'attacks on American soil' so people appreciate Bush
* * *
So what!
First they came for someone I never heard about's job in a state far away from me and I said SO WHAT! Then they came for my neighbor's son four blocks away and I said SO WHAT he's young he'll get another job. Then they came for neighbor's job at the plant a mile away from where I work and I said SO WHAT it's not my job! Then they came for my wife's job, they call it outsourcing, and I got pretty concerned till she got a new job at Home Depot but for a lot less money. Guess what? After working 20 years at the computer chip plant I got a notice that I would be getting a pink slip, but before I go I have to train the new employee.
Wow, they finally came for me!
Part cat
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| June 5, 2007 |
Re Book unrecommendation
Curiosity has been the precursor of many experiences I had rather not
have had and undoubtedly I will continue to have such experiences,
being part cat as I am.
The book is amazingly lyrical prose, maybe if the verbs were blacked out.
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Now I've read that The Road has been named book of the month or whatever by Oprah Winfrey, which means, I suspect, a long wait before it's available again at the library.
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I LOVE George...
by Ann in the UK
| June 5, 2007 |
Monbiot!!! And I want to have his babies!
"Don't listen to what the rich world's leaders say - look at what they do"
(God, you didn't think I meant the other one, did you? Eugh!)
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Ann in the UK
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Morphing our morality
(This is the "democracy" which the US Congress falls over itself in supporting? This is
what the Jews learned from their suffering? To become THIS we have built hundreds of
memorials and expensive Holocaust museums?)
In praise of the occupation
* * *
This article appeared in die Welt am Sonntag und in the International Spiegel, which is connected to the NYT.... but the NYT apparently decided this was just more news it should suppress....
Did the Nazis steal Heiligendamm from its Jewish owner?| |
Excerpt: The Jewish Claims Conference is investigating whether the Heiligendamm resort that will be the site of this week's G-8 conference was stolen from its rightful owners during the Third Reich. ...
the Jewish Claims Conference this week is looking into whether the family of the previous owner has a right to compensation. |
Meaning, that the Claims Conference, which has managed to become the "successor organization" for all Jewish property in Germany, would then give the rightful owners a small percentage of the proceeds - as they do with other owners of property - if they are entitled to compensation. But they do NEED them to make the claim....
* * *
| | The Dick Cheney situation
Editorial, The New York Times| |
Excerpt: The Associated Press reported that Mr. Cheney’s office ordered the Secret Service last September to destroy all records of visitors to the official vice presidential mansion - right after The Washington Post sued for access to the logs. That move was made in secret, naturally. It came out only because of another lawsuit, filed by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the names of conservative religious figures who visited the vice president’s residence.
This disdain for accountability is distressing, but not surprising. Mr. Cheney has had it on display from his first days in office, when he refused to name the energy-industry executives who met with him behind closed doors to draft an energy policy.
In a similar way, Mr. Cheney seems unconcerned about little things like checks and balances and traditional American notions of judicial process. At one point, he gave himself the power to selectively declassify documents and selectively leak them to reporters. In a recent commencement address, he declaimed against prisoners who had the gall to “demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States.”
Comment: An editorial is nice and appreciated, but it will be read only by eggheads and political junkies. Nothing will be accomplished until the Times assembles these and other pertinent facts of the Cheney-Bush administration’s illegal acts, and puts the information of the frickin’ front page where it belongs.
Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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Absolutely right.... tell them.... or make sure that it gets read as widely as possible.
The fact that this Administration has not been thrown out on its corrupt ear, or that Pelosi refuses to discuss impeachment is a really frightening indication of the morphing of our morality..... Scares the hell out of me.
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E13
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Gagging the messenger
by JR Mooneyham
| June 4, 2007 |
Bush administration cuts climate checks from space| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.
A confidential report to the White House, obtained by The Associated Press, warns that U.S. scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space using a costly and problem-plagued satellite initiative begun more than a decade ago. |
Bush reduces global warming warnings at the source.
Book unrecommendation
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| June 4, 2007 |
Re A season in hell may be just the thing we need
I will check it out tonight, so to speak and maybe literally, at the library.
You mean The Road? Actually, don't, please. I read post apocalyptic fiction as part of my preparation for writing same. I don't recommend these grim books to others. The Road is grim beyond anything you ever read from King (who claims McCarthy as an inspiration). Snippet to help you decide: a freshly decapitated baby roasting on a spit hastily abandoned by those cooking it at hearing the approach of strangers. There, that ought to do it.
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Well, I had already reserved it at the library before receiving this note. And now I’m at the library, using the computer, and the book is presumably waiting at the check-out desk, so I’m still going to give it my standard two-minute flip-through and decide, but you have added a sense of dread.
Addendum later: No book was waiting for me at the front desk, and I didn't have time to check the shelves myself (bus was coming). It should be waiting for me next time I'm at the library, though.
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National security directives
by Kevin Good
| June 4, 2007 |
Presidential directives and executive orders
National Security Directives are nothing new.
What is new is the Alberto Gonzales Justice Department interpretation of his boss's Presidential directive and George W. Bush implementation of his directive.
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Kevin Good
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Hippity hoppity
Guanatanamo prisoner, charges dropped on technicality, remains imprisoned| |
Excerpt: Under the Military Commissions Act that was revised and passed by the U.S. Congress in October 2006, military commissions only have jurisdiction to try "unlawful enemy combatants." However, Khadr was classified by a military panel in 2004 as only an "enemy combatant" - which is what led the judge to dismiss the charges on Monday. |
I guess when the judge of your own kangaroo court throws out the case that's a bad sign.
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Of course, we’ve already seen that the rules of justice can be and will be rewritten. Presumably we’ll see as many rewrites to the rules as necessary, to find everyone guilty that Bush-Cheney has decided is guilty, or we’ll just see the rules rewritten to eliminate any need for rules.
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Helen & Harry
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AIDS prevention? Not really.
by Madeline Zane
| June 3, 2007 |
Anti-sex is big business now| |
Excerpt: Over the past six years George W. Bush's faith-based Administration and a conservative Republican Congress transformed the small-time abstinence-only business into a billion-dollar industry. These dangerously ineffective sexual health enterprises flourish not because they spread "family values" but because of generous helpings of the same pork-heavy gumbo Bush & Co. brought to war-blighted Iraq and Katrina-hammered New Orleans--a mix of back-scratching cronyism, hefty partisan campaign donations, high-dollar lobbyists, a revolving door for political appointees and a lack of concern for results. |
In fact, activists are saying that Bush’s recent highly-publicized increase in funds for “AIDS prevention” will do very little good because so much of the money is earmarked for pro-abstinence programs, which have repeatedly been proven to do absolutely nothing to stop the spread of the disease.
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Madeline Zane
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A season in hell may be just the thing we need
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| June 3, 2007 |
Can we avoid a hot civil war (read class war) when it becomes necessary to redistribute wealth and resources in order for the country to survive? Will we be able to avoid vengeance from the rest of the world that has lived for so long now under the US military boot? Will the madmen left in charge when the big money interests abandon ship turn to nuclear war in a last, terminally insane effort to rescue an irremediable situation? Or will catastrophic climate change just make it all moot? Stay tuned to reality and turn off your TV. ... MORE ...
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herb
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All quiet are the grateful slaves
by Kathy Fisher
| June 3, 2007 |
Their deaths mean nothing to them. Dubai their own little island in the UAE, their retirement is all they care about, is all they think about. The lavish life awaits in Dubai. While thousands of families have received and continue to receive the letter that starts out 'We regret to inform you about....
Most of my neighbors homes have no flags or yellow ribbons on them any more. Not even on Memorial Day weekend.
Ah yes but the Barbeque is going and the big game is on, the beer's on ice and the new car needs washing. The sales at the mall are very tantalizing and many will work on their tans at the near by beaches, but there's no talk of what's still going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, not even a murmur about what might be around the corner with Iran.
If you ask any one of them how many Iraqi civilians have been killed since the war began most would give you a, "Naa, why worry 'bout that, they hate us!"
All quiet are the grateful slaves, thanking the government and their corporate masters for their three day weekend. Blessed are the lemmings that sit back, do nothing and by all means never complain or question for they shall inherit the police state that awaits them. No Island in Dubai is their reward.
Meanwhile, The Decider will lay a wreath on a soldier's grave and give a half ass salute to the cameras and the suckers who still support him, but who cares that our Dictator and Thief is getting us closer to WW3 a little more each day.
Hey are those hotdogs done yet? I'm starved.
Dershowitz & friends
Israeli tanks roll into southern Gaza| |
Excerpt: Israeli tanks and troops pushed into southern Gaza today in the first such ground operation so deep into the area since a truce in November, witnesses and the military said.
Soldiers took over two buildings and military bulldozers ripped open roads during the incursion around the town of Rafah, about two kilometers inside Palestinian territory, witnesses said. |
Amazing that this is not in the news anywhere... if the Palestinians hit back, THEN it
will be news for the mainstream media...
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The world spent 10x global aid on military expenditures, 3x on bottled water in 2006...
Who is this "G8" that's meeting?| |
Excerpt: To transform the lives of the world's poorest would cost the British government less than its citizens spend each year on celebrity magazines. The US could do it for the equivalent of what its people spend on nail varnish each year, [or] the Germans with just half of what the nation spent last year on pet food. |
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Legal expert, defender of wealthy murderers, supporter of torture, plagiarist, and arrogant, self righteous and nasty prig.....
Dershowitzt vows to sue lecturers boycotting Israel| |
Excerpt: Prof [Alan] Dershowitz said he had started work on legal moves to fight any boycott. He told the Times Higher Educational Supplement that these would include using a US law - banning discrimination on the basis of nationality - against UK universities with research ties to US colleges. ...
"I will obtain legislation dealing with this issue, imposing sanctions that will devastate and bankrupt those who seek to impose bankruptcy on Israeli academics," he told the journal. |
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Utterly agreed. Alan Dershowitz, who was once a respected activist for the Bill of Rights, lost his mind and gave up on freedom after 9/11, and re-invented himself as an outspoken advocate of principles like this, an eager intolerance that boils down to an endorsement of totalitarianism.
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Helen & Harry
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Odd fellows
Odd quirks of men:
One filing cabinet held 500 years of history
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Wig
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Not enough evidence?
Re Grounds for impeachment, and arrest
Throwing out the constitution so that " The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government" is somehow not proof of treason and is not enough evidence to hold up in court?? There are far more reasons than just lying about the Iraq war to impeach Bush and Cheney both.
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Kevin S.
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Trooper Risner wasn't driving drunk
Re Trooper in fatal crash was drunk
Did you guys ever print a retraction about Trooper Risner after it was proved he was NOT DRUNK??
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No -- We had never heard that the facts were in dispute. We considered the matter 'closed' when Associated Press reported that "a blood test on trooper Joshua Risner showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.08, the level considered drunk under Ohio law."
But I was intrigued by your note, looked further on-line, and found the later developments to which you allude. According to this report in the Columbus Dispatch, at the urging of "troopers and union officials, who said the findings were disclosed prematurely and without further investigation," Mr Risner's body was re-tested, this time by the Federal Aviation Administration's "high-tech tests [which] distinguish between pre-death consumption and post-death creation of alcohol in the body." And this test found that Mr Risner wasn't drunk after all.
I'll correct our record, and offer my belated condolences to everyone involved, sincerely. I have no stake in this matter, no grudge against Mr Risner, and no problem accepting the second test as correct. It's much easier for me to believe the second test was correct, than it might have been for the family of the Lori Smith, 32, of Vinton, Ohio, who was killed in the other car.
The whole story, in my opinion, reinforces the perception of special privileges for police officers.
If Mr Risner had been in any other line of work -- a farmer, a factory worker, a pharmacist, etc. -- and he was killed in a wreck, and the coroner's lab test showed that he was driving drunk, that would have been the end of the story. There would have been no doublechecking done in an FAA lab -- he was, after all, driving a car, not flying a plane.
But when it's a trooper, his union demands and gets the test repeated by a federal agency, and the new results are, apparently, immediately accepted by police authorities.
It certainly seems fair to say: That's one remarkably effective union. |
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Helen & Harry
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Blow-out sale on Toyotas
by Kathy Fisher
| June 2, 2007 |
Re Medusa and the void between Liberation and Fascism
Contingencies for nuclear terrorist attack/Government working up plan to prevent chaos in wake of bombing of major city
How to maintain control in the wake of a false flag created chaos, while
not collapsing an already fragile economy. Like they did shortly after
911 when they reminded people to stop grieving and act like they were
beat by the EVIL terrorists and go out and see plays and shop.
Well picture this, a mushroom cloud in downtown Seattle and sale on
pre-owned Toyotas in the suburbs to get the sheeple's mind off things.
Why would this not surprise me?
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Interesting book.
A Texan looks at Lyndon -- J. Evetts Haley
A slap in the face
Re Are mass graves next?
Yeah, this is a real tribute. The dead are not even worthy any longer because they die too often. Real good work United States Armed Forces. As a Veteran and someone who served in Iraq three times and still has friends there, this is on outrage. Maybe the elitists in Washington should decide to work longer hours for the People instead of condensing the Honors deserved by those who died for this nation. A slap in the face. What are they going to do next, share the flags between the families? Ridiculous.....!
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Daniel L.
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More on Wayne Madsen
Re The epitome
Drat! That's what I get for not comin' to class without my homework!
Actually I do remember that there was a whole lot of animosity during that epiphany of Carson's retirement. I also remember that Letterman was the "favored" child, but his attitudes towards corporate executive leadership made his hair seem just a little too "red ... ."
So Leno came in and established that he would be a better prostitute and got the job nod (after proving he could do better corporate knob jobs --).
Yeah, I was pullin' your chain just a tad. Also, while I could probably get by with tickling you a little bit with a leaf of lettuce, I might even elicit a little giggle. But if I tried doin' that crap with a finger of Leno, I have no doubt you'd just shoot me dead.
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Re "Un-marginalize" yourself about Wayne Madsen
Well actually, I have a confession to make to you. I really have not paid too much attention to Wayne Madson before he had been addressed on UN, mostly for the same reasons that you so adamantly illustrated. In a way, I guess I was just tryin' to play "Devil's Advocate." While I do occasionally scan his site to see what the "low rent, seemingly progressive" side of the internet has to say, again, much for the same reasons that you revealed, I take most of his "yellow journalism" screeds with just a grain of salt.
Did you ever notice that I never really flat-out said that I believed any of his more outrageous claims? In a left-handed sort of way, I even agreed with you that what he writes has been composed with an absolute minimum of integrity.
Essentially, It was an interesting exchange of perspectives. While you did say that you "had no proof" that Madson was outright lying, the lack of evidence for his "truthiness," coupled with your own intuitions firmly established your own conviction that he just ain't trustworthy. And me -- with all my (legend in my own mind ...) propaganda talents, I could not shake that conviction. Personally, I believe that you have very good intuitions.
Anywhoo, I wanted to see if I could expand the issue with Madson, so I thought to confront him with it and see if he had anything to say. I BCC'd you 'cause I just thought you might enjoy any possible exchange. Madson has never replied.
Otherwise, I'm still just waitin' for Armageddon
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DanD
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National Animal Identification System -- A giant boondoggle
Hi folks!
It's been awhile. I just did a quick perusal of your site looking for anything about NAIS -- National Animal ID System, a really bad plan which the USDA in conjunction with Big Ag is in the process of trying to implement. It hasn't been made very public and I just learned about it. You might have something about it which I missed, tucked away somewhere, but just in case you don't...
This plan is ostensibly intended to protect us against animal disease outbreaks by making tracebacks of sick animals quick and efficient. However, it is extremely intrusive and violates privacy and property rights. The gist of it is that everyone who owns even one farm animal -- even just one chicken -- has to register their property with the federal government, (including GPS coordinates and address) tag or otherwise ID the animal with a government issued number, and then, get this, send in a report every time the animal leaves the property, is sold, when it dies, etc. Even if it just gets loose and crosses the road, you have to report this to the government! Satellite surveillance is also part of this very rotten deal.
I have a 40 + year old pet pony I've had since I was a kid. He is certainly not headed for the food chain and he is not mingling with other animals to spread disease. Under NAIS I will have to register my property with the government as a premises where livestock is kept, tag my pony, and report to the government every time he breaks the fence and gets into the neighbors' field. I would have to buy a card reader and reporting software. There is no exemption for 4H kids or religious folks like the Amish who are not supposed to use high tech. Horseback riders will have to report to the government EACH TIME they go on a trail ride off their property!! Small dairy farms will have to ID every cow. But BIG producers will only have to tag their livestock by lots -- one tag for hundreds of animals!
It sounds like a bad dream, but it's real. This has all been kept very hush hush. Only one of my neighbors so far has heard anything about it, and I live in a rural community. To get the full scoop you can look at the website nonais.org
Thanks, and if you already have posted this info, sorry for the redundancy...
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I'm a city girl, so I don't bump into these regulations often, but we've heard occasionally from the good folks at NoNAIS.org, and they're on our "good guys" page of references. They're allies, and the situation they're battling is both real and worrisome.
Pleased to send 'em a shout out, thanks.
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Helen & Harry
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In a brown paper bag with a banana
Re Shop wisely
The vinegar-dish liquid combo hasn't caught any little monsters, but washing the bananas seemed to have stopped the source. Another produce-related tidbit [which is maybe well know outside of farming country, I don't know] is if one wants to accelerate the ripening process of fruit you can put it in a brown paper bag w/ a banana. The methane speeds up the process.
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Cassandra
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Rudy, rudy, rudy
by Mr. Chuckles
| June 1, 2007 |
This is classic Taibbi, and a great retelling of the Rudy Giuliani story -- a man I do not believe can be elected in 2008, but still an interesting barometer of the political climate in post-reality Amerika:
by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
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Excerpt: Yes, Rudy Giuliani is smarter than Bush. But his political strength -- and he knows it -- comes from America's unrelenting passion for never bothering to take that extra step to figure sh*t out. ...
And let's not forget Bernie Kerik, Rudy's very own hairy-assed Sancho Panza, who was nixed as director of Homeland Security after investigators uncovered a gift he received from a construction firm with alleged mob ties that wanted to do business with Giuliani's administration. It is a testament to the monstrous breadth of Rudy's chutzpah that he used his post-9/11 celebrity to push his personal bagman for a post that milks the world's hugest security-contracts tit -- at the very moment when he himself was creating a security-services company. |
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Mr. Chuckles
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How now kowtow
Is it down to the lesser of two evils???
Why US talks with Iran won’t produce results| |
Since 1979, the real question with regard to Iran has been simple: Should the world kowtow to the Khomeinist regime or should the Khomeinist regime accept the global rules of the game? Maybe it is time to provide a clear answer. |
Should the world "kowtow" to George W. Bush? LOL!!! Does Bush accept the "global rules of the game"? Any rules?
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Wig
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A wee bit overhyped
by UselessEater
| June 1, 2007 |
Another Chernobyl could erupt soon| |
Excerpt: If concerted efforts are not made to recover two missing radiation detectors in the Himalayan ranges, another Chernobyl could erupt, poisoning two of Asia's biggest rivers, a Japanese filmmaker has warned.
Yoichi Shimatsu, a former editor of Japan Times who now runs an independent documentary-making agency, is asking all SAARC countries along with China and Unesco to mobilize search and recovery operations on the slopes of Mt Everest and another Himalayan range, the Nanda Devi, to locate two radiation detectors planted there by Western governments to spy on China's nuclear program. |
Dumb headline amazing story. One might wonder how many plutonium powered spy devices the
CIA has dumped in pristine wilderness areas all around the world.
The rebellion has to start somewhere
by Ann in the UK
| June 1, 2007 |
You've heard about this, right??
No honor for Andrew Card
There are several videos about it down the side bar. Finally, democracy is
back! It's had a long holiday. Now it's ready to kick some arse.
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We mentioned it briefly at the bottom of last week's page, but I don't think we linked to the video. I loved it. It's always nice to see someone who deserves no respect receive no respect ... but I'm not optimistic enough to see it as a sign that "democracy is back." Card walked out of that place with an honorary degree; when democracy's back he'll be marched out in handcuffs.
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Well, he has it for now -- but there is the petition to revoke it...
These guys aren't giving up easily. You can demonstrate your support to the students and faculty too. Email the organizer, Mark Gallagher, mrgallag@student.umass.edu.
The rebellion has to start somewhere, how apt that it should be in the halls of academia.
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Ann in the UK
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Are mass graves next?
Sorry, no more individual memorial services for killed soldiers| |
Excerpt: So many Fort Lewis soldiers are being killed in Iraq that the Army base will no longer hold individual memorial services. Starting next month, Fort Lewis will hold one memorial a month for all the dead soldiers.
The Fort Lewis acting commander, Brig. Gen. William Troy, told staff last week that the number of soldiers in harm's way will preclude individual services. |
WTF??? Can the military be any more insulting to these men and women and their families? What next? Are they to be dumped in mass graves because it's too expensive or inconvenient to bury them with the dignity they deserve?! They DIED individually. Alone, in their own bodies and minds. But our government cannot give them a service befitting their sacrifice? What a slap in the face to the families.
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You said it well. I needed that *fury* cuz this is *outrageous* ...
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"Un-marginalize" yourself about Wayne Madsen
I'm a WMR reader that has a problem with your "reporting style ..."
Wayne Madson;
http://www.unknownnews.org/070524-fd-23-DanD.html and then follow the various hyperlinks at the end of the page to view the entire thread.
The problem is how a significant number of America's "beltway" progressives perceive how Wayne Madson reports "breaking" news. I really do think you should pay attention to this and find a way to "un-marginalize" yourself with these people of whom (at least some) would love to endorse you ... if you only made it easy for them to do so by explaining WHY you choose the style of how they view your reporting. You may also determine that some changes should be made, and then make them.
Go to the above link and get informed.
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I don't understand. You sent me a link to our earlier conversation about Wayne Madsen...?
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