He Hopes They Learned Something From It ...

This has got to be one of the most ignorant and insulting things I have ever heard of. It is bad enough that it took until 2004 for the decision to change a street name from Jap Road to something that is not blatantly racist. But Boondocks? Then to take a stand like this:

Wayne Wright, among those assigned to come up with the new name, said many residents could not pronounce "Mayumi" but could easily recall the name of the fried catfish shack, which closed about 10 years ago.

"Everyone in this area, even newcomers that haven't even been to the Boondocks, have heard of the Boondocks," he said.

John Tateishi, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, said Boondocks was not a happy choice.

"I'm very disappointed that they have chosen not to recommend a name that will reflect what they were saying all along about wanting to honor this family that lived there on that road. It's unfortunate," he said.

Wright was unapologetic.

"They (Japanese Americans) pounded on us for 11 years. I hope they learned something from it. There's no winners in this," he said.

Please tell me these people are not this friggin' back'ards!

A Sound-byte On Last Night

I was only able to catch most the DNC in re-broadcasts last night but my winner was Former President Jimmy Carter - despite all of the hoopla about Bill Clinton. He lost when I voted for him in 1980 (my very first presidential election) but, despite people labeling him as incompetent and a host of other negative things, I revere him as the President, in my lifetime, with the most integrity and decency. I heard someone call him the 'attack dog' because he was resolute in saying what key candidates probably will not say about George W. Bush and his administration. Clinton provided the glamour, showmanship and silver-tongued eloquence. Carter provided the conviction, passion and the truth!

Who the heck is this guy?

I glommed this from the philly.com. Tonight is the night the night that this so-called rising star of the democratic party gets his 15 minutes in the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention. I've heard good things about him from family and friends in my home state of Illinois. I'll be watching to judge for myself.

10 things you might want to know about tonight's star, Barack Obama
By WILLIAM BUNCH
bunchw@phillynews.com

ONE RIVAL politician from his home state of Illinois has called Barack Obama "the Tiger Woods of politics."

But that comparison is unfair - to Obama. The 42-year-old U.S. Senate front-runner and tonight's keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention is having a much, much better year than the struggling golfer.

Obama's already been the subject of a publicity avalanche that's included a 5,744 word profile in the New Yorker - not bad for a politician who's never been elected to anything higher than the Illinois state Senate.

Bidding to become just the third African-American since Reconstruction to win a Senate seat, Obama has been leading by 20 percent in the polls - and that was before his original GOP foe dropped out because of a lurid sex scandal.

Even before the balloons and confetti were swept up from his Democratic primary victory in March, the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "If he is elected in November, Obama will immediately replace Colin Powell as the person most talked about to be the first African-American elected president of the United States."

Who the heck is this guy? Here are 10 things you should know about tonight's star, Barack Obama.

1 He has a remarkable bio - one that prompted the Democrat's 2000
keynote speaker, Harold Ford Jr., to call him "an American story."

His father was a Kenyan - also named Barack Obama - who was studying economics in Hawaii and later left for Harvard and then his home country, never to return. His mother was an 18-year-old white woman from Kansas. Her second husband was an Indonesian oil manager, so Obama spent part of his youth in Jakarta.

His family struggled, but Obama went to Hawaii's top prep school, then Columbia and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African-American to edit the law review.

2 His first name means "blessing" in Swahili. On the campaign trail,
he wins voters over by joking about his unusual name and says that it rhymes with "Yo Mama" - although he steers away from its rhyme to a certain Middle Eastern terrorist.

3 He declared that Iraq didn't have ties to al Qaeda or weapons of
mass destruction - back in 2002. The same autumn that candidates John Kerry and John Edwards were voting to authorize President Bush to go to war, Obama was speaking at anti-war rallies.

"I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars," he said two years ago. But don't expect Obama to play this up tonight - not the day before Democrats nominate Kerry.

4 He can be candid about his past. In 1995, he published his
autobiography, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," and admitted that as a teenager he experimented not only with marijuana but with cocaine.

"I guess you'd have to say I wasn't a politician when I wrote the book," he told the New Yorker. "I wanted to show how and why some kids, maybe especially young black men, flirt with danger and self-destruction."

5 He's very supportive of Bill Cosby's recent controversial comments
about African-American teenagers, their parents, and black popular culture.

"I understand the basic pre-mise that Bill Cosby was talking about,
and I think he's right about it," Obama said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "There's got to be an element of individual responsibility and communal responsibility for the uplift of the people in inner-city communities."

6 When asked, he says he considers himself an African-American. "The reason that I've always been comfortable with that description is not a denial of my mother's side of the family," Obama told the New York Times. "Rather, it's just a belief that the term African-American is by definition a hybrid term. African-Americans are a hybrid people. We're mingled with African culture and Native American culture and European culture."

He added later: "If I was arrested for armed robbery and my mug shot was on the television screen, people wouldn't be debating if I was African-American or not. I'd be a black man going to jail. Now if that's true when bad things are happening, there's no reason why I shouldn't be proud of being a black man when good things are happening, too."

7 He's unapologetically liberal. After law school, Obama shunned
white-shoe law firms and worked as a community organizer in a poverty-stricken Chicago neighborhood.

As a state lawmaker, he pushed for death-penalty reforms and an end to racial profiling. He also pushed for health-care coverage for children.

8 He's not only a good candidate, but a lucky one. The man he was supposed to run against, Republican Jack Ryan, dropped out recently when unsealed divorce papers said he had dragged his wife, TV actress Jeri Lynn Ryan, to sex clubs. Possible replacement candidates, like former Chicago Bears football coach Mike Ditka, have shunned taking on Obama.

If he wins in November, Obama will become only the second black Democratic senator, after Carol Moseley Braun, also of Illinois. Massachusetts elected a black Republican, Edward Brooke, in the 1960s and '70s.

9 He's ready for prime time, but apparently not on the major broadcast networks. ABC, NBC and CBS, which used to offer wall-to-wall convention coverage, aren't televising the convention at all tonight.

When Obama takes the stage around 10 p.m., the networks will be airing shows like "The Last Comic Standing" and "Navy CIS." But you can catch the speech on the major cable news channels or C-SPAN.

10 He really could end up in the White House. Why not? He's not only
brilliant and a good public speaker but has movie-star good looks and a great story to tell. He's a bit to the political left, but some pundits already see Obama drifting to the center.

Illinois state Senate President Emil Jones recently told a youngster at an event that if his parents voted Obama into the Senate, then he would have a chance to vote for him for president someday.

Getting Beyond The Hair ...

I've got to give Al his props. He has been a real voice in this election season and says the things that 'electable' candidates wouldn't be able to get away with. I wanted to hurl when Dubya was trying to make nice with him at the Urban League Convention last week. Attendees at that conference were being polite (not accepting) of the Dubya so as not to get 'hostile' label that had been placed on the NAACP. It took a few days but I knew Al would break it on down sooner or later.

Just as the Democratic convention threatened to sink into a sleepy sea of optimism, the Rev. Al Sharpton stepped up to save the day with a smoking speech before the Black Caucus. With all of the emotion but none of the weirdness of Howard Dean's scream, Sharpton railed against George W. Bush for having the "audacity" to suggest -- as he did last week in an Urban League speech -- that African-Americans should consider the Republican Party as viable "alternative" for their votes.

"The insult there was that he acted like we have become Democrats by some unthinking process, rather than that we had been rejected and treated hostile by the Republican Party," Sharpton told an enthusiastic crowd. "They promised us 40 acres and a mule. We waited and nothing happened. The fact of the matter is, Mr. Bush, we waited around with the Republican Party through Herbert Hoover. Still didn't get the 40 acres. Didn't even get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us."
[...]

The Dubya needs to understand. Black folks have 400+ years of practice of biting their tongues in front of his ilk. Just because they were nodding, didn't mean they were agreeing.

The Not So Doublemint Twins

I'm going to try to cut the Bush twins some slack. Not many children of presidents have fared very well. With the gals campaigning for their dad this summer, I'm sure some very interesting things will be revealed about each of them.

My Militant Moment

Last week I attended the 61st Boule of my sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., in Nashville, TN. Though it was a busy week filled with plenary sessions, luncheons, banquets and shopping, I had an absolutely wonderful time.

Though there were many high points, there was one moment that garnered media attention. First Lady, Laura Bush, attended one of our afternoon sessions where we honored participants in our "young authors" program. Twenty boys and girls, from throughout the nation and abroad, are now published authors whose stories and essays appear in a book entitled The Spirit Within: Voices of Young Authors. I understand that one of her "wifely duties" as first lady is to target an issue and that literacy is hers (she needs to start at home with her verbally challenged husband). I also appreciate that the Secretary of Education, Rod Paige (who has severe diction/enunciation maladies and needs to hire a speech therapist as his 'standard English' skills are an abomination), presented us with $1.5 million for our reading program. A non-profit organization cannot sneeze at that kind of money and, with all of our hard work, it is definitely welcomed as the children are the first priority.

However, I did have some unreadiness that this woman was given the opportunity to do a shameless plug for her husband while we were literally on 'lockdown' in the ballroom by the secret service until she finished her speech. The organization is non-partisan and our political views are diverse. However, a demographic slice of our ranks would still tend to be more "non-Republican" than not. Though many were quietly opposed to the White House requesting that she be invited to our event, we were polite, gracious and welcoming. Even I, who typically has visceral responses at the very mention of her husband's name, was able to clap politely and admire her cute green suit and, I was told, pink shoes.* It means that someone had done enough research to instruct her to wear the colors that represent our organization.

In an odd twist of fate, however, the story didn't end when she left the stage - flanked by the Secret Service. A couple of hours later when the session had ended, the local press was still camped outside. One station had a reporter working the crowd getting reactions to the First Lady's appearance. With my views, that was the last thing I needed to see so I got as far away from that woman as I could. Sporting a John Kerry sticker on my cardigan (someone was there passing them out), I stood in line for the shuttle bus so that I could get back to my hotel. Unfortunately, the bus filled up and I was left to wait for the next one. Just as I sat down on the stairs to the entrance of the Opryland Convention Center, that reporter appeared out of nowhere with her cameraman ... her eyes clearly focused on my John Kerry sticker. The truth be known, I would have worn a Fred Flinstone for President sticker. Heck, I'd have even considered one for David Duke. But, I was cornered and the questions began. I tried being sarcastic by acknowledging Mrs. Bush's taste in green suits. But then she asked if I thought Laura Bush had swayed votes (she was supposed to be there to honor our efforts in literacy ... not to campaign for her husband), the truth serum kicked in and though I am not exactly sure what I said, the 10 o'clock newscast managed to show a clip of me saying, with conviction, "my vote will definitely NOT change."

Now, they say that one draws to them the things that they despise most. My dissatisfaction with The Dubya is well known by my friends and associates. How, out of 10,000 conference attendees, I could be selected to comment, AND end up on the news, is beyond me. I guess fate is no joke!

* Update: A reader told me that the shoes were camel colored ... not pink.

Not Knocking The Free Knockers

Really, now! Can't they find a better way to utilize my tax dollars? A new set of perky ones is a nice perk but it just seems that the budget would be better spent on, say ... combat gear, armor ... fatter paychecks ...

I guess, though, in an institution that is still quite chavenistic and sexist, paying for tittiesfake boobs is probably as much for the men as it is for the women.

Has It Really Come To This?

Linda Ronstadt banned for tribute to Michael Moore

The American singer Linda Ronstadt got a taste of the acrimony of this polarised election year in the US when she was escorted from a Las Vegas casino after she had dedicated a song to the filmmaker Michael Moore.
...

At the weekend Sir Elton John spoke out against what he termed the "atmosphere of fear" in the US that prevented artists speaking out against the war in Iraq.
...

"I don't know if there's been a time when the fear factor played such an important role in America since McCarthyism in the 1950s, as it does now," he added.

Yeah, I bit!

You can dress a heffa up (and put her in Vogue) but you can't take her out?


Now, if this had been Chelsea Clinton ...

Coalition Of The Leaving

So you know all of the right-winged nutcases, who'd never have their own child go to Iraq, are going to jump all over this claiming that terrorists are winning. But, hey! If you know you shouldn't have been there in the first place, it is easy to decide to cut your losses and leave! I, for one, am sick of hearing about beheadings. So for the Philippines to announce its pullout to save Iraq hostage is dandy with me! I wish more countries would relieve themselves of this SHAM of a war!

It's Gettin' Hot In Here ...

Iran police in fashion crackdown

Since February's victory, Iran's conservatives have been putting pressure on the authorities to fight what they call the erosion of Islamic values, our analyst says.

The hardliners are angry that women are progressively defying the rules by wearing shorter, tighter and brighter coats, especially during the scorching summer months.

But many observers believe that the crackdown will be counter-productive in a country with a young, educated and increasingly rebellious population, our analyst adds.

Skank-A-Dank ?

Yeah, I know it's a little early in the week to start spreading raunchy rumors but, hey, sometimes you gotta do it:

Jenna Bush: Skankity Skank Skank?

Jenna Bush was seen on Saturday night between 12:15 – 2:15 AM at Smith Point in Georgetown (where, ahem, you must be on a “guest list” to enter – puke). [Her] hair [was] cutely pulled back in a pony tail, swapping a little spit with a shaggy college looking student. Jenna kept slurping down the drinks, smoking cigarettes and stood in the corner with Shaggy for a good 10 minutes – little groping action - before sitting down at a table with her friends. Jenna was seen adding Shaggy’s number into her cell phone as well as entering a few of the surrounding ladies' numbers.

Qusan

Q	Quintesential
U	Unforgettable
S	Secretive
A	Awkward
N	New

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

Peeping Tomcat

A couple of years ago, I decided that my little ficus plant belonged on my front porch. The plant didn't seem to be thriving inside so I stuck it on the small landing outside of my front door. Soon after that, I thought the wind was doing a job on my small plant. When I watered it, I noticed all of the dirt was pushed to one side. It wasn't long afterwards when I kept finding peanut shells when I stepped out of my door. I thought I was going crazy. Had I been eating peanuts and leaving the shells on my porch?

Well, one day, I open my door to find a squirrel CHOWING DOWN on some peanuts on the banister. I look him dead in the face ... tell him to leave ... he looked at me as though I was nuts! I finally yelled at him and he climbed down a bit to hide ... I could still see his tail ... I left him alone and Mr. Squirrel continues to use my small porch plant for his stash.

I thought that was enough. But, now it seems that CATS also like my porch. I open my door one night to see a cat ... a cat I'd seen in one of the apartment windows in my complex. He runs away and I think it is over. Maybe he liked the view from my porch.

Recently, though, it seems that my porch is just the place. I live on the second floor in an apt. that faces a church parking lot. Human beings cannot see into my window (where my computer faces) from the street or even from my porch. But, cats CAN! I was at my computer, typing away, when I look up at the small window and see the cat from next door staring at me. I cannot say I am always dressed ... It's MY house! The cat jumped on the 'roof' outside of my window and ran away when I saw it but it was pretty creepy.

Oddly, a couple days later, I am in the same spot ... typing away ... it's summer so I'm hot ... not exactly dressed ... I look up and see a DIFFERENT cat ... a SIAMESE staring dead at me through the window! WTF?... Are these cats passing info around the neighborhood about a peep show? I just saw the Siamese tonight ... looking in the window again. I had on clothes! It ran when I made eye contact.

HOW WEIRD!!!

God Bless America - Redux

A little nugget from the Yahoo Message Board:

God Bless America....
Land that I love...

Stand beside her
and Guide her

till the night
we awake
from this mess

from the mountains
to the praries
to the oceans
white with foam

GOD BLESS AMERICA
SEND GEORGE BUSH HOME

GOD BLESS AMERICA
SEND GEORGE BUSH HOME

'Frugal Gourmet' Chef Jeff Smith Dies

I used to watch Jeff Smith on PBS every Saturday. I had almost all of his books. When I found out that he was a pedophile, I packed them up and called Goodwill. I later wondered if I should have thrown them out instead but decided that every one has to follow their own conscience.

George W. Bush is NOT a Chimp ... Say They!

Seems the creators of http://www.bushisnotachimp.org have a banana to pick over the constant references to President Bush as a chimp:

The heads of Monkeywire, which bills itself as the "number one source for news about monkeys and apes," have called the Bush primate references "misguided and demeaning."

Bush has been described as a "chimp," (Globe and Mail), a "grinning chimp" (In These Times), a "smirking chimp," (SmirkingChimp.com), "the Chimp in Charge," Democratic Underground, a "hairless chimp" (The Columbian) [incorrect on both counts], and a "pretzel-eating chimp" (AP) with a face that reveals "thin-lipped brow-furrowed monkey confusion" (San Francisco Chronicle). The President's actions have similarly been conveyed in simian terms: "Bush proposes to monkey with the Constitution" (Slate).

...

Bush shares with lower primates the ability to make his desires clear despite an inability to communicate in English. He also understands and reacts to negative stimuli, and makes use of simple tools. However, Bush's dental records -- which were used as evidence of the President's service in the National Guard -- clearly demonstrate that he is human.

Okay fine! So he's not really a monkey.

Blaming the Wrong George!

I cannot believe this man (George Tenet) is going to allow them to blame this on him! How many reports of Cheney's unprecedented visits to the CIA, prior to the war, do people need to understand who decided to push this faulty intelligence off as valid evidence?

The report repeatedly condemns the departing CIA director, George Tenet, accusing him of skewing advice to top policy-makers with the CIA's view, and casting aside dissenting views from other intelligence agencies overseen by the state or defence departments.

It blames Mr Tenet for not personally reviewing Mr Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, which contained since-discredited references to Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium in Africa. Mr Tenet has resigned, and leaves his post on Sunday.

F' Yourself Gear

Well, isn't this special?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Your dog, your toddler, your car and your computer can now sport the same pungent phrase -- suggesting an anatomically unlikely sex act -- uttered in a moment of pique by Vice President Dick Cheney.

He's Scurred!

Yesterday they said it was a scheduling conflict. Today they say Bush will skip the NAACP convention due to hostile comments.

Funny, I thought it was because he knows he'd look like an idiot in front of masses of people whose culture breeds some of the best orators in the world. Truly! How stupid would he look following a six year-old (and you know somebody's child will be up there reciting some MLK or Malcolm X speech) whose public speaking skills are better than his?

But No Specific or Credible Information ...

Ridge: Terrorists' aim is to influence presidential vote

"They are focusing on what they perceive to have been successful attacks in Madrid as far as the impact on the electoral process there and the outcome of that election," the official said. "The reporting that we are seeing, the information that we have, is tied to the different types of democratic processes here."

I think he has it backwards. Bush's aim is to "influence the presidential vote" ... by playing mind games and utilizing scare tactics.

The Spanish Prime minister lost his seat because he sent troops to Iraq when >90% of his people were against it. Once the terrorist attack occurred, he tried to mislead the people into believing it was ETA when they have no history or means of carrying out attacks on that scale. The Spanish people were capable of using their brains and the attacks energized a segment who probably weren't going to vote before hand. So - BUZZ - you lose with the "don't let them do to us what they did to Spain" routine!

Whether there is a pending attack or not, Bush lied and continues to lie about the reasons for going to war, the proof behind the need to go to war and the facts about how much it would cost and how long we would be there. Clearly, the terrorists are not afraid of George Bush or his policies. Clearly, our troops are in more danger than ever and face mounting daily attacks, deaths and casualties. Terrorist cells have multiplied and expanded their efforts throughout the world.

So, trying to pre-link an attack to so-called motives to oust a blathering idiot is absurd. If anything, they'd want him to stay in office as he has alienated the bulk of the world and given their cause a greater power surge than anyone else ever could have.

So keep trying fellas! Something will stick to that fly-paper of an administration sooner or later.

Finally! My Take On Fahrenheit 9/11

I mulled it over for a few days but here's my 11-02-04 cents:

Funny

The last line of the documentary made me laugh the hardest. If for no other reason, this movie is a must see.

Needless to say, Bush was portrayed (I'm being kind) as complete idiot. By nature, he provides an endless amount of material - no matter what the setting - and if the entire movie had been clips of him, his stupid face and his wildly nonsensical remarks, I would have had a stomach ache from laughing so hard.

The footage of Michael Moore on Capitol Hill asking Congressmen if they'd sign up their children to go to Iraq and the D'OH looks on their faces were priceless.

Finding out, via John Conyers, that Congressmen don't read the bills that are placed before them … thus explaining how the Patriot Act was passed without a whimper. Moore then proceeded to read the Patriot Act over the loudspeaker of an ice cream truck as it circled the capitol.

I had to laugh at the young man from Flint, MI saying that bombed out parts of Iraq look a lot like parts of Flint (okay, that's not funny but ...).

Informative and Thought Provoking

I try to keep up with the what's going with on this so most of the 'shocking' revalations weren't really a surprise. There are others who reported on the close relationship between the Bushes and the Bin Laden family, the ties to the Taliban, the big hands of his friends and business partners (Cheney, Lay, Saudis, Carlyle Group ...) in the cookie jar. The greed is just brazen, shameless and unfathomable. I did not realize, however, that Karzai, the interim President of Afghanistan, had close ties to the "energy" arena as well and had once served as a consultant to Unocal. "Coincidentally", one of the first things he did was give the nod on a natural gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea through Afghanistan.

I also found it interesting that they actually have Marine recruiters scouring the malls (in lower/working class areas) trying to get youngsters to come down and sign up. I mean they had an angle for everything the kids would say. I've seen the recruiting centers but I had no idea they patrolled the streets!

Poignant

The interviews with a fallen soldier's mother were probably the most emotional parts of the movie. It's easy to rattle off body counts and casualty numbers but there are families for each one of the nearly 900 soldiers who've died in this war. I am glad that he took the time to show a 'personal' story ...

Violent

I could have done without the graphic details and gore of combat, beheadings and injuries but it definitely had its place. I covered my face.

Illustrated Soldiers' Views

While he did show the downside of what the madness of war can do to a soldier (i.e. the abuse and blood-thirstiness), he also featured one who clearly seemed to get it as despite the horror he realized that "you cannot kill and not lose a little piece of yourself." I hope that young man is able to resolve things in his heart and mind when he gets home.

When The Fool Killers Come ...

A whole bunch of people need to be hiding in the high grass:
Bush Wins; House Leaves Patriot Act As Is

WASHINGTON - The Republican-led House bowed to a White House veto threat Thursday and stood by the USA Patriot Act, defeating an effort to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that helps the government investigate people's reading habits.

The effort to defy Bush and bridle the law's powers lost by 210-210, with a majority needed to prevail. The amendment appeared on its way to victory as the roll call's normal 15-minute time limit expired, but GOP leaders kept the vote open for 23 more minutes as they persuaded about 10 Republicans who initially supported the provision to change their votes.

"Shame, shame, shame," Democrats chanted as the minutes passed and votes were switched. The tactic was reminiscent of last year's House passage of the Medicare overhaul measure, when GOP leaders held the vote open for an extra three hours until they got the votes they needed.

Of course I am most bothered by the part about someone investigating my reading habits! What are they going to do? Round up all the people who read books about Islam or the Middle East? Where does the line get drawn? I'm just disgusted!

If You Can't Stand The Heat ...

Walk away from the briefing like a little punk!

" ... George W. Bush walks away from a briefing with the media, refusing to answer questions after he was asked about Enron and the reported indictment of former CEO Kenneth Lay, who was a close adviser and fund-raiser for Bush and his father, earning him the presidential nickname of 'Kenny Boy.'(AFP/Paul J. Richards) "

Healthy, Happy ... And With A Head

Missing U.S. Marine Said to Be Safe in Lebanon-CNN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Lebanese-born U.S. Marine who disappeared in Iraq is safe in Lebanon, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing a source close to his family.

Wassef Ali Hassoun contacted family members in West Jordan, Utah, and in Tripoli, Lebanon, and told them he had contacted the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and asked to be picked up from an undisclosed location in Lebanon, CNN reported, citing the source. The source said Hassoun sounded healthy and happy.

CNN quoted the source as saying Hassoun's family was awaiting word from the embassy in Beirut to find out if it had custody of the marine.

Another U.S. official said the embassy had been in touch with Hassoun's family, CNN reported.

Hassoun has been absent from his unit since June 21.

Calls to Pentagon and State Department spokesman were not immediately returned.

The Quagmire Cometh

When Dubya challenged insurgents to "Bring It On" last summer, I guess he must have under estimated how literally these groups, who are becoming more organized and skilled by the day, would take it.

"Something in the last few months has got them filming the most intimate, graphic attacks -- like up-close and personal," Ware said. "It's like they are embedding combat camera units, who are there on the front line with them, knowing they are going to have propaganda value in time to come."

The other purpose for the videotapes, Ware said, is to terrorize Westerners.

"They're trying to tell the Western public: 'This is what your boys are dying for, this is what they are up against,' " he said. "They are letting us know that, 'We can kill your boys, and we are not going away.' "

Look Who's Talking!

I don't know how this buffoon can form his lips (or lack thereof) to even begin to question whether Edwards is experienced enough to be VP or anything else.

A Good Looking Man With Some Sense!

I guess "that's the ticket." Now that the choice has been made, the clips from the past are rolling. A clip from Edwards' primary bid yielded a man saying that he was a "good looking man with some sense!" Who could ask for anything more?

With Edwards, Kerry Chooses Energy Over Experience

I Beg Your Pardon

TV star pardons abusive husband

A man convicted in Saudi Arabia of beating up his wife has been freed from jail after she pardoned him. Mohammed al-Fallatta had been sentenced to six months and 300 lashes after repeatedly hitting TV presenter Rania al-Baz's head against the floor.

Er'body In Da Club Gettin' Registered

Those who brand hip-hop and rap as useless and destructive tools need to take notice and be put on notice. I thought it was a fad too but it has been 25 years and though it has morphed and broadened its scope, it has some very successful and influential leaders who understand the power of the vote:

'P. DIDDY' LAUNCHES VOTER COALITION: 'The revolution has begun.'

Kerry/Edwards 2004

I'll let someone else's diatribe do the talking on this. The monkey must go!

Been There, Said That!

Via negrophile.com I found this link to a blog whose take on the NBA draft matches the images conjured up in my head when I think of the structure and process of the annual event.

Oh My Goodness!

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ?????

The funky star promised she will be wearing nothing but a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes on stage, to raise funds for the Elton John Aids Foundation.

Say It Ain't So!

God help us if this is true!
Israeli interrogators 'in Iraq'

"I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter - he was clearly from the Middle East," she said in the interview.

"He said, 'Well, I do some of the interrogation here. I speak Arabic but I'm not an Arab; I'm from Israel.'"