If I Could ..

So would a lot of Americans. 42% would can his behind if he were to be found to have lied about his reasons for choosing war with Iraq.

"President Bush’s televised address to the nation produced no noticeable bounce in his approval numbers, with his job approval rating slipping a point from a week ago, to 43%, in the latest Zogby International poll. And, in a sign of continuing polarization, more than two-in-five voters (42%) say they would favor impeachment proceedings if it is found the President misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq.

The Zogby America survey of 905 likely voters, conducted from June 27 through 29, 2005, has a margin of error of /-3.3 percentage points.

Just one week ago, President Bush’s job approval stood at a previous low of 44%—but it has now slipped another point to 43%, despite a speech to the nation intended to build support for the Administration and the ongoing Iraq War effort. The Zogby America survey includes calls made both before and after the President’s address, and the results show no discernible “bump” in his job approval, with voter approval of his job performance at 45% in the final day of polling."

Why do we keep needing to document his own words? Chimpeach him!

Couldn't Believe Her Ears ...

Who do you believe? Bush or an Iraqi citizen living in Baghdad? This is only a part of what she thought of the speech.

Bush said:
“We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who exploded car bombs along a busy shopping street in Baghdad, including one outside a mosque. We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who sent a suicide bomber to a teaching hospital in Mosul…”

Yes. And Bush is extremely concerned with the mosques. He might ask the occupation forces in Iraq to quit attacking mosques and detaining the worshipers inside- to stop raiding them and bombing them and using them as shelters for American snipers in places like Falluja and Samarra. And the terrorists who sent a suicide bomber to a teaching hospital in Mosul? Maybe they got their cue from the American troops who attacked the only functioning hospital in Falluja.

“We continued our efforts to help them rebuild their country. Rebuilding a country after three decades of tyranny is hard and rebuilding while a country is at war is even harder.'

Three decades of tyranny isn’t what bombed and burned buildings to the ground. It isn’t three decades of tyranny that destroyed the infrastructure with such things as “Shock and Awe” and various other tactics. Though he fails to mention it, prior to the war, we didn’t have sewage overflowing in the streets like we do now, and water cut off for days and days at a time. We certainly had more than the 8 hours of electricity daily. In several areas they aren’t even getting that much.

“They are doing that by building the institutions of a free society, a society based on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and equal justice under law.”

We’re so free, we often find ourselves prisoners of our homes, with roads cut off indefinitely and complete areas made inaccessible. We are so free to assemble that people now fear having gatherings because a large number of friends or family members may attract too much attention and provoke a raid by American or Iraqi forces.

As to Iraqi forces…There was too much to quote on the new Iraqi forces. He failed to mention that many of their members were formerly part of militias, and that many of them contributed to the looting and burning that swept over Iraq after the war and continued for weeks.

“The new Iraqi security forces are proving their courage every day.”

Indeed they are. The forte of the new Iraqi National Guard? Raids and mass detentions. They have been learning well from the coalition. They sweep into areas, kick down doors, steal money, valuables, harass the females in the household and detain the men. The Iraqi security forces are so effective that a few weeks ago, they managed to kill a high-ranking police major in Falluja when he ran a red light, shooting him in the head as his car drove away.

I really don't understand why people don't get that when we attacked Iraq, we decimated that country. We had no plan to win the peace and no plan on how to exit. We were not prepared for the riots and the looting. We were not prepared to face such heavy resistance. As long as there is violence, we can not repair the destruction we caused and as long as people are suffering from the aftermath of the destruction, there will be no end to the violence.

We aren't stuck between a rock and a hard place. We aren't stuck between the witch and the devil. We are stuck in the midst of hell with no honorable way out! Thank you, again, Mr. Bush. You got rid of their Dorito eating dictator but you also got rid of everything else.

Part Of The Progress

In other words, this stuff is getting old and the Mayor of Baghdad is fed up and ready to quit!.

"Baghdad's mayor decried the capital's crumbling infrastructure and its inability to supply enough clean water to residents, threatening Thursday to resign if the government won't provide more money.

The statement from Mayor Alaa Mahmoud al-Timimi was an indication of the daily misery that Baghdad's 6.45 million people still endure more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion. They are wracked not only by unrelenting bombings and kidnappings, but by serious shortages in water, electricity and fuel.

'It's useless for any official to stay in office without the means to accomplish his job,' al-Timimi told reporters.

Al-Timimi is seeking $1.5 billion for Baghdad in 2005 but so far has received only $85 million, said his spokesman, Ameer Ali Hasson.

Efforts to expand Baghdad's water projects were set back earlier this month when insurgents sabotaged a pipeline near Baghdad. Now, some complain the water they do get smells bad, and Hasson acknowledged in some areas, the water gets mixed with sewage.

'The problem is escalating,' said al-Timimi, a Shiite who took office in May 2004."

I take it this is the "last throes" of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis too.

Somewhere In My Lifetime ...

Wow! It's been that long? Just reading this makes me want to go home and get out her "greatest hits" CD and listen to it all night long. Like everyone, I've been sad before, down before and proabably, without knowing it, clinically depressed before. But I've never, ever felt this damn bad. With all the fake singers and raunchy music out there, I sure do miss the sound of Phyllis Hyman's voice.

"When a diva in a fire engine-red dress caressing every curve kicks off the pumps that complete her outfit, you know she’s down to earth. Her simple gesture says, "I’m going to get comfortable, and I want you to join me -- and besides, I still look cute!" For Phyllis Hyman’s fans, it was like an open invitation to curl up on a sofa with her. They knew they were in for a good time.

She’d tell some jokes, whistle the hell out of "Living All Alone," throw out a catty comment about being mistaken for Angela Bofill and maybe even eat off your plate. But mostly, she’d pour out her heart in song: reinventing “Betcha By Golly Wow” or sharing hard-to-believe stuff about how she -- a woman who made brothers drool and shudder -- still couldn’t find a man.

But many missed the message in her music and her musings. They overlooked the serious side of her self-deprecating humor. They didn’t know that she was suffering from more than just some tired toes and weary feet. Her heart really was broken. Her curves had filled out more than she’d liked. Her brand of songstress was hitting sour notes in the mixed-up music business. And this thing called life? Well, it was much too much. So 10 years ago, she left fans waiting for her at the Apollo Theater in Harlem as she moved on to another stage.

Just days shy of her 46th birthday, Phyllis Hyman lay unconscious in her bed, a note and sleeping pills not far from her side. News of Hyman’s passing on June 30, 1995, ruled “an intentional overdose,” cast a pall over the Apollo and far-flung corners of the earth."

If You've Seen One ...

I have no idea if the President-elect of Iran is the same man who was involved in the Iran hostage crisis back in 1979. I was in college and though still recognizable, don't exactly trust that classmates from college would recognize me or that they wouldn't swear on their mother's grave that another short black chick wasn't me.

"The White House said Thursday it is taking seriously the allegations by former hostages that Iran's hardline president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of their captors at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran a quarter century ago.

President Bush told foreign reporters he has 'no information, but obviously his involvement raises many questions.'

'As soon as I saw the face, it rang a lot of bells to me,' Don Sharer, who served as the embassy's naval attache at the time, told CNN.

'...Take 20 years off of him. He was there. He was there in the background, more like an adviser.'

Abbas Abdi, the man well-known to be the leader of the 1979 hostage-takers, told CNN that Ahmadinejad, the Tehran mayor, 'absolutely was not' part of the event that involved the captivity of 52 people."

Only five of the 52 captives are claiming that Ahmadinejad was one of their interrogators and, though they would have strong memories, I'm not sure I trust that these old white men can be so positive.

It reminds me of an incident from when I worked in retail about as many years ago. The store was a second job so my shift didn't start until 6pm. I was at my regular cashier booth in housewares/linens when a woman approaches me and begins with how I had waited on her that morning and told her "thus and so" regarding "such and such." I didn't know this woman from the moon so I told her, "Well, no ma'am, I didn't assist you this morning but I can help you now." She went on to inform me "Yes, you did and you told me ..." I politely told her "well, no. I only work evenings but it was probably [insert name] ..." This woman insisted on telling me that she remembered me from earlier that day. I was trying not to argue but I was getting irritated. I showed her my badge and my name and repeated the name of the morning sales clerk. She was still determined to tell me that it was me. After that, I did lose it a bit and rather curtly inform her that I was not the other person and that all black people did not look alike! She finally shut up!

All this to say that if that woman would try to argue me down over mistaking me for someone she'd just seen a few hours earlier, I'm not sure I believe that these old coots can be that positive about someone who must look quite different 26 years later. And, if it is him ... Well, I guess we are headed for some rough times with Iran. Had Bush not been such a bad ass in threatening them over this and that, perhaps the more moderate candidate would have been elected. Instead, this administration's constant rhetoric riled up the masses and thus yahoos there, like here, voted for the extremist.

Oh, Jesus Cristo!

Oh Lawd! Here we go! They smoked Jesse back out with this one.

"U.S. activists called on the Mexican government to withdraw a postage stamp depicting an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin Pident Vicente Fox.

Mexico defended the series of five stamps released Wednesday, which depicts a child character from a comic book started in the 1940s that is still published in Mexico.

But the Rev. Jesse Jackson said President Bush should pressure Mexico to withdraw the stamps from the market, saying they 'insult people around the world.'

'The impact of this is worse than what the president said,' Jackson noted, referring to Fox's May 13 comment that Mexican migrants take jobs in the United States that 'not even blacks' want. Fox later met with Jackson and expressed regret but insisted his comments had been misinterpreted.

[...]

Ruben Aguilar, a spokesman for President Vicente Fox, said the comic book has promoted understanding and family values for decades and deserved to be enshrined on a stamp.

'It seems strange to me that this celebration of Mexican culture and Mexico's post office's toast to Mexican cartoonists is misunderstood,' he said.

Aguilar said the comic book was 'not racist. It's exactly the opposite.'

'I respect the reverend Jesse Jackson's opinion, but we think that he is uninformed about the historic role of this series in Mexican culture to combat racism and promote family values,' he said."

I don't know why I am still not "incensed" over this. Perhaps it is because I don't internalize every little racial stereotype I see. If someone makes a racist or ignorant comment to me in a way that impacts my livelihood or safety, we may have to have a chat. But, since I (like others who have taken a good look at a monkey) can see that monkeys have straight hair, fair skin underneath and NO lips (unless they make those weird faces - like our President), I don't know why black folks have ever allowed that stereotype to bother them. Additionally, do we not still see those same stereotypes here? I know it wasn't too long ago that I happened upon a Tom and Jerry cartoon with "Mammy Two Shoes" as a character.

As I said before, given the racist background of the words Aunt and Uncle as they applied to blacks, why aren't we taking this up with the makers of the pancake mix and the rice. What about the Cream of Wheat man? Isn't Rastus (albeit modernized) still grinning and shining on the box?

I'm not saying that I relish the thought of 1940's cartoon characters floating around the world. But you can search E-bay for the same types of items in America and folks are eating them up. As Americans, we are free to express our opinions but we have enough of these caricatures in our own history to get rid of before worrying about those in Mexico. What's next? Boycotting The Netherlands over Black Pete come Christmas time?

Because of imperialism and colonialism, these images permeate the world. The surprise that other places in the world have the same or similar histories with regards to people of color is unfortunate. I guess, like Oprah, a whole bunch of folks are having a "Crash" moment.

Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

This chick was on CNBC's "The Big Idea" last night. Donny Deutsch wasn't all that nice to her. Personally, I just don't get it. I don't understand why you would take pride in being an adulterous groupie. Despite the fact that men can claim fame to "sleeping around" without consequence, I don't think that feminism or women's lib intended for women to seek equal "ho status." To me, along with the men, she is just nasty. But, the clip regarding Bobby Brown is hilarious!

Hip-hop and Hollywood playas are ducking for cover now that everyone's favorite fly girl is telling all. After intensive vetting by lawyers, HarperCollins has gone to press with Karrine Steffans' 'Confessions of a Video Vixen.'

Widely known as 'Superhead' (no doubt because of her large cranium), Steffans doesn't hold back when it comes to dishing about her famous lovers. The video-eye-candy-turned-author claims:

Shaquille O'Neal 'was charmingly self-effacing about his sexual prowess and wanted to reduce my expectations,' she writes. But 'compared to other men,' she assures readers, 'he was nothing to complain about.' She says that Shaq was so impressed with Steffans that, the day after meeting her, he deposited $10,000 into her bank account.
A small part in 'A Man Apart' allowed Steffans to discover that star Vin Diesel was 'a beautiful man ... blessed with an enviable eight-pack and an even more enviable [bleep].'

After hearing so much about Fred Durst's stature, she gushed, 'to actually hold him ... felt like a privilege.'

Sex with 'insatiable' producer Irv Gotti 'became more like a boxing match.' During their affair, Steffans claims, Gotti lent her to his friends as he saw fit.

After inviting her to his home at 4 a.m., Sean (P. Diddy) Combs kicked his manservant Fonzworth Bentley out of a guest bedroom so he and Steffans could spend 15 minutes making love. "You're one of the best," she says P. Diddy told her. Steffans writes: "I said the same to him, when, in actuality, he was average." Ouch.

Steffans says she got around to Whitney Houston's husband, Bobby Brown, in late 2002. Steffans says she never saw him do drugs. But she worried for his mental health during a frantic encounter where "he told me he was a member of Al Qaeda and that President Bush was looking for him."

She made Ja Rule promise to "always come back." But after he slipped out one morning before she woke up, "I looked around for something to take with me, something that would smell like him but wouldn't be missed. On the floor I found a balled-up sock, and I placed it to my face and got the fix I was searching for." Sniff.

Steffans also tells the whole story of her back-of-the-limo tryst with Usher.

None of the stars' reps we called yesterday responded by deadline. Their handlers can at least take comfort in knowing that, after years of self-destructive star-chasing, Steffans now says, "I am my own woman and look for no one to complete me."

Keep It Movin'

Except for random glances when channel surfing, I just couldn't bring myself to watch the BET Awards last night ... Maybe I'll catch a repeat later as I assume it will be re-broadcast ad naseum. But, according to Ambra at Nykola.com this is how it began.

"Said Jada Pinkett Smith of award acceptance speeches during the opening monologue of tonight's BET Awards:

'Do not thank God if you can't show or perform your work in church. Some of you just need to thank your manager and keep it movin'.'"

I assume it was totally meant as a joke - one people have been making for years in their seats and on their couches - but, ease up, thug rappers need God too - if not more than most. Heck, some unnatural force is propelling them into riches and stardom. If they thank God for the devil's work enough times maybe they'll see the light.

Nixon Unplugged

It was bad enough to hear tapes of Nixon sounding like an anti-semite and bashing scraggly Vietnam vets but this is a wee bit over the top.

"President Nixon referred privately to Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as an 'old witch' and national security adviser Henry Kissinger insulted Indians in general, according to transcripts of Oval Office tapes and newly declassified documents released Tuesday.

Nixon and Kissinger met in the Oval Office on the morning of Nov. 5, 1971, to discuss Nixon's conversation with Gandhi the day before.

'We really slobbered over the old witch,' Nixon told Kissinger, according to a transcript of their conversation released as part of a State Department compilation of significant documents involving American foreign policy.

Nixon's remark came as the two men speculated about Gandhi's motives during the White House meeting and discussed India's intentions in the looming conflict with neighboring Pakistan. The United States was allied with Pakistan and saw India as too closely allied with the Soviet Union.

'The Indians are bastards anyway,' Kissinger told the president. 'They are starting a war there.'

Kissinger also told his boss that he had bested Gandhi in their meeting.

'While she was a bitch, we got what we wanted too,' Kissinger said. 'She will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn't give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she's got to go to war.'

So It's A Little Samboesque ...

I'm not saying I am pleased to see these old relics still floating around but, as with other things folks get so steamed up about (particularly when it happens in another country known for having slaves or being colonialists), I'm not sweating this one. We need to stop pretending that these stereotypes and depictions didn't exist. Reminders that people of a lesser hue still, in fact, harbor deep attachments to the old symbols of racism should keep people ever mindful that "we ain't quite there yet."

I don't know anything about this character but it is as familiar as Sambo, unmodified versions of Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima (epiphany: if we want to get mad, ask why those names still being used in 2005), and those ever present mammy salt and pepper shakers. But, I am not taking up arms against Mexico over this.

"The Mexican government has issued a postage stamp depicting an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin Pinguin, just weeks after remarks by President Vicente Fox angered U.S. blacks.

The series of five stamps released for general use Wednesday depicts a child character from a comic book started in the 1940s that is still published in Mexico.

The boy, hapless but lovable, is drawn with exaggerated features, thick lips and wide-open eyes. His appearance, speech and mannerisms are the subject of kidding by white characters in the comic book.

Activists said the stamp was offensive, though officials denied it.

'One would hope the Mexican government would be a little more careful and avoid continually opening wounds,' said Sergio Penalosa, an activist in Mexico's small black community on the southern Pacific coast.

[...]

Carlos Caballero, assistant marketing director for the Mexican Postal Service, said the stamps are not offensive, nor were they intended to be.

'This is a traditional character that reflects part of Mexico's culture,' Caballero said. 'His mischievous nature is part of that character.'

However, Penalosa said many Mexicans still assume all blacks are foreigners, despite the fact that at one point early in the Spanish colonial era, Africans outnumbered Spanish in Mexico.

'At this point in time, it was probably pretty insensitive' to issue the stamp, said Elisa Velazquez, an anthropologist who studies Mexico's black communities for the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

'This character is a classic, but it's from another era,' Velazquez said. 'It's a stereotype and you don't want to encourage ignorance or prejudices.'

[...]

The stamps are part of a series that pays tribute to Mexican comic books. Memin Pinguin, the second in the series, was apparently chosen for this year's release because it is the 50th anniversary of the company that publishes the comic.

Publisher Manelick De la Parra told the government news agency Notimex that the character would be sort of a goodwill ambassador on Mexican letters and postcards. 'It seems nice if Memin can travel all over the world, spreading good news,' de la Parra said, calling him 'so charming, so affectionate, so wonderful, generous and friendly.'"

I won't be traveling to Mexico to buy any and doubt that I'll see any in circulation. So, I'll leave it to the Mexican people to grapple with.

Another Day, Another Helicopter

I'll just bet they haven't confirmed how many people have injured or killed from yet another helicopter going down. This one is in Afghanistan no less. On the night of the President's big speech on Iraq, violence from the Taliban is on the rise again.

"A U.S. CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, which a military official said may have been carrying 15 to 20 people, crashed Tuesday while ferrying reinforcements to fight insurgents in a mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed to have shot down the aircraft.

The fate of those on board the helicopter, which crashed near Asadabad in Kunar province, was not immediately known, the U.S. military said. A statement said the cause of the crash was unclear.

Other helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft were sent to the crash site, the military said. Other details were not available, according to U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara.

In Washington, a U.S. military official said early reports indicated 15 to 20 people were on board. There was no word on their condition, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because it involved initial operational reports.

Provincial Gov. Asadullah Wafa told The Associated Press that the Taliban downed the aircraft with a rocket. He gave no other details."

Afghanistan. The other Iraq.

Update:They still aren't confirming the deaths of any soldiers but when they do, it will be the "deadliest blow yet to American forces in Afghanistan, already grappling with an insurgency that is widening rather than winding down."

Not Naming Names But ...

In my heart of hearts, I do not believe that this administration can last until 2008 without major policy changes and major behavioral and attitudinal adjustments. NO ONE in the world is buying our rhetoric, our cause or our practices and pretty soon we will end up being held accountable in some form or fashion.

"The George W. Bush administration's policies on indefinite detention and ”extraordinary rendition” are coming under heavy fire from a number of institutions and organizations, including the United Nations, Amnesty International, and members of the U.S. Congress itself.

”The prohibition of torture is non-negotiable,” said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, held annually on Jun. 26.

Without naming the United States, he added: ”That includes an absolute ban on transferring anybody to another jurisdiction where there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person is at risk of torture.”

Currently, the U.S. administration is pursuing a policy of what it calls ”extraordinary rendition,” which involves seizing suspects and taking them to a third country without court approval.

Human rights groups have documented a number of cases in which U.S. authorities secretly transferred individuals to countries where they were held without charge and routinely tortured."

...

”Torture does not stop terror,” it said. ”Torture is terror.”

Sybil Grace

I've made a point to say that I don't care for Nancy Grace. It is a little unnerving to watch someone who seems to be perpetually unhinged. Perhaps she needs to talk to Tom Cruise about some of those "vitamins."

"Occasionally, the many friends of Nancy Grace get a glimpse of how tightly wound she is. One day, during a discussion about Jackson, a psychotherapist guest mildly remarks that 'it is possible for children to falsely accuse adults of sexual abuse.'

'What are you doing here?' Grace asks her, her face stony with betrayal. 'Why did you say that?'

Vitriol is safe, it seems, so long as Grace dispenses it or agrees with it. She doesn't object when -- during an on-air discussion about Wilbanks, who's set to make money off her experiences as the runaway bride -- one guest speculates that Wilbanks might be a sociopath, and another labels Wilbanks a 'despicable, pathetic, lousy excuse for a human being.'

In an interview at CNN offices in Washington, Grace at first drips with southern charm. She's just had her makeup done -- her hair is poufed, her eyes are bright. She offers a two-handed shake and chats amiably about her book and her cowboy boots. She twice good-naturedly exclaims, 'Oh, good Lord!' A producer brings her a Diet Coke.

'Just let me know if they find Natalee Holloway,' she tells him.

But she appears to grow impatient for no reason -- when asked, for example, about fan mail, or about her late fiance, whom she often mentions on television and in public appearances. When this happens, she turns curt and even sarcastic, answering in short sentences or single syllables. She is asked if she feels her TV shows allow her to present the nuances of legal cases.

'I don't know what you're talking about,' she says coldly. Then: 'I think the truth is black-and-white.'

She declares she has to go back into makeup. 'I'm over,' she says, and stands up.

Minutes later, you pass by a room with a big mirror and catch a glimpse of Nancy Grace, holding what appears to be a curling iron over her fluffy blond hair.

Good night, friend.

I really thought she was going to set herself on fire after Michael Jackson was acquitted. There's still hope, though. I am sure there are plenty crimes in the pipeline over which she can work herself into a frenzy.

Yada, Yada, Yada, Yada

I'll still be at work when Bush holds his lie-fest this evening. Dr. Condoleezza Rice was on the morning programs acting as a stool softener before he dumps his load this, so it is pretty apparent that we won't be hearing anything new.

His line won't change. His course (hidden as it is) won't change. He'll say to forget about the 1750 dead and 12K+ maimed and injured ... If it takes 10-12 more years to defeat the insurgency, we are up to the sacrifice so that the Iraqi people will be free ... Don't worry about the hundreds of billions we've spent and will spend ... Forget about the price of oil rising again (we'll get control of it from Iraq sooner or later) ... Don't worry about the fact that 1 billion will be cut from veterans benefits (guess the boys will have to pay for their own artificial legs, arms and eyes). He's not peeing on the country, that's rain ...

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a round of morning television interviews that Bush would tell the American people how important it was to stay the course in Iraq.

'This president has always lived by his convictions and his values, not by what he sees in the polls. He is going to go to the American people who elected him just six months ago and tell them again why it is important that we finish the job in Iraq,' she told ABC's 'Good Morning America' show.

In another interview, Rice disputed the view that progress was not being made in Iraq. 'I don't think they are unraveling. Freedom is on the march,' she told NBC's 'Today' show."

... SAME OLD STUFF!

Scared Of Hisself Sometimes!

I'm scared too ... most of the time!

"TV viewers have peeked into the lives of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, and Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. Now another celebrity couple is about to take the reality show plunge.

'Being Bobby Brown,' which features Brown and his wife, pop songstress Whitney Houston, premieres on Bravo Thursday (10 p.m. ET).

In an interview on 'Dateline NBC,' Brown said he decided to allow cameras to follow him for six months because 'it's easy for people to just have the freedom to be able to say things about me, and me not say anything. That's the easy part.

'But the hard part is to show them me, because I'm scared of being myself, sometimes.'"

Oh Poor, Poor Alfalfa

Well, it's not like Australia isn't one of the last remaining "coalition" partners so I don't know why any Aussie would be giving American students too much more flak than they give their own government but, gees, unless they are trying to kick your ass, suck it up!

AMERICAN students are quitting Queensland universities in the face of hate attacks by Australians angry at US President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

One university has launched an investigation into claims an American student returned to the US after suffering six months of abuse at a residential college in Brisbane.
American students have told The Sunday Mail the verbal attacks are unbearable and threatening to escalate into physical violence.

Griffith University student Ian Wanner, 19, from Oregon, said abusive Australian students had repeatedly called him a "sepo" – short for septic tank. "It is so disrespectful. It's not exactly the most welcoming atmosphere here," he said.

The Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission has described the abuse as "horrible" and says it could be classed as racial vilification.

The abuse problem is so prevalent that US students are being given formal briefings before leaving home on how to cope with abusive Australians.

Mr Wanner said even female Australian students were verbally abusive. He warned the problem could "escalate into a very large brawl".

"There has already been confrontations between people," he said.

A female American student from Griffith, who wished to remain unnamed, said she had met some "exceptional" people in Australia – but was leaving this month in shock over her treatment.

She said she was desperate to go home after the slurs, which also spilled over at pubs in central Brisbane.

"They basically picked on me," she said. "At first, I thought it was a joke. Then I just had it out with them and told them I came here to be treated respectfully.

"I have had a few incidents in bars. I had a guy and he heard my accent and he said: 'I hate your president. I hate your country.' "

Better yet, if someone were to yell at me that they hated my president, I'd give them a high five and a "so do I!"

Dang! We Old!

I cannot believe how fast time has flown. It seems like its just been a few years since I was driving up to Oakland every other week to a reading/signing at Marcus Books. I was in at least three book clubs and was reading the tons of black fiction being produced by a slew of black female writers. I was somewhat of a snob and basically began to swear of the "dating game" fiction which seemed to be page after page of drama filled relationships with no good men and stupid women.

My favorite authors seemed to disappear for a while. However, the women who "started it all" are a little older, more seasoned and coming up for air with new novels.

"'The black chick-lit books that I've read, it's all about 'gotta find a man' and that's it,' she said. 'These characters just spring up, they don't have a background, they don't have parents, they don't have brother and sisters and concerns.' She has used her novels (the others are 'Good Hair,' 'The Itch' and 'Acting Out') to explore issues like class divisions among blacks, buppie ennui and the juggling acts of even privileged wives and mothers. These issues are a far cry from slavery or the ghetto, which she said she was told in 1989 was what she had to write about to be published.

Ms. McMillan's blockbuster 'Waiting to Exhale' is widely considered the wakeup call to publishers that readers craved stories about the lives of black women.

During the 90's, Mr. Bass said, black women writers like Pearl Cleage, Bebe Moore Campbell, Diane McKinney-Whetstone and Tina McElroy Ansa - all of whom have new or soon-to-be released books - benefited from Ms. McMillan's high profile and staked out their own territory. Their characters, too, reflect more mature lives affected by issues like remarriage and children, career struggles and troubled family members."

(cross posted at my book blog)

Sounds Like A New Novel

I'm sure she's already heard enough snickers and I told you so's. Let's just hope she's able to translate her latest real life drama into another best seller.

"In a tale rich in lost love, closeted secrets and acrimonious divorce, it turns out that famed local writer Terry McMillan -- whose celebrated romance and subsequent marriage to a man 23 years her junior became the subject of her fictionized best-seller 'How Stella Got Her Groove Back' -- actually got her groove back with a man who now says he's gay.

The story is spilling out in made-for-Hollywood detail in Contra Costa County Superior Court, where McMillan has filed for divorce from her Jamaican- born husband of six years, Jonathan Plummer.

McMillan, 53, said in court documents that the marriage was based on a 'fraud'' because Plummer lied about his sexual orientation -- and married her only to gain U.S. citizenship.

'It was devastating to discover that a relationship I had publicized to the world as life-affirming and built on mutual love was actually based on deceit,'' she wrote in her declaration. 'I was humiliated.'

Plummer, 30, countered in court papers of his own that McMillan has turned on him with a 'homophobic'' vengeance and is trying to force his return to an uncertain future in Jamaica. He wants to void the couple's prenuptial agreement that would keep from him most of the millions she's earned as a writer.

He also claims he was denied his full share of royalties, as spelled out in the prenup, from 'How Stella Got Her Groove Back,' the fictionalized account of a single mother's torrid relationship with a Jamaican young enough to be her son that very much parallels the lives of McMillan and Plummer."

Oh Freedom Over Me

The thirst for law and order in a weary and war torn Afghanistan is the reason why the Taliban was able to take over and rule with such an iron fist. Ironically, I was just wondering what was going on in Southern Iraq and most of the attention is focused on the central and northern areas. Now I see. They've given up freedom for some semblance of order.

"Physicians have been beaten for treating female patients. Liquor salesmen have been killed. Even barbers have faced threats for giving haircuts judged too short or too fashionable.

Religion rules the streets of this once cosmopolitan city, where women no longer dare go out uncovered.

'We can't sing in public anymore,' said Hussin Nimma, a popular singer from the south. 'It's ironic. We thought that with the change of the regime, people would be more open to singing, art and poetry.'

Unmarked cars cruise the streets, carrying armed, plain-clothed enforcers of Islamic law. Who they are or answer to is unclear, but residents believe they are part of a battle for Basra's soul.

In the spring, Shiite and Sunni Muslim officials were killed in a series of assassinations here, and residents feared their city would fall prey to the kind of sectarian violence ailing the rest of the country.

Instead, conservative Shiite Islamic parties have solidified their grip, fully institutionalizing their power in a city where the Shiite majority had long been persecuted by the Sunni-dominated rule of Saddam Hussein.

Although eager to distance themselves from the militias, Shiite religious parties now control both the streets and the council chambers. And though Basra has not suffered the same level of bombings and assassinations as major cities to the north, the trade-off for law and order appears to be a crackdown on social practices and mores that were permissible under the secular, if repressive, regime of Hussein."

Yeah, we liberated them alright!

Now There's A Thought

Naturally, I cannot promote violence. But, this is certainly one way to skin a rapist.

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday.

Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benej�zar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca.

While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out 'How's your daughter?', before heading into a crowded bar.

Shortly after, the woman walked into the bar, poured a bottle of petrol over Soriano and lit a match. She watched as the flames engulfed him, before walking out.

The woman fled to Alicante, where she was arrested the same evening. When she appeared in court the next day in the town of Orihuela, she was cheered and clapped by a crowd, who shouted 'Bravo!' and 'Well done!'

Whew!

The Symbol Vs. The Freedom It Represents

My problem with the proposed ammendment to the constitution to ban the desecration of the flag is that California Senator, Diane Feinstein, is one of the sponsors. I agree that we definintely have more pressing issues.

"One would think members of Congress might have more pressing things to do -- the war in Iraq, for instance, could stand the government's undivided attention -- but the Senate is set once again to take up an amendment to the Constitution that would ban the desecration of the U.S. flag. The last time this legislation went to the Senate, it received 63 votes, four short of the 67 it needed to pass on to the states for approval. But there are more Republicans in the Senate this time around, and Orrin Hatch is gunning for a fight. "

I informed Senator Feinstein of my views and this is what she said in reply:

Thank you for writing to express your opposition to a constitutional amendment prohibiting the physical desecration of the American flag. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts with me.

Unfortunately, we will have to disagree about this issue. I srongly believe that the American flag holds a unique position in our ociety as the most important and universally recognized symbol that nites us as a nation. The flag -- as a symbol of our nationhood -- can nd should be respected and protected from attack. Beyond my personal onvictions, many Californians have told me of their desire for such rotection for our flag. Indeed, California had a flag protection statute rom 1929 until 1989, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the flag protection statutes of 47 states and the Federal government.

The authority for a nation to protect its central symbol of unity was considered constitutional for two centuries. It was only a decade ago that a narrow majority of the U.S. Supreme Court said otherwise. At this point, it seems clear that the only way to protect the American flag is to amend the Constitution to authorize Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag. In the 108th Congress I was an original cosponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 4 (S. J. Res. 4) which would have done just that. I will continue to pursue the topic in the 109th Congress.

Please know that I value your opinion, but on this issue I am afraid we will remain in disagreement. However, I greatly appreciate your input and hope that you will continue to share your views with me. If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to call my Washington, DC staff at (202) 224-3841.

Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

http://feinstein.senate.gov

Well ... whatever! I'll remember this come election time. I'm sure I can find a candidate that has more to worry about than someone burning a flag that they purchased with their own thin dimes. I am sure that, as the flag flies today, someone would be more concerned that we have a President who used the symbol of the flag and our freedom to manipulate our nation into attacking a sovereign country without provocation. I'd rather see efforts put towards exposing the lies of this administration and finding away to bring our surviving troops home in an expiditious fashion.

As a former Girl Scout who participated in many flag ceremony who knows how to raise the flag as well as how to properly fold it, I think I know, quite well, the importance of the symbol. To me it represents freedom. But the item itself is just that - an item.

Missing Saddam

Two years after the statue of Saddam came down in Baghdad, this is how the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people are being won.

"She coped with her terror of the bombs, drive-by shootings and kidnappings by deciding, at the start of this year, to venture no further than her garden gate.

But the final straw for the 42-year-old housewife from the middle-class New Baghdad district in the Iraqi capital came when a rebel attack on a water plant cut off supplies to two million people.

With the temperature above 50C, this brought Mrs Ali 'the true knowledge of despair'.

'I didn't think it could get worse - and then it did,' she said, her kitchen filled with dirty plates and the lavatories unflushed. 'The children are crying. All we want is to pour some water on our bodies.

'I now wish we could go back to Saddam's time. We suffered then, but not like the suffering nowadays. There is no water or electricity. I can't sleep because of the heat. How are we to live these lives of misery?'"

Who Would Look In The Trunk?

This is just horrible. But, I believe that the kids were playing, climbed into the trunk and got trapped. We know it doesn't take long for a car to heat up and for kids to die. I think the trunk of a car would be the last place I'd look - as was apparently the case here.

"Three boys whose bodies were found in the trunk of a car following a massive, two-day search died from accidental suffocation, not foul play, authorities said Saturday.

The bodies were discovered Friday when David Agosto lifted the trunk of a banged-up maroon Toyota Camry in the yard where the boys were last seen. There, he found the bodies of his 6-year-old son Daniel Agosto; 5-year-old Jesstin Pagan and 11-year-old Anibal Cruz.

Officials said no foul play was suspected, but it was not clear why searchers - who combed the yard next to Cruz family home - did not find the boys sooner."

A Necessary Lesson

I'm sure I've mentioned my issue with the need to have black history month or African American studies courses that are separate from regular history lessons, and invariably, only end up being presented to black students. However, statements like the ones from this gentleman prove that too many people still don't get it.

In the letter, the Northeast Philadelphia Republican called the new African American history requirement 'unnecessary' and asked the commission to reconsider its mandate. Perzel wrote that he was concerned the mandate would 'divide, rather than unite, the district's student body.'

In an interview, Perzel went on to say, 'Most of these kids will never go to Africa. They have no affinity toward Africa.'

WTH? Black/African American history classes aren't about studying Africa. Generally, they are about making sure that black kids understand that they are just more than blips - about slavery and the 60's - on the timeline of this nation's history.

'We want to make it clear that we are very much in support of the teaching of African American history in the Philadelphia School District and throughout Pennsylvania,' said Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, (D., Delaware), chairman of the Black Caucus.

To illustrate his point, Kirkland held a copy of the front page of yesterday's Inquirer, which featured stories about Perzel's letter and also about the manslaughter conviction of a man in the 1964 killings of three civil-rights workers in Philadelphia, Miss.

'This shows how important it is that African American studies are taught in our schools,' said Kirkland. 'So that things that happened 41 years ago won't repeat themselves today.'

Kirkland said the group wanted to meet with Perzel to let him know how strongly they feel about the need for African American studies.

He said Perzel agreed to the meeting, which would likely take place Monday.

Beth Williams, Perzel's spokeswoman, said that he 'respects the opinion' of the caucus and that in the letter Perzel was 'just expressing his opinion to Nevels.'

Nevels said he was in the process of drafting a response to Perzel. 'The SRC has made a determination as to curricular policy in respect of African American history and will be seeking the implementation in the upcoming school year,' he said in a statement. 'The African American history course will intersect with U.S. history within a multi-cultural framework.'

In college, I took one of the required American History classes and ended up having a white professor who decided that standard American history classes were lacking information on black Americans. During each and every lesson, he made a point to mention the part black Americans played - a far cry from the usual blips I mentioned above. I am sure it had something to do with the fact that he'd recently acquired a black nephew via marriage (some pro-ball player) and wanted to learn a few things himself. He mentioned that prior to that liaison, black folks had only been allowed at his parent's back door. However, while I was inspired that he'd interjected black countributions throughout each era in the country's history, I was sad to find out (the next semester when I took a another history course from him) that my white peers from that class were not too enthused about finding out what black people meant to the creation and development of this country. He shared that he received many comments from his student evaluations that echoed the sentiment: "I didn't take this class to learn about a bunch of niggers." (I still marvel that my worst experiences with racism were at the hands of white Catholics at a Jesuit university - but that's another story).

In any case, the fact that people still feel compelled to create sites like this this (created by white siblings with a black step-mother) and this (created by a black woman who just got tired of dumb questions) means that people still don't know enough about each other and that has got to change - hopefully sooner than later.

Which Falluja?

Just yesterday I browsed an article about forces battling the Taliban in Afghanistan ... the same Taliban that was supposedly harboring the nefarious Mr. Bin Laden ... the same Taliban what we supposedly rooted out. Now, the same city that we supposedly cleared of insurgents last November is black on the block again with more terrorists?

"Residents of Falluja, the former rebel bastion west of Baghdad, were asked by U.S. troops Friday to remain in their homes amid high tension after a suicide car bombing that killed two marines.

'Stay inside your homes, and if you have any information on terrorists go to the nearest coalition checkpoint and report it,' said a voice in Arabic over loudspeakers as U.S. patrols roamed the Sunni Arab city.

Earlier, four members of the Iraqi Islamic party were detained by U.S. troops for almost one hour for questioning before being released, one of those interrogated said.

The two marines were killed and 13 were wounded after a suicide car bomber blew himself up against their vehicle in Falluja on Thursday, the U.S. military said Friday. Four U.S. servicemen were missing after the blast.

U.S. troops are battling militants in Falluja and the wider Al Anbar Province despite a massive U.S.-led offensive against the insurgency in Falluja in November that left hundreds dead and the city in ruins."

My bad, though. The resurgence in both places must just be indications of the last throes.

American Soldiers You've Just Been Punk'd

Who needs Ashton Kutcher when you've got the Bush administration lying through his teeth, fleecing America and short-changing American veterans who are coming back from Iraq mentally scarred and in various states of dismemberment. The joke is on all people who thought he cared!

"The Bush administration, already accused by veterans groups of seeking inadequate funds for health care next year, acknowledged yesterday that it is short $1 billion for covering current needs at the Department of Veterans Affairs this year.

The disclosure of the shortfall angered Senate Republicans who have been voting down Democratic proposals to boost VA programs at significant political cost. Their votes have brought the wrath of the American Legion, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and other organizations down on the GOP.

'I was on the phone this morning with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson, letting him know that I am not pleased that this has happened,' said Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. 'I am certain that he is going to take serious steps to ensure that this type of episode is not repeated.'

The $1 billion shortfall emerged during an administration midyear budget review and was acknowledged only during lengthy questioning of Jonathan B. Perlin, VA undersecretary for health, by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) at a hearing yesterday."

Lauer Doesn't Know Jack!

What is Tom Cruise smoking?

Tom Cruise criticized NBC 'Today' show host Matt Lauer on Friday when Lauer mentioned Cruise's earlier criticism of Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants. Cruise told Lauer he didn't know what he was talking about. 'You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do,' Cruise said.

The interview became more heated when Lauer, who said he knew people who had been helped by the attention-deficit disorder drug
Ritalin, asked Cruise about the effects of the drug.

'Matt, Matt, you don't even — you're glib,' Cruise responded. 'You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That's what I've done.'

When asked if he could be with someone at this stage in his life who doesn't have an interest in the Church of Scientology — girlfriend Katie Holmes has said she's embracing the religion — Cruise told Lauer: 'Scientology is something that you don't understand. It's like you could be a Christian and be a Scientologist.

Deep, meet End!

Didn't Know Caves Had Street Addresses

Almost 4 years, and two major wars-in-process later, these liars are still claiming that they are on Osama's heels. Well, I know where the "evil-doer" is hiding. He's at 1600 Pennslyvania Avenue.

"US Vice President Dick Cheney said that he knows where Al-Qaeda terror chief Osama bin Laden is hiding out, but not his precise location.

'We've got a pretty good idea of the general area that he's in, but I -- you know, I don't have the street address,' Cheney told CNN in an interview, confirming comments by Central Intelligence Agency chief Porter Goss.

In an interview with Time Magazine published Sunday, Goss said he had an 'excellent idea of where' bin Laden is.

But he added: 'In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we're probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice.'

Goss said however that 'we are making very good progress on it,' especially in the area of human intelligence."

Bigger and Blacker

While Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove are doing their best Baghdad Bob and Great Oz impressions, the war that we aren't losing and the insurgency that is in its last throesare yieldingbigger and more damaging bombs.

"A suicide car bomber slammed into a 7-ton U.S. military vehicle in Fallujah, killing five Marines and a Navy sailor, Marine Corps sources told NBC News, adding that at least three of the dead were female Marines and that 13 others were wounded.

A review of casualty records indicates the attack is the single deadliest toll for female servicemembers in Iraq. Since the war started, 44 servicewomen have died in attacks or in accidents while in Iraq.

The vehicle, which had 19 people on board, was ferrying members of a U.S. military civil affairs team headed to perform checkpoint searches of female Iraqi civilians when it was attacked Thursday night, the sources said.

The official Marine Corps statement said at least two Marines were killed, and indicated that four more had died as well.

'Three Marines and a sailor believed to be in the vehicle are currently listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown pending a positive identification' of the bodies, the statement said."

Of Course Not!

Why can't he look in the dictionary and see what WRONG means?

"Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday defended saying the Iraqi insurgency was in its 'last throes,' a comment that sparked criticism the White House was being too optimistic about when the violence will end.

Cheney said he was not backing down from his remark. 'If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a violent period, the throes of a revolution,' Cheney said in an interview with CNN."

Philosophical Differences

From Wonkette, we see a new mantra emerging. This time the chasm between what is really going on in Iraq and what this administration would have us believe is going can be defined as "philosophical differences."

By now, every Democrat with an Iowan in their address book has called for Karl Rove to apologize his remarks at a NY Conservative party event; there, he explained why God made Bush President. Because if the Democrats had been in power, they would have "wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." This seems unduly harsh; everyone knows that Democrats would have wanted to pull out the attackers' feeding tubes and cloned their babies. In any case, at today's noon briefing, WH spokesperson Scott McClellan cleared up the motivation for Rove's statement. Despite the President's distaste for "book learning," Rove is quite the philosopher (McClellan used some variation of "philosophy" over 20 times), focusing mainly on "different" ones ("different philosophies," 15 times). Sounds high-flautin, but the talk was C-student friendly -- through it all, Rove was "simply pointing out" (four times).

Digest of briefing after the jump.

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan [WhiteHouse.gov]

Q: Will Karl Rove will apologize, and is this elevating the discourse, the way you said the President will do?

Talking about different philosophies and different approaches? That's what Karl Rove was talking about. He was talking about the different philosophies and our different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . Karl was simply pointing out the different philosophies and different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . . I think it's talking about the different philosophies for winning the war on terrorism. . . . This is simply talking about different philosophies and different approaches. . . I think that Karl was simply pointing out the different philosophies when it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . So he was talking about the different philosophy between conservatives and liberals and different philosophy for approaching the war on terrorism. . . . He was speaking to the New York Conservative Party and talking about different philosophies -- a conservative philosophy and a liberal philosophy -- when it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . Again, I just said that he was talking about the different philosophies. The President has talked about the different philosophies when it comes to winning the war on terrorism. . . . Karl was simply talking about different philosophies, and we should be talking about what we stand for and how we want to move forward. . . .The President has spoken to conservative audiences, as well, and he's talked about the different philosophies when it comes to how we govern and how we address the important priorities for the American people. [Rove] was speaking to the New York Conservative Party, and he was talking about different philosophies -- the conservative philosophy and the liberal philosophy and how we're approaching different priorities for the American people. That's all it is.

Get that folks? There are "different philosophies" and I am sure that for the next few months, we are going to hear about those "different philosophies" because it is the President's job to keep repeating things over and over ... to "catapult the propaganda."

Not Those Last Throes ...

Though it is not his intention to contradict the Vice President who claimed that the insurgency was in the "last throes", Gen. Abizaid's assessment of the situation in Iraq is that the strength of the insurgency hasn't changed much at all.

The commander of U.S. military forces in the Gulf region says the overall strength of Iraq's insurgency is unchanged from six months ago.

Flanked by Secretary Rumsfeld and other top U.S. military officers, General John Abizaid gave a sobering assessment of Iraq's insurgency in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

'In terms of foreign fighters, I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago. In terms of the overall strength of the insurgency, I would say it is about the same as it was,' he said.

Last month, Vice President Dick Cheney said he believed the insurgency was dying out - or 'in the last throes.' General Abizaid said it was not his intention to contradict Mr. Cheney, but that he stands by his assessment.

Perhaps that news wouldn't be so bad if people like Rumsfeld and Cheney weren't always on hand to, in a nutshell, tell you the exact opposite of what was so plainly stated.

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said he is sensitive to concerns about U.S. troop losses in Iraq, which stand at more than 1,700. But he insisted the sacrifices made are not in vain, and that progress is being made in Iraq.

'Any who say that we have lost this war or losing this war are wrong. We are not. The objectives of the overwhelming majority of the Iraqis and the coalition are the same. That is a peaceful and prosperous Iraq with a representative government,' he said.

Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy bluntly disagreed.

'We are now in a seemingly intractable quagmire. Our troops are dying, and there really is no end in sight,' he said.

Secretary Rumsfeld doggedly disputed the 'quagmire' characterization, saying the notion is fundamentally inconsistent with the facts in Iraq. He acknowledged that U.S. objectives for the country are not easily achieved and that much remains to be done. But he noted that dissenters and pessimists have criticized every military engagement in U.S. history, including many, like World War II, that have since been judged great successes."

This was supposed to be a brief attack to rid Iraq of WMD's (and Saddam). It really wasn't supposed to be a war. It was supposed to be a quick mission. Why, now, is it being compared to - by this administration - something as big as WWII? What the hell have they gotten us into?

Meanwhile, Back In China

I hate to say we're screwed on all fronts but Rove had better start distracting us with something because things aren't getting better.

"The chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank says he does not believe an increase in the value of the Chinese currency will lead to more manufacturing activity or jobs in the United States. Alan Greenspan's comments came in testimony Thursday to the Senate Finance Committee.

Mr. Greenspan said a revaluation of the Chinese currency would not have the positive effects in the United States that some lawmakers believe it would.

'Some observers mistakenly believe that a marked increase in the exchange value of the Chinese Renminbi [yuan], the so-called RMB, relative to the U.S. dollar, would significantly increase manufacturing activity and jobs in the United States. I'm aware of no credible evidence that supports such a conclusion,' he said.

For The Record

They lie, shamelessly, because they know the average (or even the above average) person has no way to verify their accusations.

Karl Rove says:

'Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year? Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals.'

An aide to Bill Frist says:

'Well, when you say something that appears all over Al Jazeera, you have a lot of work to do.'

Leaving aside everything else which could and should be said, let me just point out that Senator Durbin's remarks do not currently appear anywhere on the main page or news page of al-Jazeera's Arabic language site. Its search engine produces only one hit for 'Durbin' in 2005: a story from June 16 about his remarks and his refusal to apologize.

I haven't been paying enough attention to the broadcasts, or watching regularly enough, to know whether or not the story has been reported more heavily than this on the air (though I haven't heard anything about it this morning since I started paying attention). But I can say with some degree of confidence that Condi Rice's remarks in Egypt about reform has received far more attention on al-Jazeera than has Durbin's remarks about Guantanamo.

Just for the record.

(link via Political Animal)

Define Overt Discrimination

Alrighty then!

"Evangelical Christians studying at the US air force academy made 'slurs, jokes and disparaging remarks' about other cadets, a Pentagon report said yesterday.

But the abuse did not amount to overt discrimination against other faiths, according to an inquiry by a senior air force personnel officer, Lt-Gen Roger Brady.

Outside organisations and parents claimed that the academy in Colorado Springs was full of evangelical staff and trainees seeking to proselytise cadets, including Catholics, Jews and other Protestants.

A list of allegations showed that the academy's football team coach placed a banner in the changing room declaring himself a member of 'Team Jesus Christ'.

Cadets who refused to attend chapel were called a 'Heathen Flight' and a Jewish student was called a 'Christ killer'.

According to a report by the liberal group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Christmas greeting sent to all 4,300 cadets in 2003 was signed by 300 senior staff and declared their belief that Christianity was 'the only real hope for the world'.

It asked cadets to contact them to 'discuss Jesus'.

The Revolution Is Being Televised

Why are Dems engaging the GOP in a debate over this? This is obviously a tool to incite and distract people from the issue at hand. We are losing in Iraq. Karl Rove has been doing the evening cable circuit and his remarks were deliberate and well executed to get just the reaction the White House wanted. We get side tracked for another couple of weeks while death and destruction continue in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Democrats said Thursday that White House adviser Karl Rove should either apologize or resign for accusing liberals of wanting 'therapy and understanding' for the September 11 attackers, escalating partisan rancor that threatens to consume Washington.

Rove's comments -- and the response from the political opposition -- mirrored earlier flaps over Democratic chairman Howard Dean's criticism of Republicans, a House Republican's statement that Democrats demonize Christians and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin's comparison of the Guantanamo prison to Nazi camps and Soviet gulags.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan came to Rove's defense, saying the president's chief political adviser was 'simply pointing out the different philosophies and different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism.'

'Of course not,' McClellan said when asked by reporters whether President Bush will ask Rove to apologize.

Rove, in a speech Wednesday evening to the New York state Conservative Party just a few miles north of Ground Zero, said, 'Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.' Conservatives, he said, 'saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.'

He added that the Democratic Party made the mistake of calling for 'moderation and restraint' after the terrorist attacks."

Democrats need to stay on message and stop letting their chain be yanked by assclowns like Rove and Cheney. Karl Rove will not resign under any circumstances (save being caught mid thrust in a male behind) so let's move on!

I Reckon He'll Be 'Bout 140 Years Old

Mississippi Man Sentenced for 1964 Civil Rights Murders:

"A judge in the U.S. state of Mississippi has sentenced an 80-year-old man to 60 years in prison for the killings of three civil rights workers more than 40 years ago. The sentence is expected to bring to a close one of the most bitter episodes of the U.S. civil rights era.

Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old sawmill operator, part-time Baptist preacher and alleged leader of the hate group, the Ku Klux Klan, was given the maximum sentence of 60 years in prison, after being convicted on three counts of manslaughter on Tuesday.

The conviction came 41 years to the day after three young civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, were murdered. The three disappeared after being briefly arrested near Philadelphia, Mississippi. They had been registering voters in Mississippi in the so-called freedom summer of 1964."

The Cash Money Millionaires

Good God, if I'd known they were handing out duffel bags full of money in Iraq, I would have been there with bells (and bullet proof vests, helmets and armor) on!

The United States handed out nearly $20 billion of Iraq's funds, with a rush to spend billions in the final days before transferring power to the Iraqis nearly a year ago, a report said on Tuesday.

A report by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, said in the week before the hand-over on June 28, 2004, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority ordered the urgent delivery of more than $4 billion in Iraqi funds from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York.

One single shipment amounted to $2.4 billion -- the largest movement of cash in the bank's history, said Waxman.

Most of these funds came from frozen and seized assets and from the Development Fund for Iraq, which succeeded the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. After the U.S. invasion, the U.N. directed this money should be used by the CPA for the benefit of the Iraqi people.

Cash was loaded onto giant pallets for shipment by plane to Iraq, and paid out to contractors who carried it away in duffel bags.

The report, released at a House of Representatives committee hearing, said despite the huge amount of money, there was little U.S. scrutiny in how these assets were managed.

'The disbursement of these funds was characterized by significant waste, fraud and abuse,' said Waxman.

An audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said U.S. auditors could not account for nearly $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds and the United States had not provided adequate controls for this money.

Another Pod Person

Yes, I am taking another break from my usual political rants to present another creepy article about the world's newest super couple. Is this article implying that Katie was kidnapped, brainwashed and hynotized into being Tom Cruise's concubine and spiritual partner in Scientology?

"The newly engaged Katie Holmes still has some explaining to do to her friends and family.

There were 16 days in April during which no one seems to know where she was.

Holmes made a public appearance on April 4 at the premiere of 'Steel Magnolias' on Broadway.

She came with her publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnick, and a couple of other friends. They were there to support Rebecca Gayheart, who was making her Broadway debut.

I know this because I spoke to Holmes at length during the play's intermission. She said she had just moved into her New York apartment and was looking forward to seeing the city.

I also know that on April 4, she had not yet made the acquaintance of Tom Cruise. She briefly dated Josh Hartnett after breaking up with actor Chris Klein.

Hartnett, Klein, Cruise: Which of these three is not like the others?

Klein and Hartnett are young and tall. Cruise is middle-aged and height-challenged.

On the other hand, he's the biggest movie star in the world. They are not.

Holmes was busy during that first week in April. On April 7, she was photographed at the Fragrance Foundation's FiFi event.

Four days later, Holmes was still in New York and was photographed at VH1's 'Save the Music' concert. She still had not met Cruise.

Sometime that week, her friends say, she flew to Los Angeles for a meeting with Cruise about a role in 'Mission: Impossible 3.' The meeting took place after April 11.

The next time anyone heard from Holmes was on April 27, when she appeared in public as Cruise's girlfriend and love of his life.

Where was she during those 16 days?"

Then again, who cares? If they could rescue Elizabeth Smart after all those months, there is hope for Katie too!

And Speaking Of Dr. Phil ...

Last night's was a repeat of his show on gold diggers and trophy wives. The dizzy broads, who will now go down in infamy for telling the world they are after a guy's money (trying not to get tangential and talk about the busted "to'e up from the flo' up," older woman who won't date a man who makes less than $700K), had me just as baffled as the guy who tests his "dates" by giving them his credit card to buy a new outfit for one of his big time events and seeing how much they buy and spend.

"You can feel a woman out," he says. "If she needs something and you give her a credit card and say, 'Go ahead and buy an outfit so you look good at this event tonight,' and she buys the outfit, five pairs of shoes, gets her girl a dress ... you know, technically, she's not looking out for your interests."
[...]
"For me, absolutely. It's about love. I keep saying love because everybody wants a good soulmate. When you're sick and you're old, you want to be with someone who will take care of you — not try to poison you so you can die and she can keep your money. I mean, come on!

My problem is that if he is all that and a bag of chips, why is he dating the kind of women who need him to buy them an outfit? Is he their daddy? If he's all up in the mix of the rich and famous, why the heck isn't he trying to find a soulmate amongst women on his level? Why doesn't he know any women who have their own wardrobe on hand or who can afford to go out and buy their own dresses for special occassions? (On a smaller scale, I've listened to too many educated, professional men complain about chickenheads, hoochies and welfare mamas trying to take them for a ride but fail to understand why they are even traveling in circles where this is the kind of women they meet ... That's rhetorical. You know why).

The show was entertaining, to say the least, but illustrated why there will, forever, be a battle of the sexes.

And It's A Crying Shame

I can't say I did much better last night. I usually watch Hardball but there was no way I could stomach watching Karl Rove. Still, I absolutely refused to watch this crazy wench!

"Increased competition and pressure to turn a profit has resulted in TV news giving more attention to stories like the “Runaway bride” from Georgia than substantive issues, ABC News Nightline anchor Ted Koppel lamented Wednesday at the Promax/BDA conference in New York.

Coincidentally or not, that comment came the night after NBC’s Dateline ran an exclusive interview with the above-mentioned bride that won its 8 p.m. time period.

Referring to the shrinking audience for news, Koppel said, “With the need to make money and a smaller piece of the pie, we have to keep appealing to as large an audience as possible.” He added, “Sadly, the ‘Runaway Bride’ brings in a larger audience than a one-hour documentary on Iraq ever could.”"

No, instead I chatted on the phone and laughed at the would be "gold diggers" looking from absolution on Dr. Phil.

No Apology Needed

This is stupid and I am sure Oprah didn't trip!

Luxury store Hermes on Wednesday apologized to Oprah Winfrey for turning her away last week, saying that the store was closed to set up for a public relations event when the talk show host stopped by its Paris store.

'Hermes regrets not having been able to accommodate Ms. Winfrey and her team and to provide her with the service and care that Hermes strives to provide to each and every one of its customers worldwide,' the store said in a statement.

'Hermes apologizes for any offense taken due to such circumstances.'

The store said the incident occurred on June 14 around 6:45 p.m., about 15 minutes after the store closed. It said Winfrey and her team arrived at a time when 'a private PR event was being set up inside.'

Winfrey had no immediate comment.
...

The Daily News added that she was turned away because the store had been 'having a problem with North Africans lately.'

In comments to CNN, a spokeswoman categorically denied that allegation.

'There was never any discussion of North Africans,' the spokeswoman said. 'The story is not true.'

The spokeswoman said Winfrey came to the store 15 minutes after closing and a security guard informed her the store was closed and gave her a card, telling her she could come back the next day.

Surveillance videotape of the encounter supports the store's account of what happened, according to the spokeswoman.

First, if the store was closed, it was closed. The only reason they apologized was because they missed a probable big spender so oops on them! Secondly, Oprah claims to be Zulu - not North African !!!

Houston We Definitely Have A Problem

Now, more than ever, I am thoroughly convinced that anyone who supports this administration is incredibly rich and greedy or inexplicably stupid. To have a top (though decidedly crooked) GOP leader form his mouth to say that Iraq is like Houston goes beyond the realm of just spin. It is outright lying and it insults the intelligence of anyone who truly has some.

'You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is held to, nobody'd go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out of the local press in Houston [would be about] violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways,' DeLay says in an interview reported in today's Houston Chronicle. It's the media's fault, of course. People should just go to Iraq, DeLay says, and they'd see what's really happening there. 'Everybody that comes from Iraq is amazed at the difference of what they see on the ground and what they see on the television.'

And you know, he's right about that -- but only if what he means by what people see on the television is what people see George W. Bush, Dick Cheney & Co. say on the television. Bush says that he's 'pleased with the progress' in Iraq. Cheney says we're seeing the 'last throes' of the insurgency. Condoleezza Rice says U.S. troops are dealing with just 'a few terrorists and so-called insurgents who are plying their wares in a way that gets a lot of attention.'

What do people just back from Iraq say? Here's Sen. Joe Biden, a Democrat just back from a fact-finding tour: 'The disconnect between the administration's rhetoric and the reality on the ground has opened not just a credibility gap but a credibility chasm.' Rep. Curt Weldon, a Republican just back from Iraq, says that the administration is misleading Americans about its success in training Iraqi security forces. 'We can't come back to America and have our people being convinced that the Iraqi troops are prepared to take over when they're not,' Weldon says. 'That's only going to cause our people back home to say, 'Bring them home now,' and really, we're not ready to bring them home right now.'

Say It Again In Sign Language

'The problem is that no one wants to join,' one recruiter recently told the Times.

'We have to play fast and loose with the rules just to get by.' The standards for those already in are also being adjusted: The Wall Street Journal recently reported on an internal army memo which said that battalion commanders could no longer kick out of the military enlistees who had abused drugs and alcohol, gotten pregnant or were unfit for duty.

If you want to understand just how dire the situation is, you need to know that the Army is busily exploiting a provision in the No Child Left Behind law that allows recruiters to go into public schools receiving federal funding, gain access to students' personal data and cultivate potential recruits with a virtually unfettered hand. According to an Army manual, savvy recruiters should eat in the school cafeteria, befriend administrators, bring coffee and donuts for teachers and buddy up to team captains and student body presidents to win the hearts and minds of other students.

[...]

Recruiters are paying a high price, suffering from depression, headaches and stomach problems brought on by the tremendous pressure of having to find two new recruits per month to meet their quotas, avoid their commanders' wrath and fulfill their mission. One Texas recruiter told the New York Times' Damien Cave that he'd rather be fighting on the front lines of the war in Iraq than recruiting weary teenagers and coping with anxious parents in the states.

'The evidence is overwhelming that the Army is slowly being worn down by its commitment in Iraq,' a Pentagon adviser and military analyst at the Lexington Institute told Newsday. The handwriting is on the wall: This is a failed war, and the American people are refusing in their wisdom to fight it.

I Changed My Mind

I've been pretty ambivalent about the "41 years too late" trial and conviction of Klansman Edgar Ray Killen for the 1964 Mississippi murders but after seeing his raggedy behind swinging at and striking people in his path outside of the courtroom yesterday, I say lock that mutha sucka up even if he only has 2 days of life left!

"Following the verdict, Killen's wife, Betty Jo, was in tears. She was allowed to hug her husband before deputies took him away. When Killen was removed from the courthouse, he struck a journalist from WAPT-TV in Jackson.

Mark Duncan, district attorney in Neshoba County, wouldn't say if future prosecutions are planned - but he said seven still-living co-defendants in the murders 'must be a little uncomfortable today.'"

I don't know why I thought that, perhaps, some sort of senility would be setting in and he wouldn't really be fully aware of all that was going on (never ending empathy for seniors, I guess) but this coot acts like he has the nerve to be mad about getting his just desserts. He still has no remorse!

Oh well! Even if he gets shipped off to a prison hospital, he'll probably be surrounded by black guards and healthcare workers ... touching him. Maybe there is some justice in this after all.

Swearing On The Bible

They can keep things simple if they want to but if swearing on a bible means nothing to a Muslim, they won't even have to cross their fingers behind their backs to lie! ROTFL!

"Judicial conferences in North Carolina will try to determine if Muslim court witnesses can be allowed to the take the oath using the Qur'an instead of the Bible.

The issue has come up several times in the state, most recently in Greensboro, where Guilford Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Douglas Albright, who sets policy for the county's nine Superior Court courtrooms ruled against it.

Officials with the state's Administrative Office of the Courts in Raleigh said they are trying to come up with a statewide policy on the issue before the controversy snowballs, spokesman Dick Ellis told the Greensboro News-Record.

Ellis said there is concern allowing the Qur'an could create new challenges. He questioned what would happen if a person claimed to worship brick walls and wanted to swear the oath on a brick.

'We don't want to complicate this simple procedure here,' Ellis said.

PhD Speak

It looks as though lying down with semi-literate men who stumble over most of their words makes one wake up sounding just as stupid! No this educated and refined woman didn't go half way around the world telling someone to "knock it off!" Is that like Bush's "bring it on!" or Cheney's "Go F' Yourself!!"?

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Syria on Tuesday of fomenting instability in Lebanon and told them to 'knock it off.'

She was speaking after a bomb killed George Hawi, an anti-Syrian politician and the former leader of the Lebanese Communist Party.

Rice said she did not know who detonated the bomb but said: 'There is a context and an atmosphere of instability. Syria's activities are part of that context and a part of that atmosphere and they need to knock it off.'

Rice was speaking to reporters as she flew to Brussels on a tour of the Middle East and Europe.

[...]

'Yes their military forces, their visible forces have gone, but they clearly are still acting in Lebanon and are still a force that is not a stabilizing force there,' she said.

'They have got to stop whatever they are doing there that is causing destabilization of the environment.'"

Moreover, who needs to "stop whatever they are doing there that is causing destabilization ...?" Certainly not the world's sole superpower that is occupying two nations where violence is carried out on a daily basis!

Where The Party At?

I still feel unmoved. In fact, I'd dare say that I was far more overjoyed that Michael Jackson (and I've still got my long awaited post on him marinating) was acquitted than I am that this old, dying coot was convicted of killing three people for no good reason - other than the fact that he could!

"Forty-one years to the day after three civil rights workers were beaten and shot to death, an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman was found guilty of manslaughter Tuesday in a trial that marked Mississippi's latest attempt to atone for its bloodstained, racist past.

The jury of nine whites and three blacks took nearly six hours to clear Edgar Ray Killen of murder but convict him of the lesser charges in the 1964 killings that galvanized the struggle for equality and helped bring about passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Killen, a bald figure with owlish bifocals, sat impassively in his wheelchair, an oxygen tube up his nose, as he listened to the verdict.

'Forty-one years after the tragic murders ... justice finally arrives in Philadelphia, Miss,' said Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi's only black congressman. 'Yet, the state of Mississippi must see to it that the wrongs of yesterday do not become the albatrosses of today.'"

Trust, it won't be an albatross. That Ku Klux Klown will be dead before we know it.

It's A Shame!

... when wild and dangerous lions have to protect a child from wild men!

"A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday.

The girl, missing for a week, had been taken by seven men who wanted to force her to marry one of them, said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo, speaking by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 350 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.

She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9 by police and relatives on the outskirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.

'They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest,' Wondimu said.

'If the lions had not come to her rescue, then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage,' he said."

The US Keeping Secrets?

Now we know we are going to have to taint Saddam's Dorito's before he gets on the stand because if he gets to tell it, he'll tell it!

"Iraq's justice minister has accused the US of concealing information about deposed president Saddam Hussein that could be damaging to 'many countries'.

Abdel Hussein Shandal said it seemed there were 'lots of secrets' that the Americans wanted to hide.

Saddam Hussein is set to go on trial in Iraq over alleged crimes against humanity, but no date has been set.

Mr Shandal spoke to the AP news agency on the eve of a major conference. US officials did not immediately comment.

'There should be transparency and there should be frankness, but there are secrets that, if revealed, won't be in the interest of many countries,' Mr Shandal said.

'Who was helping Saddam all those years?'"

Yes, who?

Request Denied!

Found this nice little hidden gem via The Huffington Post. I suppose that amidst the missing girl in Aruba and the missing boy scout (now found), it's hard to slip in news about Iraqi lawmakers asking us to get the hell out.

"Iraqi lawmakers from across the political spectrum called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from their country in a letter released to the media June 19.

The move comes as U.S. President George W. Bush is under increasing domestic pressure to set a timetable for the pullout of American forces in the face of an increasing death toll at the hands of insurgents.

Eighty-two Shiite, Kurdish, Sunni Arab, Christian and communist deputies made the call in a letter sent by Falah Hassan Shanshal of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the largest group in parliament, to speaker Hajem al-Hassani.

Some of those who signed urged that a detailed timetable be established for the withdrawal.

There are currently about 160,000 foreign troops in Iraq, including a 138,000-strong U.S. force, which has borne the brunt of attacks against coalition forces.

In the letter, Shanshal said the 275-member parliament was the Iraqi people'’s legitimate representative and guardian of their interests.

”We have asked in several sessions for occupation troops to withdraw, the letter said. Our request was ignored."

Are we sure we know who's behind this insurgency?

He Was Against It Before He Was For It

Looks like the Republicans are running against themselves instead of Kerry.

"Reversing field after a meeting with President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he will continue pushing for a floor vote on John R. Bolton for U.N. ambassador. Frist switched his position after initially saying Tuesday that negotiations with Democrats to get a vote on Bolton had been exhausted.

Talking to reporters in the White House driveway after he joined other GOP lawmakers for a luncheon with Bush, Frist said: 'The president made it very clear that he expects an up or down vote.'

Just about two hours hour earlier, Frist said he wouldn't schedule another vote on Bolton's nomination and said that Bush must decide the next move. Frist, R-Tenn., had said there was nothing further he could do to break a Democratic stalemate with the Bush White House over Bolton, an outspoken conservative who, opponents argue, would undermine U.S. interests at the world body.

But he changed his tune after talking to Bush."

Ultimately, this is a move to make the Democrats look like obstructionists because Bush is not going to turn over the requested documents and the Democrats are not going to vote to end debate for an up or down vote. Bush will be forced to make a recess appointment and then big, bad Bolton can go to the UN looking like a loud mouthed lackey!

A Flip Flopper By Any Other Name

Click each picture to go to the next one ...

http://www.seanbonner.com/flipflop/

Going To War With The Armor You Buy

Not gonna rant but this is just unbelievable!

John Tod of Mesa had been prepared to face Father's Day worrying about his son's pending date with the war in Iraq.

Then Uncle Sam stepped in with more disappointing developments.

Marine Pfc. Jeremy Tod called home with news that his superiors were urging him and fellow Marines to buy special military equipment, including flak jackets with armor plating, to enhance the prospects of their survival.

The message was that such purchases were to be made by Marines with their own money.

'He said they strongly suggested he get this equipment because when they get to Iraq they will wish they had,' Tod said.

Total estimated cost: $600.

Tod said his son's call about two weeks ago from the Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma was a sobering reminder that the military is not prepared to equip Pfc. Tod and fellow Marines with the best equipment.

Besides the essential flak jacket with steel 'trauma' plates, the shopping list for the young Marine included a Camelbak (water pouch) special ballistic goggles, knee and elbow pads, a 'drop pouch' to hold ammunition magazines and a load-bearing vest.

Bubba Speaks!

Well, we know they aren't going to close Gitmo because they are giving Halliburton $30 million to expand it, butClinton is right.

"Former President Bill Clinton has said the United States should either 'close down or clean up' the Guantanamo Bay prison for foreign terrorism suspects.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Monday, Clinton said American or British troops would be at much greater risk if they had a reputation for abusing people.

'Well, it either needs to be closed down or cleaned up,' Clinton said when asked whether the camp on Cuba should close.

'It's time that there are no more stories coming out of there about people being abused.'

[...]

'If we get a reputation for abusing people, it puts our own soldiers much more at risk,' Clinton said."

Back To Lie Number One

When all else fails, and your poll numbers are slipping, you start the 9/11/Iraq connection again (even though you and your compadres swear that you never link the two). I guess this is another case of him repeating the same BS over and over again to catapult the propaganda.

President George W. Bush defended the war in Iraq, telling Americans the United States was forced into war because of the September 11 terror strikes.

Bush also resisted calls for him to set a timetable for the return of thousands of US troops deployed in Iraq, saying Iraqis must be able to defend their own country before US soldiers can be pulled out.

'We went to war because we were attacked, and we are at war today because there are still people out there who want to harm our country and hurt our citizens,' Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address.

Sheer Ignorance

Rush Limbaugh is a big, fat, stupid, drug-addicted idiot and if you didn't think he could sink any lower than pond scum, just take a look at the new apparel he is selling on his site.

Yeah, Sure You Do!

What, exactly, does this mean?

"The director of the CIA says he has an 'excellent idea' where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but that the United States' respect for sovereign nations makes it more difficult to capture the al-Qaida chief.

In an interview with Time for the magazine's June 27 issue, Porter Goss was asked about the progress of the hunt for bin Laden.

'When you go to the question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play,' Goss said. 'We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways.'

Asked whether that meant he knew where bin Laden is, Goss responded: 'I have an excellent idea where he is. What's the next question?'

Goss did not say where he thinks bin Laden is, nor did he specify what country or countries he was referring to when he spoke of foreign sanctuaries. But American officials have long said they believed bin Laden was hiding in rugged mountains along the Afghan-Pakistani border."

There is absolutely no value in that statement. We invaded Afghanistan because they were supposedly harboring Bin Laden. Unless he is being hidden by one of our "allies," (and, hypocrites that we are, we certainly wouldn't embarrass them by invading their country) why don't we just go get him? Moreover, wasn't Iraq a sovereign nation prior to us attacking it?

Every Tom, Dick and Hitler

From Sean Hannity claiming that Dick Durbin should resign to the chorus of wingnuts demanding a more fervent apology, this whole ruckus over his remarks is getting really old. Add Newt Gingrich to the swarm of buzzing locusts and you've got a request to have Durbin censured.

"In a letter sent to United States Senators on Saturday, June 18, 2005, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Senator Richard Durbin for his speech comparing U.S. servicemen serving in Guantanamo Bay to those of the Nazi Gestapo, Soviet KGB, and Pol Pot's killers in Cambodia.

"Senator Richard Durbin has dishonored the United States and the entire U.S. Senate. Only by a vote to censure Senator Durbin for his conduct can the U.S. Senate restore its dignity and defend American honor," Gingrich wrote.

He added, "It's one thing for one Senator to endanger young Americans and defame America; it would the shame of the Senate if the other 99 Senators did not stand up to defend America and to defend the reputation of our young men and women in uniform.?

Gingrich called Senator Durbin?s comparison ?despicable.?"

What makes this totally ridiculous is that the whole "Nazi" analogy is so over used by everyone that I can't even see why people even blink anymore when they hear it. In fact, Jon Stewart (second time I'm quoting him in a week) found a nice set of clips displaying just how tired Nazi comparisons are getting.

The letter to the Senate was written on Friday. Perhaps Newt will retract it, or at least amend it, because Republican Senator John McCain made a similar reference on Meet The Press yesterday:

The weight of evidence [in Guantanamo] has got to be that we've got to adjudicate these people's cases, and...if it means releasing some of them, you'll have to release them. Look, even Adolf Eichmann got a trial.

Where's the high drama over him saying that, unlike our detained enemy combatants, Nazis got the benefit of a trial?

Take This Job And Shove It!

I think we are all too aware that Bush intends to have his way at all costs. So, if shoving his choice of Bolton for UN Ambassador down the throats of the Senate and the American people is the only way he can have his way, he will.

President Bush called on Senate Democrats Monday to allow a vote on the nomination of John Bolton for U.N. ambassador and sidestepped a question on whether he would go around Congress to give him the job if delays continue.

?I think it?s time for the Senate to give him an up-or-down vote. Now,? the president said at a news conference with European Union leaders.

Bush spoke hours before the Senate was scheduled to vote on whether to end Democratic delaying tactics that have blocked a final vote on Bolton after Congress leaves Washington for the Fourth of July holiday recess.

The president was asked whether, not having constitutionally required Senate confirmation, he would give Bolton a recess appointment after Congress leaves Washington for the Fourth of July holiday recess. Bush did not answer.

Earlier, White House press secretary Scott McClellan did not rule out that Bush would consider a recess appointment if the Senate does not approve Bolton?s nomination.

Making It Up As They Go Along

By George, I think he's got it!

"Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel is angry. He's upset about the more than 1,700 U.S. soldiers killed and nearly 13,000 wounded in Iraq. He's also aggravated by the continued string of sunny assessments from the Bush administration, such as Vice President Dick Cheney's recent remark that the insurgency is in its 'last throes.' 'Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality,' Hagel tells U.S. News. 'It's like they're just making it up as they go along.The reality is that we're losing in Iraq.'

That's strikingly blunt talk from a member of the president's party, even one cast as something of a pariah in the GOP because of his early skepticism about the war. 'I got beat up pretty good by my own party and the White House that I was not a loyal Republican,' he says. Today, he notes, things are changing: 'More and more of my colleagues up here are concerned.'"

I guess some of the Republicans are finally starting to taste the pee they thought was rain.


(link via oliverwillis.com)

Thank You Mr. Bush

Why can't this fool just keep his mouth closed? He should have learned a big lesson after challenging insurgents to "bring it on!" Now, he's all but assured the election of another hardliner because he just can't get the culture in Iran straight.

"The sharp barbs from President Bush were widely seen in Iran as damaging to pro-reform groups because the comments appeared to have boosted turnout among hard-liners in Friday's election — with the result being that an ultraconservative now is in a two-way showdown for the presidency.

'I say to Bush: `Thank you,'' quipped Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi. 'He motivated people to vote in retaliation.'

Bush's comments — blasting the ruling clerics for blocking 'basic requirements of democracy' — became a lively sideshow in Iran's closest election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. And they highlighted again the United States' often crossed-wire efforts to isolate Iran.

[...]

But the harder the United States pushes, even with the best of intentions, the more ground it has seems to lose among mainstream Iranians, who represent possible key allies against the Islamic establishment, say some analysts of Iranian politics.

'Unknowingly, (Bush) pushed Iranians to vote so that they can prove their loyalty to the regime — even if they are in disagreement with it,' said Hamed al-Abdullah, a political science professor at Kuwait University.

Tucker The Bow-Tied Boy

I cannot imagine why this boy-faced little weasel was given another show. He looked like an utter and complete goofball on Crossfire. I saw a wink of his new show on MSNBC and he still makes me want to go Jon Stewart on him.

"In the omnipresent commercials for MSNBC's new talk show The Situation with Tucker Carlson (weeknights at 9 p.m. ET), we see Carlson seated on a stool in a studio as he listens to an announcer sing his praise in voiceover: 'The man. The legend. The bow tie.' 'You think that's gonna make people want to watch the show?' Carlson twits the unseen narrator. 'Why don't you just tell them what the show's about?'

Ignoring for a moment the unseemliness of this promo campaign (a new hire kicks off his tenure by biting the hand of his boss?), let me just venture an answer to Carlson's second question. I have no idea whether the bow-tie angle will draw in viewers or not (in fact, I'm neutral on the bow-tie issue, though according to my anonymous tipster on the finer points of male fashion, 'A bow tie says, 'I have no penis.' It says, 'When I was in parochial school, the sisters thought I was fresh.' It says, 'I shower more than is really normal or healthy.' ') I do know, though, that it would be tough to 'just tell' audiences what The Situation is about, because, based on the first week's worth of installments, it doesn't seem to be about much of anything at all."

Sorry but a bow-tie on a white man (almost unilaterally doofus) is about the same as a gold tooth on a black street pimp! It makes them look and seem more ridiculous than they already are.

Fat Chance!

Bush? Candid?

Tim Russert:"There's anxiety everywhere in the White House and on Capitol Hill and across the country with 60 percent of Americans now believing things are going badly in Iraq and a majority now believing it's not worth the price being paid.

President Bush is going to have to address the country in a very sober way to try to reassure the nation why the U.S. is there and what's at stake.

[...]

So, when the president addresses the nation, it has to be candid, it has to be something that is not in conflict with what people are hearing when their clock radios go off in the morning with the latest reports on Iraq and it conflicts with what they'’re hearing from the White House.

If that's the case, guess what? They'’re going to become very suspicious and very skeptical. That's why the president has to lay it out very clearly, openly and honestly what is going on, on the ground in Iraq.

He may address the nation but I doubt we'll hear anything truthful. I imagine we'll hear more about "the last throes" and "peance freance" crap!

Felt Like A 'N'?

No need for a long diatribe here. I think Ralph Nader is going senile. I used to like him but over the past decade, he just seems to be getting crotchey and obnoxious. I'm can't say I'm particularly offended by his analogy and I buy his explanation. I just think he's getting old, crazy and unfiltered.

"If Ralph Nader doesn't stop dropping the N-bomb, Al Sharpton is going to wash out his mouth with soap.

'Nader is not a racist by any stretch of the imagination,' Sharpton told me yesterday. 'He has a good track record. But he ought to be sensitive that he does not sanitize that word.'

Speaking Wednesday night at a Washington fund-raiser to retire the debt from his 2004 presidential campaign, Nader complained that Democratic Party powerbrokers had kept him off the ballot in such Southern states as Georgia and Virginia - which reminded him of the oppressive Jim Crow laws that denied African-Americans equal rights.

'I felt like a [n-word],' remarked the 70-year-old white multimillionaire graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

Washington gadfly Evan Gahr reported Nader's comments on his chimpstein.com Web site.

'If Ed Koch had said what Ralph Nader said, we'd be marching,' Sharpton noted. 'This [scolding] doesn't rise to the level of a march. It rises to the level of a wrist slap.'

Yesterday, Nader told me he was using the word in the same spirit as the Black Panthers of the 1960s - 'as a word of defiance.'

But Sharpton retorted: 'He's not a Black Panther.'

Given his other deeds and stands, I guess he can have a one day pass on the "[n-word]" train. Alan Keyes sure got one when he was hauled off by cops from the GOP debates.

Enough Already!

Via Florida Blues, this is just ridiculous. I wasn't the biggest fan of Mr. Schaivo but the battle is over and he won!

"Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday he might ask a state attorney to investigate allegations that Terri Schiavo's husband waited more than an hour to call 911 after her 1990 collapse.

Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have previously said their son-in-law waited more than an hour to make the call. An autopsy report released Wednesday didn't address the allegation.

''There's some doubt about when she did collapse and how long it took . . . for the 911 call to be made,'' Bush said. ''Which I think is worthy of some investigation. I don't know what form it would take.''

Bush said he might ask Bernie McCabe, state attorney for Pinellas-Pasco, to look into the issue, but that would have to wait until McCabe returned from vacation. Bush said the medical examiner shouldn't determine if there was a gap.

''This is really out of his realm,'' Bush added. ''It's not a medical examiner's job to determine why there would be a gap if there was one.''

Give it a rest, Jeb! This is harrassment, pure and simple, and it may be time for Michael Schaivo to look into some anti-stalking measures.

Got It: This Is The Last Throes ...

I already posted about the additional marine deaths but didn't know that insurgents had taken over a city. But then, after two years since "mission accomplished," this must be signs of the last throes.

"Insurgents have taken over much of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and used it to launch attacks against US forces while terrorising the population with public beheadings.

A huge bomb killed five American marines yesterday and showered body parts on to rooftops, fuelling suspicion that armour-piercing technology is being developed and tested in Ramadi.

US troops recovered the remains and withdrew to their base outside the Arab Sunni stronghold, leaving masked gunmen to erect checkpoints and carry out what residents said was the latest of many executions.

A man described as an Egyptian spy was beheaded and his body dumped on a busy shopping street. Warned by the killers to leave it for five days, shoppers pretended not to notice the figure in the brown robe, its head resting on its back."

I Think I'm Going To Be Ill

What is the fixation with this? I am on the verge of sticking a finger down my throat. The morning shows are all over this elfin magic man and his new ingenue and, guess I'm just becoming an old, bitter broad but I just ain't gettin' it!

"Tom Cruise is engaged to his girlfriend Katie Holmes, after proposing to her in the early hours of this morning at the Eiffel Tower.

The actor confirmed the proposal at a Paris press conference, where the 26-year-old actress sat beside him wearing a large diamond ring.

'Yes, I proposed to her... it was early this morning at the Eiffel Tower, so I haven'’t slept at all,' said the 42-year-old star of Top Gun and the Mission Impossible series"

Gag me ... with a spoon!

And You Don't Stop ...

Okay, this is hardly a party but could this be more of the last throes of the insurgency?

" A roadside bomb attack killed five U.S. Marines and gunfire killed an American sailor in a western Iraqi town, the U.S. military and Iraqi officials said Thursday, as an upsurge in rebel violence battered American forces.

The Marines died Wednesday after their vehicle was attacked near Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. Officials in Ramadi had reported a roadside bomb blast in the pre-dawn hours.

A sailor attached to the Marines' unit, the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, was also killed Wednesday in Ramadi by gunfire, the military said.

The six U.S. deaths raised Wednesday's toll from insurgent attacks to 58 killed, making it the deadliest day of violence in more than a month. "

June is already on the way to setting records for the number of soldiers lost. Whomever these insurgents are, they seem to be getting better at what they are doing ...

Tamika Who?

This Swiss blogger pointed out the difference in coverage for missing white girls vs. missing girls of color months ago and dedicated a piece of her blog to bring awareness. Tamika Huston has been missing for over a year now and the rest of the US finally decides to take notice.

"It’s about damned time"

Other than copping to a mea culpa, what good is bringing this "cold case" story to light at this point?

Take A Knife Or A Knitting Needle

Via feministing, a clue to what really happens when women are denied access safe and legal options in reproductive health.

"'Women seeking sterilization face Kafkaesque ordeals,' said Jefferson. 'In one public hospital, women had to beg approval from six different authorities, plus get their husband's signature in the presence of two witnesses.'

Many women told Human Rights Watch they had endured unwanted pregnancies because of lack of access to or inability to use contraceptives, and some had abortions. In Argentina, abortion is illegal in all circumstances, yet an estimated half a million abortions occur every year. Though the law waives the punishment in cases where the pregnant woman's life or health is in danger, or where the pregnancy is the result of the rape of a mentally disabled woman, access to a legal and therefore safer abortion is almost nonexistent in practice.

As a result, women are forced to seek abortions through unsafe, unregulated clinics. In other cases, they induced their own abortions by methods that gravely jeopardized their health and lives. Without medical supervision, other women used anti-inflammatory drugs to induce abortion, resulting in severe health consequences and sometimes even death.

'You get overwhelmed by desperation. You seek all the ways out,' said Paola M., a woman who had 10 children by the age of 36. 'But if there is no way out, then you take a knife or a knitting needle.'"

Did He Stutter?

Oh, no he di'-n't! Terry Moran from ABC had a big Denver boot up Scott McClellan's behind!

Q Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its 'last throes'?

McCLELLAN: Terry, you have a desperate group of terrorists in Iraq that are doing everything they can to try to derail the transition to democracy. The Iraqi people have made it clear that they want a free and democratic and peaceful future. And that's why we're doing everything we can, along with other countries, to support the Iraqi people as they move forward….

Q But the insurgency is in its last throes?

McCLELLAN: The Vice President talked about that the other day -- you have a desperate group of terrorists who recognize how high the stakes are in Iraq. A free Iraq will be a significant blow to their ambitions.

Q But they're killing more Americans, they're killing more Iraqis. That's the last throes?

McCLELLAN: Innocent -- I say innocent civilians. And it doesn't take a lot of people to cause mass damage when you're willing to strap a bomb onto yourself, get in a car and go and attack innocent civilians. That's the kind of people that we're dealing with. That's what I say when we're talking about a determined enemy.

Q Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?

McCLELLAN: I think I just explained to you the desperation of terrorists and their tactics.

Q What's the evidence on the ground that it's being extinguished?

McCLELLAN: Terry, we're making great progress to defeat the terrorist and regime elements. You're seeing Iraqis now playing more of a role in addressing the security threats that they face. They're working side by side with our coalition forces. They're working on their own. There are a lot of special forces in Iraq that are taking the battle to the enemy in Iraq. And so this is a period when they are in a desperate mode.

Q Well, I'm just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.

McCLELLAN: Well, you can go back and look at the Vice President's remarks. I think he talked about it.

Q Yes. Is there any idea how long a 'last throe' lasts for?

McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve...."

Granted he may end up on the back row from now on but this exchange was well worth it.

Who's This Clink For?

Naturally, I don't like the cost of this nor the company who will profit from it. But, I really don't like the thought of this at all. Why do we need another facility? Who, exactly, will be imprisoned there?

"A Halliburton Co. unit will build a new $30 million detention facility and security fence at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding about 520 foreign terrorism suspects, the Defense Department announced on Thursday.

The announcement comes the same week that Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defended the jail after U.S. lawmakers said it had created an image problem for the United States.

Critics have decried the indefinite detention of Guantanamo detainees, whom the United States has denied rights accorded under the Geneva Conventions to prisoners of war. The prison was called 'the gulag of our times' in a recent Amnesty International report.

An air-conditioned two-story prison, known as Detention Camp #6, will be built at Guantanamo to house 220 men. It will include exercise areas, medical and dental spaces as well as a security control room, the contract announcement said.

The contract announcement did not specify whether the new prison would also hold foreign terror suspects.

Under the deal with the Norfolk, Virginia-based U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, the work is to be wrapped up by July 2006. It is part of a larger contract that could be worth up to $500 million if all options are exercised, the Defense Department said.

The project is to be carried out by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Services of Arlington, Virginia. It includes site work, heating ventilation and air conditioning, plumbing and electrical work, the Pentagon said.

The first prisoners arrived at the prison camp in January 2002 after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

The Pentagon has said about 520 detainees from more than 40 countries are being held at the prison, without giving a precise figure.

Rumsfeld said on Tuesday U.S. taxpayers had spend more than $100 million on construction costs and no other facility could replace it."

No "conspiracy" theories yet but the wheels are a turning!

Keep Chipping Away Folks

I hope I am not being naive or overly optimistic but I have to believe that slow and steady will win this one.

"Congress should conduct an official inquiry to determine whether President Bush intentionally misled the nation about the reasons for toppling Saddam Hussein, a senior House Democrat suggested Thursday.

New York Rep. Charles Rangel was among Democratic House members who participated in a forum to air demands that the White House provide more information about what led to the decision to go to war in Iraq.

'Quite frankly, evidence that appears to be building up points to whether or not the president has deliberately misled Congress to make the most important decision a president has to make, going to war,' said Rangel, senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Rep. John Conyers and other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee organized the forum to investigate implications in a British document known as the 'Downing Street memo.' The memo says the Bush administration believed that war was inevitable and was determined to use intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the ouster of Saddam.

Conyers pointed to statements by Bush in the run-up to invasion that war would be a last resort. 'The veracity of those statements has - to put it mildly - come into question,' he said."

Tom Hanks Gets The Deep Throat Deal

Well, this is somewhat refreshing. I expect he'll do a phenomenal job.

"Hollywood star Tom Hanks' production firm has signed a deal with former FBI agent Mark Felt, who last month revealed he was Deep Throat, to turn his story into a movie, industry press said.

Universal Pictures on Wednesday inked the deal on behalf of Hanks' Playtone company to bring the story of the shadowy insider who helped reporters expose US president Richard Nixon's role in the Watergate scandal, to the silver screen.

The rights, along with those to a book, were sold for around one million dollars (800,000 euros), according to The New York Times."

Well, That's One Way To Keep A Woman

If true, this is more than a little scary. Is Tom Cruise is such a loser that he has to hire someone to help brainwash his new, younger girlfriend? I'm sure hoping that Nicole Kidman is feeling especially blessed right now. Her ex has gone off the deep end!

"Tom Cruise has hired a woman Scientology minder for girlfriend Katie Holmes as she promotes her film Batman Begins.

Tom, 42, is said to insist that Jessica Rodriguez goes everywhere with Katie, 26, who is converting to the religious cult.

But sources say she disrupts interviews and interferes with the actresse’s schedule.

One said: Tom pays Jessica to ‘keep Katie on the path. She goes everywhere.

“She says ‘I'’m Katie'’s best friend. But she'’s only known her six weeks.

Warner Bros bosses denied any “discord”."

Just to be clear, I can't say I believe that Scientology is any more a cult than any other rigid religion.

5 Year Old Man Of The House

On "compassionate grounds," a five year old has to work to support his family!

"A boy of five has been forced to take a job in the Indian police station where his late father worked.

In a case that highlights the huge problem of child labour in the sub-continent, Saurabh Nagvanshi spends his days running small errands, such as delivering reports to desks and carrying cups of tea for adult officers.

He was given the post at a police station in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on 'compassionate grounds' after the death of his father.

The practice, in which jobs are passed on within a family when a public servant dies to compensate for the loss of income, was instituted by the British. Although illegal, it remains common in rural areas.

The boy's mother, Ishwari Devi Nagvanshi, justified putting her son to work by claiming that, with a minimal welfare state and a family of five to feed, she had little choice. 'In order to run the house, I had no option but to make my child work,' she told the BBC. 'It's not nice. He should be jumping around and playing at his age.'"

Whew! If I ever hear another American child complaining again ...

The Un Mandate

Does this mean that Bush will have to use his veto power to overpower those who don't support his mandate?

"In a slap at President Bush, lawmakers voted Wednesday to block the Justice Department and the FBI from using the Patriot Act to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips.

The House voted 238-187 despite a veto threat from Bush to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects.

The vote reversed a narrow loss last year by lawmakers concerned about the potential invasion of privacy of innocent library users. They narrowed the proposal this year to permit the government to continue to seek out records of Internet use at libraries.

The vote came as the House debated a $57.5 billion bill covering the departments of Commerce, Justice and State. The Senate has yet to act on the measure, and GOP leaders often drop provisions offensive to Bush during final negotiations.

'This is a tremendous victory that restores important constitutional rights to the American people,' said Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., the sponsor of the measure. He said the vote would help 'rein in an administration intent on chipping away at the very civil liberties that define us as a nation.'"

Expecting More From The Devil

There are just so many things that George W. Bush is dead wrong about that it is hard to keep track. We know that he owes his soul to big business and corporations so the environment, and the destruction thereof, are of no big concern to him. With the entire world yelling about global warming, our President has, again, turned a deaf ear.

"President George W. Bush has been running from the issue of global warming for four years, but the walls are closing in. Scientists throughout the world are telling him that the rise in atmospheric temperature justifies aggressive action. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and other prominent Republicans are telling him to get off the dime. His corporate allies are deserting him. And the Senate is inching closer to endorsing a mandatory cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

A result is that Bush seems increasingly isolated and his rhetoric of denial increasingly irrational. Last week, a whistleblower asserted that a senior White House official, formerly an oil lobbyist, had changed scientific reports to minimize the climate problem. The official, Philip Cooney, resigned last Friday, although the White House insisted that the embarrassing disclosures had nothing to do with his departure. Whatever the truth, this was hardly the first time Bush officials cooked the books for political ends.

Out in the real world, hardly anyone denies the importance of the issue anymore. Just over a week ago, Schwarzenegger pledged to slow, stop and ultimately reverse California's greenhouse gas emissions by requiring big improvements in automobile efficiency and pushing for energy sources other than fossil fuels. 'The debate is over,' the governor said. 'We know the science, we see the threat, and we know the time for action is now.'

As if on cue, the National Academy of Sciences and 10 of its counterparts around the world declared that the science of global warming is clear enough to warrant prompt reductions in greenhouse gases. Mainstream scientists have long accepted the link between warming and human activity. What made this statement exceptional was its tone and its timing, coming a month before Bush and other leaders from the Group of 8 industrialized nations are to meet in Gleneagles, Scotland, where Prime Minister Tony Blair will put climate change near the top of the agenda.

As things stand now, Bush will be going to that meeting empty-handed, despite Blair's efforts last week to make him take the issue more seriously. Perhaps the Senate can give him something positive to point to, although it will have to act fast. Three different global warming proposals requiring mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, could surface as amendments during the forthcoming debate on the energy bill, scheduled to begin in earnest this week.

What is clear is that the warming issue is gaining traction in the United States and abroad, inspired partly by Bush's incorrigible stubbornness."

Unfortunately, Bush's "incorrigible stubbornness" is only surpassed by his brazen ignorance. Then again, why would one expect him to take issue with a warming globe? That's his natural habitat.

More Best Practices By Our Allies

Between Uzbekistan and Pakistan, we sure can pick some true human rights champions!

"No wonder the Pakistan government can't catch Osama bin Laden. It is too busy harassing, detaining - and now kidnapping - a gang-rape victim for daring to protest and for planning a visit to the United States.

Last fall I wrote about Mukhtaran Bibi, a woman who was sentenced by a tribal council in Pakistan to be gang-raped because of an infraction supposedly committed by her brother. Four men raped Ms. Mukhtaran, then village leaders forced her to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd of 300.

Ms. Mukhtaran was supposed to have committed suicide. Instead, with the backing of a local Islamic leader, she fought back and testified against her persecutors. Six were convicted.

Then Ms. Mukhtaran, who believed that the best way to overcome such abuses was through better education, used her compensation money to start two schools in her village, one for boys and the other for girls. She went out of her way to enroll the children of her attackers in the schools, showing that she bore no grudges.

[...]
Then a few days ago, the Pakistani government went berserk.

On Thursday, the authorities put Ms. Mukhtaran under house arrest - to stop her from speaking out. In phone conversations in the last few days, she said that when she tried to step outside, police pointed their guns at her. To silence her, the police cut off her land line.

After she had been detained, a court ordered her attackers released, putting her life in jeopardy. That happened on a Friday afternoon, when the courts do not normally operate, and apparently was a warning to Ms. Mukhtaran to shut up. Instead, Ms. Mukhtaran continued her protests by cellphone. But at dawn yesterday the police bustled her off, and there's been no word from her since. Her cellphone doesn't answer.

Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer who is head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said she had learned that Ms. Mukhtaran was taken to Islamabad, furiously berated and told that President Pervez Musharraf was very angry with her. She was led sobbing to detention at a secret location. She is barred from contacting anyone, including her lawyer.

'She's in their custody, in illegal custody,' Ms. Jahangir said. 'They have gone completely crazy.'"

Meanwhile, back at Taliban central, Osama Bin Laden is reported to be alive and well.

Have Men Just Collectively Lost Their Damned Minds?

I guess men all over the world are feeling the effects of the global women's rights movement and are trying to regain their power and manhood the only way they know how ... via rape!

"No thigh flesh, no cleavage, and certainly no belly buttons. Delhi's female university students are facing new dress-code restrictions, amid rising hysteria about a series of violent rapes in the capital.

Selecting what to wear has become less a fashion statement than a politically charged dilemma for the city's students after university officials recommended that girls replace skimpy dresses with the more modest folds of a salwar-kameez trouser suit to protect themselves from sexual harassment.

This suggestion that women should alter the way they look to protect themselves has met with a resentful response from many of the city's young female students - angry at the implication that their wardrobes are somehow to blame for a rash of recent violence."

[...]

"Day by day, in the name of fashion, the skimpy nature of girls' clothes is a sign of where society is headed," the party's newspaper said. "There seems to be a competition among youngsters to show their undergarments in the name of 'below-waist' fashion. If a man is incited by such clothes, who can one blame?"

Even the minister in charge of women affairs, Kanti Singh, said recently that the way women dressed played a role in inciting men to violence. "The guardians should see what kind of clothes the girls wear when they go out," she said. "I keep meeting college girls and some of them have said that girls are also responsible for provoking men to an extent by the way they dress."

Talk of a dress code has provoked irritation among feminists. "This is a male problem," said Chitra Srivastava, a psychology professor at one of Delhi's private universities and head of a Delhi women's association.

"It doesn't make sense to put the blame on scanty dresses, or on female students staying out late."

It's 2005 folks and people need to come out of the dark ages. Rape isn't about sex. It is about violence.

Race In Aruba

One thing that has me cracking up is the feigned outrage with which, normally rabid and borderline racist, pundits like Nancy Grace and Joe Scarborough are accusing Aruban officials of arresting the two security guards because they were black. Initially I thought that was the case too. Now, I still think so but not for a different reason. I don't think they arrested the black Arubans because they are racist. I think they arrested them first because they believe Americans are racist and it allowed the wealthy parents of the three young men, who are now in custody, to buy some time and allow the trail to go cold.

"Some Americans might have had a sense of dejavu as they watched two black men being taken into custody while the three young men remained free.

Take the case of Susan Smith, who in 1994 claimed a black man kidnapped her toddler sons but was later convicted of drowning them herself.

Or that of Charles Stuart, who committed suicide in 1990 after stoking simmering racial tensions in Boston, Massachusetts, by claiming a black man shot his pregnant wife.

Jennifer Wilbanks tried to cover up the reason for running away from her April wedding by concocting a story that a Latino man and a white woman kidnapped her.

Frankie Bailey, a criminal justice professor at the State University of New York at Albany, said such reaction is common in America 'because of the history of race in this country, and because historically, black males, Hispanic males, males of color, have been seen as the typical assailant.'

Law enforcement in the United States, however, is becoming more savvy, said Bailey, who specializes in crime and culture, particularly racial attitudes.

'People have become more cynical about believing the stories because there have been these racial hoaxes in recent memory and because the media have reported on it,' Bailey said."

The big, bad, black wolf is tired of having his name called and, more and more, Americans are getting sick of hearing it as well. But in Aruba, it served its purpose. The arrested men seem none the worse for wear. They didn't seem to have been beaten or harrassed (aside from being unduly detained) and aren't crying racism. However, 11 days went by before the last people known to have had contact with Miss Holloway were arrested and Lord knows what could have transpired during that critical period.

When The Clue Bells Start To Clang ...

2006 will definitely be interesting as former GOP politicians are finding that Bush's mandate has nothing to do with what their supporters want or need.

"Fearing that President Bush's political problems may become their own, Republicans in Congress and elsewhere are beginning to yearn for the good old days of seven months ago, when he had somebody to run against.

Voters were worried in November about the economy and the war in Iraq, but they didn't take it out on the incumbent on Election Day. They are now.

Bush's poll ratings are among the worst since he took office, declining in virtually every category since his win over Democratic Sen. John Kerry. From his handling of the economy, foreign policy and the war in Iraq to his job approval rating and voters' assessment of the country's direction, the president's political scores are in serious decline."

(link via ow.com)

Yes, Let's Talk About Iraq!

I love that I can get Thomas Friedman's editorials via iht.com rather than the "registration required" (though I am registered) NY Times site. He wants to talk about Iraq but thinks that no one else does. I beg to differ with that but agree with most of his other assessments.

"Ever since Iraq's remarkable election, the country has been descending deeper and deeper into violence. But no one in Washington wants to talk about it. Conservatives don't want to talk about it because, with a few exceptions, they think their job is just to applaud whatever the Bush team does. Liberals don't want to talk about Iraq because, with a few exceptions, they thought the war was wrong and deep down don't want the Bush team to succeed.

Well, this liberal wants to talk about Iraq because it has been going so poorly and is, increasingly, sinking into a quagmire that we really cannot afford - neither financially nor diplomatically. Devastating car bombs are killing dozens of people on a daily and consistent basis. And, it's not so much that I don't want Bush to succeed, its that it is becoming painstakingly obvious that he was wrong and seems bound and determined to stay wrong.

[...]
As a result, Iraq is drifting sideways and the whole burden is being carried by the American military. The rest of America has gone shopping, which seems to suit Karl Rove just fine.

Well, we need to talk about Iraq. This is no time to give up - this is still winnable - but it is time to ask: What is our strategy? This question is urgent because Iraq is inching toward a dangerous tipping point - the point where the key communities begin to invest more energy in preparing their own militias for a scramble for power, when everything falls apart, rather than investing their energies in making the hard compromises within and between their communities to build a unified, democratizing Iraq."

Our core problem in Iraq remains Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's disastrous decision - endorsed by President George W. Bush - to invade Iraq on the cheap. From the day the looting started, it has been obvious that we did not have enough troops there. We have never fully controlled the terrain.

Almost every problem we face in Iraq today - the rise of ethnic militias, the weakness of the economy, the shortages of gas and electricity, the kidnappings, the flight of middle-class professionals - flows from not having gone into Iraq with the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force.

The problem isn't that no one is talking about Iraq. The problem is that the people who need to listen won't!

Futile and useless though they may be, there aren't enough "I told you so's" in the world ...

When Will They Be About Business?

With only a 37% approval rating, one might think that Congress would spend their time addressing issues that had a real impact on the everyday lives of their constituencies. This is obviously not the case because they are wasting time of a friggin' flag desecration amendment and the Senate is about to do the same.

"The Senate may be within one or two votes of passing a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the U.S. flag, clearing the way for ratification by the states, a key opponent of the measure said Tuesday.

'It's scary close,' said Terri Schroeder of the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the amendment. 'People think it's something that's never going to happen. ... The reality is we're very close to losing this battle.'

Congress regularly has debated the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas flag desecration law in 1989 and its own Flag Protection Act the next year. But until now, it has failed to muster the two-thirds vote needed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate before states try to ratify the measure.

Next week, the House will vote on the amendment for a seventh time. If history is a guide, it will pass for a seventh time. That's when the spotlight switches to the Senate, where the amendment has always died.

The article also states that Dianne Feinstein is a co-sponsor and supporter of this diversion. She just got a nice little email from me. If she doesn't have anything better to do, I think she needs to take a rest come next election.

Tainting The Gene Pool

Okay, this is kinda funny - really it is. What is humorous is the level of truth to it - the part about Russian women marrying foreginers. Along with Eastern European women (ala the new Mrs. Trump), these women seem to be the latest arm trophies of choice for American men - most of whom seem to be weak, stupid, insecure rejects by our standards (save Mr. Trump - of course ... at least he has money). But I have heard and seen tales of men going on trips to meet Russian brides, mail order liaisons, and know a couple of really goony guys (former co-workers) who didn't stand a chance with women here but found love and happiness, if only fleeting, with women from that part of the world (one, unfortunately thought that she really wanted him and not the green card ... I tried to warn him but sometimes dooficity reigns).

"Scandalised by the fact that some of Russia's most beautiful women are opting to marry foreigners instead of Russians, the ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky is backing a bill that would make them think twice before exchanging vows with a non-Russian.

His party, the incongruously named Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), has drafted a draconian marriage bill that will now be considered by the Duma, the Russian parliament.

It envisages severe penalties for Russian girls or women who 'unpatriotically' choose to wed a foreigner, a trend the LDPR believes is robbing the country's gene pool of its greatest resource.

In rhetoric uncomfortably reminiscent of that used by the Nazis, the party believes that the large number of Russian women taking foreign spouses is a threat to national security that risks undermining Russian identity and 'the purity of the Russian race'. It is proposing punishing such female 'traitors' by stripping them of their Russian citizenship, deporting them to the country of their new husband and never allowing them to return. The LDPR also wants them to feel the pain in their pockets and is suggesting that their Russian assets be automatically distributed among their relatives or given to the state.

The bill has formally been proposed by LDPR MP Nikolai Kuryanovich, a member of the parliament's powerful National Security Committee, with the explicit backing of the fiery Mr Zhirinovsky. 'Our wonderful women are the best in the world,' Mr Kuryanovich told Ekho Moskvy radio. 'Wherever I have been, I have rarely seen beautiful girls, only in Russia and some other Slav nations.'

Calling Russia's female population a 'national treasure', the MP said it must not be 'spoilt' by unpatriotic weddings. The bill was being introduced 'in order not to squander our gene pool'.

If nothing was done, said Mr Kuryanovich, outsiders would acquire worrying levels of influence and territory in Russia through their spouses. The offspring of such ill-advised matches would not grow up to be 'genuine' Russians. He saw the biggest threat coming from Chinese men, whose choice of potential spouses at home has been restricted by Beijing's 'one child' policy. Many have settled in Russia's far east with Russian brides, who appreciate the fact that their foreign husbands tend to drink far less than local men.

'If we don't react now, in 50 or 100 years the Chinese and other Asian nations will be masters in our house and the Russians will become service staff,' claimed the MP.

Though the bill is unlikely to become law, because it does not enjoy the support of President Vladimir Putin's powerful United Russia party, the fact that it has been proposed, and will be seriously considered by the parliament, has alarmed some. Lev Ponomarev, a human rights activist, said it reminded him of the ban on marrying foreigners introduced by Stalin in 1947. 'These are attempts to restore the Soviet Union,' he said. 'This is another step towards the creation of a new Stalinist regime.'

Mr Zhirinovsky and his associates seem unlikely to dampen Russian women's desire for a 'normal' life in the West with a foreign husband. A poll by Ogonyok magazine last year showed that one in three 17- to 25-year-old women dreamt of marrying a foreigner."

Seriously, though, the whole idea is more than just a little racist. But from seeing the influx in this country, I never knew that men from China were the real threat. Maybe he read that study that showed that Chinese men aren't as "little" as people think they are. So, less drinking aside, they may also be packing a little something extra in the bedroom too! I suppose I didn't realize that it was all that deep - not deep enough to be tarred as unpatriotic and banished from the land forever. This sounds a wee bit like what happens to Israelis who marry Palestinians.

The government on Sunday overwhelmingly (16-2) decided to extend the temporary measure in the Civic Law stating that Palestinians from the territories who are married to Israeli-Arabs would not be able to receive Israeli citizenships or live in Israel.

The ban was imposed in May 2002, at the height of the terror wave, as a temporary security measure.

The restrictions, which have been challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court, are believed to have kept several thousand Palestinians from uniting with spouses who are Arab citizens of Israel.

While officials have linked the measures to security concerns, the restrictions also cut at a deeper issue: fears that the country's Jewish majority could be threatened by granting Palestinians citizenship.

"I think the real issue here is what is called the demographic issue, the fear that the clear-cut majority of Jews in Israel would be reduced," said Moshe Negbi, an Israeli legal commentator. "It's not said publicly, because it has racist, nonpolitically correct connotations."

But its not at all like the miscegenation laws of the not so distant past in America.

I swear ... men-ses and their seeds!

This Is A Litmus Test

Obviously Dean's talk with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid didn't convince him to put a cap on it ...

"'The chairman of the Republican Party has made a big deal out of attracting African-American voters. This is a litmus test. If you don't support the extention of the Voting Rights Act, you don't have the right to walk into a black church and show your face,' Dean said.

Last week Dean was rebuked by some in his party for his tough talk against the G-O-P.

'They all behave the same, they all look the same, and they all -- you know -- it's pretty much a white Christian party,' Dean said Wednesday.

'They're not going to come to the Democratic party if the chairman of the Democratic Party is out there gratuitously characterized all Republicans in a truly nasty way,' said David Axelrod democratic strategist on Wednesday of last week.

'We want people to understand it is their responsibility to vote, not just their right to vote,' Dean said.

Dean energized 'this' audience of union workers and Rainbow-Push activists with his 'ideas' and 'inclination' to say it like he sees it.

'My view is FOX News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party and I don't comment on FOX News,' Dean said. That was in response to vice president Dick Cheney calling Howard Dean 'over the top' on Fox News on Sunday.

The former Vermont governor says democrats have not done a good job of talking about their moral values. He plans to do it more.

He also says he's received positive feedback for his tough talk so he plans to continue being in his words 'blunt and clear' about the shortcomings of the republican party."

Personally, I find him hilarious!

But Is This Really Justice?

I'm torn on this. I think I expressed similar sentiments when another old man was finally prosecuted for an old case from the civil rights era. Though I was just a little kiddle when this happened and justice has definitely not been swift, I'm left wondering if even a conviction would make victory any sweeter?

"Potential jurors arrived under heavy security Monday for the trial of a reputed Ku Klux Klansman accused in the notorious killings of three civil rights workers four decades ago.

Members of the jury pool, expected to total about 400, were ushered off buses and entered a side door of the Neshoba County courthouse in the heart of this town of about 7,300.

Defendant Edgar Ray Killen, who has been free on bail, looked straight ahead and said nothing as he was brought into the two-story, red brick courthouse in a wheelchair.
A federal trial was held in the 1960s, but Killen, an 80-year-old part-time preacher, is the only person ever indicted on state murder charges in the case."

This man is decrepit and has lived the bulk of his life. He not only didn't think he was committing a crime when he killed those three civil rights workers, he probably forgot he did it and, jail or not, still has no remorse. While I am not suggesting that he just be allowed to live in freedom, except in principle, I really am just not sure I see the point.

Gimmie My Guards Back

Well, it was a nice try but I guess they have some "nice prizes backstage" for Governor Schweitzer. However, his points are valid. In case of almost certain wild fires in Montana, this state will be seriously short of National Guard staff and the helicopters required to fight the fires. Since the Governors of each state are the commanding officers for their National Guards, he has every right to request their return.

"Montana’s Democratic governor has touched off a political firestorm with state Republicans after calling for the return of National Guard troops serving in Iraq to help out during what many believe will be a record-setting wildfire season.

Newly elected Gov. Brian Schweitzer infuriated Republican lawmakers who see his request as a back door way to criticize the Bush administration’s policies regarding Iraq.

The governor and his supporters deny those charges in a growing political battle that comes as weather experts say a seven-year drought and a severely reduced snowpack could lead to a devastating summer of wildfires. They also worry that limited resources stretched thinner by National Guardsmen serving overseas could make it difficult to combat the kind of massive blazes that engulfed the state in 2000, when some 2,400 wildfires torched nearly 950,000 acres of mostly public land, according to various news reports."

We can't say that he didn't try and if the unthinkable happens with regards to devastating wildfires, all fingers will point back to George Bush and his administration.

Offended By Our Presence

Think about it. As rabidly as some of us despise George W. Bush and the combination of his Evangelical Christian/Neo-Conservative administration, how many of us would take kindly to being liberated by another country? Granted, there are some people flooding into Iraq with totally non-productive and destructive agendas but, face it, we have decimated the homes, neighborhoods and lives of thousands of Iraqis and they just aren't going to stand idly by and let us do it.

"A senior US military chief has admitted 'good, honest' Iraqis are fighting American forces.

Major General Joseph Taluto said he could understand why some ordinary people would take up arms against the US military because 'they're offended by our presence'.

In an interview with Gulf News, he said: 'If a good, honest person feels having all these Humvees driving on the road, having us moving people out of the way, having us patrol the streets, having car bombs going off, you can understand how they could [want to fight us].'

General Taluto, head of the US 42nd Infantry Division which covers key trouble spots, including Baquba and Samarra, also said some Iraqis not involved in fighting did support insurgents who avoided hurting civilians.

He said: 'There is a sense of a good resistance, or an accepted resistance. They say 'okay, if you shoot a coalition soldier, that's okay, it's not a bad thing but you shouldn't kill other Iraqis.''

However General Taluto insisted the US and other foreign forces would not be driven out of Iraq by violence. 'If the goal is to have the coalition leave, attacking them isn't the way,' he said. 'The way to make it happen is to enter the political process cooperate and the coalition will be less aggressive and less visible and eventually it'll go away.'

His comments come in stark contrast to the assertions of other top US figures, who persist in claiming all insurgents are either Baathists or Al Qaida terrorists."

The Last Throes

The death toll of American soldiers killed in Iraq has topped 1,700. But since we are in the "last throes ..."

"The military announced the killing of four more U.S. soldiers over the weekend, pushing the American death toll past 1,700 - more than double what it was a year ago. Since last June 13 - when 825 members of the U.S. military had died in Iraq - the insurgency that took shape with the fall of Saddam Hussein has increased its toll on American forces and Iraqi soldiers and civilians alike."

Come On Feets, Let's Up And Flee!

If they don't think it's worth it, why should we?

"Hundreds of soldiers have deserted the Afghan National Army complaining of poor conditions and fierce resistance from the Taleban, US officials say.

It is a blow to the Afghan government which wants to increase the size of the force so the numbers of international troops in the country can be reduced.

The corps affected is the first to be deployed in the field.

Officials say another reason for men going absent is the difficulty they experience in dealing with their pay.

The south of Afghanistan has seen some of the fiercest fighting against remnants of the Taleban and their al-Qaeda allies.

Members of the corps are in combat most days.

A US military spokesman told the BBC that around 300 men have deserted.

That is one in 12 of the entire force."

Then again, for us, there would be the small matter of that pipeline.

YAMWG: My Take

I don't know what happened to YAMWG^*: Aruba. But I do have a lot of questions:

"A missing Alabama honors student went to an Aruban beach with a Dutch teen the night she disappeared and had sexual contact with him in the car, a defense lawyer representing one of five men arrested in the case said Friday.

Natalee Holloway, 18, drove with the Dutch teen and two Surinamese brothers to Arashi beach, on the northern part of the island, Noraina Pietersz, a court-appointed lawyer representing one of two former security guards arrested in the case, told The Associated Press. Pietersz read from testimony given to police by the two brothers last week.

Five people the Dutch student, two Surinamese brothers and two former security guards have been arrested in the disappearance of Holloway, who was last seen in the early hours of May 30. She was in Aruba celebrating her graduation from high school in Mountain Brook, Ala.

Holloway disappeared hours before she was to take a flight home. Police found her passport and packed bags in her hotel room.

Authorities have not said Holloway was a victim of foul play and have not ruled out any possibilities, including that she may have drowned."

1. This was a class trip. Where was her class?
   
2. Where were here friends/buddies/people she shared a room with?
   
3. Where were the 49 chaperones?
   
4. Why did it take them 11 days to arrest/show another suspect but an older, big fat black man? (Gee, if that doesn't sound like the good ole US of A).
   
5. Why wasn't the little Dutch boy gentleman enough to escort her into the lobby(rhetorical question)
   

So, all I can do is speculate:

• The girl is dead and was killed by her Dutch suitor and/or one of the brothers who were along for the ride.
  
• The girl is dead and was killed by one or both of the big, black security guards from a closed down hotel who were just lurking around looking for tourists to assault.
  
• The girl ran away because she had sex in a car with a guy she didn't know and is too ashamed to face her parents/peers.
  
• The girl was kidnapped by one of the 5 suspects and sold into white slavery on a nearby island
  
• The girl, in her drunken stupor, wandered off and was eaten by wild island animals.
  

Heck, I truly don't know. But I do know that I am a wee bit sick of the coverage hogging up the news (like we aren't fighting two wars where soldiers are still dying).

^*(Yet Another Missing White Girl)

By Their Love

This is a few weeks old but I'd saved this link because I found it a little bit funny ... if you know what I mean ...

The problem I have is that the preacher man quoted in this article, who somehow feels that anti-bulllying programs are an attempt to promote homosexuality, looks a l'il sweet himself. Is that makeup he is wearing? That photo certainly looks like a glamour shot to me!

"By their love. Yes, you’ll know they are Christians by their love...
And you’ll know they’re Southern Baptists if they have a problem with gay kids not getting beaten up...

Rev. Voddie Baucham, Jr. said if schools are found to be promoting homosexuality through any number of specified means, churches are advised to call on their members to pull their children out of the schools and either home school them or place them in Christian schools.

The means specified in the resolution include "officially sanctioned homosexual clubs" (such as Gay-Straight Alliances), such deceptive labels as safe sex, diversity training, multicultural education, anti-bullying and safe schools.

…He said he and Shortt deem anti-bullying and safe schools programs to be merely fronts for teaching acceptance of homosexuality as a valid way of life."

Perhaps I missed the news about the formerly bullied Columbine killers (as well as all the other wierd white kids who went on shooting rampages against their families and schools) being targeted because they were gay ...

Up Or Down My Eye!

Guess that up or down vote stuff isn't such a hard and fast rule when a Republican wants to block a nominee.

"While Republican senators insist on prompt votes for every judicial nominee, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) has placed a 'hold' on President Bush's nomination of Julie Finley as ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Mrs. Finley is well qualified. Like many ambassadorial appointees, she has been a major Republican fundraiser, but she has also been a strong and active advocate in Washington for the expansion of NATO, the integration of Turkey into the European Union and the spread of democracy to countries of the former Soviet Union. These are issues that would be central in her new post -- and issues that Mr. Brownback also has highlighted. Nevertheless, Mr. Brownback, a possible presidential candidate in 2008, as of last night was employing a parliamentary maneuver to block any Senate vote -- on the grounds that Mrs. Finley is pro-choice on abortion.

The move may please Republican anti abortion activists, who have launched a campaign against Mrs. Finley, demanding that the president withdraw her nomination. But the hold is repugnant, on both procedural and substantive grounds. If a filibuster is at best a controversial way of deciding policy, allowing a single senator to have effective say over whether to hold a vote on a particular presidential appointment would seem completely unacceptable."

Does this mean Bolton is filibuster fodder again?

Hot Potato!

So now our right to illegally detain people who have neither been charged nor tried, is suddenly up for discussion. I guess after Newsweek ruined our name around the globe we want to start exploring alternatives.

"The United States would rather have detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp imprisoned by their home countries, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.

Rumsfeld spoke a day after saying he was unaware of anyone in the Bush administration discussing closing the prison in Cuba. Hours later, President Bush refused to rule out shutting the facility, saying his administration was 'exploring all alternatives' for detaining the prisoners.

Human rights groups and former detainees say prisoners at Guantanamo have been mistreated. The Pentagon said last week that some U.S. personnel there mishandled prisoners' copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

U.S. officials are waiting until Iraqi and Afghan authorities have the ability to deal with dangerous prisoners before handing over detainees from those nations, Rumsfeld said Thursday at a news conference during a NATO defense ministers' meeting.

'Our desire is not to have these people. ... Our goal is to have them in the hands of the countries of origin, for the most part,' Rumsfeld said."

I have a bridge. Any takers? Can we be any more transparent? We're trying to toss this hot potato on to somebody else!

Good Laawd That's A Lot Of Money!

It's late in the afternoon and I've resorted to quoting Chris Rock as Cheap Pete but, heavens, that is a lot of money!

"The cost to the U.S. Roman Catholic Church of sexual predators in the priesthood has climbed past $1 billion, according to tallies by American bishops and an Associated Press review of known settlements.

And the figure is guaranteed to rise, probably by tens of millions of dollars, because hundreds more claims are pending."

En Inglés Por Favor

This morning, via my Technorati watchlist, I found that one of my blog entries had been picked up on a Spanish language blog. Apparently the blogger rounded up references to the article about the Spanish judge who wants to question US soldiers over the death of a Spanish journalist. Knowing it would be a cold day in Hades before the Bush administration would even come close to allowing something like this, I simply entitled the post "Good Luck Dude," because, like it or not Manel, that is just the way things are these days.

Losing Cool se limita a reproducir la noticia de Reuters sin anadir comentarios, igual que State of the Qusan que se contenta con titular Good Luck Dude, lo que definitivamente tiene mejor cara que Those pesky Spaniards just can't let this one go."

Though I had the basic translation correct, I tried to consult a couple of Spanish speaking friends to see if I had the tone right. Ultimately, I still gathered that my Spanish blogger would have preferred a more impassioned response. I wish I could have given one, but I've got 3 1/2 more years of Bush and I am trying not to get hypertension in the meantime.

Running Against Dean

I've found Howard Dean's blunt, flip and politically incorrect remarks refreshing but, Lord, some people have their panties in a bunch.

"Dean, the head of the Democratic National Committee, is under attack by fellow Democrats who are allegedly upset at his partisan rhetoric. Critics such as Senators Joseph Biden of Delaware and former senator John Edwards of North Carolina are taking their shots at Dean, just as if they were sitting next to him during a debate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, or Manchester, N.H. They sound like they are positioning themselves for a future presidential campaign rather than working together to rebuild a party with a message for the future.

How shocking: Dean said, ''I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for' and defined the political landscape as ''a struggle between good and evil.' Is that any worse than the comment by Harry Reid, the Democrats' Senate leader, who said of Bush, ''I think this guy is a loser.' (Reid later apologized.) Is it worse than Senator Hillary Clinton of New York saying: ''There has never been an administration, I don't believe, in our history more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda.'

[...]

But Democrats never cared what McAuliffe said; all that mattered was the money he raised, compliments of his vaunted schmoozing skills. Now a few hot-shot donors are upset that Dean isn't stroking them as constantly as McAuliffe, and suddenly he's a failure. According to a recent report in ''The Hill,' during the first three months of this year, the DNC raised $14.1 million, ahead of the pace McAuliffe set in 2001. Dean is focusing on fund-raising in small increments through the Internet, as he did during his 2004 presidential bid, which revolutionized presidential campaign fund-raising. That's the big picture Democrats should focus on. Broadening the donor base from the bottom up is good for the Democratic Party."

That assessment was polite. Rude Pundit, however, took it to another level (and this part is mild):

While the right wing media has tried to portray the Democrats as turning against Dean. Andrea Mitchell, who hasn't seen Alan Greenspan's personal interest rate rise in years ("C'mon, Al, gimme more than a quarter percent"), reported Monday that Dean was "making Democrats nervous." And there's quotes out there where people like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi say Dean doesn't speak for all Democrats. But surely there's some confusion in the ranks, when such a prominent, public face of the party takes off the gloves. More than anything, it's like a bunch of Missouri high schoolers around the lockers in 1963, when the first guy walked in after summer break with long hair. Sure, sure, everyone teased him for being gay or girly. But then everyone saw the Beatles on Sullivan, and barbers went broke. Watch for John Edwards' response on his blog to become a standard reply. Or at least it ought to, because if everyone says the same thing, then the story of "nervous Democrats" becomes boring.

I think that Dean's style is just what the good doctor ordered.

Lest We Forget

I don't care how many spooks they find to sit at the door, this is still the face (masked or not) of the GOP.

"In his upcoming memoir, former Sen. Jesse Helms acknowledges he was wrong about the AIDS epidemic but believes integration was forced before its time by “outside agitators who had their own agendas.”

“Here’s Where I Stand,” to be published in September by Random House, contains Helms’ first extended comments on national affairs since the Republican retired from the Senate in 2003 after five terms. Advance proofs were described in Thursday’s editions of The News & Observer of Raleigh.

Helms, 83, was one of the state’s leading voices of segregation as a TV commentator in Raleigh in the 1960s and opposed nearly every civil rights bill while in the Senate. He has never retracted his views on race or said segregation was wrong.

In the book, Helms suggests he believed voluntary racial integration would come about without pressure from the federal government or from civil rights protests that he said sharpened racial antagonisms.

“We will never know how integration might have been achieved in neighborhoods across our land, because the opportunity was snatched away by outside agitators who had their own agendas to advance,” according to the uncorrected proof. “We certainly do know the price paid by the stirring of hatred, the encouragement of violence, the suspicion and distrust.”"

Helms also was an outspoken opponent of laws to protect homosexuals from discrimination and of funding for AIDS research, but he writes in the book that his views evolved during his final years in the Senate. He cited friendships he developed with North Carolina evangelist Franklin Graham and rock singer Bono, both of whom got him involved in the fight against the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

“Until then,” Helms writes, “it had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior, and that it would probably be confined to those in high-risk populations. I was wrong.”

I'd be curious to find out who he thinks those alleged "agitators" were.

Decreasing More Of The Surplus Population

Anglican priests in Africa are cavalierly playing God by turning down money from liberal Anglican churches while the conservative churches aren't coming close to making up the difference. How many deeds and sermons did Jesus perform which focused on feeding the poor and healing the sick? How many did he perform that came remotely close to expressing views on same sex marriage?

"Anglican bishops in Africa who are refusing millions of dollars from liberal American Episcopal sources to protest homosexual clergy say the price of their protest has been higher than they thought.

'To be honest, there is not enough money for the needs we have in Rwanda after the [1994] genocide,' said Rwandan Bishop John Rucyahana of the Diocese of Shyira, 'but if money is being used to disgrace the Gospel, then we don't need it.'

The Rev. Alison Barfoot, assistant to the Anglican archbishop of Uganda, said the Anglican province has no working phones in its Kampala headquarters because it lacks the funds. Conservative American churches haven't pitched in enough -- 'definitely not to the extent of what we've given up,' she said.

Bill Atwood, general secretary of Ekklesia Society, an international Anglican network, just returned from a tour of Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda and called the lack of money for Africans 'scandalous.'

'I just met with some archbishops a week ago,' he said, 'They were saying how painful it was, with people starving to death to make these choices.' "
[...]
"Say there are 1,000 conservative Episcopal churches that spend $1,000 a month for air-conditioning," he said. "That's $12 million a year. The amount of money they are spending on air-conditioning each year is what is being sent to run all the Anglican provinces in Africa."
[...]
Nevertheless, Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said in an interview he was willing "to do without the money" if it's necessary to remind the Episcopal Church of its mission. "It was to preach the Great Commission," he added, "but what kind of Gospel are they preaching now, saying there should be union of people of the same sex?"

Last November, his province refused the remaining $100,000 of a $288,980 grant for theological education, given in 2002 by Trinity Episcopal. Kenyan Bishop William Wago said the province laid off five workers and canceled plans for communications equipment and a medical clinic.

"We are not to mortgage our faith," he said. "We do not regret the money lost, but we rejoice on our stand for the Gospel and the truth."

What kind of gospel are conservative churches demonstrating when the donations they offer up are a mere pittance of what those wrong-minded liberals do? Gees! How noble it is to have so many sick and starving people who are dying for the principles of a handful of priests! Is this really what Jesus would do?

Stem Cells: Ideology Vs. Humanity

It will be interesting to see what happens once this gets to the Senate. You honestly cannot make me believe that all 52 Republicans are against federal funding for stem cell research on moral or religious grounds. If Bush wants to veto this bill, so be it but, for crying out loud non-religious zealot Republicans, get some gumption and follow your conscience and not the nutjobs who hijacked your party.

"For so many Americans who suffer from these diseases, or who have watched family members and loved ones suffer, the promise of stem cell research is particularly close to our hearts. Although we have passed this groundbreaking legislation through the House, it faces many more obstacles to come, including a potential veto from President Bush.

If that happens, we will need to find another 52 Republicans willing to put our common humanity above their party and the right-wing ideologues who control it.

This will be one of our toughest fights, but we have the overwhelming majority of America on our side. That is part of the reason that the DCCC and I ask you to share your stories. We need to demonstrate that this debate is not some abstract, ideological exercise. There are millions of people across our country who need and deserve the potential benefits of stem cell research."

Support The Troops Why Don't You?

I don't understand. Where are all those swashbuckling yahoos who were so gung ho about the war? Where are all of those people who were behind the President in his war on terror? How could we possibly have a shortfall given all that support for the war and the troops?

"The Army appears likely to fall short of its full-year recruiting goal for the first time since 1999, raising longer-term questions about a military embroiled in its first protracted wars since switching from the draft to a volunteer force 32 years ago.

Many young people and their parents have grown more wary of Army service because of the likelihood of being dispatched on combat tours to Iraq or Afghanistan, opinion polls show. U.S. troops are dying at a rate of two a day in Iraq, more than two years after President Bush declared that major combat operations had ended.

The Army says today's economy offers attractive alternatives to many high school and college graduates.

The recruiting statistics appear to bear that out. Officials said Wednesday that although the Army will not release its numbers until Friday, it fell about 25 percent short of its target of signing up 6,700 recruits in May. The gap would have been even wider but for the fact that the target was lowered by 1,350.

The Army said it lowered the May target to 'adjust for changing market conditions,' knowing that the difference will have to be made up in the months ahead.

The Army also missed its monthly targets in April, March and February - each month worse than the one before. In February it fell 27 percent short; in March the gap was 31 percent, and in April it was 42 percent."

Right Of Return

This is certainly going to be an interesting scenario to watch. Is Iraq going to allow the Kurds the right of return to the land they were removed from during the Arabization of that oil rich region - OR - will it be yet another big power struggle?

"As Iraqi officials prepare to draft the country's new constitution, fierce debate is expected over the status of Kirkuk, the center of northern Iraq's oil industry. Formerly known for its ethnic harmony, Saddam Hussein's policy of forced population shifts, called Arabization, has torn the fabric of the province. Now the Kurds want it back.

Ismael Yassin and his wife, Amira Mohammed, are building a simple, one-story house made of cinder blocks. About a year ago, the Kurdish couple and their eight children returned to their village of Turkolan, outside the city of Kirkuk.

Like thousands of other Kurds, they were driven from their homes in 1987 in a sweep by the former Saddam Hussein regime. It was part of Saddam's policy of 'Arabization,' designed, in part, to move Kurds out of strategic areas like Kirkuk, and to shift the ethnic balance by bringing Arabs into the city, the northern headquarters of Iraq's oil industry.

Mr. Yassin says his family returned, because Turkolan is their home. They wanted to come back as soon as Saddam Hussein was gone."

The very valid expectation of the right to return to the land one was displaced from reminds me of the situation in Palestine and Israel. But, Palestinians are basically guaranteed NO right to return to the land they were removed from when Israel was established. Double standards won't bode well.

They May Have Been Born At Night ...

... but not last night! Just how stupid do we think other sovereign nations are?

"Ft. Lauderdale - An American proposal to reform the Organization of American States' (OAS) democratic charter has been rejected by a majority of Latin American countries. The draft of the US proposal, called the 'Declaration of Florida: Delivering the Benefits of Democracy,' is considered to be too interventionist by at least 28 countries who have refused to sign it. Chile has tabled a counter-proposal that alters some of the offending articles. Chile's counter-proposal is signed by 10 other countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.

The Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) tabled their own counter-proposal, bringing the number of countries against the US' proposal to 25. Mexico and Argentina, though not signatories on either proposal, said they were reviewing both and were in agreement with the general gist. For its part, Venezuela considered the Caricom counter-proposal in particular to be generally acceptable-though it is still not clear whether they will support one or the other counter-proposal, or neither.

The US proposal advocates for the creation of a mechanism for the 'application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter in defending, protecting and promoting democracy.' But exactly what the 'application' of the Charter implies is unclear. Many delegates fear it would be a carte blanche for the OAS to intervene politically in a country that has been declared undemocratic.

Referring to the proposal on her way to Fort Lauderdale, Rice reinforced these fears, reminding the State Department press pool that 'the OAS has intervened in the past...this is not a matter of intervening to punish; it is a matter of intervening to try and sustain the development of democratic institutions across the region.'

Her use of the word intervention for what, up until yesterday morning, had been billed benignly as a mechanism for 'promoting democracy,' encompassed vaguely in the draft itself under the blanket term 'application,' would appear to have struck a nerve with Latin American leaders."

Condi, you're not talking to your boss. Other world leaders have some brain cells left.

Good Luck Dude

Judge Wants to Question US Troops on Media Deaths in Iraq

"A Spanish judge wants to question three U.S. soldiers as suspects in the death of a Spanish cameraman who was killed when a U.S. tank fired on a hotel housing foreign journalists during the 2003 assault on Baghdad.

Spanish journalists stand behind their cameras as they stage a protest April 9, 2003, in front of Madrid's U.S. embassy against the killing of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso, 37, from Spain's Telecinco television network. A U.S. tank fired on a Baghdad hotel packed with foreign journalists, killing two cameramen, and prompting an outcry from media watchdog groups demanding an investigation. Cameramen from Reuters and Spanish television died and three other Reuters staff were wounded in the shelling on Tuesday, soon after a journalist from al-Jazeera was killed in what the Arab television channel called a U.S. air strike on its office. Banner reads 'Couso, they hit us all.'

The Pentagon has found no fault with the soldiers, but High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz wants to question the three men who were in the tank, a court official said on Tuesday.

Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsiuk died and several other people were injured by a shell fired on the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital on April 8, 2003, in the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein.

The Spanish court would only have jurisdiction in the death of the Spanish citizen.

The soldiers would be questioned as suspects for murder and for crimes against the international community, which carry sentences of 15 to years in jail and 10 to 15 years respectively."

Kill The B'

I usually try to keep the cuss words on my site at a minimum. But seeing this "study" which claims that men who kill their cheating mates are hard wired to do so is the stupidest shit I've ever heard.

"But the Man lived to see the birth of a New Man. When the New Man grew up and his Mate was unfaithful, he killed her. When his next Mate merely glanced at another Man, he killed her, too. His third Mate, he beat up to keep her too submissive to even dream of looking at another. Women became smitten with his power and status, and his line grew plenteous. His sons inherited his mate-killing instincts, and soon only they -- not the Doormats -- mated and begot children. And ever since then, oh Best Beloved, all Men have a mind designed to kill unfaithful Wives.

Kipling never got around to explaining how men's minds got wired for uxoricide, but fear not: David Buss, professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin, has. In 'The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill,' he explains that the male mind 'has developed adaptations for killing.' (An 'adaptation' is a trait that conferred an evolutionary edge; those with it left more descendants than those without it.)

Killing, according to his Kipling-esque reasoning, offered so many 'advantages to our early ancestors in the competition for survival and reproduction' that, today, 'all men have an evolved psychology of mate killing that lies latent in their brains.' Men with the genetically based mental circuit for uxoricide had such an edge over their pacifist peers, in other words, that all men living today -- their descendants -- have this murder circuit, too.

For proof, Prof. Buss cites homicide statistics showing that more men than women kill, that over a five-year period in Dayton, Ohio, 52% of the women murdered were killed by a husband, lover or ex, and that women age 15 to 24 are killed by their mates or ex-mates more than over-the-reproductive-hill women are. His explanation: Only the former have evolutionary value, so men are wired to kill them if they stray but not to bother with unfaithful old bags. Also, unemployed men are more likely to kill women who dump them than are gainfully-employed men. Such low-status men, explains Prof. Buss, have the toughest time replacing their lost access to a uterus, so they're wired to raise their attractiveness to women ('you're so strong and powerful!') by murdering a cheating mate."

... and that's all I have to say about it!

Not In This Life

There is NOBODY, and I do mean no-body, that I would pay to see exchange nuptuals. Talk about not even giving them a cheap toaster from Target.

"Getting married anytime soon? There is a trend going on in the wedding industry that may leave you wanting to tie the knot…around the couple’s throat. Couples are now billing guests for the cost of their wedding. One couple, featured recently in the Wall Street Journal, was planning to spend $51,000 on their wedding. So they decided to charge people $150 a head – or $300 a couple. They were quoted as saying that people don’t understand how much it costs and they need to help out. What nerve! There are even a half dozen Web sites that take contributions for attending weddings. In Clark’s opinion, that’s an attendance fee. What happened to treating your loved ones to a meaningful ceremony? Living in different areas of the country can affect the cost of a wedding. For example, the average wedding in the NY area costs $38,000 while the average wedding anywhere else is about $17,000. But you don’t have to spend that much if you do your homework."

Once Upon A Time Called NOW

Though I always say that Earth, Wind and Fire is my favorite group of all time, Flashlight - by Parliament - is my favorite song of all time. I guess I never knew that George Clinton had legal issues with the rights to his stuff.

"In a sweeping decision on Thursday, June 2, 2005, United States District Court Judge Manuel L. Real returned to George Clinton possession of four master recordings. The four albums, produced and recorded by Clinton under the name of Funkadelic, are 'Hardcore Jollies,' 'One Nation Under A Groove,' 'Uncle Jam Wants You' and 'The Electric Spanking of War Babies.'

The decision gives George Clinton sole possession of the masters, returning them to their rightful owner after more than 15 years, and Clinton has no obligation to lien holders.

Judge Real concluded that George Clinton had been defrauded of his creative works, which involved the complicity of his former employees, a member of his former management team and his lawyers.

I will forever be making my funk the P-funk.

Questions About Stem Cells?

FAQs: Stem Cell Information

He's Only Just Begun

Even though he looks like he's going down the tubes, 6 months into a 4 year term just isn't enough time to count him out - and this is from someone who desperately wants him counted out. He does, however, have several issues that need to be addressed:

"Then there are the nagging domestic problems that are basically being ignored.

Exhibit A: The budget deficit.

''The president hasn't addressed the deficit in any significant way,' says Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, the nonpartisan budgetary watchdog. Instead, we are financing our current spending through a massive borrowing binge.

Against that backdrop, and with progress in Iraq maddeningly slow, the glow from Bush's November victory has faded. In recent days, four new polls -- by CBS, Gallup, the Pew Research Center, and Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg -- have documented just how much the tide has turned.

Bush's approval rating has sagged under 50 percent in all of them, and to the low- to mid-40s in two. The two surveys that asked found that a plurality favor a Democratic Congress or plan to vote for a Democratic congressional candidate next time. All four reported strong disapproval of the president's handling of the economy and strong disagreement with his stance on Social Security.

Last November Bush said his election victory had given him some political capital and declared that he intended to spend it. He did win a few early victories, in the form of legislation to curb class-action lawsuits and change bankruptcy rules.

But he's made little progress on the big issues, and for a simple reason. He took a relatively narrow victory and tried to turn it into a broad endorsement of policies that are too far out of the mainstream to be palatable to most people.

Second terms have been problematic for American presidents, a period when energy dissipates and trouble arrives. Yet this is remarkably early for loss and lethargy to set in."

Blogher Conference

A Course In Mindfulness

If this were going to happen almost any place but the San Francisco Bay area, we'd probably have people in an uproar complaining that a plan to teach witchcraft was being plotted. With the new pope calling Buddhism "auto-erotic spirituality," clearly people, including educated ones, need to open their minds to solutions that may work better than those that are currently in place.

In response to the concerns of educators and parents about the harmful consequences of the current method of educating young children in this country, we are planning a conference A Solution: Mindfulness in Education. The conference will be in 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The conference will further a conversation among experts in Mindfulness and teachers, parents, administrators and researchers interested in offering the beneficial practice of Mindfulness in educational settings.

Scientific research and the general media tell us that young children’s lives are increasingly stressful. Narrowly defining the goal of education as training the mind to pass standardized tests and get into college is contributing to this increase in stress. More than two decades of research in adults has proven that practicing mindfulness decreases stress, depression, anxiety, hostility and physical symptoms. Related data demonstrate that reducing children’s stress has a positive effect on their physical health, social relations, academic abilities, and, most importantly, their sense of well being.

During the conference, we will explore the following questions:

• How might our children benefit if they learn the life skill of mindfulness, while they are young?
  
  
• If our children are able to experience their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without being overwhelmed, will they be less prone to the unhealthy effects of stress?
  
• If students learn to access a natural sense of peace and to trust their inner wisdom, will they be less susceptible to harmful peer influences? Will they be less likely to look for relief in potentially risky behaviors?
  
  
• Can mindfulness enhance concentration, confidence, self-efficacy, discernment, and compassion?

If I had kids, I'd not only encourage mindfulness training for them, I'd look for a local center that teaches Spirituality For Kids.

Recruiters Doing The Cha Cha Slide

Have times gotten so hard that military recruiters are doing the "Cha Cha Slide" in order to get prospects to enlist: "How low can you go? Can you go down low? All the way to the flo'? How low can you go?" It certainly sounds like it!

"The US military has stopped battalion commanders from dismissing new recruits for drug abuse, alcohol, poor fitness and pregnancy in an attempt to halt the rising attrition rate in an army under growing strain as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An internal memo sent to senior commanders said the growing dropout rate was 'a matter of great concern' in an army at war. It told officers: 'We need your concerted effort to reverse the negative trend. By reducing attrition 1%, we can save up to 3,000 initial-term soldiers. That's 3,000 more soldiers in our formations.'

Officially, the memo, reported in the Wall Street Journal and posted on Slate.com, ordered battalion commanders to refer cases of problem soldiers up to brigade level. Military experts warned that the move would make it more difficult to remove poor soldiers and would lower quality in the ranks. "
[...]
An army spokeswoman said: "We are doing our best to decrease attrition level, but we have not and will not lower our standards for recruiting and retaining soldiers."

Yet in March 17.4% of all new army recruits failed to complete training, while another 7.3% did not finish the first three years with their unit.

Last month it emerged that one recruiter gave advice on how to cheat a mandatory drug test to a potential would-be soldier who said he had a drug problem.

In another incident in Texas, a recruiter threatened a 20-year-old man with arrest if he did not turn up to an interview. As a result all military recruiters stopped work for one day to attend retraining classes on acceptable practices.

So Come Gimmie A Hug ...

Find me in da club? Bottle full of bub?

Since I am happily and decidely single, I have absolutely no comment on this mess which I thought had died out at least a year ago. But, I guess it is still on for all the chickenheads with degrees who feel the need to do this.

"The dating game has come to this: The controversial Harlem Club, a semiprivate gentlemen's organization, opens tonight in Murray Hill, stocked with liquor, self-described professional men and sexy babes trolling for potential mates.

The club created an uproar in the black community last year when the requirements for women who don't want to pay the $2,500 membership fee came to light: They have to be pretty, in great shape, single, have no children - but be under 35 to ensure fertility - and boast a bachelor's degree."

Housekeeping

I changed domain providers ... I now use ICDSOFT instead of the hosting service provided by Tripod/Lycos. They certainly didn't make it easy to switch and gave me the run around telling me what I needed to do to change to another provider. Anyhow, icdsoft handles sub-domains a little differently so my xml feed location has changed. The new feed is at: http://blog.qusan.com/atom.xml

He Who Laughs Last

He Who Laughs Last, originally uploaded by qusan.

... didn't get the joke!

I swear. When this came in an email with the subject "Is this ghetto?" I didn't know what it was. I thought that some of our Pacific Island/Polynesian brothas or sistahs had hung out one of their celebratory grass skirt costumes to dry. I asked "whose ghetto?"

Seems I'm the only one who didn't know that it is somebody's hair weave! Lord have mercy!

Where's My Slingshot?

More accidental truth, from our illustrious President, about his plans to ram his social security plan down America's throat no matter what.

If you've retired, you don't have anything to worry about -- third time I've said that. (Laughter.) I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.

I just wanna cry!

Ride Sally, Ride

I have a friend who swears that she has a white neighbor who named his dog "Nigger" and that, every now and then, she hears him in the backyard whisper-yelling for him. True to form, I laughed and I doubt this dog is registered with the American Kennel Association as some purebred show dog.

In this case, however, some wierdo wants to name his horse Sally Hemmings - the former slave and concubine of President Thomas Jefferson (not really buying into the whole "mistress" thing because it implies a choice and when someone owns you ...). While I think it is an ignorant idea and that it probably has some not so savory motivation behind it, it's just not one of those things I am going to get myself worked up about.

A thoroughbred owner filed a federal lawsuit seeking the right to name a 2-year-old filly after Sally Hemings, the slave who was the reputed mistress of Thomas Jefferson.

The Jockey Club, which regulates the naming of thoroughbred racehorses, denied use of the name on grounds that Hemings was a famous or notorious person, requiring stewards' approval.

'Naming a thoroughbred horse 'Sally Hemings' may be offensive to persons of African descent and other ethnic groups' and may be offensive to Hemings' descendants, Ogden Mills Phipps, chairman of The Jockey Club, wrote in a letter last year.

Garrett Redmond filed suit last week in U.S. District Court, seeking to force the Jockey Club to let him use the name and allow the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority to let him race the filly under the name.

'To name a horse after someone is an honor,' said Redmond, owner of Ballycapple, a farm in Paris, Ky. 'I have a horse here named after my wife.'

Redmond, a history buff, thought the proposed name was perfect, since the filly's mother is a mare named Jefferson's Secret, who in turn was fathered by a stallion named Colonial Affair.

According to court filings, The Jockey Club initially wrote that Redmond would have to have Hemings' written permission to use the name.

Redmond wrote back, 'I will gladly get her permission if you can dig her up! Don't be silly—it's not a living person. By the way, did you get written permission when horses were named 'Louis Quatorze' or 'Buddha'?' (Louis Quatorze is the French King Louis XIV.)

Shay Banks-Young of Columbus, Ohio, a descendant of Madison Hemings, who said he was the son of Jefferson and Sally Hemings, said Redmond's plan sounded 'absolutely ridiculous.'

'I can’t imagine somebody wanting to do something like that,' Banks-Young said."

Well, I can imagine that people should be able to name their horses whatever they want. Heck, even if my worst enemy named their horse or dog after me I'd probably be flattered knowing that they were so fixated on me. I'm not much into horses but if I had a dog, I'd name him Tralfaz - you know ... Astro Jetson's real name (I wonder if I'd have to ask for permission to do that)?

And Still He Lies!

I am really, really starting to like Harry Reid. From his "performances" during the Senate confirmation hearings to off the cuff remarks like this, he is proving that you don't have to be a loud, desk pounding maniac to express a frank and valid opinion.

In an upcoming interview with Rolling Stone, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) re-asserts his reputation as an outspoken critic of the his political rivals.

In the interview, Reid claims that, 'The nuclear option is history,' whether Democrats filibuster or not. He goes on to explain that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was unable to take part in the compromise because he is, 'Driven by ... right wing zealots'.

On Frist, Reid elaborates: 'I like him, but he hasn't been in government very long. ... Being a senator is about the art of compromise. That's what the filibuster is all about—it forces compromise. And if anyone feels that compromising is unethical, or immoral, then they should get in some other business—because that's what we do.'

Reid attributes his style (which Rolling Stone refers to as 'gunslinger,') in part to his days on the Nevada Gaming Commission. 'It allows you to put things in perspective when there aren't bombs in your car, when your kids aren't being taken to school with armed guards, when you don't have to carry a gun every place you go. Those were some very frightening times in my life. In the Senate, I'm not worried about physical pain—just legislative pain.'

Reid also sings the praises of some on the other side of the aisle: 'The Republicans who signed that [filibuster] agreement, we should put up a statue to them someplace.'

Most likely to cause a stir, however, is an exchange that concludes the interview:

RS: You've called Bush a loser.

HR: And a liar.

RS: You apologized for the loser comment.

HR: But never for the liar, have I?"

All but a select, and chosen, few know that the devil is a liar.

Quit Yer Whinning

I've never been a big racing fan but my little sister did have a Johnny Lightening 500 Race Track set when she was a kid. I actually liked it better than the Hot Wheels set that a lot of other kids had. While I'm sure there was an interest, back in my day girls weren't generally setting high goals to be race car drivers. However, when I saw the young Danica Patrick preparing for the Indianapolis 500, I was definitely pulling for her and smiling inside that young women have so many options that wouldn't have been close to possible when I was younger. I understand that when women first break into a new arena with any great potential, there are going to be some grumbles from the "boys club," but for some big lug to piss and moan about Danica's alleged weight advantage just looks makes him look like a little boy flipping over the checker board to keep from losing.

"Indy-car racer Robby Gordon did not mean to be critical of newcomer Danica Patrick when he said she had an unfair weight advantage in the Indianapolis 500. Gordon said he was simply discussing a flaw in the Indy Racing League's (IRL) rules.

The day before the big race, Gordon stated that because Patrick weighs just 100 pounds, her car is lighter than everyone else's. Unlike other series, the IRL does not include a driver when setting its weight limit, reports The Atlanta Journal- Constitution.

'The only thing I was saying was that I have a problem with the rule, not any particular driver,' Gordon said Tuesday. 'I've been impressed with Danica from the first time she got in an IRL car earlier this year, and I certainly did not mean to disrespect her or any other driver.'

In NASCAR, the circuit where Gordon currently competes, the minimum weight requirement includes the driver. In the IRL, however, a car must weigh 1,525 pounds before the fuel and driver are added. A smaller driver would have at least a slight edge over heavier ones because of the rule.

'This rule has been around for years, and it's something that Paul Tracy and I have talked about for a long time,' said Gordon, who weighs nearly 200 pounds. He also added, 'Indy is one of the toughest races in the world to finish, let alone win, and the fact that she ran up front for most of the 200 laps proved her ability to drive. Given that she is so young, I would be amazed if she didn't win at least one Indy 500.'

IRL officials have said they are not considering changing the weight requirements. "

Why can't this grown ass man suck it up (in lieu of beers), lose some weight, and quit his yappin'?

Providing Service To All Mankind

Pink Tea Roses to my sorors in South Korea for promoting the goals and efforts of the organization throughout the world!

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and Area II’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation department paired up to co-host the Community Festival 2005 on Sunday at Yongsan Garrison.

Organizers said the festival, themed “Unity in the Community,” was a nice way to celebrate Memorial Day weekend.

It also showcased the “Korean Idol” final competition, sponsored by the sorority and the American Forces Network."

Members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. step team perform for the crowd. The sorority teamed up with Area II’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation department to host the festival.

Senior Dads

I'm not one of those people who believes that just because you can produce a baby, that you should. Even though people generally still frown upon women for having children late in life, I felt that it wasn't the best choice for that 57 year old great-grandmother to have twins. AND, since the backlash to feminism and this realization that women, after all these years, need men to be more than sperm donors (i.e. act as participatory partners in the love and nurturing department and be more than just a breadwinner), I don't agree that men should be out populating the world after an age when they know there is a good chance they may not, at least fully coherently , see their child graduate from high school. So, a big yuck to Rod Stewart for impregnating his girlfriend. I hope she's not still spawning his offspring when he starts needing diapers too!

Rod Stewart, known for songs such as 'Forever Young' and 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?' will be a father again.

Stewart and his fiancee, model/photographer Penny Lancaster, confirmed Wednesday that she is pregnant. The baby is due in early December and the couple plan to marry in spring 2006, said a statement from J Records.

The 60-year-old rocker told People magazine that he is 'overjoyed and extremely proud.'

'The best news of all is Penny is feeling just wonderful, is very happy and looks more radiant than ever,' Stewart told the magazine.

Lancaster, 34, and Stewart have been together for nearly six years. He proposed to her in March at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

This will be her first child, their statement said.

Lancaster's agent, Nicholas Young, has said the couple would make wedding plans once Stewart's divorce from model Rachel Hunter is finalized.

Stewart's children include Kimberly, 25, and Sean, 24, by first wife, Alana Stewart; Ruby, 17, with former girlfriend Kelly Emberg; and Renee, 13, and Liam, 10, from his marriage to Hunter.

I can preface my statements by saying that I love children and, because I am not married, do not plan to have any alone - despite technology. But, at 45, I am also lucky enough to say that I still have my mom around to chat with like she is a girlfriend. When Rod Stewart's child is 45, I doubt (s)he will have a 105 year old dad around with whom to chat. If his mistress/fiance' is fine with the fact that her child won't have a dad too far past adulthood, I guess that is okay -- for her. But what about the child? It begs the questions "are parents disposable and un needed after a certain age" and "are dads really needed at all?"

I think that men, and increasingly late breeding women, really need to assess how much value they feel they have as parents. If you think that it's over once your child is 18, breed until the window where you think can offer your love and advice up to that watermark. But if you think, and believe, that your offspring may want to have you around when they are 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70, think again about that before you want to experience the joy of motherhood or fatherhood. The job lasts longer than you think

Then Stay Your Heartfelt Self At Home!

This makes no sense at all. How was giving women the right to vote a symptom of weakness in the family? Oh, I remember! The man was supposed to make decisions for the households (except most of them even acknowledge that they don't think with their brains). Once women started thinking for themselves and wanting to vote, it meant the man had lost control and, hence, wasn't holding that club correctly or dragging his wife around the cave sufficiently. Well, who the hell let her out to run?

"A state senator who once said that giving women the vote was a symptom of weakness in the American family now wants to be Kansas' top elections official.

Sen. Kay O'Connor announced Wednesday that she is seeking the GOP nomination for secretary of state next year. O'Connor, 63, has served in the Legislature since 1993.

In 2001, O'Connor received national attention for her remarks about the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1920, which gave women the right to vote.

'I think the 19th Amendment, while it's not an evil in and of itself, is a symptom of something I don't approve of,' she said at the time. 'The 19th Amendment is around because men weren't doing their jobs, and I think that's sad. I believe the man should be the head of the family. The woman should be the heart of the family.'

On Wednesday, she dismissed the controversy — which included an unsuccessful drive to recall her from office — as 'silliness.' She said she does not believe voters will consider it a significant issue.

'I am who I am. You don't have to agree with everything I say,' O'Connor said.

But Caroline McKnight, executive director of a group devoted to fighting conservatives in politics, said: 'If she thinks it's going to go away because she's on a statewide ballot, she's living on another planet.'

O'Connor is the first person to announce a run for secretary of state. Incumbent Ron Thornburgh has not disclosed his plans."

Dearest, please sit down!

(link via Daffodil Lane)

UPDATE: Oh Snap! That's her? Who put a wig on this man?

Who's Afraid?

We've got our fingers pointing and waving at so many countries throughout the world that I cannot keep count. It's almost comical. One would think that if the country that we've been occupying and bombing into oblivion is still having daily battles with insurgents, that no one else is going to listen to yet another threat from the United States of America.

"U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has warned countries near Iraq not to provide sanctuary or medical treatment to Iraq's al-Qaida leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to have been wounded by coalition forces.

Secretary Rumsfeld issued the warning during a news conference on Wednesday.

'Any country that decides it wants to provide medical assistance or haven to a leading terrorist, al-Qaida terrorist, is obviously associating themselves with al-Qaida, and contributing to a great many Iraqis being killed, as well as coalition forces in Iraq. And that's something that people would want to take note of,' he said."

One might also think that there would have been a change in tactic/rhetoric after Bush made the "bring 'em on" statement that resulted in it being "brought on" quite regularly for nearly two years now. But then that would require the kind of common sense that used to be fairly common.

A Free Press Is Part Of A Free America

At least that's what I've heard and always believed. What part of that doesn't the Bush administration understand?

"The Bush administration says the press has hurt its mission by telling too much truth. That's why every time the press makes a mistake, the White House celebrates and demands apologies and retractions and atonement. Yet the president and his people�who made deadly mistakes and misrepresentations to cheerlead the country into war�have never allowed any contrition or apology to get close to their lips.
[...]
The Bush White House has demanded that the press stop using any information from unidentified sources, yet insists it has no equivalent obligation. The government frequently assigns officials to feed information and give briefings to the press, on the condition that the officials' names or their specific jobs not be revealed. That's a different species of anonymity entirely, says White House press secretary Scott McClellan. The difference? The press's sources, McClellan explains, are usually critical of the government. My oh my, what on earth could they possibly be critical of?

I'll Show You Absurd

Looks like the Dub has it coming at him from all sides. Somebody might be buying the "deny, deny, deny" tactics of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld but Amnesty International sure isn't.

Stung by Amnesty International's condemnation of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and elsewhere overseas, the administration of President George W. Bush is reacting with indignation and even suggestions that terrorists are using the world's largest human rights organization.
[...]
"''Guantanamo is only the visible part of the story. Evidence continues to mount that the U.S. operates a network of detention centers where people are held in secret or outside any proper legal framework -- from Afghanistan to Iraq and beyond,'' it added, noting that Bush had failed to respond to these ''longstanding concerns.''

''It is worth also worth noting,'' stressed Schulz, ''that this administration never finds it 'absurd' when we criticize Cuba or China, or when we condemned the violations in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.''

Bush's and Cheney's insistence that the detainees themselves concocted the reported abuses also drew criticism.

''You really don't have to look further than the Pentagon's own reports,'' said Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First, formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. ''There's ample substantiation of serious abuses,'' she said, adding that the administration's ''ostrich approach'' was ''dangerous. The problems are there, and they're going to continue to pose a risk to U.S. lives and policy until they're dealt with.''

HRW's Brody echoed that view. ''What is sad is that this effort at damage control may work in the U.S.,'' he said, ''but unless the administration addresses the real issues of concern -- torture, rendition, disappearances, systematic humiliation of Muslim prisoners -- then the U.S. image in the world will continue to erode.''"

3 1/2 more years of this ... unless we get really, really lucky!

Black Is Black

I guess I've had my share of "mistaken identity" encounters before (if not that, some person of non-color is forever trying to match me to someone they've seen on TV - yes folks, in 2005, people still are so limited they can only relate to "us" by comparing us to television personalities) but it never amounted to anything other than a minor irritation ... okay, sometimes a MAJOR irritation. The kind of ignorance this young man was subjected to has a far reaching impact - both to his psyche and his future. The accusor initially gave a different description of the intruder. But, in the end it seems that one black is interchangeable with them all?

"'Hey, aren't you the guy who was in my room a couple weeks ago?' Walker remembers the athletic-looking, blond senior saying. 'Yeah, it is you! You're the one!'

With that, Walker's life went south: David Hawkins fingered him to school officials as the black male who had entered his room and crashed on the floor without invitation one night. The college administration attempted to link an assortment of other unsolved trespassing cases to Walker, including a charge involving sexual touching. Ultimately, none of those charges stuck. But after the two closed hearings, Walker was found guilty of what amounted to being in Hawkins's room uninvited. Walker was not only suspended 'indefinitely,' he was also given 24 hours to pack up his dorm room and get out. He's not allowed on campus.

Months later, David Hawkins stands by his story. 'I gave my testimony in the hearing and I stand by everything I said,' Hawkins tells the Voice from his parents' home in northern Virginia. 'I am not a liar.'
[...]
But O'Neil Walker looks nothing like the description Hawkins gave Boudah. Hawkins reported that the intruder had high cheekbones and a light complexion, while Walker's cheeks are rounded and his skin is a rich, dark-brown color. Hawkins also said the intruder had an "African" accent, while Walker's diction is crisp and unaccented. Nevertheless, it was decided that Walker was not only a serious suspect in this case but in the others. He was absolved of all but the Hawkins incident.

O'Neil Walker may not have fit the description of the intruder, but he fit the profile ...

Attorney Murphy says no one is accusing Hawkins of anything. Identifications can be sincere but false, says Murphy, and because it is particularly easy for people to misidentify faces across racial lines, ID experts are often hauled into courtrooms in the real world."

What saddens me is that the white boy is defending his integrity as someone who wouldn't lie when the issue is not about lying but about being mistaken. It implies that the facade of white man's honesty is more important than the truth - no matter who gets harmed in the process.