WTH?

Why?

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Old School Chicago Soul

Someone sent me the links to these "dusty" clips and Lord knows I'm going to be on YouTube all night searching for more. I totally didn't know the Five Stairsteps were this young when they made these songs (granted I was pretty young myself then). They look like babies and sound so good! Where did this kind of music go?

And for what I didn't know ... The chick in the group starts the song "Ooh Child" ...

It Failed Because It Made No Sense

Like I said before, I don't know who threw this crap of a bill together but it makes NO SENSE! They killed one part of it. I really wish they'd go back to square one and come of with something actually feasible and HONEST before they waste time killing the rest of it.

The Senate on Wednesday killed a Republican proposal to require all adult illegal immigrants to return home temporarily in order to qualify for permanent lawful status in this country.

Also defeated was a Democratic bid to restrict legal status to those who have been in the United States for four years.

The vote was 53-45 to table an amendment by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to require that illegal immigrants go home within two years in order to qualify for a renewable Z visa to live and work lawfully in the United States.

The bill, which could grant lawful status to as many as 12 million illegal immigrants, requires only heads of household seeking permanent legal residency to return home to apply for green cards.

Senators also voted 79-18 to kill a proposal by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would have allowed only those who had been in the country for at least four years to gain lawful status. The bill would make anyone here by Jan. 1, 2007 eligible for legalization.

Both amendments were designed to respond to conservatives who decry President Bush's immigration bill as a form of amnesty.

What head of household, who was here illegally and undetectable, would willingly up and "go home" to a place that they fled because there were no opportunities? It didn't have to be defeated. It would have been defeated in practice. Any illegal stupid enough to fall for that needed to be sent home anyway and probably wouldn't have been smart enough to get here in the first place.

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Somebody Married This Crazy Bitch?

Sorry, didn't mean to call her a bitch (okay, yes I did)! I just can't stand her. I guess that means the very shrill Ann Coulter is next? To top it off, Nancy is breeding too!

CNN anchor Nancy Grace was secretly married – and she's pregnant with twins, according to a report in the New York Post.

Grace, 47, tells the Post that she wed David Linch, an investment banker in Atlanta, whom she met at Mercer College in the late '70s. The pair married in April in a small, private ceremony attended only by their families in Macon, Ga.

According to Grace, she was never planning to marry. "We've been in touch all these years and a lot of time we were separated by geography and time," she says. "It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to get married. I told my family only two days before [the wedding]."

Adds Grace: "I never thought it would happen like this. I thought 'mother' and 'wife' was just not part of God's plan for me."

Grace, who is due to give birth in January, would not reveal whether or not she underwent fertility treatments. But the expectant mom does say finding "such happiness" at this point in her life should inspire people. "Tell women out there that there is hope," she says.

The anchor plans to officially reveal her news on Tuesday's edition of her eponymous CNN Headline News show, the Post reports.

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Who Would Buy That Little Doggy In The Window?

I guess if you look at him long enough he's cute.

Elwood, a 2-year-old Chinese Crested and Chihuahua mix, was crowned the world’s ugliest dog Friday, a distinction that delighted the New Jersey mutt’s owners.

Elwood, dark colored and hairless — save for a mohawk-like puff of white fur on his head — is often referred to as “Yoda,” or “ET,” for his resemblance to those famous science fiction characters.

“I think he’s the cutest thing that ever lived,” said Elwood’s owner, Karen Quigley, a resident of Sewell, New Jersey.

Still ... I don't know. Elwood looks high.

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STOP!

Stop it!

41. Percentage of Americans who believe “Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001,” according to a new Newsweek poll. The number is up 5 points from Sept. 2004. Twenty percent of Americans say they believe today that the U.S. has found chemical and biological weapons in Iraq.

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Sprung!

I am sitting here cracking up. It's after midnight and the breaking news on CNN is that Paris Hilton has left the building! It is a zoo out there and you can hear the helicopters flying around. This entire thing, including the rabid response by so many Americans who acted as though she was public enemy #1, has been sheer comedy!

So, now what? If she's had a revelation and a transformation in the county jail and she becomes a recluse or a saint, what ever will people do?

What is also truly funny is that the overnight news comes from the British news desk and the anchor guy just doesn't get it! They have Lady Di ... and we have Paris. No wonder "they hate us!"

Update: Here's the first link I could find.

Undisclosed Bunker Of His Mind

I cannot make myself watch Fox News Sunday because, inevitably, Bill Kristol and/or Brit Hume say something so ignorant or stupid that I start scrambling for the remote to turn. So, I look to Crooks and Liars for video recaps of the best moments. This week Juan Williams got a word in edgewise and mocked Dick Cheney's bizarre notion that he is above the law.

Williams: …Maybe they have a reason because he stopped complying with the law…emails disappear in this White House and you say well what happened to the emails—oh–no…we have a private account…..This is all a dodge, this is a game in order to I guess to keep Dick Cheney in some kind of a secured, undisclosed bunker of his mind…so that he he can’t let the American people know what’s going on with their government and how decisions are made…who’s visiting his house….who’s visiting his office…Scooter Libby is letting people know who is working for the CIA…

Good Lord Stop This

We went into Afghanistan because they were supposedly harboring Osama bin Laden. Five years later, we've yet to find hide nor hair of him and we are still there ... killing innocent people.

“U.S.-led coalition and NATO forces fighting insurgents in Afghanistan have killed at least 203 civilians so far this year — surpassing the 178 civilians killed in militant attacks, according to an Associated Press tally.”

Jimmy Won't Ease Up

Jimmy Carter is not letting them change his stance on the way Israel is handling the Palestinian question. The MSM is failing us with their reporting of just how bad things are over there. The live stories I've heard on Flashpoints and Democracy Now just make me ill and have totally changed the false view I had of Israel - from how the state was created to how they are behaving now. Even though they try to write him of as old and crazy, I'm glad he's displaying TRUE Christianity and speaking the truth.

Former President Jimmy Carter accused the U.S., Israel and the European Union on Tuesday of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas' new government in the West Bank while denying the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was "criminal."

Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with Abbas' moderate Fatah movement.

Hamas fighters routed Fatah in their violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. The split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamas and set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank.

Carter said the consensus of the U.S., Israel and the EU to start funneling aid to Abbas' new government in the West Bank but continue blocking Hamas in the Gaza Strip represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."

"All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together," he said.

The U.S. and European countries cut off the Hamas-led government last year because of the Islamic militant group's refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel. They have continued to send humanitarian aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other organizations.

In the latest crisis, the U.S., Israel and much of the West have been trying to shore up Abbas in hopes that the West Bank can be made into a democratic example that would bring along Gaza.

During his speech to Ireland's annual Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Center observed the 2006 election that Hamas won. He said the vote was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.

Far from encouraging Hamas' move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the U.S. and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.

"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.

"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.

Carter said the U.S. and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" - but Hamas routed Fatah in the fighting last week because of its "superior skills and discipline."

Baby At The Prom?

I am all for family values but I think this is taking it just a little too far!

I guess I really am too damned old because I just find this appalling (clutching my pearls too)!

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You Can't Apply If You Don't Know About The Job

Why do they need a lawyers to help them do this? The Admin at one company where I worked was pretty good at placing obscure ads (in the newspaper in an internet age) all by herself.

A disturbing video… Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explains how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers

(video here)

I think that is how the VP of Engineering was able to hire two "friends" from Bulgaria to do fairly simple software development work ... not to mention that a good chunk of his staff was from India. That was 1999-2000. Today I work at a software company where the Engineering staff is almost entirely East Indian or Chinese. In fact, the Chinese may have a leg up on the Indians. There is not a single American or Indian on the QA team and certain development teams are solidly Chinese.

People used to be concerned about outsourcing to India and China ... and every company I've worked for since 1999 has done that. At my current place, not only do we have an offshore team, most Americans there feel like they are "offshore" right here in Silicon Valley.

A friend, who has been in the industry since the early 80s, in addition to being a software developer, has been reduced to being the liaison from her team to the teams in both India and China - only to be caught in the middle of those two teams battling it out for the "best" of the work that is being shipped overseas. She and a white guy are the only two Americans on her team her day is split between a 4 hour morning shift and a 4 hour shift after dinner ... so she can be available to the teams on the other side of the globe (why the "foreigners" cannot even talk to their "own folks" is beyond her - and me).

So, while the majority of Americans are stressing about illegal Mexicans, knowing good and well that most of them don't even know a single Mexican personally and wouldn't know an illegal Mexican from a Mexican American citizen if one slapped them in the face, I sit at work every single day and listen to the buzz of languages I cannot understand. There is no drive for everyone to speak English in the workplace and with homogeneous teams that aren't American, they don't have to ... which means that when I interact with them, their English is barely understandable because they do not practice it on a regular basis.

Corporations claim that the quality is better when they hire high tech workers from other countries but I beg to differ. Most of the places I've worked since this trend began focus on getting the product out - and not the quality of the output. They treat the people/code like factory workers/output. When you have software that cannot even generate error messages that are free of grammar/spelling errors and broken English, you have crap! I'm in Technical Support (supporting technical people) and I've gone from fielding software bugs that used to be complicated and hard to find to a multitude of "ooops" problems and just plain sloppiness.

Still, I'm not really complaining even though I've had three companies go bust on me in the past 6 years (and was out of work for a year during 2002-2003). I guess still have a job because I can speak and write good English in a country where most Americans go ballistic if they cannot understand someone on the phone who is supposed to be there to help.

The bottom line about is that Corporations are lying about not having Americans to do the work at the low end of the scale and at the high end of the scale. Once these imported workers outnumber Americans in these fields and companies and control who gets interviewed, hired and promoted (as is the case where I work now), no American (no matter how educated they are) will get hired as they won't speak the language of the majority - which isn't English.

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I Get Sick Of Saying "Oh HAY-ELL No" ...

... but Oh hay-ell no!

The 15-year-old son of two doctors performed a filmed Caesarean section birth under his parents’ watch in southern India in an apparent bid to gain a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest surgeon.

Instead, the boy’s father could be stripped of his licenses and may face criminal charges, officials said Thursday.

Dr. K. Murugesan showed a recording of his son performing a Caesarean section to an Indian Medical Association chapter in the southern state of Tamil Nadu last month, said Dr. Venkatesh Prasad, secretary of the association. The video showed Murugesan anesthetizing the patient.

“We were shocked to see the recording,” Prasad told The Associated Press, adding that the IMA told Murugesan that his act was an ethical and legal violation.

Murugesan owns and runs a maternity hospital in the city of Manaparai, Prasad said in a telephone interview from Manaparai. The family could not be immediately reached for comment.

Murugesan, who could possibly be prevented from practicing and face criminal charges for allowing his son to perform the operation, expressed no regret and accused the Manaparai medical association of being “jealous” of his son’s achievements, Prasad added.

“He said this was not the first surgery performed by his son and that he had been training him for the last three years,” said Prasad.

Is this man insane or just vain and egotistical (I know ... same thing)? He has the nerve to brag to the medical association that his son has been doing this for three years ... and that the medical association is just jealous?

HUH?

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Just A Freak Show

I don't know how I came upon two crazy links like this on the same day - and not even in the "oddly enough" section. Here is freak show number one:

A Brisbane woman stabbed a male friend twice in the shower after he refused to stop masturbating in front of her children.

Defence lawyers for Kylie Louise Wilson, 28, said the mother of two "lost it" when her friend of six years, Daniel Peter Blair, went on a masturbation marathon on April 6 last year.

Brisbane's District Court this morning heard Mr Blair had showed up at Wilson's unit at Birkdale unit, in Redland Shire, where he took amphetamines before having a shower.

Whilst in the bathroom, Mr Blair, 32, began pleasuring himself, before moving to Wilson's bedroom, where he rolled around naked on her bed and continued his lewd conduct.

He returned to the bathroom for more and was busted by Wilson, who was attempting to bath her three-and-a-half year-old daughter.

The court heard Mr Blair refused her repeated requests to stop, prompting her to fetch a knife from the kitchen which she used to stab him twice in the left shoulder.

Crown prosecutors said Mr Blair paused only to put on his shorts and flee outside to wait for police to arrive, but was again overcome by the urge.

And these fools lost their lives:

Police today were investigating how a naked couple fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths.

The bodies were found on the road by a passing cabdriver at about 5 a.m. today.

Clothing was discovered on the roof, leading authorities to suspect the man and woman, in their early 20s, may have been having sex. Their identities were not released.

Most certainly, I am missing out on some things in life!

Australians Moving Towards Buddhism

Can you imagine what the fundies would do if this trend escalated here?

As the Dalai Lama completes his tour of Australia, his visit has been seen by some as boosting the number of adherents to the Buddhist faith as the religion is now moving towards the Australian mainstream.

The Voice of America (VOA) reported that Tibetan nuns chanting traditional prayers are increasingly common in Australia, as the nation has more Buddhists per capita than anywhere else in the Western world.

Experts who study religious trends in Australia say many converts to Buddhism found the teachings of some Christian churches too rigid and intolerant of questions about the faith, reported the VOA.

In a three-year national study on the religious behaviour of Generation Y published last year, the co-author of the study, Dr Andrew Singleton from Monash University said that Generation Y in Australia is gradually departing from religion where some are turning to alternative spiritualities.

However the number turning towards these alternative spiritualities is not as big as Dr Singleton expected. He said: “It's well-known that there has been a turn away from church attendance and participation in young people. But we thought there was going to be a move towards alternative spiritualities. There are still a number turning towards it, but not as big as you would have thought."

The survey found 20 per cent of young people did not believe in a god and 32 per cent were unsure.

He's Missing In Iraq So Deport Her

Lovely!

While the U.S. military searches for a soldier missing in Iraq, kidnapped by insurgents possibly allied with al Qaeda, his wife back home in Massachusetts may be deported by the U.S. government.

Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin Hiraldo, whom he married in 2004.

Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said 23-year-old Hiraldo illegally entered the United States in 2001 to reunite with her husband, whom she had met in her native Dominican Republic and later married at his New York State Army base in 2004.

Her husband's request for a green card and legal residence status for his wife alerted authorities to her status, Kolken said.

She now faces deportation, reports CBS station WBZ correspondent Beth Germano, and would be barred from applying for a green card for 10 years.

Was This A Hate Crime?

It most certainly was senseless! This was a passenger in the car, not the guy who hit the child. Even if he had been the culprit, what kind of vigilante mob mentality, at what is supposed to be a celebration, is this? Would they have attacked this man were he not Hispanic?

Police believe 2,000 to 3,000 people were in the area for a Juneteenth celebration when the attack occurred Tuesday night. The man who was killed had been trying to stop the group from attacking the vehicle's driver when the crowd turned on him, authorities said.

The Austin Police Department identified the victim as David Rivas Morales, 40. The child was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Police spokeswoman Toni Chovonetz said she had no further information, including how many people were involved.

The driver was able to get away from the crowd and is cooperating with investigators, police said.

Juneteenth marks the day Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston in 1865 to share news of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves two years earlier on Jan. 1, 1863.

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'Z' Be Vogue'ing

The paparazzi must be having a good time with this kid. She must turn around every time she hears her name as she is always caught looking at the camera! Work it girl!

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Don't I Wish ...

Must be nice!

You can be the star of Run's House - or live large in Russell Simmons' crib.

Joseph (Rev. Run) Simmons is selling the New Jersey mansion where his MTV series was filmed at the same time his entertainment mogul brother, Russell Simmons, is unloading his own palatial spread in the Garden State.

Neither is cheap.

Joseph Simmons is asking $5.5 million for his columned Colonial in Saddle River, which was the setting for his hit reality series, "Run's House."

His big brother, who split with his model wife, Kimora Lee, last year, wants $23.9 million for his sprawling, 10-bedroom estate just 2-1/2 miles away.

Run's house has six bedrooms and comes complete with a home theater and lounge with a hot tub. The rap pioneer's wife, Justine, supervised a top-to-bottom renovation of the stately brick-and-stucco home.

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Enough Is Enough!

This is too much!

The Army is considering whether it will have to extend the combat tours of troops in Iraq if President Bush opts to maintain the recent buildup of forces through spring 2008.

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren testified Tuesday that the service is reviewing other options, including relying more heavily on Army reservists or Navy and Air Force personnel, so as not to put more pressure on a stretched active-duty force.

Most soldiers spend 15 months in combat with a guaranteed 12 months home, a rotation plan that has infuriated Democrats because it exceeds the service's goal of giving troops equal time home as in combat. In coming weeks, the Senate will vote on a proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would restrict deployments.

Bloomberg Out Of The GOP

I'm still playing catch up with my posts and have plenty in the pipe that I haven't pushed out but I just wanted to pass on this "breaking news" ...

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg left the Republican Party on Tuesday and switched to unaffiliated, a move certain to be seen as a prelude to an independent presidential bid that would upend the 2008 race.

The billionaire former CEO, who was a lifelong Democrat before he switched to the Republican Party in 2001 for his first mayoral run, said the change in his voter registration does not mean he is running for president.

"Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city," Bloomberg said.

With an estimated worth of more than $5 billion, he easily could finance an independent presidential bid.

The 65-year-old mayor has increasingly been the subject of speculation that he will run as an independent in 2008, despite his repeated promises to leave politics after the end of his term in 2009. He has fueled the buzz with increasing out-of-state travel, a greater focus on national issues and repeated criticism of the partisan politics that dominate Washington.

"The politics of partisanship and the resulting inaction and excuses have paralyzed decision-making, primarily at the federal level, and the big issues of the day are not being addressed, leaving our future in jeopardy," he said in a speech Monday at the start of a University of Southern California conference about the advantages of nonpartisan governing.

Throughout his 5 1/2 years as mayor, Bloomberg has often been at odds with his party and President Bush. He supports gay marriage, abortion rights, gun control and stem cell research, and raised property taxes to help solve a fiscal crisis after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But he never seemed willing to part with the GOP completely, raising money for the 2004 presidential convention and contributing to Bush and other Republican candidates.

Just last year, he told a group of Manhattan Republicans about his run for mayor: "I couldn't be prouder to run on the Republican ticket and be a Republican."

It would be refreshing to have a seemingly viable third-party candidate. I don't hate Republicans. I just hate the nutjobs who've hijacked the party. I could probably handle somebody like Bloomberg if he is able to best the Democratic nominee.

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Give It A Rest 50!

Here he goes again!

"She doesn't ever say anything that
anybody from the ghetto is gonna ID with. Take a poll. You go out and
find me some young black women who ID with Oprah...She can escape the
fact that she's black because she's a billionaire." -- CURTISSS! on Oprah, again [VH1 Blog]

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I Don't Get This

Do you get this?

Wow. Now it’s not only college students playing with blackface, faculty and staff members are getting in on the act too. This Fresno, CA Christian school even played a game of “catch the runaway slave!” From Fresnobee.com:

Members of Fresno’s black community said they were stunned this week to see pictures of adults in blackface poking fun at slavery during a recent graduation celebration for Riverdale Christian Academy.

The photos, which were posted on the Internet shortly after the June 1 event, show staff and faculty of the small private Christian school dressed as slaves with captions describing activities at the party in Hanford.

“The slaves served lemonade — it was a riot,” read one caption beneath a photo of five women and a man at a lemonade stand. Each had dark face makeup and wore 19th century clothing.

“Someday we gonna be leavin’ when a workin’ day is done,” read another caption posted with a photo of three women holding gardening tools.

A third picture showed a white man in a Yankees jersey and top hat escorting another in blackface with the caption, “bringing home the runaway slave in the Senior skit.”

By now you know the drill with these blackface parties.

Step 1: Declare that you did not mean to offend anyone.

Step 2: Point to the fact that black people were at the party too, so obviously it wasn’t that racist!

These types of articles are becoming so common that I probably have at least five of them saved in draft form because I could never get a good rant going to post about it. I just plain don't get it! I don't get why white people are so fixated with black people (and there have been enough "illegal alien" parties on college campuses lately so Hispanics need to be added to the list of their obsessions too). I cannot fathom EVER in my life dressing up like someone of another race, putting on face paint and depicting something as heinous as slavery. I said I don't get it but why don't they get that this is not right?

... and this time it's not even the students but the staff? Sheesh! They are at a "Christian" school so I hope God will save them from their mindless ignorance.

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No Minarets, No Peace

What, exactly, is this "surge" supposed to cure? Come September will there be anything left of Iraq?

In a bold blow to Iraqi hopes for peace, suspected al-Qaida bombers toppled the towering minarets of Samarra's revered Shiite shrine on Wednesday, adding new provocation to old wounds a year after the mosque's Golden Dome was destroyed.

The attack stoked fears of a surge in violence between Muslim sects. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government rushed to contain Shiite wrath against Sunnis: It clamped a curfew on Baghdad and asked for U.S. troop reinforcements in Samarra, 60 miles north of here, and for a heightened American military alert in the capital.

But sketchy reports of sectarian strife began to come in. Police told of at least four Sunni mosques in Baghdad and south of the capital attacked by arsonists and bombers, and of a smaller Shiite shrine bombed north of here.

Wednesday's Samarra attack also threatened to deepen Iraq's political crisis, as the 30-member bloc of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr immediately suspended its participation in parliament in protest.

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There Will Be Hell To Pay

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are getting worse - not better. So all of this news which illustrates the un-American way we've handled our so-called enemies, will only make things worse as our soldiers seem to be in more danger than ever.

he CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate key terror suspects, shackling and handcuffing inmates, keeping some naked for weeks and reducing contact with the outer world to masked and silent guards, a European investigator said Friday. The CIA called the report "distorted," but stopped short of denying the existence of prisons in the two countries - the agency said it does not discuss the location of its overseas facilities. Poland and Romania also vehemently denied the allegations. "High value detainees" like self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and suspected senior al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah were held in Poland, said the report, which cited CIA sources. It said lesser detainees, but still of "remarkable importance," were taken to Romania. Top officials in both countries knew of the detention centers, said the report by Swiss Sen. Dick Marty, a former prosecutor asked by the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, to investigate CIA activities after media reports of secret prisons emerged in 2005. (AP) Swiss senator Dick Marty, who is heading the investigation into alleged CIA prisons in Europe,... Full Image Marty did not rule out the CIA having more such prisons in Europe, but told reporters he did not include that in his report because his sourcing was insufficient. He accused Germany and Italy of obstructing investigations into secret detentions. The report said its conclusions about the clandestine prisons relied on "multiple sources which validate and corroborate one another." Marty said his team spoke with "over 30 one-time members of intelligence services in the United States and Europe" as well as former or current detainees and human rights activists.

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Al Sit Down!

Update before the post: I guess my view is moot at this point because they've take Paris, kicking and screaming, back to the slammer. I still think it's stupid and will take up too many news cycles where I'd rather see something else, but at least this chapter is over ... until the appeal. The world is safe now isn't it? She might be a basket case now but when she gets out of the clink, she'll be richer than ever and laughing all the way to the bank.

---

It's crusades like this that put Al Sharpton into the ambulance chaser category. What possible interest does he have in this blonde diva?

Responding to outcries over Thursday morning's sudden release of Paris Hilton from jail, the Reverend Al Sharpton plans to meet with LA County Sheriff Lee Baca on Monday.

After learning of Hilton's early out, Sharpton said it had "all of the appearances of economic and racial favoritism."

"I think that it's both another glaring display of how race and money seem to get different treatments. There seems to be a different criminal justice system for some than others," Sharpton said.

After only three days into a 23-day jail stint, for violating a judge's orders against driving because of a DUI, Hilton was fitted with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet and sent home to the comforts of her 2,700-square-foot Hollywood Hills residence.

DUI aside, we are still talking about a misdemeanor traffic violation - not grand theft auto, not grand larceny, not capital murder. In listening to calmer, saner voices on some of the Paris obsessed cable programs yesterday, there is some question as to whether even regular citizens would have gotten jail sentences for the same type of offense. Looking at GMA this morning, it seems that most non-violent offenders are serving only 10% of their sentences in this county. She didn't need the "medical" excuse. Everyone else is getting out too.

More than outrage over Paris not serving the entire sentence in the local lockup, I am just appalled at the vigor with which people are seeking her crucifixion over ... a TRAFFIC VIOLATION! America's fascination with stick thin women who have bodies like adolescent boys (with a couple of boobs slapped on) positively slays me. She and her sister are rich but they did not ask to be famous. They showed up on the party scene (like most folks their age do in the circle of their peers) and the "media" went wild. She was created by people's fixation with her because of her looks and her money. Now they want to get mad because of her looks and status buy her the same things that looks and status buy everyone else. We know that's life and, sorry, if we are really interested in equal justice, we can find far more meaningful, "cases" to be outraged over.

Bill O'Reilly Is A Frickin' Moron!

What kind of logic is this? This cretin had a MySpace page that pretty much proved he was a psycho. Now, if Bill thinks that white bread means possible serial killer, well, alrighty then!

On the June 7 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly said of Edwin Roy Hall -- the man charged with murdering 18-year-old Kelsey Smith after abducting her from the parking lot of a Target store in Overland Park, Kansas: "[T]his guy who is charged has a child and a wife. You know, he's like white-bread guy. And we're all going, 'What is that?' "

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the adjective "white-bread" is defined as: "Blandly conventional, especially when considered as typical of white middle-class America."

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It's Not Like It Didn't Cross My Mind

You don't trash talk folks who are known for poisoning enemies!

After trading insults with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the lead-up to the G8 summit in Germany, Bush had to miss a session and group photo op yesterday after falling ill with what the White House called "some sort of bug." Was he, like Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko and reform-minded Ukrainian president Victor Yushchenko, poisoned? Apparently, White House counselor Dan Bartlett also sensed the coincidence, asserting defensively that Bush's illness was "probably more viral in nature and highly unlikely to be anything related to food or anything he ate." Question is, does Bush have a taster? 'Cause homeboy needs one. Putin is a dangerous enemy, and Bush doesn't have too many friends at home.

(Note to conspiracy theorists—and Mr. Putin: This post is tongue-in-cheek. )

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Truly A Danger Zone

In this US occupied country where women supposedly were allowed to vote, they are still being killed for not knowing their place.

Two female journalists have been murdered in Afghanistan in less than one week.

Last night, Zakia Zaki, the head of a radio station, was killed in her home. The murder was particularly gruesome as she was shot several times in her head and chest as she slept in the same room with her eight-month and three-year-old sons. The sons both survived the shooting.

According to the Governor of Parwan, where Zaki worked and ran the Peace Radio station, three people entered her home and opened fire.

Monkey Business

The people who don't believe that they descended from primates feature an "Adam" who acts like a wild monkey!

The man who plays Adam in a video aired at a Bible-based creationist museum has led a different life outside the Garden of Eden, flaunting his sexual exploits online and modeling for a clothing line that promotes free love.

After learning about his activities Thursday, the Creation Museum in Kentucky pulled the 40-second video in which he appears.

"We are currently investigating the veracity of these serious claims of his participation in projects that don't align with the biblical standards and moral code upon which the ministry was founded," Answers for Genesis spokesman Mark Looy said in a written statement.

The actor, Eric Linden, owns a graphic Web site called Bedroom Acrobat, where he has been pictured, smiling alongside a drag queen, in a T-shirt brandishing the site's sexually suggestive logo. The Web site, which has a network of members, allows users to post explicit stories and photos.

He also sells clothing for SFX International, whose initials appear on clothing to spell "SEX" from afar. It promotes "free love,""pleasure" and "thrillz."

Why didn't they know this ahead of time? Are the creationists so backwards that they don't know how to google?

Immigration Bill Goes Kaput

I found the bill to be a big, infeasible, ball of confusion. So I'm glad they'll have to go back to the drawing board.

A broad immigration bill to legalize millions of people in the U.S. unlawfully suffered a stunning setback in the Senate Thursday, costing President Bush perhaps his best opportunity to win a top domestic priority.

The bipartisan compromise championed by the president failed a crucial test when it could not attract even a simple majority for an effort to speed its passage.

So what's in this bill and why don't I like it?

Illegal immigrants who arrived in US before 2007 (some 12 million):

•can immediately receive a probationary card, which allows them to legally live and work in the US

•are eligible for a renewable Z visa, offering a path to permanent legal residency status


-- On the first two bullets, how are you going to get people to come out of the underground to do this?

•are required to pay $5,000 fine, pa