You Have To Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth

I accidently scanned to some AM talk radio station and heard some blow hard going off about Hillary having criminal friends. I turned but I guess this is what he was growling about.

Disgraced Democratic party fundraiser Norman Hsu is out of jail tonight, after surrendering to authorities for a 15-year-old arrest warrant.

After being led away in handcuffs this morning, Hsu posted the $2 million bail set by California Superior Court Judge H. James Ellis and was released.

Hsu, an apparently wealthy apparel magnate, had pleaded no contest in 1992 for what authorities have called a Ponzi-like fraud scheme involving latex gloves that cost investors more than $1 million.

But after entering his plea, Hsu failed to appear for sentencing. At the time, he reportedly faced up to three years in prison. When Hsu didn't show, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Until news of his criminal past broke two days ago, Hsu was a major donor and fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.'s presidential bid. He has also donated to the presidential campaigns of Democratic Sens. Barack Obama, Ill., and Joseph Biden, Del.

Hsu reportedly raised well over $1 million for Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, by eliciting donations from others and giving generously from his own pockets. Questions have been raised in the last few days about many big contributions from Hsu's contributors, which appeared incommensurate with the modest incomes of the individuals and families who gave them.

How the hell did he have an arrest warrant out for his ass for 15 years? This wasn't for some traffic violation. He was facing 3 years! Interesting, isn't it? If he were black and had only stolen a box of latex gloves from Target, the cops would have been running a high speed chase, rolling over dogs and children in the process, trying to hunt him down.

Powered by ScribeFire.

It's All Over Casanova

We all have our ups and downs, our moments of poor using poor judgment and our times where we make critical mistakes. Why did this man have to make his in a bathroom?

Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men's room, Republican officials said Friday.

Craig will announce at a news conference in Boise Saturday morning that he will resign effective Sept. 30, four state GOP officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The announcement follows by just five days the disclosure that he had pleaded guilty Aug. 1 to a reduced misdemeanor charge arising out of his arrest June 11 at the Minneapolis airport.

The three-term Republican senator had maintained that he did nothing wrong except for making the guilty plea without consulting a lawyer. But he found almost no support among Republicans in his home state or Washington.

Oh well, I guess he can go back to ranching . Maybe some quiet time with his animals is just what he needs ... (Dirty minds, don't go there)!

Powered by ScribeFire.

So She Wasn't On Crack When They Married

Poor, pitiful Bobby. I want to know where he got $10K to put Whitney and Bobbi Kristina up in a hotel if he had to live in his car ...

Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown are scheduled to appear in divorce court today, where they’ll fight for what they feel they deserve. Brown says Houston has stopped letting their daughter return his calls since the couple’s break-up. He also says he lived in his car at one time while Houston was undergoing rehab, and he paid $10,000 for her and their daughter to live in a hotel. A prenuptial agreement binds Brown from getting alimony or support.

If she had the sense to get a prenup that will not pay him alimony or support, she couldn't have been too strung out.


Update: Bobby is high as I write. He says he didn't sign a prenup. That's not his signature ...

Via TMZ

Just moments ago, Brown’s lawyer, Stacy D. Phillips, told an Orange County Superior Court judge that she had an issue with the prenuptial agreement that Houston’s legal team brought up earlier this week. According to Brown’s attorney, Bobby is prepared to take the stand and tell the judge that “It is not his signature” on the document.

Not his signature? Hmmmm. Whose could it be?

Powered by ScribeFire.

Ashton Is More Important Than A Purse

Well, isn't this refreshing!

Ashton Kutcher has a rule when it comes to being photographed with wife Demi Moore – or any woman.

"Your man should not upstage you," Kutcher advises. "He is there to highlight you."

The actor, 29, offers that gem, among others, in an essay on fashion tips that appears in the September issue of Harper's Bazaar, on newsstands now.

In the essay, Kutcher endeavors to help couples struggling with how to dress and offers the male point of view when it comes to sprucing up.

"Guys don't like to be told they look nice, pretty, or cute or that they clean up well," writes Kutcher, who's been married to Moore, 44, since 2005.

"We want to feel dirty, rugged, and, most important, that you feel safe when you are in our company," he continues. "So when your guy finally tries on something that you like, tell him that he looks like James Bond or Tony Montana."

Adds Kutcher, "Feel free to be even more vague than that: 'Wow, that suit makes you look like that hot football player!' Trust me, say any of this and you won't be able to get him to take the damn suit off."

The bottom line, he says, is that the woman must be the star of the couple.

"When it comes to getting dressed, men are a little bit more important than handbags but less important than shoes," he writes. "At any rate, we are merely accessories.

Powered by ScribeFire.

More Ignorant FBI Mess

Surprised?

Federal agents spied on the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for several years after his assassination in 1968, according to newly released documents that reveal the FBI worried about her following in the footsteps of the slain civil rights icon.

In memos that reveal Coretta Scott King being closely followed by the government, the FBI noted concern that she might attempt “to tie the anti-Vietnam movement to the civil rights movement.”

Four years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, the FBI closed its file on Coretta Scott King, saying, “No information has come to the attention of Atlanta which indicates a propensity for violence or affiliation of subversive elements,” according to a memorandum dated Nov. 30, 1972.

Now, if her husband wasn't hadn't shown a "propensity for violence or affiliation of subversive elements," why was she suddenly suspect? Those dirty old bastards!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Look What They Dun Did Now!

So where's the one in Spanish since the district is nearly 60% Hispanic? Shouldn't they have done that one first?

A school district police officer has been suspended as the district investigates his distribution of a "Ghetto Handbook" and a three-month lapse before top district officials were informed about it.

The eight-page booklet, subtitled "Wucha dun did now?", was handed out to about 15 Houston Independent School District police officers at a May roll call meeting, spokesman Terry Abbott said.

A supervisor immediately collected the booklets, Abbott said, but district officials said they didn't learn about the incident until someone made a complaint to the district's Equal Employment Opportunity Office in mid-August.

"This publication was completely reprehensible and HISD condemns it in the strongest possible terms," Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said in a written statement Thursday.

He said he has "mounted a very aggressive investigation."

District Police Chief Charles Wiley "is not doing any interviews because of the fact that it's an ongoing investigation," Abbott said.

The booklet billed itself as a guide to Ebonics, teaching the reader to speak "as if you just came out of the hood." It included definitions such as "foty: a 40-ounce bottle of beer"; "aks: to ask a question"; and "hoodrat: scummy girl."

The booklet names six district officers "and the entire day shift patrol" as contributors. Abbott said a preliminary investigation has cleared those officers of involvement.

Last year, almost 30 percent of the district's 202,000 students were black and almost 60 percent were Hispanic.

Carol Mims Galloway, president of the Houston NAACP chapter, said the officer who created the book should be severely punished or fired.

"It was really a slap in the African-American community's face," said Galloway, who's running for the school board.

"We're paying their salaries with our tax dollars," Galloway said of the district police. "It does reflect on the district."

School board member Larry Marshall said the document was inappropriate, even if it was meant to be a joke.

"These are very racially sensitive times," he said. "It was a huge mistake in judgment."

It wasn't a "huge mistake in judgment." It was ignorant, racist and wholly stupid! Naturally, I'm sure they'll say they "didn't mean anything by it."

Powered by ScribeFire.

Starbuck's Newest Star

This cutie patootie is moving up in the world of chefs. I may have to get more than my standard iced tea or doppio over ice.

To our surprise, Marcus Samuelsson has signed a deal with Starbucks that is detailed in a lengthy press release today. The collaboration is called "Coffee is Culinary," and consists of two new coffee blends, two new baked items, and then there's this paragraph:

Discover the Foods, Flavors and Inspirations of Marcus Samuelsson

In his cookbook, Discovery of a Continent: Foods, Flavors and Inspirations from Africa, Samuelsson shares his stories of the land, the people and the traditions of Africa through his artfully prepared dishes. Any one of his creations can be paired with Starbucks® coffee to enhance the rich flavors of both the cuisine and the coffee experience. Additionally, Samuelsson selected five original recipes for inclusion which were developed by Starbucks store partners (employees).

Starbucks will be selling Samuelsson's cookbooks in stores, and donate $1 to Unicef for every copy sold between now and October 1. Samuelsson will, in exchange, embark on a ten-city tour to promote this whole deal.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Hillary's Half Dollar Endorsement

Seeing that he liked George Bush because he was "a gangsta" and saw a lot of himself in the Pres, I guess Obama isn't gangsta enough for him (not that his felon status allows him to vote anyway). Now if he thinks that Bill is going to be running the show if Hillary wins, he needs to think again!

In an interview with MTV News, 32-year-old Curtis James Jackson, otherwise known as rapper 50 Cent, revealed his views on our current president ("he has less compassion than a regular human being") and came out in favor of Hillary in '08, for reasons the candidate might call right and not-so-right:

I'd like to see Hillary Clinton be president. It would be nice to see a woman be the actual president and ... this is a way for us to have Bill Clinton be president again, and he did a great job during his term.

While his statement might seem a little self-contradictory, I'll go down on record as feeling a little bit the same way.

So-called "backpack" rappers like Talib Kweli and Common have been giving shout-outs to Obama in their songs lately (Common's single, "The People," says "My raps ignite the people like Obama") but Hil may have a good strategy by going after the platinum-sellers. The big question is: who will get Lil Wayne on their side.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Well, Here's An Interesting Take On Craig

Trey Ellis - author, teacher and screen writer - has a humorous spin on this ...

Look, I feel sorry for Senator Craig and the millions of other gay men of his generation on the down low, torturing themselves for decades by pretending to be what they are not. I feel sorry for anyone so drowning in guilt, shame and loneliness that they compulsively seek out intimate contact with strangers among the stench of piss and shit.

And yet...how awesome it would be if straight guys could just sidle up to a woman, tap our foot and have sex with them. According to Craig's police report that's all you have to do. I'm newly single again and truly suck at meeting women at bars. I don't like to get drunk and think it's unsportsmanlike to take a woman to bed if she's blotto.

This whole tapping the foot thing could be the answer to my prayers. After yoga, instead of feverishly racking my brain for some non-lame ice breaker I'd just -- tap, tap, tap -- and they'd jerk me in to the locker room. The next time I fall in love at Starbucks, instead of pretending to the woman in front of me that I'm confused about the distinction between a grande and a venti I'd tap, tap, tap and we'd rush off to the nearest hotel.

It is a uniquely male solution. Women, in general, seem to like things more nuanced and Byzantine.

Leave it to a bunch of guys to figure out a way to circumvent thousands of years and the endless intricacies and uncertainties of courtship with a simple tap of the toes.

Okay, hee hee, ho, ho. Of course he isn't serious. He's just frustrated. LOL!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Tucker Isn't Gay Either

Tucker, pretending you are a tough guy is no different than Senator Craig getting on camera repeating I'm not gay.

On the August 28 edition of MSBNC Live, hosted by MSNBC general manager Dan Abrams, Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC's Tucker, asserted, "Having sex in a public men's room is outrageous. It's also really common. I've been bothered in men's rooms." Carlson continued, "I've been bothered in Georgetown Park," in Washington, D.C., "when I was in high school." When Abrams asked how Carlson responded to being "bothered," Carlson asserted, "I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and ... hit him against the stall with his head, actually."

Tucker Carlson irritates the living heck out of me because he is a twit and a tool. He tossed the bow tie, miserably failed to improve his butt head image by looking like a total noodle on Dancing With The Stars and has an irrational jealousy of the suave, debonair and charismatic Barack Obama BUT STILL cannot come off as anything but a silly little boy! I don't care if he is gay or not. He'll never be the hyper-masculine man he obviously longs to be. I just wish that whomever he's screwing to keep his job in television would finally kick him to the curb. I'm tired of catching glimpses of him. I'm tired of seeing clips of his asinine commentary.

Look at this loser!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Craig Should Have Left Well Enough Alone

Just as I couldn't bring myself to post about the other bathroom sex guy who used the "blame the black guy" defense, I was going to leave this one alone too. But, this story just keeps getting bigger and bigger as the days go by. Why didn't he just keep his mouth closed? That Nixonian "I am not a gay" speech he gave the other day just made things worse. Now, we see that the arresting office flat out called him a liar.

The officer who arrested Sen. Larry Craig in a police undercover operation at an airport men's room accused the senator of lying to him during an interrogation afterward, according to an audiotape of the arrest.

On the tape, released Thursday by the Minneapolis Airport Police, the Idaho Republican senator, in turn, accuses the officer of soliciting him for sex.

"I'm not gay. I don't do these kinds of things," Craig told Sgt. Dave Karsnia minutes after the two men met in a men's room at the airport on June 11.

"You shouldn't be out to entrap people," Craig told the officer. "I don't want you to take me to jail."

Karsnia replied that Craig wouldn't be going to jail as long as he cooperates.

At one point during the interrogation, the officer told Craig: "You're not being truthful with me. I'm kind of disappointed in you, senator."

Meanwhile, more of Craig's Republican colleagues moved away from him Thursday in the wake of his guilty plea earlier this month to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct in the undercover police operation aimed at sex solicitors.

Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who chairs the GOP's senatorial campaign committee, stopped short of calling on Craig to resign, but suggested strongly that he should.

"I wouldn't put myself hopefully in that kind of position, but if I was in a position like that, that's what I would do," Ensign told The Associated Press in his home state. "He's going to have to answer that for himself."

This is sheer madness. I don't care if he is gay or if he just has the compulsion troll for men in the public bathrooms. I don't get the whole random sex in the bathroom thing anyway but given the frequency with which it happens to celebrities and public figures, I imagine the rates are pretty dang high in the general population. That is information I don't need and is even going to make me look at the guys at work with a shifted glance - especially when more than one goes in there at a time ...

Powered by ScribeFire.

Hit The Road Jack!

... and don't ya come back no more, no more, no more no more ...

President Bush on Monday said he reluctantly accepted the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose "good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons."

Alberto Gonzales was dogged by controversial issues including wiretapping programs and fired U.S. attorneys.

After months of standing by his top prosecutor and "close friend," Bush spoke briefly in Texas to praise Gonzales, saying the attorney general endured "unfair treatment that has created harmful distraction at the Justice Department."

Bush said it's "sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person" is impeded "from doing important work."

Did I say no more? What's sad is that we live in a time where mediocrity reigns and the dumbest president EVER, keeps appointing people who are just as stupid!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Cured But Broke And Begging

These people are so nutty it's downright sad. Ted Haggard is back, nearly broke and looking for folks to support his family for two years!

He and his wife are moving to a halfway house in Phoenix where Ted, in his letter to Landrock, says he is “willing to counsel some of the men and to teach the group from time to time. The woman directing the ministry to women invited Gayle to teach and minister to the women.”

A snippet of the shameless fundraising pitch sent to Landrock:

It looks as though it will take two years for us to have adequate earning power again, so we are looking for people who will help us monthly for two years. During that time we will continue as full time students, and then, when I graduate, we won’t need outside support any longer.

…Thank you so much. We feel our move into the Dream Center is the next step God would have us take. Any help we can get with this will be greatly appreciated and, I believe, rewarded in heaven.

As Bloggernista said:

It takes some serious gall to get busted for buying drugs, cheating on your wife with a male hooker all while preaching family values and anti-gay rhetoric from the pulpit and then come back after a mere three weeks in therapy to claim that you are now “completely heterosexual” and continue to ask others to support you through religious contributions.

I'd say it takes more than gall. He's either on illegal drugs again or he is in desperate need of select prescription ones ...

Powered by ScribeFire.

Moving Food Around The Plate ...

doesn't help you clean your plate. This is how the surge is working ...

The Bush administration talking points on the Iraq War are that the troop escalation has reduced violence and made Iraq safer for Iraqis, that the major threat in Iraq is self-avowed al-Qaeda devotees, and that Iran and the Shiites are just as deadly a threat as the Sunni Arab guerrillas.

The facts? The Associated Press points out the following

Deaths per day from political violence in 2007: 62
Deaths per day from political violence in 2006: 33

Yeah, things are obviously much safer. The report does say that violence is down in Baghdad this year, but the 'surge' just displaced it to other provinces ...

Powered by ScribeFire.

Happy Talk Doesn't Make Happy Campers

... or happy feet either ...

Tina Susman of the LAT finds that the privates and specialists among US troops in Iraq are dismissive of the 'happy talk' they hear from Bush and some of their commanders about the way the war is going. They see the realities on the ground, they lose friends to roadside bombings, they see evidence that the Iraqi Army is not trustworthy. So 'happy talk' doesn't impress them.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Fear Of A Dickless Planet?

I still don't get what they plan to accomplish here ...

Alabama journalist Gita Smith imagines the Supreme Court oral argument that will take place if the Court accepts a challenge to Alabama’s law banning the sale of vibrating sex toys. The 11th Circuit held in favor of the state, writing that there is no right to sexual privacy in the state. Gun sales? Go for it. Vibrator sales? Too dangerous.

Honestly! Are they kidding? Are they going to throw people in jail for selling them or for having them? Will the USPS be responsible for inspecting boxes from places like this to see if they contain "vibrating sex toys"?

Powered by ScribeFire.

Dogging Britney

I'm no fan of Britney and the blond twit crew but I think they are harassing this child!

TMZ has learned that officials from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were out at Britney's house today to investigate why her dog was wearing a cast. We're country y'all!

Madeline Bernstein, President of SPCA - LA, told TMZ tonight, "We have received various sources of complaints throughout the day. Some said that Britney's Yorkie dog was injured and had a cast on and some said the dog had a broken leg and was not treated. After the calls started pouring in, we did go to Britney's house today [on Mulholland Drive] but were just able to leave a note with the housekeeper. The matter is not if the dog had an accident, but if the dog is getting proper care."

Madeline also told us they haven't heard back from Britney yet. "Britney is out of town," Bernstein tells us, "but we hope to have an answer soon and get the matter resolved pretty quickly."

If the dog wasn't treated, how did it get a cast? Who called and why? This is silly!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Not Just For Catholics Anymore

... not that child molesting was a Cathlolic crime anyway but they get most of the credit. Here, a convicted sex offender is allowed back into a Southern Baptist pulpit.

A southwest suburban Southern Baptist congregation allowed a convicted child sex offender to preach for the last few years — despite his past, and a warning from his previous church that he might still be dangerous, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

In 1996, Jeff Hannah was sentenced to nine years in prison for having sexual relations with four underage girls — ages 15 to 17 — while a married youth minister at Crossroads Church in Libertyville.

…”In our church, we believe in forgiveness,” said Del Kirkpatrick, one of the deacons who hired Hannah.

In talking to the Sun-Times last week, Hannah, 42, was unapologetic about his crimes, saying his first marriage had been troubled and he’d had “urges.”

…The Rev. Steve Farish, pastor of Crossroads Church, which has relocated to Grayslake, said he considered Hannah so dangerous that he warned the Romeoville church and a regional Southern Baptist official.

“We thought he could still potentially be a danger to women and children,” Farish said. “He was never repentant and never told the truth.” Randie Bruno, the prosecutor in Hannah’s case said, “He has the charisma to fool everybody.”

He had "urgres?" So did Jeff Dahmer! I think people forgive those they can identify with and what good Southern Baptist man can't identify with having "urges" for young flesh? Uck!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Tre Wuz ROBBED!

Okay, I always say that when one of my favorite competitors on a reality show gets eliminated too early. I really thought Tre' would be there until the end. I actually don't know if I want to watch anymore because too many of the other chefs are hokey and untalented. I thought it was going to be Hung and Tre' at the end. But, it won't be ...

Last night’s Top Chef claimed Tre Wilcox, the affable Texas chef and audience favorite. Acting as executive chef for Restaurant April, three of his dishes bombed and the judges reluctantly singled him out as the night’s loser. He spoke with us about his new female fans and why he thinks Hung will become this season’s Top Chef.

Bravo is hyping your elimination as one of the most shocking in Top Chef history. Did it feel that way?
A little. Every chef has a bad day, and sometimes things can be out of balance. At the end, I still live again to cook.

Most of your competitors left in tears, but you were very levelheaded. Did you see it coming?
After Restaurant Quatre won, I saw elimination coming. Most operations start cutting people from the top when things go wrong. I did multiple dishes, so there was more of a target on me. It was safer for Casey and CJ, who only made overcooked monkfish and salty lobster salad.

Chef Tom [Colicchio] thought your team let bad food get out of the kitchen. Did your laissez-faire approach lead to your defeat?
I could have been a little more intense, but some of the things were just individual errors. The way I run my kitchen day-to-day is that I trust people to execute the dishes I design. I can’t be the chef that makes everything.

I want to have a sneaking feeling that this isn't the last we'll see of Tre on the show. They should bring him back as a twist (like they sometimes do on these shows) and let him win his spot back! I still want him to win!!!!

(Oh! And another thing ... What in the heck was up with Casey and those onions? I could chop onions faster and better than that when I was 12? It was a race and she was chopping like she was using safety scissors! She should have been sent home for poor knife skills alone)!

In the Quickfire, the two teams competed in a mise en place race; first group to shuck 15 oysters, dice five onions, dismember four dead chickens, and beat a few egg whites senseless would earn the services of a sommelier (Stephen, from season 1) during that evening's part-two of the Restaurant Wars. At the end of the challenge, Team Restaurant Garage (a.k.a. ''The Bad News Bears'') won, because Hung, if you'll recall from two weeks ago, can chop apart a whole cauliflower in 1.5 seconds, which is apparently a skill transferable to poultry, and also because Casey, on the other team, cut onions like a homeless grandma.

Powered by ScribeFire.

I'd Be Booty Out Again

When I got trashed by the dot come crash a few years ago, I thought about jumping into the loan business. I went to a meeting with a friend who was involved with some company that brought in new people. It reminded me of a pyramid scheme so I kinda backed off. It wasn't like I had the time because I was working a temporary job with crazy hours. Turns out I'd probably be worse off anyway.

Just a few years ago, mortgage salesman Terry Orlowski rode the housing boom and a six-figure income down to the car dealership and bought a new Audi A6.

Now, the soaring market and the fast car are gone. Last week he lost his job, along with 6,000 other employees of First Magnus Financial Corp., a mortgage lender. With a 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan, he plans to move back in temporarily with his ex so their two children can stay in private school.

"My first thought was this was one of the bigger companies. No one is safe," Mr. Orlowski says.

The flood of layoffs – some 21,000 since the beginning of the month in the real estate, construction, and mortgage-lending industries – is one way the Federal Reserve can see real impact on the economy from the turmoil in the markets. It's not just guys in hard hats looking for work; it's also white-collar workers. Many of these jobs in finance and real estate are relatively high paying, which has helped car dealerships and high-end retailers. To be sure, all sorts of jobs are affected, because when a house changes hands, a small army of brokers, appraisers, pest-control inspectors, title searchers, and lawyers send out invoices.

"Unlike a lot of other businesses, real estate is everywhere," says economist Bob Brusca of Fact & Opinion Economics in New York. "Even if this turns out to be small potatoes in one place, it has a fairly big impact."

A simple real estate transaction can involve up to 20 people, says Steve Walsh, president of Scout Mortgage in Scottsdale, Ariz. "An escrow officer may make $1,000, the county recorder gets a few hundred, the appraiser makes $300 to $400, the termite man $50 to $100, and there are movers and landscapers and decorators."

Mr. Walsh says his accountant told him of some real estate agents who had been making $200,000 a year but are down to a $15,000 income. He says his firm, with business down 40 percent, has cut staff, too.

For many companies, it's not a select few who are being let go. Instead, entire divisions or even the entire company is shutting its doors. Yesterday, Accredited Home Lenders Co. in San Diego said it would eliminate 1,600 jobs – about two-thirds of its workforce. On Monday, Capital One Financial in McLean, Va., announced it would ax an entire mortgage division with 1,900 people.

The 21,000 layoffs that the real estate and related industries have announced so far this month are almost equal to the number for all last year – 22,814.

"It's only going to get worse," says John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "It's already much worse for the year than last year."

Powered by ScribeFire.

Sounds Feasible

Let's stop fooling ourselves. We know something like this is inevitable.

A rumor is circulating among well-connected and formerly high-level Iraqi bureaucrats in exile in places like Damascus that a military coup is being prepared for Iraq. I received the following from a reliable, knowledgeable contact. There is no certitude that this plan can or will be implemented. That it is being discussed at high levels seems highly likely.

"There is serious talk of a military commission (majlis `askari) to take over the government. The parties would be banned from holding positions, and all the ministers would be technocrats, so to speak. . . [The writer indicates that attempts have been made to recruit cabinet members from the ranks of expatriate technocrats.]

The six-member board or commission would be composed on non-political former military personnel who are presently not part of the government OR the military establishment, such as it is in Iraq at the moment. It is said that the Americans are supporting this behind the scenes.

The plan includes a two-year period during which political parties would not be permitted to be part of the government, but instead would prepare and strengthen the parties for an election which would not have lists, but real people running for real seats. The two year period would be designed to take control of security and restore infrastructure.

. . .[I]t is another [desperate plan], but one which many many Iraqis will support, since they are sick of their country being pulled apart by the "imports" - Maliki, Allawi, Jaafari et al. The military group is composed of internals, people who have the goal of securing the country even at the risk of no democracy, so they say. "

Powered by ScribeFire.

Men In Tights

I am much more of a Spike Lee fan than I am a John Singleton fan but I do agree with John on the topic of black men in drag.

John Singleton was spotted at the premiere of “Illegal Tender” in New York yesterday. During a recent interview to promote the film, he shared his views on African American films and filmmakers:

There’s nothing but comedies, and I’m tired of all these Black men in dresses. Every other movie has a Black man in a dress, from the Madea movies to Norbit to Big Momma. How come nobody’s protesting that? They call them family movies, and nobody’s telling the little kids that it’s kind of different for a man to wear a dress. I’m just saying that it comes to a point where, if that’s the only types of images they’re seeing, how is that informing upon Black men in America?

Aside from the obvious box office profits, I don't get why they take such joy in dressing up like women. And, no, I am not calling them gay. I think that there are some deeper, pathological issues going on ...

Powered by ScribeFire.

Did She Forget That She Was Made From His Rib?

I didn't even get to post on this "spare the rod, spoil the wife" silliness about husbands having the right to beat their wives before I ran across this story.

Juanita Bynum, a preacher whose fiery and frank sermons about women's empowerment have won her a national following, was attacked by her husband in the parking lot of an Atlanta hotel early Wednesday morning, police said.

Bynum, whose ministry is based in Waycross, and her estranged husband, Thomas W. Weeks III, had met up at Renaissance Concourse Hotel near Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to try to reconcile, Atlanta police said.

But while at the parking lot about 4 a.m., the two got into a physical fight until a bellman at the hotel pulled Bynum's husband off her, Officer Ronald Campbell said.

"She was bruised up and battered," Campbell said. "She had purple bruising around her neck and upper torso."

The husband, who is also a preacher, left the scene. No charges have been filed against him, according to police.

Police found out about the fray from a staff member at Piedmont Hospital, where Bynum was taken for a checkup. She could not be reached Wednesday night.

A popular Pentecostal evangelist, Bynum lives in Hempstead, N.Y., but her administrative offices are in Waycross. She is open about her past, freely talking about sex and being on welfare, hospitalized with a mental breakdown, divorced and spiritually broken.

Once a homemaker, a hairdresser and a flight attendant, Bynum's big break came when Bishop T.D. Jakes invited her to speak at one of his conferences several years ago. Her ministry took off a couple of years later after she gave her unrehearsed "No More Sheets" sermon on breaking free of sexual promiscuity at a singles event.

I don't even want to speculate that when she got married a few years ago she told people that this was the man that God had sent for her. But I imagine that her sermons are so popular because she has thousands of women convinced that God will send them a perfect mate too.

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Crazies of Abraham

This reminded me to remind you to watch this on CNN this week. After night one (Jewish Warriors), I'm not sure I can watch anymore. I found it very draining to see that kind of thinking intertwined with the name of God.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Don't Blame It On The Boogie

Here we go again. Now Hip-Hop is to blame for dog fighting. I love how much credit and power this society tries to lend black people when it comes to the negative things that plague our country. I find the concept of dogs, chickens, frogs ... fighting for sport disgusting but let's get clear and educated on this. Dog fighting is a long standing, albeit illegal, sport that is part of the southern, rural "good old boy" culture. I guess I always thought it was for yahoos and rednecks. It didn't begin and it won't end with Hip-Hop. This MTV article gives some historical perspective.

The sport has a long history in this country. Dogfighting has been documented in the U.S. as far back as the 1750s, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or ASPCA. It grew in popularity after the Civil War, leading to many states banning professional matches and passing anti-cruelty laws. For many years, dogfighting remained most popular in parts of the rural South, especially North Carolina and Louisiana. In recent decades, however, it's moved into urban and suburban areas all over the country.

Dogfighters, also known as "dogmen," often breed their own animals and favor traits like aggression and a strong jaw. Dogs are raised to be fighters from the time they are puppies. They are conditioned like athletes: There are dog treadmills, swimming workouts and strength-building regimens that often include hanging dogs by the neck. They are often trained to fight by sparring with "bait animals" — which can be other dogs, cats or smalls animals — to test their fighting prowess. If a dog has potential as a fighter, its ears and tail are often cut off.

"[One reason] they do that is so the dogs don't get grabbed by the other dog and cause harm and injury," said ASPCA Senior Vice President Gail Buchwald. "But really, they are doing it to mask certain forms of body signals that dogs will use to signal one another to say, 'Here is my white flag of peace — I submit, the fight is over.' "

The fights themselves are high-stakes gambling operations with purses sometimes totaling upward of $100,000. In some communities, the high-rolling fight attendees resemble crowds at a prize fight.

"One of the reasons it has been difficult to investigate and eradicate the dogfighting rings is that they are so well-attended by citizens of influence," Buchwald said. "So we do have attorneys and doctors and judges and lawyers attending dogfights."

The fights can last for hours and are often fought "to the death." Even dogs that don't die in the ring are often victims of the sport: Animals that don't live up to owners' expectations are sometimes killed by other methods, including electrocution, drowning and shooting.

While she acknowledges the glamorization factor, Buchwald said hip-hop doesn't bear much responsibility for the popularity of dogfighting.

"We don't feel as though it is actually adding fuel to the fire and proliferating the dogfighting itself," she said. The real problem, she said, is that the glamorization of pit bulls has led to there being too many of them.

"We are finding that too many people are attracted to the machismo — this image of this macho breed that is strong and dominant," she said. "People acquire these dogs, and these dogs are not easily trained or managed. They are very high-energy and typically they end up in streets and in shelters because they are acquired for the purpose of an image."

While the ASPCA estimates around 10,000 dogs are involved in dogfighting every year, many more pit bulls end up on the street and in shelters — or worse.

Instead of making Vick the poster boy for this criminal activity, why not make a concerted effort to root it out in the backwoods where it began and still exists. I want Vick in jail because he was arrogant and stupid for getting into this because this is one lesson that he did not have to learn. However, now that it is in the spotlight, let's round all of these sick folks up!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Oh, He Knows Alright ...

Not promoting domestic violence BUT, people don't just up and set your "member" on fire.

A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said Wednesday.

Asked if the man would make a full recovery, a police spokeswoman said it was "difficult to predict."

The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation. The couple divorced three years ago but continued to share a small flat, something common in Russia where property costs are very high.

"It was monstrously painful," the wounded ex-husband told Tvoi Den newspaper. "I was burning like a torch. I don't know what I did to deserve this."

... that blasted gmail and the "Oddly Enough" news feeds in the banner ... How can I get any work done?

Powered by ScribeFire.

More Deaths For The Cause

Fourteen ...

A Black Hawk helicopter went down Wednesday in northern Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers aboard, the military said, the deadliest crash since January 2005.

Powered by ScribeFire.

She Can Find Another Job

I don't see the big deal. I would think that this would be the equivalent of using the copy machine to copy personal docs in an office environment. That happens all the time. This is just a different environment and I think, given her skill set, this is a small price to pay for finding the truth!

A state forensics scientist who said she tested her husband’s underwear for DNA to determine if he was cheating on her has been fired.

Ann Chamberlain of Okemos testified in a March 7 divorce hearing that she ran the test last September on the underwear of Charles Gordon Jr. Asked by his attorney what she found, she answered: “Another female. It wasn’t me.”

She said during another hearing that she ran the test on her own time with expired chemicals that were set to be thrown away.

Now if she stays with the guy, she wasted her time and her company's resources.

Powered by ScribeFire.

What Folks Won't Do For A Sick Thrill

Like those sickos on MSNBC's to catch a predator, it just boggles my mind the kind of risks and stupid decisions people take and make in pursuit of perversity. Why not play the ponies? Why not blow your fortune in Vegas at the blackjack table? Why dog fighting? Why dog killing? Why betting on dogs? It just makes no sense.

Dude's football career is all but over. He will probably do time and I just don't see where it is in the NFL's best interests to hold a spot for him when he gets out. There are tons of good players waiting in the wings for his spot. What a hard lesson to learn for a sick, sick passion.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has accepted a plea deal that could send him to prison, ending a federal dogfighting prosecution that jeopardizes his pro football career, his lawyers said.

Vick will plead guilty to felony conspiracy next Monday, defense attorney Lawrence Woodward told the Virginian-Pilot, of Norfolk, Virginia.

A status conference on the case is set for 3 p.m. in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia.

The U.S. Attorney's office had no comment.

"After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick asks that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him," lead defense attorney Billy Martin said in a statement.

"Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his action and the mistakes he has made. Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter," Martin's statement said.

Vick's attorneys have been negotiating with federal prosecutors over terms of the deal, which must be approved by the judge. While prosecutors can recommend a sentence, the decision ultimately rests with the judge.

The plea would help Vick avoid additional federal charges.

Federal prosecutors had offered a deal recommending an 18- to 36-month prison sentence. Vick's attorneys were trying to reduce that to less than a year, two sources told CNN earlier on Monday.

Unless he's got major brain damage, I hope that when he gets out, he'll find a better hobby. The burning issue is whether he will get some kind of help for his compulsion for torturing and killing animals. As far as I am concerened, he is a wife beater/serial killer waiting to happen and he definitely needs some psychiatric counseling in that regard.

Powered by ScribeFire.

If A Girl Is Not Purified ...

In the land of one of our staunchest allies (yet another place where freedom does not reign), they are saving their country from certain destruction by removing little girls' clitorises.

It was a routine procedure undertaken by thousands of Egyptian girls every year, but something went wrong and Budour Ahmed Shaker died while having her genitals cut in a rite known locally as "purification".

The death of the 11-year-old schoolgirl at a private clinic in the Egyptian village Mughagha in June prompted the government to outlaw the custom of female genital mutilation, which is so widespread in Egypt that 95 percent of the country's women are estimated to have undergone the procedure.

But the ban may be hard to enforce and activists fear the practise may go underground as the vast majority of Egyptian families still view circumcision as necessary to protect girls' chastity. Most girls are cut by the time they reach puberty.

Even in Mughagha, a village of low rise houses hemming the Nile, many women and girls say they want the procedure to be allowed but under more stringent medical supervision.

"If a girl is not purified, she will just go hook up with men. This protects women's honour. Otherwise it will become just like America here and girls will go with guys," said Asma Said, a 16-year-old secondary school student.

"Those who say it doesn't happen are lying 100 percent. There is not one person here not circumcised, and it will continue."

She like many of the schoolgirls in Maghagha who spoke to Reuters said they supported the practice, even if they were frightened of having it done.

The only girl who spoke against the practice was shouted down by her classmates until she conceded that genital cutting was a necessity.

"No one can get married without it," said the girl.

Another classmate, 15-year-old Nesma Radi, chimed in: "Egypt lives in peace and security because there is circumcision."

When are we going to take a REAL stand against this backwards, brutal and misogynistic BS?

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Walls Are Caving In

Of course, they'll find a way to label these guys as some kind of anomaly but I'm glad they are telling the world about Iraq and this war as they saw it.

An op-ed raising troubling questions about the U.S. effort in Iraq -- and off-kilter press coverage -- is nothing new. But this one, in The New York Times today, was different, and will possibly be more influential than nearly all that came before.

For one thing, consider the authors' blurbs at the end of the article: "Buddhika Jayamaha is an Army specialist. Wesley D. Smith is a sergeant. Jeremy Roebuck is a sergeant. Omar Mora is a sergeant. Edward Sandmeier is a sergeant. Yance T. Gray is a staff sergeant. Jeremy A. Murphy is a staff sergeant."

Then there was the parenthetical note about halfway into it: "In short, we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear. (In the course of writing this article, this fact became all too clear: one of us, Staff Sergeant Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head during a “time-sensitive target acquisition mission” on Aug. 12; he is expected to survive and is being flown to a military hospital in the United States.)"

The soldiers, with the 82nd Airborne Division, conclude: "In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal."

Will they penalized in any form for writing this? The article is currently #2 in popularity at the Times' web site. At his Time.com blog, columnist Joe Klein observed, "This is the most accurate and courageous--the authors are all non-commissioned officers--account of the war in Iraq that I've seen. It puts to shame--and shame is the appropriate word--all the Kristol, McCain, Lieberman, Pollack and O'Hanlon etc etc cheerleading of the past two months." (emphasis mine)

Shame indeed!

The article, titled "The War As We Saw It," opens as follows. The whole piece is at www.nytimes.com.(login required)

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Real Trouble With Rappers

Are critics of rap really concerned about the so-called misogynistic and violent lyrics or are they really just pissed off that these guys are raking in millions hand over fist?

Jay-Z wins all around, says Forbes.com. He's got Beyonce on his arm -- and more millions than 50 Cent and Diddy.

The rap icon, aka Shawn Carter, is No. 1 on the site's list of "Hip-Hop Cash Kings," based solely on 2006 income. He banked an estimated $34 million, Forbes.com said Thursday.

Jay-Z, president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, released his 11th studio album, "Kingdom Come," which sold around 2 million copies. Jay-Z, 37, is also part owner of the New Jersey Nets and has endorsement deals with Budweiser, Hewlett-Packard and General Motors.

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson ranks second with an estimated $32 million. The 31-year-old rapper-businessman oversees his G-Unit record label, clothing line, ring tones and other enterprises, and has sold more than 11 million albums. His latest record, "Curtis," is due out Sept. 11.

Diddy (real name: Sean Combs) placed third with an estimated $28 million. A fashion plate, he has a clothing line, Sean John, and heads Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment and its record label. Diddy, 37, is also host of MTV's "Making the Band" series.

Rounding out the top five are Timbaland ($21 million) and Dr. Dre ($20 million). They're followed by Eminem ($18 million); Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Scott Storch (all $17 million); Ludacris and T.I. (both $16 million); Outkast and Lil Jon (both $14 million); Ice Cube ($13 million); Jermaine Dupri and Swizz Beatz (both $12 million); Chamillionaire and The Game (both $11 million); and Young Joc ($10 million).

Powered by ScribeFire.

Bill Moyers On Rove and The Worst President Ever

Woooooooooooow! In a nutshell ...

Moyers: “Karl Rove figured out a long time ago that the way to take an intellectually incurious draft-averse naughty playboy in a flight jacket with chewing tobacco inhis back pocket and make him governor of Texas, was to sell him as God’s anointed in a state where preachers andtelevangelists outnumber even oil derricks and jack rabbits. Using church pews as precincts Rove turned religion into a weapon of political combat — a batteringram, aimed at the devil’s minions, especially at gay people.

It’s so easy, as Karl knew, to scapegoat people you outnumber, and if God is love, as rumor has it, Rove knew that, in politics, you better bet on fear and loathing. Never mind that in stroking the basest bigotry of true believers you coarsen both politics and religion.“

Powered by ScribeFire.

Surprised?

Gee! I wonder why?

Almost twice as many women as men wish they had married someone else, says a survey.

More than one in five married women (22 per cent) said that if they could go back in time they would change their husband.

Just 12 per cent of married men, however, admitted picking the wrong wife.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Ugly And Embarrasing Exit

So they say about what will happen when the Brits decide to leave Basra, Iraq.

An adviser to the U.S. military said British troops have lost control of the Iraqi city of Basra and face an "ugly" withdrawal in the coming months, a British newspaper reported.

Stephen Biddle, a member of a group that advised U.S. Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq last year, told the Sunday Times that "insurgents are calling the shots" in the southern city.

"I regret to say that the Basra experience is set to become a major blunder in terms of military history," Biddle was quoted as saying by the newspaper. The insurgents "in a worst-case scenario will chase us out of town."

British forces have already been moving from a combat role to aiding Iraqi forces in southern Iraq, and Britain is expected to hand over control of Basra to Iraqi troops in the next few months.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also promised to make a statement in October on the future of the 5,500 British troops in the region.

Biddle, a military analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, said insurgents and militia groups were likely to target British soldiers with ambushes, roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades as they leave.

"It will be a hard withdrawal. They want the image of a British defeat," Biddle told the paper. "It will be ugly and embarrassing."

Powered by ScribeFire.

Give It A Rest Shar!

Okay already! We heard you the first million times you grinned into the camera and told everyone what a great father K-Fed is ...

As if the couch potato K-Fed versus baby dropping Britney battle couldn't get more interesting, Fed-Ex is enlisting a new face into his custody brigade: his (other) baby mama!

Federline's chesty former flame Shar Jackson was caught popping out of the 2nd Annual "Hot in Hollywood" event at the Henry Fonda Theater last night, and when asked about the brewing legal battle, Jackson dropped a bomb: "Kevin is a great dad!" Who knew?!

Apparently, the criteria for becoming a first-class father of four doesn't include having a job. Party on!

Sorry, dear, a "good father" does not leave the mother of his child, while she is pregnant with his second child, for another woman - with whom he immediately breeds two more children. He has no job, skill or talent. Saying he is a good father - like some sort of sick mantra - does not make it so!

Powered by ScribeFire.

At Least He Wasn't Trying To Jump

I guess living in California for the past 15 years has me oblivious to some things. who the heck cares if some guy is standing over the highway with a dang sign? I see signs (ranging from marriage proposals to war protests) all of the time. They don't block or slow down traffic. The only time there is a problem on the overpass is when someone is trying to jump over it. This guy wasn't.

Jonas Phillips, a native of Asheville, North Carolina, sometimes stands at an Interstate overpass near his workplace and holds a sign that reads Impeach Bush-Cheney. Wednesday morning, he'd been standing there about ten minutes when he was approached by one Russell Crisp of the Asheville Police Department. Crisp asked Phillips how long he intended to stay in his spot, and Philips said not long--he had to be at work shortly. The officer then asked Phillips for his ID. Phillips asked if he had done anything wrong, and Crisp said only that a sergeant was on the way.

Sergeant Randy Riddle then appeared, told Phillips to put his sign down and to place his hands behind his back. He then arrested and handcuffed Phillips, and—when asked—informed him that he was in violation of County Ordinance 16-2, and that he was obstructing the sidewalk. Phillips replied that Officer Crisp had witnessed a man walk by him and his sign and could therefore attest that the sidewalk had not been obstructed.

According to Phillips, Riddle then yelled "You were obstructing the sidewalk!" "I'm sick of this shit!" and "Here's your fifteen minutes of fame, buddy." (Do you think Crisp has a working knowledge of Warhol?)

Once at the jail, Phillips says he was repeatedly questioned about his memberships in particular groups—Veterans for Peace and the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action. He was then searched, photographed and given a court date.

Phillips reports that in Asheville, it is legal to stage a protest on a city sidewalk without a permit. According to his wife, he has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union for help. Also, the police are considering changing the charge to a state violation of endangering motorists. After all, he must be guilty of something.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Tough Luck If You Are Female

This is gross ...

The post is from a British police officer, who has published the supervisor notes after rapes have been reported to the police. Savvy readers (read: not MRAs) will notice a slight difference in how victims are treated according to gender.

1. Incident:
Caller reporting her 17-year-old daughter was raped last night by two named offenders after going out drinking at her local pub. Daughter is very distressed and sore.
Update from supervisor:
Officers to attend and establish the following:
1. Is the daughter making an allegation?
2. Names and descriptions of alleged offenders.
3. How much alcohol was consumed?
4. If allegation is being made, locate scene.
5. Will the victim attend court?
6. If allegation could be true, will she consent to a medical?

2. Incident:
Caller reporting her 18-year-old son was raped last night by a male known to him, following a party at his house. Son is in pain and upset.
Update from supervisor:
Officers to attend and establish the following:
1. Locate the crime scene.
2. Arrange medical examination and take victim to rape suite.
3. Name/description of offender.
4. Preserve forensic evidence, seize clothing.

Jessica at Feministing is collecting examples of double standards for an upcoming book on the issue, and I think this is a big one—the double standard that says if a man is assaulted, he is a victim, but if a woman is assaulted, she must have done something to bring it on herself.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Running Out Of Money

When the funk hits the fan, guess who loses?

Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. says customers are "running out of money."

Earlier this week, consumer juggernauts Home Depot and Wal-Mart reported softer than expected earnings.

Penned the New York Times, "the sober forecasts reverberated across Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index down by nearly 2 percent, with the Dow dropping more than 200 points. Shares of both Wal-Mart and Home Depot fell around 5 percent.

"Economists said the sluggish performance of the chains — Wal-Mart missed its profit forecast and Home Depot’s earnings dropped — could signal broader troubles in the economy."

Buried in the article was a sobering remark indeed: “Many customers are running out of money at the end of the month,” said H. Lee Scott Jr., the chief executive of Wal-Mart.

I have had a rough enough time over the past 5 years because of the job market/economy. I hate bad news like this!

Powered by ScribeFire.

What A Compassionate Husband

Here's my dilemma: It would be one thing if the man could not bear to see his sick wife suffering and wanted to euthanize her but to toss her from a balcony because of bills sounds like he was mad at her for being sick. Hell! Why didn't he just drug her and let her die in her sleep or something humane? Why toss a gravely ill woman to her death and have her die in terror?

A man threw his seriously ill wife four stories to her death because he could no longer afford to pay for her medical care, prosecutors said in charging him with second-degree murder.

According to court documents filed Wednesday in Jackson County Circuit Court, Stanley Reimer walked his wife to the balcony of their apartment and kissed her before throwing her over.

The body of Criste Reimer, 47, was found Tuesday night outside the apartment building, near the upscale Country Club Plaza shopping district.

Stanley Reimer, 51, was charged Wednesday. He remained jailed on $250,000 bond and was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

In the probable cause statement filed with the charges, police said Reimer was desperate because he could not pay the bills for his wife's treatment for neurological problems and uterine cancer.

Investigators said that Reimer was in the apartment when they arrived. He told them, "She didn't jump," but did not elaborate, they said.

Criste Reimer's caregiver told police she could barely walk and would not have been able to climb over the railing of the balcony, according to the probable cause statement.

Reimer's alleged motive emerged after

Powered by ScribeFire.

Suddenly Newt Gives A Damn About Dead Black Folks

He is turning this tragedy into exactly what I don't want it to turn into. All Newark needs is racial tension between blacks and Hispanics and they certainly don't need a certified bigot to fuel the flames. I think it is an insult to the students who were killed to use their fate to promote his own agenda.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday he is "sickened" that President Bush and Congress went on vacation "while young Americans in our cities are massacred" by illegal immigrants.

Gingrich, who is considering a run for the White House, was referring to the recent execution-style murders of three college students on a school playground in Newark, N.J.

One man whom police believe was involved in the murders — Jose Lachira Carranza — is an illegal immigrant from Peru who had been released on bail on charges of raping a child when the murders occurred.

Gingrich said that the "war here at home" against illegal immigrants is "even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"The federal government's incompetence, timidity and uncoordinated efforts to identify and deport criminal illegal aliens have had devastating consequences for innocent Americans," Gingrich said in a newsletter.

"As an American, I am sickened that the political leadership of America could continue to go on vacation and do nothing," he said. "Why are the August vacations for the president and the Congress more precious than the lives of young Americans who are being killed because of government incompetence and inaction?"

Gingrich said another suspect in the Newark murders is an illegal immigrant from Nicaragua with a long record of arrests who was ordered deported in 1993 but never left.

However, The (Newark) Star Ledger reported Tuesday that the man — Rodolfo Godinez — obtained permanent legal residency in 2001.

The Newark Police Department did not return requests for comment.

Gingrich said that Bush ought to be furious at the failure of bureaucracies to protect the American people.

In addition, he said the president should call Congress back into a special session for three days to pass a bill in honor of the slain students.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Double That Carnage

Try 500 instead of 250 ...

CNN has upped the total to 500—although the AP had it at 250 earlier. Horrible. The Cablese and the military are conveniently labeling it an al-Qaeda attack, (which is quite possible) but Juan Cole thinks:

…these bombings are not just an attempt to spread fear and intimidation, but are actually part of a struggle for control of territory. The Sunni Arab guerrillas face powerful challenges from Kurds and Shiites with regard to the future of provinces such as Ninevah, Diyala and Kirkuk. A lot of Kurdish police and troops have been deployed in Mosul not far from Tuesday’s bombings, and they are seen as among the deadliest enemies by the Sunni Arab guerrillas. Sooner or later, my guess is that the Sunni Arabs will wage a major war with the Kurds over the oil fields of Kirkuk.

... and I believe Juan Cole ... This is not Al Qaeda!

Powered by ScribeFire.

I Knew This Was Ka Ka

Only a fool would have believed otherwise ...

Like we already didn’t know this. Many Generals are taking to the airwaves these days paving the yellow brick road, but somehow the cable newsies and the Wise old Men have missed this one:

Despite Bush’s repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

Powered by ScribeFire.

More Carnage

I cannot keep up. I didn't read this story initially because I thought it was a follow on from yesterday's massacre. This is yet another one!

Emergency workers and grieving relatives uncovered dozens of bodies in the wreckage of clay houses in northwest Iraq on Wednesday, sending the death toll from suicide truck bombings of a small Kurdish sect to at least 250 - the war's deadliest attack on a single area.

A U.S. general said the nearly simultaneous strikes against the Yazidis - who have been attacked by Muslim extremists who consider them infidels - was an act of "ethnic cleansing." An American military spokesman blamed the attack on al-Qaida.

Zayan Othman, the health minister of the nearby autonomous Kurdish region, said the casualty toll had risen to at least 250 killed and 350 wounded as bodies were pulled from the rubble. That surpassed the death toll of 215 people from mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City on Nov. 23.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Children of The Storm

Mark your calendars ...

With the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaching, CNN has teamed up "with 11 New Orleans-area teenagers for a documentary that captures what their lives have been like since the storm."

The special was filmed almost entirely by the teens with handheld digital video cameras. "The teens discuss loss, depression, inspiration and redemption in their own words, diary-style."

Children of the Storm premieres Wednesday, August 29, at 8pmET.

The full press release is after the jump...

As the Gulf region marks the second year since Hurricane Katrina, CNN's Soledad O'Brien and filmmaker Spike Lee team with 11 New Orleans-area teenagers for a documentary that captures what their lives have been like since the devastating storm. Filmed almost entirely by the teens with handheld digital video cameras, CNN: Special Investigations Unit - Children of the Storm focuses on the personal journeys of Deshawn Dabney, Brandon Franklin, Amanda Hill and Shantia Reneau.

Children of the Storm premieres on Wednesday, Aug. 29, at 8 p.m., with replays on Saturday, Sept. 1, and Sunday, Sept. 2, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. All times Eastern.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Oh Yeah, Things Are So Much Better

Carnage!

Four suicide bombers struck nearly simultaneously at communities of a small Kurdish sect in northwestern Iraq late Tuesday, killing at least 175 people and wounding 200 more, Iraqi military and local officials said.

The death toll was the highest in a concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City. And it was most vicious attack yet against the Yazidis, an ancient religious community in the region whose members are considered infidels by some Muslims.

The bombings came as extremists staged other bold attacks: leveling a key bridge outside Baghdad and abducting five officials from an Oil Ministry compound in the capital in a raid using gunmen dressed as security officers. Nine U.S. soldiers also were reported killed, including five in a helicopter crash.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, sought to press its gains against guerrillas. Some 16,000 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers began a sweep through the Diyala River valley north of Baghdad in pursuit of Sunni insurgents and Shiite militia fighters driven out of strongholds in recent weeks.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Seeking His Mirror Image ... And Baby Wipes

I'm going to go out on a tiny, little limb here and say that I think Terrence Howard is on the weird side.

The new issue of Elle has an interview with Oscar-nominated actor Terrence Howard. Mr. Howard, of Hustle & Flow and Crash fame, is attractive, that goes without saying. But his thoughts and opinions? Not so much! Some snippets from Elle:

"I like women who look like me. Generally, you're attracted to women who look like you, because the most beautiful thing in nature is your own reflection."

On his relationship philosophy:

"If a relationship is built on sexuality, it won't last long. Now I'm completely chaste through a relationship unless I get married. I don't believe in premarital sex. It enabled me to date three or four women at the same time, because as long as I wasn't having sex with them, I could always just walk away. There were some [past girlfriends] who pushed for sex, and sometimes they won. Afterward, I would feel unclean, like I'd compromised my own values. So I would have to let them go because they didn't help me to be a stronger person."

On his deal-breaker:

"Toilet paper - and no baby wipes - in the bathroom. If they're using dry paper, they aren't washing all of themselves. It's just unclean. So if I go in a woman's house and see the toilet paper there, I'll explain this. And if she doesn't make the adjustment to baby wipes, I'll know she's not completely clean."

On his divorce:

"I was in love with her, but she was not in love with me. I can't be upset because she doesn't find me the most beautiful thing on the planet."

It's not that I disagree with his "values" (which I suspect are twisted up in his religious beliefs and he struggling between being a saint or sinner), it's just that the way he expresses them kinda creeps me out.

(As a side note, I actually keep baby wipes everywhere from my car to my desk drawer at work ... but mainly for keeping my hands clean).

See the full interview at Elle ...

Powered by ScribeFire.

Well Respected Educator Dies

I didn't know much of Dr. Hilliard but when I forwarded this article to my yahoo groups, I got multiple replies back from people who met or crossed paths with him. It's hard to see someone who is dedicated to educating young minds go ...

Dr. Asa G. Hilliard, who as a teacher, psychologist and historian shaped the minds and laid the groundwork for future African-American students, died Sunday while on a trip to Egypt. He was 73.

Since 1980, Dr. Hilliard was the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University. He died two days before classes were to begin at the university.

Dr. Hilliard reportedly died from malaria. "We're not sure officially that it was malaria, but we believe he had contracted it in Ghana," said Andria Simmons, a spokeswoman for Georgia State. "They haven't done an autopsy to say for sure."

Dr. Hilliard was in Egypt with a group of students, but they weren't from Georgia State, Simmons said.

He frequently conducted annual study tours to Egypt to show its connection to the rest of Africa and its impact on the world

Powered by ScribeFire.

You Trifling, Good For Nothing Type Of Brother ...

Boo frickin' hoo! This man must be out of his mind, totally narcissistic and semi-sociopathic if he thinks he can blame the florist for him getting caught committing adultery!

Leroy Greer wants on online florist to pay him $1.5 million for not protecting him from his own indiscretions. But while the Texan got a sounding board in an exclusive appearance Monday on TODAY, he didn’t get much in the way of sympathy.

“He’s talking about a contract he entered into with 1-800-FLOWERS,” clinical sexologist Ian Kerner told TODAY’s Natalie Morales after Greer had argued his case. “Excuse me, the main contract was the contract with his wife. The first breach of any contract was infidelity, and like so many cheaters, he’s looking to lay guilt at the feet of others and to profit from it.”

Not so, Greer told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira. He explained that he was separated from his wife and living at a different address when he called 1-800-FLOWERS to order a bouquet of roses for his girlfriend.

Greer says he was assured that none of the information about the transaction would be sent to his wife’s home.

But when the florist sent a thank-you note for the order, his wife called the company to find out to whom the flowers had been sent. She received a receipt and a copy of the note he sent with the flowers.

The discovery that Greer had a girlfriend turned the divorce from a negotiation into a battle. “I wasn’t cheating at the time the roses were sent,” said Greer, who is a luxury car sales manager in Houston. “We weren’t even together. We were in the midst of a divorce. That wasn’t even my address.”

Greer is suing for $1.5 million to cover damages and mental anguish, saying he’s been held up to ridicule in the media and on the Internet since the story came out.

“We are not responsible for an individual’s personal conduct,” the florist has said in a statement released to the media.

“It’s going to cost Mr. Greer at least a half a million dollars,” his attorney, Kennitra Foote, said, referring to the divorce settlement. “Mr. Greer has suffered immeasurably. His wife doubled the amount of money she was requesting.”

So does Greer have a case?

“I don’t think he has a leg to stand on, nor should he,” TODAY’s legal expert, former judge and prosecutor Jeanine Pirro told Morales. “The guy is trying to make a million and a half dollars for cheating on his wife and getting caught.”

“A lot of people are saying you got what you deserved,” Vieira told Greer. “You got caught cheating, and you should swallow it like a man.”

Hello Meredith! He is NOT a man!

Powered by ScribeFire.

She's Out

As I expected ...

After spending a total of seven months in custody, the Tennessee woman who fatally shot her preacher husband in the back was released on Tuesday, her lawyer told CNN.

Mary Winkler, a 33-year-old mother of three girls, was freed from a Tennessee mental health facility where she was treated for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, lawyer Steve Farese said.

"She is out," Farese said.

Farese said his client will not talk to the news media because she continues to wage a legal battle to win custody of her girls and faces a $2 million civil suit filed by the parents of her slain husband, Matthew Winkler.

Except for her oldest daughter's brief testimony at her trial, Winkler hasn't seen her children in a year, the lawyer said.

Winkler will return to work at the dry cleaners in McMinnville, Tennessee, where she worked before the trial, Farese said. She is living with friends.

Winkler served about five months in county jail as she awaited trial, then spent two months undergoing therapy at the mental health facility following her conviction for voluntary manslaughter.

Winkler never denied shooting her husband, Matthew, the popular new preacher at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, a town of 4,500 people about 80 miles east of Memphis.

On March 22, 2006, church elders found his body -- with a shotgun wound to the back -- in the bedroom of the parsonage after he failed to show up for an evening service. His wife was arrested the next day with the couple's three young daughters in Orange Beach, Alabama, on the Gulf coast.

Mary Winkler was charged with murder, which could have sent her to prison for up to 60 years, but a jury found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter following an emotional trial in which she testified about suffering years of verbal and physical abuse.

In a statement to police after her arrest, Winkler said she didn't recall pulling the trigger .She said she apologized and wiped the blood that bubbled from her dying husband's lips as he asked, "Why?"

Prosecutors and Matthew Winkler's family members said he was a good husband and father.

But on the stand, Mary Winkler described a hellish 10-year marriage during which, she said, her husband struck her, screamed at her, criticized her and blamed her when things went wrong. She said he made her watch pornography and wear "slutty" costumes for sex, and that he forced her to submit to sex acts that made her uncomfortable.

Powered by ScribeFire.

When Your Daddy Is A Dick ...

... you wouldn't support him for dog catcher, let alone President.

The daughter of Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani signaled she was supporting Democrat Barack Obama, then backed off when faced with questions.

On her Facebook profile, 17-year-old Caroline Giuliani listed herself as a member of Obama’s Facebook group, “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack).” She left the group Monday morning after the online magazine Slate sent an inquiry and later in the day, a spokeswoman said she did not intend to comment on the 2008 race.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Not A Chip Off The Old Rock

Did he even know this chick?

Chris Rock is hitting back at "grossly inaccurate" claims that he fathered a 13-year-old son with a Georgia woman.

In a statement released to TMZ.com on Monday, the comedian and his wife say that a court-ordered DNA test proved he's not the father of the teen.

In April, Rock asked a court to determine if he is the father of the boy, as had been claimed by Kali Bowyer.

"Though we prefer to keep our private life out of the media, we feel that it is necessary to respond to the many grossly inaccurate media reports that were sold to the tabloids by Kali Bowyer who falsely claimed that Chris Rock fathered her 13-year-old son," says the statement from Rock and his wife, Malaak.

"After multiple lies, including that Chris refused to establish paternity and after finding out that Ms. Bowyer has an extensive criminal record, we personally asked the court to help us establish paternity so that we could put this harassment to rest."

[...]

"We also express our deepest prayers for the welfare of Ms. Bowyer's son who has been continuously embarrassed and exposed in the media by his mother. We are happy that this has come to an end."

Powered by ScribeFire.

Somebody Needs To Get To Snitchin'

There is absolutely, positively no reason on earth why this needed to happen.

In a city where gun violence has become an all too common part of daily life, these shootings were enough to chill even the most hardened residents: Four young friends shot execution-style in a schoolyard just days before they were to head to college.

Family friend Cathy Rainey, left, holds up a 2006 photograph of Iofemi Hightower, 20, and Terrance Aeriel, 18, who were shot to death Saturday.

Three were killed after being forced to kneel against a wall and then shot in the head at close range Saturday night, police said.

A young woman was found slumped near some bleachers 30 feet away, a gunshot wound to the head but still alive.

The four Newark residents were to attend Delaware State University this fall. No arrests had been made by Monday and authorities had not identified suspects.

The shootings ratcheted up anger in New Jersey's largest city, where the murder rate has risen 50 percent since 1998. The high number of killings have prompted billboards in the downtown area that scream, "HELP WANTED: Stop the Killings in Newark Now!"

"Anyone who has children in the city is in panic mode," Donna Jackson, president of Take Back Our Streets, a community-based organization. "It takes something like this for people to open up their eyes and understand that not every person killed in Newark is a drug dealer."

Powered by ScribeFire.

ROTFL

I don't know what it is but the whole "Hello Kitty" concept has always sent me into conniptions. I recall being in college, not too many years after Hello Kitty came into existence, and going into a fit of laughter when the topic came up in random conversation with friends. Recently, I had to email a co-worker in Shanghai whose name is Kitty (or so she says) and burst into laughter when I realized I had typed "Hello Kitty" as a greeting (so I changed it). I'm not sure why it tickles me so but this is hilarious!

Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear hot pink armbands featuring "Hello Kitty," the Japanese icon of cute, as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday.

Police officers caught littering, parking in a prohibited area, or arriving late — among other misdemeanors — will be forced to stay in the division office and wear the armband all day, said Police Col. Pongpat Chayaphan. The officers won't wear the armband in public.

The striking armband features Hello Kitty sitting atop two hearts.

"Simple warnings no longer work. This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor," said Pongpat, acting chief of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok.

"(Hello) Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It's not something macho police officers want covering their biceps," Pongpat said.

He said police caught breaking the law will be subject the same fines and penalties as any other members of the public.

"We want to make sure that we do not condone small offenses," Pongpat said, adding that the CSD believed that getting tough on petty misdemeanors would lead to fewer cases of more serious offenses including abuse of power and mistreatment of the public by police officers.

Hello Kitty, invented by Sanrio Co. in 1974, has been popular for years with children and young women. The celebrity cat adorns everything from diamond-studded jewelry, Fender guitars and digital cameras to lunch boxes, T-shirts and stationery.

Powered by ScribeFire.

He Should Have Chartered His Own Plane

Why were these people on a commercial flight anyway? I'm not going to even defend my views on religious and cultural acceptance because these people need to accept the fact that many people in the world do not accept their way of life. If he wanted specific seating, he should have paid for all of the seats or used his own plane. I would be HELLA pissed if my flight was delayed behind this BS.

A Qatar sheikh held up a British Airways flight at Milan's Linate airport for nearly three hours after discovering three of his female relatives had been seated next to men they did not know.

When none of the other business class passengers agreed to swap seats, the sheikh, a member of Qatar's ruling family, went to the pilot, who had already started the engine, to complain, an airport official said.

But the pilot ordered him and his traveling companions, the three women, two men, a cook and a servant, off the plane.

The London-bound flight took off nearly three hours behind schedule Thursday evening and around 50 of the 115 passengers missed connecting flights.

Traditions in the conservative Gulf Arab region bar women from mixing with unrelated men.

Powered by ScribeFire.

What A Waste!

Why did people even bother going to the polls last November? We just have more of the same ...

The Senate bowed to White House pressure last night and passed a Republican plan for overhauling the federal government's terrorist surveillance laws, approving changes that would temporarily give U.S. spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order.

The 60 to 28 vote, which was quickly denounced by civil rights and privacy advocates, came after Democrats in the House failed to win support for more modest changes that would have required closer court supervision of government surveillance. Earlier in the day, President Bush threatened to hold Congress in session into its scheduled summer recess if it did not approve the changes he wanted.

The legislation, which is expected to go before the House today, would expand the government's authority to intercept without a court order the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who are communicating with people overseas.

As currently written, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act already gives U.S. spies broad leeway to monitor the communications of foreign terrorism suspects, but the 30-year-old statute requires a warrant to monitor calls intercepted in the United States, regardless of where the calls begin or end.

At the White House, where officials had voiced concern about that requirement, a spokesman praised the Senate vote and called on House leaders to quickly follow suit. The legislation will "give our intelligence professionals the essential tools they need to protect our nation," spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Democratic leaders expressed disappointment about the result, but they pointed to language that would require lawmakers to reconsider the key provisions in six months.

"My Republican colleagues chose to rubber-stamp a flawed administration proposal that fails to provide the accountability needed in the light of the administration's past mismanagement of key tools in the war on terror," said Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

Sixteen Democrats and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) joined all 43 Republicans in supporting the measure, which is nearly identical to a proposal prepared by the Bush administration. "We're at war. The enemy wants to attack us," Lieberman said during the Senate debate. "This is not the time to strive for legislative perfection."

Privacy advocates accused the Democrats of selling out and charged that this bill gives the government more authority than it had under a controversial warrantless wiretapping program begun in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Under that program, the government could conduct surveillance without judicial oversight only if it had a reason to believe that one party to the call was a member of or affiliated with al-Qaeda or a related terrorist organization. This bill drops that condition, they noted.

Democrats "have a Pavlovian reaction: Whenever the president says the word 'terrorism,' they roll over and play dead," said Caroline Fredrickson, Washington legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

No Room For Imus

I didn't listen to Imus on the radio but I did watch his program on MSNBC fairly frequently. The remarks that got him in trouble were for the radio audience and definitely not suited for an early morning TV simulcast. I'm not opposed to him coming back to radio or television - just not on MSNBC in the slot that Joe Scarborough seems to have secured. For the most part, I like Joe's show and it seems MSNBC does too ...

Don Imus' former radio and television empire is being broken up, with MSNBC very likely hiring Joe Scarborough for its morning telecast while radio looks elsewhere, according to people close to the negotiations.

WFAN, the New York radio station that was Imus' flagship, is said to be close to naming former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason to the morning time slot. Esiason works now as a football analyst for CBS Sports.

MSNBC used to simulcast Imus' radio show before he was fired in April for making a racial, sexist remark about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. But the radio and TV outlets are now going in different directions, said three people close to the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity on Saturday because talks were ongoing.

Scarborough, a former Republican congressman who was a nighttime personality for MSNBC, has been trying out his "Morning Joe" program on MSNBC for the past few months. Except for some occasional subs when Scarborough takes some time off, MSNBC isn't trying anyone else out.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Out Of The Woodwork ...

James Brown has other children popping up out of nowhere.

DNA testing on about a dozen people who claim James Brown was their father has found that at least two of them are telling the truth, a longtime adviser to the late soul singer said Friday.

Several tests have come back negative, while others are pending, said Buddy Dallas, who did not have exact numbers Friday night.

Dallas refused to identify the two people whose DNA showed they were Brown's children, but The Augusta Chronicle reported that LaRhonda Petitt, a 45-year-old retired flight attendant and teacher in Houston, showed the newspaper a report that says there is a 99.99 percent probability she is Brown's daughter.

She would be the oldest of Brown's children.

Brown picked out Petitt's mother from the crowd at a show in Los Angeles in the early 1960s, and she became the singer's girlfriend, sometimes ironing his shirts before his shows, Petitt said.

But when her mother became pregnant, she split with Brown and moved back to Houston. She would point to the television when Brown was performing and tell her daughter the singer was her father, Petitt told the newspaper.

Petitt said that she met Brown at concerts and spoke to him over the phone, but that he never acknowledged being her father.

"I was angry that he was out there making all this money, and he wasn't doing anything for my mother and me," Petitt told the newspaper. "I could have had a better life."

Sentenced, Yes. Will He Serve?

I hope this really turns into justice and that they don't find a way to let this guy out before he's dead. This was positively heinous.

A U.S. soldier convicted by a military court in the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family was sentenced to 110 years in prison on Saturday, the Army said.

Pvt. Jesse Spielman, 22, received a dishonorable discharge after being found guilty of four counts of murder, rape, conspiracy to commit rape and housebreaking with the intent to commit rape by a military court at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky.

Spielman was one of five soldiers charged in the March 2006 attack on the family in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. Three soldiers previously pleaded guilty in the case and were given sentences ranging from five to 100 years.

Spielman, the court found, participated in the planning of the attack as the soldiers drank whiskey and played cards, and acted as a lookout.

At the start of the weeklong hearing, Spielman pleaded guilty to wrongful touching of a corpse, arson, obstructing justice and violating rules against drinking alcohol in a war zone.

Sgt. Paul Cortez and Spc. James Barker were sentenced to 90 years and 100 years in prison, respectively.

The accused ringleader, former Pvt. Steven Green, was discharged from the Army for a "personality disorder" and awaits trial in a civilian court. He has pleaded not guilty and faces a possible death sentence.

Cortez and Barker, who both testified at Spielman's court-martial, admitted raping the girl, Abeer Qassim al-Janabiat, and said Green shot her parents and younger sister. Green then raped the girl and killed her, and they poured kerosene over her body and set it on fire in an attempt to hide evidence of the crime, they testified.

Another soldier, Pvt. Bryan Howard, admitted to monitoring radio traffic and was given a five-year sentence.

The killings outraged Iraqis and ratcheted up tension in the war zone.

BTW, what the heck is a personality disorder and why didn't they figure that out before they let him into the Army? Oh! That's right! They are taking anybody they can get!

My, My! This Is Interesting!

Unfortunately, it's not surprising. The same man who tried to ruin Bill Clinton works for a law firm that is now donating, heavily, to Hillary Clinton.

Lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis, the law firm that's home to Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr and Bush administration official Jay Lefkowitz, have given more to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign than to all of the top Republican candidates combined.

Kirkland, based in Chicago, is one of several corporate law firms that traditionally backed Republicans where lawyers are turning to Democratic candidates. Lawyers say the change is largely due to disenchantment with the Republican Party's social policies and the war in Iraq.

``The Iraq war has a very significant pull on people, but it's not just limited to that,'' said Kirk Radke, a New York partner at Kirkland who is fundraising for Clinton. ``There's the need for a better posture within the international community.''

Large U.S. firms such as Jones Day and Sidley Austin, which donated more to President George W. Bush in 2000 than to Democratic candidate Al Gore, are giving thousands more to Democratic hopefuls than Republicans. Top Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds are also giving more to Democrats.

Clinton, a New York senator, and Barack Obama, an Illinois senator, are benefiting the most from the largest law firms, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, a nonprofit organization that tracks political contributions. Five of Clinton's 10 largest donor groups are from law firms.

There is no shame in their game. They are going to invest in the folks who suit their interests - be it the witch or the devil.

Eat Him Up!

Most men from wealthy, privileged backgrounds haven't mastered the art of playing a hick the way dumb Dubya can so folks like Mitt Romney need to stop trying. He will never get what regular people go through and this woman let him know how out of touch he really is!

One of the things I'm proud of doing in my state is putting on track a plan that gets everybody health insurance," Romney began, seeing an opening for his standard stump speech about his efforts as governor of Massachusetts.

But Griffin was in no mood for platitudes, and interrupted.

"After we pay our huge deductibles for our insurance and our cost for our prescriptions, there's nothing left," she said.

"Are you a Massachusetts resident?" Romney asked.

"No I'm a New Hampshire resident," Griffin said, and then added, before Romney could jump in, that "we pay over $1,000 a month for our insurance. Then we have co pays. Every time you go to the doctor, it's $50 a visit. Then you have co-pays for our prescriptions. Can you tell me what your co pay is?"

"Yes," Romney said. "$10 for each prescription."

"That's very nice isn't it?" Griffin answered dryly.

"Yes. What are yours? Romney asked.

"Mine are like $30-$50. I have three sick children."

There's plenty more of the exchange.

Whew! I wonder how red his face became?

Jim Crow In Iraq

I'm tired of being appalled but I guess now we can see why Americans are still getting blown to bits.

At the U.S. Forward Operating base in Iraq, Iraqis — including interpreters — are forced to use separate latrines from U.S. troops. The sign taped to the men’s restroom reads, “US Military Contractors Civilians Only!!!!!” One soldier at the base cited Iraqi “hygiene habits” as a reason for the separation.

McClatchy adds, “Another sign, in a dining hall, warns Iraqis and ‘third-country nationals’ that they have just one hour for breakfast, lunch or dinner. American troops get three hours. Iraqis say they sometimes wait as long as 45 minutes in hot lines to get inside the chow hall, leaving just 15 minutes to get their food and eat it.”

If we cannot treat the people who are working with us - trying to make this mess work - with dignity, what do we expect from the others?

In The Blink Of An Eye

I'm still having a hard time grasping this bridge tragedy. I just cannot fathom how this could happen to a family.

Mohamed Sahal's entire family vanished when the bridge fell — his daughter Hanah, 2, and his 23-year-old wife Sadiya, five months pregnant.

The nursing student had been on her way to pick up a friend who needed a ride home from work when she got snarled in barely moving traffic. She called home about a half hour before the bridge collapsed to say the traffic was bad, but that she'd be home soon.

Sahal is so devastated he can barely speak, relying on an activist in the Somali immigrant community for periodic updates from the police.

"He's with family in an apartment," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center. "He's just praying a lot."

Screw Pakistan!

I'm not really up for all of this war rhetoric that any of the candidates are spewing but I do agree with Barack on this one. It's time we started talking tough with both Saudi Arabia (instead of selling them more weapons) and Pakistan.

First Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was attacked by political rivals at home. Now he is under fire from abroad.

A senior Pakistani government official Friday criticized as "irresponsible" a threat Obama made this week to launch unilateral American military strikes against Al Qaeda havens in a remote border region of the Muslim nation.

Obama's comments also stirred street protests in Pakistan and criticism from Pakistani-Americans living in the Chicago area.

"It's a very irresponsible statement, that's all I can say," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khusheed Kasuri told AP Television News. "As the election campaign in America is heating up we would not like American candidates to fight their elections and contest elections at our expense."

Obama's threat to attack the territory of a Muslim ally without the consent of its government also could have broader ramifications for his standing in international Islamic public opinion.

The worldly mixed-race presidential candidate, who spent part of his early childhood in the Muslim nation of Indonesia, has a life story that has excited interest among a global Muslim population that has been disillusioned by the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. Obama's middle name of Hussein, a negative to Americans familiar only with the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, offers comfort to Muslims who recognize the name as that of a revered ancient imam associated with the cause of the oppressed.

Obama has promoted a counterterrorism policy that emphasizes attempts to win over Islamic public opinion in the struggle against fundamentalist extremists, and his advisers say he would be a powerful messenger for the U.S. in the Muslim world. In the same speech in which Obama threatened a military strike in Pakistan, he promised to go to a major Islamic forum within his first 100 days in office to "deliver an address to redefine our struggle" against Islamic extremists.

But the threat against Pakistan is likely to damage views of Obama in global Islamic opinion, though perhaps not irrevocably, said Vali Nasr, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies political Islam and is author of "The Shia Revival."

"There is the Obama promise. There is the Obama message. And now there are the Obama words," Nasr said. "They are not consistent with each other."

Sensitive subject
Nasr said global Islamic opinion is particularly sensitive to treatment of Pakistan because its tensions with India make it the second major spot in the world in which Muslims are in conflict with a nation of a foreign religion. The other is the Israeli-Arab conflict.

"Ultimately, the tenor of Obama's argument is that he is going treat Pakistan as an enemy country," Nasr said.

In a counterterrorism speech Wednesday, Obama said that as president he would order a strike against Al Qaeda leaders in tribal areas of Pakistan if President Pervez Musharraf does not eradicate their havens in the mountainous region on the border with Afghanistan.

"There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again," Obama said. "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will."

As far as I am concerned, Saudi Arabia (who sent 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers) and Pakistan (who knows damn well where Osama and/or friends are) are public enemy numbers one and two. How dare we call these non-democratic, human rights abusing, women hating countries our allies? If we are going to stop talking to anybody, it needs to be them.

The Yearly Kos

They are meeting in my hometown of Chicago. Wish I could be there ...

"What you have done in the last six years is restore ... the democracy that George Bush and the Republicans have tried to undermine," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told 1,500 cheering liberal bloggers meeting in Chicago Thursday night.

Many of these bloggers were the "Deaniacs" that nearly propelled the former Vermont governor to the Democratic nomination for president four years ago.

The mushrooming political power of Internet users is the most important development to America's political process "since the invention of the printing press," Dean said. "It has redemocratized America. There has been a tremendous shift in power."

Such is the clout of these Internet-savvy bloggers holding their annual convention in Chicago that all of the current major Democratic candidates for president will address them Saturday. The message will reverberate exponentially as the bloggers post selections online.

The "Yearly Kos" convention at McCormick Place is an outgrowth of the DailyKos weblog, which started just five years ago but has already become a potent force in Democratic politics.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), addressing the crowd from Washington, thanked them for pushing all senators on the war in Iraq, saying, "You gave my Democratic colleagues and me the support to stand up and fight this war."

Powered by ScribeFire.

Affairs Don't Pay

... at least not for the woman. I'm not saying that her behavior wasn't skanky or even a conflict of interest but it just goes to show you who ends up paying the biggest price.

A Los Angeles newscaster was suspended without pay for two months for covering Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa while they were romantically involved.

Besides KVEA-TV newscaster Mirthala Salinas' suspension, three others at the Telemundo network were disciplined, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. KVEA General Manager Manuel Abud was reassigned and News Director Al Corral was suspended for two months without pay.

Telemundo executive Ibra Morales, who oversees the network's 16 Spanish-language stations, was reprimanded in the matter that Telemundo President Don Browne said violated journalistic standards.

In early July, Salinas and the mayor publicly acknowledged they were involved for more than a year. Villaraigosa in June separated from his wife, Corina Villaraigosa, after 20 years of marriage.

Salinas was suspended when the relationship became public.

In a memo to staff, Browne said, "(While) the content and accuracy of KVEA's newscasts were not compromised, our news policy standards with respect to conflict of interest were clearly violated."

Villaraigosa said in a statement, "I regret that decisions I have made in my personal life have been a distraction for the city, and I am deeply sorry that I have let so many people down, especially my family."

Granted Villaraigosa's marriage is on the outs but Salinas wasn't the first piece of tail he strayed with. He had it coming.

Powered by ScribeFire.

These Dang Dogs!

Killer dogs strike again. This time the dogs belong to Ving Rhames!

The body of a caretaker has been discovered at a Brentwood property owned by actor Ving Rhames. Authorities say the man is a victim of a dog mauling.

Police say the victim is the 40-year-old caretaker of the property. There were apparently large dog bites on the body.

Police say they are not sure whether it was the dog mauling that proved fatal, or if the man suffered some other type of health problem.

A pair of 200-pound mastiffs have been quarantined by Animal Control, along with two other dogs found on the property.

A police spokesman says the death appears to be a "tragic accident." The victim, who hasn't been identified, had worked at the actor's home for about two years and was responsible for caring for the dogs, said Los Angeles Police officer Sandra Gonzalez.

Police got a call at 7:15 a.m. from someone reporting a dead body at the home. Gonzalez didn't know who made the call.

The victim was found on the front lawn, she said.

Rhames, 46, who appeared in the "Mission Impossible" series of films, wasn't at home when the attack occurred, she said.

When are people going to get enough of these aggressive beasts? The caretaker's family is going to have a field day!

Update: They are now saying that he didn't die from being mauled. He died from a heart attack ... while running for his life!

Police tell TMZ that the victim of the dog attack at Ving Rhames' home could have had a heart attack, since none of the wounds -- on his face and neck only -- appear to have been life threatening. They speculate that he was possibly running for his life after a confrontation with the dogs.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Criminal Greed

So blinded by greed and lack of respect for other human beings, Filipinos are basically forced to work in Iraq instead of Dubai - where they were told they would be going ...

The Filipinos thought they were flying to Dubai. One of them told a fellow passenger how excited he was about his new job as a telephone repairman at a hotel in the emirate.

It was only after liftoff from Kuwait, when the captain made an announcement, that they learned their destination was, in fact, Baghdad.

"All you-know-what broke loose on that airplane. People started shouting," said Rory Mayberry, an American passenger on the flight who had been hired to work in the Iraqi capital.

The Filipinos settled down only after a security guard from the company that had hired them waved a submachine gun, according to Mayberry. "They realized they had no other choice but to go to Baghdad," he said.

Mayberry recounted this incident, which he said took place in March 2006, during a congressional hearing in Washington on July 26 that looked into allegations of "waste, fraud and abuse" in the construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Held by the House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the hearing yielded startling testimony about victimization of workers from the Philippines and other poor countries.

The allegations riled Philippine officials, particularly because Manila bans the deployment of workers to Iraq. The government is trying to find out what happened to the workers reportedly trafficked to Baghdad, who have not been accounted for.

Though it is not unusual for Filipinos working abroad to be abused, the charge that 51 laborers had been brought to work at an American facility against their will touched a nerve. The Philippines has more than eight million citizens working abroad, or 10 percent of the population, and the remittances they send home - $12 billion last year - are keeping the economy afloat.

"It is distressing to hear that our fellow Filipinos are being deceived into working in Iraq by unscrupulous contracting firms," Senator Mar Roxas of the Philippines said. "Unless we have officially accepted that the days of slavery are back, the government must act ..."

Iraqis are living jobless and in poverty while they ship in "slaves" to build a lavish Embassy for the occupying power! Unconscionable!

Powered by ScribeFire.

New Ex-Wives Club

So the ex-wife and the self-proclaimed ex-almost-wife had lunch together to let their children bond and ... dish about what a loser Eddie is?
I'm feeling no pain for Mr. Murphy right now.

Scary Spice was spotted Thursday meeting up with Nicole Murphy – Eddie Murphy's ex-wife and the mother of five of his children – at Beverly Hills eatery the Ivy, where the pair laughed over bottled water and lunch.

Joining the two women were daughters Angel Iris, Brown's 4-month-old, and 5-year-old Bella Zahra, Murphy's youngest child with Nicole.

"They seemed really friendly toward one another," says an onlooker of the pair, who wore curve-hugging dresses and posed for cameras outside. "They had a pretty private meal in the back corner, away from all of us."

The lunch date came one day after Brown and her lawyer Gloria Allred held a press conference claiming that Brown's former boyfriend Murphy "has not paid one penny of child support." A DNA test in June established that the actor is the father, but "paternity has not been legally acknowledged," according to Allred.

He may not want to acknowledge the child but his other 5 children and his ex-wife certainly will get to know the half-sibling.

Powered by ScribeFire.

I Hate Traveling Over Bridges

And this is why ...

A four-lane interstate bridge spanning the Mississippi River collapsed during evening rush hour Wednesday, sending vehicles and tons of concrete crashing into the water.

Mark Lacroix photographed the bridge collapse from his apartment window.

The entire span of the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed about 6:05 p.m.

A tractor-trailer caught fire, and flame and black smoke billowed into the sky.

Local television stations captured video of injured people being carried up the riverbank.

There was no official word on injuries, but dozens of rescue vehicles were there.

Divers were also in the water.

Some people were stranded on parts of the bridge that aren't completely in the water.

Powered by ScribeFire.

WHAT THE F... ?

Good Lord! Who the heck asked Jimmy Walker a ding dang thing!?

When in Rome... do as the Romans do... Keith Ellison is a newly elected Congressman from Minnesota... He is also a Muslim... In January, when the new Congress is sworn in... He wants to be sworn in not with his hand on the Bible but with his hand on the Koran... Breaking with the "American" tradition... Mr. Ellison will be paid by the American People... he will be voting on American Law... and he will be sitting in the American Congress... Enough said...If Mr. Ellison would like to vote on Muslim law and place his hand on the Koran...perhaps he should go to Turkey...a predominately Muslim country... What would happen if Edward Kennedy were to go to Turkey and vote on Muslim law...and ask that the Bible be the religious book of choice... I don't think that would go over well...America is a Judeo Christian Nation... but all religions can pray and have their places of worship... and worship freely... But, when it comes to American Tradition, America must maintain that... our "Traditions" are eroding ...Things like traditional marriage...prayer in school, Christmas and the list goes on...Mr. Ellison isn't the point here...it's American Tradition... Baseball, Apple Pie and Chevrolet... When it's comes to what made America great... It's time that Americans...Go All In...

I guess next he'll be running for Governor of California and doing commercials for pay check rip off joints (like Gary Coleman who still cannot seem to keep his anger in check)!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Our Ally, Our Friend

Ah, Saudi Arabia. Another place of blissful democracy and freedom for all.

The family of a 19-year-old Sri Lankan girl is pleading for her life after a Saudi Arabian court sentenced her to death by beheading.

The court found Rizana Nafeek, 19, guilty of murdering a child in her care while working in the country. Her family (parents pictured above) has appealed the sentence, and human rights groups are calling for the Saudi government to overturn it.

At 17, Rizana Nafeek was sent to Saudi Arabia after the tsunami to work as a maid and make money for her family in Sri Lanka. But after only a few weeks and no child care training, her employers put her in charge of their 4-month-old baby. The baby died, and Nafeek was charged with murder, tried without an attorney and sentenced to death.

Nisha Varia of Human Rights Watch says the case is the latest egregious example of the harsh conditions migrant workers face in Saudi Arabia ...

Powered by ScribeFire.

O.J. Finally Makes Sense

Fred Goldman is a piece of work but he was awarded the book rights to that horrendous book that they refused to let O.J. publish. On this, O.J. and I agree.

"I find it sort of hypocritical that they talked everybody in America to boycott the book: it was 'immoral,' it was 'blood money,'" he told interviewer Kate Delaney. "But we now see it wasn't 'blood money' if they got the money."

Watching The Sale Of Democracy

It's happening slowly but in plain sight.

Today's news that the Bancroft family has agreed to News Corp.'s $5 billion dollar buyout offer for Dow Jones, is a powerful reminder of how media consolidation is constantly eroding the foundational structures of our democracy.

America's founders understood that a truly free press -- enlivened by diverse perspectives and beholden to the public interest -- is the keystone to a flourishing democracy. With the purchase of the Dow Jones Co. and its flagship Wall Street Journal another vital voice is brought under the umbrella of one conglomerate -- and one man -- that already controls too much of what Americans see, hear and read every day.

Since Rupert Murdoch's offer was made public, volumes have been written on what this historic deal might mean to journalism in America. A fair bit of the criticism and concern surrounding News Corp.'s bid for Dow Jones has focused on Murdoch himself and his well-documented penchant for employing his media outlets to advance his personal and business interests.

The Wall Street Journal is regarded as a bulwark of journalistic independence, seen by many as one of the most reliable sources of business news and a critical watchdog of corporate behavior. With less and less hard news being covered by the corporate media, newspapers like the Journal hold a powerful place in American society, helping to shape the national news agenda. Murdoch's influence over editorial policy at the Journal will have profound effects on what we see and hear on the news. Those concerned about the journalistic independence and editorial integrity at the Journal have good reason to be worried.