This is what a bad liar looks like

He is definately a piece of work!

again due to work. damn it!

Everybody

:-)

... to be threatening World War 3

~-~-

That's easy. God told him to.

'nuff said.

And Oregon is in a bad way also. Hope Cat Sea, Chubby, WFC and MAT are okay!

☺♥☺♥☺
One election at a time...

Fernando, your link worked wonderful.

☺♥☺♥☺
One election at a time...

Ohio last night. Many were without power.
wind chill 17F

☺♥☺♥☺
One election at a time...

wish I could have taken part.

Mat closed down her blog. She has 2 jobs and it was just too much for her.

She had a good little blog going, but work is first and a blog is demanding.

You are getting the weather we had. Did you get the ice storm with it?

wrote you on the last blog - right before you switched to this one. Please read

Cuban Coffee right now. YUM

Sam and Marc agreed to each take 5 rules from these 48 laws of power, to apply them to their daily lives, and report back next week.

I'll tell ya what...Bush and his neo-scum minions have this doctrine down pat.
Marc called it Machiavellian.

I wanted Sam to ask him, if he had ever heard of the Humanist Manifesto, but that question didn't make the cut.

The 48 Laws of Power
by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers

Law 1
Never Outshine the Master

Purdue -48 Laws of Power

AT&T DSL network had been down since yesterday early evening.

So I watched TV this morning and saw
the "illustrious leader" press conference.
Sickening shit. One "reporter" in the press
corps actually asked him about the Saudi rape case.
His phony response was disheartening.
He basically evaded the question all together.

Would someone please just shoot that fucker!

(note to NSA agent reading this: That is not a direct threat on my part. It is only wishful thinking and therefore covered by the first amendment protection of free speech.)

Feeling the same really. This back pain won't go away and my right knee is double the size. The weather affects my knee. Thanks for the good wishes.

Jeff Gannon was at the Rove thing? Hmmmm! Interesting!

I looked those up yesterday during the mini test run they had. Amazing correlary of what is going on now.

I'd rather see him behind bars. This way the evangelicals can't make a marter out of him.

I hope you and yours are safe. The ground surface here is frozen and just a sparse dusting of snow. Weatherman said the snow will be on it's way later tonight or tomorrow.

You'd laugh to see me right now. I have a blanket around me as a cape..I hate it when my shoulders get cold. I dislike winter immensely.
Old age...it happens.

☺♥☺♥☺
One election at a time...

NEW YORK: The financial crisis that began late last summer, then took a brief vacation in September and October, is back with a vengeance.

How bad is it? Well, I've never seen financial insiders this spooked - not even during the Asian crisis of 1997-98, when economic dominoes seemed to be falling all around the world.

This time, market players seem truly horrified - because they've suddenly realized that they don't understand the complex financial system they created.

Before I get to that, however, let's talk about what's happening right now.

Credit - lending between market players - is to the financial markets what motor oil is to car engines. The ability to raise cash on short notice, which is what people mean when they talk about "liquidity," is an essential lubricant for the markets, and for the economy as a whole.

But liquidity has been drying up. Some credit markets have effectively closed up shop. Interest rates in other markets - like the London market, in which banks lend to each other - have risen even as interest rates on U.S. government debt, which is still considered safe, have plunged.

"What we are witnessing," says Bill Gross of the bond manager Pimco, "is essentially the breakdown of our modern-day banking system, a complex of leveraged lending so hard to understand that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke required a face-to-face refresher course from hedge fund managers in mid-August."

The freezing up of the financial markets will, if it goes on much longer, lead to a severe reduction in overall lending, causing business investment to go the way of home construction - and that will mean a recession, possibly a nasty one.

Behind the disappearance of liquidity lies a collapse of trust: Market players don't want to lend to each other because they're not sure they will be repaid.

In a direct sense, this collapse of trust has been caused by the bursting of the housing bubble. The run-up of home prices made even less sense than the dot-com bubble - I mean, there wasn't even a glamorous new technology to justify claims that old rules no longer applied - but somehow financial markets accepted crazy home prices as the new normal. And when the bubble burst, a lot of investments that were labeled AAA turned out to be junk.

Thus, "super-senior" claims against subprime mortgages - that is, investments that have first dibs on whatever mortgage payments borrowers make, and were therefore supposed to pay off in full even if a sizable fraction of these borrowers defaulted on their debts - have lost a third of their market value since July.

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=8569486

You'd laugh to see me right now. I have a blanket around me as a cape..I hate it when my shoulders get cold. I dislike winter immensely.
Old age...it happens.

☺♥☺♥☺

That has been me the past few days. Blanket like a shawl around me. The other night I wore my Fleece pants and top to sleep in.

We are expecting snow starting this afternoon until tomorrow afternoon. I don't mind the snow as much as the ice, however, I could do without both at this stage in my life.

I need to borrow your mind. You are so much smarter than I and you can understand nuance so well, I'm sure you know the answer. What's a nukular bomb? I kept hearing that very important looking dude on the tv talking about Iran learning how to make a nukular bomb. That scares me because I don't even know what a nukular bomb is.

Should I be scared or delighted? I've had a Yager bomb. Those are delicious!

Exclusive: State Dept. Officials in Charge of Blackwater Get Bonuses
An internal cable reveals that State is rewarding two Diplomatic Security officials who oversee private-security contractors guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan. The optional bonuses are given for "outstanding performance."

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004823.php

I wonder if anyone would like to step up and suggest that we should trust Iran? Would anyone like to stop funding The Surge? Does anyone think Kucinich or his Impeachment bill have any life in them?

It's tough times for the 3%. Even the 3%er Hugo got a swift kick in the ass. IF you are a 3%er, ya gotta be frustrated!

Can't wait for the vodcast.
I hope it's up soon.

Toni, I know, I just get a sick feeling
anytime the dictator is on TV with these
"reporters" giving him a psychological
rim job. God-damn Hacks!
They are as damaging to Democracy as Bush.

Except for Helen Thomas, the only real
reporter in the press corps.

it was so good and - i could not believe it - no technical problems, just the sound briefly cutting off when marc was gesticulating too wildly but very little interruption and did not interfere at all with the flow of the conversation - also marc appeared to be in better mood than last time - presumably he got a good night's sleep - even though he did need to take a coffee break at one point and go get it from the kitchen and so we got to see his shorts, but nothing sexy

Alaska corruption scares off energy company
western news
By WESLEY LOY
Anchorage Daily News
Tuesday, December 04, 2007

A major Midwest energy company cites Alaska's political corruption scandal for its unexpected decision not to submit a natural gas pipeline application.

In a recent letter to Gov. Sarah Palin, the chief executive of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. suggests that criminal investigations, performance lapses by one major North Slope oil producer and other factors stand in the way of a gas line.

"As you are painfully aware the ongoing corruption investigations coupled with previous indictments, guilty pleas and convictions draw into question virtually every major Alaskan project participant and governmental levels from State to Federal," says the letter from MidAmerican CEO David Sokol. "Obviously your administration had no involvement in these previous shenanigans nor did we; however, you and we alone cannot develop the pipeline project through AGIA's expected process."

MidAmerican was expected to be among the companies applying by Friday's deadline for a package of financial and other pipeline incentives under Palin's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act.

Palin is the latest in a string of governors to try to spur construction of a multibillion-dollar gas line.

Such a project would be a tax and jobs boon to Alaska, but the cost and risk of laying pipe as far as Chicago have for decades sidelined the project. Three oil companies, BP, Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil, hold the rights to most of the Slope's enormous gas reserves.

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/28755

Hey tonid
Submitted by Fernando on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 1:06pm.
I need to borrow your mind. You are so much smarter than I and you can understand nuance so well, I'm sure you know the answer. What's a nukular bomb? I kept hearing that very important looking dude on the tv talking about Iran learning how to make a nukular bomb. That scares me because I don't even know what a nukular bomb is.

Should I be scared or delighted? I've had a Yager bomb. Those are delicious!

You have to have a sharp mind like the chimp!

The only gender I have heard pronounce nuclear as nucular are men. Seems they have a problem with that word.

real reporter - i get so angry when i hear them others fakes disrespect her - dana perino is particularly offensive - what she said to her the other day - it's up on crooks and liars i believe - was awful

for me too toniD. Usually, they are holding a shot gun or a drink simultaneously attempting to pronounce the name of a weapon they will never understand. I just had a conversation with one of those bones for brains idiots.

NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16843353

That is an NPR link for the terrified.

I wonder if anyone would like to step up and suggest that we should trust Iran?

Should we trust the NIE from our own gov't intelligence agencies?

I mean, they really fucked it up on Iraq, didn't they! Cherry-pickin' administration aside. They got it toally wrong.

So, tell you what. YOU admit that we went into Iraq on completely false pretenses first and then we'll get back to you on Iran, okay?

life goes on!

all that snow just about gone, even the slush is fading in the rain.

high winds last night on the way home blowing the truck around.

back healing up pretty good,got some hours in yesterdiddy.

blog has been a delight to read, but i'm so tired at night i zonk out early.

...Currently, I'm Fully Baked.

For those who have doubts about miracles, a double one occurred Monday. An honest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program has been issued and its "key judgments" were made public. With redraft after redraft, it was what the Germans call "eine schwere Geburt"—a difficult birth, ten months in gestation.

I do not know how often Vice President Dick Cheney visited CIA Headquarters during the gestation period, but I am told he voiced his displeasure as soon as he saw the first sonogram/draft very early this year, and is so displeased with what issued that he has refused to be the godfather.

This time Cheney and his neo-con colleagues were unable to abort the process. And after delivery to the press, this child is going to be very hard to explain—the more so since it is legitimate.

The main points of the NIE:

"We judge that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program..."

"We assess with moderate confidence Tehran has not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007."

"We do not have sufficient intelligence to judge confidently whether Tehran is willing to maintain the halt of its nuclear weapons program indefinitely..."

"We judge with moderate confidence Iran probably would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium sometime during the 2010-2015 time frame."

"We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015."

Having reached these conclusions, it is not surprising that the NIE’s authors make a point of saying up front (in bold type), "This NIE does not (italics in original) assume that Iran intends to acquire nuclear weapons."

So, should we trust our own govt's NIE or not, 97?

Giuliani Advisor Podhoretz: It's a CIA Plot to Protect Iran

Yep, Rudy's Mideast Advisor Norman Podhoretz says the CIA is fibbing about the Iranian nuclear program to protect the Iranians from an attack by Bush or Rudy.

I entertain an even darker suspicion. It is that the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush, is doing it again. This time the purpose is to head off the possibility that the President may order air strikes on the Iranian nuclear installations. As the intelligence community must know, if he were to do so, it would be as a last resort, only after it had become undeniable that neither negotiations nor sanctions could prevent Iran from getting the bomb, and only after being convinced that it was very close to succeeding. How better, then, to stop Bush in his tracks than by telling him and the world that such pressures have already been effective and that keeping them up could well bring about “a halt to Iran’s entire nuclear weapons program”—especially if the negotiations and sanctions were combined with a goodly dose of appeasement or, in the NIE’s own euphemistic formulation, “with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for regional influence in other ways.”

--Josh Marshall

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/podhoretz/1474

Two Critical Senate Votes This Week

The Senate will vote this week (as early as Tuesday) on two critical measures: The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act and the Peru Free Trade Agreement. Already passed in the House, both bills will be taken up in the Senate this week and both issues need your attention. Read more below and use the links to take action!

STOP the Police State Bill

Send a message to your Senators demanding they protect your first amendment right and uphold their oath to protect the Constitution by voting NO on S. 1959, The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.

http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=10616211

leaked video of the Bush team deciding to go out and declare Iran is still a threat.

Maybe not a psycho,
but that's the only esteemed reference for the resume.

-------

He wasn't a superhero, even though he read books.
Apparently, reading is no longer a natural human trait.

Us dopes got a minimum raise wage. ($3.35/hr raised to $5.15/hr)

'Spose we should igore Yugoslavia, a doubled victimless crime prison population, (pot bad, crack bad, coke ok),...
& welfare reform.

Remember Dukakis vs. Bunnypants Sr.?
(Both wanted to escalate the war on drugs.)

Carter proposed to legalize marijuana
when he ran for office in 1980.

But, alas we were introduced
to Bunnypants Sr's "October Surprise."

Maybe we should have Lee Hamilton look into it.

"Infinite love is the only truth, everything else is illusion." (D.I.)

Kucinich/Paul '08

any more myself. I used to when I was a kid...but now I could take it or leave it.
My sister lives in Scottsdale, AZ. and she loves it out there.
I think I would miss the change of the seasons though. Im not sure if I would want to live in a state that is warm all of the time.
I guess I would give it a try if the opportunity came up.

Helen Thomas - - BLESS HER HEART.
She is the only journalist who asks the tough questions.

I have been trying to trap this tom cat (Mystery Kitty we call him) and he is elusive to no end. Plus I've been trying to get momma cat (Scruffy) \same as Mystery Kitty
ELUSIVE to no end!!

Hey Sunshine Jim,,,, how are ya today? Any new photos of the cars your working on??
Im having a hell of a time with my sexy IMac. I can't get the copy & paste to high light. Or I should say it is not highlighted and so I can't copy & paste.
Hope things are well with you and yours.

http://firedoglake.com/

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BF3CBFE3-0348-4941-A62D-1BD8D1986...

a useful guide if the lying decider starts bombing

*Get used to me saying that. It’s the way Southern women use a common two-word put down containing a familiar expletive.

--bluegal

John Amato: Yea, and it was the blogs that spent millions of dollars trying to impeach and indict President Clinton for years and years and of course, we accused him of murdering Vince Foster. Didn’t we? Or maybe it was Richard Mellon Scaife. Isn’t he a blogger too?

David Gregory Plays "Blame the Blogs"

illuuusion

Problem-Reaction-Solution ??

George Ciccariello, a Venezuela watcher with the University of California at Berkeley in the US, told Al Jazeera there had been "a great deal of disinformation" about Chavez's campaign prior to the vote.

"There were rumours, there was pamphleteering, there was printing false copies of the reform proposal.

Missing supporters

"That said though, Chavez really took a hit on this in terms of his moderate supporters not turning up to vote."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FCEED535-1550-4151-A696-AE6364AC7...

Afghan army, U.S. officers ask Gates for money, arms

KABUL, Dec. 4 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's army chief on Tuesday asked the United States for more security trainers and equipment to fight an insurgency led by Taliban militants, saying the aid given so far was generous but inadequate. [...]

I feel like I am the salesman around the world for Afghanistan," he said, noting he had also asked China and Japan for help in the war during a recent visit to those countries.

"In the meantime, we will continue to do all we can," Gates said.

RISING VIOLENCE

Gates was on his third trip to Afghanistan since replacing Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon in December 2006.

His current trip to Afghanistan is to assess foreign military commanders' needs following two years of rising violence by a Taliban that has been able to regroup and regain territory.

Attacks have climbed 30 percent in some areas and suicide bombings are up from a year ago in Afghanistan, a war often overshadowed in the United States by combat in Iraq.

Representative Nancy Boyda, first-term Kansas Democrat.

By CARL HULSE
Published: December 4, 2007

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Nancy Boyda, a Democrat who ran for Congress in this district last year, owed her upset victory partly to the popularity of the Democratic woman at the top of the ticket: Kathleen Sebelius, who won the governor’s seat. Now, with a tough re-election race at hand in 2008, Ms. Boyda faces the prospect that her electoral fate could be tied to another woman: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Mrs. Clinton is a long way from winning the Democratic presidential nomination, and over the last few weeks has struggled to hang on to the air of inevitability that she has been cultivating all year. But the possibility that she will be the nominee is already generating concern among some Democrats in Republican-leaning states and Congressional districts, who fear that sharing the ticket with her could subject them to attack as too liberal and out of step with the values of their constituents.

And few incumbent Democrats face a greater challenge next year than Ms. Boyda, whose district delivered almost 60 percent of its votes to President Bush in 2004.

*********************

In the Senate, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana faces a similar challenge, and in an indication of what she and other Democrats, including Senators Max Baucus of Montana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, could face, Republicans unveiled a Web commercial on Monday linking Ms. Landrieu directly to Mrs. Clinton. In the advertisement, Mrs. Clinton’s face morphs into Ms. Landrieu’s, and they are described as “two peas in a pod.”

Advisers to Mrs. Clinton, who has long sought to parry concerns within her party that she is too polarizing, dispute the idea that she could hinder Democratic candidates in Republican districts. They note that New York Democrats gained a net of four House seats in her two Senate elections and that she campaigned actively for House contenders in both.

Con't @ NYT
**************************
More Nonsense about Clinton being "Too Liberal"
When in fact she is too Conservative,
just ask an actual Liberal.

best to ya too!

currently refining the shape on the left quarter panel. i have to do many 'color sandings' to get rid of 'waves'. basically taking out lows and highs of about the thickness of a playing card over the length of the door and quarter panel, about 12 feet of surface area by 3 feet of depth and multiple contours.

i posted some recent pix at my site for you yesterday and just now!

http://www3.telus.net/Art-Adventures/65PontiacParissenne/

Israeli officials reject U.S. findings on Iran

Defense Minister Ehud Barak directly challenged the new assessment in an interview with Israel's Army Radio, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the new finding wouldn't deter Israel or the United States from pressing its campaign to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability.

"It seems Iran in 2003 halted for a certain period of time its military nuclear program, but as far as we know, it has probably since revived it," Barak said.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/22534.html

"Middle class and out of a home"
The home mortgage meltdown isn't just gutting the poorer parts of town, it's beginning to slam Chicago's wealthy & middle- class neighborhoods.
"End of the line for Jays factory"
Chip company closing plant on 99th St., cutting about 220 union jobs.
"God took them away"
Fire kills young brothers. Officials say home was like a rooming house

Daily Herald
"Now you can party outside @ Sears Centre"
Hoffman Estates OKs outdoor events, tailgating @ arena
"Sheriff applies to help deport"
Lake County enters immigration debate
"Hawks Hockey 101"
"Roll 'em again"
How quickly can 10th casino license pay off?
"Short term memory? 5 year old chimps can beat you."

The festival of the light begins tonight. It's early this year.

like that Pontiac is going to be one SWEET ride.
Who's the other good looking guy with you?

Looks like you have a little helper with you to. What's his/her name?
How many pups do you have?

Nuclear MeltdownWe're not going to bomb Iran.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Monday, Dec. 3, 2007, at 5:31 PM ET

If there was ever a possibility that President George W. Bush would drop bombs on Iran, the chances have now shrunk to nearly zero.

In one of the most dramatic National Intelligence Estimates ever, the 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community concluded today "with high confidence" that Iran "halted its nuclear weapons" four years ago, in the fall of 2003.

The NIE, which was released this afternoon, also judges "with moderate confidence" that Iran won't be "technically capable" of producing enough materials for an atom bomb—much less the bomb itself—until 2010-15 or possibly later.

The report also concedes that Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear-weapons program "suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005."

It was in 2005 that the intelligence agencies released their first, more alarming NIE, which concluded that Iran was determined to develop nuclear weapons despite international pressure.

The new report—which incorporates intelligence information as recent as Oct. 31, 2007—now finds evidence to the contrary.

President Bush and the administration's hawkish faction, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, can take some solace from the new intelligence estimate. For instance, the NIE states, again "with high confidence," that until the fall of 2003, the Iranians were developing nuclear weapons. It also notes that they are continuing civilian work "related to uranium conversion and enrichment." Most significant, perhaps, it concludes that the Iranians halted their weapons program "primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure resulting from exposure of Iran's previously undeclared nuclear work."

But one implication of this last assessment is that Iran's leaders are not so hermetic—that, as the NIE puts it, "Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the issues than we judged previously." The Bush administration's campaign of pressure—the smart sanctions that it imposed and rallied other nations to join—appears to have had an effect. By the same token, inducements might spur further progress.

The NIE is strikingly explicit on this point:

Our assessment that Iran halted the program in 2003 primarily in response to international pressure indicates Tehran's decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic, and military costs. This, in turn, suggests that some combination of threats of intensified international scrutiny and pressure, along with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for regional influence in other ways, might—if perceived by Iran's leaders as credible—prompt Tehran to extend the current halt to its nuclear weapons program.

http://www.slate.com/id/2179084/

I agree with you on that ( H. Clinton)
She is way to conservative for my liking. Only if she wins the primary will I vote for her.
Anybody but a republican slime ball!

that saying makes me want to puke. Biden is the only one that has nailed Bush on that NIE on Iran ... the top 3 bicker on what so and so said.

Free Democracy

I e-mailed you some info. Did you get it yet?? Its about the library cats.

how are you today??
I miss that little dude running around on fire.

what is the subject or the first few letters of the email address so I can look for it in the spam folders?

"Who's the other good looking guy with you?"

Thats Derek, shop owner with his brother, excellent audio tech and fabricator. I'll see if i can get some pix of what they're up to today.

Looks like you have a little helper with you to. What's his/her name?

that's Jax, J Jaxxor Slinkytoes, he had a bad day yesterday, poor guy had the runs, he was barking at the sander noise too, usually does'nt phase him.

How many pups do you have?

i have two Jack Russel terriers, Ruzzalyn, queen of the North and Jax.

Fine .. how are you?

look for smcgee43 or Feral Cats

in that article they got it exactly reversed - clinton-like comparisons for mary landrieu are not going to damage her with the conservative republicans but with the liberal dems which is exactly the folks she needs to rally behind her - the redstaters are not going to vote for landrieu no matter what now that she has a republican contender

if i understand the jist of the article correctly - i had to speed-read and scan through it because that picture of that woman bothered me - something ugly and unpleasant about her, not unlike the disturbing postings of our anonymous bullshiter

Credit card companies are gouging American consumers everyday.

-----

This morning, I chaired another hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on unfair credit card practices that are victimizing hard working Americans who play by the rules. We are determined to find out why credit card companies increase interest rates on cardholders who pay their bills on time.

The companies revealed that they routinely increase interest rates - even retroactively - for reasons that have nothing to do with a cardholder's payment history. In some cases, our investigation has already caused credit card companies to reconsider increases and reduce rates.

But I don't think it should take a personal phone call from a Senate investigator in order for consumers to be treated fairly.

That's why I've introduced the Stop Unfair Practices in Credit Cards Act, legislation that will take away credit card companies' ability to institute unfair interest rate hikes and end the practice of retroactively applying higher interest rates to consumers' existing debt.

Click here to show your support for my legislation to end unfair credit card practices that are gouging consumers, and to read more details about our investigation.

Janet undoubtedly joins thousands of other responsible cardholders across the country who are feeling the squeeze of hiked interest rates this holiday season. Our hearing today showed that it's past time to put an end to these unfair credit card practices.

Sincerely,

Carl Levin

Kevin...same old shit - -different day. I can't complain.
I guess I can about the very cold weather here in Chicago. But it won't do any good to complain.
You would think after 40 some yrs. I would be used to it by now.

I'm not seeing it...remember it's alice IS not Alice IN :)
...back to work...

time to roll,

love ya all!

companies have been gouging consumers for about well.....a long time, I really don't know how long but I'll say 40 yrs.????
They, just like a lot of companies are money hungry. Once they get that in "their" blood its hard to not want more.
We had a story here in the paper about Exxon Mobile putting in Air Pumps @ the local rest stops that you go for gas and what not
and Exxon Mobile charging .75 for air when it wasn't in the contract. Air has always been free @ an oasis. Exxon Mobile put them in
of course without saying anything to anybody & finally someone caught on and now they are saying that in the fine print that you can go inside and have the attendant
turn it on so as you do not have to pay for the air. What a fucking crock of hot shit. Jeez like those muther fuckers don't have enough money - they'll stiff you for air.
The point being is Money is the root of ALL evil.

Sorry about that goofy pic, mire.
looks like she just did a hot-rail when it was taken.

;p

much better than - not even close - to what the ridiculous televised charades have been like

and yet even here i find the interviewers, particularly the female one - didn't catch her name - somewhat irritating - why is it that even here this has to happen

I forwarded the original letter i sent to you to me. If that makes any sense at all. Then I just forwarded it back to you. I did have in instead if is.
Thanks for the heads up.
Have a good one.

Biden: Bush either not truthful or incompetent on Iran

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hpfYt7vRHuY

Worldwide one of a kind, the Vegetable Orchestra performs on instruments made of fresh vegetables. The utilization of various ever refined vegetable instruments creates a musically and aesthetically unique sound universe.

----- december 4th, 2007:
wow, were are really amazed about the flood of comments in the last hours. so thank you all for your kind and unkind comments. we really appreciated that! sorry that we can not answer all... it's just too much!

just one word to all the people who are concerned about people dying of starvation:
we are concerned too. but not doing this project does change nothing. it doesn't make the world a better place.
if you are really concerned about the distribution of wealth then do something about it! read books about the real cause of hunger. talk with your friends and family about it. change your own life and try to change politics. buy and support the right things. it is not people using vegetables differently than usual that make the world a bad place. it's all of us wanting too much. our own car, a new cellphone, a bigger house with air condition, more money...
sending the vegetables to africa does not help. on the contrary it destroys the markets there, so people can not sell their own produce, because the imported one is too cheap.

and by the way: people have used vegetables for music for centuries. also in africa.

enough already - that's what's getting on my nerves - i can now put my finger on it - it's like china this is all the problems in the world we're having right now - these reporter questioners piss me off when they focus obsessively and narrowly on some issue

I have 3 BIG dogs. Newfi/Golden retriever mixes 2 females and the male is a Tibetan Mastiff.
Lakota - Indio & Buddy Bear or Boo-Boo Bear
Then I have 5 cats inside & outside I take care of about 7 or 8 feral cats that live in my garage. (Ally, Frankie, Huney Buney, Noodles, Mee-Moo- Rusty, Peaches, Reno, Shy-Boy, Scruffy, Mystery Kitty, & Daddy
1 Box Turtle (Monroe)
1 Cockatiel Bird (Mick)
& finally 1 G. Pig (piggy)
Looking for a large house in decent shape with some land. Ha-Ha-Ha :)

you have taken the words right out of my mouth.
Ditto on that!!
Get to the real fucking problems - like IMPEACHMENT what about that. Or other pressing issues.

If I were asking Bush a question at a press conference I'd say to him, "Sir, how do you feel about people speaking your name and Hitler in the same breath?"

The 'debate' is only on three topics in two hours and China was one of them along with Iran and now, immigration.

over-covered and imo relatively unimportant issue: immigration; i think i'll change the channel

were stated at the outset. Actually nice to have some depth for a change. The Short Attention Span Theater debates will resume soon enough.

Important! About flattening low rent AND Section 8 housing! TODAY and other Times!
They want to divide the black voting.
Rethugs want the COAST...

A stranded motorist sits on his car in Olympia, Washington, as floodwaters fill the streets Monday.

Floodwaters cross a road Monday after a flash flood swept down a creek near Olympia, Washington.

Two men walk from a boat after being rescued from their flooded home in Centralia, Washington, on Tuesday.

thanks...I had NO idea about the flooding in those areas. Thanks again:)

An Interview with Gilbert Achcar

By Cihan Aksan & Jon Bailes

"Tehran doesn’t need nuclear weapons to start exerting effective deterrence because they already have a powerful deterrent that is “conventional”, aside from the fact that they have a network of allies in the area which they could also incite against the US and its own allies."

The following interview was conducted with SoN editors, Cihan Aksan & Jon Bailes, at SOAS in November 2007.

State of Nature: Although 2007 proved to be the deadliest year for US in Iraq, the Bush administration is putting on an optimistic front with talk of casualty rates declining, al-Qaeda being routed from Baghdad, Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar and Diyala provinces cooperating with the US forces and so on, all primarily tied to the surge in troops. How do you assess the recent developments in Iraq?

Gilbert Achcar: Well, there’s no point denying each and every statement that comes out from Washington. So yes, on the face of it, there has been a relative, but only relative, decline in casualties, at least in recorded casualties. Security controls in Baghdad seem to be working to a certain extent, but that’s also because the so-called “surge” was concentrated in the capital and the “Mehdi Army” of Muqtada al-Sadr decided early on to withdraw from any points of possible confrontation with the US army, and so did Sunni insurgent groups. I tend to believe, therefore, that all this has had some effect, but it is purely temporary. There is no structural change, but only a result of the ongoing “surge”, which cannot last forever. As with all such operations, people get used to them after a while and the relative decline in the number of casualties can quickly be reversed if the political conditions remain the same.

As for collaboration with the US occupation, there has been increasing friction between some of the tribal configurations in Arab Sunni areas of Iraq, on the one hand, and al-Qaeda, on the other. Coalitions were set up in some instances opposing or trying to get rid of al Qaeda from their area, as part of collaboration between some tribal chiefs and occupation authorities or the Iraqi government. Tribalism has always been a tool of last resort for various proponents of modernisation in Iraq, who ended up making use of this most backward and traditionalist feature of Iraqi society. For example, although Saddam Hussein’s regime displayed, on the face of it, a modernist nationalist ideology, Saddam very much exploited tribalism, especially in the last dozen years of his rule after the first US onslaught on Iraq. Before that, of course, colonialism also made quite extensive use of tribalism despite its “civilising” pretentions, and so did various republican leaders after the 1958 overthrow of the monarchy. And now, it is the US occupation that has been resorting to this same mechanism of buying tribal leaders with big amounts of money and other privileges...
http://www.stateofnature.org/gilbertAchcar2.html

Gilbert Achcar is Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, London. His books include Perilous Power with Noam Chomsky (2007), The 33-Day War (2007), The Israeli Dilemma (2006), The Clash of Barbarisms (2nd edn, 2006) and Eastern Cauldron (2004).

to render a lot of his constituents homeless ;þ

Oil Prices Fall Ahead of OPEC Meeting
Oil Prices Dip Below $88 a Barrel Amid Uncertainty About OPEC Production, US Report on Iran
By JACKIE FARWELL
AP Business Writer
Dec. 4, 2007—

Oil prices slipped below $88 a barrel Tuesday as traders reacted to mixed signals on whether OPEC would decide to increase production during its meeting this week.

A new U.S. intelligence report concluding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program in 2003 also weighed on prices.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $1.33 to $87.98 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded as high as $89.98 and as low as $87.34 earlier in the session.

In London, January Brent crude futures dropped 30 cents to $89.50 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Prices rose and fell throughout the day as differing statements were reported from delegates of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries arriving in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for Wednesday's meeting.

"The focus will remain on OPEC in coming days, but the (U.S. intelligence) report on Iran ... should provide for a redefinition of the geopolitical premium in coming months," Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland said in a report. "The fear of a unilateral strike on Iran has been an important component of the risk premium in crude oil."

President Bush said Tuesday the international community should continue to pressure Iran on its nuclear programs, and said Tehran remains dangerous despite the new intelligence report.

"I view this report as a warning signal that they had the program, they halted the program," Bush said. "The reason why it's a warning signal is they could restart it."

Oil prices have dropped about $10 in one week on the belief that OPEC has all but decided to boost production. But the price drop itself has raised questions about whether oil ministers will follow through.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/MarketTalk/story?id=3952219&page=1

December 4, 2007

As Chávez Falters

Raising the Stakes for the South American Left

By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF

In the wake of President Hugo Chávez's stinging defeat in Sunday's constitutional referendum, it's incumbent on the South American left to take stock of events in Venezuela and learn from the Chavistas' mistakes. It's the first time that Chávez has lost an electoral contest, and the Venezuelan President no longer looks as invulnerable as he has in the past. Foreign policy hawks in Washington will surely feel emboldened by yesterday's electoral debacle in Venezuela; they may see it as an opportunity to go on the offensive and to turn back many of the progressive accomplishments of the Bolivarian Revolution. It's a dangerous time for the South American left, which must guard against U.S. machinations as well as its own domestic right opposition while simultaneously avoiding the pitfalls of demagogic populism.

Having recently won reelection to a six year term by a wide margin, Chávez had the opportunity to deepen the process of social and economic change occurring throughout the country. But his constitutional referendum confused voters with a host of contradictory measures. The opposition did not increase its voter share, but was able to squeek out a tiny margin of victory when some of the Chávez faithful grew disenchanted and failed to turn out to vote. True, the U.S. Agency for International Development funded vocal anti-Chávez students who campaigned against the referendum and the CIA could have played a role in helping to strengthen the opposition. But no matter how much the Venezuelan President railed against the United States and outside interference, ultimately the Chavistas lost because of their own tactical missteps. What went wrong?

Though Chávez and his followers had already enacted a new constitution in 1999, the President claimed that the document was in need of an overhaul so as to pave the way for a new socialist state. Chávez sought to reduce the workweek from 44 to 36 hours; to provide social security to informal sector workers such as housewives, street vendors and maids; to shift political power to grassroots communal councils; to bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or health; to extend formal recognition to Afro-Venezuelan people; to require gender parity for all public offices; to formalize the right to adequate housing and a free public education; to protect the full rights of prisoners, and to create new types of property managed by cooperatives and communities. The progressive provisions, certainly glossed over in the mainstream American media, would have done much to challenge entrenched interests in Venezuela and encourage the growth of a more egalitarian and democratic society based on social, gender, racial, and economic equality.
http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff12042007.html

toniD, bibi, everyone else.

I went to see Naomi Wolf speak last night and am now convinced that the Fascist state is upon us, if that bill passes in the Senate then there is no doubt, in honor of Ms. Wolf and are new Fascist overlords I have a ditty for everyone...

"two by two

lord we'll take em two by two

we'll lead 'em to the bedroom floor

we'll lead 'em in the dead of morning

two by two

lord we'll take 'em two by two

we'll lead 'em through the pouring rain

we'll lead 'em to the gas chamber....

Prime real estate. Public housing sits on prime real estate. It is important that we support this effort to preserve and extend public housing there. And look at your own hometown, too. Similar things probably going on there, too, although not as dramatic.

"but not me

i'm gonna crawl

i'm gonna crawl

i'm gonna crawl

back to the sea

judge us now

lord won't you judge us now

we know exactly who we are

we know exactly what we do....

Wind Breaking ....

A social club in Devon has banned a 77-year-old man from breaking wind while indoors.

Maurice Fox received a letter from Kirkham Street Sports and Social Club in Paignton asking him to consider his actions, which "disgusted" members.

Mr Fox, a club regular for 20 years, said: "I am happy to oblige them, there is no problem. I do get a bit windy - I am an old fart now."

He said he had to leave the club about three times a night.

In its letter to the retired bus driver, the club said: "After several complaints regarding your continual breaking of wind (farting) while in the club, would you please consider that your actions are considered disgusting to fellow members and visitors.

"You sit close to the front door, so would you please go outside when required. So please take heed of this request."

Mr Fox, who lives in nearby Princess Street, said the letter was a surprise because he had been given no verbal warning.

"I think someone has complained about the noise. I am a loud farter, but there is no smell.

"I do not think it [the letter] is unreasonable, you get ladies in there."

Mr Fox also spends two days a week at the nearby Palace Place club, but said he had no complaints about flatulence there.

The club said there was no one available for comment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/7126973.stm

http://www.hopoi.org/index.html

"judge us now

lord won't you judge us now

everybody stand on two legs

everybody kneel on two knees

but i'm turning around

and i'm gonna crawl

i'm gonna crawl

i'm gonna crawl

back to the ocean i know

back to the ocean i need

back to the sea....

The aftermath of two weekend storms is heading inland.

In Columbia County, National Guard members are using small boats in a house-to-house search for anyone who needs to be rescued from rising waters. Nearly 300 people in Vernonia have been plucked from their homes.

In Washington, Interstate 5 -- the main Portland-Seattle connector -- is shut after the Chehalis River swept over the roadway. It is the first time in more than a decade that the interstate has been closed. Washington officials say it could remain impassible in to Wednesday.

Farther west, much of Oregon's northern coast remains cut off at the end of flooded or tree-blocked roads.

On Monday, Gov. Ted Kulongoski declared a state of emergency after back-to-back storms blasted rain and triple-digit winds into the state's coastline, dropping trees and power lines, sending mudslides across major roads and leaving coastal communities almost completely isolated.

In Tillamook County, authorities today confirmed that two people died during the storm that pounded the central coast.

Doris Hart, 90, died Sunday night or early Monday morning, apparently from a heart attack, said Tillamook County medical examiner Dr. Paul Betlinski.

Whenever a storm hit the area and the power went out, Hart would pack a bag and her heart medications, and then wait for a friend to collect her. Hart was found Monday morning in front of her home in Southeast Tillamook. A small suitcase, her medications and her purse were found nearby.

It was unclear whether she was waiting for a ride but the friend never showed up.

County Sheriff Todd Anderson said another woman is presumed dead after her pickup was swept away by waters from the flooded Nehalem River near Shiffman Road on Monday.

Virtually all major roads from Portland to the coast remain blocked.

To the north, flooding closed Interstate 5 from exit 88 near Grand Mound to exit 68, about 11 miles south of Chehalis. The freeway is expected to remain closed for today and possibly longer.

Washington transportation officials suggest that motorists avoid travel between Seattle and Portland until the waters recede.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/high_waters_close_i5_coa...

"and all i need to do is walk

is to believe

so i'm gonna crawl

i'm gonna crawl

i'm gonna crawl

back to the sea"

Gov. Ted Kulongoski declared a state of emergency Monday after back-to-back storms blasted rain and triple-digit winds into the state's coastline, dropping trees and power lines, sending mudslides across major roads and leaving coastal communities almost completely isolated.

At least two people died, including a 90-year old woman who suffered what Tillamook County medical examiner Dr. Paul Betlinski called "a weather-related heart attack" as she evacuated her home. The driver of a truck swept away by floodwaters in the same area also was reported dead.

Communications to many parts of the northern Oregon coast were still spotty late Monday, so the full extent of the damage wasn't immediately clear.

Virtually all major roads from Portland to the coast remained cut off Monday night. To the north, a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 5 near Chehalis, Wash., also was blocked by floodwaters for a time.

More than 40,000 Pacific Power customers, most on the northern coast, lost power after a main transmission line toppled Sunday. Damage to the electrical grid was so severe that officials remain unsure when electricity will be restored in some cases.

Phone lines also went down across the region, cutting off 9-1-1 service to more than 20,000 coastal residents and scattering outages elsewhere that affected thousands more. In Clatsop county, the Sunset Empire Amateur Radio Operators Club used ham radios to relay messages for emergency managers.

Even the U.S. Coast Guard station in Astoria lost its communications system. The service launched a C-130 airplane from Sacramento to listen for distress calls.

Tillamook County was so cut off that the National Weather Service in Portland had trouble reaching emergency officials there to find out how badly the area had been damaged by floodwaters.

"I want to assure everyone that I am monitoring the conditions and will make sure all resources we have available will be offered to the communities that are being severely affected by this storm," Kulongoski said in a statement.

Time for the Next Step

Peace Movement Paralyzed

By JOHN V. WALSH

The war on Iraq has dragged on for almost five years now. The American people have learned a great deal about their government in the process. Perhaps everything that could be said about the war has been said--not once but many times. There is in fact little room left for analysis--but enormous room for action.

The greatest lesson, which is understood and voiced even by segments of the mainstream media, is that the Democratic Party is every bit as thoroughly and completely a party of war and empire as is the Republican Party--and perhaps even more so. From the senatorial vote for the war in October, 2002, when the Democrats were in control, to the prowar campaign of John Kerry in 2004 endorsed by Dennis Kucinich, to the election of a Democratic Congress in 2006 which promised peace but has continued to fund the war, the Democrats have been complicit every step of the way. And they now promise troops in Iraq until 2013--at least. Lobbying the Democrats or electing more of them has come to naught.

Whatever we may think of tactics to move the antiwar project forward, it would clearly be immoral and unethical to elect a Democrat in 2008. To do so would make us complicit in the Democrats' complicity in this war.

The second most important lesson is that the strategy of endless street demonstrations, vigils, lobbying has been played out and has now run into a brick wall. By themselves these cannot do the job, and with that recognition they have declined in size and spirit. But more of the same is all that United For Peace and Justice, thoroughly in the clutches of the Democrats, and ANSWER can offer.

That means that the only route to end war and empire is through electoral activity outside the structure of the war parties. But there is as yet precious little activity in this direction, even though time is running out. Instead the antiwar movement seems to be wandering in a fog, incapable of taking this step.

It is time for this to end. And not in some abstract call for "independent" electoral action but in the real world. So what does the real world offer?

http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh12042007.html

the Woodinville Fire department pull their boat through a flooded intersection. They were trying to reach employees in a store who they thought were trapped but found out later they were OK and able to reach land by foot.

Sorry I repost'd 3x's but I did not want this to be "lost" amongst other things. I just think WE THE PEOPLE CANNOT DESERT NOLA AGAIN ... This tragedy should have been dealt with YEARS AGO and WAY BEFORE NOW!
"By The Rethugs' and Sen Vitter's Actions .................."

center is the scene of a waterfall caused by the overflow of the Little Bear Creek at the intersection of Little Bear Creek Parkway/ NE 177th PL and 131st Ave NE which had severe flooding.

my tax dollors funding the opposition.

November 14, 2007

Venezuelan Democracy, the Presidency of Hugo Chavez and the Great Majority of Popular Classes Face a Mortal Threat
Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets
By JAMES PETRAS

Venezuela's democratically elected Present Chavez faces the most serious threat since the April 11, 2002 military coup.

Violent street demonstrations by privileged middle and upper middle class university students have led to major street battles in and around the center of Caracas. More seriously, the former Minister of Defense, General Raul Isaias Baduel, who resigned in July, has made explicit calls for a military coup in a November 5 press conference which he convoked exclusively for the right and far-right mass media and political parties, while striking a posture as an 'individual' dissident.

The entire international and local private mass media has played up Baduel's speeches, press conferences along with fabricated accounts of the oppositionist student rampages, presenting them as peaceful protests for democratic rights against the government referendum scheduled for December 2, 2007.

The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC News and the Washington Post have all primed their readers for years with stories of President Chavez' 'authoritarianism'. Faced with constitutional reforms which strengthen the prospects for far-reaching political-social democratization, the US, European and Latin American media have cast pro-coup ex-military officials as 'democratic dissidents', former Chavez supporters disillusioned with his resort to 'dictatorial' powers in the run-up to and beyond the December 2, 2007 vote in the referendum on constitutional reform. Not a single major newspaper has mentioned the democratic core of the proposed reforms--the devolution of public spending and decision to local neighborhood and community councils. Once again as in Chile in 1973, the US mass media is complicit in an attempt to destroy a Latin American democracy.

Even sectors of the center-left press and parties in Latin America have reproduced right-wing propaganda. On November the self-styled 'leftist' Mexican daily La Jornada headline read 'Administrators and Students from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) Accuse Chavez of Promoting Violence'. The article then proceeded to repeat the rightist fabrications about electoral polls, which supposedly showed the constitutional amendments facing defeat.

The United States Government, both the Republican White House and the Democrat-controlled Congress are once again overtly backing the new attempt to oust the popular-nationalist President Chavez and to defeat the highly progressive constitutional amendments.

http://www.counterpunch.org/petras11142007.html

beneath a section of Golden Gardens Drive NW, which collapsed early this morning during heavy rains.

the debate goes on on other topics here right now

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16843353

The Thermals

"Power Doesn't Run On Nothing"

The Body, The Blood, The Machine

Sub Pop Records

"We are just a child

we are just a child

we are wide awake

but our legs are shaky

we're unaware

we're hyper-active

we stare into space with grims on our faces....
so give us what we're asking for
cause either way, we're gonna take it
our power doesn't run on nothing
we need the land you're standing on so lets go
move it

still glows in a Northgate apartment after a large drain backed up into the neighborhood during a downpour and flooding numerous residences.

I hope Cathy in Seattle is ok.

"we are old as hell

we are old and tell the children

when to kill and when to sit still

everyone doing what we say

till our dieing day, till our breath is empty

so give us what we're asking for
cause either way we're gonna take it
our power doesn't run on nothing
we need the land you're standing on

so lets go

move it

yeah you need to let it go

move it

"yeah we're, more equal,

we'll move you people,

off the planet cause God Damn we need the fuel

so, so let the beat roll over,

the beat roll over, everyone in line, one in line

so, so let the beat roll over,

the beat roll over, everyone in line

one at a time

The War At Home:
New Orleans, Public Housing, and the "Chilean Option"

by Jay Arena; November 12, 2005
The U.S. military, in its' desperate attempt to crush the growing armed Iraqi resistance, is employing what Pentagon strategists call the "Salvador option". To terrorize the Iraqi people into submission the U.S. is funding, training, directing, and sometimes staffing, death squads--as was done during the brutal counter-insurgency campaign in Central America in the 1980s. The U.S. imperialist state is betting that this strategy of terror will effectively beat the Iraqis into submission, thus guaranteeing control of the oil and allowing U.S. forces to be unleashed in new wars of pillage from Damascus, to Tehran, to Caracas.

This war abroad, as some sections of the U.S. anti-war movement have argued, cannot be seen in isolation from the war at home. The brutal colonial war in Iraq is but the flip slide of the war at home against workers, immigrants, and other oppressed people. Indeed, New Orleans, and the whole Gulf coast, has become the latest front in this domestic conflict. Grass Roots activists in the region argue that the Bush-led regime, with support from the Democrats, are using hurricane Katrina to deepen and expand the racist and anti-working class neoliberal offensive of privatization, austerity, and attacks on civil liberties. In short, the U.S. government is coupling its' Salvador option abroad with a "Chilean option" at home. Just as the U.S. and Latin American ruling classes used Pinochet's Chile as a template for the rest of Latin America, the Bush regime wants to "shock and awe" the U.S. working class by rapidly creating a neoliberal wonderland in New Orleans to be exported across the country. This article documents the neoliberal offensive in New Orleans, with a particular emphasis on public housing, both before Katrina and during its' post-disaster intensification. I conclude by highlighting how grass roots movements are challenging this agenda and showing that another anti-racist, pro-working class world, is possible.

The Bi-Partisan Neoliberal Assault on Public Housing

In the early 1980s New Orleans had over 14,000 public housing apartments that was home to over 60,000 people, almost all African Americans. The response of the local and national authorities to tenant demands for improved public housing and services was to destroy it and displace families. Local Democratic Party elected officials, such as former Mayors Sidney Barthelemy (now director of governmental affairs for the New Orleans-based real estate outfit HRI) and Marc Morial (now head of the National Urban League), helped lead the charge. Working closely with the Republican and Democratic Bush (I), Clinton, and Bush (II), administrations, and acceding to the demands of white controlled real estate and tourist interests, these Black Democrats cut the public housing stock by over half, from 14,000 to approximately 6,000 apartments during the 1990's and early 00's.

Ethnic and Class Cleansing: The Case of the St. Thomas Housing Development

The location of the pre-hurricane demolished housing developments is important for understanding the destruction Katrina heaped on poor families. For example, the now-destroyed St. Thomas development, which at one time had been home to over 1,500 Black, and some white, working class families, was located along the riverfront, where flooding did not occur or quickly receded. In the late 1990s, after a decade long effort, local and federal officials demolished the St. Thomas development. The political leaders, along with bought-off community activists, dutifully responded to the demands of real estate and tourist interests who saw this working class Black community as being "in the way" of "growing" tourism. Due to the gentrification that followed in the neighborhoods surrounding the St. Thomas, even more working class families were driven from the area. Many of the displaced residents were pushed out to New Orleans East or the Lower 9th ward, where flooding was extensive...

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=9102&sectionID=1

"they'll give us what we're asking for,

cause god is with us, and our god's the richest

our power doesn't run on nothing,

it runs on blood,

and blood is easy to obtain when you have no shame

when you have no shame

so let the sun bathe

let the sun bathe

we'll still have life, we'll burn even brighter

we'll drain the well, turn all to hell,

leave the earth's surface to the worthless and dirt

let the beat roll over, let the beat roll over

Bart!!!!!

Sorry, couldn't resist. Huge Simpson's fan....

Ahem - I'll go back to incognito groveling for that Christmas Hannukah bonus.

xoxo youz all!

Annette

PS - Sam, this captcha...whaddidu do to it! Good God!

Hello friends of the Community Alliance of Tenants,

Don't miss out! CAT's fifth annual Cheap Art Party is coming up soon, on Friday Dec. 14th! Please join us to purchase locally made art, almost all sold for under $25 a piece with proceeds supporting safe, stable and affordable rental homes in Oregon. Plus, enjoy snacks, beverages and the great music of Little Beirut, Citizen of the Year, DJ Mikee and DJ Reverend Shines. We hope you can make it!

*located at 69 SE Taylor, near SE Water
*5-8 pm sliding scale cover, $5-$10
8-11pm sliding scale cover, $10-$20
*the art party goes from 5-11pm. get there early to get first pick of the art.

Contact Ari with questions or comments:
ari@oregoncat.org
Community Alliance of Tenants
Office: 503.460.9702
Renters’ Rights Hotline: 503.288.0130
www.oregoncat.org
Oregon’s only tenants’ rights organization. Made possible by members. If you’re a tenant who cares about your rights, get involved.

currently 3 users and 27 guests online.
Online users

* grischa
* Bart
* toniD

everyone in mind, everyone in line

YOU THINK WE'LL CEASE?

YOU SEE A REASON?

YOU THINK IT'S FAIR?

YOU THINK IT'S FAIR?

YOU THINK WE CARE?"

You, bitched. Sam listened.

You continue to bitch.

Isain Ramirez unsuccessfully attempts to run a couple jugs of diesel fuel to his work site in a closed section of SE Foster near 103rd. A half block east, the water was too high to cross on foot.

FBI: Staffer for Sen. Maria Cantwell sought tryst with boy

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1203072senate1.html

where is the coverage...or the outrage...oh yeah, you guys save that for republicans

CM

Norman Podhoretz takes note of some questions about it:

I entertain an even darker suspicion. It is that the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush, is doing it again. This time the purpose is to head off the possibility that the President may order air strikes on the Iranian nuclear installations. As the intelligence community must know, if he were to do so, it would be as a last resort, only after it had become undeniable that neither negotiations nor sanctions could prevent Iran from getting the bomb, and only after being convinced that it was very close to succeeding. How better, then, to stop Bush in his tracks than by telling him and the world that such pressures have already been effective and that keeping them up could well bring about “a halt to Iran’s entire nuclear weapons program”—especially if the negotiations and sanctions were combined with a goodly dose of appeasement or, in the NIE’s own euphemistic formulation, “with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for regional influence in other ways.”

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/podhoretz/1474

CM

Dark Suspicions about the NIE

"A DIVIDED COUNTRY" AND ITS PURPORTED SAVIOR
by Paul Street; December 04, 2007

"There is a lot of talk right now," Noam Chomsky told David Barsamian last January, "about how the United States is a divided country. We have to bring it together, 'red states' and 'blue states.' In fact, it is a divided country, but not in the way that's being discussed. It's divided between the public and the power systems, the government and the corporate system." Intentionally or not, Chomsky here puts his finger on one of the key ways in which "the [Barack] Obama phenomenon is a noxious and reactionary political disease.

Right now," Chomsky rightly adds, "the major fissure [in the U.S. ] is the basic split between the public and the country's real power sectors. Both of the political parties and the business sector are well to the right of the population on a host of major issues..." (Chomsky 2007a, p. 95).

America 's "most popular politician" Barack Obama has hitched his campaign on a munificent pledge to save the Republic by overcoming the terrible divisions between "red state" (white-patriarchal and more rural and evangelical and militarist) Republicans and "blue state" (more multi-colored, feminist, gay-friendly and urban-cosmopolitan) Democrats. He's going to lead us into a glorious future of countrywide cohesion by transcending the frightening and bitter "partisan" discord inherited (he claims to think) from those awful (late) Nineteen Sixties. That's when the angry, countercultural and doctrinaire New Left cleared the way for its supposed moral equivalent (Obama thinks) the New Right. Yes, the nasty (late) Sixties nearly scared nice America to death. According to the good book of Obama, we've been crippled by horrific "culture wars" and related "partisan" conflict ever since we lost our moral and political center in the Age of Aquarius (Obama 2006).

The "HOPE" promised by the BaRockStar is that he will be the first "post-baby-boom" leader to bring us all back together. He is the generational redeemer to guide us on the path to the rediscovery of our shared and glorious "American values." He is going to restore the Camelot of noble national unity and meaning beyond (supposedly) petty and dysfunctional squabbles over abortion, drugs, race, guns, gender, gay rights, imperialism/militarism, and the like.

Specially chosen for this great mission (on a global scale as well) by his distinctive multi-cultural background (he is the son of a white women from Kansas and a black man from Kenya and was raised by white grandparents in Hawaii and spent four years growing up in Indonesia - hooray!), he is going to un-part the Red State/Blue State sea and restore the nation's "common ground." He is the affirmative, non-threatening but all-knowing answer to Rodney King's question: "can't well all just get along?" He is going to heal us, binding rich and poor, black and white, "oppressed" and "oppressor" (Obama 2006, p. 68) together in ties of shared "empathy" and agreement.

In other words, he's a narcissistic and reactionary pain in the ass – and a tool of the business class.
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=14432&sectionID=90

A Few More Questions About The NIE
Max Boot - 12.03.2007 - 18:20
On a practical level, the new National Intelligence Estimate makes it less likely than ever—and it was never that likely to begin with—that the Bush administration would strike Iran before leaving office, which may have been the point of the document. But there is much less than meets the eye in the details of the NIE itself—or rather the portions that were released publicly—to reach any conclusions about whether and to what degree we should be worried about Iran’s nuclear weapons development.

The headline of the NIE is contained in the first line: “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.”

That sounds reassuring until you read further down:

Iranian entities are continuing to develop a range of technical capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so. For example, Iran’s civilian uranium enrichment program is continuing. We also assess with high confidence that since fall 2003, Iran has been conducting research and development projects with commercial and conventional military applications—some of which would also be of limited use for nuclear weapons.

In short, while Iran’s nuclear-weapons program may have been suspended (the NIE expresses only “moderate confidence that Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007”), the “civilian” nuclear program is going forward. What the NIE doesn’t spell out is that it’s fairly easy to convert a civilian nuclear program into a military nuclear weapons program. All you need is the appropriate “scientific, technical, and industrial capacity”—which the NIE says “with high confidence that Iran has”—and some highly-enriched fissile material, which Iran is trying to produce.

The NIE notes that “Iran resumed its declared centrifuge enrichment activities in January 2006, despite the continued halt in the nuclear weapons program” and that “Iran made significant progress in 2007 installing centrifuges at Natanz.” And that’s only in Iran’s declared program; as the NIE notes, there could be a covert production program.

Based on what we know, the NIE concludes that, although its “very unlikely,” “the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough HEU [highly enriched uranium] for a weapon is late 2009”—i.e., two years from now. More likely, Iran might not have the capacity to produce enough HEU until 2010 or perhaps not until 2015.

To write off the danger of an Iranian nuke based on this report, you would have to assume that there is little chance of the mullahs turning their “civilian” nuclear program toward military uses—an assumption which relies upon interpreting Iranian intentions in a fairly benign way. The NIE acknowledges the lack of American knowledge about what the Iranians are up to:

We do not have sufficient intelligence to judge confidently whether Tehran is willing to maintain the halt of its nuclear weapons program indefinitely while it weighs its options, or whether it will or already has set specific deadlines or criteria that will prompt it to restart the program.

So at the end of this NIE you come away knowing not much more than when you started. Basically you are left with the knowledge that the Iranians are pursuing nuclear work that probably won’t result in a bomb in the next couple of years but that could produce a weapon sometime thereafter. And most of those key judgments are delivered with only “moderate confidence.” Given the intelligence community’s consistent track record of being wrong in the past, especially about other nations’ nuclear programs (the CIA has been surprised in the past by, among others, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, India, and Pakistan) that doesn’t inspire much, well, confidence.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/boot/1473

CM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWJ0-sD9o24

not a very rosy picture in the NW.

Must hurt doubly to see that down in Georgia. They must not be praying hard enough.

found here: http://politics.wizbangblog.com/2007/03/21/obama-more-liberal-than-kucin...

The recently released ratings for members of Congress through 2006 reveal at least one surprise: Obama's voting record is to the left of all Democratic candidates who currently serve in Congress, including Dennis Kucinich. .....

On the Democratic side, the analysis of "lifetime" voting records shows Obama as the most liberal with a score of 84.3 after two full years in the Senate. The most liberal score possible was 99.
The lifetime liberal scores for the other Democrats:

-Kucinich, 79.4

-Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, 79.2

-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, 78.8

-Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, 76.8

The rankings differ if you look only at their 2006 scores. That year Kucinich edged Obama by one point as the most liberal, and Clinton was the least liberal, as she sought re-election and prepared to launch her presidential campaign.

On the lifetime ratings, it isn't even close. For all his talk of unity, Obama practices a far-left brand of politics.

---end quote from Wizzbang rightwing blog----

My take on this:

I don't agree with Wizzbang's assessment of things in general but they're quoting Raw Data reports here and doing their own analysis. The raw data suggests that Hillary is, indeed, a lifelong liberal in terms of voting records - just as much so as Kucinich. Obama's the most liberal of the pack.

I think we have to look at campaign posturing from candidates with a grain of salt. They are, after all, ALL politicians, even Kucinich. Hillary and Obama are running conservative campaigns as they try to broaden their bases, knowing most Dems are going to vote for the front runner no matter what. They are smart to reach out beyond the base (even if it alienates a few of us on the far left) because the Independents who vote are the ones who'll tip the balance - not us far lefties. They know they can't please us no matter what they do!

The survey by Harris Online showed that 82 percent of adult Americans believe in God and a slightly smaller percentage -- 79 percent -- believe in miracles.

More than 70 percent of the 2,455 adults surveyed between November 7 and 13 said they believe in heaven and angels, while more than six in 10 said they believed in hell and the devil.

A prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp has cut his throat with his own fingernail.

A spokesman for the military prison said the inmate had filed the nail to fine point before slashing himself across the neck.

Commander Andrew Haynes said he spilled an "impressive" quantity of blood without causing a life-threatening wound.

Guards administered first-aid and the prisoner was evacuated to the prison clinic for treatment.

Guantanamo holds about 305 men on suspicion of involvement in terrorism or links to al Qaeda and the Taliban.

A medical officer later said that the prisoner received several stitches and spent a week under psychiatric observation.

Human rights groups have continually voiced concerns about the mental health of the people held at Guantanamo.

Bottles of drink that contain cannabis are being taken off the shelves because of the association between drugs - illegal - and alcohol - legal.

The three drinks are: Perigan's cannabis-flavoured gin, Iganoff cannabis-flavoured vodka and Rodnik's cannabis-flavoured absinthe and are generally supplied to pubs and bars, not shops.

They were made by Spanish firm Beveland SA and brought into the UK by Ultimate Brands Ltd, which will now stop importing them.

The bottles of vodka, absinthe and gin have pictures of what looks like a cannabis leaf on their labels, says the Portman Group, the body monitors and represents drinks producers.

This association with drugs puts the drinks in "blatant" breach of alcohol marketing rules, said Portman's CEO David Poley.

"Too many young adults these days regard alcohol and illicit drugs as interchangeable.

"The industry must not contribute to this attitude but instead distance itself totally from illegal drugs," he said.

Surprisingly, the drinks' content - thought to include hemp - was not in breach of any rules.

The Portman Group has nine member firms which together make up around 60% of the UK's alcohol market.

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani has stepped down as head of his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, after months of refusing to disclose the firm's clients or the role he played.

Giuliani was replaced as chairman by Peter Powers, Giuliani's longtime friend and former aide, said Sunny Mindel, the firm's spokeswoman. The change was reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier Tuesday, and Mindel noted news stories in recent months have said Giuliani was handing control to Powers.

The firm, started by the former New York mayor after his term ended, earned Giuliani around $4 million last year. Mindel did not say whether he would retain his interest in the company.

Confidential Clients

Although Giuliani has insisted the firm's client list is confidential, media reports have named a number of clients, including the country of Qatar. The Persian Gulf nation was accused of sheltering suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, although Qatar is now a U.S. ally.

Giuliani aides said he has not been involved in the firm's day-to-day operations since last spring. Yet, Giuliani has not said that until now, despite being asked about it repeatedly. The firm's Web site listed him as chairman as recently as last month.

Asked in a Nov. 5 interview with The Associated Press to outline his role in the firm or list its clients, Giuliani laughed then grew agitated. "Everything I did at Giuliani Partners was totally legal, totally ethical," he said. "There's nothing for me to explain about. We acted honorably, decently."

"There are some things that a law firm and security firm do that are confidential. You can't release it because the client asks for confidentiality. We do sensitive work. So maybe there are some exceptions like that," he added.

Giuliani said it's unfair to ask for details about his consulting firm, as well as the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani.

Senate Aide In Kiddie Sex Bust
new
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 4:22pm.
FBI: Staffer for Sen. Maria Cantwell sought tryst with boy

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1203072senate1.html

where is the coverage...or the outrage...oh yeah, you guys save that for republicans

CM

» WE left this for you to post. What else wrong can you find from our side after the blunder your chimp in chief just had to bare!?! No nukes in Iran since 2003! And the neos and Cheney and Bush wanted to bomb? World War 3? Same ole, same ole as the crap he was spewing to go to war in Iraq.

Of course this is wrong, no matter what side it's on, but it was posted yesterday when I first read about it. But you have to admit it's 20 to 1 for your side with this sexual, pedophile stuff.

State Dept. gave bonuses to staff overseeing Blackwater. Spencer Ackerman reports that the State Department has quietly given bonuses for “outstanding performance” to two officials who had “direct oversight” over Blackwater:

On November 20, an internal cable, listed as State 158575, went out to State employees announcing the recipients of bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $15,000 for “outstanding performance.” Among them: Kevin Barry and Justine Sincavage. You can read the cable here. Barry’s name is listed on page 2, and Sincavage’s is on page 5. Both Barry and Sincavage already earn approximately $150,000 annually. Their bonuses are scheduled to take effect on December 20, in time for the holidays.

In October, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also promoted Barry and Sincavage

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/04/state-dept-gave-bonuses-to-officials...

White House knew of NIE’s judgments for months. Harper’s Scott Horton interviewed an intelligence community official who casts doubt on the White House’s claim that they only recent learned of the NIE’s judgments:

But one highly reliable intelligence community source I consulted immediately after Hadley spoke answered my question this way: “This is absolutely absurd. The NIE has been in substantially the form in which it was finally submitted for more than six months. The White House, and particularly Vice President Cheney, used every trick in the book to stop it from being finalized and issued. There was no last minute breakthrough that caused the issuance of the assessment.” So what, I asked, if not an intelligence breakthrough, what caused the last-minute change and the sudden issuance of the summary of the NIE? My source had no idea.

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/12/hbc-90001837

Horton’s source adds that though it appears Vice President Cheney “and his team” had “to fold their cards” on “plans for an air war in Iran,” Cheney’s “a tenacious son-of-a-bitch. He may very well be back at it tomorrow.”

Cheney’s office advocated for Iran attacks ‘on a daily basis.’ The BBC reports:

[T]he new NIE will make it harder for proponents of military action against Iran to argue their case.

One source, who has close links to US intelligence, said that members of Vice President Dick Cheney’s staff continued to call for military strikes against Iran “on a daily basis”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7126117.stm

Atrios adds: “It must be understood that since our intelligence agencies don’t believe Iran has a nuclear weapons program, it also means that they don’t know where such a program would be physically located if it did exist. This means that any desires of Dick Cheney and his people to bomb Iran simply involve… bombing the shit out of Iran.”

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_12_02_archive.html#3836269402444613313

Iraq fading as an issue? Peter Beinart writes, “The reason Iraq is fading is simple: Not as many people are dying there.” Kos responds:

Beinart, like his pro-war buddies on the Right, want to pretend that the fact that “only” 40 Americans G.I.s are dying a month in Iraq is great news and knocks Iraq from the public’s mind. And it may be true that Iraq is getting less discussion in the national press than before. But the discontent in Iraq was never driven by media coverage. [..]

If anything, the relative quiet on Iraq is a sign that the debate is over. There is no longer any doubt that the American people have decided they want out, and there’s no new information possible that could change their minds.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund warned in a memo last month that progressives are at risk of “drifting themselves into offering only a vague and muddled vision” for the future course in Iraq, rather than providing the “clear alternative” that is needed.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/04/iraq-fading-as-an-issue/

I hope it's not going to be banned. Love that stuff. High in Omegas. GOOD FOR YOU.

http://www.globalhempstore.com/hemp-food/natures-path-hemp-cereal.html

Mysterious Group Attacks Huckabee
Third Party Group Distributed Flier in Iowa Claiming He's Not a True Conservative, Christian

A mysterious group calling itself Iowans for Some Semblance of Christian Decency has begun waging a campaign against former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, insinuating that not only is the Republican presidential candidate not a true conservative, he's not a real Christian.

The group is urging the media to take a closer look at Huckabee's record, including the story of Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist whom Huckabee urged the Arkansas Parole Board to release from prison who went on to commit at least one homicide.

In fliers put under the doors of reporters at the Marriott in Des Moines, where Huckabee was staying Monday night, the organization, whose members are unknown, lays out its interpretation of how the former Baptist minister's views run contrary to the Bible.

Huckabee's support of educational opportunities for the children of illegal immigrants is portrayed, for instance, as "justification for violating the 8th commandment (stealing from U.S. citizens)." A lighthearted video clip where he pretends to talk to the Lord (watch HERE) is portrayed as "sacrilegious mocking of God for political gain."

Most pointedly, however, the raised the controversial case of Dumond, the flier also raises the controversial case of Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist whom Huckabee publicly suggested should be freed from prison.

After Dumond was freed by the parole board, whose members later said they had been influenced by Huckabee, Dumond sexually assaulted and murdered a woman named Carol Sue Shields. Dumond died in prison in Missouri in 2005.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=3951594&page=1

catching a ration of shit because she went along with th Kyl/Lieberman ammendment.

Even Dodd brought this up. Well too bad Hillary! You did sign it so it's part of your record. Just like the Iraq war vote.

Dem rivals target Clinton on Iran

Democratic Rivals Rap Clinton Anew on Iran Vote in Iowa Debate

BETH FOUHY
AP News

Dec 04, 2007 15:12 EST

Hillary Rodham Clinton accused presidential rival John Edwards of making "outlandish political charges" in portraying her vote against Iran as a pretext for war as the Democratic contenders confronted each other in a debate in Iowa just one month before the state's leadoff caucuses.

Clinton came under criticism from her rivals, who highlighted her September vote in Tuesday's debate, which came the day after release of a new intelligence report that says Iran stopped development of a nuclear weapon four years ago.

Edwards said Clinton gave President Bush just what he wanted when she voted to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Clinton said her vote was meant to encourage diplomacy.

"Declaring a military group sponsored by the state of Iran a terrorist organization, that's supposed to be diplomacy?" Edwards interjected. "This has to be considered in the context that Senator Clinton has said she agrees with George Bush terminology that we're in a global war on terror, then she voted to declare a military group in Iran a terrorist organization. What possible conclusion can you reach other than we are at war?"

Clinton objected. "You know I understand politics and I understand making outlandish political charges, but this really goes way too far," said the New York senator, who is locked in a tight three-way race with Edwards and Barack Obama in this first-voting state.

"None of us is advocating a rush to war," said Clinton, the only Democratic candidate to vote for the resolution.

Joe Biden, a senator from Delaware who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, responded by telling Clinton that "terminology matters."

"It's not about not advocating a rush to war," he said. "I'm advocating no war."

The seven candidates participating in the debate broadcast on National Public Radio stood together in criticizing Bush's assertion that "nothing's changed" despite the new intelligence report. They began their debate at the Iowa State Historical Museum by agreeing that the United States should shift its focus in dealing with Iran to diplomatic engagement.

"President Bush continues to not let facts get in the way of his ideology," said Illinois Sen. Obama. "They should have stopped the saber rattling, should have never started it. And they need, now, to aggressively move on the diplomatic front."

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Dem_rivals_target_Clinton_on_Iran_1...

Senators accuse credit card firms of unfairly hiking ratesRAW STORY
Published: Tuesday December 4, 2007

Credit-card executives on Tuesday deflected congressional criticism of their practice of using falling credit scores to charge customers higher interest rates.

Industry critics say it's another example of abusive, confusing credit-card practices that can push consumers deeper into debt.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee, said customers who consistently pay on time are getting whacked by credit-card issuers that raise such rates without an adequate warning or a clear notice.

"The bottom line for me is this: when a credit card issuer promises to provide a cardholder with a specific interest rate if they meet their credit card obligations, and the cardholder holds up their end of the bargain, the credit-card issuer should have to do the same," he said Tuesday.

Levin is holding out the club of possible legislation to spur voluntary changes by the industry.

But executives from Bank of America Corp. and Discover Financial Services LLC. told the subcommittee that a credit score is one of several factors in determining whether to increase a customer's interest rate.

(Reuters photo above shows Discover Financial Services President and Chief Executive Roger Hochschild (L-R), Bank of America Card Services President Bruce Hammonds and Capital One President for Card Services Ryan Schneider being sworn in.)

"It's important criteria for how to manage risk and pricing," said Roger Hochschild, Discover's president and chief operating officer.

Bruce Hammonds, president of Bank of America Card Services, said his bank also considers customer behavior on an account and their debt to others, in addition to credit scores.

But it's the behavior of credit-card issuers that prompted several consumers to testify before Levin's subcommittee about not being informed when their rates were hiked.

Janet Hard of Freeland, Mich., said her Discover credit-card rate nearly tripled without adequate notice and that issuers send "deliberately misleading and confusing" information.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Senators_accuse_credit_card_firms_of_1204....

Treatment for Vets' Brain Injuries Should Be a No-Brainer
by: Jim Spencer
Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 07:00 AM MST

There is no question that Sgt. Darren Mischke is a wounded warrior. After two tours in Iraq, the 27-year-old Army vet suffers from nosebleeds, memory loss, mood swings, dizziness, blurred vision and severe headaches.
Only instead of treating him for what are classic symptoms of traumatic brain injury - or TBI - Mischke's wife and father say the U.S. military has tried to force him from the service for domestic abuse.

Jim Spencer :: Treatment for Vets' Brain Injuries Should Be a No-Brainer
"He'd be out of the service if his wife hadn't fought for him," Tom Mischke said of his son.
Darren Mischke got knocked out in a wreck during his first tour in Iraq, said his wife, Teresa. He was riding on the turret of a military vehicle that got hit by a mortar in his second tour.

It was enough, his family claims, to turn Darren Mischke from a squared-away enlisted man into a pain-riddled head case. Mischke is among the estimated 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who return from war with traumatic brain injury. A report by USA Today estimates that 20,000 returning vets not classified as wounded actually had undiagnosed TBI.

The scope of the problem is huge. But the reaction to it is even more critical.

"A lot of the injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan are brain-related because of the kinds of weapons used," Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar said last week as he toured Denver's Craig Hospital.

Craig leads a national system of hospitals in developing innovative ways to treat traumatic brain injury.

"We've got to put some focus on it," Salazar said.

http://www.coloradoconfidential.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3180

Obama to oppose Bush immigration pick after Halloween flapJason Rhyne
Published: Monday December 3, 2007

Lieberman "inclined" to support Myers for top ICE post; Akaka reconsidering
Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) would not vote to confirm President Bush's controversial pick to head the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a spokeswoman for Obama's Senate office told RAW STORY.

Julie Myers, who was named as a recess appointment to the top ICE post by the president in 2006, is under fire for her role in awarding a prize to a white department employee who wore dark makeup, dreadlocks and a prison costume to an agency Halloween party. As RAW STORY revealed last week, Myers also took a "planted" question from an ICE public relations staffer at her first public press conference as chief of the agency. Mixed with opposition from many conservatives for being 'too soft' on immigration, the Myers nomination is now facing uncertain prospects in a potential vote by the full Senate.

"Senator Obama will not support the nomination of Julie Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency," spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in an email last week. "He has serious concerns that her recent lapses in judgment are indicative of a larger problem in her leadership."

Obama, who sits on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, did not participate in a Sept. 26 committee vote that forwarded the Myers nomination to the Senate floor. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) was the sole 'no' vote in the 8-1 decision.

As reported by the Associated Press, Myers had earlier appeared to have eased some Democratic fears about her experience, but the Halloween flap reignited concerns among lawmakers.

McCaskill took steps to place a "hold" on the nomination, a move her press secretary, Adrianne Marsh, told RAW STORY was designed to make certain that Myers sufficiently answered questions about her Halloween role before a vote could be taken. She stressed, however, that the hold was not intended to be indefinite.

"Sen. McCaskill wants to ensure that she has an opportunity to talk with her colleagues. Many of them have indicated that they are potentially changing their positions," said Marsh, adding that McCaskill would definitely be opposing Myers. "If and when the vote comes to the floor, she will be requesting an up or down vote so she can be on the record opposing the nomination of Julie Myers."

Marsh underscores that a "vast majority" of McCaskill's concerns about the the Myers nomination have to do with her belief that the ICE chief is not taking a tough enough stance against employers who hire undocumented workers. "The Halloween incident simply layered on," said the spokeswoman.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Obama_to_oppose_Bush_immigration_pick_1203...

does anybody really beleive this line of crap? its all about getting you hooked and then charging interest rates that make a mobster jealous.

oh, did they mention how they quietly lobbied to get the bankruptcy laws changed?

wouldn't it have been nice if they shared their risk models with the folks over in subprime?

Questions surround TV preacher inquiry

Religious Liberty Groups Troubled by Senate Inquiry Into Televangelists' Finances

RACHEL ZOLL
AP News

Dec 04, 2007 13:09 EST

Among the many conservative Christians who feel misunderstood by the general public, the six televangelists under investigation by a Senate committee are an embarrassment.

The ministers' on-air faith healings and fundraising, backed by self-serving misinterpretations of Scripture, reinforce offensive stereotypes of greedy preachers and put their followers at risk, critics say.

But traditional Christians aren't universally celebrating the inquiry. Some are wondering whether the investigation led by Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is the right way to end any wrongdoing, especially if the result is more government oversight of all ministries.

"We're not representing any of the parties involved, but when I see a senator charging into organizations, wielding this kind of budget ax and laying bare religious figures and expenditures, huge constitutional questions are being raised," said Gary McCaleb, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, a religious liberty legal group founded by James Dobson of Focus on the Family and other influential evangelicals.

Craig Parshall, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Religious Broadcasters, a trade association, said the questions that Grassley sent the six ministries about their finances were too broad. None of the televangelists is a member of the NRB.

"We don't have any inside information of the financial workings of the six ministries involved," Parshall said. "What we're concerned about is the future of Christian broadcasting and Christian ministries — nonprofit ones — if this inquiry is either broadened or ratcheted up and hearings are held and new legislation is considered."

On Tuesday, the NRB said it had sent a letter to Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and the other panel members warning that the investigation could be unconstitutional.

Grassley has asked the ministries to submit records by Thursday on compensation, board oversight and perks — from oceanside homes and expensive furniture to flights on private jets. IRS rules for nonprofits prevent pastors and other insiders from excessive personal gain through their tax-exempt work. Even so, the groups are not legally required to disclose financial information to the Senate.

Those under review include Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries of Tampa, Fla.; Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church Inc. and Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, Texas; David and Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo.; Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries of Newark, Texas; Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and Bishop Eddie Long Ministries of Lithonia, Ga.; and Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International and Creflo Dollar Ministries of College Park, Ga.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Questions_surround_TV_preacher_inqu...

There used to be a cap on how much the CC Companies could raise the interest. I think it was at 5 over prime.

The same goes for the mortgage companies. I remember when selling homes that arms could only go up 1 point a year up to five years and then it converted to a 30 year fixed at a negotiated rate at that time.

You can thank Reagan for deregulating everything.

It is in the bible that Jesus went to the temple and demolished the stands there for taxes and usuary!

No uproar about that from the bible thumpers!

First point: Wingnuts are pointing out that we don't know anything AFTER mid-2007, as if this is somehow ancient history. I don't know what year your'll in but I'm still seeing 2007 on my calendar. Considering the time it takes to enrich uranium, it's fair to say that if nothing has happened since "mid-2007" then Iran is far and away from actually having nuclear weapon capabilities.

Point number two: Wingnuts are also pointing out that the Loonie Left is now touting the intelligence as an accurate assessment and therefore reason not to bomb the Persians back to the stone age. Then they say the NIE is from the very same "intelligence community" that got it so wrong in Iraq to begin with, so how do we know it's accurate that Iran isn't still persuing the bomb?

Interesting reverse psychology they're playing with that argument, don't you think? Almost Rumsfeldian in it's complicated simplicity; "We know there are known knowns and their are known unknowns and their are unknown unknowns" and all that Neocon-PNAC-thinktank-bullshit that got us stuck in Iraq forever. And at your expense. Are you happy with the war you bought?

Also not unlike Karl Rove, the Devil himself, going on national television recently and saying it was Congress that pushed Prez'nit Smirky to go to war in Iraq sooner rather than later and that Prez'nit Smirky actually wanted more time for the weapons inpsectors to do their job.

Does he honestly think Americans are going to fall for that now?

Wait, don't answer that, I just heard a report on Fox that Britney Spears is actually a post-op transsexual. I'll need to get back to you.

Media has
shortchanged Edwards

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What about John Edwards? The big media portray the Democratic race as a death-match between the Clinton machine and the Obama phenom. Edwards comes off as a plodder in the shadow of two glamour pusses.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004051041_harrop041.html

Over 40 million in U.S. can't
afford health care: report

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More than 40 million people in the United States say they cannot afford adequate heath care and go without drugs, eyeglasses or dental treatment, according to a federal report released on Monday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071203/us_nm/usa_dc;_ylt=Amvqgg0a00QP6AMkn6...

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- National Guard troops evacuated residents in a flooded town and tens of thousands of people remained without power Tuesday after back-to-back storms pounded the Pacific Northwest, killing five people.

Troops with the Oregon Air National Guard used inflatable rafts to evacuate flooded residents in Vernonia, a mountain timber town on the Nehalem River, about 35 miles northwest of Portland.

"They're moving down the streets, and through the backyards," said Maj. Mike Braibish, spokesman for the National Guard.

Vernonia, which has about 2,200 residents, had been largely cut off by landslides that blocked roads into the community, but Guard trucks with high clearance were able to get in late Monday and more were being sent, Braibish said. Video Watch floodwaters rising in Vernonia »

Still, communications were difficult. "There are no phone lines or land lines available in Vernonia," said Hyla Ridenour, spokeswoman for Columbia River Fire and Rescue in nearby St. Helens.

The storm that hit Monday smacked the region with hurricane-force winds and several inches of rain, and was blamed for five deaths in Oregon and Washington state. It came only a day after another severe system moved through Sunday.

By Tuesday, the second system had moved on to the Upper Plains and Midwest, where it was predicted to bring new snow. In North Dakota, the National Weather Service said parts of the state could get up to 9 inches of snow.

Towns on the coast were hit hardest by the storms. Red Cross shelters in western Oregon were housing 556 people as of midnight, said spokeswoman Lise Harwin.

The governors of Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency, which could speed relief efforts in flood-hit areas. The National Weather Service said 3 to 6 inches of rain had fallen across much of western Washington. The 24-hour rain total for Bremerton, Washington, was 10.78 inches.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/weather/12/04/winter.storms.ap/index.html

Congress Investigating FCC Chair Martin For "Abuse Of Power"
Los Angeles Times | Jim Puzzanghera | December 4, 2007 07:44 AM

Two key House lawmakers announced Monday that they were investigating the Federal Communications Commission, accusing its chairman of "possible abuse of power" and a failure to operate fairly and openly in handling proposed cable TV and media ownership regulations.

"Given several events and proceedings over the past year, I am rapidly losing confidence that the commission has been conducting its affairs in an appropriate manner," Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin.

Dingell said he was concerned that the FCC had not made the full text of proposed rules available to the public before it voted on them, and that Martin often had not given other commissioners details of proposals until it was too late for them to fully analyze them.

Martin, a Republican, has faced criticism from lawmakers and fellow commissioners recently for how he has approached the contentious issues of re-regulating the cable TV industry and easing rules on the ownership of newspaper and TV stations in the same city.

Dingell has summoned Martin and the four other FCC commissioners to an oversight hearing Wednesday, and a Senate committee will hear testimony from them next week.

"I have received several complaints from the public and professionals within the communications industry about how Chairman Martin is conducting business at the FCC," said Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who heads the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that will conduct the investigation. "It is one thing to be an aggressive leader, but many of the allegations indicate possible abuse of power and an attempt to intentionally keep fellow commissioners in the dark."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fcc4dec04,1,4417226.story?coll=la-...

May need to register to get the rest.

GSA taps AT&T, Level 3, MCI, Qwest and Sprint for Networx Enterprise

05/31/07 -- 11:37 AM GSA today awarded the second of its two multi-year, multibillion-dollar Networx telecommunications services contracts.
http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/44390-1.html?topic=IPv6

What a great reason to cooperate with Data Mining requests.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Dennis Quaid and his wife sued the makers of heparin Tuesday after their newborn twins were inadvertently given massive doses of the blood thinner at a hospital.

The product liability lawsuit, filed in Chicago, seeks more than $50,000 in damages.

It claims that Baxter Healthcare Corp., based in Deerfield, Illinois, was negligent in packaging different doses of the product in similar vials with blue backgrounds.

The lawsuit also says the company should have recalled the large-dosage vials after overdoses killed three children at an Indianapolis hospital last year.

The lawsuit was first reported by CelebTV.com, which obtained the court documents.

A call to Baxter Healthcare Corp. seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.

The Quaids' children, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, and a third patient were at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on November 18 when they were mistakenly given vials of heparin that were 1,000 times stronger than the usual dosage.

The twins were home Tuesday and "appear to be doing well," said Susan E. Loggans, the Chicago attorney who filed the lawsuit. "The Quaids are a religious family, and they really believe the prayers of the public saved their kids."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/04/people.dennisquaid.newborn....

FCC antes up for health network
Rural Health Care Pilot Program
http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/45463-1.html?topic=state-local
11/21/07 -- 10:12 AM Agency dedicates $417 million to build 69 statewide or regional broadband telehealth networks in 42 states and three territories.
[...]
FCC rules for the program require participants to adopt health information technology standards set by HHS, to promote creation of a national electronic health care record system. Organizations that receive funds will be eligible to get up to 85 percent of their design and construction expenses for the nets. Participants will be allowed to connect to the public Internet or one of the nation's dedicated Internet backbones — Internet2 or National LambdaRail — the commission said.

You want outrage over some aide's tryst with some boy?

When have the Dems claimed a moral high ground?

What we rail about here is the hypocrisy of you moral majority Republicans admonishing everyone else for "sinful behavior" then getting busted doing it yourselves.

But the big difference is this aide is not out there on the floor of Congress declaring that homos are evil and out to destroy your marriage, then running off to stick his dick in some boy.

If you can't see the difference as to why it's not being covered by the MSM, then you really are just as dumb as I thought you were.

Climate change books make great Christmas presents for loved ones -- and the planet

Scientists are now telling us the world has less than a decade to lay the groundwork for avoiding catastrophic climate change. So these next few years may well decide the future of the planet, making it imperative that citizens push for political action now on all levels. There has never been a more urgent need for Canadians to educate themselves on any issue.

Luckily, this fall has brought an impressive harvest of books on global warming.

Whether you are looking for a timely and relevant book to give for Christmas, or just want to get a firmer grip yourself on this complex and thorny subject, any of the following four would be a good choice.

For an explanation of how Canada, with its self-perception as an environmental hero, became one of the biggest slouches in the fight to combat global warming, you'll want to read Hot Air: Meeting Canada's Climate Change Challenge.

Co-author Jeffrey Simpson writes a column in the Globe and Mail, where he has already done much to inform his paper's relatively educated and affluent readers about climate change. This book is apt to reach a broader audience.

It's also likely to deepen the concerns of those already knowledgeable, inspiring not only greater outrage, but action.

Simpson has teamed up with Mark Jaccard, an author and professor at Simon Fraser University's School of resource and environmental Management, and Nic Rivers, an engineer and researcher. Together, they walk the reader through an analysis of how the problem is affecting Canada, what the Liberals did wrong and how the Conservatives are doing no better and, most important, what exactly Canada needs to do to play its part in heading off global catastrophe.

It's a pity that the book starts off with a rather plodding, list-like recitation of recent studies and reports to explain why even in a cold, northern country like Canada, the effects of global warming will be mostly negative. It reads like all those grim but easy-to-ignore newspaper articles of the last 10 years about warmest years on record, falling sea levels and melting glaciers.

http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyle/holidayguide2007/story.html?id=f8...

Washington - The largest US chemical company, Dow Chemical, said Tuesday it is shutting less-profitable plants and firing about 1,000 workers, including about 250 employees in Europe. The restructuring, which aims to make money available for investments in faster-growing businesses, is expected to cost up to 600 million dollars, the company said in a statement. The cuts are to be made within 18 months, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

About 250 jobs may be eliminated in Europe, Brazil and China, with most of the remainder in North America.

Targetted for reductions are US research jobs and plants that make pesticides, automotive products, styrene and polypropylene resin.

Among the plants being closed abroad are automotive-sealant plants in Pinhais, Brazil and Wuhan, China. Alternatives are being considered for plants in Spain and France, the company said.

Dow also plans to close a crop-chemicals factory in Lauterbourg, France; a styrene factory in Camacari, Brazil; an older plant in Aratu, Brazil, that makes hydroxyethyl cellulose.

Dow employes 43,000 workers. From 2002 to 2005, the company eliminated 7,000 jobs. In 2006, it cut 750 jobs in Italy and Canada.

How Huckabee's Clinton-hatred led him to help parole a convicted rapist who then molested and murdered another woman

I'd heard about this story, but never fully understood it until reading this CBS News piece out today. It's horrendous.

Huckabee basically helped secure the guy's release because the convict had raped a distant relative of Bill Clinton - and being a distant relative of Bill Clinton, the right-wing attack machine said the woman who was raped wasn't credible (even though the guy was convicted), and they demanded that the rapist be set free because, after all, he only raped a Clinton. Well, it seems that Governor Huckabee agreed. He set the rapist free, and then the guy molested and murdered another woman. But even better? Huckabee now denies that he had anything to do with the release of the rapist/murderer. Funny, then why did Huckabee meet with the parole board on behalf of the rapist/murderer?

One of the Moral Majority representatives right here!

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. media conglomerate said Tuesday it would buy U.S. spirituality and faith Web site Beliefnet for an undisclosed amount.

Beliefnet will become part of Fox Digital Media, which also runs News Corp.'s MySpace social networking site.

"Beliefnet has garnered respect for its commitment to quality, editorial strength and unbiased approach to faith and spirituality from a broad range of consumers, religious and political leaders, journalists and advertisers," Fox Digital Media President Don Fawcett said.

Fox plans to "leverage these characteristics across a broader media canvas and provide programming, production, advertising sales, technology and marketing expertise," he said.

News Corp. also owns Evangelical Christian book publisher Zondervan, multifaith spirituality publisher HarperOne, faith-based filmmaker Fox Faith and the National Geographic Channel, which airs programs on religious history.

Founded in 1999, New York's Beliefnet offers news, blogs, message boards and other editorial content. It launched a religious and spiritual social-networking service Nov. 12.

The site, which is not affiliated with any spiritual organization or movement, claims more than 3.1 million unique visitors monthly and some 7.6 million subscribers.

News Corp., which also owns Fox Broadcasting Co. and will close on its $5 billion Dow Jones & Co. takeover this month, has rapidly expanded its Internet properties since July 2005, when it purchased MySpace for $580 million.

if i had know those would be the only topics i would have probably not tuned in - anyway, the bit i heard was interesting - nice to hear the candidates have a chance to speak at length without being constrained to the one- minute ridiculous rule - the tone was relaxed - i found myself agreeing pretty much with everybody except hillary (grating on me sorry, my skin crawling) but after a while i couldn't care any longer about trade with china or with immigration, these horses have been whipped and flogged to death as far as i'm concerned - the same crud chewed and spewed enough already - so i changed the channel - then i had to get some work done and tuned off the blog as well - this has nothing to do with whining. This characterization really characterizes you like a typical anonymous

i am glad you enjoyed the debates

i am truly sorry - brings back sad memories of my own hometown of new orleans

CHICAGO, Dec. 4 U.S. snack foods maker Jays Foods Inc. is closing its Chicago factory, a casualty of its latest bankruptcy, ending 220 jobs, the company said.

The plant, which has made potato chips for more than 40 years, will close permanently Wednesday, the manufacturer of snack products including potato chips, popcorn and pretzels said.

A warehouse and distribution facility employing 420 other workers will continue to operate for "an unspecified period of time," Jays said.

Facing "an acute liquidity crisis," Jays in October filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in three years, along with a sister company, Select Snacks. At the same time, Jays reached an agreement to sell its assets for $24.8 million to baker and snack food distributor Snyder's of Hanover Inc., The Chicago Tribune reported.

Snyder's does not want to keep the Chicago plant.

Snyder's makes the nation's No. 1 pretzel, overtaking Frito-Lay North America's Rolled Gold brand a few years ago, Information Resources Inc. said.

Jays Foods, which has not marketed itself nationally, has 23 percent of the potato chip market in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Minnesota and Iowa and more than 60 percent market share in the "ready-to-eat" popcorn category, the company said.

it - yes it's awful - i have spillt some tears and already expressed my anger over it - but it's a done deal and i don't think it's going to change - the last local elections spelled it out - we are now truly a red state and we'll suffer for it - the homeless population is swelling - it is going to be a sorry christmas here for a bunch of folks - but it is a done deal - we have a republican asshole mayor, we now have a republican asshole governor, david vitter is still in place, mary landrieu will be fighting for her political survival and she is a bushdog anyway. Sooooo, i don't know what to tell you, that's where we are.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp on Tuesday said it gave Chief Executive Rex Tillerson a cash bonus and restricted stock currently valued at close to $20 million under its short-term incentive plan for 2007.

The company said in a filing with U.S. regulators that it gave Tillerson a cash bonus of $3.36 million as well as 185,000 restricted shares under the plan. At Monday's close, those shares were worth about $16.4 million.

Exxon, the largest U.S. oil company, said Tillerson's annual salary will increase to $1.87 million, a 7 percent hike from the $1.75 million he is earning this year.

Tillerson succeeded Lee Raymond as Exxon Mobil's CEO in December 2005.

The company has earned close to $29 billion through the first three quarters of 2007 as oil prices surged to record levels. In 2006, Exxon had record profits of $39.5 billion.

Exxon's shares were trading down 55 cents at $88.30 in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange. They are up over 15 percent since the beginning of the year, but have underperformed the Chicago Board Options Exchange's oil index, which is up around 24 percent in the same period.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1272014315/bclid1125909605...

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1272014315/bclid1125909605...

"No Democrat has the GUTS to stand up and say 9/11 a lot."

-M the a-c

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Implementing the proposed bailout of subprime borrowers who face foreclosure may be so difficult that it will turn out to be no better than the loan modification efforts already underway, analysts said.

The plan, spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, seeks to freeze "teaser" interest rates for homeowners who are current in their payments, but who would default after the rate resets higher. As floated, the plan would exclude those deemed to have the financial ability to meet higher payments.

Separating those is a laborious process that will be costly for lenders and open to "gaming" by homeowners seeking the relief that could save them thousands of dollars each year, analysts said.

"It will be a 'Very Big Challenge' to segregate these borrowers," Paul Miller, an analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey in Arlington, Virginia, said in a research note on Tuesday. Working through loans on a case-by-case basis will take time and be expensive, he said.

The plan, dubbed "Teaser Freezer," is thus more hype than substance, Miller and colleagues wrote.

Loan modifications by major lenders have been growing at a snail's pace, prompting increased calls for a larger response from regulators and the Bush administration. Freezing rates, which is a key to most modifications, for all adjustable subprime loans probably proved unworkable for the plan authors, Friedman Billings Ramsey said.

Richard Syron, chief executive officer of the second-largest home financing company, Freddie Mac , held back full support for the plan in a CNBC interview since it is still not known how borrowers would be chosen.

Legal issues have stalled modifications to date and may also limit the plan's effectiveness, economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a note dated Monday. Most of the subprime loans created in recent years are locked up in bonds that are governed by contracts between investors and loan servicing companies, they said.

Forecasts that foreclosures could soar to levels and push the economy into recession next year "scared" the government into action, Miller said. Payments will rise next year on about 2 million subprime loans worth $350 billion, said the Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst.

Miller and other Wall Street analysts say that easing resets -- as troublesome as they are -- will not solve the root of the problem. Too many homeowners, from prime to subprime, were allowed loans for the full price of a home during the housing boom, leaving them vulnerable as the housing bubble deflates.

Half of all modifications end up as redefaults, suggesting that the process only delays the inevitable, Miller said.

"We expect losses will continue to rise until home prices stabilize, which we expect to take another four to six quarters," Miller said.

LONDON - If you are looking to boost your brain power there is nothing like sex and chocolate, according to a new book titled "Teach Yourself: Training Your Brain." Authored by Terry Horne and Simon Wootton, the book says individuals can boost their brain power by having plenty of sex, eating equally high amounts of chocolate and cold meats.

The book throws aside conventional methods of keeping the brain fit like doing the daily crossword and even Sudoku. The book also says that people who want to improve memory must shun cannabis, soap operas and keeping company with fussy people.

"For decades we have thought that the capacity of our brains is genetically determined, whereas it's now clear it's a lifestyle choice," said Horne, who is a cognitive psychologist. "People can make lifestyle choices that will not only prevent what used to be seen as an inevitable decline in cognitive ability after the age of 17, but will constantly increase it throughout our adult lives."

The book also offers several mental exercises for people wanting to improve their brain power. Furthermore the effect of diet, stress and environment on a person's mental capacity is thoroughly analyzed. Many tips offered in the book are based on the release of certain hormones after various activities.

For example, sexual intercourse increases the levels of the hormone oxytocin, which in turn triggers the brain's innovative recesses. Diet wide, the book says that magnesium and antioxidants in dark chocolate can provide more oxygen to the brain.

"Mix with people who make you laugh, have a good sense of humour or who share the same interests as you, and avoid people who whinge, whine and complain, as people who are negative will make you depressed," Horne added.

Instead of running after happiness, the book says that people should adopt the BLISS policy; that is Body-based pleasure, Laughter, Involvement, Satisfaction and Sex, for better lives.

these christian crazies crack me up - this republican slate is turning into a cartoonish joke

please?

pointless post is the point.

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A sex sting has claimed another culprit on Capitol Hill. This time, however, it's only a low-level Senate staffer instead of a sitting senator. (Double entendre intended).

In this case, it's a 28-year-old scheduler to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) who has been arrested by the FBI on charges that he arranged to have sex with what he thought was a 13-year-old boy. The staffer, Mike McHaney, was arrested on Friday after he told a cooperating witness for the FBI online that he could take a "long lunch" to have an afternoon tryst with the boy.

According to a federal court document obtained by thesmokinggun, the cooperating witness (CW) asked McHaney if he would like to have anal sex with the child. McHaney replied, "I'll be there."

The document shows that McHaney, whose full name is James Michael McHaney, was arrested an hour later in the "lobby of a predetermined location" and charged with attempted child exploitation. It did not indicate whether McHaney used Senate computers to arrange the meeting.

The cooperating witness and McHaney, court records show, knew one another. The informant told federal authorities that McHaney "had a sexual interest in male children" and that they had "exchanged images of child pornography with each other on previous occasions."

Before working in Cantwell's office, McHaney's experience included doing advance work for the 2004 presidential campaigns of both former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004.

The nature of the allegations stunned fellow Democratic politicos. One veteran Democratic operative who worked with McHaney in the past told the Sleuth, "Everybody - we're totally shocked. You don't expect anybody to do this."

McHaney was fired from Cantwell's office after the arrest. The senator's chief of staff, Michael Meehan, issued a statement late Monday saying, "Late Friday afternoon the FBI informed our office that a Senate employee was arrested. The employee was immediately fired. Our office has and will continue to fully cooperate with the ongoing federal criminal investigation. Senator Cantwell has zero tolerance for crimes against children."

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - A B.C. man convicted in Asia of sex crimes against young boys is being investigated in Canada, but the details of what he is accused of abroad remain covered by a publication ban - for now.

Orville Mader's lawyer said Monday his client is being investigated for "a bunch of other charges," though he did not elaborate. Mader has not been charged with anything in Canada and is free after signing a peace bond.

Details of his alleged crimes in Cambodia and Thailand were read out in court at a hearing last month, but they were banned from publication.

A lawyer for The Canadian Press said in court Monday that ban should be lifted.

Michael Skene argued the court didn't have the authority to order the ban on the proceedings of the hearing because Mader doesn't face any Canadian charges.

Mader was convicted of sex crimes against children in absentia in Cambodia earlier this year and Thai authorities were looking for him last month when Mader arrived at Vancouver International Airport.

RCMP detained him under a section of the Criminal Code that allows police to arrest someone they believe could commit an offence against children.

Mader was later granted bail and was released on a peace bond outlining conditions such as his promise to stay away from children and to not use the Internet.

Bans on bail hearings are standard under the Criminal Code in an effort to ensure potential jurors don't come into contact with information that might bias them in any way.

But because Mader isn't charged in Canada, there's no possibility of a trial or jurors to protect, Skene argued.

The issues surrounding Mader's apprehension at the airport and his release on the peace bond are issues the media should be allowed to tell the public about, he said.

"There's two sides to the issue," Skene said outside court.

"On the one hand, why was Mr. Mader ever in jail? He's not been charged with any offence."

On the flip side, there were people in the courtroom who heard things that aren't available to the public, Skene said

"This person's been released into the community. There are children in the community. There are serious allegations against him and whether or not he should have been released into the community is something the public is going to want to scrutinize and has the right to scrutinize."

In his application, Skene noted that the section of the Criminal Code banning details of bail hearings from publication has a time limit. The details can be released at the conclusion of an accused's trial.

ASSHOLES!

Remember Pearl Harbor!

Sorry, mire.

I was just pointing out that the debate was framed from the beginning, longer form topics, and perhaps you missed that or forgot. They moved off topic a little after the b'cast ended.

May Sam will grant your anon wish soon. I hate the new captcha but I love challenge. Sometimes folks just don't want to post with their Nicks for any number of reasons.

Happy Hanukkah!

Fot the Holiday of Lights!
http://www.jewishelvis.com/

The Thermals - Power doesn't run on nothing.mp3

SEDER!!

sounds like a good one.

MALLOY IS ON!

http://www.counterpunch.org/mcgovern12042007.html

No-Nuke Iran

By RAY McGOVERN
Former CIA Analyst

For those who have doubts about miracles, a double one occurred today. An honest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's nuclear program has been issued and its Key Judgments were made public. With redraft after redraft, it was what the Germans call "eine schwere Geburt"-a difficult birth, ten months in gestation.

I do not know how often Vice President Dick Cheney visited CIA Headquarters during the gestation period, but I am told he voiced his displeasure as soon as he saw the first sonogram/draft very early this year, and is so displeased with what issued that he has refused to be the godfather.

This time Cheney and his neo-con colleagues were unable to abort the process. And after delivery to the press, this child is going to be very hard to explain-the more so since it is legitimate.

*

Hi Blog... :)

Bolton Calls For Congressional Witch-Hunt Into Anti-Bush ‘People In The Intelligence Community’
Yesterday’s National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, pouring cold water on neoconservative calls for bombing Iran. Like his ideological kin Norman Podhoretz, former U.N. ambassador and Iran war hawk John Bolton has been attempting to slander the U.S. intelligence community’s collective judgments.

Iran has been pursuing nuclear weapons “for 20 years,” he defiantly declared today. To give weight to a single intelligence estimate “would be a mistake.” On Fox News today, Bolton went even further and called for a congressional investigation into U.S. intelligence agencies, stating that the report was politicized by intelligence officials who have their “own agenda”:

I really think the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have to look at how this NIE was put together because there are a lot unexplained points in here. […]

I think there is a risk here, and I raise this as a question, whether people in the intelligence community who had their own agenda on Iran for some time now have politicized this intelligence and politicized these judgments in a way contrary to where the administration was going. I think somebody needs to look at that.

Watch it:

“I’ve never based my view on this week’s intelligence,” Bolton proclaimed today. Just as he did before the Iraq war, Bolton is attempting to discredit any intelligence which contrasts with his fixation on more war in the Middle East.

While Bolton is calling for a congressional witch-hunt into the intelligence community, VoteVets is calling for an congressional investigation into the Bush administration for warning of a false Iran threat despite knowing the key findings of the NIE.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/04/bolton-nie-iran/

UPDATE: Digby parses out the perpetually wrong neocon worldview: “The real question is why anyone ever takes them seriously about anything.”

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/sweet-neocons-by-digby-i-have-bee...

Hersh: Bush Told Olmert Of NIE Two Days Before President Was Allegedly First Briefed On It »
Yesterday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters that President Bush was first briefed on the National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusions on Wednesday, Nov. 28.

But today in an interview with CNN, Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker’s Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist, revealed that Bush actually knew about the NIE at least two days earlier and had a “private discussion” about it with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before the Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, MD, last week:

Israel objects to this report. I’m told that Olmert had a private discussion with Bush about it during Annapolis — before Annapolis. Bush briefed him about it. The Israelis were very upset about the report. They think we’re naive, they don’t think we get it right. And so they have a different point of view.

Watch it:

Bush had two meetings with Olmert — one on Monday, Nov. 26, and one on Wednesday, Nov. 28. But as Hersh makes clear, Bush discussed the NIE with Olmert at the first meeting before the conference, on Nov. 26 — two days before Hadley alleged that Bush first was briefed on the report. This revelation provides evidence that the Bush administration is misleading about when it first learned that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/04/hersh-bush-iran-2/

UPDATE: Last night on NBC News, Brian Williams reported, “[D]uring last week’s Middle East peace conference where so much of the talk was centered around the Iran threat, US intelligence officials had information indicating they knew better, and the administration said so today.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/12/04/BL200712040...

Alice. What a day in the rabbit hole eh?

Waxman Still after Fitz’s FBI Files
By: emptywheel Monday December 3, 2007 7:44 am

Well, it turns out that Waxman has been no happier than we are about Bush obstructing justice pardoning commuting Libby's sentence. Turns out he asked Fitzgerald for his FBI files (that is, testimony not before the Grand Jury and therefore not subject to secrecy laws) back in July, not long after the commutation. But Bush won't let him have the files. So now Waxman has sent Mukasey a letter asking for some help getting the files.

I'll update this shortly, once I make sure the new digs are working...

[Shew, they're working]

So here's the key detail from Waxman--defining what he wants, and what he has already gotten:

Transcripts, reports, notes, and other documents relating to any interviews outside the presence of the grand jury of any of the following individuals:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2007/12/03/waxman-still-after-fitzs-fb...

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I got to see the Anonymous complaint filed today..what a pack of lies...

How was your day? What do you do for work anyhow? If you wanna say...

Pelosi targets oil firms in energy push

Pelosi to Push Ahead With a $21 Billion Tax Package As Part of Energy Bill

H. JOSEF HEBERT
AP News

Dec 04, 2007 18:15 EST

Defying a threat of a presidential veto, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to push ahead with a $21 billion tax package, including repeal of tax breaks for major oil companies, as part of an energy bill, aides to the speaker said Tuesday.

Democratic leaders circulated a summary of the legislation that includes the new taxes as well as a requirement for a 40 percent increase in automobile fuel efficiency, a huge increase in the use of ethanol as a motor fuel, and a mandate for utilities to use renewable fuels.

Republicans earlier this year blocked Senate attempts to pass new energy taxes, contending they would hinder domestic oil and gas production. Democratic supporters of the taxes said that with oil hovering near $90 a barrel and the industry making large profits, the tax breaks aren't needed.

The White House has said repeatedly that if the energy legislation singles out the oil companies for new taxes, advisers would recommend that President Bush veto the bill.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman reiterated the administration's opposition to such taxes in a meeting with reporters Tuesday. "It is wrong to single out an industry, the oil industry or any industry" for new taxes, Bodman said at an energy newsmaker sponsored by the Platts publication.

The House draft bill, expected to come up for a vote as early as Thursday, calls for repealing $13.5 billion in tax breaks given to major oil companies in 2004 and 2005 and another $7.5 billion in various non-energy tax increases and adjustment to raise revenue needed for the new energy programs, aides said.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/12/pelosi_targets_oil_firms_in_en...

Aide to Ex-Rep. Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy Charges
By Paul Kiel - December 4, 2007, 5:23PM
It's been a long time since we've had the opportunity to write about Ex-Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) after his ignominious defeat last November (he asked voters for "the benefit of the doubt" and they didn't give it to him). But unfortunately for Weldon, he's back in the news:

Former representative Curt Weldon's chief of staff has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges for allegedly helping a consulting firm that Weldon championed obtain federal funds and for concealing money the firm paid him and his wife, according to court papers unsealed today.
According to the court document, Russell James Caso and a top official at the unnamed consulting firm met repeatedly with Weldon to seek the Pennsylvania Republican's help in obtaining federal funds for the organization's defense projects....

The court papers make no accusations against Weldon. But they say Caso "intentionally" concealed payments of $19,000 from the firm to his wife by failing to report them in congressional disclosure forms "even though he knew he was required to do so."

Although the papers make no direct charges against him, Weldon appears in the charging document as "Representative A," which is mighty bad news. It's a pattern that prosecutors have followed repeatedly in the Jack Abramoff scandal -- getting guilty pleas from former staffers and cutting cooperation deals with them in order to build cases against their former boss. Look out, Curt! It's amazing that the left-wing conspiracy to bring him down has persisted even after his forced retirement.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004830.php

Update: Here's the "information," the document that lays out the charges to which Caso is pleading guilty.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/caso-information/

In April 2007, William Winkenwerder Jr. left his government job as assistant secretary for health affairs at the Department of Defense (DOD). On September 25, his new employer, Logistics Health, despite bidding $100 million higher than others, won an $800 million contract from the DOD - a contract written by the office Winkenwerder had managed. Check out Salon’s report on this revolving door pork. (Salon)

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/04/va_contract/

A Canadian judge has ruled that because of the U.S. government’s policies on torture, interrogation, detention, and refugees, Canada can no longer turn away refugees from the U.S. Because the United States can’t be regarded as a safe place for refugees, the judge has nullified “an existing U.S.-Canada agreement saying that if a refugee is turned away from one country, he or she cannot seek refuge in the other.” (ABC, “The Blotter”)

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/12/canadian-judge.html

or other Repubs!

It's about time that they were outed for what they are.

Even Canada is saying that the US is not a safe place for refugees.

More...

The Government Accountability Office is questioning U.S. assertions about the growing independence of Iraqi security units (Iraqi Security Force units deemed "independent" or "fully independent") because the reports are often based on conflicting claims or assessment methods that do not allow for "independent" ratings. This finding calls into question some of General Petraeus’ assertions to Congress in September. (Reuters)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071204/ts_nm/iraq_usa_security_dc

yes indeed!

Not trying to pick a fight or anything. I've always been curious why people post the nics of people who are on.

Like, this one:

There are

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 9:55pm.

currently 4 users and 20 guests online.
Online users

* Jeany
* toniD
* Alice
* Fernando

Can't we all see that for ourselves without it being posted on the newsboard?

Again, not trying to start a holy war over it. I don't really care one way or another. I'm just curious why it happens.

GOPer Colin Simpson Not Running In Wyoming House Race
By Eric Kleefeld - December 4, 2007, 1:50PM
In a surprising development, the Republicans have lost the man who may well have been their best candidate in a normally solid seat — meaning that it might just turn into a real race. Wyoming state Rep. Colin Simpson (R), son of former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, announced yesterday that he is not running for the open House seat, after all. Simpson had indicated earlier this year that he would run against incumbent Congresswoman Barbara Cubin in the primary. Now neither of them are running.

Cubin's 2006 Democratic opponent, Gary Trauner, is already running again after barely losing, and can count himself lucky over Simpson's departure. However, Wyoming remains a heavily Republican state that will in all likelihood go for the GOP presidential nominee by a huge margin, and there are plenty of other prominent Republicans statewide.

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/goper_colin_simpson_not_running_in...

it's to prove what losers we are...

because anons are idiot nincompoops maybe - no matter what they post it don't make much sense

I've been meaning to tell you how pretty that pic of your grandaughter was...

Alice. Losers that need to be tracked!

* Fact-Checking Dobbs: CNN Anchor Lou Dobbs Challenged on Immigration Issues *

In a wide-ranging interview, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs joins Democracy Now! for the hour to discuss:

* His claim that a ³third of our prison population² are illegal aliens (according to the Justice Department about 6 percent of the state and federal prison population are non-citizens)

* Why white supremacists have appeared on Lou Dobbs Tonight without disclosure over their ties to hate groups

* His show¹s reporting on leprosy and immigration. A 2005 report on Lou Dobbs Tonight claimed there had been 7,000 new cases of leprosy in the U.S. over the past three years. In fact, there have been 7,000 cases reported over the past 30 years

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/4/fact_checking_dobbs_cnn

Credit-card cos. defend practices By DIBYA SARKAR, AP Business Writer
Tue Dec 4, 1:54 PM ET

Credit-card executives on Tuesday deflected congressional criticism of their practice of using falling credit scores to charge customers higher interest rates.

Industry critics say it's another example of abusive, confusing credit-card practices that can push consumers deeper into debt.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee, said customers who consistently pay on time are getting whacked by credit-card issuers that raise such rates without an adequate warning or a clear notice.

"The bottom line for me is this: when a credit card issuer promises to provide a cardholder with a specific interest rate if they meet their credit card obligations, and the cardholder holds up their end of the bargain, the credit-card issuer should have to do the same," he said Tuesday.

Levin is holding out the club of possible legislation to spur voluntary changes by the industry.

But executives from Bank of America Corp. and Discover Financial Services LLC. told the subcommittee that a credit score is one of several factors in determining whether to increase a customer's interest rate.

"It's important criteria for how to manage risk and pricing," said Roger Hochschild, Discover's president and chief operating officer.

Bruce Hammonds, president of Bank of America Card Services, said his bank also considers customer behavior on an account and their debt to others, in addition to credit scores.

But it's the behavior of credit-card issuers that prompted several consumers to testify before Levin's subcommittee about not being informed when their rates were hiked.

Janet Hard of Freeland, Mich., said her Discover credit-card rate nearly tripled without adequate notice and that issuers send "deliberately misleading and confusing" information.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071204/ap_on_bi_ge/credit_cards_congress_8&...

standards...but I just don't...

If it's the same Anon who has always done it, mystic..
Submitted by Alice on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 10:20pm.
it's to prove what losers we are...

hmmm... think it shows more about what a loser he is, Alice.

Anyway, so... how about that weather?

It rains here almost continually, this rain is no different. The difference is that more of the land is cemented over by bubble-heads that don't understand the concept of rain run off in an extremely rainy area and are too lazy to plant shrubs or mow their damn lawns. So the idiots take out green and pave the whole thing over. Duh. Too bad they are mostly in the hills and don't live in the valleys themselves.

Also, the city needs to clean out storm drains more often. Just a hint, guys.

Still, it's nothing like Katrina, and I don't really know anyone who is complaining about water in their basements. I do wonder about the guy who was flooded out last year, bought new furniture, applaiances and carpet with his insurance settlement, and didn't change the water flow pattern to his basement or even put in a drainage system. Sorry, but that's idiotic.

Just because we've got lives - unlike the freeper site where all of them are posting 24/7? lol.

this was just a hit and run visit. Hi Alice, hope all is well!

Chose Lou Dobbs as the worst person in the world tonight because, as Olbermann says, Lou Dobbs hires "illegal Aliens" to take care of his daughters horses. To clean up after them in the barn. Seems it's a job no one else wants to do.

Dobbs flip-flops on immigration
Dec. 4: Worst person: CNN’s Lou Dobbs threatens illegal immigrants on his show during the week but on the weekends he pays these people to clean up after his ‘show jumping’ daughters’ horses.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

Scroll down to Worst person in the world to watch video

--the city needs to clean out storm drains more often.--

I was just listening to something that made me think that well..if it's the local govt that cleans the drains..they ain't got no money...

Same reason Animal Control and the Library have no effing resources....

Hope all's well with you too! You must be digging your new job - we never see ya anymore.. :)

I was wondering how you were doing in that bad weather of yours.

I heard that the fields in CA are not being picked and food prices are getting higher (which husbot confirms when he grocery shops) because of the (former) INS round ups...so if American's wanted these picking field jobs...

hope everyone is listening to Malloy tonight.
He is on fire ...again tonight.

Work Work Work

We're supposed to get 4 -6 inches. The north side usually always gets more snow. Close to the Wisconsin border.

They are saying we have 2.5 inches right now. Two systems merged to give us more. How nice :(

The Army confirms the death of Matthew Nicholson is under investigation. The soldier from Oakdale died over the weekend, a few days after being stabbed while trying to break up a fight at Fort Campbell, KY

Sticking up for a frightened 10-year-old inadvertently landed the soldier from Oakdale in jail three months ago.

Trying to defend two men in a brawl might have led to his death last weekend, his family said Monday.

Nicholson, an Army private with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., died Saturday morning, two days after someone knifed him in the chest during a fight at his base.

But his wound didn't kill him, even though it came within an inch of his heart, Nicholson's family said Army medical examiners told them.

Karen McMenomy, Nicholson's aunt, said an autopsy ruled out the injury as a direct cause of his death.

She is awaiting more reports from the Army, including a toxicology test that could take more than a month. It's possible a pain medication he was taking to ease his injury contributed to his death if he used it incorrectly, she said.

"He was a good kid and he had the biggest heart," McMenomy, 46, said. "No matter what the situation, he would put himself at risk to help anybody, and sometimes that's not a good idea.
...

The heart of downtown Chicago:

http://wmaq.weatherplus.com/wxcam/10577628/detail.html?qs=;tab=cams

paranoia

Stop trying to give it meaning.

Michigan Ave. I might add.

I haven't figured out how this person could assist until after this meeting on the 13th...thank goodness I talked this out with the head librarian today..because I have not been sleeping over the worries I think about...I really should change my nic soon..this a-hole who anonymously sent a letter about me and the cats actually searched google for my cat group and sent copied of things from my websites...making it seem like all those cat photos on my blogs are cats that I have relocated to the library...which is a lie...but now that I'm being watched by this person and the local government..I feel like I should go underground more..but maybe not..I haven't decided..i might decide to become LOUDER...because I don't care for being intimidated by government...and now they are coming for me...and I have to decide how to respond....

I used to take the 156 down LaSalle to work and the 151 up Michigan Ave etc to go home from work...

How long ago?

is an advocate for feral cats. I just thought that if you needed
any assistance in anything feral he could be a big help. I don't remember if I gave you the name of the book he wrote.? He is a real nice guy. I met him @ a feral cat workshop this past March.
Good luck with everything cats! :)

I hope you're kidding...

Cats? They're worried about cats? How fucking stupid.

--George Ciccariello, a Venezuela watcher with the University of California at Berkeley in the US, told Al Jazeera there had been "a great deal of disinformation" about Chavez's campaign prior to the vote.

"There were rumours, there was pamphleteering, there was printing false copies of the reform proposal. --

I heard vaguely about the false reform proposal pamphlets a while back...this article is two times now..

would become LOUDER - because I don't like being intimidated either. Especially by this government. You need people to stand not behind you but with you.!

Annette you would be surprized @ what people get worried about.

Someone started this trouble for Alice. The cats are only part of the issue.

That makes me even angrier!

From the emergence of the Neocons as an ideological power base dominant over U.S. foreign policy, to destruction wreaked on the Bill of Rights by illegal surveillance of citizens, to the senseless creation of the bureaucratically monstrous Department of Homeland Security and passage of the Patriot Acts, to the initiation of “wars of choice” leading to the devastation of two nations and the killing or displacement of perhaps a million Middle Eastern non-combatants, to violation of international treaties and conventions against wars of aggression and torture of prisoners, to presiding over an economy ruined by the continued export of manufacturing jobs and the creation and deflation of the housing bubble, to the wrecking of the federal budget by over a trillion dollars of wartime expenditure, to the abandonment of the city of New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, to tax cuts for the most wealthy while the income of the middle class has drastically eroded, and to threats to start another war, this time against Iran, based on deceptions similar to those which preceded the Iraq invasion, the Bush/Cheney administration has brought the U.S. to the brink of catastrophe.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7307

While the views of the American public still seem to register to a slight degree, the Democrats have failed to respond to their restoration by the electorate to power in Congress by ending the Iraq War. But by their votes in 2006 and by consistently giving George W. Bush such low ratings in the polls, Americans have delivered a message. So have the many internet sites covering the real news of the war and the economy.

As well have the two maverick presidential candidates, Ron Paul the Republican and Dennis Kucinich the Democrat, who have been saying things not heard in the supine world of American politics for a long time. Things like getting rid of the inept handling of credit by the Federal Reserve and stopping the war in Iraq by exiting right now, without any more lies or excuses.

Thats my puppy - Indio.

I love cats - I *meant* why would anybody go to the trouble to write a letter, print off websites, try to get someone into trouble over....cats?

Aaiee.

I had an impossible day at work today. My boss is giving me so much work to do, and he yells at me and interrupts and is mean and degrading. What's worse, he's getting old and incompetent. I need to get out of there. I left once, and now I don't know why I ever went back. The trouble is, I've worked with him so long, now my job market is virtually non-existant. There's nothing else out there to go to...

*sigh*

Did you see the Anonymous here post about the way some people are going batshit over feral cats eating birds? Someone at work tried to imply the same thing to me this afternoon..I'm all why is a bird more important than a cat; and visa versa? It's not even the cats, it's the threat of being sued for this anony-holes family ever getting sick from the cat shit in the sand at the park....

This person is actually under the impression, or lying, that I have purposely not picked up cat carcasses on library property! Three cats have died there, one a maintenance person told be about from the bushes in the senior center next door, one is a black cat I saw once in the last two months who people tell me was hit and was somewhere around the road above the lib. or the parking lot somewhere, and one I learned about today which sounds like the grey and white that was hanging around Dewey and Decimal the most recently....I never saw any of these cat bodies..when I learned about the black one I asked where it was and my frined said that it didn't even look like a cat any more ..I mean of course I don't want to see that...but man....this is crazy...

*

smcgee43...my SCR cat TNR group is for sure with me..we had our meeting tonight..and one lady..the one who is coming with me to the 13th meeting..she said something like my job should come above the cats..I said no way....she got so upset from this and a lot of other stuff tonight that she left early crying..TNR work in a red county is fucking brutal...

Thats my puppy Indio.

Lou Dobbs is obsessed. He seems to think he's ok doing what he does since he married an immigrant. He just seems like a big bully to me, competing for O'Reilly's slot as "biggest asshole" on tv. Or was that Beck's slot? Or Hannity's? Hard to keep up with them, there's so many.

where are you from. E-Mail me that now that I'm thinking about it.
That is so cool that you TNR. I never thought that I would work with cats. I was very allergic when I was little. For some reason I am not now. Weird.

Buddy Bear or BooBoo Bear

THAT is one CUTE ass dog...Over the weekend I saw this movie called Good Boy! - have you seen it?

go make a tin foil hat.

No I have not seen it. Is it a good rental?
People are going to be pissed @ me - its going to take longer to get this blog because my pictures are so big. I have to figure out how to downsize them now.
My IMac does not have copy & paste highlighted - so I can't do that @ home.
Im trying to figure that out. I thought that Mac's are supposed to be user friendly???

Go fuck yourself.

Suddenly, I feel compelled to remind you to buy gold and silver, as much as you can, and take physical possession of them, and put them somewhere safe and sound, someplace where you can get a good shot at anyone who even goes near to that locked closet, and when you demonstrate your resolve with a couple of warning shots to one of the kids who "accidentally" wandered over to the closet while chasing a stupid rubber ball that had rolled in there, leave the bullet holes in the wall as a reminder to the others. Trust me; it's worked like a charm around here!

But we were not talking about me or my Mogambo Closet Of Bullion (MCOB), or even how some snotty "mental health professionals" think that the stupid kids are now "scarred for life" because of a little gunfire, some random screaming and vague death threats for trespassing in the Mogambo Forbidden Zone (MFZ). Instead, we were talking about inflation and oil, and combining both of them brings us to the further news that in other "Gulf countries", inflation is running at double-digit rates! Ten percent and more! Much more! My God! This is horrific news!

But explaining to stupid social workers the relative degree of the two situations, namely a traumatized bunch of stupid kids or a traumatized stupid economy, is a waste of time, as they just don't "get it".

I'll bet you do, though. And if you don't, you soon will.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IL05Dj01.html

Love that Mogambo Guru

This is my other pup - Lakota (Indio's sister)

I should get louder..the more P and I discuss it...this is a county where I'm forced to listen to all red all the time am radio..and they use fox news broadcasts...and the program director tells me they have to do what the majority here want...

Justice Center..the place some counties change the name too after calling it a jail and court house...we just closed our general hospital here due to lack of funds..but someone pulls this bazillion dollar """justice center""" out of their a hole...now I have done jury duty once here and yes it is a small room...is it worth denying care to sick people and letting all the meth heads and self-proclaimed loonies out onto the street with no treatment they think they need?

is gonna be proud of me.
Posting photos all by myself.

Snowing here in the Chicago area.

--Ron Paul the Republican and Dennis Kucinich the Democrat, who have been saying things not heard in the supine world of American politics for a long time--

I am scared for you. Really how do you do it??
Our government hard @ work - or I mean NOT @work and taking all the money they can get their grimy little hands on.

like theirs to even get where they are in the two party system...?

In considering voting for Kucinich I am more embarrased to vote for the party he is in than the man himself...

My only thoughts when reading your thoughts was, since when did it become part of your job description to pick up dead cats, does it matter that you didn't see them, and who cares if you don't dispose of them? Seems to me like that's a bit outside the box, as in, you couldn't pay me enough...

In summation,...FUCK them.

I'd like to see them try to put that on a termination notice.

You are hereby terminated for failure to pick up dead cats out of the parking lot.

Using () for <>

After html do this..

html" width="400")

1.Don't forget the space after html"

2.200,300 or,400 usualy works good..

3.Check Preview Comment before posting,to see what
it looks like..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Why did he have to play the alien card? Ever??? Why?

If I were his campaign manager, I'd have grabbed the nearest pitcher of something and thrown it on him the day he opened his mouth with that one...

I need all the help I can get.

...few disorders are as misunderstood as is psychopathic personality. In this column, we will do our best to set the record straight and dispel popular myths about this condition.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=what-psychopath-means&page=1

In a 1976 study anthropologist Jane M. Murphy, then at Harvard University, found that an isolated group of Yupik-speaking Inuits near the Bering Strait had a term (kunlangeta) they used to describe “a man who … repeatedly lies and cheats and steals things and … takes sexual advantage of many women—someone who does not pay attention to reprimands and who is always being brought to the elders for punishment.” When Murphy asked an Inuit what the group would typically do with a kunlangeta, he replied, “Somebody would have pushed him off the ice when nobody else was looking.”

--Murdoch's News Corp. buys Beliefnet
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 6:51pm.--

...

clean my truck off of snow. Then I have to drive home in the snow.
Not to worry 4x4 here I come.
Blog you all a little later.

to accept the things I cannot change (in a million years)and the courage to change the things I can.

Law 23

Concentrate Your Forces

Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another – intensity defeats extensity every time.

http://www2.tech.purdue.edu/cg/Courses/cgt411/covey/48_laws_of_power.htm

I guess someday I'll know the context of this..I didn't get to hear one word of the Sam and Marc show today...but I've had this page loaded all day..and that was the first thing I saw just now..

see you later on.. :)

but if that's what his truth is and he said it..then more the reason to vote for him imo..I choose to believe him obviously...but you know some people can't help but be themselves...and damn the torpedos as someone sometime said... :)

Maybe it's the chem trails why so few hear it...?

Submitted by Alice on Wed, 12/05/2007 - 12:09am.

I think it's the money trails.

--You are hereby terminated for failure to pick up dead cats out of the parking lot.--

Spock would have a cow at the illogicalness of this place...

Took the pain pills so I'm fading here.

Later

& making profit from it...

we all start out that way.. :)
Just help the next new person you can..
Rember to you can edit your pics upthread and make the smaller..
Good practices too. :)

Malloy just called Bushy a Stuttering Monkey ! HeeHee ! ;)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

- NYT

Someone sent out fake emails about your Kitty site,saying they were you ?!

Man,That Sucks !!
Did you report it to the police,so it's documented ?
Might be a good idea..
Gezz..Good Luck ! And,Hang In There !
Wish I could help more..Sorry..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

We investigated how doctored photographs of past public events affect memory for those events. Italian participants viewed either original images or misleading digitally doctored images depicting the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing and a 2003 protest in Rome against the war in Iraq, and they subsequently answered questions about those events. Viewing the doctored images affected the way participants remembered the events. Those who viewed the doctored photograph of the Beijing event estimated that a larger number of people participated in it. Those who viewed the doctored photograph of the Rome event rated the event as more violent and more negative, recalled more physical confrontation, damage to property, and injuries to demonstrators, and were less inclined to participate in future protests. Both younger and older adult participants were affected by the manipulation. Results indicate that doctored photographs of past public events can influence memory, attitudes and behavioural intentions.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/116843656/ABSTRACT?C...

Write-up in Live Science

http://www.livescience.com/technology/071126-faked-photos.html

mystic, hemp granola bars...sounds good...I think Trump said that if the US made hemp..no I think it was marijuana actually..he said the taxes alone could pay off the national debt...

*

and they sent a letter to a bunch of places naming me and saying untrue things about me..it's someone who works near me...a volunteer I am guessing...

Hope you feel better soon ! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

s-

Yea sure, I can see that being so...Sweet Jesus we're doomed as doomed can be...

I know you despise emoticons...

I'm smiling...k?

Boston Legal just started - Denny Crane is being arrested for solicitation in a public bathroom! James Spader (one of my imaginary boyfriends just mentioned Larry Craig!)...

It was from NYT magazine. Alley cat allies was mentioned.
I thought you might find it interesting.
: )

Still your dealing with some Moron/Asshole....
Hang in there !

We've had a bunch of Feral cats that we have feed for years,down at my families old house
and,the lady I rent from house in Baja..
We send down cat food with friends who live down there,if
we can't be there..
I like to get them fixed or neutered but,they are ofcourse,very hard to
catch..
And,getting them fixed down there is a big problem..
The jerk landowner down there tried to get rid of the cats, few a years ago..
But,the cats are smarter than him ! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Big time ! :)

We have posoum family down there too..
Baby posoums are pretty darn cute too ! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

??

I'm not as focused as I usually am lately...sorry.. :(

*

-pushed him off the ice when nobody else was looking-

I watched it already (central time)

It's another great episode, they give it

the Larry Craig treatment! Ha!

Because I can ! ;)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

they just called her a joke and no one respects her...

on a television show...

'Wake up, Alice dear!' said her sister; 'Why, what a long sleep you've had!'

'Oh, I've had such a curious dream!' said Alice, and she told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange Adventures of hers that you have just been reading about;

The Nancy Grace caricature "Gracie Jones" is always spot on funny.

Denny said she knows he's heterosexual because she told him;
"He was the best sex she's had since she did her brother in ninth grade"

Fucking Hilarious!

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj07/fal07/brightm...

http://atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IL05Cb02.html

http://bodiesrevealed.com/

Bodies Revealed

Come and be inspired by the innovative new show about the amazing and complex machine we call the human body at BODIES REVEALED.

This Exhibition--which features actual human specimens--allows people of all ages access to sights and knowledge normally reserved only for medical professionals. Take the opportunity to peer inside yourself, to better understand how your elaborate and fascinating body works, and how you can become a more informed participant in your own health care.

Purchase Tickets

Kansas City Exhibition at Union Station > Purchase Tickets
Sacramento, CA Exhibition at 2040 Alta Arden Expressway >Purchase Tickets

For more information Visit the Official Website (requires Flash 7.0 or higher)
http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/

*

"BEING GAY IS BAD FOR THE TROOPS!"

Denny Crane's writer must be still be working... :)