Deep in the heart

How's ToniD today?

Hurting! Waiting on everyone.

Senior services, Physical Therapy, Home care.

I promise to send email updates soon. Need a bit more strength.

I peek in here and post when I CAN.

Top McCain fundraiser has Abramoff ties
Diane Sweet
Published: Thursday July 17, 2008

As a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, John McCain began the hearings that brought down Jack Abramoff, the former K-Street lobbyist, and key figure in a political scandal that landed Abramoff in jail.

But in Senator McCain's list of his 'bundlers' - or top money collectors - his campaign released this week, among the names was Juan Carlos Benitez, a fellow lawyer and lobbyist whom Abramoff had supported for a Bush administration post.

Questions have been raised about Benitez even apart from any possible relationship with Abramoff. According to the blog Fired Up America, Benitez was lobbying for the island of Guam at the same time that his wife was a special adviser on economic policy at the Department of the Interior, responsible for helping improve economic conditions on that island. "Mr. Benitez received a fee of $125,000 per month from the taxpayers of Guam, to arrange meetings that the taxpayers of the United States and Guam were already paying his wife to undertake."

From the New York Times' 'The Caucus' political blog:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"According to a 2006 report of the House Committee on Government Reform, Mr. Abramoff had urged the appointment of Mr. Benitez as special counsel for immigration-related unfair employment practices. He was named to the position in 2001.

The committee's report said Mr. Benitez's job at the Justice Department "gave Benitez authority" to conduct investigations into unfair labor practices that were 'issues of importance to Abramoff clients.'"

After leaving the administration, Mr. Benitez joined the K Street lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates, whose Web site says he "has exceptionally close ties to the White House."

Mr. Benitez said Mr. Abramoff had done him no favors. They had competed for lobbying contracts, Mr. Benitez said, adding that Mr. Abramoff had sought an administration job for Mr. Benitez to get him out of the business. Mr. Benitez said he had no communications with Mr. Abramoff while working at the Justice Department."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Top_McCain_fundraiser_has_Abramoff_ties_07...

A Spanish court has cleared four men of crimes related to the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which left 191 people dead and injured more than 1,800.

The four were among 21 people jailed in October last year for involvement in the attacks.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/07/2008717115336564354.htm...

Canada has said that it will not seek the repatriation of a young Canadian held at Guantanamo Bay, despite the release of video footage showing him in an obvious state of distress.
Millions of people [around the world] are now wondering why Canada's government has acquiesced - and as the video shows, even participated - in the unconscionable treatment of a blubbering boy soldier," he wrote on Wednesday.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/07/200871712274496907.ht...

* Share
* Print View
* Comments

Like this story? Get Alerts of big news events. Enter your email address

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint sent Obama a letter asking why, as chairman of a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, the candidate hasn't held any hearings on Afghanistan. It was an attack used by Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

However, there's an easy response: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden has said he wants all hearings on Afghanistan to be held at the full committee level. In case he's forgotten that, Biden reminds DeMint in a letter of his own:

As you are aware, under my chairmanship the Foreign Relations Committee has addressed most Afghanistan issues at the full committee level. I believe that this is the best way of ensuring the most comprehensive examination of the complex issues involved, and of ensuring the highest-level Administration participation. ...

Sen. Obama has displayed great leadership on this issue: he called nearly a year ago for the deployment of at least two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan -- it has since become the accepted position of a wide range of U.S. military officials, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I look forward to working closely with him, and with you, on any future Afghanistan hearings that might be held in our committee."

In a speech Wednesday, Biden praised Obama's spine and criticized McCain's knowledge of history.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/17/biden-defends-obama-on-co_n_113...

Happe Talk

Pope Benedict XVI has opened a huge Catholic youth festival in Sydney praising the Australian government's recent apology to the country's Aborigines as a "courageous" move.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2008/07/20087176401827349...

http://youtube.com/user/samsedershowDOTcom

SUBSCRIBE NOW!

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday ``it was not a hard decision'' to withdraw Justice Department legal opinions that approved the use of harsh interrogation methods which critics say amount to torture.
Democrats peppered Ashcroft with questions about how often waterboarding was used by interrogators who were following the now-defunct legal opinions.

Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his or her cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world. Critics call it a form of torture.

Ashcroft said he was aware of three times that interrogators waterboarded terror suspects. He said he does not believe waterboarding, as it was then described by the CIA, amounted to torture.

Hayden banned waterboarding in CIA interrogations in 2006. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused to publicly discuss whether waterboarding is currently legal since it is no longer used by CIA interrogators.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7658933

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge says the first Guantanamo Bay war crimes trial can begin Monday.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson rejected an effort by Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, to postpone his trial. Hamdan argued he would suffer irreparable harm if his was tried before he could challenge the legality of the process.

Robertson's ruling Thursday is a victory for the Bush administration, which suffered a setback last month when the Supreme Court ruled that detainees can challenge their detention in federal court. Hamdan's attorneys hoped to use that ruling to delay his trial.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7658929

WASHINGTON (AP) - A man wanted by Liechtenstein for leaking secret banking information that identified millionaire tax cheats across Europe and the United States has told congressional investigators how money was concealed.
WASHINGTON (AP) - European bankers and some of their U.S. clients faced grilling by senators Thursday about offshore tax abuses that investigators believe are costing American taxpayers about $100 billion a year.

The questioning follows the release of a report by a Senate panel accusing the banks of helping commit massive tax evasion and urging establishment of tougher laws to combat offshore tax havens around the world.

``Tax havens are engaged in economic warfare against the United States and honest, hardworking American taxpayers,'' said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the chairman of the subcommittee.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7658866

way too much stuff happening today. John Ashcroft is testifying now.

LINK

They just asked him if he saw illegal actions on the part of DOJ and he wouldn't comment because the meetings were classified.

Now the questioning is about who authorized the torture techniques. He's being evasive as hell and trying to define a very narrow scope.

Are you aware of US turning over detainees to allies in the war on terror for them to take the lead in interrogations?

Ashcroft: I don't know. I don't remember.

Are you aware of the US policy on detainee treatment?

Ashcroft: I don't know.

The Attorney General at the time didn't know the laws on torture? That's ludicrous.

Good
BLM reverses solar moratorium

Outcry prompts change of government plan

Responding to public demand, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has rescinded a decision to stop accepting applications for future solar development on public lands.
http://www.thebizpress.com/news/stories/BP_News_Local_S_bp0714_solar.18c...

Bad
U.S. to offer oil leases in Alaska NPR-A this fall
ANCHORAGE (Reuters) - The Bureau of Land Management said on Wednesday it will hold an oil lease sale this autumn for acreage in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska that the government says could hold 8.4 billion barrels of recoverable crude.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN1645265420080716

back to the hospital again after breakfast.

infection making her arm swell and heat up again.

For clues about who might be next to get a show on MSNBC, viewers need not have looked further than “Countdown” earlier this month. For eight nights beginning just before the Fourth of July, Rachel Maddow, the host of a program on Air America, the liberal talk-radio network, served as a substitute for the vacationing Keith Olbermann.

“At some point, I don’t know when, she should have a show,” said Phil Griffin, hours before he was promoted on Wednesday to president of MSNBC. “She’s on the short list. It’s a very short list. She’s at the top.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/arts/television/17madd.html?_r=2&ref=t...

I will start with a warning. Unless you have a lot of experience do not try and break up a dog fight by yourself. Never step in the middle of two loving pets and try and grab them by the collar to stop a dog fight. If you try this, the chances of you being badly bitten are extremely high. People don't understand that 2 animals in the middle of a fight are in survival drive. If they see you at all, they don't look at you as their loving owner. When you charge in and grab them they either react out of a fight reflex and bite, or they see you as another aggressor. When they are in fight or flight mode they will bite you. You can take that to the bank.

Here is what happened at my kennel this week. The wife of a friend came to the kennel with her daughter. She told my secretaries that I had said it was OK to go into my whelping rooms to show her little girl our puppies.

I had never told her this. Anyway, that does not matter. When she left, she did not latch one of the kennel gates properly (this was also an employee mistake for not checking the gate).

Later, one of my kennel staff let another bitch outside. The first bitch jumped against her poorly latched kennel gate, and it came open. She ran outside and started a terrible dog fight. I had not told this young kennel person how to break up a dog fight in progress. He ran in and tried to grab both dog collars. He was bitten very badly in the forearm and hand before I could get on scene and break up the dog fight the correct way.

The safest way to break up a dogfight requires 2 people. Each person grabs the back feet of one of the dogs. The dog back feet are then picked up like a wheelbarrow. With the legs up, both dogs are then pulled apart.

Once the dog fight is broken up and the dogs pulled apart it is critical that the people do not release the dogs or the dog fight will begin again. The two people need to start turning in a circle, or slowly swinging the dogs in a circle while they back away from the other dog. This stops the dog from curling and coming back and biting the person holding their legs.

By circling the dog has to sidestep with its front feet or it will fall on its chin. As long as you slowly continue to back and circle, the dog cannot do any damage to you. To insure that the fight will not begin all over again when you release the dogs, one of the dogs needs to be dragged into an enclosure (i.e. a kennel, the garage, another room) before the dog is released. If you do not do this, the dogs will often charge back and start fighting again or if you release the dog to quickly the dog will turn and attack the person who had his feet.

Dog fights are a very dangerous thing to try and break up alone. You should never rush in and try and grab the dogs to pull them apart. They are in high "fight drive" and are not thinking clearly when fighting. If someone grabs them they will bite without even thinking about who or what they are biting. This is how your loving pet can dog bite the living crap out of you in about a second and a half.

In reality it probably doesn't even know it's biting you. I compare it to a bar fight. If a person comes up behind 2 guys fighting and just reaches out and grabs the shoulder of one of the combatants most of the time the fighter is going to turn and throw a punch without even looking at who or what he is hitting. This is because his adrenaline in pumping and he is in "fight drive".

The worst case scenario is that you are alone when a serious fight breaks out. There are a couple things that you must keep in mind:

* Keep your cool you have a job to do.
* Do not waste time screaming at the dogs. It hardly ever works.
* Your goal is still the same; you must break up the fight without getting hurt.
* Go get a leash (allow the fight to continue while you do this).
* Dogs are almost always locked onto one another. Walk up and loop the leash around the back loin of the dog by either threading the leash through the handle or use the clip. I prefer the thread method.
* Now slowly back away and drag the dog to a fence or to an object that you can tie the leash to. By doing this, you effectively create an anchor for one of the dogs.
* Then walk around and grab the back legs of the second dog and drag it away from the dog that is tied up. Remember to turn and circle as they release.
* Drag the dog into a dog pen or another room before you release the back legs.
* Go back and take the dog off the fence and put him or her into a dog kennel.
* Sit down and have a stiff drink (or two).

http://leerburg.com/dogfight.htm

Happe Talk

and ordered the two dvd's from Sam...can't wait to see the whole thing!

June among top months for Obama in fundraising
By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama raised $52 million in June — his second best month in his record-shattering money chase — keeping Democrats on an even keel with Republican presidential rival John McCain and the Republican National Committee.

McCain's campaign announced last week that he had his best fundraising month in June, bringing in $22 million and ending the month with $27 million in cash.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/44571.html

breaking up a dog fight...
Submitted by mhappenow on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 2:14pm.
----
Alternately, two in the hat works wonders.

Oil contracts are expiring and I think it has become apparent to even the freaks at the NYMEX that .. "Ya know .. oil prices are kinda fucked up and everyone seems to realize it isn't being driven up by supply issues. So .. maybe we should kinda pull back the reins??"

Pray this keeps up .. I am scared to death it won't .. but maybe if you hopeful folks can send a word out to whom or whatever you believe in .. maybe we can will the oil prices to either stay here or drop lower.

Crude Falls Below $130

Other than that .. still heartbroken .. but unlike last week .. I don't feel bad enough to either kill myself or have myself committed to the U of MN Medical Centers' "Boobie Hatch." So .. I guess that is something.

Take care of yourselves guys ...
Wil

Big Brother Shock Therapy: Is Homeland Security Considering Requiring All Airline Passengers to Wear High-Tech Tasing Devices?
Submitted by meg on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 10:36am. Alerts
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Meg White

Start with long lines and rising prices. Now add the possibility of walking into an airport and having a bracelet attached to your wrist with the power to completely incapacitate you.

No wonder air travel is increasingly unpopular.

As reported by The Washington Times earlier this week, Paul Ruwaldt, an official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, wrote a letter to the Canadian security company Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. requesting a proposal for a stun-gun-type device to be used for international border management, prisoner transfer and other security situations. Ruwaldt also wrote, "it is conceivable to envision a use to improve airline security, on passenger planes."

The company has suggested in the past that the device could not only contain airline passengers' personal information and track their whereabouts, but could have the ability to render each passenger "completely immobile for several minutes."

The device on which Ruwaldt based his request, innocuously called "The EMD Safety Bracelet," uses electro-muscular disruption to incapacitate dangerous passengers once a security problem is identified upon an aircraft. A video -- which the company said was not produced by them -- promotes the device and was, until recently, available at the the company's website.
Big Brother Shock Therapy: Is Homeland Security Considering Requiring All Airline Passengers to Wear High-Tech Tasing Devices?
Submitted by meg on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 10:36am. Alerts
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Meg White

Tony Hendra

Art by Rick Meyerowitz

Turns out New Yorker Editor Supremo David Remnick was just kidding with last week's apparently racist-classist-sexist- ethnically-and-religiously-biased cover. It was all just a set-up, said the legendary political satirist, to what we at the New Yorker really think of the great Senator from Illinois.

Say hello to...Mr and Mrs. Baruch Obama

The kids must take after the mailman.

Asking as a "former" NY'er (as if there is such a thing), what the hell does shopping at ZABARS have to do with being Jewish?

It's like saying only Italians shop at Balducci's.

I'm just saying.

for a bit

Has anyone checked out the links Sam gave us for NetRoots yet?

Unless I am totally dense, it looks like we have to sign up for and create an identity for SECOND LIFE to be able to view the panels etc....

What a Pain in the ASS!!!

Has anyone done this Second Life thing before?

Reality. TV. Two more reasons to read.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
---Ray Bradbury

Submitted by Brett on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 3:03pm.
---------
I hope the cartoon upsets every self-appointed expert on inappropriate satire.

That said, do Hasidic New York Jews wear double-breasted suit coats?

SL is not easy to install or use. It's not you. I paid for a year, bought property, built on it, and did about everything there was to do. If they had live events like NetRoots more often I would still use it. In the end, I saw it as a waste of money. They should find a way to get more exclusive live events to make that medium worth hassling with.

Here at Netroots, I just ran across Sam. He will be throwing one back tomorrow at 5. I'll post times, locations in Open Mic shortly.

I also saw that Cliff Shecter and Richard Clark will be doing book signings at the book store. I'll post info on that too in Open Mic.

Four United States Presidents got caught up in a tornado....
and off they whirled to the land of OZ
They finally made it to the Emerald City ...

...and went to find the Great Wizard

'What brings the four of you before the great Wizard of Oz?'

Jimmy Carter stepped forward timidly:

'I've come for some courage.'

' No Problem! said the Wizard. Who's next?'

Richard Nixon stepped forward, and said:

' Well, I think I need a heart.'

'Done! says the Wizard.'

'Who comes next before the Great and Powerful Oz?'

Up stepped Bush and said,

'The American people say that I need a brain.'

'No problem! said the Wizard.
Consider it done.'

Then there is a great silence in the hall.
Bill Clinton is just standing there, looking around,
But he doesn't say a word.

Irritated, the Wizard finally asks,
'Well, what do you want?'

to which he replied:

'IS DOROTHY HERE?'

It WILL upset SOMEBODY.

Of that there is absolutely no doubt.

'We loved him a lot,' Bush says at Tony Snow funeral

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/17/snow.funeral.ap/

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush fondly remembered Tony Snow on Thursday, telling mourners at Snow's funeral that the conservative commentator-turned-White House press secretary "amassed a rare record of accomplishment."
Former White House spokesman Tony Snow, seen in September at his last briefing, died Saturday.

"He knew the job of a reporter was vigorous. He understood the profession and always treated it with respect," said Bush, who traveled to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to pay respects to his former lead spokesman, who died of colon cancer on Saturday.

His was a life that was "far too brief," the president said of Snow.

Bush was accompanied to the funeral on the campus of Catholic University by some familiar faces from earlier in his presidency, including former top adviser Karl Rove and one-time chief of staff Andrew Card.

Row after row at the shrine was packed with family members and friends and associates, including White House correspondents.

An enlarged photo of Snow was displayed, showing him smiling at the press secretary's podium in the White House press room. Photo See photos of some highlights from Snow's career »

"We will always remember his wry sense of humor and abundant goodness. We will also remember he was lots of fun," Bush said.

****

A teary-eyed Bush also reportedly said of Snow, "G.I. like boom-boom? I love you long time!" before preforming fellatio on the corpse.

am sorry to read this @ Bgurl

I have had the same level of infection from a cat bite...I know the pain and heat from the infection. It took a truck load of anti-biotics including an intramuscular shot of a super anti-bio to get the infection under control....I hope that THAT will get hers under control...but maybe she might need an intravenous anti-bio to get this one under control at this point...I know that is where I was headed...

Sending good thoughts her way....and yours too.

NK

Bgurl taking a turn for the worse
Submitted by Sunshine Jim on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 2:02pm.
back to the hospital again after breakfast.

infection making her arm swell and heat up again.

»

Reality. TV. Two more reasons to read.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
---Ray Bradbury

Elana Schor in Washington guardian.co.uk, Thursday July 17, 2008
A bar brawl that ended with two stars of Oliver Stone's new George Bush biopic, W, under arrest has taken a dark turn, with new reports charging that police used pepper spray and racial slurs on the Hollywood actors.
One witness told KTBS that police hurled a racial slur at Wright, a black actor known for his role in Casino Royale. Cell phone video of the arrest has reportedly been given to lawyers for the actors.
Shreveport remains a bastion of American conservatism, raising questions about whether politics fuelled the aggression during the arrest of Brolin and Wright.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/17/usa.georgebush

Thanks for that...

Now, if you will excuse me...my turkey on a roll wants back out.

>>..my turkey on a roll wants back out.

they say `the truth will set you free.'

well, at least it worked for your sandwich...

My thoughts are with you and Bgurl during this awful month.

Not sure if its been said here yet, but thank gawd she's in Canada! Real health care for all, I can only imagine what that's like.

:)

see you folks tomorrow

: )

THANKS -glad you are safely in AUSTIN.
NETROOTS Second LIFE - is FREE... for the conference.
MY issue, is that I dont understand why they can't just let us watch the panels etc.... online like normal people.

Please give my love to Sammy, and tell everyone there from the blog that I am sorry that I cannot BE there with them to open and close the bar with them tonight LOL ;). But I do expect them to turn in their keys if they have more than 2 drinks... I want everyone back in 1 safe piece OK? That includes you....

Neffer
Submitted by Fernando on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 3:32pm.
SL is not easy to install or use. It's not you. I paid for a year, bought property, built on it, and did about everything there was to do. If they had live events like NetRoots more often I would still use it. In the end, I saw it as a waste of money. They should find a way to get more exclusive live events to make that medium worth hassling with.

Here at Netroots, I just ran across Sam. He will be throwing one back tomorrow at 5. I'll post times, locations in Open Mic shortly.

I also saw that Cliff Shecter and Richard Clark will be doing book signings at the book store. I'll post info on that too in Open Mic.

Reality. TV. Two more reasons to read.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
---Ray Bradbury

geez...those neighbors of mine...I talked to the guy today and noticed he has a shiner (and a slight odor of booze). Last time I saw her I noticed she was missing one of her front teeth.

I don't know what to say or how...I'm not sure if my training in brash,over-the-top, insensitive sarcasm has given me the tools for this....

Judging by my observations of your social skills in the past, I would advise you bring a hockey mask and a pair of roller blades.

Rediscovering treasures of Bamiyan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7508917.stm

When the Buddhas of Bamiyan were carved out of the mountainside, the Roman Empire still held sway.

They towered over a rich valley in what is now central Afghanistan, where caravans of traders would stop and rest on the Silk Road as they transported goods between east and west.

For centuries the two huge statues stood guard over Bamiyan.

But in 2001, just months before they were forced from power, the Taleban dynamited what they considered un-Islamic representations of the human form.

Today all that remains are the recesses where they stood, and the labyrinth of fragile caves surrounding them.

Today there isn't even a paved road connecting the valley to Kabul, but yet inside the caves are a reminder of Bamiyan's past wealth and glory and a new claim to fame that could put the province back on the map.

Inside those caves the steep, narrow steps are crumbling, there are cracks in the mud tunnels carved into the mountainside, and still visible high in the echoing chambers are pieces of Buddhist iconic art which are now thought to be the oldest oil paintings in the world.

Japanese, European and American scientists restoring the cave murals dating back to around 650AD, discovered oil was used in the paint.

Yoko Taniguchi, one of the Japanese experts working on the caves, told reporters this is the earliest known use of this technique in the history of art.

She said it was previously thought the technique originated in Europe during the Renaissance, eight centuries later.

But wandering through the Buddhist temples carved out of the rock, there is little left of the murals destroyed in the last 30 years of war after surviving for centuries.

A tourist guidebook to Afghanistan written in the 1960s and 70s by Nancy Dupree, a famous traveller who dedicated much of her life to the country, gave an account of the artwork as it was then.

"The rest of the hall is elaborately decorated in a varied palette of burnt sienna, green, lapis lazuli blue, and yellow ochre depicting flowers, trees, stylised floral sprays, cornucopias and figures of kneeling worshipers," she wrote.

"A series of Buddhas dressed in sombre-hued maroon robes and framed with aureoles against an azure background walk on lotus pads set among flowers."

There's little evidence of this today apart from a few scraps of colour and detail here and there, but there are isolated caves higher up the mountain, impossible to get to without a rope, where some of the best examples still survive.

A combination of the vibration from artillery shells, the Taleban chiselling away the depictions of faces and hands, and looting put paid to most of the paintings.

But there are enough fragments left to give a hint of what it must have been like.

The views from the caves looking out over the valley are stunning and there is another twist to the story of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

A Buddhist pilgrim wrote around the time the paintings were finished in the mid seventh century of the amazing statues - but he described three.

According to his account, the third reclining Buddha was a 1,000 feet long and lay on the valley floor.

It would be remarkable if it was buried beneath the river sediment and two teams of archaeologists, one from France another from Japan, are in a race to find it.

It sounds like an Indiana Jones film, but there have been many interesting archaeological discoveries in Bamiyan and this beautiful valley may not yet have revealed all its secrets.

***

The Buddah, who reportedly `love you long time,' is known for asking GIs if they "like Boom-Boom."

I can't stand it when the "so-called" left tries to bull-shit me. What's that I hear now? Oh! If you didn't think the New Yorker Magazine cover was funny, you're the one that's stupid. Now let me get this straight. So the New Yorker, supposedly the brain trust of journalism, could not come up with anything more than- Obama is a Muslim and his wife is radical? And I'm the one that's stupid? They screwed up, but ignorance is to blame? Not their ignorance! Yours!

Give me a Dog-damn, Mother Phuccing break!

Like it or not...Encapsulating all the right-wing lies about Obama into a single image is genius.

whether you like it or not...whether you `get it or not'... regardless of whether it offends you...it is genius.

and should not be subject to censorship.

can also be helpful to you concerning your neighbors (hint: don't get involved, unless you have a leash or something)

Progressives to Confront Bad Sex-Ed Policies at 'Netroots Nation'

Ummm...Just one question...What is wrong with "bad sex" and who the hell is Ed?

i found the most grating and irritating comments from mike malloy, whom i have been a fan of for a long time but lately has been pissing me off on a bunch of issues and especially since he's been back from vacation, i tend to give him a pass because maybe back from vacation, still hasn't found his footing, or might be because we've been spoiled by having Sam Seder sub, who i think is superior, pains me a little to say this, as i love malloy, i do, but on this cartoon he has been wrong, and he had a snydish, patronizing, petulant way of addressing the callers who did not share his unabashed view that the cartoon was "brilliant"

Romney: McCain Invented the “Surge”

Talking Points Memo

They say that everything that’s old will one day be new again. And in a similar vein eventually I knew Mitt Romney would be in the news again, notwithstanding his ignominious and deeply unfortunate campaign implosion last winter.

But now in an effort to get picked as McCain’s veep, Mitt’s back on the airwaves with more vintage nonsense.

And it also dovetails nicely with the escalating cult of personality over McCain and the ‘Surge’. So here’s Mitt saying not only did McCain support the surge. He actually invented the concept. McCain "authored the philosophy" of the surge, saith the Mittman.

Free Democracy

i have been meaning to comment on the other guy who subbed for malloy, wendell or something, i think it was edna commenting on that, i heard him the first time he subbed a while back and i couldn't believe it, where did novaM pull this guy out of? He went on and on for three hours about how horrible this new law is that doesn't let you use your cell phone while driving unless you have an earpiece, which sounds perfectly reasonable to me, he was outraged and ranted on and on against this, asking people to call on this subject, jeez, WHO CARES?

Here's hoping Bgurl makes a speedy recovery!

Thinkin' about riding my Kawasaki 400LTD down to Salem tomorrow; getting pretty good at shifting.
We'll see.

Robert Scheer

McCain campaign co-chair Phil Gramm is right: We have “become a nation of whiners.” But who is whining more than the bankers that former Sen. Gramm’s financial deregulation legislation benefited? The very bankers who now expect a government bailout, such as those at UBS Investment Bank, where Gramm found lucrative employment.

As chair of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, Gramm engineered passage of legislation that effectively ended the major regulatory restraints applied to the financial industry in response to the Great Depression. The purpose of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act—co-authored by Gramm, passed in 1999 by a Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton—was to liberate the banks, stockbrokers and insurance companies from restraints imposed on their activities more than seven decades ago. It was legislation that the financial community, which contributed heavily to Gramm’s campaigns in the previous five years, desperately wanted and obviously has abused. So why now bail these institutions out?

Hows about some “tough love” for those bankers suddenly in trouble? You know, the sink-or-swim approach of “welfare reform” that Gramm and Clinton applied to poor people to end their addiction to government handouts. Or, perhaps a heavy dose of “faith-based” personal responsibility initiatives to get those knaves who messed up our entire housing market back on the straight and narrow. Sounds ridiculous I know, because nothing but the bleeding-heart, big-government, throw-money-at-the-problem approach will do when it comes to salvaging corrupt corporations.

That is the real legacy of what has been ballyhooed as the “Reagan Revolution,” which Clinton went along with, but which found its full flowering in the administration of George W. Bush. The bookends of the Bush years are the Enron debacle and the federal bailout of bankers drunk on their own greed. And no two people in this country are more responsible for enabling this sordid behavior than the power couple Phil and Wendy Gramm.

Enron, lest we forget, was their baby. Then-Sen. Gramm sponsored the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which allowed Enron’s scamming to happen. As Ken Lay, who was chair of Gramm’s election finance committee, put it quite candidly when asked for the secret of Enron’s success, “basically, we are entering or in markets that are deregulating or have recently deregulated.”............

Speech clues from grunting fish

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7510443.stm

Grunting fish have helped scientists to date the origins of speech to about 400 million years ago.

Toadfish and midshipman fish use a variety of different sounds to attract mates and scare off rivals.

Now US researchers have found that the area of a fish's brain that drives vocalization is extremely primitive.

Writing in the journal Science, they say it suggests that the ability to communicate through sound emerged very early in the evolution of vertebrates.

Andrew Bass from Cornell University, who is the lead author of the paper, said: "You'll hear frogs calling, birds singing and we hear this all the time - we are familiar with this.

"But I think it's fair to say that most people are unaware of the fact that many fish use sound for social communication."

The closely related toadfish and midshipman fish are nocturnal, living along the north-west coast of the US and Canada.

Professor Bass said: "They make different kinds of sounds in different social contexts. Just as birds will use one call to attract a mate and another call to scare a rival off, the fish do exactly the same thing."

A deep hum lures females to a male's nest; a sharp grunt is used to defend territory.

To investigate the origins of speech, the team looked at the area of the fish's brain that was responsible for controlling the pitch and duration of the calls, which is known as vocal patterning.

Professor Bass told BBC News: "We identified where this pattern generator developed in the brains of these fishes, and then we looked at where it was in frogs, birds and primates."

The team discovered that the neural networks for vocalization were all situated in the same region.

"We stood back and said: 'Oh my god, this is all in the same place'.

"It was astonishing how similar it was."

You could see that was a very ancient part of the nervous system shared by all vertebrates
Andrew Bass, Cornell University

The team compared this information with the evolutionary "family tree" for vertebrates. Because the evolution of the fish can be traced back further than that of amphibians, birds and primates, the team was able deduce when the ability to vocalize came about.

Professor Bass said: "You could see that was a very ancient part of the nervous system shared by all vertebrates.

"We came to the conclusion that it must have evolved early in time before these different groups emerged from the evolutionary family tree - around the time when bony fishes evolved about 400 million years ago."

The team is now looking at genes involved in sound production.

Professor Bass said: "Maybe then we will find even more evidence for commonality. That's an exciting prospect."

****

Professor Bass added that the fish have an affinity for GIs, which studies show they "love long time" and frequently offer "Boom-Boom"

A Generational Challenge to Repower America
By Al Gore

There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment.

The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more - if more should be required - the future of human civilization is at stake. I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously. Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse, gasoline prices are increasing dramatically, and so are electricity rates. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies and other institutions we depend upon are under growing pressure. Distinguished senior business leaders are telling us that this is just the beginning unless we find the courage to make some major changes quickly.

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans - in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/al_gores_energy_speech...

The irony is that I was going to return to Seattle during that week anyway. I left some of my belongings in storage there.

If someone wants to confront me there, cool. I'll be the muscular 6'5" guy who boos Malloy and Hartmann.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Just try and collect from me ..... Suckers ...

Washington - -- As the Bush administration proposes backstopping mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a $300 billion line of credit and Congress contemplates another economic stimulus, the question is who will bail out the government?

"People seem to think the government has money," said former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "The government doesn't have any money."

A rare consensus has developed across the political spectrum that the government's own fiscal affairs are precarious, with an astonishing $53 trillion in long-term liabilities, according to the Government Accountability Office.

To put that number in human terms, the debt has reached $455,000 per U.S. household. As that debt grows, the United States increasingly relies on foreigners, including China and Middle East oil producers, for financing.

"The factors that contributed to our mortgage-based subprime crisis exist with regard to our federal government's finances," said Walker, now head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a group established to raise alarms about the nation's budget. "The difference is that the magnitude of the federal government's financial situation is at least 25 times greater."..........

Submitted by mire on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 4:17pm.
------

Indeed Mire. Malloy has some deep rooted issues with Obama. What ever it is, it's beyond politics. One night he stop short of calling him a boy. Malloy's show has changed also. Now he rants for nearly 3 hours and takes about two calls. He use to have some very interesting callers. I don't know what's going on with him. He is 65 years old. Perhaps he isn't taking it so well.

I'll tell him for sure tonight at the showing.

I posted a picture of Sam and Nancy HERE. I haven't met any SamSederShow bloggers at Netroots so far. I hope some will show their face tonight. Everyone is so nice in Austin normally but it's really great now with so many liberals on the loose here. It's like a slice of heaven really. And don't worry about the keys. Everything is within walking distance and most people are in board shorts, tee shirts and sandals. Not Sam though. Same checkered pattern shirt in need of a good pressing as in the cam with board shorts and sandals.

Eriksson lookalike fools Mexico

An English comedian has allegedly tricked a Mexican football club into thinking he was the national team's new coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7512387.stm

The Mexican football federation has warned clubs to be on their guard after Derek Williams was given a tour of Club Universidad Nacional's stadium.

He reportedly sent the first division team falsified documents which appeared to have come from the federation.

The federation later released a statement saying that he was a double.

"At the moment the real Eriksson is in the United States. The person claiming to be him is only a lookalike. This shows a complete lack of respect," the statement said.

'Amused'

Derek Williams reportedly spoke to Universidad Nacional's coach, Ricardo Ferretti, saying that he had come to watch some of his players ahead of his first squad selection.

"To be honest I was quite amused," Mr Ferretti said. "The fake Eriksson told me that he was watching my players ahead of his next call-ups, and I believed him."

The Eriksson lookalike was given a tour around the field, accompanied by two glamorous women, and then allegedly issued a statement to unsuspecting journalists and posed for photographs.

Sven-Goran Eriksson was appointed Mexico's new coach in June after being sacked as manager of England's Manchester City club.

***

sources close to Derek Williams say the comedian say he "Loves soccer long time" and enjoys "boom-boom" with "GIs."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080717/ap_on_go_ot/salmonella_tomatoes

All this administration is good at is scaring us.

>>who boos Malloy and Hartmann.

who won't even be in the same city as the event.

(make your own boom-boom GI joke, this one is too easy)

Speech clues from Professor Bass

Submitted by edna ellen poe on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 4:35pm.
One night he stop short of calling him a boy.

People who can't detect his bigotry-- on almost all fronts that old white men have it-- are blind to the facts.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Water 'widespread' on early Mars

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7511523.stm

Water was once widespread on Mars, data from a Nasa spacecraft shows, raising the prospect that the Red Planet could have supported life.

Researchers found evidence of vast lakes, flowing rivers and deltas on early Mars, all of which were potential habitats for microbes.

They also discovered that wet conditions probably persisted for a long time on the Red Planet.

Details appear in the journals Nature and Nature Geoscience.

It wasn't this hot, boiling cauldron. It was a benign, water-rich environment for a long period of time
Jack Mustard, Brown University
One study shows that vast regions of Mars' ancient highlands, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals - which can form only in the presence of water.

Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the planet's history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars.

The data comes from the CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) instrument on the US space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

CRISM works by "reading" over 500 colours in reflected sunlight to detect particular minerals on the Martian surface - including those that formed in the presence of water.

"The big surprise from these new results is how pervasive and long-lasting Mars' water was, and how diverse the wet environments were," said Crism's chief scientist Scott Murchie, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

Cosmic bombardment

The clay minerals, known as phyllosilicates, preserve a record of the interaction of water with rocks dating back to the Noachian period of Martian history, which lasted from about 4.6 billion years ago to 3.8 billion years ago.

This was a time in which the Earth, the Moon and Mars were being pummelled by comets and asteroids.

****

Experts have long suspected life on Mars died out due to the absence of GIs needed for "Boom-Boom" and to love "long time," although they caution more study is needed.

Run time: 00:36

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vqANJCATrE

>>Water 'widespread' on early Mars

It makes me wonder if future anthropologists will be excavating alien fossils on Mars?

Tell your senator(s): I can't believe you sold out the Bill of Rights.

CREDO Action:

On July 9th, sixty-nine senators voted to gut the Bill of Rights. They voted to hand President Bush the power to spy on Americans without warrants, and to grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms who allegedly helped him break the law in the past.

No wonder the Associated Press headline following the bill's passage read, "Senate bows to Bush."

So why does a president with the lowest approval ratings since the advent of polling have the power to eviscerate the Constitution?

Because your senator(s) gave it to him. At the signing ceremony in the Rose Garden, President Bush paid "special tribute" (his words) to Democrats like Steny Hoyer, Jay Rockefeller, and Silvestre Reyes for helping to pass the bill.

We can't undo what our senators have done. But we can tell them that we can't believe they'd rather protect President Bush and his law-breaking cronies than the civil liberties of all Americans. Make your voice heard. Sign this petition today.

Petition-Please Sign-Thank You

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

another cool function of the add on to firefox 3 I added yesterday...when you hover over a link it not only gives you a tiny preview page, but you also are given the option to open it in a new tab.

Water 'widespread' on early Mars
Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 4:53pm

Life on Mars died out due to the absence of GIs needed for "Boom-Boom"..

*******

As Johnny Carson use to say,"I did not know that". ;)

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

FBI 'probes US mortgage lender'

Failed Californian mortgage lender IndyMac is reportedly being probed by US officials over suspected fraud.

Media reports say the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) inquiry involves the bank's practice of giving home loans to risky borrowers.

The FBI would not name IndyMac, but said it had widened its investigation of the US sub-prime mortgage industry to 21 firms, up from 19.

IndyMac was seized by US regulators amid fears it was running out of cash.

The bank said it did not know anything about the investigation prior to reading about it in various media reports.

"We're not in a position to confirm or deny (the investigation) because it's an uncorroborated press account," said an IndyMac spokesperson.

He added: "It shouldn't be surprising that there is an investigation because of the size of the bank failure."

Concerns about IndyMac's finances amid tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures prompted a run on the bank by panicked customers.

Concerned that it would be unable to meet all depositers' withdrawals, the bank's primary regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), seized its operations and transferred them to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which will seek a buyer.

As of 31 March, the bank had total deposits of $19bn (£9.5bn).

People with deposits of up to $100,000 each are covered by insurers.

But about 10,000 people had uninsured funds over that limit with IndyMac - worth a total $1bn at the time of closing last week.

Over the past year, the FBI and other US organisations have been increasing efforts to root out mortgage lenders involved in selling home loans to buyers on low or unpredictable incomes, and also the investment banks that packaged these loans together and sold them on.

The slump in the US housing market has resulted in billions of dollars of losses for these banks and ructions in the credit markets.

Last month, two former managers at investment bank Bear Stearns were charged with fraud related to two hedge funds which collapsed after the US sub-prime market turned sour.

***

Officials in the Bush Administration who asked not to be identified have suggested investors recoup their losses by "Standing on street corners informing passing GIs they `love them long-time' and will perform `boom-boom' for cash."

Hi 'nando. :-)

I was just reading about B.

Not good. How is she?

if they get sprayed with a hose?

(Thanks for your post. VERY interesting. (Shiver.)
My friend was foolish enough to adopt a small male dog and try to have his older small male dog accept the proposition. These dogs fought repeatedly and each time my friend had his fingers punctured when he attempted to unclench the new dog's jaw grip on the older dog. (Lesson: Don't bring in another male dog as the new dog; choose a female instead.) Never saw anything so chewed up as that guy's fingers. Too bad he didn't know the instructions you give above!)

Do you have any tips for discouraging an aggressive dog? My neighbor's dog spooks me, and I dread the possibility that their gate is left open and I come face to face with their dog when all alone.

Tribe takes on global mining firm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7511126.stm

High in the monsoon mists in eastern India there is place called Golgola where witchdoctors still make sacrifices to the gods and where the tribes believe the hills are sacred, but where they fear their way of life is under threat.

No roads lead to Golgola, only a muddy track through a lush, green valley. On either side rise the Niyamgiri hills, thick with forests - wisps of cloud wreath their slopes and a light, misty drizzle coats everything.

Then you plunge into the jungle. A slippery path snakes through bamboo thickets and under giant jackfruit and mango trees laden with ripe fruit. For two hours you have to climb what looks an impossibly steep slope. In the humid air sweat soon drenches everything.

Otherwordly

High on the hillside you pass a pile of stones next to which are several small statues, primitive figures of men and women, their arms outstretched. This is where the Dongria Kondh people pray to their gods before collecting medicinal plants in the forests.

Orissa map

Then come strange wooden structures, smeared with offerings of fruit. There is a sense of magic in the air. The place feels otherworldly. The sound of drums carries through the forest.

And finally you reach Golgola. It's a tiny hamlet in a muddy clearing, with its two lines of long, low-thatched huts, hidden in a high cleft in the hills.

As we entered the village a witchdoctor, swathed in red, was dancing, almost in a trance, swaying in slow circles from house to house. Her hair was long and unkempt, long strings of beads and shells hung heavy round her neck.

On either side she was flanked by an assistant and behind came two young men in white, bowls on their heads were piled with fruits.

Mud oozing

In front of each doorway the family of every house handed a small chicken to the witchdoctor. She held it up, reciting prayers to the gods.

Then, in one swift move the bird's head was ripped from its body, its blood mingled with an offering of rice. The drums beat. The witchdoctor danced barefoot, thick mud oozing between her toes.

Dhongria girl

In pictures: Jungle tribe fighting change

Looking on were the villagers, all Dongria Kondh people, women with multiple rings in their noses and ears, many of the men slightly tipsy from jackfruit wine.

Just 7,950 Dongria Kondh are left today.

The Dongria have lived in the Niyamgiri hills in a remote part of eastern India's Orissa state for centuries. They survive by gathering fruit, growing small crops of millet and selling jungle plants in the towns at the foot of the hills. The modern world has yet to reach Golgola - there's no electricity, no school, no television, no telephones.

"We get everything from the jungle like the fruits we take to the market. This is like our source of life for our Dongria Kondh peoples," says Jitu Jakeskia, a young Dongria Kondh activist. He's one of the few Dongria to have got a formal education, and he's now fighting to preserve his tribe's way of life.

"We are not paying any money to get these fruits, this is free, it is like paradise for us here."

The Dongria are animists. Every hill is home to its own god.

"Niyam Raja is our supreme god. His name means Lord of Law, he made all things," explains Jitu. "Niyamgiri mountain is the most important place for Dongria Kondh people, it is like Niyam Rajah's temple, that is why our people worship nature, they have to protect nature."

Mineral riches

But an arm of the mining giant Vedanta Resources, one of Britain's biggest listed companies, wants the minerals from Niyamgiri hill.

Vedanta factory
The Vedanta factory needs legal clearance to mine local bauxite

The range is rich in bauxite, from which aluminium is derived. Critics say mining the hills may cause severe environmental damage, and could disrupt the Dongria's way of life.

Sitting outside his hut, Adu made a cutting gesture across his throat when I asked him about Vedanta. "If they come I will take my axe to them," he said.

Just over the hills, Vedanta has already arrived. An Indian subsidiary Vedanta Aluminium Limited has invested $1bn in a giant alumina refinery at Lanjigarh. It's a vast sprawling site right at the foot of Niyamgiri hill. A tangle of pipes, silos and vast processing towers cover around six square kilometres (3.75 miles).

The refinery is losing money. The Orissa government promised Vedanta access to the bauxite in the hills. However mining can't begin until India's Supreme Court has given its clearance. For now Vedanta is bringing in vast quantities of the red bauxite rock by rail and truck from mines elsewhere just to keep the refinery operating way below its full capacity.

Development potential

Orissa is one of India's poorest states, but also one of the richest in natural resources, so the government is keen to tap its potential.

High on the hillside you pass a pile of stones next to which are several small statues, primitive figures of men and women, their arms outstretched. This is where the Dongria Kondh people pray to their gods before collecting medicinal plants in the forests.

Orissa map

Then come strange wooden structures, smeared with offerings of fruit. There is a sense of magic in the air. The place feels otherworldly. The sound of drums carries through the forest.

And finally you reach Golgola. It's a tiny hamlet in a muddy clearing, with its two lines of long, low-thatched huts, hidden in a high cleft in the hills.

As we entered the village a witchdoctor, swathed in red, was dancing, almost in a trance, swaying in slow circles from house to house. Her hair was long and unkempt, long strings of beads and shells hung heavy round her neck.

On either side she was flanked by an assistant and behind came two young men in white, bowls on their heads were piled with fruits.

***

Boom-boom, GI, Love you long-time, yadda, yadda, yadda...

FISA was such a minimal response to existing government domestic spying back when the 1960s and 1970s "question authority" era was met with law enforcement's REPRESSIVE response. FISA was all the Houses of Congress could drum up to address the violations against The People, but at least it had ONE TOOTH: it provided a papertrail.

But today's cowards in the House and Senate pulled that tooth.

Toothless FISA. Pathetic.

American Politics: do it for the children

Check out a 50+ name list of republicans who are into politics 'for the children'. I'd like to point out that these are only the ones that got caught & that the liberals (the other head of the two-headed beast) are just as f'd up: Here's one link with a small list. "Don't worry folks, everything is under control: the politicians just need your money & kids to keep the peace."

Insurgents

The REAL terrorists show how its done...

"I can't watch liveleak comments for more than 5 seconds without praying for nuclear holocaust." Bill Hicks 2008

Spiderman, mp3

People who can't detect his bigotry-- on almost all fronts that old white men have it-- are blind to the facts.
Submitted by M the a-c on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 4:45pm.
======

I didn't want to believe it. But it is true. A man his age grew up knowing that he was superior to certain people. It was reiterate and enforced by law. One may think they are above racism or it doesn't apply to them. But racism in America is institutionalized. So you can't escape it. Not even the enlightened mind of the Progressive. When they feel threatened, the reaction can be the same as any hardcore bigot. However, they are usually more clever with it. In my opinion, that's what the New York cover was about. It was not about satire. Someone at the top of that magazine is just a bigot.

Rules!

Yippee!

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/

McCain's Education Adviser Was Accused Of Mismanaging Money
By Andrew Tilghman - July 17, 2008, 1:06PM
Lisa Graham Keegan, one of Sen. John McCain's top education advisers, is a forceful proponent of school vouchers and other market-based education policies.

But when it comes to managing money herself, she doesn't have a great track record.

Keegan was among four education advisers the McCain camp trotted out yesterday in a conference call with reporters to explain McCain's new education policy.

Nobody on the call asked her about her stint as CEO of the Education Leaders Council, a conservative non-profit, school-reform group that she led from 2001 to 2004.

With Keegan at the helm, the group began to prosper with money from Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The ELC raked in about $23.4 million in federal money, part of which it was later accused of mismanaging. An audit report(pdf) from the Department of Education's Inspector General ultimately recommended that the group give back about $500,000 in taxpayer dollars.

A large chunk of the earmarks and federal grants the group received were for a program to help schools with technological upgrades and getting curriculum in line with Bush's No Child Left Behind law.

Money management under Keegan became a source of tension when an internal audit in 2003 found Keegan was being paid a $235,000-a-year consulting fee and one of her aides from Arizona was paid $200,000 under a similar contract, according to an April 4, 2004 report in the Arizona Republic.

At least four board members out of 18 resigned shortly after the internal audit, according to the newspaper.

The Department of Education eventually got involved and concluded that the groups books were a mess with "weak or non-existent internal controls" that led to money spent on things not legally covered by the grant....

==================

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

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday "it was not a hard decision" to withdraw Justice Department legal opinions that approved the use of harsh interrogation methods which critics say amount to torture.

Ashcroft, testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee, said he did not necessarily disagree with the conclusions of the two memos that were written in 2002 and 2003 but later rescinded. But he said the legal reasoning behind both memos was flawed and needed to be corrected.

Earlier in the day, the American Civil Liberties Union called on Ashcroft to account for actions that happened when he was at the Justice Department.

“There have been too many questions left unanswered since the American people first learned that our government has authorized and engaged in torture,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “John Ashcroft was the head of the Justice Department when the disastrous legal decisions to use torture were made. He was also present at White House NSC principals meetings, where the use of torture was authorized. The American people deserve to know what happened during those meetings and how this administration tried to undo decades of American law prohibiting torture.”

At the heart of both the 2002 and 2003 opinions was a controversial definition of torture. It said "only extreme acts" that cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure should be prohibited in the interrogations of terrorist suspects. Ashcroft, who served as attorney general from 2001 to 2005, had initially approved both memos. They were written in part at least by former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo.

"It became apparent in the further examination of those opinions, when made in another timeframe, that there were matters of concerns that were brought to my opinion," Ashcroft told lawmakers. "It was not a hard decision for me."

He added that he relied on his staff attorneys — and Yoo in particular — to give him sound legal advice.

Though the memos were later replaced with a new, narrower policy about what methods would be allowed, that did not "call into question any of the actual interrogation practices that the OLC had previously approved as legal," Ashcroft said. OLC stands for the Office of Legal Counsel, which writes the Justice Department's legal opinions for the president.

"When I was informed about concerns regarding overly broad advice, the limits of which were never tested, I directed the OLC to correct it," Ashcroft said.

Democrats peppered Ashcroft with questions about how often waterboarding was used by interrogators who were following the now-defunct legal opinions.

Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his or her cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world. Critics call it a form of torture.

Ashcroft said he was aware of three times that interrogators waterboarded terror suspects. He said he does not believe waterboarding, as it was then described by the CIA, amounted to torture.

The Bush administration maintains waterboarding was legal when it was used by CIA interrogators in 2002 and 2003 on top al-Qaida detainees Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. CIA Director Michael Hayden has said waterboarding was used, in part, because of widespread belief among U.S. intelligence officials that more catastrophic attacks were imminent.

Hayden banned waterboarding in CIA interrogations in 2006. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused to publicly discuss whether waterboarding is currently legal since it is no longer used by CIA interrogators.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Ashcroft_says_didnt_necessarily_disagree_w...

Happe Talk

thanks for the Ashcroft update. I put up the audio that I recorded up in open mic as part of the Meet Up at the Irish Pub if you are interested. I only got about 25 minutes of it recorded though.

I'm just dive bombing the blog to check in. Back with more after the keynote address and Sam's film.

US occupation forces kill another eight Afghan civilians: :

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan admitted Wednesday to killing eight civilians during an air strike against militants, as an Afghan official said nine women and a boy had died.
http://tinyurl.com/64rsc5

Happe Talk

"...sense of humor and abundant goodness. We will also remember he was lots of fun," Bush said." No, not that George.

I remember him for saying he was quitting his White House job because he and his family could not live on $168,000.
----------------
Snow, speaking after Bush at the start of the daily White House news conference, said he was leaving to earn more money. He took a big pay cut, he said, when he left his previous jobs as anchor and political analyst for Fox News.

According to The Washington Post, Snow makes $168,000 as the White House spokesman.

His family took out a loan when he started the job, "and that loan is now gone."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/31/white.house.snow/index.html
----------------

Probably the first true statement he uttered on that podium. My sympathies are elsewhere.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7506405.stm

...It's not often you see the general manager of a golf course hugging the man who's digging up the grass on his fairways and replacing it with something similar to desert gravel.

That though is exactly what Stephen Goldstein, who's in charge of the Black Mountain Golf and Country Club outside Las Vegas did, after bringing his golf cart to an abrupt stop on the way back to the club house.

Mr Goldstein is having 55 acres (22 hectares) of the grass on his course removed.

It's costing between $2m and $3m (£1m - £1.5m) to have done. It should save him more than $50,000 (£25,000) a year.

"The main reason was financial", says Mr Goldstein. "We knew that as time went on that water costs were going to increase."

"There was going to be a time when we would either be mandated to reduce our water consumption or obviously from a financial condition it would be difficult for us to water all the areas."

Water in Las Vegas is at a premium. One of the most important cities in the United States is slap-bang in the middle of one of the driest areas in the world.

How a Las Vegas golf course is cutting water consumption

The reason Mr Goldstein can afford to tear up some of his grass is because the Southern Nevada Water Authority is so keen to get people and businesses here to use less water that it's paying them $1.50 for each square foot of grass they remove....

=========================

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/629/629/7436221.stm

Speaking at a Democratic debate in April 2007, Mr Obama said he trusted women to make their own choices on abortion "in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy".

[end excerpt]

=======================================

Every time I read an Obama statement on reproductive rights, I get uneasy. Now there's this phrase "in conjunction" in there; Why must there always be other people in the process of a woman making up her mind about her reproductive future and ultimate health choices? Isn't this something she may need to or want to decide on her own?

The waters are getting muddier on this instead of clearer and that's not a good sign.

>>The waters are getting muddier on this instead of clearer and that's not a good sign.

honestly, it is exactly what one would expect during a presidential campaign at this point.

There will be plenty of time to tear down Obama after he's elected.

unless, of course, you'd rather McCain win..

I think an abortion should be done with the participation of significant others like the father(if he is present in the relationship) and the dr. who will perform it. clergy depends on the person. I don't get that he is saying she has to ask these people permission

Happe Talk

please email me at mhappenow I am at yahoo

Happe Talk

Carbon-free electricity in ten years discussed at Huffington Post...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-pelosi/al-gores-call-for-carbon_...

* Note found on the refrigerator one morning:*

My Dear Honey
You will surely understand that I have certain needs that you being 54 years old, can no longer satisfy. I am very happy with you and I value
you as a good wife. Therefore, after reading this letter, I hope that you will not wrongly interpret the fact that I will be spending
the evening with my 18 year old secretary at the Comfort Inn Hotel. Please don't be upset I shall be home before midnight. When the man came home late that night, he found the following letter on the dining room table:

My Dear Husband,
I received your letter and thank you for your honesty about my being 54 years old. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that you are also 54 years old. As you know, I am a math teacher at our
local college. I would like to inform you that while you read this, I will be at the Hotel Fiesta with Michael, one of my students, who is also the assistant tennis coach. He is young, virile, and like your secretary, is
18 years old. As a successful businessman who has an excellent knowledge of math, you will understand that we are in the same situation, although with one small difference - 18 goes into 54 a lot more times
than 54 goes into 18. Therefore, I will not be home until sometime tomorrow.

Happe Talk

And I still missed the opening event.

Reality. TV. Two more reasons to read.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
---Ray Bradbury

And I still missed the opening event.

Reality. TV. Two more reasons to read.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
---Ray Bradbury

cent
Submitted by mhappenow on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 8:44pm.
please email me at mhappenow I am at yahoo
--------
cent's efforts fail.

Later, while reviewing every detail of his attempt to send the email, cent realizes that he inadvertently addressed his missive to mhappenprettysoon@yahoo.com.

WORD!!!!fuck with me again!!!i dont work for that club!and i dont care! KILL ME!

Am I the youngest one here?

And when the rest of you die from old age, will I be the only one left? And is that going to happen sooner than I thought?

Sorry, I just saw/heard one of you on here, and the sheer ancientness of your being has really hit home with me...

Happe Talk

Wow.

Look at this! Computer etch-a-sketch!

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Is that cool or what?

I was probably doing alot more than drinking the year you were born.

Happe Talk

?

Looks more like Miro to me...fun!

Happe Talk

:-)

Imagination is more important than knowledge -

Albert Einstein

Women -- and those who stand with them -- must demand full reproductive rights. So far we have come close via the Roe and Doe cases. So far our decisions surrounding unhealthy and unwanted pregnancies are ours (up to the last trimester at least). If that's the case we've been making for about 32 years, why is he now parsing this like it's something a woman sits down with a group of people or whatever and they vote on it or something? We've won ground. The man talks about it as if we haven't. I find that unacceptable. Instead of being a feminist and advocate for women's rights and standing ground with us, he is ALREADY in compromise mode during his candidacy.

If you think my pointing this out is wrong, get over it. The people McCain represents are such money-grubbing predators they'll probably figure out a way to make money from backstreet abortions (double prison construction and occupancy to hold all the criminalized women who didn't want to complete an unwanted pregnancy perhaps?). My view is it is suicidal insanity for any woman to support McCain's anti-abortion stance.

But Obama is dangerous to our fight for reproductive rights if he wants to put compromise BEFORE holding the line at what we have now! What is Obama's problem anyway? He needs to get off his high horse on this. His reality is too limited to those tidy law library stacks. He needs to get to some clinics and see one-on-one what the human suffering is when women's choices are taken away, what it means for families who lose a breadwinner because of an unwanted pregnancy. There are still women dying of botched abortions because they can't even afford to get to a clinic. Obama's work with inner city problems is admirable, but, you tell me, DOES HE HAVE A STRONG FEMALE MENTOR IN HIS BACKGROUND OR HAVE THEY ALL BEEN MEN? Does he have a deep felt understanding of the issues from a progressive woman's point of view? I don't know, but, he is not behaving like a feminist.

statement?
Happe Talk

This is a very interesting site.

http://www.outfoxed.org/

as I got the same results with mhappenseverynowandagain@yahoo.com and mhappenseverybluemoon@yahoo.com
___
bluerootsradio

Happe Talk

Happe Talk

And it's not just because she didn't get it....

I missed you mucho, Crank! And you too MB!

I hate looking back but is there any good shit I've missed the past 30 or so threads?

This one's a hoot...

http://freedomlovingrepublicans.com/

Annette. 64..... a Junior Senior!!!

..is how responsive he'll be to the masses once elected. The Obama you see today won't be the Obama in the W.H. imho. As much as liberals want him to be principled now, it ain't gonna happen while he's in campaign mode. Just be thankful he's not John McCain. Getting him elected is 1% of our battle. The fight doesn't really start until he says:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

That's when we go to work to protect women's rights. Hell that's when we do battle to protect, reclaim and strengthen all our rights. Much as it hurts practicality trumps ideology at this juncture. My gut tells me it will be easier to sway someone who has taught Constitutional Law than someone who has made a career of making rich folks richer.

___
bluerootsradio

Happe Talk

..on the outside, I'm still 26 on the inside.

If that makes me ancient, then so be it.

___
bluerootsradio
Ya gotta be something in this complicated world.

I had no idea you were that old. You're one of the younger sounding people in here.

Do you look at videos of homes for sale online?

Sorry it took me awhile to answer - my partner got online last
night & I fell asleep waiting for her to get off the Sexy IMac.

maggiesboy: "I like the mhappen[fill in time-dependent reference] joke."

edna ellen poe: "It has racist overtones."

nora: "And it's rife with misogyny."

Bait: "You're right. We should kill maggiesboy."

Shit happened. There was some heavy shit but not so heavy that it could be used in a court of law.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.
___
bluerootsradio
I rest my case.

http://www.fictionontheweb.co.uk/scrabble.html

:P Fine, say nothing to me ya big meanie.

were younger to! I'm saying 50.

>>..on the outside, I'm still 26 on the inside.

estimates vary, but most experts agree my `inside age' somewhere between 5 and 14.

911: Hello, what's the problem?
mb: My life has been threatened!
911: You're ancient, take it like a really old man. Click.
___
bluerootsradio

mhappen sleeping alot.

maybe i'll blog more tomorrow

thanks, annette

how's b-gurl?

>>"I like the mhappen[fill in time-dependent reference] joke."

I am appalled and offended. That IS NOT PARODY!!!

why are you making Mhappenow the victim? maybe if it was clear Karl Rove made the joke...

I haven't seen you here in months! Well, I haven't been here in a while...

Missed ya babs!

A conversation with Neil Young

on Charlie Rose

what a memory for such an old man

Happe Talk

http://www.bushflash.com/14.html

>>maybe i'll blog more tomorrow

hey, you are showing up. That's all that is called for.

Remember how you thought you'd be taking a week or so off?

You were gone a couple days, tops!

good on ya!

Lara Logan on the other end of the ether. ;-)

Crank: I've hired security

Bring it on!
___
bluerootsradio

Neil Young is cool. :-)

>>what a memory for such an old man

yeah, sometimes I'm surprised when I remember what happened the previous day, too.

IN REAL LIFE not just secnd life....

Reality. TV. Two more reasons to read.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
---Ray Bradbury

and he's 58.

We'd talk alot about stuff. Politics. Music. The BS of the day... we've been friends for 8 years.

He had an alcohol problem the severity of which I didn't realize because he never drank that much around me. I'm not a drinker... He went into detox for 5 days, came out. Started going to AA twice a day and quit talking to me pretty much altogether.

I suspect it to be because we disagreed about a lot of things. Maybe I made him drink more. Who knows?

>>we've been friends for 7 years.

if he hasn't `got any' after 7 years maybe he's just given up and moved on? ;)

..which song on Tonight's the Night had the line, "He tried but he could not." ??

___
bluerootsradio

Wow that Jimmy Carter was NUTS!

Wow he really is nuts.

I met him in 2000 ---

and we're both married Bubba. Besides, he's about as short as you are. The sheer physics of such an attempt would be very difficult.

But he's very dear to me. A dear friend.

I guess I have a negative effect on people...

malloy is a bit nutso lately don't blame carter

...he prolly forgot he was your friend. Old people do that. You'll find out in 22 years. ;-)

___
bluerootsradio
What the ~!@#$%^& was I talking about and why am I writing this message? What time is HeeHaw on tonight?

"Tired Eyes"

Well he shot four men
in a cocaine deal
And he left them
lyin' in an open field
Full of old cars
with bullet holes
in the mirrors.
He tried to do his best
but he could not.

Please take my advice,
please take my advice
Please take my advice.
Open up the tired eyes,
Open up the tired eyes.

Well, it wasn't
supposed to go
down that way.
But they burned his brother,
you know,
And they left him lying
in the driveway.
They let him down with nothin'.
He tried to do his best
but he could not.

Please take my advice,
please take my advice
Please take my advice.
Open up the tired eyes,
Open up the tired eyes.

Well tell me more,
tell me more,
tell me more
I mean was he a heavy doper
or was he just a loser?
He was a friend of yours.
What do you mean,
he had bullet holes
in his mirrors?
He tried to do his best
but he could not.

Please take my advice,
please take my advice
Please take my advice.
Open up the tired eyes,
Open up the tired eyes.

Please take my advice,
please take my advice
Please take my advice.
Open up the tired eyes,
Open up the tired eyes.

Crank?
Submitted by Annette on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 9:57pm.
:P Fine, say nothing to me ya big meanie.
------
Okay. You asked for it. Here is the joke I deleted earlier.
==============
You were drinking the year I was born.
Submitted by Annette on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 9:22pm.
-----
So was your dad.

(I deleted it because it seemed too much like a mean-spirited joke. It was intended to be a fatherhood-anxiety joke. I also considered the punchline "So was your mom" which I really, really like, but it comes off really, really mean-spirited in text.)

It would not have taken so long, but...

...and I'm sure Malloy knows more about him than I'll ever know, but I still respect the man for giving his life in service to better the lives of the least among us.

___
bluerootsradio

You're OK Jimmy, even if you did lust in your heart ....

Must be a different Bill Hicks..
Bill Hicks the Comedian passed away awhile back..

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

>>So was your dad.

So we we all... ;)

oh, god...that could be taken the wrong way.

I did not mean it the wrong way, I just meant we were all drinking.

Nothing more.

Honest.

..but I could not.

___
bluerootsradio
It was more in the way he said it than the actual words that are burned in what's left of my gray RAM.

he quit the friendship? Eight years seems to warrant a little communication. When people get sober they often have to make changes in order to stay sober...but you probably know that already, even though you are the blog baby.

Happe Talk

maybe those 2 meetings a day take up too much time?

toniD--- I was being a smart ass.. funny - like ha-ha-ha
You have to know my humor (more or less of it)

That boy is in dire need of some Happe Talk.
___
bluerootsradio
I'm just sayin'...

maggiesboy....

Submitted by maggiesboy on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 10:18pm.
...What time is HeeHaw on tonight?
------
Did you know that Minnie Pearl is the only person to have been busted on the way INTO a store by the Electronic Article Surveillance system?

..and good bloggin'.
___
bluerootsradio
The blog has good karma tonight.
I'm gettin' out before I f^ck it up
with my ancient humor. ;-)

A caveman and a troglodyte walked into a bar...

Annette's lost friend has a call to make next Tuesday night.
Submitted by maggiesboy on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 10:27pm.
That boy is in dire need of some Happe Talk.
------
He should email her at mhappenedunexpectedly@yahoo.com

Submitted by maggiesboy on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 9:45pm.
More important than what Obama seems to hold on key issues now..
..is how responsive he'll be to the masses once elected. The Obama you see today won't be the Obama in the W.H. imho. As much as liberals want him to be principled now, it ain't gonna happen while he's in campaign mode. Just be thankful he's not John McCain. Getting him elected is 1% of our battle. The fight doesn't really start until he says:

That's when we go to work to protect women's rights. Hell that's when we do battle to protect, reclaim and strengthen all our rights. Much as it hurts practicality trumps ideology at this juncture. My gut tells me it will be easier to sway someone who has taught Constitutional Law than someone who has made a career of making rich folks richer.

Everyone should understand and comprehend this
Barack's turn tward the "center" might help him gain voters
like undecided and independents. Once in the W.H. he hopefully
will encourage more libral/progressive legislation from congress
in which he would sign into law.

The simple fact that he was against this war from the begining,
makes him the most credible intelligent and thoughtful candidate
we could hope for. The world needs more brains in control, and less
of this macho dumbass bullshit.

Actually I didn't do the knocking. My friend Glenn did. He'd helped put a clay tennis court in at her place and had hit it off with Mr. Pearl. We were out drinkin' and drivin' one night in Nashville (1968) and on a dare he did it. I thought he was bullshittin' me. Boy was I wrong. Can't remember what we had to drink there but it was sans alkyhall. She lived next to Tex Ritter as I recall.
___
bluerootsradio
Really gone.
Well maybe.
Nope, really gone this time.

Submitted by Jmach1JP on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 10:35pm.
...The world needs more brains in control, and less
of this macho dumbass bullshit.
------
Okay, but the women are gonna miss us.

Sorry if this was posted already..

They are both worthless and dangerous..

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 27 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush has been a "total failure" in everything from the economy to the war to energy policy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. In an interview on CNN, the California Democrat was asked to respond to video of the president criticizing the Democratic-led Congress for heading into the final 26 days of the legislative session without having passed a single government spending bill.

Pelosi shot back in unusually personal terms.

"You know, God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject," Pelosi replied. She then tsk-tsked Bush for "challenging Congress when we are trying to sweep up after his mess over and over and over again."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino defended Bush.

Con't-for Perino's words of Non-wisdom

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

N.Pelosi said as much.

I am mad at her.

Happe Talk

Satire, complete with a unicorn.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/

Back to the Obama saying opaque, middle of the road statements thing...

Look at how the right is salivating at the prospect of twisting his words. Look at all the non-scandals and smears they've tried to snare him with...

and you really want Obama to make a statement on just about the only hot button lightning rod of a subject that will galvanize voters against him?

yeah, he could soothe the fears of a demographic that will likely vote for him anyway...but is that worth the shit-storm from the right that will surely follow any such statement?

playing it like he is, he'll likely have a net gain in low-information votes.

the other way? probably lose lots of those votes.

McCain surfs the net:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMim7sHnqH8

>>Satire, complete with a unicorn.

been there, done that. It was plugged on Oberman and Daily Show, you know...

>>White House spokeswoman Dana Perino defended Bush.

She was reported as saying of the president, "GI like boom-boom? I love you long time!"

Tex Ritter?

That was funny.

No offense taken.

But yeah, my dad was pretty much a prohibitionist. Baptist bible thumpin' preacher and all that. Liked to yell at drunks on the street about hellfire and brimstone.

FAR!

And Jesus and God both had 3 syllables and required 3 different notes to say.

(subtitled "Jackie Agrees With edna")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YiNw5AMshg&feature=user

That reminds me, my dogs ears have been bothering her. Guess I'd better go put some drops in them suckers...

GOOD stay mad at her---she does not give a flying fuck!! she wants to GET the fuck out of congress anyway!!!
SHE HAS HAD ENOUGH---only so much one person can take

Satire that does not offend someone isn't really satire at all.

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 11:09pm.
...been there, done that
-----
I had a feelin' that I was a few months behind the times.

You can watch all of the action (or at least all of our keynotes and panels) at www.netrootsnation.org, courtesy of ustream.tv.

The wonderful crew at 5 Steps Forward Media will film all Friday, Saturday and Sunday sessions happening in Exhibit Hall 4, Ballroom E, Ballroom F, Room 12, Ballroom G, and Room 12.

We'll be building and promoting a fully-searchable video archive in the weeks following the convention.

Visit www.netrootsnation.org each day to view short highlight videos (we'll be posting two each day) of the happenings.

In addition, Air America will host a live webcast of Seder's interview with former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on Friday, July 18.

A replay will also be available after the hour-long interview is completed.

----------

For more information:

http://www.netrootsnation.org/

>>I had a feelin' that I was a few months behind the times.

When you asked if the Colbert Report did `that thing with their graphics' everynight, I gnu you weren't a regular watcher.

which puzzles me, slightly...

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas, headquarters of America's oil industry, is about to stake a fortune on wind power.

In what experts say is the biggest investment in the clean and renewable energy in U.S. history, utility officials in the Lone Star State gave preliminary approval Thursday to a $4.9 billion plan to build new transmission lines to carry wind-generated electricity from gusty West Texas to urban areas like Dallas.

"People think about oil wells and football in Texas, but in 10 years they'll look back and say this was a brilliant thing to do," said Patrick Woodson, vice president of E.On Climate & Renewables North America, which has about 1,200 megawatts of wind projects already in use or on the drawing board in Texas.

Texas is already the national leader in wind power, generating about 5,000 megawatts. But wind-energy advocates say the lack of transmission lines has kept a lot of that power from being put to use and has hindered the building of more turbines.

Supporters say Thursday's 2-1 vote by the Texas Public Utility Commission is critical to getting that energy to more people.

"We will add more wind than the 14 states following Texas combined," said PUC Commissioner Paul Hudson. "I think that's a very extraordinary achievement. Some think we haven't gone far enough, some think we've pushed too far."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/17/new-texas-wind-power-proj_n_113...

Happe Talk

PLEASE--LET HER BE
PER-LEAZE!!

who would want her?!!! all the surgery and shit! stiff face pelosi has and all---old too sheet!
we need some young blood not old!!

PLEASE

Six Questions for Jane Mayer, Author of The Dark Side

By Scott Horton

----------

Summary:

In a series of gripping articles, Jane Mayer has chronicled the Bush Administration’s grim and furtive dealings with torture and has exposed both the individuals within the administration who "made it happen" (a group that starts with Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington), the team of psychologists who put together the palette of techniques, and the Fox television program "24," which was developed to help sell it to the American public.

In a new book, The Dark Side, Mayer puts together the major conclusions from her articles and fills in a number of important gaps.

Most significantly, we learn the details on the torture techniques and the drama behind the fierce and lingering struggle within the administration over torture, and we learn that many within the administration recognized the potential criminal accountability they faced over these torture tactics and moved frantically to protect themselves from possible future prosecution.

I put six questions to Jane Mayer on the subject of her book, The Dark Side.

-----------

Link:

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/07/hbc-90003234

http://www.latvianpropertyforsale.com/HPS/wed/wed2/wed2.html

Just can't stay up late anymore.

Night guys.

i dont think that was her intent from the get go congress made her one and she was very innocent and just played along with them i know i know what an ass hole but that is all she is anyway

Are any of the posters currently online actually residents of California?

If not, I wish the anti-Pelosi diatribe would cease.

NONE OF US CAN VOTE FOR HER ANYWAY!!!!!!

The game Pelosi has to play. No need to get nasty and personal.

Oops, forgot where I was.

than just a state rep....she has a tremendous amount of power which actually holds our democracy in the balance. Not allowing impeachment destroys the most important check on unbridled presidential power and the future of further abuses...but you already know that.

Happe Talk

games that is all it was, playing! guess she did not realize she would run up against a road block called congress, and the people
please forgive her ignorance

>>but you already know that.

yes. and since I can't vote for or against her, I really have no influance whether she's in congress or not.

but you already know that.

one of the frustrations of politics chubbs...but you already know that too

Happe Talk

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 11:17pm.
Satire that does not offend someone isn't really satire at all.
---------
In the late Eighties (I think...I'm doin' this from memory...flyin' by the seat of the pants), the Governor of New Mexico (or Arizona?) made a comment about picaninnies.

[[picaninny: n. - (offensive) a Black child.]]

It didn't go well for him. The Governor might have been ousted...my memory is hazy on how it all played out.

Meanwhile I was living on an island in the Caribbean where "picnee" is everyday lingo for any child. The local newspaper ran an article attempting to explain why picaninny is an offensive term when spoken by a white Governor in the U.S.

Many of us found the cultural difference between taboo and not-a-taboo pretty funny.

First West Indian: "De U.S. Guv-NAH say bad t'ing."
Second West Indian: "Wha' he say?"
First West Indian: "He say 'picnee.'"
Second West Indian: "Picnee no ba' t'ing. I gaht t'ree."
First West Indian: "Picnee bad t'ing feh white Guv-NAH."
Second West Indian: "He no like picnee?"
First West Indian: "He like white picnee."
Second West Indian: "'Course he like white picnee. He white!"

...and so it goes.

yes you can, vote for change

Senators Murray and Clinton Call On HHS To Stop Plans To Obstruct Family Planning Services

News Release:

U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) today [Wednesday] called on the Secretary of Health and Human Services to stop misguided plans to put in place new obstacles for women accessing family planning services.

This proposed rule change is a poorly-veiled attempt to roll-back women's health care options before the current Administration leaves office.

In a letter to Secretary Michael Leavitt, Senators Clinton and Murray underscored that new planned regulations will increase barriers to obtaining health care services, while weakening health care providers’ ability to obtain funding and provide services.

“It is outrageous that the Bush administration is once again putting ideology over women’s health. Instead of undercutting access to contraception and family planning services, the Bush Administration should put prevention first,” said Senator Clinton.

"On the first day of his administration, the President reinstated the Mexico City global gag clause, a harsh, anti-family planning policy that hurt the world's poorest women and children. Now, on his way out the door it appears that he is trying to limit women's health care options here at home," Murray said.

"This misguided attempt to restrict health care services and limit access to contraceptives defeats our common goal of reducing the number of abortions in this country."

Senators Murray and Clinton have worked tirelessly to stop efforts by the Bush Administration to put in place ideological barriers to contraception.

Senators Murray and Clinton successfully led the fight to secure an administration decision on the over-the-counter sale of Plan B emergency contraception after more than three years of Administration delay.

The text of the Senators' letter follows:

Secretary Michael O. Leavitt
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Mr. Secretary:

It has come to our attention that the Department of Health and Human Services may be preparing draft regulations that would create new obstacles for women seeking contraceptive services.

One of the most troubling aspects of the proposed rules is the overly-broad definition of "abortion." This definition would allow health-care corporations or individuals to classify many common forms of contraception – including the birth control pill, emergency contraception and IUDs – "abortions" and therefore to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it.

As a consequence, these draft regulations could disrupt state laws securing women's access to birth control. They could jeopardize federal programs like Medicaid and Title X that provide family-planning services to millions of women. They could even undermine state laws that ensure survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.

We strongly urge you to reconsider these regulations before they are released. We are extremely concerned by this proposal’s potential to affect millions of women’s reproductive health.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely yours,

Senator Patty Murray
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

--------

Link:

http://murray.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=300760

>>yes you can, vote for change

Are you FUCKING RETARDED?

I TOLD you I am not from Californian!

She isn't ON the BALLOT here!!!

jesus christ, is there anything more annoying than some unknown person standing in the corner shrieking about things I have no influence over?

CHANGE
PLEASE IF THIS IS DEMOCRACY WHATEVER THAT MEANS

in the media or in congress got in big trouble for using the word niggardly. There was a huge controversy about the appropriateness of using the word!!! I was in hysterics while yelling and screaming about the stupidity of people. Dumb dumb dumb!

Happe Talk

We can sure contribute to Cindy Sheehan
so we can get rid of weak ass Pelosi..

www.cindyforcongress.org/

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

woop! now we are understanding each other, YUP!

pretty much the `controversy' on `the View'this morning about using the N-word...I heard about the contreversy on Countdown.

pity not every one can be you, aint no 2 people alike though so i understand

same as the old shrieker

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

You want change? Do something to deal with that punk. Pelosi did not want him.

She may have shortcomings but the picture might be a little bigger than single issues and there is a lot that needs to be done to get to margins that might even begin to enable progress toward any real change. To begin with the previous damage will need to be undone.

i second that emotion

nig·gard
(ngrd)
n.
A stingy, grasping person; a miser.
adj.
Stingy; miserly.

Happe Talk

Charlie Rose
On now in Chicago
wycc UHF-TV-20

>>using the word niggardly.

yes. I remember that. The word means `cheap'...

the thing about the View's `controversy' was the blacks on the show were insisting that whites can never say the word...When a white person says nigger, it means one thing and one thing only. It is horribly insulting and ALWAYS is meant to apply to ALL Blacks...It absolutely cannot mean a subset of blacks with undesirable traits like lying stealing, etc...

But a black person is free to say nigger any time they want because it can mean just about anything when they say it.

yeah? in her eyes no damage has been done, she feels damage has been done to her. guess we all have feelings regadless huh?

When a person is 'against war' they don't continue to give that war money? No?

and felt sympathy for both sides..Poor Elizabeth has that republican sort of retarded black and white kind of thinking about things.

Happe Talk

someone teaches me how to fuck someone teaches how to fucking live
NOT!

and Thom..all the other ones work though....hmmmm must be a conspiracy...Cheney is taking over the world....!!!!!!

Happe Talk

Submitted by mhappenow on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 12:02am.
...I was in hysterics while yelling and screaming about the stupidity of people.
------
A limited vocabulary is a dangerous thing...even worse than a man with prostrate problems.

when a snake is corn'd what do you think it will do?

...

that is what i read the other day here

Works for me..
I can't stand either one..
Just responding to Pelosi's name coming up..
Is that permissible ? ;)

Brb..

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

and if you think the n-word is confusing...try the word `Jew'...I tend to avoid using it in favor of Jewish. I had a friend a few years ago who insisted it was a racial slur. Since he was jewish, I took him at his word, despite hearing it from Jon Daily and other notable Jewish people.

Hell, there's a jewish wing of my family and they seem alright with the word...

In the final analysis, it is how the word is meant which is offensive. and it isn't always cut and dried.

BTW: I've never heard the the word nigger used more than by blacks in the joint. I suspect they did it to bug whitey sometimes...

I swear, I honestly heard the sentence, "Nigger, don't nigger this nigger, nigger" and "That nigger is a nigger, nigger."

whatever those were supposed to mean.

Like Carlin's 7 words you can never say on television, that word loses all meaning when used too much.

>>sort of retarded black and white kind of thinking

Oh!

So you're saying all black people are retards, are you?

(of course you aren't, I just had to `go there')

good!! i am glad you said so!! LET IT GO THAN! NICKER!

mhappenow,

As you certainly know, the key to understanding the weird pronunciations and spellings of words (including homophones) in the English language is to take a peek at the etymology.
-----
niggard: [Middle English nigard, perhaps from nig, stingy person, of Scandinavian origin.]

nigger: [Alteration of dialectal neger, black person, from French nègre, from Spanish negro. See Negro.]
-----
One could say that the two words are worlds apart.

>>when a snake is corn'd what do you think it will do?

eat the corn?

I don't know, I never corned a snake. I didn't even know snakes liked corn, do they wiggle up the corn stalk to get the ears of corn?

or is it more like corned beef? like a corned snake sandwich? or corned snake and cabbage? (that'd be good for Saint Paddy's day)

Going nowhere. You can displace her as Speaker if you wish. Who takes her place? Please don't say Kucinich. She will stay in her House seat no matter. Hoyer's seat may be subject to challenge in two years. Too late for now. I would think he could be moved out as Whip after Novemeber. You can go after Feinstein in 5 years if you wish if she has not decided to move on.

Say hello to Senator Arnie if he has not already unseated Boxer.

!
try Nigga, Nigga

mmpphh!

thats you fucking problem right there!

LET ME BE!
am tired of your fucking mind games, UNLESS we are playing i dont want to play no more

>>try Nigga, Nigga

I really don't see it as a different word, considering that many blacks routinely drop the last consonants off of words.

sort of like French, I guess.

>>From French nègre, from Spanish negro. See Negro.

don't talk down to me!

don't call me `negro'.

Call me `whigger' ;)

short of that, use `whegro'.

Someone should lead Rachel Maddow into a private room and tell her in no uncertain terms: "Look, shit or get off the pot. Your show is a train wreck now with the simulcast. Make the jump to MSNBC or return to radio. Make the choice. Now."

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

>>tell her in no uncertain terms:

seems like that's the only bad move regarding personell that AAR hasn't made.

Don't you think Rachel would be wiser to make the leap after she's got an job offer?

Charlie Rose
in Chicago now on
wttw-tv-11
if you missed it last hour

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/arts/television/17madd.html?_r=2&partn...

The job is hers. The ball is in Air America's court. It can come to mutual terms to cut her contract.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Hey,you people-

Full On Fucked
UCB Theater LA
10 pm
5919 Franklin Ave.
Hollywood CA 90028
(323) 908-8702
http://losangeles.ucbtheatre.com/

Thanks for cheering me up,Zeek.. ;)

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

Last Call
new
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 1:10am.

The irony is I can't watch it because I bought a ticket to see Janeane that night.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

“At some point, I don’t know when, she should have a show,” said Phil Griffin, hours before he was promoted on Wednesday to president of MSNBC. “She’s on the short list. It’s a very short list. She’s at the top.”

maybe they didn't teach you reading comprehension at "the Harvard of the Midwest", but to me this paragraph means she is highly likely to be offered a job, but has not been offered one yet.

Let's see... the next TV seasons starts in September or October...maybe THAT would be the time to start a new show.

Other than that, I agree her AAR show suffers from the current arrangement.

OTOH, AAR gets free plugs every time Maddow's introduced on MSNBC and AAR gets to try out other talent if and when she's gone.

Marc and Janeane: competitors for life

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

You're a moron, dude. The only reason why she hasn't made the jump is because she is on a contract with Air America and its executives don't want to let her go at the moment. MSNBC probably has offered a job to her behind the scenes, and she almost certainly doesn't want to work on radio anymore. It's a state of limbo at her show. Everyone knows it except you, I guess.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Ecological biologist David Blume will discuss how the petroleum industry has suppressed the development of alcohol based fuels..

Plus in the first hour:
An update on alien implants..Kurl.. :)

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

So...Your Valued Opinion is: AAR should call Rachel into the office and Force her to do what they don't want her to do...interesting.

Huh...this part of logic wasn't covered in my community college logic course. I knew I should have gone to "the Harvard of the Midwest".

Is this worth staying up for?

AAR won't hold Rachel back. They ain't no Bums.

So...Your Valued Opinion is:
new
Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 1:27am.

I didn't write that they didn't want to do it. I think that there is obvious uncertainty and disorganization in AAR. I'm saying that they should muster the guts to be decisive.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

or just Janeane's bad luck?

More important than what Obama seems to hold on key issues now..
Submitted by maggiesboy on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 9:45pm.
The fight doesn't really start until he says:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

That's when we go to work to protect women's rights.

___________________________

With all due respect, I disagree.

I go to "work" to protect women's rights every day.

It is not optional. It is not on the "to do" list for later.

It will not depend on any candidate running for any office.

Now I do plan to vote for Obama. However, I know many people are working to pressure Obama to select a pro-choice VP before he takes any oath of office (i.e., assuming that he wins the election).

Generally, Obama has a record of supporting legislation that protects the rights of women.

Along with others, I also believe that Obama's record and statements can help more progressive candidates at the state and local levels.

>>I'm saying that they should muster the guts to be decisive.

ok, I'd agree w/that, but is it likely to happen?

I think you'd agree the timing would be wrong for MSNBC. they have seasonal contracts to think of.

What time slot could they give her right now?

probably the 9PM EST slot that is currently filled by the `Lockup' series.

perhaps you'd agree that slot is not really all that great.

I don't think they'd get rid of `Verdict with Dan Abrams'. it's discussions are nearly as good as countdown.

So which school is the real 'Harvard of the Midwest'?

It's become almost a tradition for some columnists at major newspapers to publish their Christmas wish lists after Thanksgiving. Case in point: St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan. On Nov. 27, he penned a column sharing his Christmas wish list for various public figures and institutions at the state and national level. Overall, the list was fairly intuitive. President George W. Bush could use "a way out of the civil war in Iraq." Missouri Governor Matt Blunt could use "a federal solution to the problem of poor people and health care" for his state. And then there was Washington University. McClellan remarked that Washington University could use "some of the research money that Amendment 2 was supposed to bring." However, something interesting also happened. He casually referred to Wash. U. as the "Harvard of the Midwest."

Now whether you like the nickname or not, the "Harvard of the Midwest" label has stuck with Wash. U. since it first grew beyond a regional university. But like any nickname, the "Harvard of the Midwest" label has probably been used before by other schools. So the only question to ask now is how many other schools refer to themselves as the "Harvard of the Midwest." The answer? Dozens. Beloit College alumni Brian Gallagher once wrote that "by some curious convergence of geography and attitude, just about every college in Missouri is self-billed as the "Harvard of the Midwest." He really wasn't kidding. Schools across Missouri, as well as schools such as the University of Kansas and the University of Michigan, have taken up the nickname as well. So it might be beneficial to look at a few of the more obscure schools that have used the "Harvard of the Midwest" title.

Truman State University

If you happen to travel up to the northeastern corner of Missouri, you'll eventually come across the town of Kirksville. On the surface, it appears to be merely one of many sleepy small towns that dot the rural Missouri landscape. But ask any resident what the town has to offer and you'll find out that it has two treasured landmarks: a Civil War battlefield and Truman State University, a.k.a. the "Harvard of the Midwest." Truman State was formerly known as Northeast Missouri State University until 1996 when it petitioned for a name change to reflect its growing regional reputation. At that time, the school also began informally referring to itself as the "Harvard of the Midwest." But what made this nickname stick is that the U.S. News & World Report also began ranking this medium-sized school as the number one public university in the Midwest. It has done so for the past decade now. Yet due to the growing usage of the label at other schools, the "Princeton of the Prairie" nickname is now becoming more popular with students.

Eastern Illinois University

This medium-sized school in Charleston, Ill. began marketing itself as the "Harvard of the Midwest" after an Illinois state senator described it as such during a formal campus visit. Afterwards, Eastern Illinois University began officially referring to itself as such and even recently made reference to it on its school Web site. Last year, the student newspaper ran an editorial asking the university administration to stop using the nickname because "it proved that colleges pretty much will say whatever they want to further publicize the school itself."

Medical University of Ohio

This is actually a medical school located in Toledo, Ohio, but that hasn't stopped it from using the nickname. The "Harvard of the Midwest" tradition was actually crafted by the school's first president, Dr. Glidden L. Brooks, in the 1960s. During the initial wave of expansion, Brooks made it clear that he wanted the new school to become one of the best in the nation and eventually the "Harvard of the Midwest." One faculty member even went so far as to say that "someday in the future Harvard will be striving to become the Medical University of Ohio of the East." While the school doesn't campaign on the title anymore, you'll still hear it from time to time.

Nathan is a junior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum editor. He can be reached via e-mail at forum@studlife.com.

>>It is not optional. It is not on the "to do" list for later.

so you are in favor of strapping the biggest lighting rod available onto Obama ASAP.

Great.

but I don't see how bringing it up before Obama is in office helps anyone but McCain.

eya T,

Bgurl feeling better after nearly three hours of transfusions with heavy duty antibiotics.

just got her back home. back tomorrow at early o'clock.

night gang, eyes flinking up too much to read.

love y'all.

Keep in mind...Obama is a poker player.

And good poker players NEVER show their cards unless they have to.

nite Jim.

best wishes to you all.

give a call when you have time, eh?

I love the Daily's show Dobbs-meter.

Dobb's head blew up like a pinata

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 1:41am.

Look, the bottom line is "is AAR Rachel Maddow's/MSNBC's bitch?"

She is a good host, and I like MSNBC. But have you noticed how much of this "conversation" has involved discussing what is good for MSNBC and Maddow?
Her show blows now, and AAR has frankly conformed too much to her desires already. "Does the tiny bit of publicity that she provides for AAR compensate for the fact that her show is now horrible?" No.
She does either recorded segments or has Bender (who is a good host, but..) sub for her when she isn't competing for five minutes of airtime on a shitty MSNBC show. It's time for AAR to get real.

^ and that... "my friends"... is how you build an outstanding argument.

-your humble M the a-c

I'm out.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

>>Dobb's head blew up like a pinata

Spoiler Alert!!!

don't eead my last post if you don't want to know how that Daily Show sketch ends!

;)

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

>>"Does the tiny bit of publicity that she provides for AAR compensate for the fact that her show is now horrible?" No.

yeah, but you think most of `progressive radio' sucks anyway.

Maddow, Hartman, Malloy...I really don't know your opinion of other shows, but I can only think of one you might approve of: Sam's, and it doesn't currently exist.

so, maybe Your Valued Opinion might be in question here.

Personally I do not see any big emergency. I'd wait it out until the beginning of the next tv season.

>>a shitty MSNBC show

^that is how you sabotage your own argument and credibility...

You are refering to Countdown w/Keith Oberman, right?

:)

>>It is not optional. It is

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 1:51am.
>>It is not optional. It is not on the "to do" list for later.

so you are in favor of strapping the biggest lighting rod available onto Obama ASAP.

Great.

____________________

I don't think that I said anything about lightning rods being strapped to anyone.

What "lightning rod" are you talking about in your statement?

Women's rights?

For clarification, women's rights are not synonymous with abortion.

For the record, I question whether maggiesboy really meant what he wrote in that post.

However, we both agree that Obama is a much better candidate than McCain.

p.s. I also am willing to give maggiesboy the benefit of the doubt.

This is a little ways up on the blog.. but I have gotten into the middle of a dog fight.
It ain't NO fun. I had a dog that had some issues (she was very sick) she would attack
my other dog, who was sweet as could be. I ended making the decision to put my one dog
down. It took me a year to make that horrible decision & to this day still feel guilt over it.
It progressed in time (the attacks) so it wasn't just a one time thing.
Sunshine Jim give my best to Bgurl & to take care.
How is everything otherwise??? I hope great! :) Love to you both - Me

Sam if you read this - will you bring copies of Bad Situationist I can buy?

both your dogs had 2 sides to them, they both could be sweet and mean, did it occur to you that the one you killed could have been fighting due to provocation?
shame coz that dog was as healthy as hell and if well trained could have turned out to be your grey hound

Bgurl says to say

"Oh my gosh! Really? From the Bloggie? Thank you!"

-----------

i invented a way to make her ice pack last for six hours instead of the usual two last night...!!!

-----------

Coffee.

i need coffee...

i'm up to drive her to another session of 'Flush & Rush' at the hospital