Your wish is my command. Should sam post pics of the interior of his colon from his colonoscopy?

!

but there are just some things about you I'd prefer remain a mystery. Your health is all that matters. I hope all is well and regardless of the results I'm there for ya as we all are.

you need the content Sam. Hopefully they will find the cure for what ever you have. Some doctor, somewhere, maybe....

how serious do you think it is?

Is Sam gonna die?

blago 'prosecution'? cui bono? are they going to maneuver the senate appointment to a republican?

i've been telling you guys, he punted on the plame investigation. scooter was a 'cut-out' - that prosecution and conviction gave him cover to drop the investigation of cheney.

what the hell is up with this blagojevich investigation? they've got him on tape fer chrissakes!

keep breathing.

Did the Dr. ever crawl out of your colon or is that later on?

Scott Turow providing his legal perspective on why Fitz went the way he did on Rachel right now...

that's the upside of a colonoscopy - they can see what needs doing, and do it.

In my case, they found some benign stuff last year - all it means is that i'm on a two year schedule instead of a 5 year schedule.

That means next spring, for me. I'm hoping we'll have a single-payer system before I need anything serious done.

schedule? What schedule? There's a schedule?

I was watching Turow's remarks when I wrote that... I get the point that Fitzgerald's not 'stalling' - I'm just concerned, is all.

Nobody's talking about why Fitz punted the Cheney investigation.

was to protect the witnesses rctowns.

after the initial colonoscopy, they should be followed up with another every 5 years or so... if they 'find something' benign, the followup moves up to 2 years.

I'm thanking the gods that i didn't have my procedure in Las Vegas - the colonoscopy clinic there was closed after infecting dozens (possibly hundreds) of patients with Hep-C around the time i had my procedure.

my Grandmother went to the hospital twice in her life that I know of. Both times she was older than 80. My other grandmother was similar but she passed away young at 56 with hypertension like me. I just go to the doctor to have him check my blood pressure right now. I'll be crapping blood before I let them do that to me. My Doctor tells me if I feel that way that I should wait for a new procedure that's coming. Supposedly, it's ultrasonic and works like the device that pregnant women use. Unfortunately if they suspect something they will have to go "in". I'll decide at that time how bad I want to live.

..."all up in yo' biznuss"

i'm 58, and i'd been waiting for the new, non-invasive procedure to pass the FDA testing... not holding my breath, as corrupt as that agency has become; i think the new procedure may get fast-tracked with the new administration.

fast/functional MRI technology is really coming online quickly - it's the interpretative skills of the radiologists that takes time to develop.

the technicians were ordered to re-use sigmoidoscopes and injectables without sterilization, in the interests of increasing 'turnover' time...

we need to get the profit-motive out of the commons.

grew his colon tumors on the wrong side of his colon.

I mean just look at that head. Doesn't it look like a huge polyp?

we're trying to stay clinical, here... :)

who is anyone.....
I hope Sam is feeling better...

Fernando - nice photo of the insides of an asshole - LOL

a polyp on the colon politic...

Tuesday, December 16, 2008; 6:19 PM

Microsoft will issue an emergency security patch Wednesday for all versions of Internet Explorer. The patch is considered a critical fix for the security flaw currently plaguing the IE browser. So far, more than 2 million computers are believed to have been infected.

An advance notification of the patch published Tuesday describes it as protection for a "remote code execution" vulnerability. The move follows Microsoft's security advisory posted last Wednesday and updated Monday explaining the vulnerability and suggesting temporary "workarounds" for protection.

The flaw can be used to let attackers steal personal data such as passwords if a user visits a compromised Web site, of which at least 10,000 are thought to already exist. Thus far, the vulnerability has been used primarily for grabbing gaming passwords for black market sales. The hole could, however, potentially also be used to steal more sensitive information such as banking passwords and other private information.

Some security analysts had gone as far as to suggest all IE users switch to a competing browser until Microsoft found a suitable fix.

Microsoft's emergency security patch will become available Wednesday at 1 p.m. EST at the Microsoft Update site as well as at the Microsoft Download Center. All users of IE5, 6, and 7 are advised to install it. A separate patch is expected to be made available for users of IE8 Beta 2. Expect to see far more detail by midday Wednesday when Microsoft officially issues its security bulletin.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/16/AR200812...

Doctors are quite stupid sometimes.

I remember that when I last had severe allergy problems I lost my voice. A doctor thought that I possibly had polyps in my throat.
I thought, "No, it's probably just THE THICK COAT OF MUCOUS THAT IS ON MY INTERNAL ORGANS AT THE MOMENT."

Sooo of course two days later I coughed up (people who are sensitive to graphic medical information should stop reading) greenish-yellowish balls of mucous that had the size and density of packaged silly putty balls. My voice returned.

Yeah... I think I was right.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Firefox tops list of 12 most vulnerable apps
Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 10:41 am

Mozilla’s flagship Firefox browser has earned the dubious title of the most vulnerable software program running on the Windows platform.

According to application whitelisting vendor Bit9, Firefox topped the list of 12 widely deployed desktop applications that suffered through critical security vulnerabilities in 2008. These flaws exposed millions of Windows users to remote code execution attacks.

The other applications on the list are all well-known and range from browsers to media players, to VOIP chat and anti-virus software programs. Here’s Bit9’s dirty dozen:

Mozilla Firefox: In 2008, Mozilla patched 10 vulnerabilities that could be used by remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via buffer overflow, malformed URI links, documents, JavaScript and third party tools.

Adobe Flash and Adobe Acrobat: Bit9 listed 14 flaws patched this year that exposed desktops of arbitrary remote code execution via buffer overflow,“input validation issues” and malformed parameters.

more.....

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2304

Recent satellite observations have revealed the largest breach yet seen in the magnetic field that protects Earth from most of the sun's violent blasts, researchers reported Tuesday.

The discovery was made last summer by Themis, a fleet of five small NASA satellites.

Scientists have long known that the Earth's magnetic field, which guards against severe space weather, is similar to a drafty old house that sometimes lets in violent eruptions of charged particles from the sun. Such a breach can cause brilliant auroras or disrupt satellite and ground communications.

Observations from Themis show the Earth's magnetic field occasionally develops two cracks, allowing solar wind - a stream of charged particles spewing from the sun at 1 million mph - to penetrate the Earth's upper atmosphere.

More here:

http://www.sacbee.com/114/story/1478858.html

Just a heads up...
new
Submitted by toniD on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 11:28pm.

I was thinking about you today and wondering where you were. Did it take awhile to get your internet connection at the new house?

(Congressional) Report: State Dept., Blackwater cooperated to neutralize (innocent Iraqis) killings

WASHINGTON — State Department officials worked closely with the private security contractor Blackwater USA to play down incidents in which company operatives killed innocent Iraqis, according to Blackwater and State Department documents obtained by a congressional committee.

When a drunken Blackwater contractor killed a bodyguard of Iraq's vice president last Christmas Eve, the State Department helped spirit the contractor out of the country within 36 hours, according to the report, released Monday by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Officials in Baghdad and Washington then dickered with Blackwater on the compensation for the family of the guard, Raheem Khalif. An unnamed official in the State Department's Diplomatic Security service complained that the $250,000 payment proposed by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was too much, because it might lead Iraqis to "try to get killed so as to set up their family financially," according to a State Department e-mail obtained by the committee.

When a Blackwater contract employee killed an Iraqi in Hillah in June 2005, the State Department asked the firm to pay $5,000 in compensation. "(W)e are all better off getting this case — and any similar cases — behind us quickly," a department official wrote.

The disclosures appear to contradict past claims by State Department officials that they aggressively investigated wrongdoing by Blackwater. The company has received $835 million in contracts to guard U.S. civilians in Iraq.

http://www.bnd.com/news/state/story/540853.html

Yes it did, I don't have anything nice to say about AT&T though.
What a bunch of morons. I had (key word) had a phone # - got a temp.
phone # because they (AT&T) screwed up the order, missed work that day,
still waiting for my forever # - now we can't even get calls. Wendy has been
hung up on I can't tell you how many times by AT&T.
I hope that you are feeling good. How has this weather been treating you??
I am going to Scottsdale, AZ. next Tuesday til New Years day.
I have been so busy with work, un-packing & getting ready for my big trip
to Egypt & Jordan. I leave on Jan. 11th.

I LOVE my new house!!!!

how have you been?

congrats! smcgee!

Lots of Ruins and Archeological sites. Take lots of photos!! And when I traveled, I kept a journal. Just a little notebook with the day's adventures and reccommendations.

You'll see alot of these:

singing asong they wrote about Alan Colmes leaving Hannity.

Corporate media says it needs to get tougher on Obama
John Aravosis (DC) · 12/16/2008 08:11:00 PM ET · Link

When did they ever once say that about Bush?
NBC Washington bureau chief Mark Whitaker said that reporters have not been aggressive enough during Obama's post-election pressers.

"Our job is to hold him to account," Whitaker said, adding that he thinks "we're going to have to get tougher."

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter followed up: "We need the Sam Donaldsons of the world."

Actually, we needed all of you two wars, an economy, and a Constitution ago.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/1208/NBCs_Whitaker_on_pre...

I uploaded some new video to Yutube. It is of a little walk I took at one of my favorite Seattle city parks. Not much narration, just some snow, trees, water and scupture.

There are 10 in all, none of the videos are longer than a minute and a half. most are about half a minute...

there are 3 up already, here's links to the other 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0Fy-pU2zRA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIYcUUCPb40
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

I will be shooting a lot of photos & a journal
sounds like a great idea. I will do that.
I think that I will ride a camel while I'm there.

heard from maggiesboy??? Has he been on the blog?

I'm making Fernando's green chili sauce recipe tonight. I'll make the enchiladas tomorrow.

it's nice and sweet! I used a couple pounds of the tomotillas, a couple jalapenos, a hand full of sorenos, a couple anaheims and some great big green pepper I can't recall the name of.

and there is a little bit of fire, too! but it is a bit of an after note. the first taste to hit the tongue is the sweet.

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

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Maggiesboy was here over the weekend. He pops in now and again.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

good luck Chubby Bubba. Add green peppers till it's hot and if you want to "keep" it refrigerated in a bottle for longer than a day just to use as a sauce add some white vinegar as a preservative.

I've seen maggiesboy a few times lately. He can't stay away from toniD.

the toughest part is my lack of a food processor. the majority of the sauce is right, but there are some solids left.

they are mainly pepper skins, tomotilla seeds and cilantro stems. I'll put it through a strainer again a time or two and mash the last bits of goodness out of it before I throw away the vegetable matter.

I'll still have about 2 quarts!
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Chunky parts shouldn't be a big problem. A molcajete is a hand cranked food processor. You should pick the leaves off cilatro. There shouldn't be any stems. And you throw the chopped up cilantro leaves in when you are ready to eat.

>>Do you know what a molcajete is?

looks a little high tech for me...

I get the `pounding things with rocks' part...

but you lost me with that funny looking rock

Do I poke the peppers and chilies with the three points on its one side?

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

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Yes Chubby. You put the bowl part on your forehead and smash them upon the wall by thrusting your head at the tomatillos. The sauce is much sweeter that way.

>>put the bowl part on your forehead and smash them upon the wall by thrusting your head at the tomatillos

couldn't be any messier than the way I'm doing it now. ;)
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

alright chubby, then pleeez, after you take a video of it, we request that you put it to a vote and include the GOD NO! option, ok?

good morning ya'all, yesterday was so busy all day i had no time to even read the blog, let alone post

off to the gym now, still dark outside but very warm, wearing my short sleeve t-shirt

to get my camera, it's just too beautiful outside, maybe Ill just go out taking pictures instead of going to the gym (always a temptation)

thick fog, blinking christmas lights on the colonial mansions' front lawns, oak trees dripping with moisture, the moon still out... i'll post them later if i get anything good

:)

see ya later

The afterlife has long been an article of religious faith. And now scientists are finally putting the idea to the test.

You are dying. Twenty seconds ago your heart and breathing stopped and your pupils became fixed and dilated. Your brain cells are in a state of panic, trying every trick they know to get hold of oxygen and glucose. An electroencephalogram (EEG) would show no electrical activity in your cortex, the thin outer layer of your brain. You have flatlined.

Con't

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

The world's biggest fraud could have been averted if the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had acted on numerous warnings about Bernard Madoff's financial impropriety years ago, the regulator's chairman admitted last night.

Christopher Cox, the chairman of the SEC, effectively admitted mea culpa over the scandal after conceding that tip-offs were repeatedly made to the investors' watchdog but never resulted in any investigation.

Mr Cox said that in less than a week of checks made into the regulator's oversight of investment businesses run by Bernard Madoff, he had found that "credible and specific allegations" had been "repeatedly" brought to the attention of the SEC but that no recommendations had ever been made to investigate the accusations.

The admission comes a week after Bernard Madoff, a 70 year old financier, admitted to his two sons that he was "finished" and that his investment firm was nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme

Con't

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

John Walsh and his wife, Reve, along their daughter, Meghan listened as the Hollywood, Fla., Police Department announce on Tuesday the conclusion of the investigation in to the death of their son, Adam, who was abducted and killed in 1981.

Ottis Toole, who died in prison of cirrhosis in 1996 at the age of 49, was declared to be the killer of little Adam Walsh.

Toole, who had confessed multiple times, then recanted, had also claimed responsability for hundreds of other murders as well.

Walsh said he has believed for years that Toole was the killer. "I believe in my heart it was Ottis Toole," he told USA TODAY. The chief "said to us, 'I'm going to look at the case. I think we owe it to you and Revé for all the things that have gone on to try and clear this case and be held accountable.' "
...

Greek protesters get creativeProtesters take over Acropolis and live television broadcast to rally more people for ongoing demonstrations

Video-

They took over a TV station with banners saying:

Stop watching TV, join us on the streets

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/dec/17/greece-tv-acropolis

REDMOND, Wash. – Microsoft Corp. is taking the unusual step of issuing an emergency fix for a security hole in its Internet Explorer software that has exposed millions of users to having their computers taken over by hackers.

The "zero-day" vulnerability, which came to light last week, allows criminals to take over victims' machines simply by steering them to infected Web sites; users don't have to download anything for their computers to get infected, which makes the flaw in Internet Explorer's programming code so dangerous. Internet Explorer is the world's most widely used Web browser.

Microsoft said it plans to ship a security update, rated "critical," for the browser on Wednesday. People with the Windows Update feature activated on their computers will get the patch automatically.

Thousands of Web sites already have been compromised by criminals looking to exploit the flaw. The bad guys have loaded malicious code onto those sites that automatically infect visitors' machines if they're using Internet Explorer and haven't employed a complicated series of workarounds that Microsoft has suggested.

Microsoft said it has seen attacks targeting the flaw only in Internet Explorer 7, the most widely used version, but has cautioned that all other current editions of the browser are vulnerable.

Con't

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

Bush: I had to kill the economy in order to save the economy
Chris in Paris · 12/17/2008 06:18:00 AM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It! · facebook

Huh? Doesn't it sound as though maybe, just maybe, those so-called "free market" principles were total nonsense in the first place? Jury-rigging a system to squash competition in favor of big business and ignoring basic oversight hardly sounds like a recipe for success. Of course, Bush has trashed every business that he's ever touched including the US economy so why start thinking now? How is it even possible to repeat the delusional "free market" pitch today? Then again, how could an incoming President round up so many unrepentant free marketers to guide the economy?
US President George W. Bush said in an interview Tuesday he was forced to sacrifice free market principles to save the economy from "collapse."

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision "to make sure the economy doesn't collapse."

Bush's comments reflect an extraordinary departure from his longtime advocacy for an unfettered free market, as his administration has orchestrated unprecedented government intervention in the face of a dire financial crisis.

"I am sorry we're having to do it," Bush said.

But Bush said government action was necessary to ease the effects of the crisis, offering perhaps his most dire assessment yet of the country's economy.

"I feel a sense of obligation to my successor to make sure there is not a, you know, a huge economic crisis. Look, we're in a crisis now. I mean, this is -- we're in a huge recession, but I don't want to make it even worse."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081216/pl_afp/financeeconomyusbush;_ylt=As...

Sauipe Coast (Brazil), Dec 17 (Prensa Latina)

Cuba has officially joined as a full-fledged member of the Rio Group, a consultative mechanism for Latin American integration, ending 50 years of isolation after it was driven out by the US from the Organisation of American States (OAS).

In an extraordinary meeting held on the sideline of first summit of the Latin American and Caribbean countries Tuesday at this seaside resort, the group announced the entry of the island country into Latin America's only consultative body aiming at regional integration, EFE reported Wednesday.

Cuban President Raul Castro, who was attending the summit, said it was necessary for Latin America and the Caribbean to gradually move from words to deeds to undo 'global colonization' and achieve solidarity.

'Latin America has the resources, the technological advances and a so far little-used scientific potential which it can turn to the process of integration,' he said.
...
Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1962, on US insistence on the grounds that its political system was 'incompatible' with the inter-American system.

"Federal regulators alleged Tuesday that an Illinois-based company bought the only two medicines approved to treat premature babies born with a potentially life-threatening congenital heart defect, and then increased prices nearly 1,300 percent.

The Federal Trade Commission said in a civil lawsuit that Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., illegally maintained a monopoly in drug treatments for the heart defect. The commission seeks to prevent Ovation from maintaining simultaneous interest in the two drugs — NeoProfen and Indocin. Also, it seeks forfeiture of all unlawfully obtained profits. The commission said Ovation purchased the rights to Indocin in August 2005 and then acquired the rights to NeoProfen five months later.

It set the price for the two medicines at about $500. Before the second acquisition, Indocin was priced at $36."
...

The US has mapped potential death traps in natural disasters like floods, earthquakes or extreme weather, with a countywise break-up.

Susan Cutter and Kevin Borden, from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, (USC-C) used nationwide data going back to 1970 to create their map.

'This work will enable research and emergency management practitioners to examine hazard deaths through a geographic lens. Using this as a tool to identify areas with higher than average hazard deaths can justify allocation of resources to these areas with the goal of reducing loss of life,' said Cutter.
...
These findings are scheduled for publication in the International Journal of Health Geographics.

It is amazing what a repeat we are going through. Too bad we cannot learn from history.

Morning all...

Did you make it to work okay the other day?

We have a snow winter wonderland this morning here. That is until later in the day when the snow starts to look grime-ee! We got about 6-8 inches yesterday and over night.

Just heard on MSNBC that two trains collided in Minnesota and some of the train cars fell into the Mississippi river.
I'm hoping no one was hurt. It just happened so they don't know yet.

...President-elect Barack Obama stuck it to you. He's chosen Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education.

Who? Duncan is most decidedly NOT an educator. He's a lawyer. But Duncan has this extraordinary qualification: He's Obama's pick-up basketball buddy from Hyde Park.
...
At the heart of the program is testing. And more testing. Testing instead of teaching. When tests go badly, the solution is to push the low-test-score kids to drop out of school. If triage isn't enough, then attack their teachers.

Here's how Duncan operates this Bush program in Chicago at Collins High in the Lawndale ghetto. Teachers there work with kids from homeless shelters from an economically devastated neighborhood. Believe it or not, the kids don't get high test scores. So Chicago fired the teachers, every one of them. Then they brought in new teachers and fired THEM too when, surprise!, test scores still didn't rise.

The reward for a teacher volunteering for a tough neighborhood is to get harassed, blamed and fired. Now THAT'S a brilliant program, Mr. Duncan. But Duncan's own failures have not gotten HIM fired. As long as his 20-foot jumpshot holds, he's Mr. Secretary.

In no other cabinet department is the lack of expertise, lack of accomplishment, lack of a degree in the field found acceptable but in Education.
...

Frenzy
When the housing market began to tank in 2005, Wall Street ran through the yellow light of caution and created even riskier investments -- and Washington had no mechanism for finding out what was going on.

By Jill Drew
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 16, 2008; A1

It was Wall Street's version of an inside joke: Take a motley collection of largely unwanted assets, repackage them into a new set of bonds, and name it after the pristine white-sand beaches of an exclusive New Jersey town where Katharine Hepburn once summered.

No one is laughing now.

The Merrill Lynch bond deal known as Mantoloking has ended up with a different punch line: proof of the frenzied, foolhardy drive for upfront fees that helped bring down the world's financial markets and trigger the largest federal bailout in history.

Wall Street firms thought they had a surefire way to profit from the booming real estate market without much risk to their companies. They engaged in a kind of financial alchemy, creating a trillion-dollar chain of securities on the back of subprime mortgages and other loans, which were sold to investors in private offerings that no government regulator scrutinized.

With these deals, known as collateralized debt obligations, the world glimpsed the raw power of unchecked financial markets operating full-throttle to the point of self-destruction. The cascading losses on CDO bonds have undermined the solvency of several large banks and obliterated the trust that is the bedrock of all functioning markets. The debacle also has called into question the competence of Wall Street, the independence of bond-rating firms, the prudence of insurers and the foresight of regulators.

Deals like Mantoloking were "the height of lunacy," says Joshua Rosner, a bond market expert who issued multiple warnings about lax lending standards during the past seven years, earning him status as an early prophet of the credit crisis.

So many of these bonds have become untouchable that they stand in the way of restoring the flow of credit that the global financial system needs to operate and that the economy needs to climb out of recession. Experts say that firm prices must be established for the bonds -- no matter how low they may go -- so the system can clear itself of these toxic assets.

Not only did no government agency or official try to stop the bond deals as they were selling, but Washington cheered this new market because it expanded homeownership -- at least until defaults started piling up.

"Wall Street and Washington acted in concert to provide an artificial sense of a safety net," said Julian Mann, a Los Angeles-based investment portfolio manager for First Pacific Advisors who looked over many CDO offerings.

Like many others, Mann faults Washington for failing to rein in the subprime market, with its many no-documentation, teaser-rate loans that extended credit to those who couldn't afford it and invited fraud. He also blames Wall Street for relying on elaborate models that predicted that default rates would be low when common sense screamed otherwise. More Here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR200812...

(As much as I was hoping not to be able to get there...)

I think our next storm comes tonight...You be really careful...I almost ate it just walking down the stairs Monday from the ice...

I just saw that three teenage girls died from carbon monoxide up in Squaw Valley...I guess they had the car heater on...

Link to picture

taken from Ahwahnee Meadow in Yosemite Valley

Photo by: Kenny Karst / DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, Inc.

http://ww4report.com/node/6528

Members of the Stop CAFTA Coalition, along with allies in Central America and the Dominican Republic, have compiled a report that describes the trends and impacts of the first three years of the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The report, titled "DR-CAFTA: Effects and Alternatives” is the third in a series of reports by the Stop CAFTA Coalition; the first was published in September 2006 and the second in September 2007.

"We believe that the results of CAFTA demonstrate the failure of 'free' trade and justify a definitive split with this model by the incoming Obama Administration," said Burke Stansbury of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), a member of the coalition. "Not only should the Democratic Congress reject pending agreements such as the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, but the party in power should take this opportunity to introduce a new trade policy based on human rights, and economic, social and environmental sustainability."

According to Elliott Jones at the Guatemala Human Rights Commission, an editor of the report, "The articles included in the report show that the negative impacts of CAFTA in these countries are not simply 'growing pains,' or the inevitable transitional problems associated with altering a country’s economic system; they are fundamental flaws in the economic theory that drives CAFTA and will likely not improve."
...

I'm always amazed by those snowy pictures. I wonder how you folks up there cope. I watched Chubby's video last night.

I didn't know that the snow stuff made dragon flies grow giant and turn to rock like that. What else does it do?

U.S. Stocks Drop on Concern Fed Running Out of Tools;

Morgan Stanley Falls U.S. stock-index futures slumped, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will retreat from a five-week high, on concern that the Federal Reserve has few tools left to combat the deepening recession.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=atEiZZa2pSiI&refer=n...

*****

Banks Show No Signs of Easing Credit in Step With Fed Taking Rates to Zero

For all their efforts to liquefy credit markets, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury show no signs of ending the 18-month freeze, as evidenced by the unprecedented gap between what banks and the U.S. government pay to borrow money.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aZBA3Luek4AY&refer=n...

No colon pix please!

But I laughed pretty hard @ the 'holy' joke, thanks = J

While the Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark interest rate from 1 per cent to a new range of zero to 0.25 per cent on Tuesday, short-term market rates have been trading at close to zero per cent in recent weeks. Driven by a flight to safety by investors and expectations of rate cuts, such conditions are creating problems in the repo market, where investors borrow Treasuries in return for short-term cash loans. - FT

I think he should only post pictures if he finds a polyp that looks like Lionel.

Just took some pictures, they'll be up in a bit.

The Secret Service has ruled that bloggers must go shoeless when attending political events. - Op Ed News

Thanks toniD!

Sorry, it was too cold to open the patio door so they were taken through the door and the screen.

this morning in the fog, dawn light, christmas lights, the trees and beautiful houses all decked up for christmas (or not), but mostly trees and fog in the ghostly light of early morning

I hope i'll have time to post them this evening

today's my last day at work for the year and I am very busy wrapping things up...

will catch up with you later; those of you dealing with snow and ice, ykes, be careful!

make sure you stay warm, you and the router :)

Can't wait to see yours this evening.

Are you going out of town for Christmas?

we got freezing drizzle for over a day. Today it's just muddy slime on everyone's car.

what happened to it?

is frozen and covered with snow.

but i have out of towners coming to my house tonight, 4 hungry mouths to feed as soon as they get here around 6pm, so this will keep me busy with pots and pans as soon as i get home; not used to cooking for people, hardly ever even cook at all for myself most nights...

but i'm really excited about it, looking forward to seeing these little guys (girls)

We are supposed to get an Ice Storm tomorrow evening.

The weather is dampening the shopping for Christmas which is further hurting the local retailers.

Looks like everything is against us this year.

So when Altria endorsed legislation that would subject tobacco products to FDA regulation - a bill sponsored in the U.S. Senate by longtime tobacco company foe Ted Kennedy - you knew there had to be a reason.

There is. Indeed, the proposed legislation might as well be dubbed the Altria Earnings Protection Act. - CNN Money

How are consumers supposed to protect themselves when their government is constantly trying to kill them?

I'm going to have nightmares.

Toni,Fernando..Sorry about all your bad weather..

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

They get cuter with every picture!

I got out of the habit of cooking for people also. But I've been baking cookies and making focaccia for the family and my neighbors. (My family loves my Focaccia).

looks like her Nona.

Sounds good,Toni..
I don't know what it is
but,send some out west to me.. ;)

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

Ohio Republicans pass bill to shorten time period for early voting

COLUMBUS -- Republicans jammed through an elections reform bill over the objections of most Democrats as the struggle over how and when to best shape Ohio elections law spilled onto the House floor.

By a near-party line vote of 54 to 42, Republicans passed the bill, which would shorten the period for early voting. Also passing largely along partisan lines by the Republican-controlled House was a bill that would use up to $200 million in rainy day funds to give bonuses to veterans who served in the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The salute to veterans passed 53-41 with the Senate expected to act quickly to pass the legislation this week. But a promised veto from Gov. Ted Strickland looms as the Democrat supports an alternative plan to pay for the bonuses through the sale of bonds.

Republicans painted the elections bill as much-needed reforms while Democrats questioned the timing with lawmakers now in the final week of the lame duck session wrapping up this year's legislative action. A pair of Democrats -- Columbus Rep. Tracy Heard and Youngstown-area Rep. Bob Hagan -- broke ranks to join.

con't

http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/12/_columbus_republicans_jammed.h...

very true, and personality too, it's amazing, kinda freaks me out sometimes, but of course a much improved copy of the original!

i suspect i might run and buy something already cooked for tonight, but i am planning to do the scones for them tomorrow, from marc's recipe

British PM says mission
to Iraq to end May 31

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the British mission in Iraq will end no later than May 31, 2009. Brown made the announcement Wednesday during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

oh mmrules you're so easy to please

focaccia is great especially if made by tonid

most people here don't know how to spell it, let alone bake it, but not our toni, she knows her stuff!

Went through this already with my best friend, a few years back.

Became way too familiar with friend's innards, thanks.

*****

2nd Wave!

Already started snowing here in Hillsboro again, small sticky flakes.

Covering the roads, and layering on top of old snow...

Wednesday, December 17 2008 @ 07:20 AM CST
Contributed by: Dead End

Spying on You

It has come to our attention through information that we've recieved that there was a person informing to the FBI about numerous individuals involved in the Wild Rose Rebellion group and University Of Iowa Anti-War Committee. He has since been outed, confronted and ousted from our community. The purpose of this statement is to warn all radical organizations and people, that we don't have personal ties with, across the country about the following person. Anything identifying or useful pertaining to him we have attempted to include.

Name: Jason Munford, also later went by Valvilis Cormaeril
Age: Late Twenties
From: Mighigan, Iowa City
Background: Claimed he served in the Air Force as a MP stationed in Japan, then became a Conscientious Objector.

Interests: Considers self a Platonist, sword fighting, philisophy, informing for FBI

Charecteristics: clean cut, dry sense of humor, known to be problematic (overly flirty and pushy) when it comes to female bodied people.

Signed,
WRR

P.S.-Don't Get Scared, Get Inspired!

http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/12.jpg

and look ma, no shoes!

i wasn't thrilled at all to have to look at mines, i certainly don't wanna look at anyone else's

Focaccia is like a Pizza bread. It's bread with a topping.

I make Tomato Basil and Onion with herbs and black olives.

Usually it's a round bread rather than a loaf, but it can be a square or oblong shaped bread also.

Coolest year since 2000 but trend still shows global warming
The last 12 months have been cooler, but 2008 is still the tenth hottest year on record - Guardian UK

...
The web bot technology apparently taps in to an area of preconscious awareness. It's here that you run into the ramifications of Dean Radin's work at the Boundary Institute and the work of the Princeton Global Consciousness Project - both of which Art has talked about on his show.
...
Do we have a theory of how it works? Sort of. It's like changes in language precede large emotional events. The larger the emotional impact of an event, the more advance notice the bots seem to give.

If you picture some pin holes in a piece of paper - and you imagine being able to look through each pinhole for a fraction of a second - with the objective of seeing the future on the other side of the paper - that's where the web bots are today.

Ever since Plato's Allegory of the Cave, people have sensed that odd things go on at the archetype level of consciousness. The web bots are an attempt to use the high data density of the internet to sample language and seek linguistic shifts that we believe may precede events. The initial results suggest that language shifts on a macro level begin to occur 45 to 90 days before society-changing events. We believe we've demonstrated, most recently with the Northeast Power Outage forecast, that changes in language do indeed precede events - on a far grander scale than Dean Radin's work first suggested - and these language changes are available by sampling routine internet traffic.

About a week or so ago there was a discussion on the blog about porn. I said that Feminist had theorized that it stems from the same intellect as racism. In fact, they proved that where you find one, you'll surely find the other. One such feminist is Susan Griffin. She is the author of the book, Silence & Pornography. It also appears in the book Racism & Sexism by Paula S. Rothenberg.

Ms Griffin writes:

We know that the sufferings women experience in a pornographic culture are different in kind and quality from the sufferings of black people in a racist society, or of Jewish people under anti-Semites. (And we know the hatred of homosexuality has again another effect on the lives of women and men outside the traditional sexual roles.) But if we look closely at the portrait which the racist draws of a man or woman of color, or that the anti-Semite draws of the Jew, or that the pornographer draws of a woman, we begin to see that these fantasized figures resemble one another. For they are the creations of one mind. This is the chauvinist mind, a mind which projects all it fears in itself onto another: a mind which defines itself by what it hates.

MMMmmmmmm I haven't had breakfast yet...

Oh for Christ's sake!
Coloncam shots don't look like anything repulsive really. Certainly not after the preparatory hazmat cleaners have scoured the place out.
Mine looked like a gleaming-clean aluminum hallway, as I recall.
You may learn something.
Don't be a baby!

Cake request for 3-year-old
Hitler namesake denied

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child's full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081217/ap_on_fe_st/odd_hitler_cake;_ylt=AnO...

This man is asking for tolerance when his daughter's middle name is Arian?

Griffin further states:

And when we turn to pornography, we discover that just as the racist is obsessed with a pornographic drama, the pornographer is obsessed with racism. In Juvenal, for example we read about the “trusty Jewess” who will “tell you dreams of any kind you please for the minutest of coins”. Hustler Magazine displays a cartoon called Chester the Molester ( part of a series depicting child molestation as humor), in which a man wearing a swastika on his arm hides behind a corner, holds a bat, and dangles a dollar bill on a wire to entice a little girl away from her parents. The child and her parents all wear yellow stars of David; each member of the family is drawn with the stereotypical hooked nose of anti-Semitic caricature. In another cartoon, a young black man dressed in a yellow polka dot shirt and eating watermelon stands outside the bars of a cage in which a monkey dressed in the same yellow shirt eats watermelon and listens to a transistor radio. A film called Slaves of Love is advertised with a portrait of two black women, naked and in chains. A white man stands over them with a whip. Nazi memorabilia, helmets, SS uniforms, photographs of atrocities of concentration camps, swords, knives, are sold as pornography along with books and films.

These links are to a series of cartoons by Hustler. Don't look it if easy to offend.

http://www.hustlingtheleft.com/gallery/hustlerhalf/index.html

http://www.hustlingtheleft.com/gallery/hustlervertical/Images/HustlerS32...

http://www.hustlingtheleft.com/gallery/hustlervertical/Images/HustlerS25...

http://www.hustlingtheleft.com/mclune.html

http://www.hustlingtheleft.com/CRAPP_E_LIB/dines.html

OPEC ready for deepest
oil cut to rescue prices

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPEC oil ministers met on Wednesday to remove a record 2 million barrels per day from oil markets in a race to balance supply with the world's rapidly crumbling demand for fuel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081217/ts_nm/us_opec;_ylt=ArU6bpFmMwPgiepZc...

this one is made with "black" wheat

http://ilmondodiluvi.blogspot.com/2008/10/focaccia-rustica.html

i was disappointed by the color of the walls, i expected to see some pink, given that ther's blood vessels, instead grey and dark brown was the prevalent hue, not really gross but not attractive, even after all the cleansing

The question should by now occur—does society actually need the capitalist class to determine what is produced and how? Is a better way possible?
...

Dear Archbishop George Niederauer:

On Dec. 3, in the face of a national outcry against the passage of Proposition 8, you defended the role you played in its passage, which included giving a video interview to the pandering Web site marriagematterstokids.com, in which you intoned that "the successful, millennia-long model of marriage is between a man and a woman.... And the introduction of another model seems to us to go against the success of that model."

But beyond just words, you directly persuaded the Mormon Church to join the fight, which that church said it would not have done absent your encouragement. As San Francisco's highest Catholic prelate, what you say and do matters, not only to the loving members of your flock whose lives you have disrupted, but to voters throughout the state. Now, adding insult to injury, you are crying "victim."

Please do not pretend that your own right to free expression is at stake because we are protesting your actions. No one denies that you have a constitutional right to speak out on issues of public policy, just as we have the right to protest your hurtful conduct.
...

"Let the term fester in your ear until you are delivered from your bigotry"

Since 8 o'clock in the morning the building of GSEE (Patision and
Alexandras) is occupied.

We declare the building a Liberated Workers' Zone.

Open Workers' Assembly at 18.00

The Building is open to all workers all day long.

--DECLARATION--

We will either determine our history ourselves or let it be determined without us

We, manual workers, employees, jobless, temporary workers, local or migrants, are not passive tv-viewers. Since the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday night we participate in the demonstrations, the clashes with the police, the occupations of the centre or the neighborhoods. Time and again we had to leave work and our daily obligations to take the streets with the students, the university students and the other proletarians in struggle.

WE DECIDED TO OCCUPY THE BUILDING OF GSEE

-To turn it into a space of free expression and a meeting point of workers.

-To disperse the media-touted myth that the workers were and are absent from the clashes, and that the rage of these days was an affair of some 500 "mask-bearers", "hooligans" or some other fairy tale, while on the tv-screens the workers were presented as victims of the clash, while the capitalist crisis in Greece and Worldwide leads to countless layoffs that the media and their managers deal as a "natural phenomenon".

-To flay and uncover the role of the trade union bureaucracy in the undermining of the insurrection -and not only there. GSEE and the entire trade union mechanism that supports it for decades and decades, undermine the struggles, bargain our labor power for crumblings, perpetuate the system of exploitation and wage slavery. The stance of GSEE last Wednesday is quite telling: GSEE cancelled the programmed strikers' demonstration, stopping short at the organization of a brief gathering in Syntagma Sq., making simultaneously sure that the people will be dispersed in a hurry from the Square, fearing that they might get infected by the virus of insurrection.

-To open up this space for the first time -as a continuation of the social opening created by the insurrection itself-, a space that has been built by our contributions, a space from which we were excluded. For all these years we trusted our fate on saviours of every kind, and we end up losing our dignity. As workers we have to start assuming our responsibilities, and to stop assigning our hopes to wise leaders or "able" representatives.
We have to acquire a voice of our own, to meet up, to talk, to decide, and to act. Against the generalized attack we endure. The creation of collective "grassroot" resistances is the only way.

-To propagate the idea of self-organization and solidarity in working places, struggle committees and collective grassroot procedures, abolishing the bureaucrat trade unionists.

All these years we gulp the misery, the pandering, the violence in work.
We became accustomed to counting the crippled and our dead - the so-called "labor accidents". We became accustomed to ingore the migrants -our class
brothers- getting killed. We are tired living with the anxiety of securing a wage, revenue stamps, and a pension that now feels like a distant dream.

As we struggle not to abandon our life in the hands of the bosses and the trade union representatives, likewise we will not abandon no arrested insurgent in the hands of the state and the juridical mechanism.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE DETAINED
NO CHARGE TO THE ARRESTED
SELF-ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKERS
GENERAL STRIKE

WORKERS' ASSEMBLY IN THE "LIBERATED" BUILDING OF GSEE Wendesday, 17 December 2008, 18:00

General Assembly of Insurgent Workers

Lieberman Approval Hits New Low
The latest Quinnipiac poll in Connecticut finds the state's U.S. Senators get their lowest approval ratings ever: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has a 38% approval rating while Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is at a lackluster 47%.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1284.xml?ReleaseID=1243&What=&strArea=;&strTi...

Toni,Mire..Thanks..

With your pictures,I realized I have eaten focaccia before..
Great stuff.. :)

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

Norm Coleman Plans To Pay Legal Fees With Campaign Money

How does Norm Coleman plan to pay for the high-profile lawyer he hired in connection with allegations a supporter tried to funnel the senator money through his wife? With campaign funds, of course, his office tells Politico.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/coleman_wants_to_use_c...

haven't heard as much as thought I would have about this, here or in other blogs, but this Palast thing is just lame.

Actually Duncan's done a lot of interesting things here in Chicago as Chicago Public Schools director. Some have worked, others haven't, but at least he's not afraid of much and I remember cheering him on when he threatened to sue the Bush Education Dept over some funding issue under NCLB and for being supportive of the GLBT high school. Definitely a fighter and very proactive person, that's for sure. NOT a "kow tower".

My two cents is that CPS has always been a ridiculously shit system and I wouldn't wish his job on anyone, and that goes in spades when you toss in NCLB, but Duncan's managed to turn a lot around in his time here and at least get things moving in the right direction, overall, especially for the underprivileged. Imagine being in charge of 600+ schools under one blanket bureauocracy. They aren't even broken up into different districts! It is One BIG district with nearly a half a million students!

I have worked as a contractor teaching design-based computer skills to kids in various schools here in the city and most teachers and administrators speak pretty highly of Duncan. I also taught after school progs in an experimental school here on the South Side where the entire staff, admin and all, was fired and replaced with new people in 06, the first year I taught. The new staff was pretty focused despite a lot of pressure.

Here's the Chicago Public radio site that has been tracking the school's progress. Life under No Child Left Behind is no picnic.

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Series.aspx?seriesID=42

Really, that Palast article is ridiculously misleading. Diminishing Duncan as just Obama's Hyde Park neighborhood basketball buddy makes me want to stop reading Palast altogether if he's willing to avoid the much larger reality of Duncan being in charge of ALL 600 Chicago schools for the better part of ten years just to smack the Liberal hornet's nest. His previous experience in education, notwithstanding.

Also, where does Palast get "lawyer" from Duncan's resume versus "educator". Is he being facetious, or deliberately misleading?

From th AP:

NAME - Arne Duncan

AGE-BIRTHDATE_ 44; Nov. 6, 1964.

EXPERIENCE - chief executive officer, Chicago Public Schools, 2001-present; deputy chief of staff, Chicago Public Schools, 2000-2001; director of magnet schools and programs, Chicago Public Schools, 1998-2000; executive director, Ariel Education Initiative, 1992-1998; professional basketball player in Australia, 1987-1991.

EDUCATION - bachelor's degree in sociology, Harvard University, 1987.

If I remember right he also taught in Australia, as well. I remember reading that somewhere.

Palast would have been more accurate to dismiss him as un qualified as a "professional basketball player" than a lawyer, but I guess lawyer just has that aura of sleaze about it that he wanted even though he seems to have pulled it out of his ass. That is just shameless journalism. Hell, I'd recommend the boring Time article on Duncan before this Palast write-up. But the following local offerings are much better reads and have good comments by the school watchdog group PURE.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1867011,00.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/content/education/chi-obama-dunca...

http://mobile.suntimes.com/suntimes/db_9688/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid...

Sorry, Alice, nothing against your selection of this article to post, but Palast gets this cred for being a big watchdog crusader for us Liberals, but I've also noticed that he can be a nutjob alarmist with very questionable practices, like the following:

"Who? Duncan is most decidedly NOT an educator. He's a lawyer. But Duncan has this extraordinary qualification: He's Obama's pick-up basketball buddy from Hyde Park.

I can't make this up."

huh!? He most certainly did make that up!

By Matthew Yglesias, The American Prospect. Posted December 17, 2008.

Even after all this time, Bush views the Iraq War with regret not over anything he did, but rather, over something that was done to him.

It's tiresome to need to point this out at this late date but, yes, George W. Bush and his administration misled the country while making the case for war with Iraq and, remarkably, are still trying to mislead people about it. In a Dec. 1 interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson, Bush said that "the biggest regret" of his presidency was "the intelligence failure in Iraq."

In other words, his biggest regret wasn't regret over anything he did but rather regret over something that was done to him, a vague "intelligence failure" rather than a misguided decision to invade another country. Bush explained that "a lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn't just people in my administration; a lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington, D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence."

con't

http://www.alternet.org/election08/111104/bush_tries_to_whitewash_histor...

have a chance with the Senate seat. They just are not in favor in Illinois this year.

Illinois GOP Sees Real Chance Of Swiping Obama's Senate Seat
By Eric Kleefeld - December 17, 2008, 9:52AM

We usually don't give much attention to internal polls, but this one is interesting: The Illinois Republicans clearly think the Blagojevich scandal has put Barack Obama's former Senate seat at risk for the Democrats, and they're ready and eager for a special election fight.

The state GOP has released an internal poll, conducted by the Republican firm McLaughlin & Associates, saying that 66% of the state's voters favor holding a special election. The poll also includes an example of what is known as testing negatives. This practice is different from a push poll, in that the pollster is genuinely interested in collecting data to see how responsive the public would be to an attack line, in this case connecting Democrats to Blago:

If a candidate for office in Illinois supported or endorsed Rod Blagojevich's re-election for Governor in 2006 even though he was already under investigation for 3 years, would that make you more or less likely to vote for that candidate? If it would make no difference, just say so.
Not surprisingly, the "less likely" position gets a 70% response. And since any Democratic candidate will have at least nominally supported Blago in 2006, or perhaps even campaigned for him, the GOP really sees an opening here if a special election were to happen.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/illinois_gop_see...

I'm not married to my posts... ;)

16 December 2008

Gordon Brown urging Israel to stop settlement building (International, 16 December) is like asking an alcoholic to stop drinking. Israel's addiction to building settlements on expropriated land, with the aim of Palestinian transfer, is ingrained in Zionist ideology and Israel's DNA. The more peace conferences are held, the more the illegal building frenzy goes on - through Madrid, Oslo, the road map and lately Annapolis.

Since last year alone, over 8,000 homes have been or are being built over the West Bank and in the heart of annexed East Jerusalem, the intended capital of a Palestinian state, which is being intensively "Judaised". Extremist religious settlers are literally taking over Palestinian homes with impunity, in Silwan, Sheik Jarrah and Hebron, and militant religious seminaries are now moving into the heart of Arab neighbourhoods in the Israeli mixed cities of Jaffa, Acre, Lud and Ramle. Bedouin "unrecognised villages" in the Negev are being bulldozed to make way for Jewish settlements and ranches funded by the Jewish National Fund, whose UK charity is patronised by the UK prime minister.

Instead of being sanctioned to stop this abuse of international law and the Geneva convention, Israel is being rewarded by the UK, the EU and the US with closer economic, academic, trade and defence links and privileges. Drunk with so much support, how is Israel ever going to be made to live up to its claims to be a democratic state? All we hear is a hollow laugh coming from behind the apartheid wall and the seething and starving prison camps for Palestinians under siege in Gaza and the West Bank.

Abe Hayeem
Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine

http://whatreallyhappened.com/

MOSCOW — Russia is considering buying an unspecified number of remotely piloted reconnaissance aircraft from Israel, the head of the Russian military said Tuesday, in what may be an attempt by the Kremlin to strengthen its intelligence-gathering capacity after the August war with Georgia.

con't

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/world/europe/17russia.html?_r=1&emc=et...

I don't believe this! Even with Blago, the Repubs don't
Submitted by toniD on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 1:57pm.
-------

ToniD, in spite of the catastrophic, disastrous, nuclear like- policies of the Republican Party, they are still creating the political narrative.

Put Madoff In Charge of Social Security
By HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR.
WSJ

... he is a genius who should immediately be put in charge of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.

It was Mr. Madoff himself who apparently applied the word "Ponzi" to his crime, in his distraught confession to his sons. His "$50 billion" in reputed losses also appear to be little more than hearsay, his own tremulous characterization of the long-running disaster he'd wrought.

More likely, his firm devolved into a Ponzi scheme only when serious losses hit and he decided not to level with investors but to gamble on a resurrection.....

The herding automatons of the media can never encounter lawbreaking in the financial markets without concluding that it demonstrates the necessity of more laws against lawbreaking. Congress, now in the process of convincing itself it should run the auto industry, no doubt will see in Mr. Madoff proof that Congress is needed to manage rich people's money and ordinary people's too. Then we'll all be in the same position as Mr. Madoff's clients.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122947442947812429.html

Becerra Turns Down Offer To Serve In Obama White House

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) has turned down an offer to serve in the Obama Administration as the U.S. trade representative. Becerra has a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, earned through 16 years of seniority, and preferred to not give up the opportunities it presents.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/12/rep_becerra_says_wont_take...

Buddhist Studies - Buddhism/Buddhist Electronic Newsletters & Journals

http://samsedershow.com/node/4194#comment-290943

...I believe in and support public education, so this is a priority issue that would be one of the deal breakers for me. So my antenna went up when I read the article (thanks to you, Alice, for the posting) was noted for further review later when I have more time to research. Your post eases my mind until I get to it.

Record low temperature set yesterday morning

Sometime before 4 a.m., the mercury at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport dipped to 19 degrees, besting the record low of 20 degrees set for this day 44 years ago. And the cold isn't over yet.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008522970_webweather15m...

Think it was cold (yesterday)morning?

Sometime before 4 a.m., the mercury at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport dipped to 19 degrees, besting the record low of 20 degrees set for this day 44 years ago.

And the cold isn't over yet.

Our next best chance of breaking a low-temp record will come Friday — if the forecast holds true with an anticipated 16-degree low. That would be one degree colder than the record low of 17-degrees set for December 19 in 1990, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.

What's more, there's at least an 80 percent chance of snowfall between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Thankfully, the recent cold snap across the Seattle area hasn't been accompanied by high wind.

That's good news because the cold coupled with widespread power outages would create miserable conditions for a lot of people, said meteorologist Johnny Burg.

"We get cold weather but this is definitely not normal for this time of year," he said, noting that we're averaging temperatures that are 10 degrees colder than the 36-degree average temperatures typically seen in December.

Today should be mostly sunny with highs around 30 and lows down to the teens. On Tuesday expect sun, highs in the 30s and lows in the 20s with a chance of snow.

On Wednesday, the highs should be in the lower 30s..

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

"It warmed up a little bit here. the desktop weather-thingie says its 36, but I'm not so sure. there is barely any evidence of thawing out there; all I could find were the smallest trickles of roof melt-off. Not so sure about snow this afternoon...sounds like messy rain is more likely."

A Saudi man has offered $10m to buy the shoes that Iraqi journalist Muntadar Al Zaidi hurled at US President George W. Bush, according to a report carried by Al Arabiya net. Sixty-year-old Hassan Mohammad Makhafa, from Aseer, south west of Saudi Arabia, said he is ready to sell all his properties to buy Al Zaidi's shoes, which he described as a 'medal of freedom' to put them on offer at a public auction.
http://www.ameinfo.com/178915.html

And when you consider that the guy they'll be running is Mark Kirk...forget about it.

I would also argue, eep, that the Republicans aren't seeting the narrative, they just cater more to the vapid sensationalist drama that sets the overall media narrative in this country. but, then again, you're totally right if you consider the Republicans responsible for turning the media into political drama whores.

I would say, though, that I have never seen the Republicans this irrelevant...

"the Republican Party, they are still creating the political narrative."

...a caller during Thom H or Mike M show suggested that if the DEMS (as if they had a backbone) pursued Bush-Cheney and the Republican Party for all their crimes and misdeeds (Kucinich lists 35 of them) it would curtain the Rethugs energy, focus and funds and prevent them from being an obstructing force.

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism

It's Vilsack: Obama Picks Pro-GMO and Pro-Biofuels Ag Secretary

There are ample reasons to be alarmed. Here are a few.

Major news outlets are reporting that Obama will name former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as his Secretary of Agriculture. If you're at all concerned with genetically modified foods, cloned animals, and biofuels, then this appointment is likely to disappoint. In 2001 Vilsack was named Governor of the Year by the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Nichols again:

Vilsack is a capable administrator with the right partisan credentials.

But he was only at the top of the list of Agriculture secretary prospects because he is a prominent Democrat who comes from what Washington insiders know as a "farm state." As governor of Iowa, Vilsack had to engage with farm issues. But that embrace was anything but inspired. Family farm activists, fair-trade campaigners and advocates for organic foods were regularly disappointed by the stands he took. The Organic Consumers Association was blunt, declaring: "Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto."
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/113477/it%27s_vilsack%3A_obama_picks_...

(Obama is coming in to save a fascist state; not change it.)

who's third wife was found dead in a bath tub and fourth wife is still missing, is engaged to be married to his 5th wife. A 23 year old girl who is a fool!

Who'd want to marry this man with the history of 4 wives and one killed and one still missing?

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - About 20 people have protested the war in Iraq by tossing shoes at a fellow demonstrator wearing a prison uniform and mask of President George W. Bush outside the White House.

The group yelled, "This is a goodbye kiss from the people of America!" They also arranged along a curb about 120 pairs of shoes tagged with the names of Iraqis who have died as a result of the war.

Medea Benjamin, of the national peace group CODEPINK, says the protest was organized as a show of solidarity with Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi (MOON'-tuh-dahr ahl-zay-EE'-dee), who was jailed after throwing his shoes at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday.

The protesters on Tuesday delivered a letter to the Iraqi embassy calling for al-Zeidi to be released from jail.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1749512~Anti_war_activists_throw_shoes_outside...

Military Men Masquerading as Cops May Be Coming to a Town Near You
Posted by Staff, Big Bear Observation Post on December 17, 2008 at 7:11 AM.

Marine Corps Air and Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) Provost Marshal (head of a unit of military police) and the local California Highway Patrol office will begin working together 12/12 -- and through the holiday season -- in a joint effort to reduce accidents and drinking and driving. The combined mutual cooperation between the Marine Corps Military Police and State enforcement officers will begin somewhere along Highway 62. The CHP will set up DUI roadblocks with the presence of Military Police. A violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/military_men_masquerading_as_cops_may...

Ontario premier to banks: no more tax cuts, do your bit for the economy

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is rejecting a call from Canada's banks to cut corporate taxes or risk losing high-paying financial-sector jobs to other jurisdictions.

McGuinty fired back on Wednesday, saying it's no surprise that the banks are advancing their cause as being the "ultimate solution" in the face of the global economic crisis.

... He says the banks also have a role to play in stimulating the economy, such as passing on the full interest-rate cut made by the Bank of Canada to ease the credit crunch.

The Canadian Bankers Association — which represents 51 domestic and foreign banks — ... is asking the McGuinty Liberals to reduce its corporate income tax rate to 10 per cent from 14 per cent.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/12/17/mcguinty-banks.html

That was just a really bizarro thing to read, though because it seemed to focus on fairly inconsequential stuff.

I was actually amazed that he had so much in common with Obama. I mean guess I knew it, but never really focused on that stuff, Harvard, Hyde Park, basketball, etc.. I guess that's important to some, but Duncan has simply been the Chicago Public Schools CEO under Daley for almost a decade now. He's Daley's education man. He's been dealing with the woes of NCLB here in Chicago since Bush signed it into law. I think one can also probably use CPS as a microcosm for the twisted universe of NCLB under the U.S. Education Department.

Anti-war activists throw shoes outside White House

Submitted by toniD on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 3:08pm.

Blackwater should be dropped as the main private security contractor for US diplomats in Iraq, a US State Department panel has recommended.

Its report, commissioned by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, says the company's contract should not be renewed when it expires next year.

Ms Rice ordered the review after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7788641.stm

Just was looking at FAIR and there it was...

FAIR Gives Media Failing Grade on Education 'Debate' 12/16/2008 by Isabel Macdonald

Iraq troop debate ends in uproar

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Iraq's parliament speaker, has threatened to resign following house arguments concerning the presence of foreign troops and the imprisonment of a local journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush.

Furor descended on parliament on Wednesday when legislators bickered over whether Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at the US president on Sunday, should be released from jail.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/12/2008121713431177120...

(We should be throwing shoes at Pelosi, Reid, and maybe Barack, not the Whitehouse.)

Merry Merry, Happy Happy - what now?
Submitted by Fernando on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 12:47pm.
Coolest year since 2000 but trend still shows global warming
The last 12 months have been cooler, but 2008 is still the tenth hottest year on record - Guardian UK
----------------------------------------------------
I thought one up side to Global Warming would be warmer winters.

Can't deal with the cold and shoveling snow off my car ...

I really need a garage ...

Morales urges action over Cuba

Morales, far left, said Latin American leaders
should express 'solidarity' with Cuba [AFP]

Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, has said that all
Latin American nations should expel US ambassadors in their country's until the American economic embargo against Cuba is ended.

Speaking on Wednesday at the end of a two-day summit of Latin American leaders in Brazil, Morales said it would be a "radical move" to express "solidarity" with the Carribbean nation.

"If the United States does not raise the blockade, we will remove our ambassadors until the United States government lifts its economic blockade on the Cuban people," he said.

Morales expelled the US ambassador to Bolivia in September, accusing him of siding with violent opposition protests
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/12/20081217165622147627....

(SC) Justice Kennedy rejects 2 more challenges to Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has rejected two more efforts to get the court to consider whether President-elect Barack Obama is eligible to take office.

Kennedy on Wednesday denied without comment an appeal by Philip J. Berg, a Pennsylvania attorney, that claims Obama is either a citizen of Kenya or Indonesia and is ineligible to be president because he is not a "natural-born citizen" of the U.S. as required by the Constitution. Another appeal from California, based on Berg's claims, also was denied.

Individual justices and the entire court have turned down emergency appeals over Obama's eligibility at least seven times in the past six weeks.

Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to an American mother and a Kenyan father.

Reacting to Internet-fueled conspiracy theories that Obama's birth certificate is a fake, Hawaiian officials have said they examined the document and have no doubt it is authentic.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iHUQU9Oy9bW8w5a5eevJkG...

Maybe these idiots will stop with this birth certificate thing now!

Just heard on the radio that Drew Peterson, who is hoping that his wife, Stacy Peterson, will return home soon, is engaged.

Does this woman NOT listen to the news?

Drew Peterson, the ex cop from Bolingbrook, Il,
Submitted by toniD on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 3:03pm.
who's third wife was found dead in a bath tub and fourth wife is still missing, is engaged to be married to his 5th wife. A 23 year old girl who is a fool!

Who'd want to marry this man with the history of 4 wives and one killed and one still missing?

»

That is exactly the article Palast should have written if he truly is serious about the matter and more Progressive policies in education. This doesn't make Duncan a bad pick, necessarily, just not the most Progressive and there is where the debate should be happening: do you appoint someone who will work to tear the department down to the foundations and rebuild it via a big congressional battle, or do you appoint someone who knows the ins and outs of working with NCLB, including how to reform it and hopefully make it work before moving on to more progressive policies. We have to remember that NCLB is currently law and it would need to be repealed and other laws passed before anyone could do anything else.

I don't think Obama has much choice right now but to work with it.

U.S. troops confront Iraqis rallying in favor of shoe-thrower

University students rallied for Zaidi in Fallujah on Wednesday, drawing the attention of U.S. forces.

Students raised their shoes and threw rocks at American soldiers, who reportedly opened fire above the crowd. Protesters said that indirect fire wounded one student, Zaid Salih. U.S. forces haven't confirmed the account.

"We demonstrated to express our support for Muntathar al Zaidi, but we were surprised with the entrance of the U.S. military," said Ahmed Ismail, one of the protesters. "Unconsciously, we raised our shoes expressing our support for al Zaidi, but they attacked us."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/58019.html

ordered a kid computer for Iris. We got her a V-tech nitro notebook. Hope she will enjoy it. She s crazy about ours.....She is only 14 mos. but she s a brainiac like her mom and both her parents are nerds to the max.

A cute little ditty about IRis. Her dad was real upset after he got his ticket for pot and Iris was nursing. She offered her moms breast to her dad, grabbing him by the head and pushing him toward her breast. The ultimate generosity imo.

The hard part is when the car doors freeze shut and I can't open them. Don't have the strength!

Someone told me to rub petroeum jelly around the car door jam and they won't freeze shut.

a couple more from yesterday's walk

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbB_Xov6eBQ
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

(AG) Mukasey recuses himself from $50 billion (Madoff) fraud probe

The Justice Department announced this morning that Attorney General Michael Mukasey will recuse himself from the investigation into allegations that investor Bernard Madoff committed a $50 billion fraud.

Bloomberg News reports that Marc Mukasey, the A.G.'s son, is representing an employee of the firm that is accused of running a massive Ponzi scheme. "Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr declined to say whether the family connection is the reason Mukasey has removed himself from the case," Bloomberg says.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/12/mukasey-recuses.html?loc=in...

Energy efficient home, easy to maintain — and no mortgage

About 20 million Chinese still reside in caves and dirt-covered dwellings on the Loess Plateau that straddles the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River in China's northwest.

Some of the caves have been passed down for generations, with hard-packed earthen walls, electrical wiring, piped-in plumbing and other modern conveniences, including cable television.

Longtime cave dwellers are often passionate about their way of life, saying they are shielded from the elements in a practical and efficient fashion, dwelling along hillsides and leaving valuable arable land in valleys for growing crops.

Researchers say economic necessity isn't the only reason so many Chinese continue to reside in caves.

"People from abroad think people who live in caves are very poor. But our research shows that is not always the case," said Wang Jun, a researcher on caves at the Xian University of Architecture and Technology.

Many simply have grown accustomed to a lifestyle that dates back more than a millennium. Caves also have a revolutionary luster. Mao Zedong, the revolutionary founder of modern China, lived in caves that still honeycomb this region after the Long March, plotting the drive to take over the country that succeeded in 1949.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/57952.html

Sock and Awe hits back at George Bush

It was only a matter of time – the infamous George Bush shoe-throwing incident has inspired an internet game where the player throws a brown shoe at a moving target of the president.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2008/dec/17/bush-shoe-throw-game

Little Hitler's unhappy birthday

No cake for three-year-old Adolf in latest instance of parents naming and shaming their children

A three-year-old boy called Adolf Hitler Campbell has been refused a birthday cake with his name on it by a New Jersey supermarket.

Heath Campbell, 35, and his wife, Deborah, 25, say they are upset at the decision made by their local ShopRite not to write "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler" across the cake, and that people needed to move forward.

Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because "no one else in the world would have that name".

Not to be defeated, the family ended up getting their cake decorated at a Walmart in Pennsylvania.

The problem is likely to be one they face again – their younger children are JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, who is nearly two, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, named after the SS head Heinrich Himmler. Honszlynn turns one in April.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2008/dec/17/adolf-hitler-birthday-n...

President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony will feature big names like minister Rick Warren and legendary singer Aretha Franklin, the Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced Wednesday.

Warren, the prominent evangelical and founder of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, will deliver the ceremony's invocation. The minister hosted a presidential forum at his church last summer that challenged both Obama and Arizona Sen. John McCain on a host of faith-related issues. Warren did not endorse either presidential candidate.

His public support for California's Proposition 8 — the measure that successfully passed and called for outlawing gay marriage in the state — sparked the ire of many gay rights proponents, who seized on a comment in an October newsletter to his congregation: "This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/17/rick-warren-to-give-inau...

Rick Warren will bless Obama's inauguration

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen noted anti-gay Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inaugural ceremonies, according to Right Wing Watch.

Warren founded the Saddleback Church, a Christian megachurch, in Lake Forest, California. Warren was a public supporter of Proposition 8, and said in 2004 that marriage was a "non-negotiable" issue for Christian voters.

Though Warren recently said that divorce is a bigger threat to families than gay marriage (what a concession!), he did tiptoe around the issue.
http://www.southernvoice.com/blog/index.cfm?blog_id=23055

Rick Warren to Give Invocation at Obama Inauguration

Sarah Pulliam

Rick Warren, senior pastor at Saddleback Church, will give the invocation at Barack Obama’s inaugural swearing-in ceremony on January 20.
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2008/12/rick_warren_to_1.ht...

Dianne Feinstein. She is followed by the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of the massive Saddleback Church and a SoCal guy from the suburban hinterlands known as Lake Forest. And, if we remember correctly, Saddleback was the site of one of Obama's weaker moments of the campaign. But, alas, this is a nod to evangelicals. And SOOO Team of Rivals.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/category?blogid=14&cat=2146

I told Russ Bellville on air that is more likely Barack would ask Rick
Warren to give the invocation than Jeremiah Wright, and I was right.

>>Heath Campbell, 35, and his wife, Deborah, 25, say they are upset at the decision made by their local ShopRite not to write "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler" across the cake,

This guy might be some sort of racist nutjob. We just have to be aware of that possibility, how ever so slight.

I think an argument could be made that naming a kid `Adolf Hitler' is a form of child abuse.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

...

http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/blog/most-beautiful-websites-of-2008/

The Illinois Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to Gov. Rod Blagojevich's fitness to hold office.

A spokesman said Wednesday that the court rejected the challenge without comment.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan had argued Blagojevich's legal and political troubles are keeping him from performing his duties.

She had argued they amount to a disability, so Blagojevich should have his authority removed temporarily.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1336003,w-blagojevich-ill...

I didn't think this would work!

sad indeed

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Motorola, Inc. said on Wednesday that it is freezing employee pension plans and no longer matching 401(k) contributions as a result of the economic crisis.

Motorola, a manufacturer of cell phones and other communications devices based in the Chicago-area town of Schaumburg, Illinois, said it will “permanently freeze” all U.S. pension plans by March 1, 2009.

Motorola said it will continue to invest cash into its pension plan, as required. But individual pensions will not reflect any employee salary increases after March 1, effectively capping Motorola’s contributions. The company stopped admitting new members to its pension plan in January, 2005.

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/17/motorola-freezes-pension-plans

This latest tragic episode is exploding already.
I'm saving my old shoes for Barack.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/17/obama-inauguration-rick-w_n_151...

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/12/rick_warren_to_give...

Obama appoints Ray LaHood (R-IL) as Transportation Sec.

I don't know how to post photos or I would, but check out the family photo if you hadn't yet.

gym time.

The U.S. military is looking to hire someone to police the growing army of hired guns in Afghanistan.

According to a solicitation released earlier this week by the coalition headquarters at Bagram Airfield, the military is looking for a contractor to run something called the "Armed Contractor Oversight Directorate." The work statement says the new office will be responsible for tracking private security companies (PSCs) -- and keeping tabs on how often they resort to force.

Among other tasks, the new office must "identify all PSC incidents to include the use of graduated force procedures and weapons discharges"; "track the status of all ongoing investigations involving PSC weapons discharges"; and "maintain regular contact with Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Ministry of Interior or their representative to identify issues concerning Department of Defense (DOD) contracted PSC’s actions, incidents and procedures."

This sounds an awful lot like the Reconstruction Operations Center set up in Iraq to coordinate and track the movement of private security operators in Iraq. The center, which also provides a daily intel brief for contractors, is operated by Aegis, the security firm run by "unorthodox soldier" Tim Spicer. Aegis won renewal of the contract earlier this year.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/12/more-oversight.html#more

Obama picks homophobe pro-'Prop 8' evangelical preacher to give the invocation at inaugural
John Aravosis (DC) · 12/17/2008 03:37:00 PM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It! · facebook

Gee, maybe Donnie McClurkin wasn't a fluke. Picking Rick Warren to give THE invocation is abominable. I'm doing my research and will be updating this post in a minute.

Rick Warrens eats with gays

But hey, Rick Warren says being gay isn't the biggest sin (gee, so just how much of a sin is it, Rick?), and he's actually eaten dinner with gays. How white of him.
Lamenting the "tyranny of activist judges," who obstruct the will of the majority, he evinces no understanding of minority rights or the judiciary's role in enforcing them. Explaining his views about homosexuality and gay rights, he notes, "I don't think that homosexuality is the worst sin," and, "By the way, my wife and I had dinner at a gay couple's home two weeks ago. So I'm not [a] homophobic guy, okay?"
Rick Warren equates gay marriage to incest and pedophilia
Rick Warren: But the issue to me is, I’m not opposed to that as much as I’m opposed to the redefinition of a 5,000-year definition of marriage. I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.

Steven Waldman: Do you think, though, that they are equivalent to having gays getting married?

Rick Warren: Oh I do. … Most people, you know… I have many gay friends, I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes, no church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church. Kay and I have given millions of dollars out of “A Purpose-Driven Life” helping people who got AIDS through gay relationships. So they can’t accuse me of homophobia.
What exactly is a "gay" home, Rick? One where the shingles hang kind of limp?

Rick Warren says Prop 8 was a "free speech issue"
Rick Warren: For five thousand years, marriage has been defined by every single culture and every single religion — this is not a Christian issue. Buddhists, Muslims, the Jews, historically marriage is a man and a woman. And so I’m opposed to that. And the reason I supported Prop 8 really, was a free speech issue. Because if it had…. First, the court overid the will of the people. But second, is, there were all kinds of threats that if you… that did not pass, then any pastor could be considered doing hate speech if he shared his views that he didn’t think homosexuality was the most natural way for relationships. And that would be hate speech. To me, we should have freedom of speech. And you should be able to have freedom of speech to make your position, and I should be able to have freedom of speech to make my position. And can we do this in a civil way?
Really? You tried to revoke the marriages of 20,000 gay couples because if we let gay couples marry then preachers will be thrown in jail? What kind of bs is that?

Hey, Rick Warren actually did an ad for the Prop 8 homophobes! And he invokes Barack Obama as being on his side, in the ad. Nice.

http://www.americablog.com/2008/12/obama-picks-homophobe-pro-prop.html

When Hitler needs a birthday cake, who you gonna call? Wal-Mart!
John Aravosis (DC) · 12/17/2008 12:50:00 PM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It! · facebook

And I'm the one who's a danger to the family. From AP:
The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child's full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance. Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the Greenwich ShopRite, but with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article over the weekend on their flare-up over frosting.

"I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they've been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past," Heath Campbell said Tuesday in an interview conducted in Easton, on the other side of the Delaware River from where the family lives in Hunterdon County, N.J.

"There's a new president and he says it's time for a change; well, then it's time for a change," the 35-year-old continued. "They need to accept a name. A name's a name. The kid isn't going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did."
Yeah, Daddy Hitler voted for the nice black man with a foreign dad from Africa. Uh huh.
Deborah Campbell, 25, said she phoned in her order last week to the ShopRite. When she told the bakery department she wanted her son's name spelled out, she was told to talk to a supervisor, who denied the request.
Need a cake commemorating a genocidal maniac? Who you can gonna call?
The Campbells ultimately got their cake decorated at a Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania, Deborah Campbell said. About 12 people attended the birthday party on Sunday, including several children who were of mixed race, according to Heath Campbell.

"If we're so racist, then why would I have them come into my home?" he asked.
I think the bigger question is what kind of idiot person of color lets their child into your home?

The Campbells' other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.

http://www.americablog.com/2008/12/when-hitler-needs-birthday-cake-who-y...

Bush has been smashed with 21,539.637 shoes already...My personal best is only 12.

I bet some of you gamers can get into the 20s...

http://www.sockandawe.com/

Please Nova-M,I'm begging ya..

Stop running that dumbass commercial at the beginning of your Internet stream !

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

Liars For Jesus

Aside from the bigot part, Rick Warren is, you know, a liar.

Warren claimed he supported Proposition 8 because of a free-speech issue -- asserting that "any pastor could be considered doing hate speech . . . if he shared his views that homosexuality wasn't the most natural way for relationships."

That's some lying we can believe in, my friends.

...more complete quote:

And the reason I supported Prop 8 really, was a free speech issue. Because if it had…. First, the court overid the will of the people. But second, is, there were all kinds of threats that if you… that did not pass, then any pastor could be considered doing hate speech if he shared his views that he didn’t think homosexuality was the most natural way for relationships. And that would be hate speech. To me, we should have freedom of speech. And you should be able to have freedom of speech to make your position, and I should be able to have freedom of speech to make my position. And can we do this in a civil way?

-Atrios 16:04

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_12_14_archive.html#2473890914802743051

I agree Chubby Bubba. Why would anyone other than a skin head name their kid that?

let John McCain lie to us about whether he had seen the questions?

I don't think any of his appointments or decisions has shocked me as bad as this one. I'm not feeling good about it at all.

The Campbell's also have two daughters, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie. - Yahoo

Aryan Nation? Yeah, there's a .org with that name too. Not one that preaches tolerance either.

We all teach our kids to hate to some degree but none of this looks healthy to me.

I agree Fernando..

It's a WTF ?, moment !
F-ing Politicians..

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

should say something about this kind of sell out crap.

Rick Warren?
by BarbinMD
Wed Dec 17, 2008 at 02:00:04 PM PST
Rick Warren is offering a prayer at the inauguration of Barack Obama? Was there some reason the transition team couldn't find someone who wasn't a homophobe?

Warren dodged Waldman's question about whether he supported civil unions or domestic partnerships, answering instead, "I support full equal rights for everyone in America," adding that he only opposes a "redefinition" of marriage. He went on to say he's opposed to gay marriage the same way he is opposed to a brother and sister marrying (that would be incest), a man marrying a child (that would be statutory rape), or someone having multiple spouses (that would be polygamy). Pressed by Waldman, Warren said he considered those crimes equivalent to gay marriage.

They couldn't find someone who didn't support Proposition 8, and who gave a bullshit reason for that support?

And the reason I supported Prop 8 really, was a free speech issue. Because if it had…. First, the court overid the will of the people. But second, is, there were all kinds of threats that if you… that did not pass, then any pastor could be considered doing hate speech if he shared his views that he didn’t think homosexuality was the most natural way for relationships. And that would be hate speech. To me, we should have freedom of speech. And you should be able to have freedom of speech to make your position, and I should be able to have freedom of speech to make my position. And can we do this in a civil way?

What a spit in the eye to the GBLT community in particular, and to anyone who supports equality, dignity and justice under the law.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/17/163743/98/114/674151

For more discussion on this, see noweeman's diary.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/17/145555/44/174/674115

No one seems too happy about this choice!

they are shutting down all 30 plants.

Blagojevich attorney
challenges impeachment panel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An attorney for Gov. Rod Blagojevich sharply challenged a panel considering the governor's impeachment on Wednesday, arguing that some members should be removed because they've clearly already made up their minds.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081217/ap_on_re_us/illinois_governor

Coleman Lawyer Gets Roughed Up By State Supremes
At the MN supreme court hearing today on Norm Coleman's lawsuit to stop the counting of ballots that are found to have been rejected due to clerical errors, Coleman's lawyer seemed to struggle to connect with the justices, starting with his ill-conceived invocation of the Florida recount.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/coleman_camp_get...

Liberals Hammer Decision To Have Warren Deliver Inaugural Invocation

People For The American Way and other groups are hitting Barack Obama's decision to have anti-choice pastor Rick Warren -- who recently equated gay marriage with polygamy and incest -- give the invocation at this inaugural.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/top_liberal_grou...

I'm feeling a bit depressed!

LaHood considered for Cabinet post
By Susan Crabtree
Posted: 12/17/08 11:38 AM [ET]
Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) is in discussions with the Obama administration to take a Cabinet-level post — most likely secretary of the Department of Transportation, according to knowledgeable GOP sources.

When reached on his cell phone, LaHood said only that Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), President-elect Obama’s incoming chief of staff, had contacted him last night.

He would not discuss the details of the conversation.

“It’s probably not a good idea to discuss this at this moment,” LaHood said.

But one GOP source said that LaHood was engaged in talks with Emanuel about the Transportation secretary position, and the Obama transition team would like to make an announcement about it on Friday.

LaHood, a centrist Republican from Peoria, Ill., who serves on the Appropriations Committee, was first elected in 1994. He announced plans to retire last year.

Obama’s team has pledged to appoint Republicans to his administration. Right after the election, the president-elect announced that he wants Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stay on board for at least another year. He would not say whether his decision to keep Gates met the self-imposed requirement for a Republican in the Cabinet.

LaHood served as chief of staff to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.) and won his seat when Michel retired.

The Obama transition team did not immediately return a call for comment.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/lahood-considered-for-cabinet-post-2...

Prominent neoconservative: 4,000 Americans 'had to die'
David Edwards and Diane Sweet

Four thousand American troops "had to die" in Iraq, even if the United States knew Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, a prominent neoconservative said in a shocking interview on MSNBC Tuesday evening.

Vice President Dick Cheney told ABC News earlier this week that the U.S. would have invaded Iraq regardless of whether or not they had weapons of mass destruction.

Adding fire to Cheney's surprising comments Tuesday was prominent neoconservative and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Gaffney, who told MSNBC's Chris Matthews during Tuesday's 'Hardball' that the United States had to invade Iraq whether or not its intelligence was sound.

Asked about why the United States should have invaded Iraq even if they knew there were no WMDs, Gaffney said, "The real reason was we thought he constituted a mortal threat."

"You believe a mortal threat to the United States," Matthews responded, incredulous. "Where do you get this from? What kind of -- where do you get these words from?"

"My position is that it's regrettable that any Americans died. And it is regrettable that they had to die, but I believe they did have to die," said Gaffney. "The threat we did know about is the chemical capability Saddam Hussein used against his own people.... The danger was that inaction could have resulted in the death of many more Americans than 4,000."

Matthews revisited the decision to invade Iraq on "Hardball," with guests neocon Frank Gaffney, and Mother Jones' David Corn during a discussion of weapons of mass destruction and Cheney's admission that the United States would have invaded Iraq regardless of the presence of WMD.

Gaffney is the founder and president of the think tank Center for Security Policy, as well as a contributor, contributing editor, and columnist for a number of publications, including the Washington Times, National Review Online and WorldNetDaily.

"Was there anything Saddam Hussein could have done to stop that war?" Matthews asked Gaffney, and when Gaffney attempted to justify the case for war based on the first Gulf War, and not the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

"Why the long inspections debate if they didn't matter?" Matthews asked. "If they didn't matter, why did we have inspections?"

Cheney's "admitting that they didn't have to have stockpiles for him to believe the war was justified," he added. "That's what's astounding."

This video is from MSNBC's Hardball, broadcast Dec. 16, 2008.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Gaffney_4000_Americans_had_to_die_1217.htm...

you've earned it, fer pete's sake.

I expected the news to be bad before the election. I considered the source.

A bit disappointed today :(

Muslim-Baiting Rep. Virgil Goode Concedes Defeat

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/musim-baiting_co...

on the next thread or show or whatever...give the kid a break and hush up about his name..IMHO...

You've got at least 4 more years of this type of "schizophrenic" crap to look forward to.

This is definitely a different type of politician we are dealing with. Planet Obama is proving to be an odd world, filled with philosophical inconsistencies and contrary train of thought riding on the same rails.

I don't understand it either. I have pretty much given up trying, and the man hasn't even seen day one yet.

but when you name at least two of your kids around hate symbols, you can't deny it makes you wonder about the parents.

Like having a last name of Yoo and naming your twins Fuck and Screw. Though I guess that would be more appropriate than John is some instances.

So, what is your fantasy election win for this year???
Submitted by cent on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 5:05pm.

Mine is that prick Virgil Goode gets sandbagged by the Obamacons and has to find a new job...

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/4030#comment-277403

-----

Heh. Every once in a while one of my fantasies comes true....

I'm still waiting for the Dallas Cheerleaders to show up at my door with a can of whipped cream.....

but the attention is going to be worse for the child....

at the inauguration.

Nah, not a chance. Being in such proximity to this historic event will automatically reactivate the Kool-Aid and all sins will be forgotten, if not completely forgiven.

on Spitball. There is no excuse for torture you turd. It inflames your enemies and leads to bad information you f'n retard.

If you are really concerned about the child as you suggest, wouldn't you want to relieve them from the hate that their parent's are thrusting into their lives? Chubby is right. Naming your kid like that is child abuse and it needs to be called out. Those parents need to be called out and those kids need psychological help. Aryan Nation? Get real.

is it possible that Obama is too smart and just wants to thin the crowd at his inauguration? Who would want to go if he is the guy giving the invocation?

obviously his teachers, school mates, relatives don't call the media...and besides that what is going to change after being blasted all over...I believe they are allowed to name their kids whatever they want to...and the kid can have it changed when he he legally can and wants to..and his friends and relatives could have tried to make the parents change the name...

like Hussein...

Protesters. :)

As far as Obama being too smart...well, let's just say I've been trying my best to give him the benefit of the doubt, but everyday he makes it a little harder. Today is no exception....

got to go pick up a pizza. bbl.

http://games.genieknows.com/

again. This isn't about the children. It's about the parents and what they are teaching them and what kind of life they have to look forward to and what the consequences of that is.

Just pretending that all is ok before the story broke is avoiding what is going on here.

Unless someone knows the parents..it's no one's business but theirs, their family etc.. business...If you're going to take on the naming of children, go find all the offensively named kids and fix it all...change the law..whatever...but it all seems like a waste of air time, imo...

Children forced into cell-like school seclusion rooms

A few weeks before 13-year-old Jonathan King killed himself, he told his parents that his teachers had put him in "time-out."
The room where Jonathan King hanged himself is shown after his death. It is no longer used, a school official said.

The room where Jonathan King hanged himself is shown after his death. It is no longer used, a school official said.

"We thought that meant go sit in the corner and be quiet for a few minutes," Tina King said, tears washing her face as she remembered the child she called "our baby ... a good kid."

But time-out in the boy's north Georgia special education school was spent in something akin to a prison cell -- a concrete room latched from the outside, its tiny window obscured by a piece of paper.

Called a seclusion room, it's where in November 2004, Jonathan hanged himself with a cord a teacher gave him to hold up his pants.

why don't we just save a ton of cash and do away with the Children's Protection Agency. They are a major pain in the ass too.

What do you care about cells for kids? Teaching children to hate is a much uglier cell Alice.

...

same thing.

I know we aren't talking focaccia anymore.

Your wish is my command. Should sam post pics of the interior of his colon from his colonoscopy?
---------
This is a corny idea.

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 5:17pm.
...I think an argument could be made that naming a kid `Adolf Hitler' is a form of child abuse.
------
This, coming from a guy named Chubby Bubba.

"This" is (apparently) my latest unavoidable opening pronoun.

(Jeez.)

coming up.

A trio of performing monkeys turned on their trainer when he beat one of them with a stick as they rode mini bicycles in a market in Sizhou, eastern China.

One twisted his ears and another pulled out his hair in handfuls and bit his neck. Then when the trainer dropped the cane, the third one picked it up and started hitting him around the head with it until the stick broke.

The dazed trainer said afterwards: “They were once wild and these performances don’t always come naturally to them. They may have built up some feelings of hatred towards me.”

Police are investigating allegations of animal cruelty and may confiscate the monkeys.

get it yet?

Naming a kid Adolf Hitler will have consequences when the child is older. He's only 3 now. Wait til he gets school age, the age that the kids know who Adolf Hitler was. He'll be teased. Or he may not use the whole name. Children can be very cruel.

The consequences may make him into a Hitler type person. I understand that Hitler had an inferiority complex.

KO is gunna cover the Pennsylvania Nazis shortly.

This is curious and bizarre.

A reader, Jane, conducted some Google searches related to the Obamas’ Chicago home on Greenwood Avenue, and discovered the following, which I verified with my own searches, and documented with screenshots at approximately 2:30 PM ET on 12/17/08:

A Google search of the Obamas’ address, 5046 Greenwood Ave., Chicago, yields this:

[screen shot]

The phone number listed for the address, if you can’t make it out, is 415-821-6171, a San Francisco area code. When I Google’d that phone number, this came up:

[screen shot]

The phone number associated with the Obama’s mansion is the number for the national Party of Socialism and Liberation. When I clicked on that link, I got this:

[screen shot]

And a tab for local offices on the PSL site shows this:

[screen shot]

Why on Earth is the phone number for the Party for Socialism and Liberation linked to the Obamas’ private residence in Chicago?

Theories?

http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/google-obamas-residence-link...

The restoration of Hope on a day of complete despair.

A case of prior animal abuse ? Do ya Think ?

**

Why can't we see that on YouTube ?

Chubbs ? ;)

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

Rick Warren? Are you kidding me? Hotlist
by noweeman [Subscribe]
Wed Dec 17, 2008 at 12:10:18 PM PST

UPDATE #2: As suggested by a number of commenters, you can email Parag Mehta - his email address is: parag.mehta@ptt.gov - with your opinion. He is Obama's LGBT liaison on the transition team. - noweeman
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/17/145555/44/174/674115

Chrysler shuts down all production
CNNMoney.com - 2 hours ago
Close of business Friday will be the start of a month-long closure of 30 US plants. Company cites 'continued lack of consumer credit...
-----
My dream of owning a new minivan is crushed.

Wow! I go teach and come back to blogs on fire!

Rick Warren! Yikes!

So after reading all of this can someone of a more religious nature explain to me if there is a difference between the significance of an "invocation" and a "benediction", because I looked up "Dr. Joseph E. Lowery" who is giving the benediction and found the following:

"Reverend Joseph E. Lowery has received several awards. The NAACP gave him an award at its 1997 convention for, "dean of the civil rights movement," and Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also received the Martin Luther King Jr. Center Peace Award and the National Urban League's Whitney M. Young, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. Ebony Magazine has named him one of the 15 greatest black preachers, describing him as, "the consummate voice of biblical social relevancy, a focused voice, speaking truth to power.” Lowery has also received several honorary doctorates from colleges and universities including, Dillard University, Morehouse College, Alabama State University and the University of Alabama."

Plus this is also over at Kos:

Joseph E. Lowery's inauguration benediction: GOOD FOR GAYS!

"Rick Warren is not the only person appearing at the inauguration. There IS a counter-balance and a VERY strong one!

Joseph E. Lowery is a real civil rights legend! An inspirational and powerful national black leader who has always insisted that gay rights are important. Given the blame that so many placed upon the "black community" for Prop 8, isn't having a pro-gay black preacher give the benediction incredibly powerful?"

To have a contemporary white evangelical Warren and a traditional yet very Progressive black civil rights legend Lowery both be part of the religious ceremony and representing the two religious halves of the country coming together to book end on what is turning out to be a very significant day in the country's history...does this really surprise anyone about Obama? I understand the anger, but this decision seems on par with everything else he's done, doesn't it?

It seems like most are overlooking Lowery and focusing on the controversy. I have to ask, though, should Obama exclude evangelicals altogether and give up his message of bringing the country together? Are there less caustic evangelicals that could be seen as serious representatives of the religious right at the ceremony, because I know there are definitely more insano ones than Warren? Warren is probably the more progressive of the religious right, isn't he? Lol! I know that's not saying much! :)

Honestly, I could give a crap about fuckign religion. It defies everything I hold dear, but plenty of people all over the world swear by it so I have to consider it's importance at some point, but from what I see, including both of these men seems to be Obama determined to make a very divided country shake hands. Would it matter if the roles were switched and Lowery was going first?

Career Army officer sues Rumsfeld, Cheney, saying no evacuation order given on 9/11

Career Army officer sues Rumsfeld, Cheney, saying no evacuation order given on 9/11
Stephen C. Webster
Published: Wednesday December 17, 2008

A career Army officer who survived the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, claims that no evacuation was ordered inside the Pentagon, despite flight controllers calling in warnings of approaching hijacked aircraft nearly 20 minutes before the building was struck.

According to a timeline of the attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration notified NORAD that American Airlines Flight 77 had been hijacked at 9:24 a.m. The Pentagon was not struck until 9:43 a.m.

On behalf of retired Army officer April Gallop, California attorney William Veale has filed a civil suit against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and former US Air Force General Richard Myers, who was acting chairman of the joint chiefs on 9/11. It alleges they engaged in conspiracy to facilitate the terrorist attacks by not warning those inside the Pentagon, contributing to injuries she and her two-month-old son incurred.

"The ex-G.I. plaintiff alleges she has been denied government support since then, because she raised 'painful questions' about the inexplicable failure of military defenses at the Pentagon that day, and especially the failure of officials to warn and evacuate the occupants of the building when they knew the attack was imminent" said Veale in a media advisory.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/911_survivor_blasts_Rumsfeld_Cheney_No_121...

Fernando...I'd say that people like Keith and Rachel have WAY more far-reaching issues they could discuss...

And, they didn't break any law...they can name their kid what they want to...

If this is a CPS issue - call CPS...that's all I was saying...

Invocation is at the beginning, Benediction is at the end.

Tey're both invocations, or blessings.

you call yourself a blogger?

Did you type that thinking no one would read it? I do that from time to tiem.

I don't think even a neighbor could do much. Bloggers participate in public discourse regarding opinion. That affects society also.

invocation:

1.) The act or an instance of invoking, especially an appeal to a higher power for assistance.

2.) A prayer or other formula used in invoking, as at the opening of a religious service.

3.)

a.) The act of conjuring up a spirit by incantation.
b.) An incantation used in conjuring.

[Middle English invocacion, from Old French, from Latin invocātiō, invocātiōn-, from invocātus, past participle of invocāre, to invoke. See invoke.]

http://www.answers.com/topic/invocation
------------------------
benediction:

1.) A blessing.

2.) An invocation of divine blessing, usually at the end of a church service.

3.) often Benediction (Roman Catholic Church). A short service consisting of prayers, the singing of a Eucharistic hymn, and the blessing of the congregation with the host.

4.) An expression of good wishes.

[Middle English benediccioun, from Old French benedicion, from Latin benedictiō, benedictiōn-, from benedictus, past participle of benedīcere, to bless : bene, well + dīcere, to speak.]

http://www.answers.com/topic/benediction

"Invocation" sounds so witchcrafty!

At first I was thinking that Warren was going to be the one to ask Obama to recite the Oath of Office before I remembered it was the Chief Justice who did that.

I was picturing what it would do to evangelical brains to hear Warren say " Do you Barack Hussein Obama solemnly swear...". I wonder if his "flock" will protest his decision to participate.

from the coverage of the cake issue:

Father trying to sue the bakery that would not write the name on the cake. They did offer to give the family the frosting to write the name themselves.

Walmart said they would write the name. No Problem. But Walmart is hypocrtical because they won't cary CDs or music with certain words in the song. Something like the Dixie Chicks would sing. They ban those.

I'm thinking this whole thing is to show the hypocracy of Walmart. And the strange choice of names by a family for their kids. Typical TV stuff.

Federal authorities plan to freeze Gov. Blagojevich’s campaign fund, crippling the governor’s ability to use the money for his legal bills.

In a letter this week, they put the Blagojevich camp on notice they intend to freeze the money, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

That disclosure comes a week after the governor was hit with federal charges including scheming to sell the U.S. Senate seat given up by President-elect Barack Obama.

Today in Springfield, the governor’s lawyer, Ed Genson, appeared before a House panel investigating whether to impeach Blagojevich. Genson asked to be appointed a special attorney general to represent the governor in the impeachment process.

The “Friends of Blagojevich” fund hasn’t been frozen yet, but sources said the letter alone will have a crippling effect on the governor’s ability to move money out of the fund because of the possibility that prosecutors would later seize the money.

http://www.suntimes.com/1337160,fed-freeze-blagojevich-funds-121708.arti...

Why didn't they do this with the repubs that were indicted?

Stevens, Coleman (now), Ney....

My gut was right

The intolerant, younger wingnut cracker is opening with the loony witch doctor prayer.

The wise black progressive elder is following Obama and providing the blessing of hope tolerance and peace among nations.

Lol!

Go fuck yourself.

(For instance.)

...

Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to perform the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that – in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California – is looking for a fight.

Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California, opposes abortion rights but has taken more liberal stances on the government role in fighting poverty, and backed away from other evangelicals’ staunch support for economic conservatism. But it’s his support for the California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that drew the most heated criticism from Democrats Wednesday.

“Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans,” the president of Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solomonese, wrote Obama Wednesday. “e feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination.”

The rapid, angry reaction from a range of gay activists comes as the gay rights movement looks for an opportunity to flex its political muscle. Last summer gay groups complained, but were rebuffed by Obama, when an “ex-gay” singer led Obama’s rallies in South Carolina. And many were shocked last month when voters approved the California ban.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16693.html

General Motors is likely to file for bankruptcy protection with government backing, giving bondholders a recovery of more than 25 cents on the dollar, according to Moody's Investors Service.

There is a 70 percent probability that the restructuring plan for U.S. automakers will consist of a prepackaged bankruptcy financed by government loans to get GM and Chrysler through to 2009, Moody's said in a report dated Dec. 15. Under that scenario, bondholders would be likely to lose less than 75 percent of their investment, Moody's said.

The Moody's assessment comes as the White House weighs a bailout of the automakers. GM and Chrysler are seeking $14 billion in federal funds to keep operating through the first quarter of next year. GM debt traded yesterday for as little as 7.7 cents on the dollar, so if Moody's recovery prediction is right, bondholders stand to gain.

"We believe the potential loss for creditors under this scenario would exceed the loss that would occur in a scenario where the restructuring did not involve a bankruptcy filing, but will probably be less than the 75-100 percent range associated with a freefall bankruptcy scenario," Moody's analysts Mike Mulvaney and Bruce Clark wrote in the report.

Moody's assigned a 25 percent probability that the United States will bail out the automakers with no bankruptcy, and a 5 percent chance the automakers will go bankrupt without government assistance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/16/AR200812...

but I like you.

Odd, I know.

"The Power of Christ compels you!"

(After which Linda Blair does weird stuff.)

it is 37 degrees and raining. the weathermen are calling for snow...

I imagine it will freeze tonight, but will it freeze enough for the snow to stick?

I guess I'll have to wait and see like everyone else.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

She definitely did weird stuff to me as a teenager when I saw her in a nudie mag.

Some things I'll never forget...

R-r-r-r-r-r-eyyow!

"Your mother sorts socks in hell!"

(After which Fr. Karras becomes upset.)

I, too, like Alice...even though I sometimes disagree with her.

perhaps we should start a support group, Ferdnado?
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

if that means I get to agree with Alice too.

Unlike some, I at least get Alice. I get most bloggers here I think. But I don't get a lot of things. Like naming your kid that name. Just blows my mind.

I do not share anyone's rosy opinion about Fitzgerald. He is where he is because he goes only as far as he does.

Irving "Scooter" Libby did more than obstruct justice, and the investigation of exposing a CIA agent and a cover network in the nuclear non-proliferation intelligence program should have gone on and wider and continued, but Fitzgerald dropped it all. Bizarre.

And the Gov. Rod thing. It looks like Fitzgerald had enough to end Blagojevich's governorship career long ago; so why did Fitzgerald wait until Obama got elected to drop the net on Blogajevich??? And the TIMING! It has given the corporate media (and others) something to jaw on instead of these major reports on Bush Torture policy and the Bush Great Depression II. I smell something rotten about this, and it smells bad like it did when Fitzgerald went nowhere with the traitorous CIA exposure crime.

I never celebrated Fitzmas before and I'm not celebrating Fitzmas now. It doesn't smell pepperminty and clean like a candy cane. No, it smells like something rotten.

What kid?

This article is adapted from the Inside Iraq blog, written by the Iraqi staffers of McClatchy in Baghdad
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/58056.html

say it ain't so, nora!

BTW, Joe Lieberman has checked Fitz's bearings and reported them to be quite pepperminty and clean...

...film at eleven

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 10:45pm.
...Ferdnado?
-----
(Listed as an 0.0 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.)

Sources: Obama taps GOP lawmaker, senior regulator

AP - 1 hour, 42 minutes ago

CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama intends to name former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Mary Schapiro to head the much-criticized agency and wants to install GOP Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois as transportation secretary, Democratic officials said Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_campaignplus/20081218/ap_ca/obama;_ylt=AiFgSF...

>>Like naming your kid that name. Just blows my mind.

yes. it isn't really like naming him simply `Hussein.' It would be mor like naming him Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden.

I think the wost thing on for this kid is how polarizing his name will be. White supremest dirt-bags will love the kid. But, a lot of good people will shun him.

Eventually the kid will notice...and one has to wonder if he'll go the easy route and stick with the dirt-bags or resent the whole situation, change his name and cut off all ties to his prior life? well, the kid does have a few years to make up his mind.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Why would a parent do that?

Aryan Nation? Really? Really? Wow.

I thought that was a hate group not a name.

You and me too, Judee.
Submitted by toniD on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 3:45pm.
The hard part is when the car doors freeze shut and I can't open them. Don't have the strength!

Someone told me to rub petroeum jelly around the car door jam and they won't freeze shut.
===========================================================
It's all bad news today!
new
Submitted by toniD on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 7:04pm.
I'm feeling a bit depressed!
==========================================================
I've never heard about the petroleum jelly. My Dad uses WD 40 and he sprays the locks and doors for me when I visit. He and my Mom have a heated garage with their condo. I should have bought the condo across the hall from them when I had the opportunity!

I've had some bad news today, too.

My brother, a B of A employee is losing his job officially in February 2009. However, he'll be physically out of his office by January 1 -- his own choice. The good news is that he was looking for another job; and he's actually getting a better severance package under his former employer, LaSalle Bank, who merged with B of A about a year ago. I don't understand the logistics, but he said he was still entitled to his LaSalle package. Plus, he has a bonus coming, which will keep him going for a while.

He's been unhappy ever since the merger. He said the corporate culture is way different than what LaSalle's was -- primarily LaSalle was more of a 'team' culture and B of A is more of 'I work alone' culture.

A funny moment in all of this is when his daughter -- my 9 year old niece -- asked him: "What will you do all day at home?" He explained that he might be doing laundry and such, but will spend most of his time job searching. I think she was looking for him to clean her room ... no chance!

And then I get off the Midway Orange Line and see a huge placard sign stating that the daily parking rate will be $4.00 beginning January 1, 2009! $20 per week to park my car! Plus the transit fare is increasing to $2.25 per ride. And I pay $40 per month for the reserved parking, which I admit is my choice, but I'm so accustomed to it that I can't give it up yet. I mean, I park in the first spot off the handicapped parking spaces, and only walk 1/2 block to the station versus the 1 block and 1/2 walk when I started parking there.

It's very expensive to have a job and more expensive to lose it. I really hope Obama's economic/job plan(s) are initiated soon after he assumes the Presidency. We really need him and the plans!

And, if he has time, I wish he would advise Mayor Daley on a few things ... maybe when he visits his South Side White House ...

This Adolf loves the Jews.

lalalallalalalala.

Turn Your Backs

I won't be in DC, but let me suggest that the appropriate way to deal with Warren's appearance for those who are there is to turn your backs to him.

-Atrios 21:35

Old Time Religion

Who would Jesus assassinate?

...it should be obvious, but in case it isn't, imagine the headlines here if a prominent cleric who had called for the assassination of Bush spoke at an equivalent Iranian event? That's some diplomacy we can believe in, my friends!

-Atrios 18:41

Caroline Kennedy suffering from the Curse of Mom Jackie?

It appears Caroline Kennedy takes after the Kennedy side of the family with her interest in taking a stance on social responsibility. Despite this, Caroline Kennedy is being branded a rich kid aristocrat who should not "inherit" a Senate seat because of family name.

I find it ironic that this Kennedy royalty talk now dogging Caroline was Caroline's own mother's invention: All this talk about the Kennedys being American Royalty can be traced directly to Jacqueline Beauvoir Kennedy. Jackie herself came from old money American conservative politics, finishing schools, a Continental flair and response to the White House that reflected her view of a woman's role as that of a creator of a Royal Salon in pre-revolutionary France. The Joe Kennedy family Jackie married into didn't care much about 'royal refinements and high art', but just playing hard, drinking hard, and politicking hard. Jackie entered and used her dramatic flair for living and spending like royalty on obvious uppercrust conspicuous consumption, and directing and steering the media to accept her take on the Kennedy White House Years, which resulted in the Look Magazine portrayal of the Kennedy "Camelot". Jackie's p.r./editing stuck.

Poor Caroline. They talk about the "sins of the fathers" haunting sons. Here we have the feminine version.

I worked for BofA for awhile. It's when they opened all the mini banks in the Jewel stores. You are right. There was no team effort from upper management. We ad teams in our own little bank but not upper management. We did get bonuses and stock options when they pulled out of the Jewel stores though.

I worked for them in the 90's when the change came to allow banks and insurance companies to sell Mutual Funds. The start of all this unregulated mess we have today.

Sorry about your brother and hope he finds a job PDQ!

It was the eye Dr. Like Sam, I got a picture of it also.

>>Why would a parent do that?

well...I think this parent is an idiot. While many idiots have kids and some idiots have a surprising amount of kids, the type of idiot who names his kid `Adolf Hitler' are thankfully small.

I'm thinking this guy is the type of idiot who craves attention and free beer. not to mention having belly laughs at the expense of his kids.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Sister's name: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation

A) JoyceLynn?
B) Aryan Nation?

Ok? Nuff said? Nut jobs.

If her name was JoyceLynn Hussein Aryan Nation, then it would be ok...

their kids.

I toiled over a name for Wes that would help him to avoid ridicule. I loved him before he was born and I just did not want him to suffer in that way. it was bad enough he had Happe in his name....I thought Wes would be innocuous. He still got shit for his name.

To be that overt to make your kids an advertisement for your narcissism and intolerance is unconscionable imo.

More from yesterday's walk in the park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbB_Xov6eBQ

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd6NVhs5B4k
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

>>Sister's name: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation

I think you're reading things into this... ;)
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Nando. Is your eye ok? it has black spots in it. Thanks for the link though. Wes asked for your recipes and I found them on your blog and sent the link to him. He will be forever grateful. If you have any more mexican recipes, he would love to connect with you.

Unbelievable how many times the news has mentioned that so-called "face transplant" at the Cleveland Clinic. The doctors don't even know if the patient will heal properly yet, but they are so FULL of themselves that they just had to go to the press and announce their "achievement". Typical Frankenstein doctors, who toute the operation as a success even before they know whether or not the patient lives! Bizarre and egotistical.

Why is there so much of this wierd head science in Ohio? They love to dabble with severing heads and keeping them alive in Ohio research labs and cutting off the heads of two dogs and sewing the heads back on to the other body sort of horrors. What's in the water there?

Let us pray the the patient survives her guniea pig-hood, and pray even more there was no foul play in the doctors' source of the body parts used in the operation.

mhappenow, my eyes are doing fine.

I can't seem to find a way to exhaust my flexible health account, that's all.

The pic is highly photoshoped.

President Bush has signed two executive orders that would allow the US Treasury Department to seize the property of any person perceived to, directly or indirectly, pose a threat to US operations in the Middle East. - 960

I AM going to have a baby!

And I'm going to name him Jesus Elvis Christ....

And you have to bring him Frankincense & Myrrh...

and if you're nice...he will sing his latest single for you....

;)

child molester..

(goes without saying, really..)

From Cindy Sheehan & Voters For Peace..

Please sign on to the letter below which will be sent to President Barack Obama on Inauguration Day. The deadline for signing is Friday, January 16, 2008. Please provide organizational affiliations and the city, state where you live.

This letter is signed by leaders of the peace movement. We are writing to make specific recommendations for you to take action on in order to bring change to U.S. foreign policy especially involving the use of military force. While the last eight years have included numerous errors in the misuse of military force, the military-dominated foreign policy of the United States has longer roots that have included both Democratic and Republican administrations. The anti-war movement believes the time is now to end the emphasis on militarism in U.S. relations with other nations and to set a goal of ending war in the 21st Century.

Con't-Please Read-Thanks

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

for peace...

I'm listening to Mike Nazoy for the first time in 4 months. Off the bat he played a moronic statement from Frank Gaffney then mentioned that he is a Jew.

What the hell does that have to do with anything? Oh, yeah. "The agenda."

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Is that last years list of censored stories,Fernando ?

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

how terrible it is to hate people...?

You'd think it would be in The Onion..

BUT NO!

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/outrage-congress-receive-automatic-pay-ra...

Congress to Receive Automatic Pay Raise

last post...

But it's always now - so what...?

Pope: the economic crises is an opportunity to rediscover the real meaning of Christmas

Stripped of the “accumulations of consumerism”, the memorial of Christ’s birth is “an opportunity to welcome the message of hope” of that “historic” event as a “personal gift”. Thoughts for the many children born into severe poverty, for newborn babies that are rejected and unwelcome, to those families who yearn for the joy of a child and have yet to see this realised.

["PORN" Tip to KEVIN copyright]

-Makes me feel better about that 4 dollar gas:
Submitted by ghettodefender on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 2:40pm.-

*

LONG story short..A 9 yr old girl called naked cartoon Bart Simpson's penis...his 'WEAK SPOT'...

Child abuse?

I replaced the stupid-looking hat-wearing octopus statuette in the aquarium with some fake plants which look a lot better. Plus, that octopus is probably bad for the fishes's self-esteem as that retarded looking octopus reflects poorly on the image of aquatic life everywhere. Such a ludicrous stereotype has no place in my aquarium! I will not tolerate it's inherent mockery! I want my fish to be the proud, self-actualizing Pisces-Americans God meant them to be!

I also gave them fresh water.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

A war profiteer who used her position on a Senate appropriations review committee to pass on contract tips for her husband to bid on. Sen. Dianne Feinstein should be forced to resign from public office since she lacks the ethical/moral fiber to do so of her own volition. (Although she came in numero uno on a California Governor candidate poll, she is not going to pursue what appears to be a sure thing; could it be because DIFI KNOWS any opponent would spotlight DiFi's corrupt war profiteering during an election campaign fight?)

And Feinstein is the person who is NOW going to become the chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Committee??? The bald audacity of the corrupt continues.

What hope I had after the election is going up in a puff of war profiteering dollar signs.

-What hope I had after the election is going up in a puff of war profiteering dollar signs.-

But you know he isn't actually in office yet...so there is room for further potential disillusionment...it'd be rational anyway...and hopeful...

Hopefully,she will run for CA Governor & lose to a progressive Democrat in the Primary !

I can't stand that DINO Beyouch !

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

ACK!

What is with Obama? How many pastors are there in the USA?

Obama could've gone to the Yellow Pages and closed his eyes and picked one at random and made a better choice.

What an insult to the majority of us who are not Kool-Aide drinking followers of bizarre Christ-negating Christianists!!!

Malloy points out that Rick Warren has said gay spouses are equal to child molesters, that Warren opposes helping AIDs victims, and sees nothing wrong with treasonous acts like proposing the assassination of a head of an Islamic state.

What is Obama's problem? (Moans into the cold night....)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/17/rick-warren-obama-invocat_n_151...

lots of snow today, bout 5 inches in the pack.

a telephone pole snapped off in the hood, power out for about 4 hours.

thinking about putting my little diesel ships stove in the hallway.

the chimney already has an opening there.

http://www.sockandawe.com/

Must Disagree with Thom about his take on Atheists!!!!!
There is something missing from Thom's analysis about contemporary atheists when he describes them as evangelical/religious. His ommission concerns this:

Contemporary atheists speak out not to recruit new atheists but rather to put forward a self-defense in the presence of witch hunting Christianists who are looking for HERETICS to hate monger!

I hope Thom will consider this. Atheists, agnostics, and others have never had the opportunity before in history to voice their position to a wide public just in front of the curve of the heretic hunters like our American ReligiousFascists/Theocrats! I appreciate the wisdom of trying to get ahead of the curve; never before have the targets of persecution had this opportunity!

So I disagree with Thom and hope he'll look at it differently by the time the topic comes up again.

Heard the Hartmann.
Nora - I hope you won't get cold-offended or superior-reticent if I occasionally muse upon the wonder of the breath of life the creator has given us.
No - for me the creator is nothing like that macho asshole Yahweh; creator is certainly comprises both sexes.
I said "for me."
I get as dismayed when someone persistently must convince me there is no creator as when someone persistently must browbeat me into supplication to a so-called benevolent father who insists we must kill our children.
PS I choose the name "creator" from the lexicon of Native Americans.
Sleep now.
Pleasant dreams
ZZZZ

Hey Jim, it's 36° and the rain cleared up hours ago.

looks like Seattle ducked the snow again.

I'm up working on my holiday cards and packages. I hope to get them out in the morning.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

tax paperwork for the next few days for me.

tank painting and waiting for esoteric motorcycle parts.

snow shoveling was a workout.

is it too late to get our campaign contributions back?

comments can be sent to the obama team at:

http://change.gov/page/content/contact/

love y'all!

bush commenting on the big 3 rescue:

"A disorganized failure, disorganized bankruptcy or disorderly bankruptcy ... could cause great harm to the economy, beyond that which we're now witnessing. And that concerns me," Bush said.

"And the other point is that, I'm not interested in ... really putting good money after bad."

===

what does he think iraq was?

what does he think tarp was?

what does he think aig is?

when we look back at this, we will find the real criminals are pelosi and reid for not pursuing impeachment in 2006.

*
Loading...

*
Best Colon Cleanse Review
WARNING: Read objective reviews of cleansing products before you buy!
NaturalHealingToday.com/Cleansers
*
Prep for Colonoscopy
Prep Can Be Easier Than You Think. Learn About the Tablet Colon Prep.
www.TabletPrep.com

*
*

Ads by Google

Snowing in LV!

truck fired up no prob to take Bgurl to the bus to the train!

skating rink outside,

life is good.

TG for coffee!

Bernanke Rescue Loans Guided by Raters That Graded Subprime Mortgages AAA

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is basing hundreds of billions in emergency lending on credit ratings from companies that gave AAA grades to toxic securities.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=af32G4ayfLQY&refer=n...

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/4195#comment-291121

I'm not happy about Reverend Blubber Bubba speaking at the inauguration. Perhaps Obama is trying some unity tactic. Reverend Joseph Lowery, the civil rights icon, will also be speaking. However, I don't think Reverend Blubber is the civil rights kind of guy. As a matter of fact, i can't stand his ass.

ircask.com
sohbet sitesi üzerinden chat ve aşk odalarında muhabbet edilebilir.
sohbet siteleri
sohbet sitesi üzerinden sohbet ve aşk odalarında sohbet edilebilir

tiffany
tiffany jewellery
tiffany uk
tiffany jewelllery uk
tiffany jewellery sale
tiffany jewellery london
silver jewellery
tiffany jewellery sale
ugg boots
uggs
ugg sale
ugg boots sale
uk ugg boots
cheap ugg boots
ugg australia
winter boots
ugg boots discount
tall ugg boots
ugg boots 2009
cheap uggs
uggs on sale
ugg uk
uggs boots
australia ugg boots