RIP | Glenn Ford

Bye Glenn: 1916~2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Death

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Death
Newsflash: we're all going to die. But here are 20 things you didn't know about kicking the bucket.
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Some juicy excerpts:

1 The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.
2 Never say die: There are at least 200 euphemisms for death, including "to be in Abraham's bosom," "just add maggots," and "sleep with the Tribbles" (a Star Trek favorite).
3 No American has died of old age since 1951.
4 That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates.
5 The trigger of death, in all cases, is lack of oxygen. Its decline may prompt muscle spasms, or the "agonal phase," from the Greek word agon, or contest.
6 Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.
7 So much for recycling: Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid—formaldehyde, methanol, and ethanol—into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide into the air.
8 Alternatively . . . A Swedish company, Promessa, will freeze-dry your body in liquid nitrogen, pulverize it with high-frequency vibrations, and seal the resulting powder in a cornstarch coffin. They claim this "ecological burial" will decompose in 6 to 12 months.
9 Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.
10 The vultures are now dying off after eating cattle carcasses dosed with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory used to relieve fever in livestock.
13 During a railway expansion in Egypt in the 19th century, construction companies unearthed so many mummies that they used them as fuel for locomotives.
15 For organs to form during embryonic development, some cells must commit suicide. Without such programmed cell death, we would all be born with webbed feet, like ducks.
16 Waiting to exhale: In 1907 a Massachusetts doctor conducted an experiment with a specially designed deathbed and reported that the human body lost 21 grams upon dying. This has been widely held as fact ever since. It's not.
17 Buried alive: In 19th-century Europe there was so much anecdotal evidence that living people were mistakenly declared dead that cadavers were laid out in "hospitals for the dead" while attendants awaited signs of putrefaction.
18 Eighty percent of people in the United States die in a hospital.
19 If you can't make it here . . . More people commit suicide in New York City than are murdered.
20 It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began.

For more salacious details about the deceased, try the following books:
The Corpse: A History, by Christine Quigley (1996).
The Biology of Death: Origins of Mortality, by André Klarsfeld and Frédéric Revah (2003).
R.I.P. : The Complete Book of Death and Dying, by Constance Jones (1997).
The American Way of Death, by Jessica Mitford (1963).
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach (2003).

Link found at that fountain of human knowledge BoingBoing.

Olbermann's comments on Rumsfeld

From Crooks and Liars here's Keith Olberman's smack down of crazy Donny Rumsfeld's attack on the majority of Americans yesterday when Rumsfeld called us "appeasers" and "fascists"(is that the pot calling the kettle black or what?)

The Video: WMV or Quicktime

The Lynching of Emmett Till--August 28, 1955

---Emmett Till ---
July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955














The Murder of Emmett Till The Death Of Emmett Till
All about Mississippi Madness The Story of Emmett Till
Emmett Till Documentary

US Debt FAR worse than admitted

US Debt FAR worse than admitted
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With no fanfare or media coverage, the US government released its latest financial statement. In the report it is revealed that Bush is lying through his teeth about us debt and deficits and that the USA is in deep, deep trouble.

Bush says the 2005 deficit was $318 billion, the report says it was $760 billion.

Bush says the per-capita share of debt was $28 thousand but the report says it is actually $156 thousand per person.

Bush says the total debt was $8.3 billion, the report says it is $49 trillion.


The White House does not want you to read this book.

Although federal law compels U.S. Treasury officials to publish
the information in this Financial Report, they hope you will not
see it. That’s why they issued this shocking news just before a
major holiday without a press conference or even a press release.
They succeeded. There was no media coverage.

The Bush Administration had a similar reaction to the 9/11
Commission Report. But that document, compiled by an able
independent group, became a national bestseller anyway. People
demand the truth.

[Note: PDF Links]

Government-Financial-Report.pdf

Treasury.gov.pdf

Pot Smoking Not Linked to Lung Cancer

Pot Smoking Not Linked to Lung Cancer
Study Shows No Increased Risk for Even the Heaviest Marijuana Smokers

"I Need To Wake Up"

"I Need To Wake Up" By Melissa Etheridge
Found at Hullabaloo.

Top 10 Stupid Post-Katrina Quotes

Top 10 Stupid Post-Katrina Quotes
Sherman, set the Way-Back Machine to 2005! Here are some doozies uttered by the people that brought us the Katrina disaster (Mother Nature exempted). They range from the blithely idiotic to the utterly clueless to the maliciously racist.
1) “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” — President Bush, on “Good Morning America,” Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina
2) “What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them.” — Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005
3) “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” — President Bush, to FEMA director Michael Brown, while touring hurricane-ravaged Mississippi, Sept. 2, 2005
4) “Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well.” — FEMA Director Michael Brown, Sept. 1, 2005
5) “Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?” – House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas), to three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 9, 2005
6) “We’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do … The good news is — and it’s hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.” (Laughter) — President Bush, touring hurricane damage, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005
7) “Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, ‘New Orleans Dodged the Bullet.’ Because if you recall, the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse.” – Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, blaming media coverage for the government’s failings, “Meet the Press,” Sept. 4, 2005
8) “What didn’t go right?’” –President Bush, as quoted by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), after she urged him to fire FEMA Director Michael Brown “because of all that went wrong, of all that didn’t go right” in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort
9) “I mean, you have people who don’t heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving.” –Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), Sept. 6, 2005
10) “You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals…many of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold.” – CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, on New Orleans’ hurricane evacuees, Sept. 1, 2005

The draft dodger salute

The ultimate draft dodger gets a salute. SALUTE!! Go here if you dare or better yet go here.

The Pocket Kit-Survival

Make a Survival Kit out of an Altoids Tin (and Two More Life-Saving DIY Projects)
From Field & Stream. They show you how to put together a survival kit into an Altoids tin. With several versions, the pocket kit, the day kit and the wilderness kit.
Link at BoingBoing.

The "News" Media and dubya

Concerning that last post on ABC's COnservative 9/11 smear on Clinton and the Democrats. I'd like to add this little image which in a humorous way shows exactly the relationship between dubya and our fearless "News" media. I believe ABC (Always Been Conservative) is on the floor there by dubya's left leg. Which come to think of it is a good position for them.













Image from here:

ABC's Rightwing "Docudrama"?

Warning the ABC(Always Been Conservative) Network has a new "Docudrama" coming out in early September which blames..Yep you guessed it, Bill Clinton and the Democrats for Osama Bin Laden and 9/11. Which anyone other than the vegetables who get all their news from Faux News & CNN(& ABC obviously) knows is absolute crap. Here's links at DailyKos, Democratic Underground and American Street to get the update on this smear and revision "Docudrama":

Who’s failed to capture Osama Bin Laden each and every day for the past 5 years? George W. Bush, thanks to the divisive, failed, and stubborn perversion he calls a foreign policy.

After all the educated warnings given to the Bush administration by the likes of Richard Clarke and Sandy Berger. they knew - don’t let anyone tell you that the Bush administation didn’t know that attacks were imminent in this country.

Their bungling and hanging out at the Texas ranch while death warrants were being written by Bin Laden for innocent American civilians can’t easily be passed off to the Clinton administration, because Clinton knew about the danger all along and tried, actively and intelligently, to warn and protect us!

In the pre-9/11 world, back in the late 90s when rightwing as*holes were doing all they could to hunt and drag down the POTUS, they contributed directly to exposing our nation to sheer peril. Rightwing trash poo-pooed terrorism warninings and cried out for appeasing Bin Laden themselves - all at the expense of President Clinton’s credibility.

More:

I'm sure ABC's little historical revision won't even mention such trivialities as that August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing headlined "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." or any of the other many hints that Bushco knew something was coming. Go to Buzzflash for just some of the strange "coincidences" and warnings of what was coming.

Cluster bombs and hypocrisy

From Billmon:

The US is investigating whether Israel's use of American-made cluster bombs in Lebanon violated an agreement that the weapons not be used in populated areas, officials said yesterday . . . "We've heard the allegations that these munitions were used in Lebanon and we're looking into it," a State Department spokesman said yesterday.
Another official confirmed that the sale of cluster bombs was conditional on Israel using them only against military targets in the open, away from civilian areas.

--The GuardianUS investigates whether Israelviolated deal on cluster bombs August 26,

2006 On March 31, 2003, a United States cluster munition attack on al-Hilla in central Iraq killed at least thirty-three civilians and injured 109. While an egregious incident, this was not an anomaly in the conflict in Iraq, or in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, or in Yugoslavia in 1999. In all of these recent conflicts, and others as well, cluster munition strikes caused significant civilian casualties — casualties that could have been avoided had greater care been taken. Worse still, the vast number of explosive “duds” these weapons left behind have continued to kill and maim civilians long after the attacks, and the conflicts, have ended.

--Human Rights Watch Cluster Munitions: Toward a Global Solution January 2004

"Having the U.S. government investigate Israel's use of cluster bombs is like having the Unibomber investigate the London subway bombings."
--Billmon
Or I would add:
Like having John Negroponte investigate U.S. government involvement in death squads.

A minute's vacation

Close your eyes and take a one minute vacation.

Comair Flight 5191 Crashes

What's to say about this. Just a tragic situation. Lot's of people have written about it better than I could. It does go to show you that you should really try to enjoy this mortal coil. Death can come to get you even at your happiest moment. Going on vacation, going on the honeymoon.
"Enjoy life while you can, for you're dead a long time."
--Old Scottish Proverb

Some sources for news of this horrible accident at Lexington's Bluegrass Field:
Bluegrass Report
Lexington Herald-Leader
Louisville Courier Journal

New Orleans video: Heckuva job Dubya!

In memory of Aug. 28, 2005 when the people of New Orleans were abandoned to Katrina. From Scout Prime at First Draft here's a video memorial.

Psychedelic Furs

Pretty good way to feel good about Friday. The Psychedelic Furs on Youtube with "Heartbreak Beat".
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What the Terrorists Want

I was reminded of this when I saw in today's Lexington Herald-Leader that a downtown 4-6 block radius was closed and evacuated because there was a "suspicious acting man trespassing, and a stop watch was found". This is from Bruce Schneier at Schneier on Security and I highly recommend reading it.
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Photo from here.
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What the Terrorists Want

...I'd like everyone to take a deep breath and listen for a minute.

The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and
sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.
And we're doing exactly what the terrorists want.

Thanks for the Link to the Eviiil DailyKos here.

When Righties read the New York Times

Pretty funny. As well as true.
What Rightwingers see when they read the New York Times.
Linked from Bitch Ph.d.

Snap judgments

Snap judgments decide a face's character, psychologist finds
-Chad Boutin

We may be taught not to judge a book by its cover, but when we see a new face, our brains decide whether a person is attractive and trustworthy within a tenth of a second, according to recent Princeton research.
Princeton University psychologist Alex Todorov has found that people respond intuitively to faces so rapidly that our reasoning minds may not have time to influence the reaction -- and that our intuitions about attraction and trust are among those we form the fastest.
"The link between facial features and character may be tenuous at best, but that doesn't stop our minds from sizing other people up at a glance," said Todorov, an assistant professor of psychology. "We decide very quickly whether a person possesses many of the traits we feel are important, such as likeability and competence, even though we have not exchanged a single word with them. It appears that we are hard-wired to draw these inferences in a fast, unreflective way."

So what would you think of these people?












These are just a few of the innocent Americans illegally placed under surveillance by the Bush administration, typically because of their constitutionally-protected peaceful opposition to the Iraq war.

Continue:
Thanks to Bob Harris for the link.

Rare and Unseen photos from 9-11-01

A new book of rare and unseen photos from sept.11,2001 by Vanity Fair editor David Friend. Link found at Bag news Notes. In this photo note the tower destruction in the background. Go here for more examples and book info.

The terror assault of September 11, 2001, in which nearly 3,000 perished, was the most widely viewed breaking-news event in human history. On the fifth anniversary of the attacks, David Friend, a Vanity Fair editor, releases Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). The book examines the pivotal role that photographs play in modern life, as seen through the prism of the most tragic week in U.S. history since World War II.

Bluegrass Reports | Update on the Fletcher Follies

Bluegrass Reports has an Update on it's lawsuit against KY Governor Fletcher, who did what Republicans do best, blocked opposing viewpoints on state computers and let conservative Blogs and sites through. Surprised?
Here's More Governor Fletcher Follies.
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UPDATE: Mark Nickolas v. Governor Ernie Fletcher, et al.

Recently, a number of readers have asked me for an update on the federal 1st Amendment lawsuit that I filed against indicted Governor Fletcher (R), Secretary Robbie Rudolph and Finance Secretary John Farris last month.

First of all, now that the matter has been moved from the political arena to a legal forum, I've been careful to respect the process and not simultaneously politicize it here on BluegrassReport.org. The action was filed fully to get the Fletcher administration to back-off their unconstitutional efforts to restrict my protected political speech, not as a publicity stunt, and we are very determined to win this matter in federal court.

However, there is a significant development in the case and one that I wanted to be sure you knew about.
Yesterday, my legal team filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction. As I understand it, it's a request to the judge that the case has so much merit and a likelihood that we will eventually prevail that the Fletcher administration should immediately unblock BluegrassReport.org while the matter is being litigated.

(click here for the 41-page legal brief and the 53 pages of exhibits. You can also read the original complaint here).

I thought my legal team (Louisville's Jennifer Moore, along with Greg Beck and his team at Public Citizen in Washington, DC) did an incredible job with the brief.

From a pure interest and evolution of media standpoint, I really encourage you to read section two (pages 11-18) which lays out the state's "illegitimate distinction
between news-related websites it classifies as 'blogs' and mainstream newspaper
and magazine websites." While that's just one of several crucial arguments in
this case, it's also the one that is getting a great deal of national attention
as the establishment comes to grips with the burgeoning presence of blogs on the
political scene.

Continue:

Silence

Poster here and here.

In Politics, Comedy is Central

From In These Times here's a pretty good run down on why we get some of our "News" from comedy shows. It makes you feel good, well okay. There was that dark period from let's say 2000~2003 where I needed places like Bartcop , The Onion, etc. to actually get me through the alternate universe I'd found myself in. Here's why there's humour in things like dumbya...er, I mean Dubya:
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In Politics, Comedy is Central
By Jessica Clark

Lewis Black is irate. “The last year and a half is by far the toughest time I’ve ever spent as a comedian,” he confides to the audience in his HBO special, “Red, White and Screwed.”
“It used to be easy—one or two things might happen in a week. And now, something will happen, and I’ll read about something and I go ‘I’m going to make that funny,’ and then”—here he starts to yell and pace—”the next day, 30 other things would fucking happen! Who can keep track of this shit? I don’t even have a ports of Dubai joke, and we’re on to immigration.” The audience hoots in sympathy.
Perhaps this abundance of absurdities helps explain the recent boom in political humor. In May, the Washington Post reported that the number of Bush jokes on the late-night network shows had doubled, hitting Clinton/Lewinsky-era levels. Explicitly progressive comedy is also on the rise—from the cheery vitriol showcased on Air America, to a host of viral videos, to the recent national tour of a new stand-up troupe, Laughing Liberally. At the same time, Comedy Central satirists Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart have become the era’s most effective media critics, drawing distinguished guests from left, right and center, and providing a spirited space for public debate.
This evolution of political comedy has everything to do with the collapse of public trust in our truth-telling institutions, hastened by the right’s sustained attack on what one GOP insider dismissed as the “reality-based community.” (“Reality,” quips Colbert in full conservative drag, “has a well-known liberal bias.”)
We now routinely watch the mainstream media with the expectation that we’re being spun, but when did we start watching comedy for the real deal?

Continue:

Kristofferson's | "In The News"

You have the macho posing dilletantes like "Cubby" killer Troy Lee Gentry, and then you have the likes of Kris Kristofferson. I've liked and respected Kristofferson for ages. From the glory age of vinyl with "The Silver Tongued Devil and I" Here's why he's just as good today and far more important, it's called "In The News":

A letter to caged bear killer Gentry

Gen. JC Christian writes a letter to "Cubby" murderer Troy Lee Gentry
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"..That's why your recent arrest for shooting a caged tame bear with a bow and arrow is so damaging. It causes manly men like myself to lose respect for you. How can we continue to enjoy watching you taunt inexperienced impoverished young men into going to Iraq to fight our war now that we know that you shot Cubby in his cage?"

Jesus's General:

John Kerry smacks Lieberman

Go John! I knew there was still fight in you. Now if the other major Dem players kick holy Joe around some more it'll be sweet. Throw his butt outta the party.
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"The fact is Joe Lieberman is out of step with the people of Connecticut. I believe that he’s just dead wrong with respect to the war. And to adopt the rhetoric of Dick Cheney, who has been wrong about almost everything he has said about Iraq, shows you just exactly why he got in trouble with the Democrats there.
Dick Cheney said the insurgency was in its "last throes." Dick Cheney is the guy who said they’re going to be "welcomed with flowers," that this was going to be a cakewalk. The fact is that what’s happening in Iraq today is a reflection of an internal struggle between Sunni and Shia and the lack of the resolution is something that’s crying out for diplomatic and political solution. The continued rhetoric of this administration, and Joe Lieberman adopting it, I think is a huge mistake for Joe, and obviously the people of Connecticut are going to make their own decision."

Three Cheers for Kerry!
Thanks to Crooks & Liars.
and Firedoglake.

Neil Young's "Families"

Neil Young's new video "Families", from his Living With War CD.


Snatched from Atrios and Down With Tyranny.

Neo-Cons, Nabobs and Empire

Neo-Cons, Nabobs and Empire
It's Bigger Than the Neo-Cons
Chris Floyd
From: counterpunch

..Under Bush II, the neo-cons were brought in as shock troops; their mindless zealotry was a perfect tool for implementing the plans drawn up by the real
players in the new regime: Cheney's notorious "Energy Task Force" and the much lesser-known "Joint Task Force on Petroleum" formed by the Council on Foreign Relations and--who else?--the James Baker Institute at Rice University. It was here that the final solution for Iraq was hammered out: regime change with the aim of locking up--not unleashing--Iraq's massive oil reserves, to keep energy prices high and steady (Saddam was mischievously bouncing them all over the place) and to preserve the power of OPEC under the leadership of those time-honored pals and business partners of the American Establishment, the Saudi royals..

Continue:

Rolling Lesson?

Author Pierre Berton on the proper technique. Funny:

A Different Kind of War

I found this photo at Bag news Notes from the Israeli attack on Lebanon/Hezbollah very intriguing in a surreal kind of way. Note: That's Nasrallah on the tv.

Federal Judge rules Bush's electronic spying is illegal

Photo:
Well now, this will throw a lot of Rightwingers into a venomous tizzy. A federal judge says dubya's illegal wiretapping is, well is illegal and orders it stopped. This is from MyDD and the AP but can be found all over right now.
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DETROIT (AP) - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendants, its agents, employees, representatives, and any other persons or entities in active concert or participation with Defendants, are permanently enjoined from directly or indirectly utilizing the Terrorist Surveillance Program (hereinafter “TSP”) in any way, including, but not limited to,
conducting warrantless wiretaps of telephone and internet communications, in contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (hereinafter “FISA”) and Title III;

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED AND DECLARED that the TSP violates the Separation of Powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III;

IT IS ALSO ORDERED that Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED with respect to Plaintiffs’ data-mining claim and is DENIED regarding Plaintiffs’ remaining claims;

IT IS ALSO ORDERED that Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment is GRANTED in its entirety.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Here's the order and injunction:

Tori Amos | Winter

I love Tori Amos. That hair, that face! Those eyes, that voice! Here she is in all her glory:

Gayer than Buchanan?

World in chaos, United States becoming a third world country at warp speed. And dubya, dubya does fund raisers and photo-ops:


















Best caption I saw for this photo:
"Gayest President since Buchanan!"

Craig Murray | The UK Terror plot

This on that fading terrorist plot to blow up the planes. It's starting to look like the "Al Queda plot" in Florida. This is from Craig Murray Britain's former Ambassador to the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan. Craig Murray helped expose vicious human rights abuses by the US-funded regime of Islam Karimov. He is now a prominent critic of Western policy in the region.
Torture doesn't bring reliable information, never has never will.
--
"This is more propaganda than plot."
The UK Terror plot: what's really going on?

.."So this, I believe, is the true story.

None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time.

In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms.

What is more, many of those arrested had been under surveillance for over a year-like thousands of other British Muslims. And not just Muslims. Like me. Nothing from that surveillance had indicated the need for early arrests.

Then an interrogation in Pakistan revealed the details of this amazing plot to blow up multiple planes - which, rather extraordinarily, had not turned up in a year of
surveillance. Of course, the interrogators of the Pakistani dictator have their ways of making people sing like canaries. As I witnessed in Uzbekistan, you can get the most extraordinary information this way. Trouble is it always tends to give the interrogators all they might want, and more, in a desperate effort to stop or avert torture. What it doesn't give is the truth.

The gentleman being "interrogated" had fled the UK after being wanted for questioning over the murder of his uncle some years ago. That might be felt to cast some doubt on his reliability. It might also be felt that factors other than political ones might be at play within these relationships. Much is also being made of large transfers of money outside the formal economy. Not in fact too unusual in the British Muslim community, but if this activity is criminal, there are many
possibilities that have nothing to do with terrorism.

We then have the extraordinary question of Bush and Blair discussing the possible arrests over the weekend. Why? I think the answer to that is plain. Both in desperate
domestic political trouble, they longed for "Another 9/11". The intelligence from Pakistan, however dodgy, gave them a new 9/11 they could sell to the media. The media has bought, wholesale, all the rubbish they have been shovelled."

Continue:
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Mister Murray's parting words could pertain to anything you hear from the Bushco machine:
"Be sceptical. Be very, very sceptical."

The "Is Bush an Idiot" show

This video clip is making it's way around. I never watch Scarborough so I didn't see the original. From Crooks & Liars , YouTube (and many other fine places) here is "Is Bush an Idiot?". I do enjoy me some Bushisms and you'll find some in here:

Fascists of All Varieties

From truthout
(image from google)
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Fascists of All Varieties
Marc Ash

..Since, Mr. Bush, you have chosen to put the issue of fascism before the public, it begs a broader dialog on fascism's role in our lives today. I accept the challenge to enter that dialog. Frankly Mr. Bush, many Americans refer to
you as a fascist. There really isn't any other way to state that than bluntly. Blowing up an airliner full of passengers is barbaric and completely unacceptable, regardless of the objectives of those involved, but it really doesn't fit the definition of fascism.

From Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language:

FASCISM: A system of government characterized by rigid one party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic enterprise under centralized governmental control, belligerent nationalism, racism and militarism, etc.

That's really the heart of the matter now isn't it, Mr. Bush. One might wonder if you are troubled by by the specter of fascism in your inner thoughts when you cast the accusation wildly into the public discourse.

What would the people of Iraq say about fascism if asked? But then they haven't been asked, have they - they've been liberated, of course. What would our founding fathers say about detention without due process, without end? Electronic surveillance of all Americans, without regard for the law? What is democracy if the citizens have no confidence in the integrity of their elections? Our military hurls five-hundred pound bombs all day and all night. They land on whom they land on. It is not an isolated act of madness, it is a coordinated act of state. All the while private corporations profit wildly.

Fascism, Mr. Bush, is not your strongest card. You should change the subject
again....

Continue:

Jill Carroll's kidnapping | Part 1

The first part of Jill Carroll's narrative on her kidnapping in Iraq. Very well done. To those "journamalists" hiding in the green zone and getting their reports from official sources this is how journalism should be.
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Part 1: The kidnapping

..Then we drove to the second house, which appeared to be the home of one of the kidnappers, who'd given his name as Abu Rasha.
They took me upstairs to the master bedroom. Within a few minutes an interpreter arrived, and an interrogation began.
They wanted to know my name, the name of my newspaper, my religion, how much my computer was worth, did it have a device to signal the government or military, if I or anyone in my family drank alcohol, how many American reporters were in Baghdad, did I know reporters from other countries, and myriad other questions.
Then, in a slightly gravelly voice, the interpreter explained the situation.
"You are our sister. We have no problem with you. Our problem is with your government. We just need to keep you for some time. We want women freed from Abu Ghraib prison. Maybe four or five women. We want to ask your government for this," the interpreter said. (At the time, it was reported that 10 Iraqi women were among 14,000 Iraqis being held by coalition forces on suspicion of insurgent activity.)
"You are to stay in this room. And this window, don't put one hand on this window," he continued. "I have a place underground. It is very dark and small, and cold, and if you put one hand on this window, we will put you there. Some of my friends said we should put you there, but I said, 'No she is a woman.' Women are very important in slam."
After that they fed me from a platter of chicken and rice that would have been fit for an honored guest. And I was invited downstairs to watch television with Abu Rasha's family.
That's when we'd watched Oprah. Afterward, Abu Rasha asked me what I liked to eat for breakfast, and what time I had it. It was part of this pattern - they all seemed concerned that I think they were good, or at least that they were treating me well.
It sounds hospitable. But in my mind every second was a test - the choice of food, TV program, everything - and they would kill me if I gave the wrong answer.
Eventually I told them I wanted to sleep, and they led me upstairs. I lay in bed, on the far side away from the window. The clock was ticking loudly, and then it started to rain. I love rain, and I thought, oh, maybe this is a good sign.
But I'd been performing all day, holding in my emotions, and with darkness they came flooding back.

Continue:
Thanks to Rox Populi for the reminder

Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006

From Project Censored the top 25 Censored stories (so far) of 2006. I've posted the top ten.
Read the rest though, there's some eye openers.
--
Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006

#1 Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government
#2 Media Coverage Fails on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Death
#3 Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage
#4 Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In
#5 U.S. Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia
#6 The Real Oil for Food Scam
#7 Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers to Life and Livelihood
#8 Iraqi Farmers Threatened By Bremer’s Mandates
#9 Iran’s New Oil Trade System Challenges U.S. Currency
#10 Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy
Continue:

Aasif Mandvi | Daily Show "Live in Beirut" correspondent

I agree with John at Americablog. If you haven't seen this it's "viciously"/deliciously funny:

Meet the camel spiders

How'd you like to meet these little guys in a dark alley?














Go here for the "camel spiders". You know you want to.

Hard Rain-Tony Hoagland

From, A Trip to the Mall, with Tony Hoagland

--
After I heard,
It's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
played softly by an accordion quartet
through the ceiling speakers at the Springdale Shopping Mall
I understood,
There's nothing we can't pluck the stinger from
Nothing we can't turn into a soft drink flavor
Or a t-shirt

Dear Abbey
My father is a business man who travels.
Each time he returns from one of his trips
his shoes and trousers are covered with blood
but he never forgets to bring me a nice present.
Should I say something?
signed, America

The Poetry Foundation Podcast here:
From: Mojodragonfly:

Stickers for the Crawford Peace House

Stickers Supporting the Crawford Peace House!
Bumperactive is selling stickers in support of the Peace House, with 22.5% of the revenue going to the Peace House.

"The Crawford Peace House is the hub of the peace and justice movement in the town of president Bush's "Western White House," and also a center for ecumenical worship and advocacy for many progressive causes. The logo design for the stickers is based on the "Peace Labyrinth" -- a circular maze of stones about
forty-feet across in the House's meditation garden. The Labyrinth was designed by Peace House Founder Johnny Wolf and built by supporters in 2003."

Link from BoingBoing

Sweet - Free movie download site

Now this is Great:
700 free Feature Films
Here's some examples of the free films:



















Night of the Living Dead
Hemp for Victory
Reefer Madness
Classics

Lebanon Pics

Pics from Lebanon:













Warning, many of these are horrific.
Why does humanity keep doing this to each other? Maybe if we survive long enough we can stop killing each other over our gods and our stupidity.
Found here:
Link found here.

Bushcoism= MILITARY_INDUSTRIAL

Found at Project for the Old American Century.

Arthur Lee R.I.P.

I just found out through The Talent Show that Arthur Lee passed away last week. Arthur Lee was the lead singer/songwriter for the legendary late sixties band Love. Arthur and Love made some GREAT music and then he proceeded to burn himself out for 30 years or so. The music is still there though. Below is a 2003(?) video of "Alone Again Or". Search Youtube or go here for the classic disk "Forever Changes".

Thanks Arthur, get some rest.

YOWZAH! Lamont wins in Connecticut!

Take that Joementum! What do you think of those smoochies dubya gave you now?
Don't have a lot of time to post but I had to throw this one in. Being a sniveling, Faux News, turncoat Dem can be dangerous. Just ask Joe. Apparently he's going to be a Loserman now and run as an independent with Repub backing no doubt, like the greens.

The winner:


































The loser

Below is from Firedoglake:
--

Ned Lamont won the Democratic primary in Connecticut this evening. Joe Lieberman lost.
Joe Lieberman is on C-Span right now thumbing his nose at the Democratic voters and the Democratic party, and announcing his run independent from the party. He’s saying he wants to "unite not divide." This speech is right out of the Karl Rove playbook. Word on the street in Connecticut is that Lieberman will be running as an independent with Republican backing. Any doubts that his loyalty first and foremost is to Joe Lieberman, whatever it takes?
The question is: where will the DSCC and the party leadership be on this tomorrow? They had better be out in front and supporting the winner of the Democratic primary.

A False Sense of Insecurity?

A very well written article on the actual dangers associated with terrorism. As opposed to the blaring headlines and scare tactics of Bushco and assorted other corporate poltiticians and fear mongers.
--

"The bottom line is, terrorism doesn't kill many people. Even in Israel, you're four times more likely to die in a car wreck than as a result of a
terrorist attack. In the USA, you need to be more worried about lightning strikes than terrorism. The point of terrorism is to create terror, and by cynically convincing us that our very countries are at risk from terrorism, our politicians have delivered utter victory to the terrorists: we are terrified."

--
PDF file here.
Thanks to BOINGBOING and Schneier

MP3- "Have You Had Enough"

Rickie Lee Jones and two former members of the band Squirrel Nut Zippers have recorded a great bouncy tune asking whether you've had enough of the Rightwing mutant, corporate politicians running the country into the ground(well, have you?):



















Here's the MP3 Link:
Here's the link via DownWithTyranny:

Peak oil and the remaking of the Middle East

Juan Cole has some interesting points and speculations on the Israeli attacks on Lebanon. It's somewhat common knowledge that the Israeli attack on Lebanon has been planned for quite awhile, all in the name of security and self-protection. Juan Cole says there may be far more beneath the surface(isn't there always, especially when Bushco has their hand in the plot).
The plot itself involves, peak oil, China, India and (surprise!) Iran.

--
One Ring to Rule Them

The wholesale destruction of all of Lebanon by Israel and the US Pentagon does not make any sense. Why bomb roads, bridges, ports, fuel depots in Sunni and Christian areas that have nothing to do with Shiite Hizbullah in the deep south? And, why was Hizbullah's rocket capability so crucial that it provoked
Israel to this orgy of destruction? Most of the rockets were small katyushas with limited range and were highly inaccurate. They were an annoyance in the Occupied Golan Heights, especially the Lebanese-owned Shebaa Farms area. Hizbullah had killed 6 Israeli civilians since 2000. For this you would destroy a whole country?
It doesn't make any sense.
Moreover, the Lebanese government elected last year was pro-American! Why risk causing it to fall by hitting the whole country so hard?
And, why was Condi Rice's reaction to the capture of two Israeli soldiers and Israel's wholesale destruction of little Lebanon that these were the "birth pangs" of the "New Middle East"? How did she know so early on that this war would be so wideranging? And, how could a little border dispute in the Levant signal such an elephantine baby's advent? Isn't it because she had, like Tony Blair, been briefed about the likelihood of a war by the Israelis, or maybe collaborated with them in the plans, and also conceived of it in much larger strategic terms?
..
It may be that that hawks are thinking this way: Destroy Lebanon, and destroy Hizbullah, and you reduce Iran's strategic depth. Destroy the Iranian nuclear program and you leave it helpless and vulnerable to having done to it what the Israelis did to Lebanon. You leave it vulnerable to regime change, and a dragooning of Iran back into the US sphere of influence, denying it to China and assuring its 500 tcf of natural gas to US corporations. You also politically reorient the entire Gulf, with both Saddam and Khamenei gone, toward the United States. Voila, you avoid peak oil problems in the US until a technological fix can be found, and you avoid a situation where China and India have special access to Iran and the Gulf.
The second American Century ensues. The "New Middle East" means the "American Middle East.
"And it all starts with the destruction of Lebanon.
More wars to come, in this scenario, since hitting Lebanon was like hitting a politician's bodyguard. You don't kill a bodyguard just to kill the bodyguard. It is phase I of a bigger operation.

Continue to article with comments:

Israel considering innocent civilians fair game

A pretty good article from Peter Bouckaert at ICH:
--
For Israel, innocent civilians are fair game
International Herald Tribune08/03/06 "IHT"

..The voice of Mohammed Shalhoub, 61, a farmer from Qana, still quivers with shock and exhaustion. He was in a basement shelter with more than 60 relatives when two Israeli bombs hit, killing at least 28, including 16 children. As I interview him in hospital, relatives arrive with more news of the victims. A
woman starts screaming as she looks at the pictures of the dead and Mohammed's
eyes well up with tears.But his voice turns cold with impotent fury when I ask
if there were Hezbollah fighters near the home when the bombs fell. "If the Israelis really saw the rocket launcher, where did it go?" he asks. "We showed Israel our dead; why don't the Israelis show us the rocket launchers?"The world doesn't seem to put much credence in the testimonies of Lebanese civilians, preferring to buy generic Israeli statements about Hezbollah using civilians as human shields, "precision strikes" at terrorist targets, and a "proportionate" bombing campaign. But after days of contradictory statements about Qana, the Israeli military was reported as saying it had no indication of rocket fire or Hezbollah presence in Qana on the day of the strike, and had bombed the area in retaliation for rockets launched days earlier.Israel's claims about pin-point strikes and proportionate responses are pure fantasy. As a researcher for Human Rights Watch, I've documented civilian deaths from bombing campaigns in Kosovo and Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. But these usually occur when there is some indication of military targeting: high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's regime present in a house just before it is hit, for example, or an attack against militants that causes the collateral deaths of many civilians.In Lebanon, it's a different scene. Time after time, Israel has hit civilian homes and cars in the southern border zone, killing dozens of people with no evidence of any military objective.My notebook overflows with reports of civilian deaths. On July 15, Israeli fire killed 21 people fleeing from Marhawin, including 13 children; no weapons, no Hezbollah nearby. On July 16, an Israeli bomb killed 11 civilians in Aitaroun, including seven members of a Canadian-Lebanese family on vacation; again, no Hezbollah, no weapons. On July 19, at least 26 civilians were killed in Srifa when Israeli bombs flattened an entire neighborhood; no evidence of military targets. On July 23, at least seven civilians were killed when Israeli warplanes bombed dozens of cars trying to flee the south after receiving Israeli instructions to evacuate immediately; no indication of weapons convoys in the vicinity. The list goes on, with about 500 civilians killed so
far.Israel says the fault for the massive civilian death toll lies with Hezbollah, claiming its fighters are hiding weapons inside civilian homes and firing them from civilian areas. But even if the Israeli forces could show evidence of Hezbollah activity in some civilian areas, it could not justify the extensive use of indiscriminate force that has cost so many lives.Not only has Israel failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets; its own officials suggest that they have decided any civilian still in the south is fair game. Last week, Justice Minister Haim Ramon reportedly said, "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah."So if you are too frightened to flee southern Lebanon, or are sick, injured or too poor to pay the more than $1,000 it now costs to get out, you are a "terrorist" and eligible for attack. As for those who heeded the Israeli warnings to flee, the roads are littered with bombed civilian cars, many with white flags still attached to their windows. After all, the Israelis tell us, they could have been transporting arms. Israel is prefabricating excuses to justify killing civilians.

Continue: Information Clearing House

More on the subject from Reuters:
Israel kills 33 farm workers in Lebanon air strike

QUSAYR, Syria, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Israeli war planes killed at least 33 fruit-pickers, mostly Syrian Kurds, when they attacked a farm just inside
Lebanon's border with Syria on Friday, witnesses and officials said.
Syria's official news agency called the strike a "new Israeli massacre". It said 17 of the dead were Syrian workers, including five women, killed while they were
picking peaches and loading them onto trucks.
"I was picking peaches when three bombs hit. Others were having lunch and they were torn to pieces," said Mohammad Rashed, one of 20 people injured in the attack and taken to a Syrian hospital across the border.
"Most of those who were admitted suffered very bad wounds. We are talking about amputations and very severe burns," Arfan Bali, head of surgery at the National Hospital in the Syrian border town of Qusayr, told Reuters.
The workers were on a farm near the Lebanese village of Qaa in the northern tip of its eastern Bekaa Valley when the Israeli jets struck.
Lebanon relies on cheap Syrian labour, especially in its agriculture and
construction sector. Thousands of Syrian workers have fled the country since the
Israeli onslaught began on July 12, but many remained.
A Lebanese security official said the aircraft fired at least three rockets at a structure as a truck was being loaded with peaches and plums.

Continue:

Fishin' and fun while it lasts

I'm back from a pretty nice weekend. Went to the mountainswith the Mrs. Did some visiting, got to do a bit of wade and fishing of the S.Fork of the Kentucky river here:

On the other hand Thursday night my Internet and email crapped out and I ended up having to delete it all and reload it again Friday night. In the process I lost my address book, my email folders, pretty much everything. What a pain..but on the other hand I got some time in the woods, and in the river so maybe it evens out?

Paris Hilton tax cut killed in Senate

The Republican's pandering to their base(the extremely wealthy) falls short in the Senate.















(the vote) "told the Republican leadership in no uncertain terms to stop playing games with the minimum wage."
--John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO

A Republican election-year effort to fuse a cut in inheritance taxes on multimilllion-dollar estates with the first minimum wage increase in nearly a
decade was rejected by the Senate late Thursday.
Republicans needed 60 votes to advance their bill, which links a $2.10 increase in the $5.15 federal minimum wage over three years to reductions an estate taxes next decade. Passed by the House last Saturday, the bill got a 56-42 vote, four votes short of succeeding.

From Americablog

The Secret Society?

Dilbert creator Scott Adams hopes that there's a secret society that rules the world and that the actual incompetent leaders we see are merely puppets. It would explain a lot. You decide:
--

"My favorite conspiracy theory is the one that says the world is being run by a handful of ultra-rich capitalists, and that our elected governments are mere puppets. I sure hope it’s true. Otherwise my survival depends on hordes of clueless goobers electing competent leaders. That’s about as likely as a dog pissing the Mona Lisa into a snow bank.
The only way I can get to sleep at night is by imagining a secret cabal of highly competent puppetmasters who are handling the important decisions while our elected politicians debate flag burning and the definition of marriage.
It’s the only explanation for how the governments of the world could be staffed with morons and yet everything still runs okay, sort of. Granted, things aren’t perfect, but when you hear our leaders talk, you have to wonder why our energy policy doesn’t involve burning asbestos on playgrounds. There must be some competent people pulling the strings behind the curtain, adjusting the money supply, twiddling with interest rates, choosing the winners for American Idol, and that sort of thing.
I know some of you will say that it’s obvious that corporate money influences the
government. But that’s not enough to make me feel comfortable. I want to know there’s an actual meeting of the puppetmasters every Thursday at 3 pm. I want to
know that when one of them suggests a new policy that the group votes by pressing buttons on their chairs and if the idea is deemed bad, the offender drops through a hole in the floor and is eaten by a golden shark. You can’t tell me that democracy produces better policies than the golden shark method."

--BoingBoing

Map of Israeli strikes in Lebanon

Map of Israeli strikes in Lebanon

This map shows the locations and numbers of all Israeli air strikes in lebanon. It also gives a list of the targets hit.
Our media is giving the impression that Israel is only fighting along the border in a defensive manner. The map exposes this lie of ommission - this is an all out attempt to detroy the country of Lebanon.

Full size go to Israeli Strikes in Lebanon.

Thanks to Vivelecanada

Literal Biblical Horror

Literal Biblical Horror is a phantasm that envisions the punishment and death repeatedly called for in the bible and which would be mandated by a literal and fundamentalist application of it. It consists of 11 hooded bound and covered representations of people embedded in the ground up to their waists, piles of rocks, and bibles on lecterns. The bibles and figures will weather and age over time. Each bible is open to a passage prescribing for death for violation of its codes or laws. Some examples:

For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
Leviticus 20: 9
Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, "Naboth has cursed both God and the king." So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.
1 Kings 21:13
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Psalms 137:8-9

The passages are highlighted in blood.
The work is installed at Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, Minnesota
Found at Woods Lot

DIEBOLD | Getting it done in the background

So that's how they do it.

--

--

Picked up at Suburban Guerrilla

Mel Gibson/Drinking update

An update on the Mel Gibson arrest and his subsequent rant on Jews. This is from The Poor Man. It'll help you understand the levels of drinking and blame a bit better.
--
Q: Is Mel Gibson anti-Semitic?
A: Of course not - Gibson never even mentioned “neoconservatives“! This was all an innocent misunderstanding, which is now being blown completely out of proportion by the liberal Jew media.
Q: Gibson apparently blew a 0.12 on a breathalizer, which is only 150% the legal limit. What is that, like 3 beers? I barely even mention the Jews until I’ve put away a 20-pack. Is Gibson a wuss?
A: No. Alcohol affects different people differently, and different people metabolize alcohol in different ways. A volume of alcohol which would impair one person’s judgement would leave another person entirely unaffected. One person could tolerate a blood alcohol level of 0.10, while this same concentration would make another person violently ill. It is entirely dependent on the individual. Additionally, breathalizers are notoriously inaccurate.
However, it is possible to determine a person’s blood alcohol level very precisely by noting who they believe to be the source of all the world’s problems:

blood alcohol presumed source of all world’s problems
level
0.00-0.08 people who don’t listen to each other
0.09 that guy over there who keeps looking at you sideways like he’s got some kind of a fucking problem and wants his teeth kicked out
0.10 your so-called “friends” who act like they’re your friends to your face but really they aren’t really your real friends
0.11 the government
0.12 the Jews < ----- Mel was here
0.13 the Belgians
0.14 the English monarchy
0.15 the media
0.16 the Jew media
0.17 the Belgian government Jew media police
0.18 the International Society of Ham Radio Enthusiasts
0.19 the DMV
0.20 the KGB
0.21 the KLF
0.23 Emerson, Lake & Palmer
0.24 Emerson and Lake, but not Palmer. Palmer’s all right, man. Those other guys, they think it’s all about that fucking woo-woo stuff, and they think they’re so great, but it’s not about that bullshit, you know? Palmer, man, you’re all right. You’re all right. And you know what? I don’t care how gay it sounds: I fucking love you, man!
0.25 Emerson, Lake & The Jews
0.26 Geddy Lee*
0.27 + Canada
* This is actually true.
Continue:

Arlen Specter, enemy of freedom, friend of the police state

Spread the Word: Stop the Surveillance Bills!
EFF has sued AT&T for violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive and illegal spying program. On July 20, 2006, a federal judge denied the government's and AT&T's motions to dismiss the case, and, in doing so, demonstrated that the conventional court system is perfectly capable of handling challenges related to illegal spying.
But now the White House and Senator Arlen Specter are scheming to sweep all legal challenges related to government spying under the rug, moving cases to a secret court with no procedures for hearing argument from anyone but the government. This sham "compromise" bill will help the government continue to break the law, vastly expanding the president's power to spy on you without any meaningful oversight from Congress or the courts.

We need your help to stop this bill and others like it:
Take action now by visiting http://action.eff.org/fisa
Spread the word to friends and family -- send along information on this page and link to our Action Center.
The bill:

Stacks the deck against anyone challenging illegal surveillance programs in court, sweeping legal challenges into the shadowy Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) courts.
Guts long-standing statutory limits on secret surveillance by the government, threatening to make search warrants for national security wiretaps optional rather than mandatory.
Permits even more dragnet surveillance, creating a secret approval process for electronic fishing expeditions that could sweep up the communications of millions of Americans.

Here's what the press is saying:
Washington Post: "Mr. Specter's bill ... has been turned into a green light for domestic spying. It must not pass....This bill is not a compromise but a full-fledged capitulation on the part of the legislative branch to executive claims of power."
Los Angeles Times: "[Specter's] compromise solution is too much of a compromise and not enough of a solution."
New York Times: "The bill the president has agreed to accept would allow him to go on ignoring the eavesdropping law.... [The FISA court] is not the right court to make the determination [about the domestic spying program's constitutionality]."

From The Humane Society-Stop the slaughter of baby seals

A three-year programme to slaughter more than a million seals in Canada, to protect fish stocks, has been branded cruel and without scientific justification by the ISPCA.

The devastating cull involves seals being shot and clubbed by hunters, then skinned - possibly while still alive. The total quota issued by the Canadian government includes 975,000 harp seals and 30,000 hooded seals.

Canada clearly states its aim is to reduce seal numbers believing they are responsible for the fall in fish stocks. The government also claims the hunt is providing a valuable income for 12,000 sealers living in eastern Canada.

The ISPCA is calling for an end to the barbaric killing, which will run for six months this year.
-SPCA
--
Humane Society
When the 2006 Canadian seal hunt ended in June, hunters had killed more than 336,000 seal pups -- almost all of them babies as young as 12 days old. While the tragedy of the 2006 seal hunt can never be undone, our campaign to ensure that it was the last hunt we’ll ever have to witness is quickly gaining momentum. Today, you can help us end the largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals on the planet by signing our pledge to boycott Canadian seafood.
Click here to sign the pledge, and we'll let you know how to make the right choice when purchasing seafood.The Humane Society of the United States is on the front lines every year in Canada, fighting to halt this atrocity. You can help with your simple pledge to keep the pressure on the Canadian government and on the fishing industry that profits from the slaughter of the seals.

Sign the pledge to boycott Canadian seafood.Seal hunting is an off-season activity conducted by fishermen from Canada's east coast. They earn, on average, a small fraction of their incomes from seal hunting -- the rest comes from commercial fisheries. Canada takes in nearly $3 billion annually from seafood exports to the United States. The connection between the commercial fishing industry and the seal hunt in Canada gives consumers all over the world the power to end the vicious slaughter of seals.
Pass the pledge to friends.Canada is sensitive to world opinion, and its fishing industry is vulnerable to the choice of hundreds of thousands of people to refuse to buy Canadian seafood. Each and every person who signs the pledge will increase the pressure on Canada. Click here to ask your friends and family to sign the pledge.After you've signed the pledge and helped spread the word, you can stay in touch with our ongoing efforts to end the seal hunt at:
Protect Seals
How to know Canadian seafood here:

Quote of the Day

Israel is making another wasteland; the Lebanese mustn't have an economy, tourists, electricity; they mustn't have any means to resist, and they mustn't use any water for swimming pools. Iraq is flaunted as the model New Middle East, (itself modelled on Gaza). In this crusade, even top shelf branded humanity (Americans, Israeli soldiers) are utterly disposable; the Auschwitzization of the planet begins with the reduction of selected segments of humanity to insects and then, as if as a concession to égalité and fraternité, the sinking of the rest to the same level. Palestinian Arabs, then Lebanese Muslim Arabs, then Lebanese Christian Arabs, then Arab-Americans, then sentimental Swedes who 'sympathise' with them. The apocalyptic onslaught pauses as Condoleeza Rice descends, like Athena from Olympus, to the battlefield, to chant and prophesy, distribute depleted uranium weapons to poison the land irreperably, and bless the bloodbath. They Rule From The Heavens.
- Le Colonel Chabert

Tom Tomorrow talks to wingnuts

Find it at Salon:

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-Freedom of Speech Tour

You've probably already seen the clip but just in case here it is again.
--

Diebold machines- "All you need is a screwdriver"

Of course if you've been keeping up this won't really surprise you. It's NOT a flaw, IMO this was designed into the machine. Their purpose is to steal elections not count votes. Welcome to Bushco voting.
--
“If you have access to these machines and you want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS -- and it could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver.”

Diebold voting machines can be beaten with a switch-flip

Diebold's voting machines are even less secure than previously suspected. Inspection of a Diebold machine by the open Voting Foundation revealed that all it takes to get a Diebold machine to boot a modified, crooked operating system is the flip of a switch, a task that can be accomplished in a brief moment using nothing but a screwdriver. Diebold has strenuously resisted calls for its voting machines to be fitted with paper audit-tapes that would record the votes cast for comparison against the electronic tally, and has used legal threats to keep critics from publishing memos detailing earlier flaws discovered in its machines. If you want to steal an election, use a Diebold machine.

Upon examining the inner workings of one of the most popular paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United States, it has been determined that with the flip of a single switch inside, the machine can behave in a completely different manner compared to the tested and certified version. "Diebold has made the testing and certification process practically irrelevant," according to Dechert. "If you have access to these machines and you want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS -- and it
could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver." This model does not produce a voter verified paper trail so there is no way to check if the voter's choices are accurately reflected in the tabulation.

Source: The Open Voting Foundation
Thanks to Cory at BoingBoing