2007 | The Deadliest Year For US Troops

While the corporate "news" folks and pundits are telling you how US troop fatalities have decreased in recent months keep in mind:

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2007 Deadliest Year For U.S. Troops In Iraq.

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"Bipartisanship" | Speaking Of Pundits

Since the Bushco Repubicans have screwed everything they've touched, probably for years to come and are at this moment virtually filibustering every bill in Congress that doesn't kiss Bush ass. The elite pundits(see Tom Tomorrow below) are now pleading for "bipartisanship"(cough!..David Broder..cough!) as the key top save the country. Their hero of the moment; billionaire Bloomberg/Robb, etc. The best way to deal with these gasbags is ignore them or make fun of them. Some great takes are found at digby, Openleft, Yglesias, C&L to start with.

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Conservative Pundits | Four Years Later

Number two on here Bill "Never Been Right On Anything" Crystal has been given a pundit job with the New York Times(unsurprisingly). They're apparently seeing how fast they can attain the reputation of The National Inquirer.

Torture - What's It Good For?

I haven't been feeding the Blog much lately. Maybe I can make a New Year's resolution? I did get the home computer running all right again. So there's been some accomplishment. A good final post of the old year should concern bloody dubya's torture chambers. From Pharyngula.

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When the US government announces it's support for torture, they aren't talking about intelligence gathering: they are simply saying "Fear us." They are taking the first step on the road to tyranny.

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Greenwald's Favorite Quotes Of 2007

There's soooo many more than this for 2007. Glenn Greenwald's list is a really good starting point for the best quotes. Seriously though you know that Fred Thompson alone had a bunch of good lines in 2007. Anyway here's one of Glenn's picks:

"Unfortunately, Speaker Nancy Pelosi quashed the House Intelligence Committee's bipartisan effort and supported a Democratic bill that -- Limbaugh is salivating -- would require the surveillance of every foreign-terrorist target's calls to be approved by the FISA court, an institution founded to protect the rights of U.S. citizens only. In the lethal shorthand of political advertising, it would give terrorists the same legal protections as Americans. That is well beyond stupid" --

-Joe Klein(Joke Line) of Time Magazine

The rest link.

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Bhutto Assassination

A good photo series of the Benizar Bhutto assassination.

A McClatchy: Eyewitness to the Benazir Bhutto Assassination:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/23829.html


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Friday Blogging | No Sound

Good Evening All. I just installed a new DVD drive and for some strange reason I have no sound on my computer. I'm stumped for the moment so there's no point in posting a Friday video if I can't even hear it myself. Only a while to be online tonight and we're leaving again in the morning to go to the country. There's no way I can get online much less post down there so I'll throw up a few little things that caught my eye today. Lot's of strange stuff going on as always. Olbermann had his best of 2007 rants on this evening but I didn't watch much of it. Just to much video of the Bushco gang. There's the Bhutto's assassination, everyone's digging at that one. More on it in a bit. But here's a strange little bit of wordplay by deranged Republican candidate Mike Huckabee from yesterday. Apparently threatening voters if they don't vote for him:

“This is what happens…You vote for me, you live. You don’t…there you go.”
--Republican Mike Huckabee(Pointing to three dead pheasants he'd shot)

Interesting. I wonder if this was one of those Cheney type "canned" bird hunts, and did anyone ask ol' Mike about that stray dog torturing/killing son of his? Curious folks want to know.

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Creation Museum Goes Begging

I saw on our way to Ohio Monday a huge billboard in Northern Kentucky advertising that blight on science the Creation Museum. The last write up I'd seen in my local paper about this biblical museum was how great they were doing. Well this little item jumped out at me a few days ago at BGR.
Apparently they're begging for more funding

We need to raise $400,000 by December 31 to finish the year on-budget—armed to stand as effective witnesses for Christ against Satan’s attacks while 2007 closes and a new year begins.

--




















Poster from Pharyngula.

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I'm Back With Van Morrison

Back from the Christmas trip. Other than the drive it was fine. It's always good to see people you haven't seen in a while and catch up on things. Here's Van Morrison with "Wavelength":



The album version is much better I think.

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Happy Holidays All!

Aurora borealis over Frozen Bear Lake.

My postings for the next few days will probably be even sparser than usual. A lot of stuff going on lately with the holidays, and other goings on. Tomorrow is no different. Monday morning we put the doggies in the kennel and head to the Ohio in-laws for Christmas. No Internet connections there even if I had the computer. The worst part is being cut off from my internet news. I refuse to watch the corporate info-tainment" packaged as news. Hopefully I can sign in tomorrow. If not everyone coming by have a wonderful holiday. Peace.

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Impeach Dick(First)!

Nearly 130,000 already signed on in support of Congressman Wexler's call for Cheney impeachment hearings.

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It's The End Of The World

George W. Bush Does REM:



Thanks to BoingBoing.

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VId | "Pearl" The Landlord

Here's a young(er)Will Ferrell in "The Landlord" for the few people who still haven't seen it:



From Ferrell's Gary Sanchez Productions.
Warning: Some nasty language.

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Vid | Sukiyaki

Am I the only one who remembers this song?



By Kyu Sakamoto.

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UNICEF Photo Of The Year

The American photographer Stephanie Sinclair is the winner of the international photo competition “UNICEF Photo of the Year”. Her photo shows a wedding couple in Afghanistan who could not be more opposite. The groom, Mohammed, looks much older than his 40 years. The bride, Ghulam, is still a child; she just turned 11.

Link.

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The Christmas Gift To Drive Someone Nuts

Drive Someone Insane with Postcards. The mystery postcards. From EBay














Thanks to the evil Scalzi.

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FOX ATTACKS!

FOX ATTACKS! Edwards and Obama:



From BraveNewFilms

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Bowie And Crosby | Peace On Earth

Once again here's one of the strangest Christmas duets of all time.



Any stranger?

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Senator Chris Dodd My Hero!

Democratic(and one of my favorite Presidential candidates) Senator Chris Dodd's filibuster threat works. Dem turncoat Senator Harry "weak tea" Reid pulls the FISA Telecom immunity bill and tables it for after new year. Thanks Sentor Chris Dodd! This is what leadership looks like.



More at C&L.
Here's Senator Dodd's website, show your Love.

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Leiberman Endorses Best Bud John McCain

Republi-crat Joe Lieberman makes it official and endorses John "Bomb Iran" McCain. Now can we call Joe Republican? "Smoking Joe" is to the right of Arlen Specter. Here's Joe and his pal Republican John McCain:















And here's Joe with his other best bud(whom I'm sure okayed Joe's McCain endorsement):

















And here's a video of Joe the traitor in '06 saying he wants a Democrat in the White House in '08.

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RIP | Dan Fogelberg

I read this morning that Dan Fogelberg passed away from cancer. I need to get a few of the old albums out and dust them off. I could put Same Auld Lang Syne or Run For The Roses up but that's a bit to easy and well known. I couldn't find much concert footage so here's "These Days" from "Captured Angel"(1975):



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Bill Moyers Interviews Keith Olbermann

Part 1.



Part 2 and part 3.

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Drive By Post

Hi Passerby! Here's hoping you're having a great weekend, or at least passable. We're supposed to get snow tonight but we've got snacks, movies and all the comforts of home here. Stay safe(and warm).I'm gonna surf over and check out some Blogs and news. Here's Post Secret:



And















Check 'em out.

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Friday Video

I like Loreena McKennitt and here she is:



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Is It Torture Again?

Helmut of Phronesisaical testified before the Helsinki Commission yesterday. Here's a bit of the transcript.

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Torture Hearing

"..Yes, torture works in that torture victims speak, although information from torture is notoriously unreliable. This has been noted since the time of Aristotle. Under severe pain, torture victims often admit to anything to halt the pain, regardless of whether they possess significant information. Accounts of torture from the Inquisitions show the most delirious and fantastic tales from the victims. These tales – this information – served to confirm the beliefs and prior assumptions of the torturers. Bad weather, for instance, was thought to be caused by demons flying to and fro through the air consorting with human “witches.” Torture victims confirmed these beliefs of the inquisitors, giving up the names of other “witches” who would reconfirm indefinitely the preposterous prior beliefs, as well as the inquisitors’ authority.

If information must be of great moral significance to justify torture, how would we know it was such information? On occasion, the torturers might have reasonable expectation in advance that the prisoner does indeed possess such information. But this is highly implausible and likely obviates any perceived need to torture. To use the moral justification of morally significant information requires some knowledge in advance that the torture victim possesses the relevant information. More likely than the time bomb case of torturing one person in order to save many is the case of torturing many innocent people in order to find the one person. It is to torture in search of what might justify the act of torture, an act made even worse through the torture of innocents.."

Link.

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Al Gore In Bali

The UN Climate Conference:



Link.

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Retired Lt. Colonel Iraqi Vet To Run Against Senator Mitch McConnell

Bush toady and all around corporate sleaze Repub Senator Mitch McConnell will have a major fight on his hands this time. McConnell is more vulnerable than he's been in a LONG time. He's already running ads in Kentucky. He's that vulnerable. A big part of it is his full support for Bushco in Iraq. Retired Lt. Colonel Andrew Horne has stepped in to run against McConnell.
This could be a great race. We may just get rid of the corrupt McConnell. Here's more

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"..Washington is broken and our Senator, Mitch McConnell, is fully complicit in this culture of corruption. He works against Kentucky’s interests and rewards his big money donors with his votes…big business, large insurance companies and lobbyist friends. Our jobs are being outsourced, McConnell shows no leadership on immigration, and instead works for his friends in China.
McConnell has turned his back on students and their families as college tuition skyrockets.
It is time we fight back.
I offer trustworthy, competent and genuine leadership. I am not a Politician.
I’ve served this Country and this Commonwealth with the Marines for 27 years, and I am a Veteran of both Gulf Wars.
Together we can make a difference.
I am Andrew Horne. I am running for Senate.."

His website link

more.

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The Only Good Thing About Today..

I discovered "Rogue Wave". Here they are with "Lake Michigan":



As always it's best to follow the YouTube link and then full screen the video. Oh, and turn it up....

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What's The Difference Between A Rabbit And A Congressional Democrat?

The rabbit has a spine silly.

The Democrats; Pelosi, Reid & crew wimp out again to president 25%. Surprised? Not me. They bluff, then fold..Every.. Time. Glenn Greenwald says it best. Also go here and here for starters. Congressional Democrats are worthless, and maybe that's what they want us to think? How do they feel being dubya's bitches, and what's in those dossiers dubya's wiretapping goons have on them?
On the other hand they did pass a "Christmas and the Christian's Christmas" are wonderful bill by 372-9. I kid you not...

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Those Evil Genius Iranians

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Time's Top Editorial Cartoons Of 2007

Link.

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Solar is the answer

An excellent article from an excellent magazine. Steve Heckeroth at Mother Earth News gives us "Solar Is The Solution". Everything you need to know to evaluate every source of energy available to humanity right now. Solar energy comes out so far ahead there's really not much contest. Humanity needs to start using what's left of the non-renewable resources to sustain us as we phase to renewable. Go read the whole article.

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Solar is the Solution
It’s time to harness the world’s virtually inexhaustible supply of solar energy..

Left: Annual global renewable energy resources, 725 million terrawatt hours. Right: Total global non-renewable energy resources, 10.8 million terrawatt hours.

Annual Global RENEWABLE Energy Resources
(in Terawatt hours*)
Direct Solar Radiation 350,000,000
Wind 200,000
Ocean/Thermal 100,000
Biofuels 50,000
Geothermal 10,000
Tidal/Wave 5,000

Total Global Non-renewable Energy Resources
(Terawatt hours*)
Coal 6,000,000
Natural Gas 1,500,000
Uranium 235 1,500,000
Oil 1,000,000
Tar Sands 800,000
Total: 10,800,000
*1 terawatt hour is equal to 1 billion kilowatt hours

Link.

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Top Ten Bushisms Of 2007

The Top Ten Bushisms 2007 from Daniel Kurtzman at Political Humour.

"You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 -- 1976."
--to Queen Elizabeth, Washington, D.C., May 7, 2007

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Now: Speaking Of Evil

I had to put this up from Weldon Berger. It says in one paragraph what it would take me a chapter. The big reason Bushco keeps pushing and pushing at the Republican enablers and the jellyfish Dems(cough..Pelosi..cough..Reid) in Congress.

Bush and Cheney have broken the law consistently throughout their reign, often openly, and to the great detriment of our own country and others; when they obey it, they do so more as a matter of convenience than from any fealty to it or any fear of retribution. They’re pleased to use the legislature to achieve their ends when they can — as when Congress obligingly immunized administration personnel from prosecution under the War Crimes Act — and to ignore it when they can’t. Former Justice Department official Jack Goldsmith explains the dynamic as described to him by Dick Cheney’s current number two, torture maven David Addington: “We’re going to push and push and push until some larger force makes us stop.” They have, and that larger force has not materialized — and the administration have been at pains to ensure that the force, if it ever arrives, won’t do so in the person of the courts — and the result is a constitutional republic with its framework intact and its guts eviscerated. There is only one remedy, and that’s impeachment.


Stolen from Not Atrios at Eschaton.

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Al Gore's Nobel Acceptance Speech

Big Al's acceptance speech in Oslo Norway. With the transcript of the whole speech.

UPDATE: Here's the video:



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Chimpy McStagger | "Pants On Fire"

From Mock, Paper, Scissors comes Chimpy McStagger in "Pants On Fire":



The crimes pile up.

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Humane Society Victories

The Humane Society: Small victories at a time.

The last two states -- New Mexico and Louisiana -- outlawed cockfighting, and Congress passed a seminal law strengthening penalties for animal fighting.

Horse slaughter finally eliminated on U.S. soil.

Rescuing animals from natural disasters.

Some of the worst cruelties of factory farming stopped.

It's the giving time of the year. Give to the Humane Society if you can. We're supposed to be the smart ones, the ones with a conscious but I have my doubts. Especially the conscious part.

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Project: Make A Place For Your Stash?

I like this little project. Make yourself a secret compartment book. I could hide my snickers bars in this.



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Work Monday | Video

G'day! Lunch time at the studio. This should wake you up children. Here's Matchbox Twenty with "How Far We've Come":



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John Lennon R.I.P. | Oct. 9, 1940 - Dec. 8, 1980

A late note on the anniversary of John Lennon's murder. Like millions of people I still miss John and still wonder at all the might have beens. Here's Martin Lewis at the Huffington Post with a fine memorial:

It was a drag. It's still a drag. And I'm still inconsolable...


Here's John Himself with "Happy Christmas(War Is Over)":



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What's Going On In Those High Times Offices?

Ever wonder what those guys do all day in the offices of "High Times"? Wonder no more. From Collegehumour here's the High Times Editorial offices:



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Santa Baby | Hey It's Raining In My Christmas Land!

Greetings web travelers. I'm back...It's been raining off and on all day here but I still got the outside Christmas decorations up, and they work! Also got some plumbing repair work done, and it works! Along with those other extraneous(big word) chores of the weekend. I just kicked some alien butt in HALO(yes it's addictive, I was thinking today that I need a t-shirt or bumper sticker saying, "I'd rather be playing HALO"). I haven't gotten much Blogging done but here at the fortress of solitude I've done quite a bit. Holy cow, I haven't even been keeping track of what evil Bushco's been up to. I'll go find out right now and meantime here's Kylie Minogue with "Santa Baby":



Whew!! Is it getting hot in here?

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Randi Rhodes | We Believe Speech

A bit long but worth watching. Air America's Randi Rhodes speaking to the PEACE ACTION of Michigan:



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Over Ten Million EMails Deleted By White House!

As Jack Cafferty at CNN says:
"Another law broken — Another example of nobody doing a damn thing about it."



Hat tip to C&L.

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How America Lost The War On Drugs

Like Alcohol Prohibition It Was Lost When It Started. People want their drugs, they'll get their drugs. Rolling Stone has an excellent article up on the US government's continuing failure at the "war on drugs". I already know a BIG reason for the fed's escalating war on (un-approved) drug users. It's a BIG business, it's good for the corporations,it's keeps that pesky marijuana from being used as a beneficial drug, it's good for the police(funding and confiscations), private prisons, foreign death squads. I could go on and on but here's Ben Wallace-Wells with the must read story of what and why.

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How America Lost the War on Drugs
Ben Wallace-Wells
After Thirty-Five Years and $500 Billion, Drugs Are as Cheap and Plentiful as Ever: An Anatomy of a Failure.


Link.
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Mike Huckabee Might Be An Idiot | Part I

You've heard of the NIE Report which stated that Iran stopped development of nuclear weapons in 2003? Of course you have. If you read the news, watch the "news", heard the news. Hell if you surf the web for news you've heard of that NIE Report. A huge part of the whole world breathed a sigh of relief when they were told about it's findings. To sum up it's been everywhere. Here's Mike Huckabee in an interview Tuesday:

David Paul Kuhn: I don’t know to what extent you have been briefed or been able to take a look at the NIE report that came out yesterday ...

Huckabee: I’m sorry?

Kuhn: The NIE report, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Have you been briefed or been able to take a look at it —

Huckabee: No.

Kuhn: Have you heard of the finding?

Huckabee: No.

Kuhn then summarized the NIE finding that Iran had stopped work on a clandestine nuclear program four years ago and asked if it “adjusts your view on Iran in any sense."

Kuhn: What is your concern on Iran as of now?

Huckabee: I’ve a serious concern if they were to be able to weaponize nuclear material, and I think we all should, mainly because the statements of Ahmadinejad are certainly not conducive to a peaceful purpose for his having it and the fear that he would in fact weaponize it and use it. (He pauses and thinks) I don’t know where the intelligence is coming from that says they have suspended the program or how credible that is versus the view that they actually are expanding it. … And I’ve heard, the last two weeks, supposed reports that they are accelerating it and it could be having a reactor in a much shorter period of time than originally been thought.

Link.

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Live Blogging Dubya's "Speechifying"

The Rude Pundit had the fortitude to Live blog Bush's Iran nukuleer speech. Good but not for the faint of heart. The Pundit also admits he had to have vodka for strength. Better him than me.

Link.

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Wolfowitz | He's Baaaack!

I bet you thought even a sleazy neo-con like Wolfowitz would have the common decency to never show his face again after his war criminal assistance to Iraq and his sleazy service at The World Bank. Hell, who would even hire the douchebag? You thought the only job he'd get would be the neo-con welfare system didn't you? Silly, you forgot about the Bushco criminal enterprise system. Wolfie's home away from home. Here's David Shuster standing in for Olbermann with the lowdown form Rachel Maddow. A bonus is the chimpster giving a patented smirking display:



Bushco=The inbred crony administration.

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Books | Interview: Author Of "The Golden Compass"

This interview with Philip Pullman makes me want to read "His Dark Materials" trilogy. The first volume comes out early this month in movie form as "The Golden Compass". There's already something of an uproar among the religious intoxicated among us.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP PULLMAN

"..For Pullman, there's a morality to good craftsmanship. As a young man he wrote verse and studied every kind of poetic metre he could—rondeaus, villanelles, sonnets and sestinas, the more complicated the better. He believes that if you can recognise rhythm and cadence in poetry, then you can do so in prose. It's not hard to see him extending the principle of good craftsmanship more generally. A bad politician is one who reaches beyond his or her capabilities, who doesn't understand how societies are constructed, and who screws things up.

After the soup and cheese, he returns to his armchair in the study and his anger mounts again, when our discussion about climate change ("without question the biggest issue of our time"), leads to the war on terror and Iraq. He says that George Bush is "a moral criminal", and Tony Blair has "a great deal to be apologetic for. Not that he ever will [apologise]. Armoured with his self-righteousness, he will never admit, even to himself, that [the Iraq war] was a ghastly mistake. A terrible, terrible error." Pullman has particular contempt for the sloganeering. He says "the war on terror" is "an utterly stupid phrase. Utterly, ridiculously foolish phrase. No one should ever have used it. Certainly no British politician should ever have repeated it.."

Continue.

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Charlie Coyote

Your Daily Coyote:
Charlie is a rescued coyote orphan living in a one room cabin in Montana with his owner and a tomcat named Eli.















Found at cuteoverload.

Update: I've been informed sweetly by anonymous that it is actually Wyoming and not Montana. Oops...

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Tuesday Video

YAAAWWNN! G'Morning world! Wishing it was Friday.
Here's The Cranberries with "Linger":



Mmmmm...I likes Dolores O'Riordan yes I do...

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Drew Carey Video: Cops Do Paramilitary-Style Raids On Poker Games

On reason.tv Drew Carey on police using paramilitary style raids on neighborhood poker games. In this instance the Dallas Police Department. On the other hand it does keep the police from breaking in the doors of the marijuana smokers and hauling them off to prison.

"Drew Carey goes all in to report how Dallas cops carried out a paramilitary-style raid on a poker game at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1837, which has now been forced to close its doors.

The raid is part of a broader move by local police to shut down poker games, arrest players, and seize property - even in low stakes games benefiting charity, like at the VFW. And it's emblematic of the government's misguided war on gambling, such as the recently enacted federal ban on Internet wagering. In most jurisdictions throughout the country, consenting adults are banned from gambling -- unless of course they want to bet on low-odds games run by the government. State lotteries, that is."

More..

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Saturday Is Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day

This has possibilities.
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12-08-07: Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day..










Photo: Time Travel Project.

................................
"The classic version of this is to get some kind of smoke bomb or smoke machine, as well as an anachronistic costume. Wait for someone to walk past an alley, then set off the smoke and stagger out, looking dumbfounded. If they don't run away, grab their shoulder and ask what year it is. If they respond, shout "The experiment was a success after all!" and run away."
-Fetterkey

Hmmm..That could go wrong in so many ways.

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Iran Halted Nuclear Weapons Program In 2003

Well, well, well. What will Dick and dubya do now to get their new war on? I think you just heard the whole world give a sigh of relief. At least till Bushco comes up with another plan

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A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen.

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ID: Stupidity, Politics, Religion

Speaking of religion here's a perceptive little chart from Saint Gasoline via Mike. A cute little Venn Diagram on "Intelligent Design", politics and stupidity.




















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Ethnic Cleansing Of Iraq's Christians

Another Bushco Iraq invasion result. The purging and cleansing of Iraq's Christians. CBS 60 minutes has the story.
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Dire Times For Iraq's Christians

Before the war, it's estimated there were about a million Christians in Iraq. They were a small minority, but free to worship, free to build churches, and free to speak the ancient language of Jesus, Aramaic. But, after the invasion, Muslim militants launched a war on each other and the cross.

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War: Dubya's Big Business Venture

Lambert at Corrent:
The first business venture that George W. Bush has ever succeeded in?

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Rudy Giuliani: He Took Care Of His Mistresses

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