God might forgive them, but not South Carolina
a pair of bills that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for some repeat child molesters.Support for the package picked up steam after a man was charged with kidnapping two girls and raping them in a dungeon behind his home earlier this year.
The related measures could send to death row offenders convicted twice of raping a child younger than 11.
I actually have no problem with this. In fact, they're giving them one more chance than I think they deserve.
Blowing children's brains out over there so we don't have to do it here.
: Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones is not one of the Marines that military investigators have concluded killed civilian Iraqis in Haditha last November. He was assigned to photograph and remove the bodies. His mind has been tortured since that day:
Briones said he took pictures of at least 15 bodies before his camera batteries died. He said he then helped other Marines remove the bodies and place them in body bags.
He said his worst moment, and one that haunts him to this day, was picking up the body of a young girl who was shot in the head.
"I held her out like this," he said, demonstrating with his arms extended, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."
As he spoke, his mother, Susie Briones, 40, a Hanford community college teacher, who was sitting beside him at the kitchen table, silently wiped away tears.
Earlier she confided to a reporter that her son called frequently from Iraq after he experienced nightmares over the little girl.
"He called me many times," she said, "about carrying this little girl in his hands and her brains splattering on his boots. He'd say, 'Mom, I can't clean my boots.
I can't clean my boots. I see her.' "
The nightmares in Iraq under US occupation grow darker each time revealed -- when usually the more light you shine on a nightmare it causes the horror to fade.
Not in Rummy's war. Where are his boots? Are they clean?
Apple computers are evil tools of terrorism.
striped with thick black lines that were intended to obscure portions of three pages and render them unreadable.
But the obscured text nevertheless can be copied and pasted inside some PDF readers, including Preview under Apple Computer's OS X and the xpdf utility used with X11.
The deleted portions of the legal brief seek to offer benign reasons why AT T would allegedly have a secret room at its downtown San Francisco switching center that would be designed to monitor Internet and telephone traffic. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the class-action lawsuit in January, alleges that the room is used by an unlawful National Security Agency surveillance program.
"AT T notes that the facts recited by plaintiffs are entirely consistent with any number of legitimate Internet monitoring systems, such as those used to detect viruses and stop hackers," the redacted pages say.
Another section says: "Although the plaintiffs ominously refer to the equipment as the 'Surveillance Configuration,' the same physical equipment could be utilized exclusively for other surveillance in full compliance with" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The redacted portions of AT T's court filing are not classified, and no information relating to actual operations of an NSA surveillance program was disclosed.
Also, AT T's attorneys at the law firms of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and Sidley Austin were careful not to explicitly acknowledge that such a secret room actually exists.
A representative for AT T was not immediately available to comment.
"Oops!
"
-- The luxurious private jet that ferried Ohio GOP Rep. Bob Ney and several aides on a golf trip to Scotland with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff came equipped with mahogany woodwork, plush seats, computers and a bar stocked with two bottles of red wine and a case and a half of "lite" beer, according to records released at a trial on Friday.
Ney stayed in $500 per night hotel rooms while visiting London and golfing at the world's most renowned golf courses, according to evidence presented in the case of another golfer on the trip, former General Services Administration Chief of Staff David Safavian.
[..
.]
Ney hasn't been charged with wrongdoing and denies doing anything inappropriate. He says he was told that a Virginia-based conservative think tank called the National Center for Public Policy sponsored the excursion, which "would be entirely consistent with House ethics rules," said his spokesman Brian Walsh.
Ney said the trip's business purposes included meeting with British parliamentarians.
[..
.]
A snapshot admitted into evidence showed Ney reading a newspaper aboard the plane. The trip's itinerary didn't list any official business.
Tom DeLay made the same claims about believing that the National Center sponsored expensive trips that he took, but recently facts came to light that suggest that while The Center arranged and paid for the trips, , after Ney asked Abramoff to make it happen.
Ney's claim of meeting with British parliamentarians turns out to be in question, as while other members of Congress did meet with Parliament during that month, there is no record of Ney visiting, also, Parliament was in recess while Ney was in Scotland.
The return flight is also problematic for Ney, as the $758 commercial flight ticket was , which violates congressional rules that ban lobbyists from paying legislators' expenses.
Public opinion of President Bush's handling of Iraq has changed little since March, a new , with two-thirds of U.S.
adults rating his handling of the situation there as "poor" or "only fair" and 29% rating his work as "excellent" or "pretty good."
The online poll of 2,085 adults also shows many Americans remain pessimistic about Iraq: Sixty-one percent said they aren't confident that U.S.
policies in Iraq will be successful, while 22% said they are confident in success.
I don't think the new, softer, gentler cowboy Bush will sway the public opinion on this. People are fed up with the situation in Iraq, but as much as Bush would like his low approval rating to be just war related, it's much more than that, really.
Interesting to note, though, that the Harris Poll that normally includes an 'overall approval' rating is strangely missing that portion. A new tactic by the right-wing? If the polls are going your way, obliterate them.
A free and democratic press?
- A federal judge on Friday ordered Time magazine to turn over documents for a White House aide to use in his defense to perjury and other charges in the CIA leak case.
The order by U.S. District Reggie B.
Walton also said the New York Times might have to turn over some information but reduced the scope of documents the newspaper and other news organizations would have to provide to lawyers for the defendant, former top vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
[.
..]
The judge insisted that his narrowing of Libby’s subpoenas will not have a “chilling effect” on the press because his ruling “does not swing open the gates for either the government or a criminal defendant to learn the identity of all sources of a reporter or to gain access to all information a reporter has amassed.
”
How George Bush manages to maintain any approval rating at all when every day is yet another horror story of wrongs created by abuses of either Presidential authority, or the Constitution will certainly go down in the history books as one of the great wonders of our time.
Is there anything as somber as black horses pulling a casket upon a black carriage?
The casket of Marine Lance Cpl. Adam C. Conboy, 21, rides on a horse-drawn caisson through Westminster Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
, Wednesday, May 24, 2006. According to a military news release, Conboy, of the Roxborough section of Philadelphia, died 'as a result of a non-hostile incident' in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Bob Dylan - Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
The first unofficial meeting of Congress on the subject of a possible war with Iran is set to take place later this afternoon in the U.S. Capitol.
At 3:00 pm, a group of Democratic Representatives plan to hold a hearing probing the question: "Would war with Iran help or hurt U.S. national security?
"
While admirable that our Dem leaders want to get together and have serious discussion of the ramifications of a war with Iran, the list of Dems who will be in attendance is rather lacking. Not a single person with much clout in Congress is on the list. Where are the rest of you?
Golfing?
Aside from the who, the question is all wrong. They should be asking "Do you want the Bush administration to lead us into a war with Iran?
" That question should be fairly simple to answer.
Look at all those immature idiots.
The war is over and nobody told us.
— The Department of Defense failed to meet its self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline for equipping all U.S. soldiers and contractors in Iraq with lifesaving body armor.
The military says the shortfall is because more troops have been required to serve in Iraq after the war than the Pentagon predicted.
Okaay, but why do they need body armor then if the war is over? What are they participating in now, the post-war festivities?
Ohio Senate race will be ugly, and costly.
, Sherrod Brown, while talking with reporters, saying there'll be plenty of time for that before November. But it turns out that DeWine has gone on quite the attack in a fundraising missive to donors, saying that while he has voted consistently to keep the military strong "and our homeland well defended," Brown's congressional record on defense and national security "is frightening."
To cut to the chase: DeWine will keep America secure. Brown, if he was being honest, would "leave America vulnerable to the terrorists." That's in DeWine's words.
DeWine tells potential donors this so they will give him money to create a multi-million-dollar "Truth Squad Media Fund" that will set the record straight with television and radio ads.
Here is some of the rhetoric DeWine uses in his letter:
* "..
.as a lifelong liberal Democrat Congressman Brown's record on national defense and national security is frightening."
* Brown and "many of his left-leaning colleagues.
..wish to see President Bush fail at every turn.
.."
* Brown, "marching to the orders of his labor union backers," fought the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
* "Like so many Democrats he can't resist going off on ideological tangents and embracing the agenda espoused by left-wing activists like Howard Dean, Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan."
* Brown "has shrewdly begun to totally bury his liberal record so he can run as a 'moderate' when it comes to national security and defense issues."
* "And the liberal media is sure to let him get away with it.
"
* "It would be refreshing to have Sherrod Brown openly admit that like so many of his Democrat colleagues he wants to decimate our military power, and leave America vulnerable to the terrorists. But that would be too honest."
There's much more, as the letter from the GOP senator goes on for four pages.
No one should be surprised at this strategy in the least. Nor should Mr. DeWine be surprised to get hit in the face with the facts that his strategery of doing whatever George Bush wanted has led to 2,455 dead US troops, and a national debt that we'll be passing on for generations to come.
9/11 happened on your watch Mr. DeWine. What have you done for our security lately?
What ATT doesn't want you to see.
is the key witness in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class-action lawsuit against the telecommunications company, which alleges that AT T cooperated in an illegal National Security Agency domestic surveillance program.
In a public statement Klein issued last month, he described the NSA's visit to an AT T office. In an older, less-public statement recently acquired by Wired News, Klein goes into additional details of his discovery of an alleged surveillance operation in an AT T building in San Francisco.
Klein supports his claim by attaching excerpts of three internal company documents: a Dec.
10, 2002, manual titled "Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco," a Jan. 13, 2003, document titled "SIMS, Splitter Cut-In and Test Procedure" and a second "Cut-In and Test Procedure" dated Jan. 24, 2003.
The links include photos of the data storage rooms, photocopies of the documents detailing the splitter cut-in "test procedures", the wiring, as well as the study group details. Perhaps not damning for the nsa, but for any litigation against ATT, well someone has a lot of 'splainin' to do.
[Hat tip .
]
Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
the coalition forces targeted a Taliban compound and "we're certain we hit the right target."
"It's common that the enemy fights in close to civilians as a means to protect its own forces," he added.
Many of the wounded sought treatment at Kandahar city's Mirwaise Hospital. One man with blood smeared over his clothes and turban said insurgents had been hiding in an Islamic religious school, or madrassa, in the village after fierce fighting in recent days.
"Helicopters bombed the madrassa and some of the Taliban ran from there and into people's homes. Then those homes were bombed," said Haji Ikhlaf, 40. "I saw 35 to 40 dead Taliban and around 50 dead or wounded civilians.
"
Another survivor from the village, Zurmina Bibi, who was cradling her wounded 8-month-old baby, said about 10 people were killed in her home, including three or four children.
"There were dead people everywhere," she said, crying.
Well .
. . they all had brown skin.
Rumsfeld didn't say *how* he was going to "free" them.
Mourners place victims in wooden coffins at the morgue of Yarmouk hospital after gunmen stopped a minibus and killed all eight Iraqis who were inside in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 18, 2006.
The victims of the Baghdad minibus attack were seven car mechanics heading to work and their driver, all of whom were ordered out of the vehicle in a remote area of southwestern Baghdad and shot one after another, according to police. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Lamont at 24%.
.. And Climbing.
.. with 400+ Left to Count
.Lieberman's expensive tent and lavish support and paid armies of staffers weren't enough. His side is incredibly dejected - their crowd of thunderstick cheerers, who cheered whenever a town went lopsided for Joe, have disbanded and are chatting. The Lieberman supporters aren't even dejected, they are bored.
Lieberman has $5 million of a smear and slime campaign coming. This is a big win. Time to saddle up.
--Only 15% needed to get on the primary ballot.
Why does George Bush hate our Vets?
— You may see them sleeping in doorways, under bridges or on park benches as you hurry to the office each day. They are the homeless, but what you probably don't realize is that many of them are veterans.
One of every three homeless males in the United States is a veteran, and each night as many as 200,000 men and women veterans go to sleep with no place to call home, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The only thing *new* about this problem, is that we probably have more accurate methods of tracking exactly how many Vets are homeless presently. What is so difficult about hearing a Veteran come in the the VA office explaining that without his benefits, he's going to be on the street and getting him/her a place to stay, then doing a thorough evaluation of the case? We just recently approved billions for the war, and Rumsfeld is asking for billions more.
Shouldn't some of that be used to care for these troops when they return home? Our military shouldn't only be focused on the killing.
What the fuck, Miss Run Amok ?
In 2001, an anonymous White House source leaked top-secret NSA intelligence to reporter Judith Miller that Al Qaida was planning a major attack on the United States. But the story never made it into the paper.
[...
]
"Even that weekend, there was lot else going on. There was always a lot going on at the White House, so to a certain extent, there was that kind of 'cry wolf' problem. But I got the sense that part of the reason that I was being told of what was going on was that the people in counter-terrorism were trying to get the word to the president or the senior officials through the press, because they were not able to get listened to themselves.
"Sometimes, you wonder about why people tell you things and why people … we always wonder why people leak things, but that's a very common motivation in Washington. I remember once when I was a reporter in Egypt, and someone from the agency gave me very good material on terrorism and local Islamic groups.
"I said, 'Why are you doing this?
Why are you giving this to me?' and he said, 'I just can't get my headquarters to pay attention to me, but I know that if it's from the New York Times, they're going to give it a good read and ask me questions about it.' And there's also this genuine concern about how, if only the president shared the sense of panic and concern that they did, more would be done to try and protect the country.
First, if this is true, I wonder if the source was the frustrated Agent Harry Samit, desperate to get someone to pay attention to the evidence he had collected on Mohammed Atta:
An FBI agent who interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui before Sept. 11, 2001, warned his supervisors more than 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist and spelled out his suspicions that the al-Qaeda operative was plotting to hijack an airplane, according to federal court testimony yesterday.
Agent Harry Samit told jurors at Moussaoui's death penalty trial that his efforts to secure a warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings were frustrated at every turn by FBI officials he accused of "criminal negligence.
" Samit said he had sought help from a colleague, writing that he was "so desperate to get into Moussaoui's computer I'll take anything."
That was on Sept. 10, 2001.
Jeebus, I feel for this guy. Can you even begin to imagine the weight that this sort of information must have carried for him, and how it must haunt him?
As for Miss Run Amok, first -- she had a book being released during that time -- I imagine it took up quite a bit of her attention.
Second, as a Bush administration mouth-piece, if they weren't concerned why should she be? Last, does Miss Run Amok actually think that this revelation might endear her to the public?
I don't think I'd spit on the bitch if her ass was afire.
Get your rosary off my ovaries.
Via :New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.
Lord love a duck. I can see it now. Having a glass of merlot with dinner, and some "concerned citizen" comes up to you with a crooked finger in your face harping "How dare you drink alcohol with your meal!
You're prime breeding age!"
Heaven forfend you pick up a pack of cigarettes along with a package of tampons.
Can it be far off that stores refuse to sell us certain items if we're within the child-bearing years?
I don't smoke -- or even drink all that often -- yet suddenly I feel the urge for a bottle of cheap whiskey and a cigar.
-Desi
Cross-posted at
Father Swadi holds hand of his injured son Haider Ali, age 11, at Yarmouk hospital following an attack in Baghdad, Tuesday, May 16, 2006.
Gunmen raided a parking area in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad Tuesday, shooting five people and killing at least 13 others when they triggered a car bomb, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
What have you done for me lately?
mark the places in the mountains of northern Iraq targeted by Iranian artillery firing across the border in a serious escalation of the confrontation between Iran and the US.
Frightened villagers, whose farms cling to the sides of the deep valleys below Kandil mountain, ran for their lives as Iran opened fire on Iraqi territory for the first time since the US invasion in 2003. Local officials said about 2,000 shells were fired in four hours.
"I was woken up by the sound of the shelling in the middle of the night and I saw there was fire everywhere," said Meri Hamza Farqa, an elderly Kurdish woman from Shinawa village.
"The children and I ran out of the house and scattered in different directions. A shell blew up near me and I was hit by mud and stones.
Later I saw blood coming from my arm."
The old saying of the Kurds that they "have no friends but the mountains" is truest here among the towering peaks along on the frontier with Iran. For the first time in their tragic history the Kurds believe they are close to being recognised as a nation within Iraq but they fear that their powerful neighbours - Iran, Syria and Turkey - will snatch away their victory at the last moment.
A natural fortress without paved roads, the Kandil region can only be entered by moving along rough tracks cut into the sides of ravines, and by using fords to cross rivers where the water is two feet deep. For several years the area has been controlled by heavily armed Kurdish guerrillas from the Turkish Kurd PKK movement, which conducts operations across the border in Iran.
The Kurdish farmers, herding their sheep and cattle and living in almost total isolation, find it unfair that they should be among the first victims of Iranian-American rivalry.
Asked why the shelling had taken place, Saida Sirt, the commander of the PKK guerrillas in Kandil, said: "The Iranians wanted to send a warning to the Americans, the Kurdish parties and ourselves."
Regardless of how foolish it would seem to engage in a military confrontation with Iran, it more than looks a little like the US is beginning to get all it's ducks in a row, as it were. Certainly the families of the haven't forgotten Muammar Gaddafi.
It seems our allies are constantly determined by what another nation can do for us, not the stuff solid foundations are built of. But indeed it seems the way of this administration.
It's a tough gig, but it sure pays well.
Michael Scanlon paid $4.775 million for this Dewey property in 2002, then sold it in 2004 for $7.
5 million. Between 2000 and 2004, Scanlon bought more than $18 million of Sussex County real estate, spending more than $12 million cash. He sold three homes for $4.
465 million more than he paid.
Last year, Michael Scanlon worked as a lifeguard at $11.35 and hour.
After he emerges from prison in no more than 5 years -- and after paying $19.7 million in restitution -- he still may be a wealthy man:
10 properties for $18.7 million from May 2001 through January 2005 -- and paid $12.
2 million in cash, a News Journal review of Sussex County property records found.
The properties included five multimillion dollar homes -- the cedar shake former du Pont mansion, two in Rehoboth Beach and two in Henlopen Acres. He also bought four properties in Georgetown -- two homes, a downtown office-apartment complex and an office park off U.
S. 113.
Scanlon has since sold three homes -- for $4.
5 million more than he paid, records show. Six properties are still in his name.
[.
..]
When a grand jury charged Scanlon in November, court documents said he and Abramoff conspired "to enrich themselves .
.. through corrupt means.
"
The partners also expressed contempt for their tribal clients in e-mails made public by the Senate panel.
In one e-mail exchange about the Choctaws, Abramoff wrote, "We need to get some $ from those monkeys."
When Scanlon pledged to "take care of it," Abramoff responded, "You iz da man.
"
Just what do you suppose Scanlon -- who will still only be in his mid-thirties when released -- will do for a living? He'll still have millions. Still have his 'connections'[the ones that aren't also in prison, that is]and will have had plenty of time to ponder how to go about bilking innocent people out of their money without getting caught.
I don't think he'll be pulling lifeguard duty.
Don't let the white house doors hit you in the ass, Karl
* apparently as of yesterday, Rove was sposed to be giving a speech at the AEI on Monday.
the AEI website now has a hole for monday's schedule...
Clearing the old calendar and making preparations for being away an extended period of time, hmm?
Gotta figure out how to turn off text messaging on my cell.
Forgot to post this yesterday:
- Nine Muslim men arrested in Australia's biggest security swoop, and charged with planning a terrorist act, pretended to be women texting girlfriends to secretly communicate, a prosecutor told a court on Friday.
"Hi babes, I'm missing you," one message read, while another said: "How you going love, did Sue want to meet me."
During a bail application for one of the men, Khaled Cheikho, 32, in the New South Wales Supreme Court, a prosecutor said the men used "covert phones" under false names and code to communicate, Australian Associated Press reported from the court.
Not certain what a "covert phone" is, although I wonder if it means "Qwest" as in won't sell out their customers phone records?
Be afraid, be very afraid.
- U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris will spend the weekend in the Tampa Bay area where she will take a required class to reinstate a lapsed concealed weapons permit.
Harris, a congresswoman from Longboat Key, received threats when she was secretary of state during the bitter presidential recount in 2000. The threats were investigated by the FBI, and Harris said Thursday they have stopped.
"For me, I just want to have a permit in an overabundance of caution," she said.
"I want to go ahead with getting it for practical purposes."
Bill Bunting, the Pasco County Republican leader and the course instructor, said he has been encouraging Harris for months to take the class.
"During the first Bush (presidential) election, people forget how quickly she had all those death threats on her life," Bunting said.
"You never know if there's a nut out there."
Harris, who spends her weeks in Washington and weekends campaigning around Florida to defeat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, said she has been trying to get the class on her schedule for a long time.
The visit to the gun range will double as a photo op, with media invited to broadcast images of Harris that could play well with gun rights advocates.
No wonder all her campaign staff resigned. Prolly afraid she would shoot 'em in the face.
But I keed, we *love* you Kathy. Keep bankrolling that senate run. It's only money.
They eat their own, too
after he told them yesterday that he has no plans to resign and will vigorously fend off a likely federal indictment.Unlike Rep.
Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who announced his retirement after a former top aide pleaded guilty in the Jack Abramoff investigation, Ney is vowing to remain in Congress despite the recent plea deal of a high-level ex-aide, former Chief of Staff Neil Volz.
During their weekly Wednesday-morning meeting, Ney informed his House GOP colleagues that he remains committed to fighting the federal investigation into whether he exchanged legislative favors for trips, gifts and meals.
Ney has not been indicted in the broad Justice Department investigation, but he has been referred to in the guilty pleas of four Republican lobbyists, including Volz, who pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to bribe public officials.
He informed members yesterday that he would not stand before them, nor would he put his wife, his children or his elderly parents through the ordeal of fighting a federal probe, if he did not believe that he would eventually be cleared of the allegations.
Upon finishing his remarks, an overwhelming majority of the members present, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), gave Ney a standing ovation.
“It was a very heartfelt discussion,” Hastert told reporters afterward.
Asked whether Ney should resign from Congress, the Speaker said, “The answer is certainly up to the member.” He noted that Ney had already relinquished his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee.
While many members appreciated Ney’s comments, others thought it was only a matter of time before the lawmaker is indicted as part of the corruption probe and thought that seeking their support is beside the point.
“Dead man walking,” one Republican lawmaker said afterward.
I'm guessing they all ran home and tried to change their home telephone numbers, only to be put on hold by ATT due to the high volume of customers cancelling their service in light of the that they have sold out their customer's privacy to Bush and his NSA.
Were Her Little Shorts just "Too" Pretty and Pink?
First,Here’s one story out of the Washington Post’s New York bureau that won’t make it into the paper: It’s about columnist Richard Cohen and why he’s just moved his office from the twelfth floor of the paper’s New York bureau to the twenty-second floor of the Newsweek building.
The New York-bureau chief, Blaine Harden, passed along to management a complaint against Cohen made by Devon Spurgeon, a 23-year-old female special correspondent in the bureau. One Post insider says Harden and others in the bureau witnessed several instances in which Cohen made inappropriately sexual remarks to the young assistant. Management took the situation seriously enough to fly to New York to talk with Cohen on April 3, the insider continues, while Spurgeon was asked to take a paid leave of absence during the negotiations.
Eventually, management decided that Cohen’s office would be moved. Cohen vehemently denies the charges. “There was, for want of a better term, a personality conflict,” he explains.
“It didn’t involve sexual harassment -- it didn’t involve sex, it didn’t involve harassment -- and no disciplinary action was taken.” Neither a Washington Post spokeswoman nor deputy managing editor Milton Coleman would comment on personnel matters, and neither Harden, Spurgeon, nor managing editor Robert Kaiser returned calls.
Then read Richard Cohen via :
Now let's go to a different location, a different time.
We are in a government office, say around 9 in the morning, and a young woman comes in to work. She walks in a certain way and dresses in a certain style. Is she a hooker?
No way. She's a clerk-typist, and should she be treated like a hooker she just might file a sexual harassment complaint with a multitude of government agencies -- and the United Nations, for good measure.
Is it fair that she be treated like a hooker just because she dresses like one?
On the other hand, is it fair that a man be condemned for responding to the signals he thinks she's sending? My letter writers and phone callers say yes to the former, no to the latter. Following a column I wrote on sexual harassment, which began with an offhand remark to a colleague who had worn a short skirt to work that day, I heard from many men (and some women) who insisted that I had been entrapped.
My colleague, they said, should have worn a longer skirt.
In principle, I reject that argument. But I also reject the argument that women are never accessories to their own harassment, that the man is always totally wrong and the woman never, not even a tiny bit.
Let's examine this by analogy. Just because you leave your keys in the car doesn't mean someone is entitled to steal it. But by leaving your keys in the car you have made it easier for someone to steal it.
Similarly, you have a perfect right to flash your money, and should you get robbed, the thief has no excuse. But neither, really, do you.
Prudent women recognize the importance of dress and behavior, the subtle signals that clothes and mannerisms send.
For instance, it's neither smart nor good manners to wear short skirts or shorts in most Third World countries. It's not smart to go sashaying down dark streets there alone at night. To do those things sends a signal.
A woman might just be trying to keep cool, but her outfit would not be interpreted that way by many Third World men. They would find her insolently provocative. The response might be brutal.
First, I'd like to clarify that is most certainly *not* Richard Cohen. After reading for a good while -- and his comments about the women in his life -- one knows that this disturbing view of women just isn't wired into his brain.
As for Richard Cohen, the above reads like the prison journal of a serial rapist, and for this he is paid, and paid well.
To think that just earlier I was trying to figure out what in our culture could possibly have led to this:
-- Twelve boys in the first and second grade at a St. Louis elementary school are accused of sexually assaulting a second-grade girl during recess, authorities said Tuesday.
One teacher who was supposed to be supervising the recess has been fired, and another suspended with pay, school superintendent Creg Williams said.
Ten of the boys, ages 6 to 8, were suspended for the rest of the school year, and the other two received five-day, in-school suspensions.
The mainstream media. Teaching boys -- and paying them -- for everything they know.
Letter to George W. Bush from the President of Iran
Mr George Bush,President of the United States of America
For sometime now I have been thinking, how one can justify the undeniable contradictions
that exist in the international arena -- which are being constantly debated, specially in political
forums and amongst university students.
Many questions remain unanswered. These have
prompted me to discuss some of the contradictions and questions, in the hopes that it might
bring about an opportunity to redress them.
Can one be a follower of Jesus Christ (PBUH), the great Messenger of God,
Feel obliged to respect human rights,
Present liberalism as a civilization model,
Announce one’s opposition to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and WMDs,
Make “War and Terror” his slogan,
And finally,
Work towards the establishment of a unified international community – a community which
Christ and the virtuous of the Earth will one day govern,
But at the same time,
Have countries attacked; The lives, reputations and possessions of people destroyed and on
the slight chance of the … of a … criminals in a village city, or convoy for example the entire
village, city or convey set ablaze.
Or because of the possibility of the existence of WMDs in one country, it is occupied, around
one hundred thousand people killed, its water sources, agriculture and industry destroyed,
close to 180,000 foreign troops put on the ground, sanctity of private homes of citizens
broken, and the country pushed back perhaps fifty years. At what price? Hundreds of billions
of dollars spent from the treasury of one country and certain other countries and tens of
thousands of young men and women – as occupation troops – put in harms way, taken away
from family and love ones, their hands stained with the blood of others, subjected to so much
psychological pressure that everyday some commit suicide ant those returning home suffer
depression, become sickly and grapple with all sorts of aliments; while some are killed and
their bodies handed of their families.
On the pretext of the existence of WMDs, this great tragedy came to engulf both the peoples
of the occupied and the occupying country. Later it was revealed that no WMDs existed to
begin with.
Of course Saddam was a murderous dictator.
But the war was not waged to topple him, the
announced goal of the war was to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction. He was
toppled along the way towards another goal, nevertheless the people of the region are happy
about it. I point out that throughout the many years of the … war on Iran Saddam was
supported by the West.
Mr President,
You might know that I am a teacher. My students ask me how can theses actions be
reconciled with the values outlined at the beginning of this letter and duty to the tradition of
Jesus Christ (PBUH), the Messenger of peace and forgiveness.
While I can't possibly begin to know the intent with which this letter was sent -- I do know that if our leaders dismiss the words from the President of Iran -- what does that leave for him to attempt to communicate to our nation with?
And the horse they rode in on, too.
that Britain expects to make an announcement about cutting the size of its force in Iraq within the next few weeks.
"The whole purpose is that there should be a process whereby we can draw down our troops as the Iraqi capability takes over the activities of security enforcement," Blair told reporters at his regular monthly news conference.
"I think you will find in the next few weeks we will have some things to say about that, that may give people some more certainty for the future." Blair said.
Blair said he had spoken to Iraq's new prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and that talks on the fate of the U.S.-led foreign forces in Iraq would start when Maliki had finalized his cabinet.
"I hope very much that in the next week to 10 days we will have a proper new government in Iraq. We will then sit down and work out with them what can happen with the multinational force for the future," said Blair.
We all know that Iraq hasn't made any miraculous recovery thus far, nor is it realistic to expect a 'proper government' to appear in the next 10 days.
Tony is either a) flat out lying. b) Trying to for his party to gain momentum -- i.e.
see also 'a' -- or c) he's getting his daily briefings from Christopher Hitchens over snifters of cheap brandy. Um . .
. or any combination of the above, or all three for that matter.
Who does the Oil President say isn't doing their part to reduce US dependence on Foreign Oil?
These are the alternative fuel vehicles available for sale today in the US:Hybrids
Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid
Dodge Ram Hybrid
GMC Sierra Hybrid
Ford Escape Hybrid
Lexus GS450h Hybrid
Lexus 400h Hybrid
Mercury Mariner Hybrid
Toyota Camry Hybrid
Toyota Highlander Hybrid
Toyota Prius
Diesels/Bio-diesels
Dodge Ram
Ford E-Series
Ford F-Series Super Duty
Jeep Liberty/Cherokee
Mercedes Benz E320 CDI
Volkswagen Golf TDI
Volkswagen Jetta TDI
Volkswagen New Beetle TDI
Ethanol (E85)
Chevrolet Avalanche
Chevrolet Impala
Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Chevrolet Silverado
Chevrolet Suburban
Chevrolet Tahoe
Chrysler Sebring
Chrysler Town Country
Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan
Dodge Durango
Dodge Ram
Dodge Stratus
Ford Crown Victoria
Ford F-150
GMC Sierra
GMC Yukon
GMC Yukon XL
Lincoln Town Car
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Mercury Grand Marquis
Electric
DaimlerChrysler GEM
Natural Gas
Chevrolet Silverado 2500 heavy duty
GMC Sierra 2500 heavy duty
That's more than 40 alternative fuel vehicles for sale that rely on gasoline-electric power, diesel or processed corn, and 35 more fuel alternative vehicles will be introduced in the next year. Some 8 million alternative fuel vehicles are in use on U.
S. roads today, including about 5 million vehicles capable of running on E85 -- a fuel made of 85 percent ethanol, a derivative of corn.
, because out of 180,000 gas pumps nationwide, just 650 offer E85, including just six in Michigan.
If you build the alternative fuel stations, they will come.
It's a good thing Rummy sees Progress, else I might be kinda worried.
An Iraqi resident helps a wounded man after a clash with Iraqi and British soldiers near the British helicopter crash site in Basra, 550 Km (341miles) south of Baghdad, May 6, 2006. A British military helicopter was shot down by a rocket in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Saturday, Iraqi police said, and firefighters said they had found four charred bodies in the wreckage. The helicopter burst into flames on impact and a thick cloud of black smoke billowed into the air.
Hundreds of youths quickly surrounded the area, yelling and pelting British troops cordoning off the crash site with rocks. Photo at top: [AP Photo/Nabil Al-Jurani]Lower photo: [REUTERS/Wisam Ahmad]
Ah, the new Wal-Marts have hired.
- U.S. employers added 138,000 jobs in April, far fewer than had been anticipated, while annual wages rose at the strongest rate in more than 4-1/2 years, a Labor Department report on Friday showed.
Where are these people getting pay increases? I've only had one since bushco took office, and no bonus since the Clinton years.
Massive spam attack from the anti-net neutrality crowd, AKA the
Sent to me via spam mailers of "Conservative Alert" they try to claim the net neutrality issue is a 'liberal scam', and if you read , you can clearly see that conservatives as well as liberals are united in this effort to save the 'net.
controlling the internet to the tune of nearly 1 million dollars a week will have their desired impact if everyone doesn't become informed, and take a stand. Sitting on your hands just won't do.
U.S.
soldiers provide first aid to their colleague injured in an attack on their armored vehicle in Baghdad, Thursday, May 4, 2006. A roadside bomb hit a U.S.
military convoy on a service road near the airport road. Witnesses said one soldier was wounded and evacuated by helicopter. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Via :
"I still want to like Mike McCurry. But I can't right now because he's doing a truly awful thing. Not only is he serving as the mouthpiece for AT T and other corporations who self-servingly want to end the free and open Internet as we know it, but he is committing the cardinal sin of any spokesperson: He is outright lying.
McCurry is co-chair of a front group set up by Internet operators like AT T. These companies are spending millions lobbying Congress to destroy Network Neutrality--the First Amendment of the Internet--in the next few weeks.
As the New York Times editorialized today:
"Net neutrality" is a concept that is still unfamiliar to most Americans, but it keeps the Internet democratic.
...
One of the Internet's great strengths is that a single blogger or a small political group can inexpensively create a Web page that is just as accessible to the world as Microsoft's home page. But this democratic Internet would be in danger if the companies that deliver Internet service changed the rules so that Web sites that pay them money would be easily accessible, while little-guy sites would be harder to access and slower to navigate. Providers could also block access to sites they do not like.
If Net Neutrality is gutted, Google, eBay, and YouTube either pay protection money to companies like AT T or risk that their sites process slowly on your computer. Comcast could intentionally slow access to iTunes, steering Internet customers its own music service. And the little guy with the next big idea would be muscled out of the marketplace, relegated to the "slow lane" of the information superhighway.
This isn't just speculation -- it's already happened in places without Net Neutrality. Heck, AT T's CEO blatantly announced, "The Internet can't be free."
to find out what you can do to fight the mob takeover of the internets, or click on the link on my blogroll to the right.
The outcome of this will effect everyone who uses the internet, not just bloggers. Speak up and save your freedom, save the internet.
If they only had a brain.
, some wanker writing for the WaPo today says that we can't have net neutrality or we will be killing sick people who need monitored by their computers with a system that no one has actually even created -- but they might -- because poor sick people are too big of a pain in the ass to actually be cared for by real medical personnel. It like, means they would have to hire nurses in the hospitals, rather than treat the ones they currently have like indentured servants.
Damn, us bloggers are selfish. And I hate it that Atrios is always telling us that there are no free lunches.
Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens.
"establish three largely autonomous regions with a viable central government in Baghdad. The Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions would each be responsible for their own domestic laws, administration and internal security.The central government would control border defense, foreign affairs and oil revenues. Baghdad would become a federal zone, while densely populated areas of mixed populations would receive both multisectarian and international police protection."
While he recognizes the ethnic/sectarian cleansing that is rampant in post-Saddam Iraq, I don't think he's given ample consideration to the fact that the present Interior Ministry -- the people who have control in the government -- are themselves committing the sectarian cleansing.
Fueled by desire for revenge for years of oppression possibly, as well as the backing of our own presence in the region by way of declaring anyone 'hostile' as an insurgent.
Declaring the people who are being slaughtered and driven away into refugee camps as autonomous -- with our military presence to see that it's enforced -- well, it sounds much like status quo.
Admirable that he's willing to discuss honestly the situation, it's just that I don't see a happy middle ground for people willing to kidnap the butcher, the baker, and the school teachers, bind and torture them, shoot them in the head, and dump their bodies in the streets around the towns in Iraq.
Perhaps I'm just too jaded by 3 years of war.
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