Quizzes? You like quizzes?

From Lauren's Feministe

a quiz to test what kind of Feminist are you (guys you can take it too so it says)

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=13341448526907772086

Gender Abolitionist You scored 83% Gender-Abolitionist, 40% Sexually Liberal, and 40 % Socialist

You are the Gender Abolitionist type of feminist. This means that you feel the best way to destroy patriarchal oppression is to rid ourselves of misguided gender roles, and instead live in a society that does not make such marked assumptions about gender differences. The Gender Abolitionist is culturally radical, but rather conservative when it comes to sexual liberation and politics. You have a strong sense of human rights for all. In fact, you are actually a very moral person. You don't see people in terms of gender and are thus very philosophical in order to perceive the world in such a manner. You think people shouldn't identify others in terms of gender. When most people see a person, the first thing they think is "That person is a woman" or "That person is a man", but they do NOT think "That person is a short-fingernail". Most make someone's gender their IDENTITY, but fingernail length would never be considered part of their identity. A gender abolitionist would claim gender should be like fingernail length--it shouldn't be part of someone's identity. By making gender a part of identity, difference is emphasized and oppression is often justified. Thus, gender shouldn't be regarded to such a large extent by society. You are mostly concerned with seeing women become fully equalized with men by eliminating gender roles, as these roles oppress women.

I like this one....

Thanks to Me4President I found this ribbon that I think sends just the right message - lol









Want to see some more ribbons?

http://supportourribbons.com/

Condi right...Defense Department wrong...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/13/AR2005061301550.html

Defense officials from Russia and the United States last week helped block a new demand for an international probe into the Uzbekistan government's shooting of hundreds of protesters last month, according to U.S. and diplomatic officials.

British and other European officials had pushed to include language calling for an independent investigation in a communique issued by defense ministers of NATO countries and Russia after a daylong meeting in Brussels on Thursday. But the joint communique merely stated that "issues of security and stability in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan," had been discussed.

Rice has said publicly that international involvement in an inquiry into the killings in Andijan is essential, and she has declined an Uzbek invitation for Washington to send observers to a commission of inquiry controlled by the parliament. Three U.S. officials said Uzbek President Islam Karimov has retaliated against her criticism by recently curtailing certain U.S. military flights into the air base at Karshi-Khanabad, in the country's southeast. The U.S. military considers the base a vital logistics hub in its anti-terrorism efforts.

Already, flights are being diverted from Karshi-Khanabad to other bases in the region, a military official said. The government took the same step after the cutoff of U.S. training funds last year. That is Karimov's method of operation, a senior U.S. official said. "This is how he plays the game. . . . We want to get back the ability to use that base fully."

Last week, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We are calling for a credible, transparent and independent investigation into the Andijan tragedy." Different language has been used by Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. "The United States has repeatedly urged Uzbekistan to undertake a full and transparent inquiry into the Andijan incident," he said, but did not specifically mention an international role.

So let's cut to the chase....Karimov's actions will not be dealt with because it's more important to be able to have use of the bases there than to "upset" him by an inquiry into the protestors and villagers that have been killed or driven from their homes......and just as it was under Powell appears there is still conflict between the State Departement and Defense/Pentagon.

Bloggers Shanghai'd

I got this story via email from my oldest daughter....I'd heard some minor parts of it reported before but it appears the Chinese Government is really cracking down on bloggers ability to write, and Microsoft MSN has joined Google and Yahoo in cooperating with this restrictive behavior. You'd think porn would be blocked right?

Words blocked from Chinese Bloggers who also have to register with the Government by June 30th: (I apologize in advance for using such "profane" words here on my blog)



freedom
democracy
demonstration
human rights
Taiwan Independence

Microsoft has stated it has to follow the laws of the Chinese Government, Google and Yahoo have made similar statements.

From the article:

According to Reporters Without Borders, China is using a system called Night Crawler to patrol web journals and make sure that only registered blogs are published. Unregistered blogs will be shut down.

"Following Yahoo, here is a second American internet giant giving way to the Chinese authorities and agreeing to self-censorship", said the group in a statement.

"The lack of ethics on the part of these companies is extremely worrying. Their management frequently justifies collaboration with Chinese censorship by saying that all they are doing is obeying local legislation."

"We believe that this argument does not hold water and that these multinationals must respect certain basic ethical principles, in whatever country they are operating."

While I understand where Reporters without Borders is coming from the reality is a different situation. These companies feel they must cooperate with the Chinese regulations. The answer to me isn't to blame Microsoft, though I realize they usually are the ones with the big bullseye painted on. I checked to see who developed the Night Crawler technology that is being used to censor these blogs, it was developed by the Chinese.

So what is the real answer to stop this?

Well fellow Toledoans...we just lost another catholic...

Yes...all of us who are supposed to be so "in" to the news about Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise dating...yes that is "Toledo's own Katie Holmes"....might be shocked to learn Katie appears to be throwing off her Catholic past and is converting to Scientology.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-06-13-holmes-scientology_x.htm?csp=27&RM_Exclude=Juno

While there are those of us who really don't care much about it but after all...we are Toledoans soo we must all ooohhhh and ahhhhhh and talk about this latest news. So if you missed it? There it is.....

Makobo Modjadji, alive or dead?

CNN is reporting that

Monday, June 13, 2005 Posted: 12:12 PM EDT (1612 GMT)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- Makobo Modjadji, the famed rain queen of South Africa's Balobedu people, has died of unspecified causes after just two years in power, the Modjadji Royal Council said Monday. She was 27.

The queen was admitted to the Medi-Clinic in Polokwane on Friday with symptoms that included vomiting and died two days later, council spokesman Clement Modjadji told the South African Press Association. He did not disclose the cause of death.

The Balobedu of the northern Limpopo province believe magical powers are passed down from queen to queen allowing her to transform clouds and create rain at a special ceremony held in November each year.

Makobo Modjadji, who was crowned in 2003 at the age of 25, was the tribe's sixth and youngest queen and the only one to be formally educated. The tribe is one of the few in Africa to have a leader who comes from a female line of succession.

However.....
http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/general/0,2172,106444,00.html

June 13, 2005, 05:30

The Modjadji Royal Council has denied reports that their queen, known as the Rain Queen, has passed away. Earlier reports said Queen Makobo Modjadji had been admitted to the Polokwane Medi-Clinic where she later died.Kelly Modjadji, the chairperson of the council, says this is untrue. The Polokwane Medi-Clinic could not confirm or deny whether Queen Modjadji had been admitted to the clinic.All queries have been referred to the Royal Council.

then....
June 13, 2005, 14:30

The Modjadji Royal Council has confirmed that Rain Queen Makobo Modjadji of the Balobedu people in Limpopo has died as a result of an 'undisclosed illness'.The Rain Queen was admitted to Polokwane Medi-Clinic on Friday and is believed to have passed away yesterday morning. She leaves behind two children - a boy and a girl.Modjadji, the sixth in a line of Balobedu rain queens, was crowned in 2003 at the age of 25 after the death of Mokope Modjadji, her grandmother. Officials at the clinic refused to reveal the cause of her death, citing an agreement with the Royal Kraal not to disclose any information about her illness. Last year, Modjadji was frequently ill and could not fully take part in ceremonies with other queens. However, in October she appeared to be well enough to participate in rain-making rituals.Apart from ruling over the Balobedu tribe, the queen is also considered to be a rainmaker.

The history of the Rain Queens is an interesting one....a site for those of you wanting to read more....

http://www.prominentpeople.co.za/people/47.php

A Progressive Feminist....

I've heard this term alot lately, and I will admit I have avoided the term feminist because my definition of what a feminist was stemmed from earlier years. When I felt my ideas of motherhood and parenting conflicted with the Feminist groups I was involved with. Those days are now over, though I hadn't really reflected on what it means to be a Feminist today. I've always prefered to consider myself as a "humanist" while I realize that has been used for a different type of defintion.

I decided to search the term "progressive feminist" and see lots of different groups "claim" this to be them. Tammy Bruce just to name one. Progressive is tossed around alot now, we have Progressive Libertarians, Progressive Republicans, Progressive Democrats....and then there's me....

Left here to wonder...am I Progressive? am I a Feminist? Have I avoided the whole "label" of Feminist yet have been one all along? As I have been paying more attention to the blogs out there and come across a large number of women bloggers, some of whom really are very good, it has made me question how I define myself for the purposes of this blog and for those who need to "categorize" people and to see where I fit in as far as finding my niche in the blogosphere.

So let's take a moment to look at the defition of Progressive as a noun:
(from dictionary.com and websters.com)

liberal, progressive -- a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties

Favoring improvement, change, progress, or reform, especially in a political context; - used of people. Contrasted with conservative

Disposed toward adopting new methods in government or education, holding tolerant and liberal ideas, and generally favoring improvement in civic life; - of towns and communities.

Okay....that I can agree with

Now Feminist as a noun:

feminist, women's rightist, women's liberationist, libber -- a supporter of feminism

That wasn't very helpful now was it? So we are forced to look up Feminism:
(believe it or not webster.com did not have Feminist or Feminism listed)

Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.

For a comparison from a more "conservative" point of view, I turned to the Glossary of Political Words and Terms looking for their definition:

Progressive liberal - An emphasis on equity to the extent that a dependent class must be supported and provided for by society. Disparage capitalism and increase socialist concepts such as government control and ownership, to include tax increases for new and larger social programs. A belief that our domestic and foreign policy should conform with international directive.

feminism - the doctrine of advocating social and political rights for women equal to those of men. (see NOW)

NOW - National Organization for Women. An American organization that at one time had as it's primary goal, promoting equal rights for women. It has evolved into a group promoting leftist and lesbian causes.

Well, that made me both laugh then reflect on how sad some would define both as such....

It came to me then I would suggest my own definition of what a "Progressive Feminist" was :

Progressive Feminist:

An emphasis on equity to the extent that all social classes are supported and provided for by society regardless of their gender or their sexual preference. Strong emphasis on economic, social and civil rights being applied equally regardless of gender or sexual preference. Supports the concept of a better more efficient goverment rather than a larger government. Better utilization of current tax dollars to promote the goal of reformed social programs and education that concentrate on services rather than bureaucracy. Accepting that capitalism is a part of democracy supporting and rewarding responsible corporate citizens to encourage others to realize diversity and equality is of benefit to all of us. A belief that our domestic and foreign policy should emphasize not only how do we continue to make our own country the best it can be but remembering our responsibility to those who have less.

I proudly proclaim myself to be that kind of Progressive Feminist......

The casualty map versus red/blue map....

I've seen these both posted on other sites, typically used to make the point that the blue states support the military more than the red states. Most times it accompanies a statement that this shows that Republicans don't support the war either themselves or their children enlisting.

Here are both of the maps.....

For some reason these would not upload to my server so they are linked from the original site, so if that changes the images should be able to be seen here:

http://www.mvp-seattle.org/pages/extrapages/pageRedBlueMap.htm

While it sounds very ala Michael Moore to say as the above website does:

The war cheerleaders don't seem to be pulling their own weight. It figures.

Let's pause for just a moment and remember that no matter the red/blue state designation, the past few elections the majority of members of the US service have voted republican. In Gore v Bush 2-1 voted for Bush. The past few elections Democrats have tried to campaign to get more military votes, which they have not been successful at.

So, while I will agree it looks like the Blue states have made a larger sacrifice when it comes to losing their sons and daughters? There are other factors that should be considered as well, such as are enlistment numbers highter in Blue States? If the stats as presented by many is true that the proposed base closings will affect blue states more than red states, that will change this because it's pretty much a given the more military bases you have in your state the chances of being recruited and enlisting is higher. What connection do unemployment figures have in this equation? Some of these Blue states have higher unemployment numbers which could also be a factor as to reason for enlistment in the first place. Twelve from Puerto Rico have died, does that mean that Puerto Rico is more patriotic than Wyoming or Montana?

Perhaps before we all run out and try to make a claim that "our" side shows the most patriotism, shouldn't the point be that no matter whether it is a blue or red state the end result is we have lost another american....not another republican, another democrat, another idependent.....but another american.....

That to me is what every dot on that map signifies...another father, mother, son, daughter, sister, brother, friend, who will not be coming home......

Update: I did find a link to enlistment numbers from the Census for anyone who wants to see them -- page 7 on the pdf file....

http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/04statab/defense.pdf

Some "infamous" Dean statements

I got curious and I've done this before but not all of the ones attributed to Dean in the Washington Post article. Let's do the first one.....

Dean has said that he hates "Republicans and everything they stand for,"

There's no transcript for this speech that I can find, it stems from a New York Daily article that quotes Dean as saying:

I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for, but I admire their discipline and their organization.

Next...."have never made an honest living in the lives,"

I downloaded the transcript for this speech, Dean said:

You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids at child care or wherever, and get home and then have a -- still manage to sandwich in an eight-hour vote? Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that, because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives.

Tom DeLay "ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence"

Can't find the transcript to the whole statement he admits he did say:

I think Tom DeLay ought to go back to Houston, where he can serve his jail sentence down there courtesy of the Texas taxpayers.

He has been asked about this though....

MR. RUSSERT: "Serve his jail sentence"? He--what's he been convicted of?

DR. DEAN: He hasn't been convicted yet, but he is also, in addition to the things that I just mentioned, under investigation in Texas by a district attorney down there for violating the campaign finance laws of Texas by funneling corporate donations, which is illegal, into certain campaign activities. This gentleman is not an ethical person, and he ought not to be leading Congress, period. And it is endemic of what happens in Congress when one party controls everything.

Finally.....Republicans are "pretty much a white Christian party"

Again no transcript just this:

"The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people, We're more welcoming to different folks, because that's the type of people we are. But that's not enough. We do have to deliver on things: jobs and housing and business opportunities..... a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party. "

or....."The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people....a pretty monolithic party...It's pretty much a white Christian party"

Several of the sources have differing versions of these "quotes", I gave two of the versions I saw the most. Don't know about you but unless I see video, hear audio or read a real transcript I tend to wonder. Dean isn't the first to be a victim of the one sentence taken out of context, and he does create more controversy than most but all of us would be better served if the media would take the time to at least put things in context....yeah I know that would ruin alot of what is now "news".

So since I took CNN to task, have to do the same with the Washington Post...

Oh that darned "liberal" media....

I know some of you don't get the Washington Post, and since this isn't that long of an article compared to some of the "novels" I write here sharing it with you because I think it's important. I'll leave you to your own conclusions on how the media and the democrats behaved, except to say wow...that Brian Wilson...telling them the media will decide when the photo op is over.... (of course I will comment if you guys do - lol)

It was a scalding day on Capitol Hill yesterday, and that includes tempers. Things got particularly hot during a photo op in the office of Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) after the minority leader and his Senate deputies completed a 17-minute meeting with the hot-tongued Howard Dean.

About 60 reporters and cameramen attempted to shove their way into an office equipped to handle about 20. The resulting spectacle offered yet another distillation of why so many people believe that politicians and the media deserve each other.

The madness began at 10:30 a.m. when the media horde was invited to enter Reid's office. Photographers poured in first, equipment slamming into the sides of a narrow doorway and -- in one case -- the temple of a female staffer. Reporters were invited in next, but roughly 20 reporters were unable to crowd in and were left to shout objections through the bottleneck. "You can't start yet," one yelled from the back. "The reporters aren't in."

Dean said he rather liked the idea of starting without the reporters. He meant this as a joke, sort of.

Reid thanked everyone for coming. He sat under a white chandelier, between Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, and Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). Reid emphasized that he and Dean meet every month.

In other words, the timing of the confab was not related to the string of controversial remarks Dean has uttered in recent weeks that many Republicans have been quick to condemn and many Democrats have been just as quick to disassociate themselves from. Among other things, Dean has said that he hates "Republicans and everything they stand for," that many of them "have never made an honest living in the lives," that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay "ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence" and -- most recently -- that Republicans are "pretty much a white Christian party." Reid invited questions from reporters.

"Have you had advice for Governor Dean about his most recent comments, sir?"

Reid replied that there isn't anyone who hasn't "misspoken" and recited an on-message litany of "important issues" that Democrats are committed to addressing, including the escalating costs of gasoline, health care and college tuition. "We're here today to talk about the American people," he said. But practically everyone else in the room wanted to talk about Howard Dean.
"Senator Reid, you just used the word 'misspoke,' " yelled one reporter, out-shouting a half-dozen others. He asked if Reid thought that Dean had "misspoken."

"You know," Dean interjected, "I think a lot of this is exactly what Republicans want, and that's a diversion." He bemoaned the "media circus" of the last two weeks and said that he and Reid were not concerning themselves with that -- only with vital things like Social Security, national defense and jobs.

"And all this other stuff is all fine and good, and we understand how exciting it all is to you," Dean said, shaking his head.

The press chorus then devolved into a cacophony of competing screams. (And Dean knows screams!) After several seconds, a booming voice cut through the noise. It belonged to Brian Wilson, a Fox News correspondent who was standing in the middle of the crowd. He asked Dean "if people are focused on the other things that you've said about hating Republicans, about Republicans being dishonest and then this latest comment about the Republican Party is full of white Christians. You say you hate Republicans -- does that mean you also'' hate white Christians?

Dean didn't respond and Reid talked about having a "positive agenda." Wilson was so insistent that at one point, Durbin asked, "Does he run the press conference?" After Reid took the one question of the morning that was not about Dean (it was about Iraq) there were a host of disjointed and semi-decipherable follow-ups (none of which was about Iraq).

Someone asked whether Dean would "change his ways," or if he planned to be "less confrontational in the future" or whether he "regrets" anything he has said. An aide to Reid announced that the photo op was over.

"We'll decide when we're ready," Wilson said. Later, Durbin would recount the scene with some exasperation. He chided the media for avoiding important issues in favor of trivial matters. "Please, for a minute, get to the substance," he said to a group of reporters. "You guys should be ashamed of yourselves." (I think I like that Richard Durbin...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902169.html?nav=hcmodule

Stop taxing minors an idea....

Well my fourth child has now gotten old enough where she has not only entered the work force but got her first "real" paycheck. As her older siblings discovered she got alot less than she anticipated even though I warned her about taxes.

Which brings me to this....I believe minors should not have to pay taxes, or at least not all of the ones adults do. They generally work less hours than adults and should have some type of benefit, as one example...stop charging minors Social Security and Medicare. While I realize most of them get back what they pay in Income Tax, to me it would be an incentive for them to actually get all or close of what they did earn. There is more than enough time for them to pay Uncle Sam and the rest of the bunch once they turn 18.

Some of them ask the valid question, if they are to pay the same taxes as adults should they not have the right to vote? An interesting one....not sure I agree with it from a maturity standpoint, but I do think something should be done as far as the Social Security and Medicare deduction for minors....

http://www.teenvote.us/

Well Texans do like to exaggerate....

It appears President Bush has been making the statement that "federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted."

Yet it appears that isn't quite true...Yes...a shock...I know......

39 people -- not 200 -- have been convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.
Most of the others were convicted of relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law -- and had nothing to do with terrorism, the analysis shows. Overall, the median sentence was just 11 months.

Here's where conservatives will say "Well you have to separate those numbers, he isn't really claiming 200 were charged, only that there were more than 400 suspects"...or something similar...It's all about creating an impression and implying that since half of 400 is 200 when in reality it's only been 39 who have been convicted? Less than honest....

Let's look at some of those "terrorists" who have been convicted....For example, the prosecution of 20 men, most of them Iraqis, in a Pennsylvania truck-licensing scam with some of those charged are counted in the stats -- even knowing the entire group was absolved of ties to terrorism in 2001. More than a dozen defendants were acquitted or had their charges dismissed, including three Moroccan men in Detroit whose convictions were tossed out in September after the Justice Department admitted prosecutorial misconduct.

In the end, most cases on the Justice Department list turned out to have no connection to terrorism at all.

They involve such people as Hassan Nasrallah, a Dearborn, Mich., man convicted of credit-card fraud who has the same name as the leader of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group also known as the Party of God. Abdul Farid of High Point, N.C., was arrested on a false tip that he was sending money to the Taliban and was later deported after admitting he lied on a loan application. Moeen Islam Butt, a Pakistani jewelry-kiosk employee in Pennsylvania, spent eight months in jail before being deported on marriage-fraud and immigration charges.

And there is the case of Francois Guagni, a French national who made the mistake of illegally crossing the Canadian border on Sept. 14, 2001, with box cutters in his possession. It turned out that Guagni used the knives in his job as a drywall installer. He was deported in March 2003 after pleading guilty to unlawfully entering the country.

Enaam Arnaout, director of the Illinois-based Benevolence International Foundation, who was indicted amid great fanfare in October 2002 for allegedly helping to funnel money and equipment to al Qaeda operatives on three continents. Ashcroft called the group a source of "terrorist blood money" that was used to "fund the work of evil." The charity was shut down.
Less than a year later, prosecutors dropped six of the seven charges against Arnaout, and he pleaded guilty to a single count of racketeering for funding fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya. During a sentencing hearing in August 2003, U.S. District Judge Suzanne B. Conlon told prosecutors they had "failed to connect the dots" and said there was no evidence that Arnaout "identified with or supported" terrorism.

There's alot more information on this in the source of this article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/11/AR2005061100381.html

Just don't be a liberal for once.....

Okay...I removed this for now as an explaination to those of you who read it earlier, and Josh I saved your comments -- as you can see by the date of the post "Sunday, June 12, 2005" it's not Sunday yet - lol I wasn't done writing it and had not only not finished it but waited to see if I felt the same the next day as my initial impression after the show was pretty un-entertained.

I thought if I changed the date to Sunday it would save what I had written and not post it till I had a chance to finish it....obviously I was wrong - lol

So when I re-do it I will include Josh's comments since while he disagrees with me, his input was important.

UPDATE:

Here's part of what I wrote last night and finished, spelling corrected and etc..and of course the date fixed to today's date. Guess I have to find another way to save "drafts" in the future.

Okay so I tried...Glenn Beck was in Toledo today. First show sold out within minutes so they added a second show at 11:00 p.m. tonight. Won't go into any of the how and why details of ending up going however....I knew from hearing him a few times I didn't agree with a lot of his points, that's okay...the show was supposed to be humor...I like humor...I get humor....I can do this and I might even have a good time....I can say one thing with 100% certainty...people that go to his show are as he aptly calls them "sick twisted freaks".

It started out promising with him talking about how he was sick of politics and hated politics. I laughed at some of his jokes and thought "wow I was wrong about this he is funny". Yeah okay he made fun of Michael Moore, old but no big deal since I don't like Moore anyway. Then a few stabs at Michael Coleman, to be expected given what happened on his show with Coleman. On to making fun of George Voinivich for crying...okay so far about what I expected as not finding that funny but hey some people have been entertained by that so no real bitch...I saw his wife and his new son Raph and Glenn as well earlier in the day -- didn't "meet" them as in a traditional meeting but was about five feet from them and took pictures of them. He appears as if he really loves his wife and his son.

Until he's on the stage then making fun of her from everything to the size vehicle she wants to saying the owners manual says it needs premium gas to shopping. He does the regular stand up comic wife bitching stuff and he has created this "voice" for her that makes her sound immature, whiney, grating. Parts of this were funny especially his declaring the waiting area outside of the dressing rooms was purgatory. But the way he came across as it was funny to demean her started getting me bugged. I realize he’s not the first entertainer to do this and there are female ones that use their spouses too (Roseann Barr is of course less funny than he was), that to me just isn’t something I enjoy – especially the voice he made when he was being “her”.

The next thing was a video clip like what we had in school with the old projectors on parenting...where we learned a new word "prositots" and how parents thru their inability to say no have created these prositots. So "in humor" he describes sitting in purgatory with another man who has his daughter come out of the dressing room..Glenn is freaking because thinks this dress isn't appropriate and spends quite amount of time focusing on her lack of breasts. Well the girl flounces out, yet the father says the dress looks fine... Glenn's wife comes out it appears he's being released from purgatory only to discover shoes are needed....which leads to a whole spiel about Oprah’s 800 dollar shoes. Okay as a woman who doesn’t like to shop nor did I have a clue as to anything about Oprah’s shoes, (may come as a shock...but I don't watch Oprah) it’s not my personal cup of humor tea to have the whole stereotypical “women love to shop” bs. I did laugh at the men must have steel behind their eyes which is why they are automatically drawn to look at women’s butts. That and the part he shared about his elderly father confirming it’s something that never stops was funny.

When he started talking about his mom, her canning and the fruit cellar horror story, that was funny and something many of us with dark creepy basements could laugh about. The rest of what he talked about has been done over and over again – like how many times have you heard stories about putting tissue paper or whatever in your pants to avoid having a spanking hurt…..Again, this for me is probably personal since if you happened to have a parent who went way over the line of acceptable discipline you aren’t going to feel as if this is something “missing” or even funny. The problem isn’t people don’t spank their kids anymore the problem is a lot of them don’t use discipline at all – As he basically admitted since his father had only spanked him twice, it’s not the spanking alone that makes a kid behave.

Next the change in tone to the emotional part Josh wrote about. As a parent and a liberal even I understand what he was trying to do, however it didn’t fit with what he had just done earlier, he goes from making fun of his wife, to teachers, to calling girls “prositots” to claiming part of the problem is other people and teachers can’t spank our kids, then trying to create a warm fuzzy moment encouraging us to create memory moments with our kids. Maybe some parents out there aren’t silly enough, and if it encourages them then that would be something positive. Given I have the reputation of having light saber battles among other things with my kids for me I already knew that and to be honest what was funny in the first part was diminished by the over-emotional ending. He stated on his radio show that this was going to not be an emotional show; that it was going to be funny – from what I’ve been told anyway, since I don’t listen to him often. If I was a regular listener I would have also known that he admits often what a wonderful person his wife is and how lucky he is to have her. But all I could base it on is what I know….

So in the end? You can be a liberal and enjoy it probably if you are a liberal guy, but for a liberal like me? I would have much rather been taken to see the Moody Blues when they are coming than to have seen Glenn Beck on Ice…it left me rather….cold……

But wait....

He's gonna be mean to me.....



Okay some of you might not know who Mr. Bill is....however he's one of my favorites (next to Blue of course)...

For those of you who want to take a walk down Mr. Bill memory lane?

http://www.mrbill.com/

Even has some of the old video from SNL.....alas it appears Mr. Bill is no longer working on the wetlands issue though....

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050610/D8AL22R00.html

Using women as a way to hurt men....

CAIRO, June 9 - Government opponents say one way Egyptian authorities pursue suspects has been to pressure their female relatives. Over the years, if the police could not find a wanted man, for example, they sometimes took his wife or daughter into custody.

But the recent groping and beating of women as part of an attack on political protesters by a crowd of men chanting support for the ruling party, all while the police stood by and watched, has done anything but intimidate and silence, helping instead to unify and motivate a range of groups calling for more open and democratic government.

The images of women being hit and sexually abused - particularly offensive in this conservative Islamic society - have helped bring together groups as diverse as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Center for Socialist Studies in their calls for change. For a country whose political life has atrophied in more than two decades under emergency laws, the attacks on May 25 have also inspired many political novices to become active, creating a backlash that has taken the government by surprise.

The assaults have also jump-started the women's movement here, not a Western-style feminist force, but one where women have moved to take a leading role in trying to motivate and expand opposition to the ruling National Democratic Party and its leader, President Hosni Mubarak. The opposition groups are still small in number and national reach, but their very existence represents an unprecedented challenge for the president.

"We are opening a real popular female movement," said Jihan El Halafawy, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, speaking Thursday night at a forum called "The Street Is Ours," organized by some of the women who were attacked.

On May 25, the day voters were asked to approve a change to the Constitution to permit multiple candidates, a small group of protesters met in downtown Cairo, insisting that the referendum was a fig leaf.

They were greeted by an army of riot police officers and undercover security agents. Witnesses said that groups of men arrived in buses and were allowed, with the police standing by, to attack and beat the protesters. Witnesses said that in some instances the police kept protesters trapped and unable to flee while the men from the buses beat them.

While the violence against the protesters, women and men, made for national news here, it was the images and stories of women being attacked that have caused the greatest backlash against the government. The events were reported in the opposition and independent press but largely ignored by government-controlled newspapers and television.

"I feel like the assaults on women are a disgrace - a disgrace to every person in Egypt," said Ali Tayeb, 20, an engineering student in Cairo University. "I think we've been silent for too long now. The silent majority, which I am a part of because I was never politically active, has to start speaking out for their rights."

While I have a hard time believing those who follow the traditional practice of Islam really gives women more rights, addressing this issue is a very positive step forward. The practice of arresting or harming wives or children to get a man to surrender is not just an Egyptian issue, it is one that is still prevalent in to many countries. It needs to stop......

Blogging about Gush Katif

No, I have not become a pro-Israeli person, but with the planned removal of the settlers in Gush Katif coming on July 20th thought it was appropriate to post about this since it's not something you read alot about in our media.

I read a blog from time to time called "Yesha speaks Out", there are not alot of posts there, but it is from the pro-settler point of view. I highly suggest it as it does give you an understand of exactly why some of these Israelis are instead of moving out are moving into Gush Katif and some of the other settlements. I'd suggest starting at the initial month the blog was created and reading it in reverse order to give you a full context of it all.

Most of the Settlers believe in a peaceful protest approach to this, some do not. This article from Haaretz talks about one of the groups that disagrees with the disbanding of the settlements in the Gaza:

Dozens of right-wing extremists have moved into the Hof Dekalim hotel in Gush Katif during the past two weeks, and the Israel Defense Forces fears that they will turn the hotel into the focus of hard-core resistance to the evacuation from Gush Katif.

Most of the new residents hail from settlements in the West Bank and some are connected with the outlawed Kach group, although others come from central Israel.

The hotel was founded in 1986 at the initiative of the Tourism Ministry, the Jewish Agency and seven Gush Katif settlements. It is a few meters from the sea, opposite Neveh Dekalim, the urban center of Gush Katif. A few years later, the hotel was sold to the Ben-David family of Jerusalem, and they operated it fairly successfully until the current intifada. When terrorist attacks increased, visitors stopped coming and the hotel was closed down. The new residents say that the Ben-David family has agreed to the hotel's renovation and reuse.

The renovation work is being overseen by Nadia Matar, head of Women in Green, and Datiyah Yitzhaki, a resident of the Kfar Yam settlement and head of Kela - a group that welcomes new residents to the Gaza Strip.

The activists are planning a news conference at which time the hotel will be named Maoz Hayam - the Sea Stronghold.

Many residents of Gush Katif have expressed displeasure with the presence of the new strongholds. They said they regard the new settler-supporters and their type of struggle as alien to the way of life of veteran Gush Katif settlers and that their behavior could damage nonviolent resistence to the disengagement.

I realize you have to sign up to read Haaretz free online....I highly recommend it for those who want a different take on World events and more about this situation.

Two more articles that are more recent that I recommend:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/586598.html

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/586118.html

Here's the mail it never fails....

No...I have not lost my mind, not totally anyway - lol.

But thinking about mail makes the song from Blues Clues come to mind, I will spare you posting the whole song though....I wanted to say thanks to those of you who email me your thoughts on what I post here. Especially MFWSHAB....

Yes my email has increased since I quit excite, guess there is still alot speculation as to when I'm coming back, if I'm lurking, why I left for those who missed it, etc. ectc. Don't think I am coming back, not lurking because that would be pointless...anyone who knows me knows if I went there I'd post. Why I left has been answered in private to those of you who have asked. A double thank you to those who discovered I am using the gmail address more than the excite one but I will still answer my excite mail.

I realize one of the downsides to this particular blogging software is that you can't write long comments so I enjoy my emails about what I post just as much as those of you who take the time to comment.

One of the cool things about the tracking software I use to find out how many hits I have is some of the other info it tells me about those of you who visit me on a regular basis. Your private info is safe, it doesn't give specific details ....Sooo for those of you who come here's some interesting stuff on who else visits with you.

Not all of you who visit me live in the US or even Canada...Visitors from Finland, Cayman Islands, Australia, Germany and England come here. Most of you use XP, then Macs followed by Windows 98 then Windows 2000 then ME. Some of you visit from military or government domains (though I admit the first time I saw the Department of Justice show up I wondered what I had done - lol) . More visitors live in the East Coast time zone than my time zone that visit here.

So there's some info I thought was cool....and once again....Thanks for coming it's alot more fun doing this because of all of you.

US Contractors in Iraq claim abuse....

If you have been following the story of the American Contractors in Iraq that were held for suspected shooting at Iraqi civilians and military personnel this is the best article out there I've seen as far as full details:

Corp Watch

It presents the Contactors side:

Late one Saturday afternoon in May, a group of armed American private security guards in white Ford trucks and an Excursion sports utility vehicle barreled through the battle-scarred streets of Fallujah, Iraq. The group was a security convoy from Zapata Engineering, a company hired to destroy enemy ammunition, such as shells and bombs, in Iraq. As they swerved through traffic, the men heard gunfire they could not identify.

Snipers still regularly attack civilians and troops patrolling Fallujah, despite the fact that the US bombed the city heavily in April and November 2004 to flush out suspected rebels.

According to the Zapata contractors, one of their vehicles veered left on a road leading to a Marine checkpoint. It ran over the spike strip in the road near the guard house and the tire went flat. The anxious contractors jumped into action and put on a spare. Within minutes, they began rolling again.

A Marine captain brought the convoy to a halt. Had anyone in the convoy shot at the guard tower, he asked. Negative, said a convoy member.

The Military side:

Earlier that day, May 28, the soldiers recounted, "receiving small arms fire from gunman in several late-model trucks and sport utility vehicles" at approximately 2 P.M. "Marines also say witnessed passengers in the vehicles firing at and near civilian cars on the street," the Marines' report continues.

According to a Marines press statement, "Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack. Marines saw passengers in the vehicles firing out the windows." This second account coincides with the arrest of the Zapata men.

The article also provides details on information about problems US Contractors have had, security issues and legal issues. I highly recommend you read it in full. I think it very important to also point out quite a few of these contractors are former US Marines, so when they do finally make it back to the States? Will be interesting to see what they say at that time.

A different take on Omar Khadr

Washington Post reports on the story of Omar Khadr and the Canadian response to his family as well as the now increased attention to his situation.

In his situation there appears to be evidence that his is not one of the innocent bystanders who were sold or turned in by others to gain favor with the US.

TORONTO -- The thundering F-16 and A-10 warplanes reduced the fighters' compound in Afghanistan to smoldering rubble. No one could still be alive, figured the U.S. soldiers crouched nearby. But inside, saved by a half-standing wall, a lanky 15-year-old waited as the wary soldiers neared.

As the Americans recount it, he leapt up, threw a grenade and was cut down by the soldiers' fire. The grenade scored: A 28-year-old sergeant was mortally wounded.

The boy was not, however. Blinded in one eye, his chest ripped opened by bullets, Omar Khadr lay on the ground and asked the soldiers to kill him -- in perfect English.

He was a Canadian.

"Everybody who walked by wanted to put a round in him," said Master Sgt. Scotty Hansen, who was awarded a Bronze Star for Valor after the battle in 2002. "But we all knew that's not the way we do it."

Omar survived this and has been held at Gitmo ever since. There have been claims by his attornies that he has been abused. I'm not going to address that.

His family has reported ties to terrorism. The Khadr family's notoriety began with its patriarch. Ahmed Said Khadr, who was born in Egypt and moved to Canada in 1977. He and his wife, Maha, a Palestinian who had lived most of her life in Ottawa, had six children -- four of them born in Canada.

Khadr was a computer engineer, but he shuttled back and forth to troubled Muslim regions of the world, raising money for charities, he told officials. In December 1995, he was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of helping finance the bombing a month earlier of the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, which killed 17 people. In January 1996, Canada's prime minister at the time, Jean Chretien, visited Pakistan and appealed to the government to release the Canadian citizen.

After he was freed, Khadr moved his family to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where they lived in the same compound as Osama bin Laden. In 1999, bin Laden attended Zaynab's wedding, family members acknowledge. Khadr's sons were sent to al Qaeda summer camps, according to Abdurahman (Omar's older brother), who described his father's fanatic devotion to Islamic jihad causes and attempts to persuade his son to become a martyr.

After Sept. 11, 2001, the family scattered. Maha eventually returned to Toronto. But the elder Khadr took his sons to the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to carry on the fight. U.S. authorities, who identified him as a ranking aide to bin Laden, tried hard to find him.

That duly noted I doubt anyone can question the families alleged ties to terrorism. However, my focus is this, Omar was 15 at the time. Being taken by his father was he a willing partipant or basically brainwashed? How much does that matter? To me it should be a part of his trial, problem being there has been no trial. He's been held for three years at Gitmo and is now 18 years old. Why the delay in his case of not trying him? If there is evidence and testimony as to his killing a US soldier, Sgt. Christopher J. Speers, shouldn't his family get closure by having Omar tried? Even if you don't like what Omar Khadr has done or how his family feels about Islam and the US, there are deeper issues here. One of them being the right to trial. If Omar is found guilty? Then he should pay for the crimes convicted of.

Women and the Internet.....

I realize this has been talked about on a few other blogs, but some of you are not readers of kos or even if you are....might not have seen this. I read this last night at Feministe a blog I found last night.

The scope of the research was based on one thread at Kos:

Male participants dominated the discussion, being both more numerous and more frequently responded to than their female counterparts; of the 119 participants, 27 (21%) were identified as female, 80 (67%) were male, and 12 (10%) were of unknown or indeterminate gender. Though 51% of the comments made by male participants (79 out of 154 comments) were responded to, only 28% of the comments by women elicited a response (16 out of 56). What was most interesting was that there was no apparent cause for this disparity in the comments themselves.

I've found similar treatment on message boards and other blogs. Excite is different because I had been there for so long I almost always got responses, however the discussion then turned to how women are treated by some of the men, one of the complaints I read both there and on a few other blogs last night was the common experience of men making comments about menstruation in a negative way as a snarky retort.

While of course there are men out there that never sink to that level in adult conversation, and women out there that are not responsible posters either, it reminds me of the old commercial "You've come along way baby"...

Yeah we have but we still have along way to go.....

This is a troubling story.....

I read this at Booman Tribune and I think it's too important to miss:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/paynter/227497_paynter08.html

I realize this is not how the typical Marine Recruiter acts...however the fact that it happened even once leads me to believe this may not be the first time this was done, hopefully the last though....

The 647 million dollar bandaid

I post about Africa, especially about Darfur alot, I realize this. However it is an important issue to me. I fail to see why if it so easily accepted that we can spend billions on a war in Iraq why realizing that preventing the rape, murder and starvation of women and children should not be a high priority to Congress and the President.

In an editiorial today in the New York Times entitled "Crumbs for Africa" some very excellent points are made. For those who don't get the online times:

President Bush kept a remarkably straight face yesterday when he strode to the microphones with Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, and told the world that the United States would now get around to spending $674 million in emergency aid that Congress had already approved for needy countries. That's it. Not a penny more to buy treated mosquito nets to help save the thousands of children in Sierra Leone who die every year of preventable malaria. Nothing more to train and pay teachers so 11-year-old girls in Kenya may go to school. And not a cent more to help Ghana develop the programs it needs to get legions of young boys off the streets.

Mr. Blair, who will be the host when the G-8, the club of eight leading economic powers, holds its annual meeting next month, is trying to line up pledges to double overall aid for Africa over the next 10 years. That extra $25 billion a year would do all those things, and much more, to raise the continent from dire poverty. Before getting to Washington, Mr. Blair had done very well, securing pledges of large increases from European Union members.

According to a poll, most Americans believe that the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries; it actually spends well under a quarter of 1 percent. As Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University economist in charge of the United Nations' Millennium Project, put it so well, the notion that there is a flood of American aid going to Africa "is one of our great national myths."

The United States currently gives just 0.16 percent of its national income to help poor countries, despite signing a United Nations declaration three years ago in which rich countries agreed to increase their aid to 0.7 percent by 2015. Since then, Britain, France and Germany have all announced plans for how to get to 0.7 percent; America has not. The piddling amount Mr. Bush announced yesterday is not even 0.007 percent.

What is 0.7 percent of the American economy? About $80 billion. That is about the amount the Senate just approved for additional military spending, mostly in Iraq. It's not remotely close to the $140 billion corporate tax cut last year.

This should not be the image Mr. Bush wants to project around a world that is intently watching American actions on this issue. At a time when rich countries are mounting a noble and worthy effort to make poverty history, the Bush administration is showing itself to be completely out of touch by offering such a miserly drop in the bucket. It's no surprise that Mr. Bush's offer was greeted with scorn in television broadcasts and newspaper headlines around the world. "Bush Opposes U.K. Africa Debt Plan," blared the headline on the AllAfrica news service, based in Johannesburg. "Blair's Gambit: Shame Bush Into Paying," chimed in The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia.

The American people have a great heart. President Bush needs to stop concealing it.

I would add we have to actually DO something to push them into doing more. It's obvious if we leave them alone on this issue and don't keep bringing it up nothing will change.

Ben Nelson, point man or token Democrat?

Well, comes as no surprise with the way things have been in the Senate, Rogers-Brown was confirmed as a judge to the US District Court of Appeals. What did surprise me though is that Ben Nelson, NE, voted for her. He was the lone Democrat to do so. He didn't vote yea for Owen though.

Makes no sense as he had announced he was going to vote no for Owen yet hadn't made up his mind on Rogers-Brown, Owen was at least a highly qualified candidate, Rogers-Brown isnt. So that brings the question to mind, as part of the compromise deal that he is stated to have been the Democratic brains behind did he agree that at least one Democrat would vote so it was "bi-partisan" or what? For the Owen vote two Democrats voted yea, Landrieu and Byrd; one Republican voted no, Chafee, with Stevens only voting "present" so his vote did not count yea or nay. However today, not one single Republican voted no.

The "or what" part makes you think why if that was not the case would he vote for Rogers-Brown?

Cloture was agreed to for Pryor as well. Supposedly the Democrats don't support him being confirmed either, however if the votes go like they did today, Pryor will be confirmed as well. Nelson voted to agree to Cloture today, ten other Democrats agree to this so it was decided 67-32. (Jeffords the lone Independent didn't vote today on either Cloture for Pryor or Rogers-Brown) There are some issues with Pryor but not at the level of Rogers-Brown.

So once again, formally now that the vote for Rogers-Brown is over.....I was wrong....I had more faith in the Republicans and the Democrats on this one than proved to be true.

Makes me smile.....

Another contribution from my friend Bob...meant to upload it yesterday...

Why you shouldn't trust CNN

For supposedly being a "liberal media source" they sure don't do a good job at being accurate and are infact responsible for out of context statements made by Dean to be continued. Same with the whole "Dean Scream" fiasco where it was blown out of proportion, here we go again. CNN reports:

The former Vermont governor also recently raised eyebrows when he told a group of progressives that Republicans "never made an honest living in their lives," a comment he was forced to explain a day later. The one-time presidential candidate also said that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who has not been accused of any crime, ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence.

Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday that Dean is doing a good job, but is not the party's spokesman.

Last weekend, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards criticized Dean for his recent remarks, saying he doesn't speak for them.

First off as a supposed "responsible" news source that is not what Dean said. This is what Dean said:

I think, frankly, we ought to have voting on -- either make the Tuesday a holiday or else move it to another day where people don't -- can get out and vote.

You -- you know, the idea that you have to wait on line for eight hours to cast your ballot in Florida -- there's something the matter with that. You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids at child care or wherever, and get home and then have a -- still manage to sandwich in an eight-hour vote? Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that, because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives. But for ordinary working people, who have to work eight hours a day, they have kids, they got to get home to those kids, the idea of making them stand for eight hours to cast their ballot for democracy is wrong. We ought to make voting easier to do. Mail -- Oregon has got it right.

John Edwards comments about Dean were also exaggerated which he clarified on his blog:

From John Edwards:

What a flap has arisen over a disagreement about the way something is said! I was in Nashville over the weekend, thanking the good people of Tennessee who supported the Democratic presidential ticket this year, when I was asked whether I thought that it was fair to say that people who were Republican hadn’t done a good day’s work. Of course, I didn’t think so, and I said that. I don’t think our DNC chair, Howard Dean, would put it that way again if asked either. I disagreed with him, and I said so. And, I want to be clear, I would have to say so again if I were asked again. I said a lot of good things about Howard’s outreach program and invigoration of the internet as a communication and fundraising tool, but no one wrote about that. Instead the headlines blared that I disagreed with Howard. And then the flap arose: A chasm! A split! A revolt!

Instead, how about: Nonsense!

I don't care who the source is, Fox, CNN, NY Times or Washington Post....I'm tired of quotes being taken out of context and misinformation being reported. I mean really how many of us take the time to download Dean's speech to see for ourselves what was really said? How many read John Edwards blog? So the wrong impression gets sent out there to millions.

To quote an old saying "With friends like this we don't need any enemies".

Today is declared "well duh" day....

In another "well duh" moment, USA Today has an article about how much it costs those of us with insurance to cover the costs of the uninsured. Yes, Virgina....we pay for it.....

WASHINGTON, (AP) — Providing health care for the uninsured increases the annual cost of insurance premiums for the average worker by $341 and for the average family by $922, according to a study by a group promoting universal health insurance.
Families USA says its study shows the problem is not restricted to the tens of millions of uninsured Americans.

The problem affects everyone, most say, because the insured subsidize the cost of care given the uninsured. Most economists agree that some amount of subsidizing occurs, but the question has been how much.

The study, prepared by Ken Thorpe, a professor at Emory University, concluded that about $1 out of every $12 spent on health insurance premiums indirectly pays for health care provided the uninsured.

The information out there that we spend more on the end result costs of people not having health insurance than it would cost to provide them with basic health insurance has been discussed for well over a decade now. Without trying to turn us into a "socialist" country, the reality is one way or another we pay for this. The hosptials and doctors are not the ones taking a loss, and even those few that do "eat" some of the costs? I'm sure they deduct on on their taxes so we basically pay that too in their paying less in taxes from any deductions they are allowed to take.

A well duh...moment for the Democrats...

As I read an article in today's Washington Post about some Liberals thinking the compromise wasn't such a good deal for them given it looks like Rogers-Brown is going to get the nodd, I said "well duh". I mean really to agree to allow her yet to have problems with Myers who is so much a better nominee than Rogers-Brown was silly.

I thought to myself when it happened, okay....there are some Republicans that even realize Rogers-Brown is not a good candidate so while I believed Owen would pass (and should have) I thought the fact the 7 Republicans stood up meant something.

Let's look however at what has happened to the 7 since they made the compromise....They are being attacked and in my own home state of Ohio, a conservative religious group has had numerous commercials attacking DeWine for his being a part of the compromise. In other words these Republicans are being punished for doing something that was the right thing to do. Since that time it appears none of them are willing to risk another visit to the woodshed.

Same scenario with Voinivich, he's been attacked by his own for having a problem with Bolton. DeWine and Voinivich work for me, they don't work for the Republican Party. To many of us don't make this clear and we continue to allow this Party first bs to happen when in the end whether you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent, etc., this hurts us all.

If they truly felt Rogers-Brown was a poor candidate as some of us do then she shouldn't have been on the table if they didn't have a promise that there would not be enough votes for her to pass -- sure agree to the ones that in reality while not ideal from a Democrat Party Standard could be worse....but don't whine about it not working out the way you thought when you allowed it to happen.

Lactivists UNITE

Okay I am a bit late to this, figures now it's the popular thing to do but my baby days are done. However it's nice to see breastfeeding get supported. Back when I nursed mine it was not accepted very well, infact I was once asked to leave the mall because I was discretely feeding one of mine when this lady came up and asked to "see" my baby. When I told her sorry she's eating right now it then became an issue. Obviously I wasn't showing my "goods" if she didn't realize it until I said something. She then complained to a security guard who asked me to leave and I told him, "Sorry but until the mall provides a place other than perching on a toilet? Not gonna happen". He wisely decided it wasn't worth pushing - lol

At that time La Leche didn't appeal to me as they were the "radicals" of the breastfeeding movement and most of them still nursed until their children were almost school age. Sorry but for me once the teeth came in top and bottom? Time to start thinking about switching to a cup there kiddo.....

So being a former mini lactivist I've watched the recent "nurse-ins" with some interest. I have to admit thinking the representative from Ohio that was worried about someone "spilling" breastmilk on the floor and slipping on it was rather silly. I did have some good humor moments at his expense though, making my household crack up over the comment...."Back off buster or I'll squirt ya" and similiar humorous comments I'll spare you....okay that was bad but it was a funny visual.....

Full article for those who want to read more...some interesting items from the article for those who don't sign up to the Washington Post:

Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, held a nurse-in on the Capitol's Cannon Terrace last month as she reintroduced federal legislation to amend the Civil Rights Act to protect women from employment discrimination for using a breast pump or feeding their babies during breaks.

Nursing mothers are pressuring businesses, too. Burger King has declared that mothers are welcome to nurse. Starbucks - the target of a letter-writing campaign that asked "What's more natural than coffee and milk?" - has, too.

The moves come as the number of American mothers who choose to breast-feed has climbed to about 70 percent in 2003, the last year for which information was available, from about 50 percent in 1990. Many otherwise apolitical women say they found themselves unexpectedly transformed into lactivists after fielding a nasty comment or being asked to stop nursing in public.

"We're all told that breast-feeding is the best, healthiest thing you can do for your child," said Lorig Charkoudian, 32, who started the Web site www.nurseatstarbucks.com after being asked to use the bathroom to nurse at her local Starbucks. "And then we're made to feel ashamed to do it without being locked in our homes."

But Ms. Walters is not the only one who might prefer not to be confronted with breast-feeding at close quarters. (She made a comment on her show "The View" about being uncomfortable when a mom nursed her baby next to her on a flight. That led to a "nurse in" infront of the Studio.) Legislators, business owners and family members are debating how to reconcile the health benefits of nursing with the prevailing cultural squeamishness toward nursing in public.

In interviews and Internet discussions, hundreds of women recount being asked to stop nursing in public spots, including the Children's Museum in Huntsville, Ala.; a knitting store in the East Village; a Radisson Hotel lobby in Virginia; a public bus in Los Angeles; and a city commission meeting in Miami Beach.

"It's nothing against breast-feeding, it's about exposing yourself for people who don't want to see it," said Scotty Stroup, the owner of a restaurant in Round Rock, Tex., where a nursing mother was refused service last fall.

The American Academy of Pediatrics urges women to feed their babies only breast milk for the first six months, and continue breast-feeding for at least an additional six months. If its recommendations were followed, the group estimates that Americans would save $3.6 billion in annual health care costs because breast-fed babies tend to require less medical care. But while more women are breast-feeding for the first few weeks, fewer than one-third are still nursing after six months. Some doctors attribute the decline to self-consciousness and the difficulties of finding spaces where nursing seems acceptable.

So not only is it like I knew back in the "olden days" healthier but todays moms are demanding what alot of us wanted in the past but didn't have the support, the right to feed our kids when they are hungry without having to find someplace to hide.

With barely a whimper...debate on Rogers-Brown ends

Well it appears I might have been wrong with my earlier prediction that Owen would pass but Rogers-Brown would not. The vote to end debate on her nomination was earlier 65-to-32, which of course is no indication of what the final count will be on Wednesday but not promising.

Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, Bill Nelson of Florida and Ben Nelson of Nebraska all voted with Republicans to end the debate. That of course doesn't mean they will vote for Rogers-Brown on Wednesday either.

I still believe she's a poor candidate for the appeals court. Not just because of some of her public statements that have been out there, but because of her ratings and her proven record of not being able to get along with other judges. We need good judges not attitude in the US District Appeals Courts.

So the whole posturing about the filibuster and demanding advice and consent, claiming this to be not about politics but wanting good judges appears to have all faded away. With the public lashings the 7 Republicans have gotten that made the compromise with the Democrats I don't predict any of them will have the courage to vote against what the Republican powers that be want. Another sad day for the justice system and again I ask myself...Shouldn't it be the best and the brightest that are nominated? No one can say Rogers-Brown even comes close to meeting that definition.

Need anymore proof of the Divison here?

The Poll in the Washington Post reveals what many of us knew already:

According to the poll, nearly eight in 10 Democrats say Bush is not concentrating on issues they personally view as vital while three out of four Republicans disagree.

Ominously for Bush and the Republicans, a strong majority of self-described political independents -- 68 percent -- say they disagreed with the president's priorities. That suggests Bush's mixed record in the second term on issues the public views as critical -- particularly on Iraq and the economy -- may be as much a liability for GOP candidates in next year's mid-term election as his performance in his first term was an asset to Republican congressional hopefuls last year and in 2002.

Overall, the president's job approval rating stood at 48 percent, virtually identical to where it was last month. Currently 52 percent of the public disapproves of the job Bush is doing as president, the first time in his presidency that more than half of the public has expressed negative views of the president's performance.

The reaction of the Independents who responded was the only surprise, as I didn't expect it to be that high. That could be a factor for Republicans who are running in 2006 if this continues, especially in areas that are not already dealing with issues such as the Washington State Governor Election and Coingate here in Ohio.....

The gmail revolution

So, okay....I got an invite to gmail over a year ago and I deleted it because I wasn't interested in having another email account. Now I find out people are actually paying for invitations to gmail? Wow....I found this out when I decided it was time to switch away from excite email and I like free email services because no matter which internet service you have you can access your mail.

So I searched gmail thinking no problem I'll just click on the link and sign up. I was woefully uninformed about how gmail had not only become hard to get but has become it seems almost a status symbol with the way people are selling invites on ebay as well as other places.

However thanks to fantababy who has a really nice blog with info on it helpful to anyone who uses the internet in addition to some interesting posts about life in India, I have a gmail account now.

Too early to tell if it really is the "all that and a bag of fritos" for the free email service world....I'll keep you posted.

I've changed my email on my profile here to be the new gmail.

Brad Pitt makes a valid point....

Earlier today on excite before I decided it was time for me to take a long vacation from there, a friend posted comparing Aruba with Sudan. He was pointing out the obvious that we waste no resources to find a missing girl there but the hundreds of teenage girls dying in the Sudan don't seem to make us even get up off the couch.

Those that read here regularly know I talk about Darfur often, and the lack of support from both our government and the UN.

Some of the comments Brad made or will make during his prime time interview:

"Listen, we who were born in America have to understand, we hit the lottery by growing up here, by being born here," he said.

He said the costs involved in making a real impact in the impoverished regions of Africa are minimal.

"A girl's education is $16 — the price of a CD … we're not talking about going to the people — everyone forking out of their pocket," he said. "We're talking about arousing our government to say … we have the potential to end poverty in our time … What is more exciting than that?"

Pitt said he was frustrated by the fact that his personal life has been the subject of a media frenzy while the humanitarian crisis in Africa has received relatively little attention.

"I can't get out of the press. These people can't get in the press. So let's redirect the attention a little bit," says Pitt. "It drives me mental seeing what I've seen and knowing that it doesn't show up in our news every day. I mean literally, thousands of people died today!"

While he was in Africa, an ABC News search found 896 articles about Pitt. His Google count is now up to 2.7 million entries.

"It's a strange focus, isn't it?" he asked. "That my relationships or relationship mishaps takes precedent over something like that [the situation in Africa] … I understand it's about entertainment, but man, it's misguided a bit, isn't it?"

He marveled at the prices that celebrity publications paid for pictures of him with Jolie and her son in Africa — estimated at $500,000 to $750,000.

"It's an amazing fact, the bounty that's on my head and the lengths that these people go to get these shots and the amount of money that they're paying for these shots," he said. "I can't help but think what that money could have gone to. Hell, I would have set up the damn pictures myself."

When asked why people should listen to him, or other celebrities, just because they're famous, he said: "I don't know that we should … I don't believe people should listen to me. I'm hoping the images … will speak for themselves."

I agree with him that alot of times our focus is misguided and we are lucky to be here, despite our political squabbling we could be doing alot more to make the world a better place. With what we have spent so far on Iraq we could have made a huge difference in Africa and in the end saved alot more people from death. If we could have found a way to avoid having to go to war? What a difference it could have been....and even with the cost of the war? We can still do alot more not only ourselves but to encourage other countries to do the right thing......

Pot for the sick and the disabled on cruise ships...

What do they have in common?

Two decisions by the Supreme Court that put Federal law over not only State Law but Foreign Countries as well.

The Supreme Court agreed with the theory that the Federal Government could prosecute people under the Federal Drug Laws for using marijuana even when they know it is not being transported over state lines. The court agreed 6-3 in an opinion written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who said that the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 was a valid exercise of federal power by the Congress "even as applied to the troubling facts of this case."

Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas dissented.

"Relying on Congress' abstract assertions, the court has endorsed making it a federal crime to grow small amounts of marijuana in one's own home for one's own medicinal use," she said. "This overreaching stifles an express choice by some states ... to regulate medical marijuana differently" wrote O'Connor.

On the cruise ship issue, The Supreme Court, expanding the scope of a landmark federal disabilities law, ruled Monday that foreign cruise lines sailing in U.S. waters must provide better access for passengers in wheelchairs.

The narrow 5-4 decision is a victory for disabled rights advocates, who said inadequate ship facilities inhibited their right to "participate fully in society."

In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy said that except for regulating a vessel's internal affairs, the law applied to foreign ships in U.S. waters to the same extent that it applied to American ships in those waters.

He said the law's own limitations and qualifications would prevent it from imposing requirements that would conflict with international obligations or threaten shipboard safety.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. Scalia said in dissent he would hold that the law does not apply to foreign-flag cruise ships.

"Title III plainly affects the internal order of foreign-flag cruise ships, subjecting them to the possibility of conflicting international obligations," Scalia wrote in an opinion joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist as well as Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas.

Over ten million Americans take cruises every year, the majority of Cruise Lines are not US owned. In the situation that brought about this lawsuit, I can understand demanding equal access since two disabled persons were charged a higher rate yet the ships in question were not designed to allow them equal access. However, to demand that all cruise ships that enter US waters follow U.S. Disability Laws isn't going to cause them to spend the millions necessary to retrofit each ship to meet these laws. What it will do is make them use other ports that are not within the US. Not being a lawyer or of course a Judge, logic to me would be a ruling limited to those who currently charge more to disabled passengers must provide equal access.

So we have two rulings, one which states Federal Laws superceeds State Laws in States that have voted on allowing the use of marijuna by sick patients, and Federal Law superceeds any Foreign Law on ships in US Waters......

Moment of Momism....

Well today my third child is technically no longer a child. She graduated from High School. Like her brother and her older sister before her, with honors, one of 27 in her class to graduate with the Presidential Award of Excellence.

I tried not to cry as I always find myself crying at moments like this, however this time I blame it on my oldest daughter, she started it...lol...For Emily it was emotional because it brought back memories of just two years ago when she stood there giving her speech as Salutatorian, and how different adult life and college is from those High School years that they cannot wait to end, then at times miss.....

Congratulations Class of 2005...and Megan.....job well done.

:-)

Keyse G. Jama a flight risk?

I first heard about this case when the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that people could be deported to another country without consent of that country. Today's New York Times gives an update to what happened:

There was the question of a passport. Mr. Jama never had one, and Somalia has no central government to issue one. Daallo Airlines, the only commercial option, requires one, so the lawyers argued over whether they could (or should) obtain one from a quasi-governmental group, eventually opting against doing so.

At 9 a.m. on April 20, immigration officers came to the jail here "and told me to collect my belongings," Mr. Jama said in a sworn statement.

Interviews and other court records show that he was flown, ankles or wrists cuffed, in a private jet from Minneapolis to Nairobi, with fuel stops in Reykjavik and Rome. American officials do not travel to Somalia - or negotiate with the local Puntland authorities - so they handed him over in Nairobi to RMI Security, a Kenyan concern that, under United States government contract, was supposed to arrange his acceptance.

He and his guards flew as planned to an airstrip in Puntland, but soon reboarded the plane with a handwritten document from an unidentified official that said, "Not having needed lawful documents we have rejected to except" him. It was signed "Thanks."

So he's back in MN and back being held in Jail. A prior Supreme Court ruling states he can't be held for over six months unless deportation is imminent or there is a specific danger in release. (He's been in jail for six years due to court rulings, appeals, awaiting deportation, etc). Nor is he the only one who is being held, there are over a thousand others like him being held long term.

Jama's lawyers asked for his release which was originally scheduled to happen on May 23rd. Immigration had stated first that the six months should start from the date of the Supreme Court ruling which was January 12th. But this is the part that really got to me. He has no country, Somalia won't take him back, we supposedly want him out of here, yet Immigration says he should continue to be held because he is a was a flight risk, "as he has nothing to lose," and said the authorities were "on the brink" of removing him.

Brink of removing him where? They already tried to return him to Somalia....Has nothing to lose? Well how many people have anything after being held in jail for six years....

Granted it was his use of alcohol and a knife fight back in 1999 that caused this, but he does have relatives and a job if he is released into the US. If they failed at trying to return him the first time, what's going to happen next?

The government has said that it now plans to expel Mr. Jama by June 8. Tim Counts, a spokesman for the immigration service's office in Bloomington, Minn., said in an interview that "it's very clear that we have the authority to hold him," but refused to discuss the next deportation effort. "We simply don't talk about the details of any removal - the hows, the whens, any of that," he said.

Somehow I'm thinking maybe a parachute over Somalia......

So you think you are having a bad day?

From my friend Bob, made me laugh hope it does you

Telling Uncle Sam no....

Kind of ironic after yesterday's post about Walter, but in a way it ties in. Today's New York Times has a three page article about Parents being one of the main stepping blocks to military recruitment.

A few of the main points for those who don't get the Times online:

Amy Hagopian, co-chairwoman of the Parent-Teacher-Student Association at Garfield High School in Seattle, has been fighting against a four-year-old federal law that requires public schools to give military recruiters the same access to students as college recruiters get, or lose federal funding.

A Department of Defense survey last November, the latest, shows that only 25 percent of parents would recommend military service to their children, down from 42 percent in August 2003.

No Child Left Behind, which was passed by Congress in 2001, requires schools to turn over students' home phone numbers and addresses unless parents opt out. That is often the spark that ignites parental resistance.

Recruiters, in interviews over the past six months, said that opposition can be fierce. Three years ago, perhaps 1 or 2 of 10 parents would hang up immediately on a cold call to a potential recruit's home, said a recruiter in New York who, like most others interviewed, insisted on anonymity to protect his career. "Now," he said, "in the past year or two, people hang up all the time. "

In response, the Army has rolled out a campaign aimed at parents, with television ads and a Web site that includes videos of parents talking about why they supported their children's decision to enlist. General Rochelle said that it was still too early to tell if it is making a difference.

But Col. David Slotwinski, a former chief of staff for Army recruiting, said that the Army faced an uphill battle because many baby boomer parents are inclined to view military service negatively, especially during a controversial war."They don't realize that they have a role in helping make the all-volunteer force successful," said Colonel Slotwinski, who retired in 2004. "If you don't, you're faced with the alternative, and the alternative is what they were opposed to the most, mandatory service."

So although the Garfield P.T.S.A. voted last month to ban military recruiters from the school and its 1,600 students, the Seattle school district could not sign on to the idea without losing at least $15 million in federal education funds.

Ms. Rogers, 37, of High Falls in the upper Hudson Valley, had not thought much about the war before she began speaking out in her school district. She had been "politically apathetic," she said. She did not know about No Child Left Behind's reporting requirements, nor did she opt out.

When her son, Jonah, said he was thinking of sitting out a gym class that was to be led by National Guard recruiters, Ms. Rogers, said she told him not to be "a rebel without a cause."

"In this world," she recalled telling him, "we need a strong military."

But then she heard from her son that the class was mandatory, and that recruiters were handing out free T-shirts and key chains - "Like, 'Hey, let's join the military. It's fun,' " she said.

On May 24, at the first school board meeting since the gym class, she read aloud from a recruiting handbook that advised recruiters on ways to gain maximum access to schools, including offering doughnuts. A high school senior, Katie Coalla, 18, stood up at one point and tearfully defended the recruiters, receiving applause from the crowd of about 70, but Ms. Rogers persisted.

"Pulling in this need for heartstrings patriotic support is clouding the issue," she said. "The point is not whether I support the troops. It's about whether a well-organized propaganda machine should be targeted at children and enforced by the schools."

Some of my personal experience with recruiters has been good, some of it not so good. In Walter's case the Air Force Recruiter was not only honest, but told him he better get his grades up or he would not be able to get into his desired field in the Air Force. In my experience with my oldest daughter, she had no desire to go into any branch of the military. The phone calls and to be blunt some of the down right lies she was told was disturbing. At one point she was assured if she joined she'd never be placed anywhere near a combat situation; her patriotism was also questioned by one recruiter. I have taken issue with the way these recruiters have access to our children without permission. With my son it was a different issue as both he and Walter were in JROTC, so I knew they were going to be exposed to the different branches of the military and I understood there would naturally be some effort to recruit them either into the military at the end of high school or into ROTC in College.

However, none of my daughters selected to participate in JROTC, and the "selling" of the military starts about the time the College brochures start coming. However, not many Colleges have direct access to your children during the school day. This last school year I opted to not have the remaining three children's names published. The school secretary called me thinking I made a mistake, obviously not many of us did this because she was surprised I didn't want my children to receive all of the "College" info. I told her I was not interested because of the deluge of mail my older two had received and that it was more sensible for my children to request information from colleges they wanted to attend rather than waste time, paper and postage from colleges they would never even think of attending. This of course doesn't stop the military from making recruiting attempts at the high school, just stops getting all the junk mail. I'm sitting here drinking coffee from a cup Erin got this year from the Navy. (it's a very nice cup btw)

That said....My family has a long history of enlisting in the various military branches, all the way back to the Revoluntary War. If one of my children wanted to enlist we would to the same as we do when it comes to Colleges or College Majors, discuss the pros and cons of it and in the end support them no matter what choice they made. Would the war come up as one of the reasons not to enlist? Of course it would, but the reality is even if the war ended tomorrow, there is always a chance when you enlist even in peace time that you could be killed or injured as part of some Peacekeeping mission. Should we be honest in making sure that with all of the glitz there is also truth? Of course.....so I understand and support those parents who are trying to do what parents are supposed to do....protect their children and make sure they have the best future possible whether it be civilian or military.

Out of Iraq....

I don't usually write alot of personal stuff here, but I'm going to take a moment here to write about Walter. He's like one of my kids, he and my son were going to enlist together into the Air Force after graduation. My son was not accepted for health reasons, but Walter was.

This picture was taken in Germany shortly before he was sent to Iraq. I'm happy to report he is now back in Germany and doing very well. Sooo Walter, I know you check in once in a while here to see what I'm up to, I'm proud of you, we all are and can't wait to see you. Yes....I'll make lasagna, a triple batch even....

:-)

Changing the drinking age....

As I read this story in the Denver Post, I started to think to myself. If the age for military drinking is dropped to 18 are more incidents like this possible because drinking would be legal and even more accepted? Or would it make it less likely because if they were drinking legally it would have been more in the open and the chances of it not going that far would be reduced?

Air Force Academy - A woman allegedly raped by a fellow cadet consented to sex but does not remember doing so because of a "textbook case of alcohol blackout," a defense psychiatrist testified Tuesday in the court-martial of the senior cadet.

Dr. William Kenner, a psychiatrist from Nashville, Tenn., said cadet Benjamin Kuster's accuser claims she was sleeping when the sex occurred during a scuba club trip. The alleged victim, however, was in a state of alcohol-induced amnesia, Kenner said. She could remember some things but not others.

Kenner said the alleged victim, now a second lieutenant in the Air Force, could remember Kuster rubbing his hand near her bellybutton ring and touching her bra but not having her clothes removed or having sex.

"What she has done is fill in what has happened in terms of how she would feel the next morning," Kenner testified.

I'm not sure any of these Airforce cadets were old enough to legally drink anyway, the article doesn't state that but one can make a valid assumption that they were not old enough to be drinking, yet were old enough to be in the Air Force.

The reality is the same as college drinking, get a bunch of young adults together, mix in some alcohol and you can almost guarantee stupid behavior. I know, I was 18 when it was legal to drink and trust me I did my share of stupid behavior while drinking.

So what's the answer? Are you magically more mature the day you turn 21? Of course not. Is there hypocrisy in being old enough to vote and serve your country, possibly even die in service while not being "old" enough to drink? Yes.

However if we are going to change the age from 21 then it should be changed to reflect everyone, not just those who serve in the military. I think there is enough evidence out there that demonstrates you can be just as stupid when drunk at 21 as you can be at 18. There is no magic date when a person becomes "mature" or "responsible". The law has to try to find a median, an acceptable compromise. If they at 18 are not mature enough to drink, are they mature enough to vote or serve in the military? Why call them adults once they reach the age of 18 if they are not truly adults in the full legal sense?

Lots of questions, the same ones that were asked when they changed the drinking age to 21.....

Deep Throat revealed but what about......

So yesterday we discover that what many of us that followed the whole Watergate story have suspected is true, that W. Mark Felt was "Deep Throat". The Washington Post has quite a few articles about it today. Kind of ironic that given the Post connection they were not the ones who the announcement was originally made to.

Now that brings me to the what about part.....

Jimmy Hoffa..will we ever find out what happened to him and where he is buried?

Pearl Harbor...could it really have been avoided?

JFK...who really was behind his death and was there a connection to Bobby's death as well?

Roswell, NM....what is the real deal there?

M.R. Handy....will I ever find out why he was buried at Johnson's Island Confederate Prison Cemetery as a civilian?

(Okay that last one may only be one I think about, but it's an important one in my History Mystery quest)

There are of course alot more out there some serious some silly:

Did Hitler really kill himself?

What is the Loch Ness Monster?

Does Bigfoot really exist?

Where do the socks that have gone into the washer disappear to?

and...

Who is this mysterious person that lives in my house responsible for so many things that my children all claim innocence on?

One can ponder....but will we ever know?

Kristof: Day 141 of Bush's Silence

Nicholas Kristof continues his coverage of the situation in Darfur and our President and countries inaction.

I've written earlier about this and posted a link to help Save Darfur. Since he puts it much better than I could and some of you don't want to sign up for the free online New York Times, here is the main part of what he writes. I ask you, to please write your Congresspersons and tell them that we can do more to help those in Darfur....


There are several points I could make to argue that it's in our own interest to help Darfur. Turmoil in Darfur is already destabilizing all of Sudan and neighboring Chad as well, both oil-exporting countries. And failed states nurture terrorists like Osama and diseases like polio, while exporting refugees and hijackers.

But there's an even better argument: Magboula, a woman I met at the Kalma Camp here.

She lived with her husband and five children in the countryside, but then as the Arab janjaweed began to slaughter black African tribes like her own, she and her family fled to the safety of a larger town. In December, the Sudanese Army attacked that town, and they ran off to the bush. Two months ago, the janjaweed militia caught up with them.

First the raiders shot her husband dead, she said, her voice choking, and then they whipped her, taunted her with racial insults against black people and mocked her by asking why her husband was not there to help her. Then eight of them gang-raped her.

They may also have mutilated her. At one point she spoke of being slashed with a knife in the shoulder and chest, but when I asked her about it, she kept changing the subject.

"I was very, very ashamed, and very frightened," she said, leaving it at that.

After the attack, Magboula was determined to save her children. So they traipsed together on a journey across the desert to the Kalma Camp, where a small number of foreign aid workers are struggling heroically to assist 110,000 victims of the upheaval. Magboula carried her 6-month-old baby, Abdul Hani, in her arms, and the others, ranging from 2 to 9, stumbled beside her.

Magboula finally arrived at Kalma a few weeks ago. But the Sudanese government is blocking new arrivals like her from getting registered, which means they can't get food and tents. So Magboula is getting no rations and is living with her children under a straw mat on a few sticks.

Then a few days ago, Abdul Hani, Magboula's baby, died.

She and her children are surviving on handouts from other homeless people who arrived earlier and are getting U.N. food. They have almost nothing themselves, but they at least have the compassion to help those who are even needier.

The world might also respond if people could see what is going on, but Sudan has barred most reporters from the area. I'm here because I accompanied Kofi Annan on a visit - bless him for coming! - and then jumped ship while here.

Magboula and the 2.2 million other homeless people from Darfur need food and shelter, and President Bush has been good about providing that. But above all they need the international community to shame Sudan for killing and raping people on the basis of their tribe. Each time Sudan has been subjected to strong moral pressure, it has backed off somewhat - but lately the attention has subsided, and Mr. Bush even killed the Senate-passed Darfur Accountability Act, which would have condemned the genocide.

What killed Magboula's husband and child was, indirectly, the world's moral indifference.

News stories worth sharing....

I'm still waiting to see what happens in the Jennifer Bier situation this morning. She is the Colorado Rape Counselor who the military issued an arrest warrant for on Friday. Her crime? Refusing to turn over confidential records of a rape victim so the defense could fish thru it to see if there was anything they could use to help Lieutenant Harding who is being tried for the rape of two cadets while at the Airforce Academy. Ms. Bier's attorney was going to go to court this morning to try to have the arrest warrant dropped. As I learn more I'll update.

There's been alot of talk about the US denying abuse of detainees in both Afghanistan and Gitmo, on that note, it's obvious if you report abuse you can pretty much kiss your job good bye.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Two years ago the commission asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to appoint an independent expert to develop a program to advise Afghanistan on human rights "and to seek and receive information about and report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan in an effort to prevent human rights violations."

Then came a one-year delay; evidently it was difficult to find an expert acceptable to the Americans, whose 18,000 troops remain the real power in Afghanistan. Finally, Annan selected DePaul law professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, who holds American and Egyptian citizenship. But Bassiouni's passport was not enough to shield him from Washington's pique.

During his 1-year term, Bassiouni traveled to Afghanistan twice, reviewed voluminous documents, and met with Afghan and international human-rights groups, officials of governments and UN agencies, and alleged victims.

He delivered two extensive reports, one to the UN General Assembly in October and a second to the commission this March. Both were sharply critical of the human-rights situation in Afghanistan--including alleged violations by U.S. forces, such as arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, and torture and murder of prisoners.

In April the commission held its annual meeting in Geneva. A consensus statement for the commission embraced, in general terms, most of Bassiouni's findings and recommendations.

But the statement omitted any mention of U.S. violations.

And the commission--reportedly under pressure from the U.S. ambassador in Geneva--decided it no longer needed an independent expert to monitor human rights in Afghanistan. Not only was Bassiouni in effect fired, but no one replaced him.

In addition, unlike the UN, an Afghan commission has no jurisdiction to investigate violations committed by U.S. military forces. Visiting Washington last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai pleaded with President Bush to turn over Afghan prisoners to Afghan control. He was rebuffed.

And there lies the real explanation for Bassiouni's firing: his reporting of alleged abuses by U.S. forces (which he diplomatically calls "coalition" forces, even though they are nearly all Americans).

Coalition forces, he says, should be role models for the Afghans. When they instead run roughshod over human rights, they "create a dangerous and negative political environment that threatens the success of the peace process and overall national reconstruction."

Reports of serious violations by coalition forces include "forced entry into homes, arrest and detention . . . without legal authority or judicial review . . . forced nudity, hooding and sensory deprivation, sleep and food deprivation, forced squatting and standing for long periods of time in stress positions, sexual abuse, beatings, torture, and use of force resulting in death."

These allegations are difficult to confirm, Bassiouni admits, because the U.S. refused his requests to inspect military prisons, holds prisoners in field installations not visited by the Red Cross, and has classified last year's internal Pentagon investigation by Brig. Gen. Charles Jacoby.

But enough internal Pentagon reports have been leaked to the media to substantiate key allegations, and in October, an Army task force found probable cause to indict at least 27 guards and interrogators. To date, only seven have been charged, and none tried--for crimes involving deaths of prisoners more than 2 1/2 years ago.

In Bassiouni's words, "[T]he Coalition forces' practice of placing themselves above and beyond the reach of the law must come to an end."

There is more at the link, and I've written in the past of some of the abuse mentioned by the CIC. To continue to pretend that abuse has not happened only increases the speculation that this is not random soldiers not following orders but something much more disturbing. The military needs to act now, before the speculation leads to even more anti-american feeling in the Middle East.

Will the coins cost too much?

or will the Noe saga pass with little changed......

Call me skeptical, but the problems resulting from "Coingate" as they call it and the additional stories about Bob Ney and his gambling "luck" might not bring about the change in Republican control of Ohio. The whole reason why this has happened and why Republicans have held on to power has to do with men like Tom Noe. The huge financial backing of Republicans has created this and the Democrats to date have not been able to compete. Democrats trying to challenge Republicans don't have the same million dollar bankrolls in the majority of cases, especially when they are trying to go against an incumbant.

We've created a situation where the rich or the friends of the rich who are out of touch with our own personal lives keep getting elected and re-elected. Except in very rare situations, the regular average citizen who has a desire to make a difference never even gets up to bat. Term limits aren't enough to change this, it's going to take real finance reform, not the half-assed attempts done in the past. Expecting Congress to police itself has proven how well that works, as they don't want to lose their PAC's and various other ways they've learned how to legally skirt the rules.

It's up to us to change this, to see beyond the million dollar media presentations that hit us each election season and educate ourselves as to the candidates. Support those like Mark Dann, as an example, that have made campaign finance reform a part of his whole ideal system. Elect more like him, realizing that a few once they hit the "big time" will suddenly change because they have been affected by the dark side of the force.....However the more we send that share the belief that corporations and rich individuals should not dictate who has the power that it should be of the people by the people the odds increase that real changes will be made.

I realize my dream of government returning to the way it was designed with no one or two parties holding the majority of power in Congress will probably never happen. We waited too long to remember the warnings of George Washington and others. However, that doesn't mean we have to accept things the way the are or that we are powerless to try to make real change happen. We do still hold the power, and the trick is to get people to remember that when they are voting. To stop voting for someone because you've seen more ads on tv, and you assume since they won before they should automatically be returned to office. Take the time to find out what your representatives actually stand for before you vote.

Find out which corporations or organizations are financing them. Chances are if it is something you don't support you'll find very little luck in getting that representative to work for you. Human nature dictates they make those who provide them with power and money happy before they will you. Once they are in office? Don't let them forget you are out there. That you are still paying attention. Don't just give critiques but find time to also compliment them when they do something you do agree with. Positive reinforcement still works the best and it's most likely to get beyond their staff into their actual hands.

Each of us does hold the real power....all we have to do is use it.....

Rebirth of Symbols....

Most of us have become quite used to the cute little emoticons that now range from the little smiley face to much more, however, I've noticed in the world of blog a re-emergence of symbols instead of emoticons.

Sure it's possible to add emoticons, even here I could upload some to my webserver then post as an image....

But really who wants to do that extra step when the old fashion way works.

Soooo for those of you who don't know or need a refresher course on the use of symbols here we go - lol

:-) smiley face or happy
:-)) very happy
:-( sad or not happy
:-@ scream
:-* kiss
:-! foot in mouth
=) surprised

Infact there are lots of them most of them I never use....Lisa Craig has just about all of them, including some that bring back memories from the chat rooms in talkcity....

{=^;^=} meow....
(^.^) rolling my eyes...
@}~~~~~ a rose...

Military has different idea on privacy....

Back in April I read a news story about Jennifer Bier, a Colorado Rape Crisis Counselor who was refusing to turn over confidential records to the Military in the Court Martial of airman Joseph Harding, who is accused of raping ex-cadet Jessica Brakey and another woman. Jennifer Bier was Jessica Brakey's Counselor.

Military law differs from civilian law, as I'm sure many of you are thinking, "those records are confidential". Not if you are involved in a Court Martial where confidential records like this are used by a military defense lawyer to basically to to smear the rape victim. The Military defense team's position is that Harding's constitutional right to a fair trial overrides Brakey's privacy interests.

Beir's attorney, Wendy Murphy, stated back in April: "The accused has no constitutional right to conduct a fishing expedition in the private records of a rape victim or any kind of victim. There's just no justification for them to snoop around like this."

Several lawmakers including, Sen. Wayne Allard, have asked the Air Force, which operates under its own justice system rules, to back off.

Well it appears, Military defense Team 1, Rape Counselor 0, from today's New York Times:

DENVER, May 28 (AP) - An arrest warrant has been issued for a rape counselor who refused to turn over records of her sessions with a former Air Force Academy cadet, one of the women whose allegations touched off a scandal that toppled the academy's leaders.

Ms. Bier said Saturday that she was angry that she was being forced to chose between betraying her client's trust and being arrested.

"For me to betray a client renders my whole field null and void and I refuse to do that," she said.

Ms. Bier's lawyer, Wendy Murphy, said on Saturday that she planned to seek an emergency order on Tuesday in federal court to prevent an arrest, but that she was not sure if the court would accept the case.

Ms. Bier "did the right thing that is ethically and legally demanded of her," said Ms. Murphy, who teaches at the New England School of Law in Boston.

Officials at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, where the court-martial is taking place, did not return phone calls seeking comment on Saturday.

Ms. Bier, who is a civilian, has indicated that she is prepared to go to jail to protect the privacy of the accuser, a former cadet who sought counseling after she said she was raped by Lieutenant Harding in 2000.

As a woman, and as a rape victim, this is not only not right, but is something that should have been stopped years ago. A woman raped by a man should have the same right to confideniality in treatment in the military or in the civilian world. I admire Jennifer Bier's convicitions on this issue, and I will keep you updated as to what happens. She should not be forced to violate her ethics and I hope the Military drops the arrest warrant and the request.

History of Memorial Day

In my never ending addiction to history, how Memorial Day came about:

After the civil war, women's groups in the South decorated the graves of their lost confederate loved ones. In 1867 the following hymn was written and dedicated to ..."To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead".



Words by G.W.R.
Music by Mrs. L. Nella Sweet

Kneel where our loves are sleeping, Dear ones days gone by,
Here we bow in holy reverence, Our bosoms heave the heartfelt sigh.
They fell like brave men, true as steel, And pour’d their blood like rain,
We feel we owe them all we have, And can but weep and kneel again.

CHORUS
Kneel where our loves are sleeping, They lost but still were good and true,
Our fathers, brothers fell still fighting, We weep, ‘tis all that we can do.

VERSE 2:
Here we find our noble dead, Their spirits soar’d to him above,
Rest they now about his throne, For God is mercy, God is love.
Then let us pray that we may live, As pure and good as they have been,
That dying we may ask of him, To open the gate and let us in.

CHORUS
Kneel where our loves are sleeping, They lost but still were good and true,
Our fathers, brothers fell still fighting, We weep, ‘tis all that we can do.



Now most of the Memorial Day history sites say it doesn't matter who started it, well yes and no. Realistically the creation of Memorial Day was started because of the Civil War. Even though General Logan declared on May 5, 1868 that May 30th would be a day to remember the Union and Confederate Soldiers who had died, most Southern States did not recognize this as their "Memorial Day" until it was changed to include all those who had died in wars past after World War I. Some Southern states still have a separate day to remember those who died for the Confederacy in addition to the Federal Memorial Day.

"Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic." General Logan - May 5, 1868


In 1915 Moina Michael created her own poem inspired by In Flanders Fields by John McCrae:


We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.


This started the wearing of a poppy on Memorial Day. It's a tradition that still lives on though isn't supported as it used to be. So when you see a Veteran selling a poppy....Buy one...

In 2000, the National Moment of Remembrance resolution was passed. All Americans at 3:00 p.m. are supposed to give a moment of silence or play taps in remembrance of those who have died in Wars.

There have been many attempts to change Memorial Day back to May 30th rather than the current last Monday in May. In 2002 during their Memorial day address the VFW stated: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."

So, at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, stop for a moment and pause to reflect on those who have died in Service of our Country. Doesn't matter whether you agree with the political motives behind any of these wars, it's about remembering men and women who are fellow Americans died. I think it's also important to remember that the creation of this day stemmed from the Civil War, and to never forget that division almost destroyed us.

If you want more information two very good sites:

US Memorial Day Org
POW/MIA history of Memorial Day

More Noe or....

Why Lisa cannot do math

Governor Taft has announced James Conrad has resigned, been terminated, however you choose to intepret it.

However, I started thinking (yes, a dangerous thing).

The Toledo Blade reported:

Mr. Noe’s attorney, Bill Wilkinson, contacted the state to say that $10 million to $12 million of assets are “unaccounted for.”

Now bear with me for a moment okay? If the 10 to 12 million is missing from the 50 million dollar fund does that include the profits of 15 million that have been stated were made or is that in addition to the 15 million dollars in profits that has been stated were made?

If, it is including the profits then in reality as it stands right now, no money was lost but the profits were either exaggerated or mishandled. If this does not include the 15 million dollars worth of profits, five million of which was stated was reinvested then the dollar amount of the total loss is much higher because those profits are missing as well.

Even if you only count the five million that was reinvested the actual account should be 55 million. So...either more money is missing or the profit is missing, which still affects the BWC. However it is my own personal desire to be precise that makes me point this out....

There are still so many unanswered questions, and I've never seen anything that shows how much or where the profit came from or went. I do know that five million dollars of profit was supposed to be "reinvested" but so far no one has provided the full details.

Noe story from before....

My previous post on this story...

There's lots of other information out there, but this doesn't seem to be still covered so for those of you looking for "all" the details...

The latest:

There are currently calls for director of BWC to step down, Petro to step down, and local news just reported our area is going to demand a special prosecuter. Local republicans have refused requests to be interviewed.

The State is still at Noe's Monclova location, looking for coins and collectibles and removing them. They state they will be there all night.

Support the supportive.....

Ignore the ignorant

Borrowing a frequent comment from one of my fellow posters at excite.....

So in that vein, I suggest supporting Kraft Foods, because they are standing firm to the pressure from American Family Association to drop their sponsorship of the 2006 Gay Games being held in Chicago.

Disagree with the whole concept of gays having rights? Then still consider the right of an American Corporation to choose how it sees fit to help contribute in it's own hometown. Kraft Foods sponsors almost 1700 local cash in kind type grants on a yearly basis.

An organization such as American Family Association should not dictate to Kraft Foods who they can help. If the stockholders of Kraft have an issue with it then so be it. But this ever increasing system of a small yet vocal minority creating pressure should be looked at.

Personally I feel it is not my right to judge my fellow man on the basis of his or her sexual preference. Nor is it my right to tell people to stop partaking in the Kraft Mac and Cheese, as it is good.

Want more background info on this? Daily Kos...letter from Kraft

American Family Associations newsalert to boycott

Our Senator from Ohio.....

Senator Voinovich has been getting alot of attention lately. Personally I was glad to see him stand up for his own beliefs during the committee hearings on John Bolton. That's how our government is supposed to work, it's not supposed to be the party line every time upon command. He's been catching alot of heat from Republicans when instead they should be glad he is doing his job.

Today he made a very emotional plea that frankly the depth of the emotion when he stated this surprised me. The link to the video is here courtesy of dembloggers it's the only site I found out there that had it. It was quicker to save target as to my desktop rather than wait for it to load from there for those interested.

I transcribed the statement he made, for those not interested in the video, though you can't see how emotional he became via printed words.....

We're going to vote tomorrow, and I'm afraid that when we go
to the well, that too many of my colleagues, that too many of
my colleagues are not going to understand that this
appointment is very very important to our country.

At a strategic time when we need friends all over the world
we need somebody up there that's going to be able
to get the job done and I know some of my friends say,
oh let it go George it will work out,

I don't want to take the risk, I came back here and ran
for a second term because I worry about my kids
and my grandchildren. I just hope that my colleagues take the time
and before they get to this well do some serious thinking
about whether or not we should send John Bolton to the
United Nations.

I wrote him and told him thank you for having the courage to not just follow the party line in the committee. I wrote him again tonight and again thanked him for having the courage of his convictions. For George Voinovich to make that emotional of a plea to the Senate, something is driving that emotion. Let's hope the Senate listens.

Vigilante Dad saves daughter....

If you read this article from the Toledo Blade, it states some facts but leaves out alot of important details. I realize some of the statements from the father are from his side of the story but they could have at least stated more than what they did.

The Blade states:

Police were sent to the Downing residence Monday after the father of one of the girls learned his daughter, 14, was being held there. The 38-year-old Fulton County man claimed she was being sold into prostitution from the residence and was being taken into Michigan.

He smashed in the windows of the residence with a metal pipe, forced his way inside and assaulted Mr. Willoughby with the pipe. His daughter jumped from a second-story window.

The father chased and assaulted Mr. Willoughby. Ms. Shope and Ms. Huskey tried to fight off the father and the three suspects carried him outside, where he was held until police arrived.

Court records indicate the three suspects punched and kicked the father, who was taken to Toledo Hospital. No charges have been filed against the father. The FBI is investigating.

The rest of the story according to the father who was interviewed on a local radio station yesterday:

The two girls went missing on May 13th, they were reported missing on May 14th. It was originally thought they were runaways. The family received a call from Ann Arbor that one of the girls had been held after being picked up at a truck stop by sherrifs. The father and his sister went up to get her. Evidently she did not tell police that she knew where her cousin was. Both girls according to the family had been threatened with physical harm, if one did something wrong the other one was punished. So the "found" girl was afraid to provide details to law enforcement, but did tell the father she knew which street the house was on where his daughter was held.

When the father arrived at the house, he called 911. Twenty minutes passed and he then called the FBI. His sister then called 911 again after a half an hour had passed, she was told cars had not been dispatched yet. Almost 50 minutes later, his ex-wife called 911 and was told it was a "low priority" call. With hearing that the father took a tire iron from his trunk and went up to the house. No one answered the door so he broke the window to get in after he saw his daughter's face in the upstairs window. Now the daughter either was put out the window or climbed out of the window and ran.

The "alledged" kidnapper lunged at the father who started hitting him with the tire iron, then the two women started to fight with the father as well. It ends up in the front yard, where more neighbors start calling 911. The daughter somehow sees that her father is being beaten and demands they stop beating her father. The police finally arrive.

Even if the girls really did run away and somehow got hooked up with this "pimp" you would think that knowing one of the girls was being held against her will and/or being used as a prostitute at age 14 would not be considered a "low priority" call. More proof that some of those Lucas County Sherrif's that sit around here with nothing better to could be helping Toledo if they are that shorthanded. All of the details haven't come out, however, as a parent? I don't think I could wait over 50 minutes knowing one of my daughters was in a house after hearing details of what had happened to her cousin. I also would probably go in with something stronger than a tire iron......

Driving down memory lane.....

Josh and I may be very different politically, but as is often found, sometimes you have a common interest that transcends the political stuff.

That would be cars, yes....I was a motor head, and in some ways still am at heart. I started thinking about my favorite car of all time, the 1969 Roadrunner. Almost went thru the search to be able to find all the stuff to set up my scanner, but this picture is much better than ones I have from years ago.






Now, imagine her in white, with a black vinyl top and wide black racing stripes on the hood.....yes, almost all my cars have been "hers" and yes....I talk to my cars, usually very nicely. They like that....

Ebay is a great place to find stuff, but also a way to make you go OMG I sold that car for 200.00 bucks....what an idiot I was....

This one will either make you cry or say as I did hmmmmm imagine the possibilities....

However, there are bigger monsters than us....

Not to make the below post seem less of an outrage, but to point out that in other countries, including countries we support, torture can be more extreme. From last February.....

Human rights groups are calling on the Bush administration to take a tougher line with Uzbekistan following the recent conviction in Tashkent of a 62-year-old woman for ostensibly publicizing information about the torture death of her son. The case, rights advocates argue, underscores that Uzbekistan is an unreliable ally in the campaign to contain international terrorism. Fatima Mukhadirova was sentenced to six years of hard labor in prison basically because she tried to bring attention to how her son was tortured and murdered.

Avazov, 35, was a Hizb-ut-Tahrir member who, rights advocates maintain, was tortured to death in prison in August 2002. Prison authorities claimed Avazov died after fellow inmates spilled hot tea on him. But a forensic report, based on evidence studied by pathologists at Glasgow University, determined that Avazov had been immersed in boiling water. His body also showed signs of substantial bruising around his head and neck, and his fingernails were missing.

Mukhadirova, was arrested after she called for an investigation into Avazov’s death. In an attempt to attract international support for her cause, she sent photographs of his corpse to the British Embassy – the same photos that eventually ended up being analyzed at Glasgow University. The British ambassador in Tashkent, Craig Murray, characterized the sentence as "appalling" in comments published by the London Guardian. Murray went on to suggest that Mukhadirova’s chances of her surviving in prison were "very limited."

Representatives of the New York-based Human Rights Watch HRW say the Mukhadirova case underscores the need for the Bush administration to designate Uzbekistan as a violator or religious freedom under the US International Religious Freedom act. "It is time for the United States to acknowledge that one of its key allies [in Central Asia] is systematically abusing the rights of Muslims," Rachel Denber, HRW’s the acting executive director of the group’s Europe and Central Asia Division, said in a written statement.

Thanks to HRW and other human rights organizations, Fatima Mukhadriova's sentence was reduced due to her age and she was given a fine of $280.00 and released. Yet the troubling manner in which her son died, and the fact that torture tactics such as immersing body parts or whole people in boiling water is still being used in Uzbekistan shouldn't be ignored.

The Shame....

While the whole "blame Newsweek" scenario has been going on the New York Times' Tim Golden has written two rather long articles concerning prisoner abuse and deaths at Bagram, ironically some of the soldiers accused of abuse here were then sent to Abu Grahib. I was already sickened earlier by finding out that the soldiers with Pat Tillman after they killed him took his uniform and armor off and burned it. After reading what fellow Americans did to Dilawar and others I felt disgust. Disgust that these men and women claim to represent and serve our Country. While most of them have escaped being charged with criminal acts, I'd like to believe if there is a God he will deal with them. The taken excerpts from Tim Golden's series is not pleasant reading.....

In sworn statements to Army investigators, soldiers describe one female interrogator with a taste for humiliation stepping on the neck of one prostrate detainee and kicking another in the genitals. They tell of a shackled prisoner being forced to roll back and forth on the floor of a cell, kissing the boots of his two interrogators as he went. Yet another prisoner is made to pick plastic bottle caps out of a drum mixed with excrement and water as part of a strategy to soften him up for questioning.

Last October, the Army's Criminal Investigation Command concluded that there was probable cause to charge 27 officers and enlisted personnel with criminal offenses in the Dilawar case ranging from dereliction of duty to maiming and involuntary manslaughter. Fifteen of the same soldiers were also cited for probable criminal responsibility in the Habibullah case.

So far, only the seven soldiers have been charged, including four last week. No one has been convicted in either death. Two Army interrogators were also reprimanded, a military spokesman said. Most of those who could still face legal action have denied wrongdoing, either in statements to investigators or in comments to a reporter.

"The whole situation is unfair," Sgt. Selena M. Salcedo, a former Bagram interrogator who was charged with assaulting Mr. Dilawar, dereliction of duty and lying to investigators, said in a telephone interview. "It's all going to come out when everything is said and done."

One captain nicknamed members of the Third Platoon "the Testosterone Gang." Several were devout bodybuilders. Upon arriving in Afghanistan, a group of the soldiers decorated their tent with a Confederate flag, one soldier said.

Some of the same M.P.'s took a particular interest in an emotionally disturbed Afghan detainee who was known to eat his feces and mutilate himself with concertina wire. The soldiers kneed the man repeatedly in the legs and, at one point, chained him with his arms straight up in the air, Specialist Callaway told investigators. They also nicknamed him "Timmy," after a disabled child in the animated television series "South Park." One of the guards who beat the prisoner also taught him to screech like the cartoon character, Specialist Callaway said.

Now...how Dilawar ended up in Bagram.... Mr. Dilawar's mother had asked him to gather his three sisters from their nearby villages and bring them home for the holiday. But he needed gas money and decided instead to drive to the provincial capital, Khost, about 45 minutes away, to look for fares.

At a taxi stand there, he found three men headed back toward Yakubi. On the way, they passed a base used by American troops, Camp Salerno, which had been the target of a rocket attack that morning.

The four men were detained and turned over to American soldiers at the base as suspects in the attack. Mr. Dilawar and his passengers spent their first night there handcuffed to a fence, so they would be unable to sleep. When a doctor examined them the next morning, he said later, he found Mr. Dilawar tired and suffering from headaches but otherwise fine.

Mr. Dilawar's three passengers were eventually flown to Guantánamo and held for more than a year before being sent home without charge. In interviews after their release, the men described their treatment at Bagram as far worse than at Guantánamo. While all of them said they had been beaten, they complained most bitterly of being stripped naked in front of female soldiers for showers and medical examinations, which they said included the first of several painful and humiliating rectal exams.

"They did lots and lots of bad things to me," said Abdur Rahim, a 26-year-old baker from Khost. "I was shouting and crying, and no one was listening. When I was shouting, the soldiers were slamming my head against the desk."

Mr. Dilawar was a frail man, standing only 5 feet 9 inches and weighing 122 pounds. When one of the First Platoon M.P.'s, Specialist Corey E. Jones, was sent to Mr. Dilawar's cell to give him some water, he said the prisoner spit in his face and started kicking him. Specialist Jones responded, he said, with a couple of knee strikes to the leg of the shackled man.

"He screamed out, 'Allah! Allah! Allah!' and my first reaction was that he was crying out to his god," Specialist Jones said to investigators. "Everybody heard him cry out and thought it was funny."

Other Third Platoon M.P.'s later came by the detention center and stopped at the isolation cells to see for themselves, Specialist Jones said.

It became a kind of running joke, and people kept showing up to give this detainee a common peroneal strike just to hear him scream out 'Allah,' " he said. "It went on over a 24-hour period, and I would think that it was over 100 strikes."As Mr. Dilawar grew desperate, he began crying out more loudly to be released. But even the interpreters had trouble understanding his Pashto dialect; the annoyed guards heard only noise.

"He had constantly been screaming, 'Release me; I don't want to be here,' and things like that," said the one linguist who could decipher his distress, Abdul Ahad Wardak.

The interrogators, Mr. Ahmadzai said, accused Mr. Dilawar of launching the rockets that had hit the American base. He denied that. While kneeling on the ground, he was unable to hold his cuffed hands above his head as instructed, prompting Sergeant Salcedo to slap them back up whenever they began to drop.

"Selena berated him for being weak and questioned him about being a man, which was very insulting because of his heritage," Mr. Ahmadzai said.

When Mr. Dilawar was unable to sit in the chair position against the wall because of his battered legs, the two interrogators grabbed him by the shirt and repeatedly shoved him back against the wall.

"This went on for 10 or 15 minutes," the interpreter said. "He was so tired he couldn't get up."

"They stood him up, and at one point Selena stepped on his bare foot with her boot and grabbed him by his beard and pulled him towards her," he went on. "Once Selena kicked Dilawar in the groin, private areas, with her right foot. She was standing some distance from him, and she stepped back and kicked him.

The session ended, he said, with Sergeant Salcedo instructing the M.P.'s to keep Mr. Dilawar chained to the ceiling until the next shift came on.

The next morning, Mr. Dilawar began yelling again. At around noon, the M.P.'s called over another of the interpreters, Mr. Baerde, to try to quiet Mr. Dilawar down.

"I told him, 'Look, please, if you want to be able to sit down and be released from shackles, you just need to be quiet for one more hour."

"He told me that if he was in shackles another hour, he would die," Mr. Baerde said.

Half an hour later, Mr. Baerde returned to the cell. Mr. Dilawar's hands hung limply from the cuffs, and his head, covered by the black hood, slumped forward.

"He wanted me to get a doctor, and said that he needed 'a shot,' " Mr. Baerde recalled. "He said that he didn't feel good. He said that his legs were hurting."

Mr. Baerde translated Mr. Dilawar's plea to one of the guards. The soldier took the prisoner's hand and pressed down on his fingernails to check his circulation.

"He's O.K.," Mr. Baerde quoted the M.P. as saying. "He's just trying to get out of his restraints."

By the time Mr. Dilawar was brought in for his final interrogation in the first hours of the next day, Dec. 10, he appeared exhausted and was babbling that his wife had died. He also told the interrogators that he had been beaten by the guards.
"But we didn't pursue that," said Mr. Baryalai, the interpreter.

Specialist Walls was again the lead interrogator. But his more aggressive partner, Specialist Claus, quickly took over, Mr. Baryalai said.

"Josh had a rule that the detainee had to look at him, not me," the interpreter told investigators. "He gave him three chances, and then he grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him towards him, across the table, slamming his chest into the table front."

When Mr. Dilawar was unable to kneel, the interpreter said, the interrogators pulled him to his feet and pushed him against the wall. Told to assume a stress position, the prisoner leaned his head against the wall and began to fall asleep.

"It looked to me like Dilawar was trying to cooperate, but he couldn't physically perform the tasks," Mr. Baryalai said.

Finally, Specialist Walls grabbed the prisoner and "shook him harshly," the interpreter said, telling him that if he failed to cooperate, he would be shipped to a prison in the United States, where he would be "treated like a woman, by the other men" and face the wrath of criminals who "would be very angry with anyone involved in the 9/11 attacks." (Specialist Walls was charged last week with assault, maltreatment and failure to obey a lawful order; Specialist Claus was charged with assault, maltreatment and lying to investigators. Each man declined to comment.)

Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators, Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully into Mr. Dilawar's face.

"Come on, drink!" the interpreter said Specialist Claus had shouted, as the prisoner gagged on the spray. "Drink!"

Staff Sgt. W. Christopher Yonushonis, had questioned Mr. Dilawar earlier and had arranged with Specialist Claus to take over when he was done. Instead, the sergeant arrived at the interrogation room to find a large puddle of water on the floor, a wet spot on Mr. Dilawar's shirt and Specialist Claus standing behind the detainee, twisting up the back of the hood that covered the prisoner's head.

"I had the impression that Josh was actually holding the detainee upright by pulling on the hood," he said. "I was furious at this point because I had seen Josh tighten the hood of another detainee the week before. This behavior seemed completely gratuitous and unrelated to intelligence collection."

"What the hell happened with that water?" Sergeant Yonushonis said he had demanded.

"We had to make sure he stayed hydrated," he said Specialist Claus had responded.

The next morning, Sergeant Yonushonis went to the noncommissioned officer in charge of the interrogators, Sergeant Loring, to report the incident. Mr. Dilawar, however, was already dead.

The findings of Mr. Dilawar's autopsy were succinct. He had had some coronary artery disease, the medical examiner reported, but what caused his heart to fail was "blunt force injuries to the lower extremities."

One of the coroners later translated the assessment at a pre-trial hearing for Specialist Brand, saying the tissue in the young man's legs "had basically been pulpified."

"I've seen similar injuries in an individual run over by a bus," added Lt. Col. Elizabeth Rouse, the coroner, and a major at that time.

In February, an American military official disclosed that the Afghan guerrilla commander whose men had arrested Mr. Dilawar and his passengers had himself been detained. The commander, Jan Baz Khan, was suspected of attacking Camp Salerno himself and then turning over innocent "suspects" to the Americans in a ploy to win their trust, the military official said.

In late August of last year, shortly before the Army completed its inquiry into the deaths, Sergeant Yonushonis, who was stationed in Germany, went at his own initiative to see an agent of the Criminal Investigation Command. Until then, he had never been interviewed.

"I expected to be contacted at some point by investigators in this case," he said. "I was living a few doors down from the interrogation room, and I had been one of the last to see this detainee alive."

Sergeant Yonushonis described what he had witnessed of the detainee's last interrogation. "I remember being so mad that I had trouble speaking," he said.

He also added a detail that had been overlooked in the investigative file. By the time Mr. Dilawar was taken into his final interrogations, he said, "most of us were convinced that the detainee was innocent."

We're supposed to be the good guys...yet in this situation? We have created monsters who violated everything this country is supposed to be about.

Pat Tillman was a man not a pawn...

Pat Tillman's parents are angry, and with good reason. Loosing their son was hard enough for them to deal with, but discovering that the Army lied to them and created a false story about how their son died has been devistating for them.

The Washington Post interviewed both of his parents, who are divorced. As I started to read the article, it was obvious the claims the Army has made that they've given the family updates and information is not true. They still have many questions that have not been given answers and the men who killed Pat Tillman nor anyone that covered up the manner of his death been dealt with.

Perhaps it was merely an accident of friendly fire that could not have been avoided, however finding out that they burned his uniform and body armor after they killed him was upsetting. To do that shows that they were trying to cover something up immediately after his death. The idea that not only did his own men shoot him but took off his clothing after he was dead and burned it is shocking. The fact that the Army continued to cover this up and President Bush even made a taped comment about Tillman's bravery is a slap in the face to his parents. I have no way of knowing if President Bush knew Tillman was killed by his own men or nor, however it's obvious the Army knew.

"After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this," Patrick Tillman said. "They purposely interfered with the investigation, they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."

Mary Tillman says the government used her son for weeks after his death, perpetuating an untrue story to capitalize on his altruism -- just as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was erupting publicly. She said she was particularly offended when President Bush offered a taped memorial message to Tillman at a Cardinals football game shortly before the presidential election last fall. She again felt as though her son was being used, something he never would have wanted.

"Maybe lying's not a big deal anymore," he said. "Pat's dead, and this isn't going to bring him back. But these guys should have been held up to scrutiny, right up the chain of command, and no one has."

No, Mr. Tillman lying still is a big deal to some of us, and I am sorry that you not only lost your son but had to go thru this as well, it wasn't necessary and there is no excuse for it......

Op Ed piece NY Times...It's all Newsweeks fault...

If you haven't read this Op Ed article, I'd highly recommend it. Some selected portions of it for those who are not subscribers to the free online New York Times:

IN the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Fareed Zakaria wrote a 6,791-word cover story for Newsweek titled "Why Do They Hate Us?" Think how much effort he could have saved if he'd waited a few years. As we learned last week, the question of why they hate us can now be answered in just one word: Newsweek.

The administration has been so successful at bullying the news media in order to cover up its own fictions and failings in Iraq that it now believes it can get away with pinning some 17 deaths on an errant single sentence in a 10-sentence Periscope item that few noticed until days after its publication. Coming just as the latest CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll finds that only 41 percent of Americans think the war in Iraq is "worth fighting" and only 42 percent think it's going well, this smells like desperation. In its war on the press, this hubristic administration may finally have crossed a bridge too far.

Let's stipulate flatly that Newsweek made a serious error. For the sake of argument, let's even posit that the many other similar accounts of Koran desecration (with and without toilets) by American interrogators over the past two years are fantasy - even though they've been given credence by the International Committee of the Red Cross and have turned up repeatedly in legal depositions by torture victims and in newspapers as various as The Denver Post and The Financial Times. Let's also ignore the May 1 New York Times report that a former American interrogator at Guantánamo has corroborated a detainee's account of guards tossing Korans into a pile and stepping on them, thereby prompting a hunger strike. Why don't we just go all the way and erase those photographs of female guards sexually humiliating Muslims (among other heinous crimes) at Abu Ghraib?

Given this context, the administration's attempt to pass the entire buck to Newsweek for our ill odor among Muslims, including those Muslims who abhor jihadists committing murder, is laughable. Yet there's something weirdly self-incriminating about the language it uses to do it. Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman whose previous boss, Colin Powell, delivered a fictional recitation of Saddam Hussein's weapon capabilities before the United Nations Security Council, said it's "shocking" that Newsweek used "facts that have not been substantiated." Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, attacked Newsweek for hiding "behind anonymous sources," yet it was an anonymous source, an Iraqi defector known as Curveball, who fed the fictions that Mr. Powell spouted to gin up America for war. Psychological displacement of this magnitude might give even Freud pause.

The only thing more ridiculous is the spectacle of the White House's various knee-jerk flacks on cable news shoutfests and in the blogosphere characterizing Newsweek as representative of a supposedly anti-American, military-hating "mainstream media." It wasn't long ago that the magazine and the co-author of the Periscope item, Michael Isikoff, were being cheered by the same crowd for their pursuit of Monica Lewinsky and Kathleen Willey.

As for the supposed antimilitary agenda of the so-called mainstream media, the right should look first at itself. In its eagerness to parrot the administration line, it's as ready to sell out the military as any clichéd leftist. For starters, it thought nothing of dismissing the judgment of Gen. Carl Eichenberry, our top commander in Afghanistan, who, according to Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said the riots were "not at all tied to the article in the magazine."

Just since the election, we've witnessed the unmasking of Armstrong Williams and Jeff Gannon. We've learned - thanks to Newsweek's parent publication, The Washington Post - that the Pentagon went so far as to deliberately hide the circumstances of Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death from his own family for weeks, lest the truth mar the P.R. advantages to be reaped from his memorial service. Even as Scott McClellan instructs Newsweek on just what stories it should write to atone for its sins, a professional propagandist sits as chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Kenneth Tomlinson, who also runs the board supervising Voice of America and other government-run media outlets. He's been hard at work meddling in the journalism on NPR and PBS.

This steady drip of subterfuge and news manipulation increasingly tells a more compelling story than the old news that Newsweek so egregiously botched.

Threatening the UN or.....

Yes, we are bullies what are you going to do about it?

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A U.S. congressional committee has drafted a bill that threatens to withhold tens of millions of dollars in dues from the United Nations unless the world body conducts wide-ranging reforms, possibly setting the stage for a funding battle like the one that plunged the U.N. into financial crisis a decade ago.

We, being the United States of America are the ones who can of course tell you what you are doing wrong and demand you obey or we will cut off funding or basically do whatever we want. If you are a country like Israel, we will protect you, using the veto to stop UN sanctions from being placed on you since 1972. Ironically the first person to cast a veto to prevent Israel from being sanctioned was none other than George Bush, Sr. when he was U.S. ambassador to the UN

The rationale for casting the first veto to protect Israel was explained by Bush at the time as a new policy to combat terrorists. The draft resolution had condemned Israel’s heavy air attacks against Lebanon and Syria, starting Sept. 6, the day after 11 Israeli athletes were killed at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in an failed Palestinian attempt to grab them as hostages to trade for Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Between 200 and 500 Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli raids.

Bush complained that the resolution had failed to condemn terrorist attacks against Israel, adding: “We are implementing a new policy that is much broader than that of the question of Israel and the Jews. What is involved is the problem of terrorism, a matter that goes right to the heart of our civilized life.”

The all-time record holder of the veto was the administration of Ronald Reagan. The Reagan team used the veto 18 times to protect Israel. A record six of these vetoes were cast in 1982 alone. Nine of the Reagan vetoes resulted directly from Security Council attempts to condemn Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and Israel's refusal to surrender the territory in southern Lebanon. The other nine vetoes shielded Israel from council criticism for acts as the Feb. 4, 1986, skyjacking of a Libyan plane.

Israeli warplanes forced the executive jet to land in Israel, allegedly in an effort to capture Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal. He was not aboard and, after interrogation, the passengers were allowed to leave. The U.S. delegate explained that this act of piracy was excusable "because we believe that the ability to take such action in carefully defined and limited circumstances is an aspect of the inherent right of self-defense recognized in the U.N. Charter."

To be perfectly blunt one of the primary reasons Bin Laden was able to recruit and succeed has been our behavior when it comes to Israel and Palestine. Most of the Middle East sees this as hypocrisisy and it is. We helped sow the seeds for terrorism to continue, of course we are not totally to blame for their choice in a response to this, but to pretend we have not helped create this situation would be totally dishonest. We have demonstrated whether it was our intent or not that we don't care about arabs dying, unless it of course meets our agenda like Iraq. It has been blantantly obvious that the US and Israel can do whatever they want with or without UN support. From the very first Veto in 1972 when 11 Israelis died we basically told the Arab world that the hundreds of Arabs that died were not worth 11 Israelis. That it was acceptable for Israel to kill civilians in retailiation, and this has continued replayed over and over again.

So here we have a Congressional committee that has drafted legislation that will "tell" the UN what it has to do or we will cut tens of millions of dollars of funding. Knowing we are right now in Iraq and went without UN approval. Knowing we have used the veto more in the past 30 years than all other UN Security Council members together. This ego trip that the United States seems to have that we are the "one" causes us the very problems we have in the world. We are seen as a bully, the brat on the street corner that says "Do it my way or I'll take my marbles home".

I'd like to believe the UN would say fine "take your money and shove it" but they won't, which is part of the reason why the UN isn't effective. They are afraid of us. They've let us take control with the exception of the rare display of not supporting the war in Iraq (not that it mattered since we just did it anyway) the UN typically folds. Which in reality makes the whole UN system a farce. It was intended as a modern day League of Nations were everyone had a voice, so perhaps the demise of the UN would not be so bad. If the UN cannot stand up to us and we on the other hand do not respect the UN process, why should we expect anyone else to?

Resources for this article came from the various works of Donald Neff and UN documents.....

Perils of the two party system...

It's pretty obvious with what is happening in Washington right now some of the major problems with the two party system. Both sides harp about the constitution and our founding fathers, yet in reality, our founding fathers never wanted nor developed our government for the two party system.

America's political system as set up by our Founding Fathers had no political parties or factions. It wasn't that they didn't know about political parties, but that they were unwanted. When looking at the factions of Europe, our Founders didn't like what they saw - political intrigue, conspiracy, and hostile divisions. They were afraid that such a system would rip apart the Union. They hoped that in free elections it would be natural for the best men to rise to the top and be elected to office. That is why before the rise of political parties the man with the most votes was president and the man with the second most was vice-president. We have been sold into believing that there are only two viable parties because it is much easier for those within those two parties to control and hold power.

Look at the steps that have been taken by those two parties to prevent a third party from gaining power both on a federal and in some states, on a state level. This is a purposeful act to prevent having competition. So the choice we are left with is, Republican or Democrat. You are told to vote third party is "just throwing your vote away" and many americans are buying that sell.

The very thing our founding fathers feared, political intrigue, conspiracy, and hostile divisions is happening right now. In addition one party has gained a clear majority of power that was never intended, and was infact one of the main things to be avoided. Money rules the outcome not who is the best man or woman anymore but in the majority of cases it is who has the most financial support. The whole system is designed to permit corporations and organizations to have more power and influence than we do. We have become for the most part a nation of sheep not willing to vote for individuals anymore, limiting our options. We also have sat back and allowed these two parties to take away our freedom of choice when it comes to political candidates.

We seem to have forgotten that we are the real source of power and have forgotten what our founding fathers warned us of.

To quote George Washington in his farwell address:

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.

....Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

It's too bad so many of us, including those in Washington, don't remember our history or what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they created our government, perhaps it's time we reminded them......

You've got to be kidding me....

The Sun in London shows pictures of Saddam in his underwear. The US condemns this, saying:


LONDON (AP) - The U.S. military on Friday condemned a British newspaper's decision to print photographs of a captive Saddam Hussein, including one showing him in his underwear.

A front-page picture in the tabloid Sun showed the former Iraqi dictator, clad only in white briefs, folding a pair of trousers. Another on an inside page showed Saddam hand-washing a piece of clothing.

The Sun said it obtained the photos from "U.S. military sources."

A statement by the U.S. military in Baghdad said the photos violated military guidelines "and possibly Geneva Convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals."

It said the source of the photos was unknown, but they were believed to have been taken more than a year ago. Saddam was captured in December 2003 and remains in custody. He is charged with war crimes, but no date has been set for his trial.

The military said it was "aggressively" investigating to determine who took the pictures.

"We take seriously our responsibility to ensure the safety and security of all detainees," the statement said.

So what does Drudge do? Puts the picture on his front page. Sheesh...now will they go after him too because he's doing the same exact thing the Sun did?

Pentagon admits "mishandling" of Koran

So, after the intial calls to burn Newsweek, the truth starts to come out.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that the agency received the ICRC reports but that there is no evidence they alone prompted the new policy. Whitman said the Pentagon has acknowledged cases of unintentional mishandling of the Koran, and he predicted yesterday that a new inquiry into such allegations would probably corroborate more cases.

The committee said the U.S. government responded with "corrective measures" in 2003 and the allegations ceased. In late January 2003, the Defense Department spelled out procedures covering the respectful handling of copies of the Koran. The written guidelines say that only Muslim chaplains or Muslim interpreters could touch the Koran, and they offer instructions on how to do it.

Now what to do with this? First off rather than place all the blame on Newsweek and call them irresponsible since it is obvious the Pentagon knew there were accusations of the Koran being mishandled why not some responsiblity for a change? (edited to make it crystal clear my intention)

Most of the detainees that have stated that they personally witnessed the mishandling of the Koran stated it was prior to when the US government made those "corrective measures" from what I've been able to determine.

Some refreshing honesty would have been:

We are aware there was some "unintentional mishandling" of the Koran though not to the extreme that Newsweek reported. Once this was brought to our attention, we instituted strict corrective measures to make sure the Koran was handled appropriately within the standards of the religion of Islam. The United States, respects the practice of religion by all people and strives to ensure that these rights are protected, even for detainees involve in the War on Terror.

A statement like that would still deny responsibility on it being intentional since there is no proof nor will here probably ever be any that can be proven given the environment in which the accusations were made. Had the soldiers at Abu Ghraib not been stupid enough to photograph themselves and what they were doing, that would have been extremely difficult to prove. Yet a statement like that would serve to show that we here in the US do respect the islamic religion, even for suspected terrorists.

Now to Newsweek given this latest revelation from the Red Cross and the Pentagon. Had their reporters done a thorough job, these reports should have surfaced. Did anyone from Newsweek contact the Red Cross trying to source this story? Had they done so, and had they also included the fact that instructions were given to make sure the Koran was treated respectfully there could have been a different outcome as well.

Bias towards Muslim or forgetting history.....

I've been thinking alot about what has happened with the riots by the muslims recently. One of the most common comments by people has been as an example like Woody wrote as a comment to me:

"Why can’t the Muslim world grow up? There’s no need for a temper tantrum when some little insignificant thing doesn’t go your way boys. The world community needs to stop taking this stuff seriously and start ridiculing protestors like these. They only do it because we take them seriously and if we embarrased them everytime they "act the fool" maybe they would grow up and join the civilised world. "

Now I'm not picking on Woody, just using his comment as an example of what I'm talking about. Let's think about history and riots for a moment. Our own country has a history of riots, some are over some pretty stupid reasons, like sports event outcomes. We also have a history of race riots, which in some ways are comparable to what is happening right now in the Middle East.

Dr. Martin Luther King supported non-violence. He felt that was the key to getting America to change. Time after time during the 1960's we saw Civil Rights workers being attacked, beaten, and even killed. In 1965, Elijah Mohammad published his "Message to the Black Man", in which he encourages Black men to fight back.

Some excerpts from what he wrote on Self Defense:

The so-called Negroes of Birmingham, Alabama would have been justified by the law of justice if they had killed every dog sicked upon them by the hired, tax-paid policemen, for the taxpayers did not hire dogs to police their lives and property.

And if the policemen had fired upon those who defended themselves against the bites of savage dogs that the Police Department trained expressly for the purpose of attacking so-called Negroes, they would have been justified by God and the Divine law of self-defense to fight and defend themselves against such savage dog and human attack.

But as soon as the so-called Negroes turned upon the dogs and policemen with stones, Washington, D.C., ordered the Army to intervene—not to help the so-called Negroes against the White southerners, but to help the White devils against the so-called Negroes if they tried to defend themselves. But as long as the dogs and policemen were biting and clubbing Black so-called Negroes, it was all right.

This clearly shows how much we are in dire need of unity, but the unity must be backed by a power superior to the power of our enemies. This power is in Allah and the Nation of Islam, whose arms are outstretched if we would only accept them.

The lynchers live right next door, down the street, up the alley, yet they are not brought to justice. What sane man can deny that it is now time that you and I take counsel among ourselves to the end of finding justice for ourselves?

When you stand up and speak a word in behalf of your own people, you are classified as a troublemaker, you are classified as a Communist, as a race-hater, as everything but good.

The message I bring is not for the cowards. Those of you who follow me must be ready to withstand the barbs and insults of those who come to investigate, pry, and claim that our ultimate aim is to undermine the American way of life. We have no such intentions and our critics know it.

How ironic it is that the very people who charge us with disturbing the status quo, themselves go around raping, lynching, denying citizens the right to vote and talking in the halls of Congress to call you and me everything from a beast to an amoral entity.

I have no alternative than to tell you that there is not any life beyond the grave. There is no justice in the sweet bye and bye. Immortality is NOW, HERE. We are the blessed of God and we must exert every means to protect ourselves.

"It is imperative to abandon the unconditional non-violent concept expounded by Dr King and adopt the position that for every Martin Luther King who falls, 10 white racists will go down with him. "There is no other way - America understands no other language," said United Black Front chairman Lincoln Lynch in 1968.

There have been hundreds of Race Riots, here in our own country, this one list alone can give you a picture of where we have come from and still are.

In 1776, November 1, a huge crowd marched down Broadway displaying an effigy of Cadwallader Colden, the colony's highly unpopular governor. Members of the crowd took the governor’s coach and added it to the parade; at the end of the route the coach was smashed into kindling and used as part of a great celebratory bonfire on Bowling Green.

The crowd also turned its anger on British artillery commander who had boasted that he would be able to collect the stamp tax, by force of arms if necessary. His house was pulled down by the mob. The combination of threats and violence exerted the desired impact throughout the colonies. We teach this as a part of our early American history, The Stamp Act Riots.....

This is not just unique to the United States either, inciting the anger of Mobs has happened at various times thru history. So while I am not proposing we support the muslim riots over the Koran or anti-american feeling, I am saying let's remember history before we demean their religion. Let's realize that at many times in history the Mob has been used as a political means to a end. For it to stop, the cause of the initial anger and outrage has to be addressed, and I think we all know the original source of the outrage has nothing to do with Newsweek or the Koran.

Adventures with Haloscan and blog updates...

For those of you who are fellow writers of the blog, you'll probably understand what I just put myself thru. Those of you who aren't? I'm sorry if this all seems Greek to you.

I've had trackback envy for a while now but didn't want to switch to Haloscan for comments, so I did some research and found out in theory there was a way to only use trackback for comments without loosing the comments the way I have them. So I signed up, then discovered there is no place in the instructions/codes to get just the script for trackback. After searching the FAQ's and instructions at Haloscan almost gave up. Thankfully, the forum has a thread devoted to just this very issue and after some playing around with the template was able to place it where I wanted.

I added some things to the sidebar, and updated my favorite blogs. Some of you will notice William Rivers Pitt's forum at Truthout was taken out, not because I didn't enjoy Will, but because he's taken a temporary leave from the forum. So when he comes back I'll list him again. Also, Ohio Guy is a new blog listing, for those of you who have wished I'd be more conservative? You'll like his site. I have to admit when I read his blog today and saw he linked my article about Newsweek to compare/contrast with another blog, I was pretty flattered.

But ego back to earth now...before it becomes ginormous...hehehe.... I knew I could use that word....

George Galloway Transcript by me....

Okay, I'm not very trusting anymore. I wrote the other day I was becoming more cynical and was told that it was just that I was loosing some of the rose colored tint on my glasses.

I read some of the selected comments the media used to quote George Galloway of saying today. There's no written transcript of his comments yet, however the video is archived thru the Senate website. So I decided I wanted to watch it -- I watched the opening comments and various parts of the other testimony without making notes, about two hours into it George Galloway appears. He's not refusing to answer questions as some of the media reports implies. He is pissed. He didn't appear to help answer questions, he wanted a chance to tell his side of the story.

I haven't transcribed all of his comments yet, but I have heard all of his testimony. Luckily I used to be a secretary or to be "pc" administrative assistant so I think I did a pretty good job in transcribing.

So here was the majority of his opening comments and I think you'll see exactly what he was trying to say.

He starts out stating he denies having any oil sold at all. That the claim made that he had "many" meetings with Saddam was false that he had only two meetings with Saddam in 1994 and 2002 -- pointed out the same numbers of visits Rumsfeld has had with Saddam selling him weapons and giving maps. States his visit in 1994 to try to end Sanctions - 2002 to get Saddam to allow Blix back in "a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam than your own Secretary of State for Defense made of his"

States the accusation that he was an outspoken supporter of Saddam is false. Provided statements back to 1990 where he condemned the Hussein dictatorship. He was an opponent when British and American gov were doing commerce. "I have rather a better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do or any member of the British or American Governments do"

This is where it became obvious the best way to do total justice was to transcribe what he said word for word. I left certain gaps....where something was repeated or not as relevant.

"You have the gall to quote a source without ever having asked me if the allegations from the source was true. That I am quote the owner of a company that has made substantial profits from trading in Iraqi oil. Senator, I do not own any companies beyond a small company whose entire purpose, whose sole purpose is to receive the income from my journalistic earnings from my employer Associated Newspapers in London. I do not own a company that's been trading in Iraqi oil and you had no business to carry a quotation utterly unsubstatiated and false implying otherwise. Now you have nothing on me Senator execept my name on lists of names from Iraq many of which had been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Baghdad. If you had any of the letters against me that you had against Zerofski(sp) and even Paskwa(sp) they would have been up there in your slide show for this committee today. You have my name on lists provided to you by the Daueffer inquiry provided to him by the convicted bank robber and fraudster and conman Achmed Chabali who many people in your country to their credit now realize had a decisive role in leading your country into the disaster in Iraq. There were 270 names on that list orginally that has somehow been filtered down to the names you chose to deal with in this committee. Some of the names on that list included the former secretary to his Holiness Pope John Paul II, the former head of the African National Presidental Conference and many others who had one defining cause in common they all stood against the policy of sanctions and war which you vociferously prosecuted and has led us to this disaster.....If you had any evidence at all that anybody ever gave me any money it would be before the public and before this committee today because I agreed with your Mr. Greenblatt, your Mr Greenblatt was absolutely correct, what counts is not the names on the paper, what counts is where's the money Senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars of money? The answer to that is nobody and if you had any evidence of anybody who ever paid me a penny you would have produced them here today......and while I'm on the subject, who is the former Senior official in Iraq that you talked to yesterday? Don't you think I have a right to know? Don't you think this committee has a right to know who this Senior former regieme official you were quoting against me, interviewed yesterday actually is?

Now the neo-con websites and newspapers where you're such a hero Senator, were all cockahoot about the publications of the Chrisitan Science documents. They were all absolutely convinced of their authenticity. They were all abosultely convinced that these documents showed me receiving ten million dollars from the Saddam Hussein regieme and they were all lies. In the same week the Daily Telegraph published their articles about me the Christian Science Monitor published theirs which turned out to be forgeries and the British Mail on Sunday published a third set of documents which also on forensic examination were found out to be forgeries.....The existance of forged documents implicating me in commerical activities with the Iraqi regieme is documented it's a proven fact. It's a proven fact that these forged documents were being circulated among right wing newspapers in Iraq and around the world in the media in the aftermath of the fall of the Iraqi regieme.

Now Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political lifesblood to try to stop the mass killings of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed a million Iraqis most of them children. Most of them died before they even knew they were Iraqis but they died for no other reason than they were Iraqi with the misfortune of being born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you from committing the disaster that you did committ in invading Iraq and I told the world that your case for going to war was a pack of lies. I told the world that contrary to your claims that Iraq did not have WMD. I told the world contrary to your claims that Iraq had no connection to Al Qaeda. I told the world contrary to your claims that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world contrary to your claims that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end but merely the end of the beginning.

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people have paid with their lives, 1600 of them American Soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies. If the world had listened to Kofi Annan who's dissmissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some type of a corrupt traitor; if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britian we would not be in the disaster we are in today. Senator this is the mother of all smoke screens, you are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraqs wealth. Have a look at the real oil for food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad the first 14 months when 8.8 billion dollars of Iraqs wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and the other American corporations that stole not only Iraqs money but the money of the American Taxpayer. Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter that you were shipping out of the country and selling the proceeds of which who knows went where......Have a look at the real scandal that the real sanction busters were not me or Russian politicians or French Politicians, the real sanction busters were your own companies with the conivance of your own government"

I consider myself a half way decent judge of a person on how they speak, granted George Galloway is a politican, but the undertone of emotion in his voice when he spoke made me feel either this guy is telling what he feels is the truth or he should win an Academy Award. If you want to see and hear this for yourself, Scroll down to Webcast, it plays in Real Player format. As I wrote, it's almost two hours into it when he begins speaking.

Freedom of Speech and the Blog....

As I've gotten this whole "blog" thing down and have started visiting more and more blogs out there I've discovered something I find interesting. I like to leave comments, because I personally enjoy it when you guys comment (hint..hint..I know how many of you read this every day - lol). So if someone makes a really good point, or has a very nice blog I feel it's appropriate to say "good point" or "nice blog".

What I have found though is alot of bloggers don't accept comments from anonymous users, and some don't accept comments unless they have been approved. I read one the other day "To prevent malicious comments your comments must be approved by the blog owner". Now this was a small blog and not even that political more personal in nature. I started wondering....wow now who would make malicious comments here?

I can understand this on some of the larger more heavy duty political blogs. I personally have had to delete a few comments during the whole Terri Schiavo case because I do allow anonymous comments and a few people made silly death threats. So, I deleted them. It is my blog and if someone wants to be a royal jerk and cross the lines of normal decency, bye bye they go. That might sound a bit hypocritical given my belief on free speech, but I don't expect people to always agree with me, just to be halfway civil about it. As I say often, if everybody agreed with me it would be a very boring world, unless I could be some type of superpower dictator of the world, then.....that might be tempting....

One of the local city council members has a blog, however he doesn't allow comments at all, he stated it was due to spam issues, and he was working on resolving it but last time I visited there were still no comments. However, he does reply to email so there is a way to contact him if you have a compliment/comment on something he wrote. I admit I was disappointed because when I first heard he had a blog I thought "Wow, he really wants to hear an exchange of ideas about what we think". Granted he's never not responded to an email, but it's not quite the same thing as seeing what other residents of our area are thinking as well.

To me, one of the primary reasons for doing this is to share with you what I think, or what I've found out there on the net that I think is interesting and to hear what you think. I have developed some pretty awesome email friendships from the blog so I get feedback from some that way, especially MFWSHAB, but my feeling is I want to make it as easy on you as possible for you to comment if you want to. While I wouldn't be happy if a whole bunch of you wrote "Lisa you suck" nor am I looking for an ego boost; to me hearing what others think about points made is part of the whole blogging fun. However, if you do comment, I might comment back, years of message board training - lol.

In fact I will relate to you in all honesty when I first started doing this I didn't think hardly anyone was reading this, because I'm such a comment happy person and I had no comments - lol. Then I added the site stat thing and was amazed at how many of you take the time to visit me. Now granted one of the main reasons I do this is for me so if there were only two or three of you out there I'd still write. While I'd love to be as popular as Brew's Robot-Invasion is, I'm happy with my little niche in the Blogosphere. I'm still new at this and to be honest again, I'd be afraid if I got too large I would start focusing on how many of you were here and how to entertain you rather than just being me.

Freedom of speech to me is important, and one of the reasons why the blog has grown because alot of us out there have quite a bit to say about all kinds of topics. I'm starting to learn, anyone can blog but to be a real blogger takes time, and I thank all of you who stop by to see me grow into that real blogger.

Newsweek fiasco....give me a break....

Newsweek puts a small blurb in about the Quran being used as part of the mind games US soldiers played on the prisoners of Guantánamo. Other news sources have covered this but from reports from prisoners. We of course, being American don't believe the prisoners.....So Newsweek gets the information from one of those (cue datadah music) "Unnamed sources" who happens to be an American unnamed source. Now, do they just run with the article without confirmation? Nope.

In addition, the reporters, Michael Isikoff, a veteran investigative reporter, and John Barry, a national security correspondent, showed a draft of the article to the source and to a senior Pentagon official asking if it was correct. The source corrected one aspect of the article, which focused on the Southern Command's internal report on prisoner abuse.

"But he was silent about the rest of the item," Newsweek reported. "The official had not meant to mislead, but lacked detailed knowledge of the SouthCom report."

So, neither the source nor the Pentagon says "WAIT, this isn't true", so then Newsweek publishes it and all of a sudden there are uprisings, protests, demands from other countries that this be investigated and punished.

Gee big surprise that the US government is denying it happened? They claim their logs only show this:

At his news conference, General Myers said that military investigators at Guantánamo were searching their interrogation logs to find the case cited in the Newsweek article.

"They have looked through the logs, the interrogation logs, and they cannot confirm yet that there were ever the case of the toilet incident, except for one case, a log entry, which they still have to confirm, where a detainee was reported by a guard to be ripping pages out of a Koran and putting in the toilet to stop it up as a protest," he said. "But not where the U.S. did it."

Of course....a muslim would do that....What planet do they think we live on? The planet Bullshit?

I don't know which is stupider, Newsweek not realizing this would be a big deal, or our Government thinking we'd be dumb enough to believe them. The source at the Pentagon that saw this and didn't correct it? Blame him also, as he has more responsibility than Newsweek, Newsweek went to him for confirmation and by not correcting them, he gave it to them with his silence. If he thought it wasn't true he knew they were going to publish it....Look at how the cover-up still continues on Abu Ghraib, unless some type of photographic or video evidence comes out they will deny, deny, deny.

While we're at it, let's look at some other articles written last week as well on this very same issue. From the Guardian, two British detainees:

The Guardian has learned that some of the British detainees released from Guantánamo Bay have reported that they were sexually abused. There is no way to independently verify these details.

According to a source, who has interviewed them in secret since their release, they were initially too ashamed to talk about it, and are only now starting to give details. The source said: "They are embarrassed about talking about it because they feel humiliated. We have had an account that their religion was used against them, that a copy of the Koran was brought in front of them and pages torn out."

Liberty Post provides an article from the New York Times that states among other things:

Mr. al-Mutairi said there were three major hunger strikes in his more than three years of imprisonment at Guantánamo. He said that after one of them, a protest of guards' handling of copies of the Koran, which had been tossed into a pile and stepped on, a senior officer delivered an apology over the camp's loudspeaker system, pledging that such abuses would stop. Interpreters, standing outside each prison block, translated the officer's apology.

BBC reports:

In an interview last week with the BBC's Haroon Rashid, Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, an Afghan prisoner recently released from the Cuban detention centre, said a number of Arab prisoners had still not spoken to their investigators after three years to protest at the desecration of the Koran by guards.

So let's all rally round and burn Newsweek because it was obviously only them reporting this "error".

Do you have a clean mind?

A florida teacher was recently fired after being placed on suspension for giving her students the following quiz:

Keep Your Mind Clean
Review critical thinking, connotation, denotation, and prefix & suffix clues, insinuation, and allusion.

Oral Instructions: this is a test to challenge your critical thinking. There are NO BAD WORDS. These are common words, used everyday. Listen for the clues. Do not yell out answers.


1. What is a four-letter word that ends in “k” and means the same as intercourse?

2. What is it that a cow has four of and a woman has only two of?

3. What can you find in a man’s pants that is about six inches long, has a head on it, and that women love so much that they often blow it?

4. What word starts with “F” and ends with “u-c-k”?

5. Name five words that are each four letters long, end in “u-n-t” one of which is a word for a woman?

6. What does a dog do that you can step into?

7. What four letter word begins with “F” and ends with “k,” and if you can’t get one you can use your hands?

8. What is hard, six inches long, has two nuts, and can make a girl fat?

9. What four-letter word ends in “i-t” and is found on the bottom of birdcages?

10. What is it that all men have one of; it’s longer on some men than on others; the pope doesn’t use his; and a man gives it to his wife after they’re married?


Here are the same questions, this time with the verbal clues the teacher said she gave, which some dispute to see if that makes a difference for you.


1. What is a four letter word that ends in k and means the same as intercourse? Hint: You do it all the time, especially when you shouldn’t, except when your parents ask what you did in school.

2. What is it that a cow has four of and a woman (or man) has only two of. Hint: It’s what makes them outstanding in their field.

3. What can you find in a man’s pants pocket that is about six inches long, has a head on it, and people love so much they often blow it. Hint: woman usually put theirs in a purse.

4. What compound word starts w/ F and ends w/uck? Hint: you always envision red.

5. Name five words, in alphabetical order, that each contain four letters, and end in u-n-t. Hint: one is the name for a female relative.

6. What does a dog do that you step into every morning? Hint: There was a time a female was restricted from this.

7. What four letter word begins w/ F and end with K and if you can’t get one, you use your hands? Hint: Think Medevial Times

8. What is hard, unless left in the heat, six inches long (in 3” increments) has two nuts, and has been said to make you fat? Hint: Think of your favorite assignment this year.

9. What four letter word begins w/ G and is found on the bottom of a birdcage? Hint: sandpaper

10.What is it that all men have one of, it’s longer on some men than on others, the pope doesn’t use his, and a woman takes it from him when they are married. Hint: Sometimes it is hyphenated if the woman wants her old one.



Okay now to see how clean you kept your minds....the answers....

1. talk
2. legs
3. a twenty dollar bill
4. firetruck
5. bunt, hunt, runt, punt, aunt
6. pants
7. fork
8. Almond Joy candy bar
9. grit
10. last name

There is some debate on whether she gave additional verbal clues, and she was at one time given the Teacher of the Year award. If the students really thought about it and followed the instructions, it would have been a good example in using creative writing skills and a similar quiz has been around since the 1960's.



FORT PIERCE — A one-time school Teacher of the Year was fired Tuesday after a year-long personnel battle with the St. Lucie County school district over an inappropriate quiz she gave high school freshmen.

Kim Littrell was fired more than one year after she gave a group of low-level Fort Pierce Westwood High School freshmen a 10-question quiz with "inappropriate" material in a creative writing class.

An administrative law judge, after a Division of Administrative Hearings process, found the content inappropriate and recommended her termination. The School Board unanimously approved the action Tuesday.

"The content of the assignment was inappropriate," Susan Ranew, top personnel official, said. "We have to consider the welfare of all students."

Littrell, who had been on unpaid suspension until Tuesday, said she used the exercise to convey critical thinking in a class designed to boost standardized test scores.

So think they were wrong? I do, especially if the verbal hints were given as she and several students have stated.