Don't like someone? Burn his house down!

Several anti-gay arsons have occurred in recent days. Mike Tidmus has the info.

Capping an alarming trend this past month, a fourth anti-gay fire has destroyed the home of a young gay couple in Lakeland, Florida. On 25 July, Paul Day and Christopher Robertson returned from running errands to find their home in flames and “Die Fag” scrawled on their front steps.

The couple had frequently been the victim of anti-gay verbal abuse since moving to the area, and Paul Day claims their mailbox had been riddled with shotgun pellets when they lived another part of the county.

Police investigators reported that the fire had multiple points of origin. Day adds that it appeared a flammable substance had been poured on the carpet.

In an article on the arson attack in The Orlando Sentinel, local gay activist Patrick Jones suggests that those with anti-gay attitudes are more apt to push boundaries than they used to be.

No doubt because of the anti-gay rhetoric of the right. Does the Bible(TM) tell people to burn down people's houses?

Proof the right can't back up its rhetoric

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about something else in the book, radical feminists. A second quote from the book, you say, Respect for stay-at-home mothers has been poisoned by a toxic combination of the village elders' war on the traditional family and radical feminism's mysogynistic crusade to make working outside the home the only marker of social value and self-respect.

Let's get specific here. Name one or two of these radical feminists who are on this crusade.

SANTORUM: Well, I mean, you know, you have you go back to, what's her name, well, Gloria Steinem, but I'm trying to remember- I can't remember the woman's name. It's terrible. Anyway.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But it's kind of an important point. Because you paint this broad brush: radical feminists, village elders. Name one.

SANTORUM: There's lots of- no, there's lot's of- well, Gloria Steinem. There's one. I mean, there's lots of writings out there...

Yet he can't name them.

From Think Progress

Turkey wants US troops to solve its Kurd "problem"

Turkey urges US to strike rebels

Turkey has repeated calls for US forces to take direct action to stop Kurdish rebels, the PKK, using bases in Iraq to launch attacks against Turkey.

"Frankly speaking, we do not see the efforts by the US that we expect to see. We have expressed our views to that effect to the Americans." -Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Prime Minister

Where are we supposed to get the troops for this? Obviously ours are worn out.

Of course, the Iraq war has given Turkey an excuse to wipe out the Kurds under the guise of terrorism. It wouldn't be the first time they've tried.

Notorious Terrorist Organization Calls It Quits

The IRA has formally ordered an end to its armed campaign and says it will pursue exclusively peaceful means.

In a long-awaited statement, the republican organisation said it would follow a democratic path ending more than 30 years of violence.

The IRA made its decision after an internal debate prompted by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams' call to pursue its goals exclusively through politics.

Proving that compromise IS possible. The IRA's shameless acts of cowardly terrorism have destroyed any legacy the IRA as a freedom fighting organization had. Most people in this country don't know the history of the IRA as a legitimate rebel group who finally gained independence for most of Ireland from the British in 1921. Notice I say "most", because the Brits decided to keep a fourth of the island for themselves, which caused the mess in the first place. Well, I mean the IRA becoming a terrorist group mess, not the Britain-ruled-Ireland-for-800-Years mess.

All of this just because the Irish wouldn't send soldiers for the Crusades! Because of this, the Pope, who was English, became angry and sent English troops to take over Ireland for awhile, you know, to try to get them to behave and listen to the Vatican. Only, the Reformation happened before sovereignty was returned to the Emerald Isle, and the English king, no longer obliged to listen to the Pope, decided he'd keep it for England.

Those Brits have caused so much trouble for this world. Too bad the Israelis won't take a lesson from the Irish.

Sphere of Influence, Part II

Mugabe signs aid deal with China

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has signed a deal with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing.

The details have not been made public but China was expected to seek mineral and other trade concessions in exchange for economic help.

Zimbabwe needs hard currency to repay loans or face expulsion from the IMF. There are shortages of fuel and food.

Mr Mugabe has adopted a "Look East" policy, after being ostracised in the west over alleged human rights abuses.

China has promised to help Zimbabwe and to not interfere in "internal affairs".

Riiiiight.

Mr Mugabe's six-day visit [to China] demonstrates Beijing's growing involvement in the continent.

It also shows China's determination to welcome an old ally, regardless of Mr Mugabe's pariah status in the West, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Shanghai says.

The ties between China and Mr Mugabe date back to the 1970s war of independence, when fighters from his Zanu party were armed by the Chinese.

I think I've read this story before...

But the war wasn't for oil!

WOLFOWITZ IN HIS OWN WORDS

Choice comments by the presumptive World Bank President compiled by Jim Vallette, Research Director, Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, Institute for Policy Studies

IRAQ AND OIL

“The fabulous -- and they are fabulous -- oil resources of Iraq are probably greater ultimately than Saudi Arabia , will be ultimately in the control of a Government of Free Iraq. I believe you will find the French and the Russians beating down the door to find those people, and to curry favor with them for the future.”

House National Security Committee testimony , September 16, 1998

Saddam Hussein’s “main supporters in the Security Council, France and Russia, I think could be expected to follow their commercial noses when they saw -- forgive the mixed metaphors -- which way the oil wind was blowing.”

House National Security Committee testimony , September 16, 1998

“If these efforts fail to bring an agreement from Saddam Hussein, then we escalate by striking the infrastructure to include roads, bridges, forts, and other choke points, the electrical grid, their oil refining capability – (and) then start taking out their oil wells...”

House National Security Committee testimony , September 16, 1998

Iraq has “got already, I believe, on the order of $15 billion to $20 billion a year in oil exports, which can finally -- might finally be turned to a good use instead of building Saddam's palaces. It has one of the most valuable undeveloped sources of natural resources in the world. And let me emphasize, if we liberate Iraq those resources will belong to the Iraqi people, that they will be able to develop them and borrow against them.”

Testimony to the U.S. House Budget Committee Feb. 27, 2003

“The oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. Now, there are a lot of claims on that money, but… We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.”

Testimony to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee , March 27, 2003

“I would say that on the whole, things are happening in some respects faster than we expected. One of the most important ones is that we were able to get substantial control over the southern oil fields before Saddam Hussein was able to create the kind of environmental disaster that he was planning to do.”

Press briefing , March 28, 2003

“One of the keys to getting Iraq up and running as a country is to restore its primary source of revenue: its oil infrastructure. The resolution [1483] envisions the resumption of oil exports, and provides that revenues be deposited in the Development Fund for Iraq , with transparency provided by independent auditors and an international advisory board. Decisions regarding the long-term development of Iraq 's oil resources and its economy will be the responsibility of a stable Iraqi government. The United States is dedicated to ensuring that Iraq 's oil resources remain under Iraqi control. Iraq 's resources--including all of its oil--belong to all of Iraq 's people.”

Congressional testimony , May 22, 2003

“It is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States to limit competition for the prime contracts of these procurements to companies from the United States , Iraq , Coalition partners and force contributing nations. Thus, it is clearly in the public interest to limit prime contracts to companies from these countries.”

Order issued December 5, 2003

“The guidance states that the defense of Middle Eastern oil fields ‘ranks above South America and Africa in terms of global wartime priorities.’”

Draft “Defense Planning Guidance,” as cited in The Washington Post , Feb. 13, 1990

“Ultimately, the most important economic measure will be to make provision for the oil resources of liberated areas to be made available to support the resistance to Saddam Hussein.”

U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee testimony, March 25, 1998

Something Happened Between "I Love You" and the Click of the Phone

Excellent column by Fisk about the Occident verses the Orient

Something Happened Between "I Love You" and the Click of the Phone Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq Turn It Incendiary

By ROBERT FISK

That fine French historian of the 1914-18 world conflict, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, suggested not long ago that the West was the inheritor of a type of warfare of very great violence. "Then, after 1945," he wrote, "... the West externalised it, in Korea, in Algeria, in Vietnam, in Iraq... we stopped thinking about the experience of war and we do not understand its return (to us) in different forms like that of terrorism... We do not want to admit that there is now occurring a different type of confrontation..."

He might have added that politicians - and here I'm referring to Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara - would deliberately refuse to acknowledge this. We are fighting evil. Nothing to do with the occupation of Palestinian land, the occupation of Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq, the torture at Abu Ghraib and Bagram and Guantanamo. Oh no, indeed. "An evil ideology", a nebulous, unspecified, dark force. That's the problem.

There are two things wrong with this. The first is that once you start talking about "evil", you are talking about religion. Good and evil, God and the Devil. The London suicide bombers were Muslims (or thought they were) so the entire Muslim community in Britain must stand to attention and - as Muslims - condemn them. We "Christians" were not required to do that because we are not Muslims - nor were we required as "Christians" to condemn the Christian Serb slaughter of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica just over 10 years ago. All we had to do was say sorry for doing nothing at the time. But Muslims, because they are Muslims, must ritually condemn something they had nothing to do with.

But that, I suspect, is the point. Deep down, I wonder if we do not think that their religion does have something to do with all this, that Islam is a backward religion, un-renaissanced, potentially violent. It's not true, but our heritage of orientalism suggests otherwise.

It's weird the way we both despise and envy the "other". Many of those early orientalists showed both disgust and fascination with the East. They loathed the punishments and the pashas, but they rather liked the women; they were obsessed with harems. Westerners found the idea of having more than one wife quite appealing. Similarly, I rather think there are aspects of our Western "decadence" which are of interest to Muslims, even if they ritually condemn them.

I was very struck some years ago when the son of a Lebanese friend of mine went off to study for three years at a university in the south of England. When I passed through London from Beirut, I would sometimes bring audio tapes or letters from his parents - these were the glorious days before the internet - and the student would usually meet me in a pub in Bloomsbury. He would invariably turn up with a girl and would drink several beers before setting off to her flat for the night. Then in his last term at college, he called home and asked his mother to find him a bride. The days of fun and games were over. He wanted Mummy to find him a virgin to marry.

I thought about this a lot at the time. He was - and is - a most respectful, honourable man who has passed up much wealthier job opportunities abroad to teach college kids in Beirut. But had he been a weaker man, I can imagine he might have quite a few problems with his life. What was he doing in Britain? Why was he enjoying himself like "us", only to turn his back on that enjoyment for a more conservative life?

Take another example - though the two men have nothing in common - that of Ziad Jarrah. He lived in Germany with a Turkish girlfriend - not just dating but living with her - and then on 11 September 2001, he called up the girl to say "I love you". What's wrong, the young woman asked. "I love you," he said simply again and hung up the phone. And then he went off to board an airliner and slash the throats of its passengers and fly it into the ground in Pennsylvania. What happened in his brain as he heard the voice of the girlfriend he said he loved? His father, whom I know quite well, was as stunned as the parents of the London suicide bombers. To this day, he still cannot believe what Ziad Jarrah did. He is even waiting for him to come home.

It's not difficult to be cynical about the way in which Arabs can both hate the West and love it. In Arab capitals, I can read the anti-Bush fury expressed in the pages of local newspapers and then drive past the American embassy where sometimes hundreds of Arabs are standing round the walls in the hope of acquiring visas to the US. The Koran is a document of inestimable value. So is a green card.

But from the many letters I receive from Muslims, especially in Britain, I think I can understand some of the anger generated among them. They come, many of them, from countries of great repression and from lands where the strictest family and religious rules govern their lives. You know the rest.

So in Britain - and even the Muslims who were born in the country often grow up in traditional families - there can be a fierce dichotomy between their lives and that of the society around them. The freedoms of Britain - social as well as political - can be very attractive. Knowing that its elected government sends its soldiers to invade Iraq and kill quite a lot of Muslims at the same time might turn the "dichotomy" into something far more dangerous.

Here is a land - Britain - in which you could live a good life. Pretty girls to go out with (note, we are talking about men), or marry or just live with. Movies to watch - no snipping of the nude scenes in our films - and, if you like, a beer or two at the local. These things are haram, of course, wrong, but enjoyable, part of "our" life. Most British Muslim men I know don't actually drink alcohol and they behave honourably to women of every religion (so please, no angry letters). Others enjoy our freedoms with complete ease.

But those who cannot, those who have enjoyed our freedoms but feel guilty for doing so - who can be appalled by the pleasure they have taken in "our" society but equally appalled by the way in which they themselves feel corrupted (especially after a trip to Pakistan for a dose of old-fashioned ritualised religion) have a special problem.

Palestine or Afghanistan or Iraq turn it incendiary. They want both to break out of this world and to express their moral fury and political impotence as they do so. They want, I think, to destroy themselves for their own feelings of guilt and others for the crime of "corrupting" them. Even if that means murdering a few co-religionists and dozens of other innocents. So on go the backpacks - whoever supplied them is a different matter - and off go the bombs. Something happens, something that takes only a second, between saying "I love you" and then hanging up the phone.

Robert Fisk is a reporter for The Independent and author of Pity the Nation. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's collection, The Politics of Anti-Semitism. Fisk's new book, The Conquest of the Middle East, will be released this fall.

From Killing Fields to Baseball Fields

A new pastime in Cambodia

Thanks to a wandering expatriate, the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia are being replaced by baseball fields. And thanks to the good folks at Major League Baseball International, sandlots are replacing the specter of Pol Pot, a dictator who once ruled over all that murder and mayhem.

Baseball, heretofore an aberration in the once war-torn Southeast Asian land, is a budding institution.

"Nobody in Cambodia ever heard of baseball," said Joe Cook, the expatriate who escaped to the United States as a child and as an adult ultimately brought the grand game to his native country. "They didn't know it existed."

Cook was 12 years old in 1984 when his family fled a country ravaged by the Khmer Rouge, which tried by force to institute an egalitarian Communist peasant society after the war in Vietnam and Cambodia ended. From 1975-79, two million people died of overwork, exhaustion or execution -- nearly 25 percent of the total population.

Baseball has magical healing powers. I wouldn't be surprised to see this sport take off like it has in Japan and Korea.

Random bits of psychosis

Someone out there in the Netherlands thinks that Saad Hariri is the antichrist, because whomever it was found my site through this.

Tony "Psycho" Perkins says gays are to blame for the labor breakup.

Non-white tourists arrested for no reason in NY.

And Scott McClellan's meaningless response to Air America's first White House briefing question.

A Final Solution to poverty stricken communities

A UN investigation yesterday denounced Robert Mugabe's slum clearance operation, which has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, as a "catastrophe" that violated international law.

The UN's 98-page report concluded that 2.4 million people had been affected, of whom 700,000 had lost their homes or livelihoods or both, in a humanitarian crisis of "immense proportions".

It called for an immediate halt to any further demolitions and for Zimbabwe to allow unhindered access to the international and humanitarian community to provide assistance.

I guess they're supposed to get the bootstraps out? So now these people who had nothing to begin with have less than nothing now? Not even a home to go to? Why hasn't this been in the MSM?

I guess Israel's policies are catching on. What's next, razing homes for economic development in the US? Oh, wait, the Court already ruled that's ok.

I want to hear a condemnation from Washington, but wouldn't that be hypocritical. (I guess that's never stopped us before.)

Surfing the blogosphere

Two sites I've recently discovered:

Dr. Forbush
Bring It On

Bush diplomacy

"I was going to say he's a piece of work, but that might not translate too well. Is that all right, if I call you a 'piece of work'?"—To Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Washington, D.C., June 20, 2005

It doesn't "translate too well." I certainly don't understand how one could call a Prime Minister a piece of work and not get slapped in the face. How rude.

The REAL economy

Bushonomics

"Because the—all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those—changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be—or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the—like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate—the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those—if that growth is affected, it will help on the red."—Explaining his plan to save Social Security, Tampa, Fla., Feb. 4, 2005

Disestablish the system

The Boston Globe has an excellent article about Dean entitled Rebel With a Cause. It discusses Dean's strategy of 50 states, not 18. Makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, if you ignore people, they aren't going to vote for you, but the Washington Dems decided long ago to ignore the Midwest and the South. No wonder we've been losing.

2006 here we come!

"Vive le Tour, forever."

Number 7

Au revoir, Lance. It's been fun.

Who cares about Arabs?

When I returned from the beach in time to see Cordero get his 34th save last night, I watched the Fox local news broadcast following the game. I had gotten word that there had been a bombing in Egypt that killed at least 75 people, so I wanted to get the scoop on the story. The lead story was about the power outages in DC due to storms we had while I was gone. The next several stories talked about the usual homicides and missing people around the DC area. There were some other unforgettable stories before the first bit of seemingly real news was broadcast- a bit about how cops had shot a Brazilian guy in the UK because they mistakenly thought he was connected to the London bombings. That was followed by some lame interview with a British guy who was visiting DC this week and who had been in London, where he LIVES, at the time of the bombing. This is NOT news, people. Anyway, I assumed that since the news broadcast was halfway over and they were showing this type of lame interview that the bombings in Egypt had happened Friday. Then, they showed the footage.

The death toll was at 88 people last night, but they couldn't be bothered with putting it as a lead story. A few possibilities crossed my mind as to why it wasn't. First, they were Arabs, and this country is so racist that it doesn't care about the fact that Arabs were killed (this is logical because most Bush supporters think that all Arabs are terrorists, so why should we care if they were killed?) Then I thought, well, Fox thinks they are hurting the War on Terror(TM) by showing Arabs affected by terrorism. Then I realized that both were the reason and then I felt sick.

Rightwing War on Terror(TM) tactics lead to the deaths of innocent people. The paranoia is so high that innocent victims are being shot to death by police and rightwingers are saying oh well, there's probably some connection even though the guys is BRAZILIAN. Dumbasses probably couldn't point to Brazil on a map anyway.

The London bombings happened weeks ago, yet they still were reported on before the news of the deaths of 88 people by the hands of the same monsters. Pathetic. People of Egypt, I send my condolences and hopes you will heal.

At the edge of the world

I approached the curve in the road and the sand dune that prevented cars from going straight ahead, and then I saw it: the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. I had arrived at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, where I'd spend two days roasting in the sun and burning my skin out of whiteness. There was a haze that covered up the horizon, making the water and the sky seamless and seemingly the edge of the world.

I saw neither television nor computer during those two days. The only politics around were the vast number of W stickers on countless SUVs and a few Kerry stickers on more practical cars. In a world where every minute brings some inane news that everyone has to comment on as if it were the most important information on the planet, I was alone with my ocean, my sand, and an infinite number of people, most of whom should have had more clothes on. Is there no shame in the world? No modesty? No humility? Once upon a time, gluttony, sloth, and pride were considered sins. Now they define America.

I was appalled at the number of people buying useless junk. There was a family of four who sat on a bench slurping ice cream cones and staring at these little gadgets with a spinning ball of lights as if they were dogs watching a fan go around and around and around... There was a shop which had an endless supply of barking dogs, flipping pigs, and squealing monkeys. My friend and I were basically kicked out of our seats at a restaurant after we ate dinner because they wanted rapid table turnover instead of letting their customers enjoy food, drinks, and life by the sea. Everyone was eating junk food and buying useless crap and letting their screeching child run wild. It shocked me none to see the W stickers on the SUVs after observing the idiots running around the beach.

Nonetheless, sitting on the beach and enjoying the waters of the Atlantic made it enough of a mini-vacation to be worth it, especially when the horizon reappeared yesterday, reminding me that the places I love are just an ocean away.

China revalues its currency

BBC

China has abandoned its currency's peg to the dollar and revalued the yuan by 2.2%. It now buys more US dollars than before.

With China both one of the world's largest exporters of manufactured goods and one of the largest importers of raw materials, the move's economic impact will be felt worldwide.

My bet is that the US economy will improve because of the more expensive Chinese imports (on which the US Walmart economy is based these days), and Bush will take all the credit though he had nothing to do with it. Anyone care to wager otherwise?

They won't know what hit them...

Through June, the DSCC had raised $22.6 million while the NRSC had raised $20.9 million, say officials from both committees.

More significant than the Democrats’ $1.7 million advantage is that they now have $15.2 million on hand after the first six months of the year, while Republicans have $8 million.

And Dems give more of their own money, too. Watch out gops, we're coming...

The end of the world!

This just in! Fire and brimstone can be seen raining down on Canada! The seas are boiling, and swarms of locusts are eating everything in sight! Here is a call for the endurance and the faith of the saints!

The Scarlet Letter

A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written on June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to The Washington Post.

Rovegate, Libbygate, Novakgate, Powellgate, Cheneygate...

Evolution Number 9

I've never really understood the evolution debate. Have the Christian(TM) crusaders ever read Origin of Species? Is it inconceivable that human souls could have developed along with species (if that's the issue)?

The old debate was that God(TM) literally created the world in seven days, so evolution was not possible. Most of Chritianity has conceded that this was not likely. I once studied Catholicism under a priest who said this was the most bogus part of the Bible (and he had a lot to say about Biblical metaphors.) There is proof of evolution- even today you can see it. When bacteria become resistant to anti-biotics, that is evolution. I don't think that the Christian(TM) right understands this at all.

Darwin never said God/Yahweh/Allah/Krishna/etc didn't exist in his evolution theories. Maybe He/She/It/They does/do. However, until there is proof, this thing called "intelligent design" cannot compete with evolution, because "intelligent design" is an assertion, and evolution is a theory. By definition, theories have evidence, and assertions do not.

On the other hand, I don't see what the problem is with mentioning assertions when teaching about evolution. It could cause lively debate, maybe teach these kids whose parents are cracked out on god to think for themselves. Jay Matthews at WaPo has a lot to say about this, and I am inclined to agree with him. Debate is always good.

Is this reality or conservative propaganda?

The government warned doctors Tuesday to be on the lookout for rare but deadly infections in women using the abortion pill RU-486, citing two more deaths after its use.

At least five U.S. women have died after taking the pill since it began selling in 2000, although the Food and Drug Administration stressed that it could not prove the drug was to blame.

You know what? Life has risks. Deal with it. We can't be banning everything that could possibly hurt us. Of course, that is not the issue here. It's part of that Culture of Life-Before-Birth-And-After-Death-But-Who-Cares-In-Between?

Hillary watch

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton continues to sport a hefty lead over potential Republican challenger Jeanine Pirro in the 2006 Senate race, a statewide poll reported Wednesday... The poll had the former first lady leading Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, 57 percent to 31 percent... Sixty percent of voters surveyed by Siena for the new poll said Clinton should be re-elected and 60 percent said they have a favorable opinion of her. National polls have her as the front-runner for the party's 2008 presidential nomination.

Woo hoo!

Just imagine for an instant the Clintons back in the White House once again... no state of pertutual war, there'd be bountiful prosperity (and no, the jobs won't be flipping burgers), the country wouldn't be so polarized... I breathe deeply at the thought, and my shoulders become a little less tense.

The War IN America

Donmiguel was the sixth child slain in the District this year and the 30th since January 2004, a spate of deadly violence that has concerned and outraged city officials and neighborhood groups.

For those who don't know, six-year old Donmiguel was found dead in a bathtub full of water, his hands and feet bound and a pillow over his head last week in a DC ghetto. His mother is the prime suspect, and the evidence indicates that she will be found guilty if they don't use the mental excuse. Needless to say, the father of Donmiguel is different than the father of her other child, who is 11 months old.

Our cities are warzones. Instead of dropping bombs on desert lands, why are we not trying to win the war at home? Why aren't those groups like "Focus on the Family" focusing on the family problems in our black communities instead of spending all of their time and money bashing gays? Why don't those mega-tax-exempt "churches" spend some of those millions of dollars a year on doing their Christian duties rather than building stadiums for services and paying their leaders CEO salaries? How about helping to change the culture of irresponsibility, of sex on demand, of deadbeat fathers and crackhead mothers in black communities? Why not address the issues that cause people like Donmiguel's mother to kill her child?

This country needs dialogue about the real war, a war in which kids are gunned down every day. EVERYDAY dozens of people are murdered in this country for senseless reasons. Why is this different than insurgents in Iraq killing people? The soulless, evil bastards who murder in cold blood in this country are no different than someone who sets up a car bomb in Iraq, or maybe they are worse, because the insurgents think they are fighting for a cause. How many deaths in DC alone are attributed to the raining of bullets from the darkened streets of despair? In 2004, there were 426 homicides in the DC area, including Prince George's County. In 2003, there were 478. So far in 2005, there have been about 200 in DC and Prince George's County alone.

Remember Clinton's focus on crime? He achieved great successes in cutting the crime rate in this country. In DC alone, more officers on the streets and more money in the police department coffers contributed to a substantial reduction in homicides in the District. The assault weapons ban, which the gop Congress sought not to renew much to the chagrin of the people who live in DC and want the ban (such is the life of those who live under taxation without representation), contributed to this decrease.

Gun violence aside, the death of six-year old is a tragedy. It is unfortunate that our gop leaders chose to create more conflicts than to fix the ones happening in our own country.

Santorum-Durbin Amendment

Strange combo, but true. The two Senators have teamed up to fight AIDS in Africa.

Today, the U.S. Senate considers a crucial vote that could make a real difference for the world's poorest people. Without our help, an important international initiative called the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria may have to cut life-saving prevention, care and treatment for millions. Also, the Global Fund is an international effort and U.S. contributions challenge other countries to do their share - under U.S. law, the Global Fund does not receive U.S. funding unless each dollar is matched by two dollars from other donors. Remember, AIDS kills 8,500 people every day, TB kills 5,000 and malaria kills over 3,000 in Africa alone - every day.

Call your senator and ask him or her to support this amendment- it's one of the few things Santorum is doing right. For info on what to say, click here.

But we say a word, and then we say more

"What happened in England drew condemnation from all the presidents and kings of the world. But when all our children here are gone, not even an Arab leader says a word."

In Iraq, Sweet Promise Struck Down - a tragedy revisited

To be in power, one must have no conscience. It is those of us who desire no power who feel the pain the most.

What kind of mind blows up children asking for candy? Does a tree look like a tree to this mind? Does a cool breeze feel cool to this mind? Does a symphony sound like noise to this mind? Does salt poured in a wound sting? Does it feel good when a mind like this gets blown to bits? Does a mind like this welcome eternal suffering in hell? Or is there no mind at all, just soulless flesh and bones, a mere corporal existence void of feeling and thought? I suspect it is this.

Another victim of the War on Terror(TM)

I took a day off from the real world yesterday, as this awful weather in DC has finally gotten to me. First thing I found out this morning after my "break" is that the Iraqi boy who was flown over here to have surgery on his right eye is not only going to be permanently blind in that eye, but that he is losing the sight in his other one as well. Wapo just had an article about him coming over here on Monday. It was full of such hope, and now...

It must be nice to be a gop. They don't have to despair about anything like this, for they have no consciences.

Yes, Eric Rudolph is a TERRORIST

Rudolph Sentenced to Life for Bombings Not mentioned anywhere in this article is the word "terrorist", because white Christians who bomb are exempt from this label, even though they are no better than the "terrorists." Why was he even given a trial? They don't do that in the "War on Terror(TM)." They just let you rot in prison, eating glazed chicken and living life better than you've ever lived!

Church is a sporting event

U.S. Celebrates America's Largest Church in Texas

HOUSTON - America's largest church celebrated its move into the former arena for the Houston Rockets with a capacity crowd of 16,000, an upbeat sermon from its televangelist pastor and a spirited welcome from the governor of Texas... There were no vacant spots in the arena as Lakewood, which recently became the first church in the United States to average more than 30,000 worshippers weekly, held its first service there Saturday night. The service also was televised live.

The crowd roared when the three giant television screens showed a picture of Osama Bin Goldstein during the Two Minutes of Hate.

It took more than 15 months and $75 million to complete the renovations — which included adding five stories to make more room. No one questioned the expenditures, as helping the poor and being humble are not tenets of Christianity(TM).

"Heil Jesus!" the crowd chanted in submissive euphoria as the Emperor of Texas told the crowd, "As lawmakers we do a lot of things, but only the church can teach people to love." Members of the choir swayed happily, belting out several different songs below pictures of a crisp blue sky with puffy white clouds.

Perception is fantasy

Bush loses some luster on credibility

"From a public opinion standpoint, the administration's in a slump," says Charles Black, a Washington lawyer and GOP adviser. "Some accomplishments will help break the slump: If we can get an energy bill and get it signed, get a highway bill and get it signed, if we continue to have a good economy."

On the last point, Mr. Black adds, "it's weird, because the economy is good, but a lot of people don't think it is."

I'll tell you why, Mr. Black. It's because of the way you people measure a good economy. The people who lost their jobs a few years ago under this administration and have new, lower paying jobs and who are struggling because of it are inclined to think it's a bad economy. The people who haven't seen their wages rise in the past few years tend to view it as a bad economy. Of course, your wealthy are getting wealthier- that is how YOU measure the economy. As the income gap widens more and more under this administration, more people are feeling the burden of the policies of your people. Plus, the policies that persuaded people to think they were better off than they actually were have now put record numbers of people into debt with bankruptcy no longer an option to some people. (Thank you, spineless Democrats for not blocking that bill.)

How long is it going to be before these people realize that trickle-down doesn't work?

“You are all a lost generation.”

I meant to publish this Thursday:

"It was like certain dinners I remember from the war. There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people." Chapter 13, pg. 146 The Sun Also Rises

Today, the bulls come out.

As I do on occassion, usually during July when I'm feeling the weight of missing out on another summer in Europe and when Fiesta in Pampalona is in full swing, I picked up my copy of The Sun Also Rises and put myself at a table with Jake and Brett and Robert and Bill, drinking wine and absinthe, soaking up the Spanish sun... such sweet sadness in the story, such fun misery.

I'm not really doing anything I want right now. I like my job, but it is only indirectly related to my life goals. Although I am gaining valuable skills and experience, I'm not sure there is much room for growth in the organization. Call it arrested development, if you will. I'd rather be frequenting the cafes of Paris, writing novels and enjoying life like Europeans do. Right now I am busy trying to sort through the circular maze of logic in which life incarcerates a person, and American politics is a nonsensical part of this maze. Truth seems to be relative; it can be twisted and spun until you no longer recognize it. Rove, for example, is a certified asshole. He would ruin lives for votes and has no conscience. Yet gops rush to defend him as if he were an angel. And where are the Democrats in all of this? Come to think of it, where are the Democrats in anything? Are they even in Washington? Do they have anything better to do than criticize hidden sex scenes in a video game?

I'm sick of this administration, sick of it more than most of the bush haters out there. I'm sick of it because it exhausts me. It stresses me out. I'm sick of the theocrats, the flagwavers, the crooks and liars, the people who have to rub everything in your face... I'm sick of people who think their way is the only right way, people who are unwilling to compromise, people who are selfish and who want to exploit others... sick of namecalling, hatred, anger, bigotry... sick of warmongering, people who won't own up to their mistakes, people who aren't willing to give an ounce to people less fortunate than themselves.

One last thing- to anti-government people out there, I say this: government isn't the problem. Governance is the problem. And the governance going on in this country is corrupt to the core.

Sigh...

Storm blogging

I don't know if DC is getting pounded with these storms because of the hurricanes (thank you gays in Florida!) or if this is just some fluke, but I am getting sick of these storms. I was going to go to Rehoboth Beach this weekend, but the forecast there was just as bleak, so I've chosen to stay home, and I feel stuck at home because of the storms. Anyway, just explaining why I am going to be blogging for the rest of Saturday night.

An interesting storm is brewing against Thomas Friedman's claim that no fatwas have been issued against suicide demons. Charles Kurzman of UNC has compiled a list of fatwas that have been issued against these monsters.

Remember when Iran came out aginst the attacks of 9/11?

Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i, supreme jurist-ruler of Iran:
“Killing of people, in any place and with any kind of weapons, including atomic bombs, long-range missiles, biological or chemical weopons, passenger or war planes, carried out by any organization, country or individuals is condemned. ... It makes no difference whether such massacres happen in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Qana, Sabra, Shatila, Deir Yassin, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq or in New York and Washington.”
Islamic Republic News Agency, September 16, 2001, http://www.irna.com/en/hphoto/010916000000.ehp.shtml

President Muhammad Khatami of Iran:
“[T]he September 11 terrorist blasts in America can only be the job of a group that have voluntarily severed their own ears and tongues, so that the only language with which they could communicate would be destroying and spreading death.”
Address to the United Nations General Assembly, November 9, 2001, http://www.president.ir/cronicnews/1380/8008/800818/800818.htm#b3

It's a shame the bushies had to spoil this and create new terrors for the world.

Why libertarians should join the Dems

And by this, I mean real libertarians, not the people who claim to be libertarian just because they don't like to pay taxes. None of us likes to pay taxes.

The Case For Joining The Democratic Party

Gops turn on their own

Michigan Republicans want to bar Democrats and independents from the GOP’s 2008 presidential primary — a step that would present a major hurdle for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), should he decide to run for the White House in 2008. more

When you don't like the rules, try to change them!

TOE THE LINE! TOE THE LINE! TOE THE LINE! TOE THE LINE!

Oh, geez, big surprise- racism in SW Ohio

HAMILTON, Ohio - It started with the spray-painted, misspelled "Rapest" on the house of a Hispanic man accused of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old white girl. Then the house went up in flames in a suspected arson.

Confrontations, name-calling and threats against Hispanics followed. Men roamed the streets wearing pillowcases with eye holes, and Ku Klux Klansmen in hoods and robes showed up to pass out pamphlets. There were rumors of assaults and beatings.

This is deep in the heart of Ohio Bush country, where "American values" lead people to burn down houses and harrass people.

"Yes, there is fear," said Ramona Ramirez, who owns a corner deli-supermarket where she says business is off and her bread delivery man is now afraid to come. "They are attacking all the Hispanics, and it is only one person. We don't know what will happen."

I spent nearly 20 years of my life in SW Ohio. Hamilton is the town I used to go to see movies while in college. The whole region can seem like it's stuck in the 1950s, especially when the Klan shows up. It is just one of the many reasons I left Ohio.

Hmm...

A contractor who represents Diebold Election Systems arrived at the office of Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matthew Damschroder with an open checkbook on the same day the county was opening bids for voter-registration software.

Pasquale "Pat" Gallina arrived unannounced, Damschroder said.

"I’m here to give you $10,000," the elections director recalls Gallina saying. "Who do I make it payable to?"

"Well, you’re certainly not going to make it out to me," Damschroder says he told Gallina. "But I’m sure the Franklin County Republican Party would appreciate a donation." more

Worthy of investigation...

Dissent, such an obstacle to total power

War protester pulled from Oswego County parade, arrested

Mark Harris, a 20-year veteran of the Air Force, was not pleased to see a sign-carrying Iraq war protester in Thursday night's Mexico Volunteer Fire Department Field Days parade.

What he saw happen to the man, though, raised some questions for him and, he said, his children.

An Oswego County sheriff's deputy pulled Joshua A. Davies, 23, of 25B North St. in Mexico, out of the parade and charged him with disorderly conduct. Davies had been walking in the parade carrying, Harris said, an "Impeach Bush" sign and another sign calling for an end to the war in Iraq.

Harris said he saw Davies get searched, handcuffed and put in a sheriff's patrol car. Harris said Davies was kept in the car until the parade ended about 45 minutes later.

I have to go... the Thought Police are trying to get into my house.

Um, no thanks, I'll stick with Sam Adams

Chinese beer is safe to drink as its formaldehyde content is much lower than the ceiling set by the World Heath Organization (WHO), China's quality watchdog reported Friday.

Can someone tell me why ANY formaldehyde is in their beer? Water, hops, yeast, and barley. That's it.

Justice Sunday the sequel

"The president came out and said, 'Look, I don't like you talking about my friend,' and I think a lot of people have honored that," the sheep said.

Christian Conservatives Will Take Aim at Supreme Court in New Telecast

Scheduled speakers in the telecast include James C. Dobson, the influential founder of Focus on the Family; former Senator Zell Miller, Democrat of Georgia; Charles W. Colson, the former Watergate figure and the founder of an evangelical group, Prison Fellowship; the veteran Christian conservative organizer Phyllis Schlafly; and William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Mr. Perkins said the organizers planned to include a Jewish speaker as well.

Shudder!

The movement towards theocracy continues...

Because we refuse to get along with the rest of the world...

No extradition to US, decides Jordan

The Lower House of Parliament on 14 July voted against an agreement already concluded between Amman and Washington, calling for the extradition of criminals to the US. Parliamentary speakers of different factions rejected the legislation in light of the US’ failure to ratify the International Criminal Court (ICC) agreement, and calling it “harmful to Jordan’s sovereignty”. “Only Jordanians will be subject to the provisions of the agreement while Americans will be immune to any judicial proceedings,” said Mahmoud Kharabshe, a member of the Lower House’s standing legal committee. The ICC came into force in July 2002 under a treaty called the Rome Statute, which 98 countries had ratified by the end of March 2005.

Right on

Mansour El-Kikhia: No accountability for Bush policies
San Antonio Express-News

Accountability is perhaps one of the most important factors distinguishing democratic from non-democratic societies. Governments of democracies are legitimate because they are accountable to the people who put them in power. Dictators, however, refuse to account to the people they oppress... His [Bush's] administration has not taken responsibility for any of the calamities that have befallen the United States since he came into office.

First, it is nearing four years since one of America's greatest calamities, yet no one in this administration has been held accountable. It is easy to blame terrorists, yet even there this administration has not succeeded in charging anyone with the act. The only person to admit culpability has been Zacarias Moussaoui, and although he confessed a third time after recanting twice before, there is no doubt in my mind that the guy is missing a couple of screws. More than 3,000 people lost their lives and no one is accountable? How is that possible?

Second, the United States was shoved into a war based on canards and hyperboles. Thousands of Americans and Iraqis have been killed and injured. As a result of poor planning and execution, the United States is caught in a situation where it will necessarily lose many more of its youth and wealth. A new type of terrorism, born and perfected in Iraq, also has been unleashed, courtesy of the Bush administration. Is it possible that no one is held accountable?

Third, whoever called the Guantanamo detention center a "gulag" was correct. No matter how good the food, it is still a prison full of individuals who have neither been charged nor convicted of a crime. It has become a black spot on America's global reputation, yet no one is held accountable. Worse was the Abu Ghraib affair. Holding no one accountable is preferable to blaming the affair on low-ranking soldiers. The real culprits, as usual, have escaped accountability.

Four, the U.S. economy has been debilitated by bad policies ranging from unnecessary and excessive tax cuts for wealthy corporations to financing a costly war to reductions in pollution standards. The deficit has ballooned to a record $460 billion, and America has become more dependent on the export of food rather than manufactured products as a major source of revenue. Shouldn't this administration be held accountable?

Finally, an increasing amount of information is being restricted and debate is being censored. Case in point is the debate on the rights of the media. Sending journalists to prison for refusing to divulge their sources doesn't promote democracy and truth; rather, it will promote lies and secrecy... There is no accountability.

But- aren't Christians persecuted in the US?

SAY NO TO SPECIAL RIGHTS FOR CULTS! SPECIAL RIGHTS! SPECIAL RIGHTS!

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Florida judge has ruled in favor of a Christian theme park seeking an exemption from property taxes.

The Holy Land Experience in Orlando is operated by a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian ministry called Zion's Hope, which is devoted to converting Jews to Christianity.

It had been granted only limited exemptions for administrative and education facilities.

The Orange County Property Appraiser's office had denied the group's broader request in 2001, arguing the park was a tourist attraction rather than a church.

But Judge Cynthia MacKinnon said all of the park is tax-exempt.

In her ruling, the judge said Zion's Hope is using The Holy Land Experience "to spread what it considers to be God's word."

The park features scenes from ancient Jerusalem and biblical settings complete with costumed characters.

The $16 million, 15-acre park opened in 2001. Associated Press

This type of nonsense makes me angry. The wacky Christian cults like this are always saying Equal Opportunity is giving "special rights" to people. Well, this is a "special right" if I've ever seen one. They need to be paying taxes like everyone else. It is one thing to worship. It is another thing to use abuse your church status. I would argue that it is barely even a church; rather, it is a cult focused on attacking the Jewish faith.

The website is well designed.

Tim Russert should be shot, says Congressman King

SCARBOROUGH: The last thing you want to do at a time of war is reveal the identity of undercover CIA agents.

KING: No. Joe Wilson, she recommended—his wife recommended him for this. He said the vice president recommended him. To me, she took it off the table. Once she allowed him to go ahead and say that, write his op-ed in “The New York Times,” to have Tim Russert give him a full hour on “Meet the Press,” saying that he was sent there as a representative of the vice president, when she knew, she knew herself that she was the one that recommended him for it, she allowed that lie to go forward involving the vice president of the United States, the president of the United States, then to me she should be the last one in the world who has any right to complain.

And Joe Wilson has no right to complain. And I think people like Tim Russert and the others, who gave this guy such a free ride and all the media, they're the ones to be shot, not Karl Rove.

Listen, maybe Karl Rove was not perfect. We live in an imperfect world. And I give him credit for having the guts.

And I really—I tell you, Republicans are running for cover. They should be out attacking Joe Wilson. We should throw this back at them with all the nonsense that has been said about George Bush and all the lies that have come out.

SCARBOROUGH: Well...

KING: Let's at least stand by the guy. He was trying to set the record straight for historical purposes and to save American lives. And if Joe Wilson's wife was that upset, she should have come out and said that her husband was a liar, when he was.

In all of this mess, I have not seen one Democrat say Rove should be shot.

Isn't it funny how they've totally changed the subject from Rove to Wilson? These people are pathetic. They are unethical, immoral creatures who refuse to take responsibility for anything they've done wrong. They have no guilt, no remorse for anything they do, and they will put lives in danger to get revenge for people who try to point out that they are wrong.

Don't plan an exit strategy? Blame the liberals for your miserable failure in Iraq!
Chief Presidential Advisor puts a life in danger for political motives? Change the subject and start claiming the guy you sent to investigate faulty intelligence is a liar!

Will the gops take responsibility for ANY of their messes? (Don't answer that.)

UPDATE: Feith has admitted errors!

Why the flags?

In order: UK, Turkey, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, DR Congo, Kenya, Uzbekistan, US, Spain, Israel, Indonesia, Palestine.

These countries have all been recent victims of the darkest evils of humanity. Some have also been the cause as well as the victim. Everyone knows about what happened in the UK. Turkey has been the victim of several bombings. We all know about Iraq. Sudan is witnessing genocide within its borders. Afghanistan has become a hellhole again. People were locked up in huts and burnt to death in DR Congo. 50+ people were slaughted as they prepared to go to school in Kenya. Uzbekistan's asshole dictator massacred Uzbeks. US soldiers continue to be slaughtered by the gunpowder of demons. Spain was attacked by both fundamentalists and Basques. Israel and Palestine are always going at it. Indonesia saw the Bali attacks, in addition to the tragedy of the tsunamis.

There is a memorial for the Brits who were killed, but what about the Turks, the Iraqis, the Sudanese, the Afghans, the Congo people, the Kenyans, the Uzbeks, the Spanish, the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Indonesians? Why are the Brits better? Why did they get more coverage? Why do we forget so easily?

Remember the Srebrenica massacre, when 7000-8000 Muslims were massacred ten years ago. Remember today. War solves nothing. It just moves to other places. The names of ideologies shift, but the evil remains the same.

Aceh children need you

HOPE 4 OUR CHILDREN is a non-profit organization based in Virginia, United States, focusing on helping economically disadvantaged children with their 4 (four) basic needs, which are food, shelter, health, and education. The organization’s hallmark will be transparent management, fostering initiative, and encouraging teamwork within native communities. Our work will include researching and obtaining opportunities for the personal, physical, emotional, and educational development of children in need.

A colleague of mine is going to Indonesia with his wife for two weeks to help establish an orphanage and boarding school in the city of Aceh. Banda Aceh was the hardest hit area by last year's Tsunami - over 150,000 people lost their lives in Aceh alone. Thousands of children became orphans as a result. Please visit their website to support them: www.hope4ourchildren.org.

They're cute, so it's not intrusive or scary

Sniffer dogs have been used in the UK to detect explosives, increasingly post-Madrid, but experts say the widespread use of beagles could be one answer. The dogs, made famous by cartoon character Snoopy, have been a hit at US airports such as Washington Dulles.

"Beagles are delightful and everyone goes 'Aaaah, they're cute, so it's not intrusive or scary," says security expert Bob Ayers, associate fellow of international think-tank Chatham House. "They are in keeping with the British tradition of policing - non-intrusive and non-threatening, unlike mastiffs or Rottweilers."

"I'd suggest using dogs in increasing numbers would help, but I doubt whether it would stop, say, someone getting a bus at Hammersmith."

The handler or police officer with the dog adds the vital ingredient of human judgement, he adds.

This actually makes a lot of sense. Men with machine guns on the Metro freak people out, but many people like dogs, and they wouldn't make our hair stand on end as we are traveling to work or going to a baseball game. DC Metro should start using Beagles to patrol the stations instead of heavily armed men. Hopefully Metro will be spending more time on real security rather than arresting people for talking too loudly on a cell phone or for eating a candy bar in the aftermath of the London bombings.

Gops on defense

Raw Story has obtained a copy of the talking points issued by the RNC on what to say about Rove. As usual, the "this a is partisan attack" rhetoric is all over the place. Nevermind the treason part of it, you know, because gops don't commit iran treason contra.







Next up: issuing tapes so that the gops don't even have to talk. It will save them the effort.

More death and destruction

Massacre at Kenyan School

Hundreds of armed men surrounded a primary school and nearby houses in northern Kenya before opening fire killing at least 56, a local MP says... many of the victims were shot dead while getting ready to go to school.

Sick. Sad.

More Corporate Censorship

No, you're not smoking something--the cover of Willie Nelson's new reggae album comes in two separate versions: regular and Wal-Mart.

Lost in all of this is the fact that Willie Nelson has put out a reggae album.

full article

Does he know what IS is?

Now, these questions are coming up in the context of an ongoing investigation, and I stated long ago, you all will remember, that the investigation is continuing, I want to be helpful to the investigation, I don't want to jeopardize anything in that investigation, and that's why I made a decision and the White House made a decision quite some time ago that we weren't going to get into commenting on questions related to that investigation.

McClellan gets his clock cleaned in this hillarious transcript of today's White House press briefing.

In another part:

At today's White House press briefing, ABC News chief White House correspondent Terry Moran called Fox News a "surrogate" for the administration.

MORAN: ... Fox News and other surrogates are essentially saying that the conversation lasted for two minutes and that the subject was ostensibly welfare reform. They’re getting that information from here, from Karl Rove.

MCCLELLAN: And, again, you’re asking questions that are related to news reports about an ongoing, continuing investigation. And you’ve had my response on that...

Thinkprogress.com caught the exchange.

Hypocrisy is Good for Society

by Rick Santorum (Yes, he actually said it. At least he's acknowledging that he's a hypocrite.)

Rove revisited

Rove told Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper that the woman "apparently works" for the CIA and that she had authorized her husband's trip to Africa to assess allegations that Iraq was trying to obtain yellowcake uranium for nuclear weapons, according to a July 11, 2003, e-mail by Cooper obtained by Newsweek magazine.

This is enough to fire the guy.

Here's something I don't get. Why did Rove give Cooper permission to talk? Wasn't Cooper willing to go to jail with Miller? Did Bushie assure him that he wouldn't be fired if he got in trouble? Did Bushie assure him of a pardon?

If you're on the job, and you're reading this story, you should probably get back to work. The average worker wastes more than two hours a day, and that's not including lunch, according to a new Web survey by America Online and Salary.com. That means companies spend as much as $759 billion on salaries annually for which they receive no apparent benefit, the research found.

Bush spends all of his work time falling off bikes. Maybe he should spend more time presidenting. He could start by managing his staff, borrowing two words from Trump.

Strange...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Japanese customers must apologise for their country's wartime occupation of China before getting a seat at a restaurant in former Manchuria or find another place to eat, Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Tuesday.

No Japanese had tried to enter the restaurant in the northeastern Chinese city of Jilin since it started the new apology policy and hung a sign that read "Japanese people barred from entry".

"We totally welcome those Japanese customers who can correctly view history," the manager, surnamed Tian, was quoted as saying.

"But as for those customers who still refuse to admit to history, we want to say we don't like them."

Staff at the Western-style restaurant were told to ask Japanese customers who walked through the door to give their views of Japan's 1931-1945 occupation of parts of China, including the northeast, and to turn away those who did not apologise and share the owner's opinions, Kyodo said.

Many Chinese feel Japan has never owned up to atrocities committed during its occupation, including the 1937 Rape of Nanjing in which Beijing says as many as 300,000 Chinese men, women and children were slaughtered by Japanese troops.

The 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal found Japanese troops killed 155,000 people, mainly women and children.

China has repeatedly asked Japan to "take history as a mirror" and "correctly" view history to repair ties between the two countries, which this year have sunk to their lowest point in decades.

It sounds ridiculous, but I can see the same thing happening 50 years from now in this country. "Arab people barred from entry." Apologize for September 11th or you can't eat here!

Slaughter in Africa

DR Congo villagers burnt to death

The United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo says at least 30 people were burnt to death in their huts on Saturday night... Witnesses said 39 villagers, mostly women and children, had been locked in their huts which were then set ablaze.

Sick.

Hotel Rwanda is the only movie I have seen in the theater this year, and I've seen it twice. Emotions I felt during the movie: guilt, horror, sadness, despair, grief, hope...

And then this kind of thing happens.

I guess I'm a "leftist" for feeling. The right should try it sometime. It's HUMAN.

Good news from a land full of bad news

From International Center for Journalists:

A government-owned center in Yemen recently wrapped up a training workshop for 35 women journalists, and is in the midst of a month-long program for broadcast media. The Yemeni Mass Communication Training and Qualifying Institute (MCTQI) has been conducting the training with support from various organizations.

The training for Yemeni women, conducted in Sana’a from July 3 to 6, brought together 35 journalists. The workshop focused on networking, cultivating sources, and using technology for reporting. MCTQI and the Joint Yemeni Media Development Program organized the program, which was led by Reem Obeidat, the UNESCO Chair for Communication Technology and Journalism for Women.

The broadcast training workshop began June 21 and continues until July 18. The participants are 25 anchors and reporters working for Yemeni broadcast media. The workshop aims to improve their skills in presenting, conducting interviews, and verbal and nonverbal communication, such as Arabic-language skills and rules.

My question is are they learning objective news, or are they going to be forced to talk nicely about the government? Yemen has been throwing a lot of reporters in jail recently as the place is rapidly becoming totally a terrorist training camp. Perhaps they like the nice beaches? Sort of their last bit of heaven before they burn in hell.

I guess the US is a little bit like that nice little country, throwing our reporters in jail and all. Baby steps.

Quick! Click on this link!

Skippy's trying to reach 1 million visitors by the end of the day. Do a fellow blogger a favor and visit.

Panda is born

Mei Xiang has had a cub at the National Zoo. Hopefully the zoo won't kill it.

You can watch the pandas live and see the baby panda here.

I'll kill your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

"It should be legal to kill illegals," said Carl, a 69-year old retired Special Forces veteran who fought in Vietnam and now lives out West. "Just shoot 'em on sight. That's my immigration policy recommendation. You break into my country, you die."

Too bad it wasn't legal when your ancestors immigrated to America, Carl. We wouldn't have to put up with assholes like yourself.

"I agree completely," Michael said. "You get up there with a rifle and start shooting four or five of them a week, the other four or five thousand behind them are going to think twice about crossing that line."

"The thing to do would be to drop the bodies just a few hundred feet into the U.S. and just leave them there, with lights on them at night," he said. "That sends the message 'No Trespassing,' in any language." From SPLC

What a crime it is to want a better life for yourself!

These monsters are part of the Minuteman Project. Not surprisingly, many of them are Vietnam vets, which is probably why they are insane. I mean, these are the types of people who think Tony Poe was a hero when he beheaded Communists and dropped the heads on the enemy from airplanes. (But Americans don't behead! Only Muslims do!)

The group is now trying to expand its project to include all 2000 miles of the US-Mexico border. They are trying to gain access to the approximately 1000 miles of privately owned land along the border.

While there are very few who actually don't agree that immigration laws need to be reformed, the potential for violence resulting from this project is high. If they clash with the wrong drug smuggler or human trafficker, there could be a mini-border war down there.

What's interesting about this project is that there isn't any talk about terrorists entering the country through this open border. Mexican immigrants who do the shitty jobs that none of us want to do are hardly a threat to national security. A jihadist with an agenda is.

It's the economy, stupid

Why the US could turn green

The last time I was in the Six Pack Diner in Detroit, the car-workers guzzling their cholesterol were not opining about the melting polar ice-caps.

They are worried though, that their employers, Ford and General Motors, have failed to catch a new appetite for cars that consume less.

More clean Japanese cars means fewer jobs in Detroit.

The right spends so much time criticizing and trying to debunk environmental theories that they are hindering the future of the US economy. That, and they are too busy dancing with the oil companies to notice our oil dependency is a threat to national security.

I think the Dems would be wise to use this approach to environmental policy in the next election cycle. People don't respond to abstract threats, but they will respond to their light wallets.

Where is the outrage?

Twenty people were killed in Turkey by a bomb today, but there are no front page headlines about it. Why is this? Is it because the Turks are Muslims, and since they were Muslims who died, no one cares? Is it because the PKK is a political, rather than a religious, movement, so there isn't a chance for Islam bashing?

Developing...

Newsweek is publishing a story today with documented evidence that Rove told Cooper about Plame's identity.

I'm sure Rove is finding that truth can be such a pesky thing.

The Newsweek story can be found here.

Group of White Guys strikes a deal

G-8 Leaders Agree on $50B in Africa Aid

Unfortunately, like so many of these other deals, the US will most likely not live up to its pledge. Remember who controls the purse strings? Most of the pledged money is just a reannouncement of existing commitments anyway.

One of the greatest problems Africans face is that of farm subsidies, an issue neither the US nor France really wants to change. Aid can only go so far; trade must do the rest.

The leaders also agreed to stop subsidizing agriculture exports and reduce farm subsidizes, but did not say when.

Bush told reporters on Thursday he hoped the $112 billion a year spent internationally on subsidies could be ended by 2010 as part of World Trade Organization negotiations.

In other words, let's just leave it up to the next guy to deal with it.

At least the Elite 8 are willing to help out. I suppose it's in their economic interest to do so. China, too, has gotten in on it. I guess they don't want to be outdone by the exclusive club, so they announced a decision to write off $1.27 billion US of debt from Africa.

Come on, Mubarak, get some balls!

Egypt recalls its diplomatic envoy from Iraq. Egypt, Bahrain, and Pakistani envoys have been attacked by Hellbound Fundamentalist Swine, yet none of these countries have condemned the attacks. Are they afraid that more Hellbound Fundamentalist Swine will act up in their countries? This may not sound very liberal, but maybe they should take the initiative to actually get rid of the scum, rather than letting warmongering westerners invade their countries for them. Frankly, I am sick of their garbage being thrown onto our streets.

Where is the Arab outrage? Why have there been no condemnations? Why don't you try to clean up Bush's mess, Mubarak? You're always pretending to be a leader in the Arab world. You did send the first Arab diplomat to Iraq- that was something- but you weren't prepared to defend him. You left him to slaughter. I mean, I pick up the garbage that other people throw in my yard. I'm not fond of Steele Reserve cans in my flowers. It's too bad Egyptians won't reap the benefits of a real election this year. Otherwise, you, Mubarak, would be sent to retirement, and your son would be searching for a job.

How can the nation of Nasser and Sadat produce such a coward?

Ihab al-Sherif, RIP. Another victim of the "WAR ON TERROR(TM)."

It's called Burma

The government calls it "Myanmar." I think that's Dickhead for "regime full of power-tripping assholes." They continue to stomp on the will of the people, who only want a little control over their own lives. The US government has finally raised its voice against this non-oil country. Thursday, the country released about 400 political detainees, but Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.

This makes me feel like the terrorists have won...

This is the DC metro, folks.