The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
Puts his lobbying skills to use again: Washington Times
From a Sunday-night missive received by an acquaintance of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff:
Pfft. Like they’d answer his calls while he’s cooperating? I think not.
I just deleted that email when I saw the subject line..:D
Did you reply yet?
share the email — that should tell him how his “friends” feel about him right now…
Who needs clean drinking water? AP
We’ve been there for 3 years, and clean water is still a problem? Ah, progress.
And in our own Civil War, we lost more soldiers from illness, some of which was certainly due to poor sanitation, than we did on the battlefield. The Bush/Cheney cronies running HBRK must have paid about as much attention in their history classes as our Great Leaders did.
What’s really mind-boggling is that they had the purification equipment there and just didn’t install it!
I’m not one whit surprised. Brown & Root, Haliburton’s former construction part, was called “Build & Rebuild” in Texas when I lived there. This was their typical modus operandi.
Washington State Considering ‘Pharmacist Refusal’ Proposal: KOMO news
Yep.
Yep. Stay tuned for the anti-choice Plan B traveling road show, coming soon to a state near you…
More on the 4 year old boy who died after being beaten with PVC pipe and wrapped tightly in blankets until he suffocated. LINK
The adoptive mother sought discipline advice from a Christian website and followed their advice, um, religiously.
When I read the initial reports of the boy’s death and it stated that “church members” answered the phone at the home, I had a feeling something like this was at play. Listen how they advocate turning the home into a torture chamber, where the child is constantly reminded that he is not safe:
The name of that website…”nogreaterjoy”…than beating and terrorizing children?
The material does speak for itself. Sick people.
I just fired off a quick and angry LTE about it.
What is more disturbing is that county human services refers families to the parenting classes run by religious organizations that use that method.
Why the fuck are they allowed to do that?
How absolutely wonderful to use religion to promote child abuse.
Well as long as we’re being biblical — how about a little ‘eye for an eye’ and we get to beat these people with their damn pvc pipes.
WWJB: Who Would Jesus Beat?
The Pearl’s sold 400,000 copies of their book? There could be a million kids a risk because of these wackos.
Here’s another example of what I’ve been trying to get people to understand about the ‘wiretap’ problem
Iraqi PM offers to step down
US backs first-strike attack plan
(My emphasis; WTF!)
diplomacy = bombing
That was my conclusion as well.
Steven D has the story on the frontpage now.
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SYDNEY (The Herald Tribune) March 16 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Foreign Minister Alexander Downer of Australia, struck markedly different tones over the rising power of China, with Rice criticizing its military expansion and the Australian warning against trying to “contain” Chinese ambitions.
The varied comments of Rice and FM Alexander Downer underscored the uneasiness that Rice has found this week in Asia and Australia, a region that the United States once dominated as a superpower but now has to navigate uneasily amid China’s spreading influence.
Rice’s criticism of China was unusually tough, especially since she was speaking in China’s front yard and was planning to meet here later in the week with Downer and the foreign minister of Japan, Taro Aso, to discuss security issues. Aso has angered leaders in Beijing with his own criticism of China’s military buildup.
“There is no doubt that, as with any complex relationship, there are difficult issues as well as positive elements,” Rice said of the Chinese, praising American cooperation with Beijing on North Korea and Iran before going on to criticize Chinese military, economic and human rights policies.
Noting that at the recent National Peoples Conference, the Chinese announced a 14 percent increase in military spending, Rice said: “That’s a lot, and China should undertake to be transparent about what that means.”
● U.S. Military Budget nears $½ Trillion – A Tenfold Over China’s Spending
● White House Defense Propaganda
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
What a bright idea, Condi: threaten a country that currently holds a lot of the US government debt, with way more population to expend on warfare.
She wants to invade China too?
No word so far on plans China and other countries may have to ‘contain’ the US.
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keep all options open!
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
I swear these people go out of their way to make stupid statements. And the rank hypocrisy of cautioning another country on military build-up seems almost breathtakingly arrogant…someone should lead Condi to a dictionary and have her read out loud what the word ‘irony’ means.(and maybe while she’s at it she could look up the word diplomacy, war mongering, lying, etc etc).
A large and previously unknown reservoir of water ice may have been found below the surface of Mars, new radar observations suggest. As it scanned the region around the south pole, the MARSIS probe turned up an unexpected ice source. It lies near the southern polar cap and is underneath a region of Martian surface that shows no visible signs of ice. The radar signals reveal what appear to be relatively thin layers of underground water ice – layers that may contain water of a equivalent to half of that locked up in the entire southern polar cap.
Governments worldwide have spent billions planning for a potential influenza pandemic. But one piece of the plan may be missing: the ability of corporations to continue to provide vital services. Reference: today’s NY Times.
A U.N. environmental meeting in Brazil from March 20-31 will review a world goal of slowing a drastic acceleration of the loss of animal and plant species by 2010. Scientists say no one has a good idea about how many species — from algae to elephants — live on earth. Recent estimates range from five to 100 million. While extinction is a natural process, human activities — expanding cities, pollution, deforestation, global warming blamed on burning of fossil fuels or the introduction of “invasive species” — are dramatically accelerating the rate.
DARPA’s goin’ buggy: The Pentagon’s defense scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions, by implanting them – assembly-line style – with sensors during their pupa stage so they can heal with a microchip inside them and then be remote-controlled to sense out explosives.
Computer experts at a conference in Italy claiming radio frequency identification technology is vulnerable to computer viruses. Radio frequency identification is a burgeoning microchip-based tracking technology that’s replacing bar codes and also being used to identify pets and livestock, and is a concern of privacy advocates. Terrorists or smugglers could thwart security technology using the newly identified weaknesses.
When my first son was born we didn’t have insurance and had a hard time paying off the hospital bill. We joked “what are they going to do, repossess the baby?”…seems that wasn’t so far out.
When CBtY was born, we traded installation of a new roof on the midwife’s 1000-square foot house for her services.
I think we got the better end of the deal.
In a 1990 clandestine operation, I snuck a photographer into a no access
ward of a large hospital in Chicoutimi, Que. A large explosion which killed 1 Philippino sailor, very seriously burned another, & left the remaining sailors incommunicado, was caused by criminal negligence. A no flyover space was established & no one could get any info on what had happened.
I had flown into the area to visit my dying mom after 14yrs. away. She told me a wounded man seemed to be in need of help a few rooms away in the same ICU ward. The nurses didn`t speak english, the philippino sailor only spoke Spanish. As a perfectly bilingual french/[english] canadian who lives in LA & worked with many Hispanics, I seemed to be his angel of mercy. I finnally figured out that the commotion he was causing was about his need to go to the bathroom.
Back to the subject; What he was terrified about was that he had no money. Where he came from, a hospital stay was paid for by him, his family or whomever. When you are discharged from the hospital you go directly to jail till the amount is paid.
The story gets a little stranger as nobody was allowed access to this man, & his shipmates were not accounted for. I called my dad who was one of my fellow profs. there in 1970 & he turned me on to an ex student but now a journalist. He arranged for a photographer to meet my sister pretending to be her boyfriend in the hospital lobby so she could bring him in as a 24hr. access visitor for terminal patients.
We got the reporter on the phone & as he asked questions, I translated them into spanish for the wounded sailor who then aswered in spanish. This was at 1:00 amFRI. 23 1990. By the morning edition of the local paper, the sailor & myself were on the front page in a large photo.
The story was blown wide open. The other sailors were produced forthwith, Flowers started arriving, the mayor showed up bla bla…
My mom was still dying but she was so happy I was there for him
Well, at least Sears, according to a shareholder letter from Chair Edward Lampert, plans to continue honoring its pension obligations. According to Lampert, the company plans to close its $1.8 billion pension funding shortfall “in a measured, disciplined manner.” This appears to include (according to Lampert’s letter) benefits owing former employees of Kmart, which merged out of bankruptcy and into Sears in 2003.
Going on, though, Lampert complained about pending legislation intended to shore up traditional US pensions. In particular, he doesn’t like the increase, which he puts at 60%, in the insurance premium Sears would pay into the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation. As the FT has it (subscription link, so here’s a link to the story in Crain’s Chicago Business):
Well, near as I can tell, the increase also has to do with the fact that Sears and other companies have big funding shortfalls. With a $1.8 billion shortfall in a $6.1 billion plan, it’s tough to argue that Sears is being asked for more than its share.
From a friend in the UK: And you thought fascism was looming dangerously here — our closest allies are not merely following in our wake.
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill — a grab for unregulated power as blatant as the PATRIOT act is here, where the executive branch can bypass the oversight of the legislative.
CRAP. I shoulda previewed. That link of his probably broke the margins… mea culpa. ::hides her head in shame::
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JAYAPURA WEST-PAPUA (Reuters) March 16 — Three policemen and a soldier in Indonesia’s remote Papua province died in clashes with protesters demanding the closure of a giant mine run by U.S. firm Freeport-McMoran Cooper & Gold Inc, police said.
Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was sending officials to the scene and his ministers would investigate issues raised in controversy over the mine.
Papuan police said students from the province’s main university in the capital of Jayapura, about 500 km northeast of the mine, pelted policemen with stones to stop them from opening a roadblock to the city’s airport.
“Three policemen have died along with a soldier from the airbase. Forty people are now being interrogated,” Papua police chief Tommy Jacobus told Indonesia’s Metro TV.
Papua police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra earlier said police tried to break up the protest by firing teargas and rubber bullets.
West Papua Online NewsOne person was shot by an arrow hours after anti-Freeport protesters tried to storm a five-star hotel in Timika, the nearest town to Freeport’s Grasberg mine.
There have been sporadic protests against the mine in recent weeks, both in Papua and Jakarta. A road blockade by mostly illegal miners shut down operations for four days last month.
Illegal miners often enter mining areas in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago that is the world’s fourth most populous country with huge deposits of such metals as copper, gold and tin.
None of this week’s protests have affected mining activities.
Protest issues vary from illegal miners asking access to the mine area to demands like the Jayapura demonstrators for closure of the lucrative mine, believed to have the world’s third-largest copper reserves and one of the biggest gold deposits.
The Freeport operation has been a frequent source of controversy over its impact on the environment, the share of revenue going to Papuans and the legality of payments to Indonesian security forces who help guard the site.
● Berlepsch’s Six-wired Bird of Paradise ¶ A ‘Lost World’
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
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BBC World News Radio
His magazine :: First Things
As a catholic, my fingers itch to do a damning diary on this “catholic” bs of R.J. Neuhaus and his definition of a theologically justifiable war.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
US launches major Iraq air attack
A Continent Splits Apart — Normally new rivers, seas and mountains are born in slow motion. The Afar Triangle near the Horn of Africa is another story. A new ocean is forming there with staggering speed — at least by geological standards. Africa will eventually lose its horn. (…)
Troops in Afghanistan warned of more attacks — A purported statement from Taliban leader Mullah Omar warns of a ferocious offensive against foreign troops in Afghanistan and says streams of militants are volunteering for suicide missions. (…)
Is Canada at war? — Is Canada at war? An ad in the Star promoting this newspaper’s coverage of the Afghan conflict suggests that it is. The federal government won’t say. Most Canadians are probably confused. Technically, of course, we are not at war. We have not declared war on anyone. No country has declared war on us. (…)
Dutch come up with tolerance test — The camera focuses on two gay men kissing in a park. Later, a topless woman emerges from the sea and walks onto a crowded beach. For would-be immigrants to the Netherlands, this film is a test of their readiness to participate in the liberal Dutch culture. If they can’t stomach it, they need not apply. (…)
Boomers prefer to watch TV than have sex: study — A new study suggests Canadian baby boomers are more likely to fall asleep watching Law and Order than exchanging an intimate caress with their partner. The Ipsos-Reid survey suggests Canadians between 40 and 64 dedicate an average of just 15 minutes a day to sex and romance. (…)
That gets my vote for best line of the day.
In the other story, however, I don’t know if the researchers are correct in their conclusion.
It could be that Canadians are less likely to fall asleep during intimate contact than while watching Law and Order, which strikes me as just as it should be.
…or they’re doing something wrong. 🙂
They are clearly doing something wrong if they fall alseep during the imtimate contact.
15 whole minutes? I feel cheated.
The Dutch have an approach to immigration I can hold with. 😀
but given the choice of the soon to be implemented US policy of putting immigrants into concentration camps for perpetuity and watching a video, even if it were a video of Hilary Duff in a bikini spurned by two gay love interests, played by Keanu Reeves and Brad Pitt, also in bikinis, with original soundtrack featuring Hilary and Yanni, featuring a cameo appearance by Homer Simpson, who also wears a bikini and sings with Yanni –
I’d take the video.
No, no, not Yanni, arguably the greatest soporific since Nubutal.
Wait a mo…..
Perhaps the Canadians who fall asleep while intimate were watching the PBS (how have the mighty fallen) fund raiser, “Yanni Live (questionable) At Royal Albert Hall”.
(Know what you get when you play New Age music backward ? New Age music.)
I saw it on White Trash TV the other night. Apparently he became violent during a spat with his sweetheart and struck her and threw her out of his house!
I’m sticking with Fi’ty Cent.
Bizarre I’ll grant you.
Racist?
It does seem to be take an uncompromising attitude toward cultural values . . .
It’s not apparent from what’s in the diary though — it’s by following the link that the full yuckiness of it comes out.
Prospective immigrants from most countries perceived as ‘white’ (U.S. EU, New Zealand, Australia etc.) are excused from having to watch said video. So if Fred Phelps (of picketing Matthew Shepherd’s funeral fame) decided he felt like emigrating to the Netherlands, he’d be exempt from having to watch the video because the new regulations assume by virtue of his U.S. citizenship that he is appropriately ‘tolerant’ or ‘liberal’ or whatever the word of choice is.
Salaam Pax, Amartya Sen, Arundhati Roy, Tariq Ali, (not to mention the majority of my friends in the U.S. for that matter) on the other hand would only be exempted if they met the income-based exemption.
So yeah, I think it’s racist and xenophobic, and classist to boot. It assumes that citizenship predicts attitudes.
The cynical might suppose that Japan is included among the exempted countries list precisely because all of the other countries selected have majority white populations.
excused from having to watch said video
White people are excused?
Well that kind of obviates any point to it.
May I gently chide the diarist to include the relevant information in a story?
from Iceland.
Sorry. NOt Iraq.
This must be the ‘we don’t need you anymore’ foreign policy.
The Morality Police at the FCC has their eyes set on CBS, according to the Detroit Free Press:
WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission proposed an indecency fine of $3.6 million against CBS, its owned and operated stations including Detroit’s WWJ-TV (Channel 62) and affiliates Wednesday.
At fault was a “Without a Trace” episode that aired in December 2004. It was cited because of graphic depiction of “teenage boys and girls participating in a sexual orgy.”
Also, the FCC rejected an appeal by CBS, and upheld its $550,000 fine against 20 of the network’s stations for the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl two years ago. Now CBS can seek federal court intervention to reduce or void that fine. Many fines are reduced considerably during appeals or negotiations.
I am SO sick of seeing Justin Timberlake’s glitched stunt referred to as Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction”.
He tore off a piece of her costume deliberately intending to expose her a little or a lot. He did so with or without her collusion. The point is that any media discussion of the incident always focuses on her body and not his action.
From the Beeb:
Church is ‘sorry’ for AIDS stigma
Kenya’s Anglican Church has issued a public apology for previously shunning those with HIV/AIDS.
“Our earlier approach in fighting AIDS was misplaced, since we likened it to a disease for sinners and a curse from God,” said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.
He was speaking to a group of HIV positive Christian and Muslim clergy.
A BBC reporter in Kenya says there has been lots of church discrimination against those with HIV – some have been excommunicated.
Some Muslims have been killed because of their status, says the BBC’s Gladys Njoroge.
Archbishop Nzimbi said the Church would now work to end the stigma associated with AIDS.
Ugandan clergyman Gideon Byamugisha, who has lived for 19 years with HIV, says the apology is welcome.
“It’s better to be long overdue than never,” he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.
Canon Byamugisha and his Africa Network of Religious Leaders Living with HIV/AIDS urged political and religious leaders to fight the stigma by publicly disclosing their own HIV status.
He said those with HIV could act as positive role models.
Now if our own Religious Reich could just get this through their thick skulls…
there’s definitely a strange mood afoot as the senate debates the budget bill. the dems, led by kerry and cantwell, are now trying to defeat the budget bill itself, instead of offering an amendment to take arctic drilling out of the bill.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/16/15642/5633
please make those phone calls!
BREAKING NEWS:
Thinkprogress provides this bit Bush at 5.30 will name Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to replace Norton.
No better one in bed with polluters, Timber Industry to be found.