Hello, everyone! I've been toying with the idea of this topic for quite some time, more so every time I was enraged about a variety of topics in world current events such as the Iraq War, US politics, mistreatment of the environment (which at some points was weekly). I wanted a place to discuss things about the news, politics, and general world events and interests with my regular board friends (and lurkers) in more detail than the usual discussion on the Odds and Ends board I usually hang out on. I hope to get a lot of input from those outside of the US as well. I'll periodically post news I think may be of interest from all over the world. While it may navigate toward it, I don't want it to necessarily be a US-centric topic. I'd like to learn about others thoughts about politics and culture in their countries as well as other countries opinions about us (odd as it may seem ;-)), such as comparing and contrasting health care systems in various countries compared to the US. This place is for spririted discussion. Don't be shy. Welcome and hope to see you around! To begin the festivities, here's something I hope you find as amusing as I have, in a good natured way. http://youtube.com/watch?v=tw3ccbuCEEE

Bloody hell! Ran out to vote and thought I could come back here and post that I was first. But Letterman's Top 10 was a hoot.

Love the title, Dorine. I guess this is where all the "We love Berlusconi" comments should be. ;-D Loved the top 10, too.

I think that was Karen's title suggestion. I was looking to New World Disorder.

(Karen) Letterman's Top 10 was a hoot. Poor Barney. :-( Cleaning the glasses on the Letterman PA...LOL!

Loved the Letterman Top 10 but also felt acute embarrassment that *this* person is our president.

(Kathryn) but also felt acute embarrassment that *this* person is our president. Longest case of embarrassment I've ever had.

"The stare" had me ROTHLMAO...I could see the little wheels spinning and getting nowhere.

(Kathryn) felt acute embarrassment that *this* person is our president. That skit really does send the message right on home, doesn't it. Well, after tonight, I pray that my Congress will stop embarrassing me as well (and both parties have been to blame for that, but of course only one had all the power).

Finally a woman Speaker of the House! I have faith that VA will tip the Senate too after the recount. What matters most is that Webb is ahead.

Moon, I was thinking about you watching those VA returns late last night, and I have a bone to pick: what is it with you and living in states where the elections are always controversial!? ;-) Finally a woman Speaker of the House! I like her. But why has she been vilified in the conservative press and talk radio? Disagreeing with her views is one thing; that's their right. But, my goodness, some of the sewage I've heard spewed on the airwaves is beyond the pale. You'd have thought she was the shoe bomber or something.

(Mari), what is it with you and living in states where the elections are always controversial!? ;-) LOL! And let's not forget Italy's last election too. A total sham. There's proof that the people checking the ballots (in Italy it's still done on paper!!!), had hidden in their nails small pencil lead and they crossed out Berlusconi's name and checked Prodi's. I like her. But why has she been vilified in the conservative press and talk radio? Disagreeing with her views is one thing; that's their right. But, my goodness, some of the sewage I've heard spewed on the airwaves is beyond the pale. That's what I want to know too. Pelosi has giant potential and they just want to squash her with the usul tactics of lies and more lies. Just think of that insane idiot she's replacing. I hear she will lead the fight to get rid of Rumsfeld, not a minute too soon! And what of Mrs. Dole's comment about people who vote for the democrats didn't want to win the war in Iraq? There is not one ounce of sanity in that Republican group.

(Moon) And what of Mrs. Dole's comment about people who vote for the democrats didn't want to win the war in Iraq? Another typical Republican voice heard from along the same lines of "If one questions the actions of one's leaders, one is automatically acting in an un-American manner".

Wow, MSNBC has breaking AP news that states Rumsfeld to step down. I won't be able to follow it up til late tonight most likely.

(Moon) Just think of that insane idiot she's replacing. You referring to the idiot from my state, whose voters continue to reelect morons, crooks (unless they've been sent to prison) and handpicked, unqualified sons of stroke victims? ;-) I'm thrilled about Pelosi and disgusted by the way she's been discussed by some of the media.

I feel for you, Karen, but right now it's time to celebrate because that conceited smug power hungry idiot, Rumsfeld is OUT! From the AP: WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon, Republican officials said Wednesday. Officials said Robert Gates, former head of the CIA under the first President Bush, would replace Rumsfeld. NBC News� Tim Russert confirmed Rumsfeld�s resignation and the replacement pick. Jon Stewart is mandatory watch tonight.

(Moon) Rumsfeld is OUT! And Rumsfeld used to be the congressman from the area where I grew up.

sorry to butt in in "internal affairs row", but i just saw yesterday's colbert and... well.... LLLLOOOOLLLL! so, i have to agree with you moon: (moon) "Jon Stewart is mandatory watch tonight" will catch it tomorrow on the web (eventhough they're not on youtube aymore, damn!) btw, interesting GWB video where he announces rumsfeld's quitting at the latimes site

(Sophie) sorry to butt in in "internal affairs row", Please don't apologize!! It's exactly one of the things I wanted on this topic, "external" input and opinions as well about anything discussed here. :-D

Jon Stewart is mandatory watch tonight. Ha! I thought this was from the AP blurb, too, LOL!

OMG, I didn't realize Dems took the House *AND* the Senate! Yay!! *runs to store for champagne*

(Dorine) I didn't realize Dems took the House *AND* the Senate Haven't checked the news in the last hour, but the last I knew Virginia was still an undecided state. The Dems need that one for the majority. Otherwise, it's 50/50, and Cheney's vote would always go to the Rep. side.

Webb had done a victory speech, but they just called it in the last 20-30 mins.

World welcomes shift in U.S. politics By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago MADRID, Spain - The electoral rebuke for President Bush and the resignation of his defense secretary, both deeply unpopular away from American shores over the Iraq war, was celebrated throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Still, there was concern Wednesday that a Washington power split and a severely weakened Bush might mean uncertainty in crucial areas like global trade talks. On Iraq, some worried that Democrats will force a too-rapid retreat, leaving the country and the region in chaos. Others said they doubted the congressional turnover would have a dramatic impact on Iraq policy any time soon, largely because the Democrats have yet to define the course they want to take. But from Paris to Pakistan, politicians, analysts and ordinary citizens said Wednesday they hoped the Democratic takeover of both Houses of Congress would force Bush to adopt a more conciliatory approach to global crises, and teach a president many see as a "cowboy" a lesson in humility. In an extraordinary joint statement, more than 200 Socialist members of the European Parliament hailed the American election results as "the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has consistently railed against the Bush administration, called the election "a reprisal vote." In Paris, American expatriates and French citizens alike packed the city's main American haunts to watch results overnight and early Wednesday, with some standing to cheer or boo as vote tabulations came in. One Frenchman, 53-year-old teacher Jean-Pierre Charpemtrat, said it was about time U.S. voters figured out what much of the rest of the world already knew. "Americans are realizing that you can't found the politics of a country on patriotic passion and reflexes," he said. "You can't fool everybody all the time � and I think that's what Bush and his administration are learning today." Bush is deeply unpopular in many countries, with particularly intense opposition to the war in Iraq, the U.S. terror holding facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and allegations of Washington-sanctioned interrogation methods that some equate with torture. Many said they thought the big gains by Democrats signaled the beginning of the end of Bush's tenure. In Copenhagen, Denmark, Jens Langfeldt, 35, said he didn't know much about the midterm elections but was opposed to Bush, referring to the president as "that cowboy." In Sri Lanka, some said they hoped the rebuke would force Bush to abandon a unilateral approach to global issues. "The Americans have made it clear that current American policy should change in dealing with the world, from a confrontational approach, to a more consensus-based and bridge-building approach," said Jehan Perera, a political analyst. The Democratic win means "there will be more control and restraint" over U.S. foreign policy. Passions were even higher in Pakistan, where Bush is deeply unpopular despite billions in aid and support for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. One opposition lawmaker, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, said he welcomed the election result, but was hoping for more. Bush "deserves to be removed, put on trial and given a Saddam-like death sentence," he said. But while the result clearly produced more jubilation than jitters, there were also some deep concerns. In Denmark, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told broadcaster TV2 he hoped the president and the new Congress would find "common ground on questions about Iraq and Afghanistan." "The world needs a vigorous U.S.A.," Fogh Rasmussen said. There was also some concern that Democrats, who have a reputation for being more protective of U.S. jobs going overseas, will make it harder to achieve a global free trade accord. And in China, some feared the resurgence of the Democrats would increase tension over human rights and trade and labor issues. China's surging economy has a massive trade surplus with the United States. "The Democratic Party ... will protect the interests of small and medium American enterprises and labor and that could produce an impact on China-U.S. trade relations," Zhang Guoqing of the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a report on Sina.com, one of China's most popular Internet portals. The prospect of a sudden change in American foreign policy could also be troubling to U.S. allies such as Britain, Japan and Australia, which have thrown their support behind the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Asked whether the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signaled a new direction in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops, Bush said, "Well, there's certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon." "The problem for Arabs now is, an American withdrawal (from Iraq) could be a security disaster for the entire region," said Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi analyst for the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. He said the Middle East could be left to cope with a disintegrating Iraq mired in civil war, with refugees fleeing a failed state that could become an incubator for terrorism. It was unclear, however, whether the American election would bring a major shift in Iraq, in part because the Democrats have not come ahead with a clear action plan, said Michael McKinley, a political science professor at the Australian National University. "There would have been some concern in policy making circles here if the Democrats had said, 'We are definitely going to withdraw by Christmas,'" McKinley said. "But they're not able to say that." ___ AP reporters around the world contributed to this report. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061109/ap_on_el_ge/eln_elections_world_view_4

In Italy they are discussing dividing Iraq in three. It makes perfect sense to me. Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. I hope the US gives the plan due consideration. Of course, the Isreali/Palistenian problem will also have to be agressively addressed.

Wasn't Iraq in 3 parts until the British moved in? Or was it Saddam who tied it all together with his iron fisted rule?

I always love me my Mr. Rich of the NYT. He's always "Frank" and to the point. If you can't access this link and want to read it, I'll post it all or email it to whoever wants it. http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/opinion/12rich.html?em&ex=1163480400&en=1d78cd6cc81d5649&ei=5087%0A

As Dorine suggested, continuing some comments here about to help or not to help, that is the question. :-) I think living in a huge city or being alone on the street make differences in one's behavior. There are good sections and bad sections in any town or city, and I wouldn't suggest smiling at people in dangerous areas. On the whole, though, where I live it is more the rule to smile at people as you walk along rather than scowling. However, I certainly behave very carefully when I've been in LA, London, NYC, or any large city on my own. Even so, that doesn't mean one still can't show curtesies to others, like giving up one's seat for an elderly person, helping pick up dropped items, that sort of thing. Of course, common sense has to be used, as well. I'm not condoning acting foolishly to earn a merit badge. ;-)

(Kathryn) I wouldn't suggest smiling at people in dangerous areas. Of course that should be avoided, but I don't go to dangerous areas or good areas at dangerous times as a rule. In fact, I pretty much have a rule about riding the subway after 11 at the latest. I simply ride the subway on my regular travels or to normal areas. Or walk down any regular street to shop or whatever. Or walk in the Park. They ride the subway to go the same places as everyone else. Sometimes they just do nothing but ride. You can always tell at a glance what subway car *not* to ride in as it zooms past you into the station (they come in fast here usually). If you see a car that has *no* people on it (or maybe one or 2), most people will automatically know to head for another car as most likely there's a homeless person in it who is 1)unstable or 2) awake or asleep, most likely laying down on the bench(seats) and smells rather pungent. Or 3) both. I'm sure these issues are much more prevalent in highly populated urban areas vs. ones less populated or even suburban or more rural areas. Even so, that doesn't mean one still can't show curtesies to others, like giving up one's seat for an elderly person, helping pick up dropped items, that sort of thing Oh, absolutely! There was an "editorial" in one of our little morning daily papers about giving up seats for the elderly and how it seems so many don't do it. There were some interesting letters in reply. Quite a few people said that many decline (which at least some ask) and many figure that if they wanted a seat, they'd ask. I'm not condoning acting foolishly to earn a merit badge. ;-) No, but sometimes the most innocuous things will set people off. I had one guy once talk at me and virtually yell at me the whole few stops I was on a subway once and all I did was sit down. I was even a ways down the car. Quite frankly, at first, I didn't realize he was directing his comments at me. I've gotten off cars to avoid people like that, too, but it sometimes has to be done right, or they'll get off with you, intentionally or not.

I'm moving this over, too... (Mari) Yes, the mentally ill comprises a large portion of our homeless here. The numbers of them on the street really jumped when the laws were changed making it much more diffcult to have someone committed to a mental hospital, due to past abuses of that ability. Not the only cause, the use of drugs is a big part too. The homeless here tend not to be the little girl and her pregnant mum. How is it in the UK And in many instances, the drug and alcohol use is for self-medication because they can't stand taking the medications due to significant side effects, such as weight gain, or can't get the drugs at all. I, too, am curious about the mentally ill are treated in the UK, meaning how are services covered? Under NHS? I was at a party last night with mostly Brits and got into a conversation with one about the NHS, but it was related to more musculoskeletal and medical issues and diagnoses vs. mental health treatment. Can someone in the UK shed some general light on that? Is that one of the covered services? Is it comprehensive? In any event, people's fear of getting involved is often justifed, as those commentators noted. Is that (legitimate, IMO) fear addressed or acknowledged in the show? I figured answers for this might be applicable here, too.

(Dorine) sometimes the most innocuous things will set people off. Agreed, and I would imagine, if one went through an experience such as you did, one would be leery of doing anything to provaoke any kind of reaction. I do not live in a big city, but, if I did, I'm sure my attitudes would become more self-protective out of necessity. (Dorine) (offering seats to the elderly)Quite a few people said that many decline (which at least some ask) I wonder what "elderly" is to some people? Anyone with gray hair? If so, I'd quality. ;-) Every elderly person to whom I've offered my seat has gratefully accepted. (Dorine) and many figure that if they wanted a seat, they'd ask. This is making excuses for shoddy behavior and putting the responsibity on the wrong shoulders, IMO. Many elderly people are easily intimidated and might be afraid of a confrontation developing, as you've mentioned before over something so simple. The younger, healthier people have the responsiblity to be polite and *make* the offer.

Every elderly person to whom I've offered my seat has gratefully accepted Again, different worlds. I've asked plenty and they don't often enough (the ones that appear pretty healthy and fit). Sometimes it's just because they're only going a stop or 2. But I think it may be a pride thing that they're still quite able or they just feel good and don't want to sit. I don't know. Ha, matter of fact, occasionally one will ask me if I want to sit. I don't remember if it's because I may have my briefcase or some other stuff with me or they just ask because I'm a woman (the men of course). Speaking of helping people, this one not an elderly person, but yesterday I'm waiting to get on the bus because this seemingly very young (early 20's at the oldest) person in front of me had her ~8-12 month old (I'm bad guessing that age group) in the stroller and was having a hard time getting the kid out, holding him? and trying to fold the stroller. I held the stroller with my foot initially, but then she had such a hard time trying to unlock it to fold it while holding her baby (who was *sound* asleep) that I ended up folding it for her *and* carrying it up the bus steps (it was a tad heavy) while holding my briefcase in the other hand. Now, to be perfectly honest, I wasn't being 100% altruistic. I had a train at Penn Station to catch and I needed to get going. At the rate she was going, we'd have been there another hour (exaggerated of course, but time was a bit of the essence at that point). The poor thing had such a hard time getting settled on the bus trying to hold him and get the big stroller under a seat. Amazingly the bus was quite empty, which is unusual. Funny thing is, she walks over to me 2 rows back and asks if I'll hold the baby until she gets her stuff settled. Can you imagine?! Very trusting of her. He was kind of heavy, too, but after 3 or 4 mins she gets him and we were off. She had a bit of a time getting off the bus, too, but it was easier. She basically dropped the stroller down the stairs. She needed a much lighter, slightly less bulky stroller.

Ah, you did your Donovan Quick help-with-the stroller audition. :-) This is the kind of thing that should be happening all the time, but it's amazing how many people suddenly become oblivious. Tsk on them. I think it's perfectly acceptable to do something good for someone else that also benefits the person helping. A win-win situation. Have you seen the commercial (can't remember if it's for a bank or investment firm) where a man retrives a doll that's fallen from a baby's stroller, a bystander sees this and later helps someone, who helps someone else....a chain reaction of people being helpful and kind to others. I wish that's how it were in RL. A true gentleman should always offer his seat to a lady....although I'm sure the rules change during commuting time on mass transit in big cities. ;-)

(Kathryn) a man retrives a doll that's fallen from a baby's stroller, a bystander sees this and later helps someone, who helps someone else....a chain reaction of people being helpful and kind to others. Isn't there a movie not dissimilar to this?

(Dorine) Isn't there a movie not dissimilar to this? I hope this isn't a trick question because my mind's a complete blank. :-)

Not to completely change the subject, but been wanting to ask this for a while....is anyone following that story about the former Russian spy being killed in London? WHAT a story! Right out of John Le Carre, James Bond or somebody like that. You know the negotiations about movie rights are being planned now.

LOL, no trick questions. Just sounds like it's something that would've been a movie. Maybe a feelgood Lifetime movie. :-)

The Dec. 11th issue of Newsweek has an article about this and other highly suspicious deaths of people who've criticized the Kremlin. I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

The "pass on the good deeds" movie you're thinking of is Pay it Forward. Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Haley Joel Osment. I liked it, but was one of the few.;-)

Thank you, yes!

Moving from News.... (Janet) I find the coldness of Londoners rather strange. On the tube, people will not make eye contact, Not surprisingly, pretty much exactly like NYC. Funny thing now that I think of it, when I was watching Sliding Doors a couple of weeks ago, the scene where GP and John Hannah meet on the tube and he keeps talking to her even though she obviously is uncomfortable and doesn't want to be bothered, bothered me. I even said to my friend that it was rather freaky behavior and he would be thought at the very least annoying if not seriously crazy here. By the same token, occasionally some people "connect" across a train car because someone is acting odd or in some other amusing way and occasionally you catch a glance at someone else looking back at you and you're both sort of smiling. Or if someone is very irritating and we are all annoyed and surreptitiously acknowledging that fact with glances. Fascinating dynamics actually.

(Kathryn) I think living in a huge city or being alone on the street make differences in one's behavior. It's not the place; it's whether a person has commonsense or not. There are idiotic people everywhere. But there are homeless types hanging out all over the place. Some you get used to seeing. There's a guy who opens the door for everyone at the post office I go to (right smack dab in the middle of city university) and tries to sell you a Streetwise. He's there every day. Or the guys who stand on my off ramps from the expressway... (Kathryn) Even so, that doesn't mean one still can't show curtesies to others, like giving up one's seat for an elderly person... (Dorine) There was an "editorial" in one of our little morning daily papers about giving up seats for the elderly and how it seems so many don't do it. No kidding! It's disgusting IMO. Who raised these people? Not only will I give up my seat for the elderly but I'll also give it up for a pregnant woman. Moreover, I'll pop up even faster if there's an able-bodied man/boy sitting next to me. I love to shame them. Did it a few weeks ago for a grey-haired woman (very able BTW) and the kid next to then offerred to give up his. I told her that was my plan. ;-) Quite a few people said that many decline (which at least some ask) and many figure that if they wanted a seat, they'd ask. What a crock! I'm telling you, they were raised by animals. BTW, these same people will ignore a single line at a bank or post office, thinking that all the people must be waiting for Godot or something and walk right up to a clerk or behind the person at the window, starting a new line. Animals, I'm telling ya. (Dorine) occasionally one will ask me if I want to sit. I don't remember if it's because I may have my briefcase or some other stuff with me or they just ask because I'm a woman (the men of course). I never see men giving up their seats anymore. They bury their heads in a newspaper.

(Janet) I find the coldness of Londoners rather strange. On the tube, people will not make eye contact My DH is a daily commuter into London, he won't make either eye contact or spark up a conversation with a stranger on a train or the tube, mostly from an aspect of safety. However, I think that if he saw a woman in genuine distress, but whom was on her own, that he would help. Of course he is London street savvy and would first weigh up the situation at the time. In fact it wasn't all that long ago that I remember reading about a fatal and shocking stabbing which occured on a crowded Glasgow to Paignton train. It was a crowded carriage. The full story can be read at the link below and Ive posted relevent excerpts from the article here. So it would seem that its advisable to be cautious whereever one is travelling. (on the platform) "He did nothing more than just a look, it cost him his life. The defendant objected to that look and said words to the effect, 'what the f*** are you looking at? I will stab you in a minute'. (on the train) Witnesses told the court how Wood stabbed the student after storming up and down the 10.10 Virgin train from Glasgow to Paignton "looking for trouble and looking for eye contact". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/10/utrain110.xml

Oppss, my first time over at Dorine's topic and Ive stuffed up. I also meant to add this quote in my above post for the relevency of Dorine's comment to my post. (Dorine)Or if someone is very irritating and we are all annoyed and surreptitiously acknowledging that fact with glances.

Oh gawd,Ive stuffed up again, I am sorry Dorine, *tapping my wrists* ;-) I should also have made it clear that I was bringing Janet's quote over from the CF news topic. Not sure if I should have posted over there to make mention that I have moved her quote over to here though? Think I will quit whilst I am still ahead, "Not" ;-)

There was/is an ABC Primetime show being advertised for this week. Don't know if it has aired or if it's on tonight. It's called Basic Instincts, and from the looks of the commercials it's all about what people do in public situations. They show people walking by children that are being hit, figths, etc. The premise of the segment is that we will be shocked over our own basic reactions.

(Lindak) It's called Basic Instincts It is tonight a 10e/9c http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/

As Sue wrote, you always have to size up the situation and determine whether you could put yourself in danger. If the person looks out of control, yes, you'd walk past, but you might look around to see if there's a cop around or call one if necessary. One thing I've learned is never get between a parent and child. Even when you're attempting to be helpful, they consider you out of line.

(Janet) I find the coldness of Londoners rather strange. On the tube, people will not make eye contact, (Dorine) Not surprisingly, pretty much exactly like NYC. Living in the land of big cars, I can only use public transport on vacation. Some of my favorite recent travel moments have come from from talking to people on the Tube or buses in London, vaporetto in Venice, trams in Austria. Maybe people are just nice to tourists- I found that every time we pulled out a map on the bus in Edinburgh, some little old man would pop up and offer to help us find our way;-) I used to be embarrassed when my grandmother or father would strike up a conversation with total strangers. Now I often find myself doing that very thing. (Karen) Who raised these people? Not only will I give up my seat for the elderly but I'll also give it up for a pregnant woman. Moreover, I'll pop up even faster if there's an able-bodied man/boy sitting next to me. I don't know who raised these people, either. I do know that schools nationwide are now adding 'character education' to their curricula, because the students are coming to school without apparent knowledge of manners, respect for others, and ethics (cheating is rampant). They are not learning these things at home or church:-( Love your 'kick them in the cajones' attitude! (Karen) One thing I've learned is never get between a parent and child. Even when you're attempting to be helpful, they consider you out of line I'm surprised Dorine's help was so accepted by the mom on the bus. I have offered help at times and been treated like a potential kidnapper. They won't stop me though from holding open the door for moms with strollers and/or toddlers.

Drat, my pseudonym isn't cooperating!

(Karen)Even when you're attempting to be helpful, they consider you out of line. I know it. I've given, what I consider, killer glares to people that seem to be a bit out of control with their children. Granted, a two-year-old's melt down in a mall can sound like someone is killing the child, but when I see a parent hitting a child, it makes my stomach flip. Thanks, for the TV info. Peg

(Peg) They won't stop me though from holding open the door for moms with strollers and/or toddlers. Same here. Takes a few seconds and I'm not in *that* big a hurry.

I went to the Mumia thing on Sat night. Walking up to the church I noticed a crowd outside. Two groups, one on the stairs, another just at the edge of the sidewalk in the street in front of them. Both side shouting at one another. The group at the sidewalk had a couple of very large American flags (one the old fashioned kind with the 13 stars in a circle and '76 in the middle) and a good sized banner that said Lynne Stewart, something something, traitor at heart...or something to that effect. She was speaking at the gathering. For those who don't know who Lynne Stewart is, she was the lawyer for Sheik Abdel Rahman (the convicted and jailed plotter of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing). She was herself just last year convicted of aiding and abetting terrorism by passing messages to his followers outside the country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynne_Stewart I walked through the 2 groups while trying to figure out where I could stand to watch this spectacle and look for anyone else of interest. For all I know ME or someone could've been inside already as it was about 10 of 7 when I got there. There were quite a number of people milling back and forth by the doorway inside. I saw some people standing and staring at all this at the edge of the park across the street and decided that would be safest. Not much of an obvious police presence at first, except for the trailer about 20 yards at the corner where quite a few were just hanging out. People kept asking this kid next to me what was going on, which he got tired of answering after a while. Ironically, he had no idea who Lynne Stewart is, so I told him. He said he was 5 at the time of the bombing. The thing that really struck me about it all as really quite comical was as time went how they all sounded like 5 year olds yelling back and forth at one another. "You're a Nazi! You're a Nazi!", and various other things back and forth. I can't tell you how many times I heard the word Nazi that night. One woman who seemed to be a rather obvious Mumia supporter just by looking at her, came out later and got into a yelling match with them and just kept yelling "punk" at them. I'm telling ya, it was pretty ridiculous. And I'm not mentioning the half of it. Occasionally, someone on the street with the sidewalk group would take pics. Finally the police did intervene a bit at times, but it was only one guy. I kinda felt sorry for him. Don't know where the others got to. There were about 7-10 people max for each side standing out there at any given time. The people on the steps rotated as some I guess got tired of yelling and went in and others came out. I got there around 10 to 7, left at 7:15 and got the next train home at 7:30.

Very funny bit from Colbert. "You Americans" should be ashamed. ;-) http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/12/16/colbert-agrees-with-delay/

What a day...begins with the execution of one world leader and ends with the memorial procession of another.

Thanks, Dorine and Karen, for this topic. Sorry for my tardiness, but I was a little distracted last month, to say the least. ;-) It's been a very odd weekend. I've had my fill of dead guys and the talking heads serving as history revisionists. In any event, I know I've shown this letter to some DDs, but I've often wondered why the Dems didn't use this in 2004 as proof that the powers that be were planning to invade Iraq long before 9/11 happened: http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

In the Odd News of the Day Dept: Bra Slows Bullet Fired Into Air in Florida ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Jan. 5) - A woman watching New Year's Eve fireworks from a picnic table found out that her bra can do more than lift and support: It also slowed a falling bullet. The .45-caliber bullet struck Debbie Bingham, 46, after someone fired a gun into the air about 20 minutes before midnight. She still needed stitches, but the wound might have been much worse except for the bra strap, police spokesman George Kajtsa said. Bingham, who was in town from Atlanta, said she is thankful for the undergarment, which she said was "very cheap." "I'd love to have a couple more of those bras," she said. Bingham said she was listening to music and enjoying the fireworks with her daughter and son when she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. Then Solanda Bingham, 30, noticed blood seeping through her mother's white shirt, and they found the bullet lodged halfway into the gold-colored bra. The other half was barely breaking the skin, Bingham told WTSP-TV. Kajtsa described the wound as a "big scratch with bruising." St. Petersburg police were searching for the shooter to determine if the shooting was intentional, Kajtsa said. 01/05/07 17:01 EST

Oh and Lisa, thanks for posting that link. I could've used that a couple of months ago when having a debate with a friend of mine when she threw every administration/FOX talking point at me while we were having a lively discussion of the war, WMD (or lack thereof), the administration, etc. You know those talking points: *We needed to strike them before they got us first *No WMD were found because it was sent to (insert rogue country of your choice here) *Iraq/Saddam was involved with 9/11 *Things are better there than is being reported When I respond with the following, I get at least one of 2 responses every time: *Why didn't we attack North Korea instead? We've known they had nuclear technology for certain for a long time. They also have a psycho ruler. *The President said that Iraq/Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 (after heavily implying they did before the war). *Point out the Downing Street Memos information, including cherry picking intelligence reports for info to fit their policy of going to Iraq *Iraq was being bombed by US and British planes for almost a year up to the start of the "war" to goad Saddam into attacking back and providing justification for the war. But he didn't bite. *Conditions in Iraq, especially violence/attacks is underreported *Weapons inspectors were kicked out of the country just before the impending attack even though they weren't finding anything after close to 5 months of looking (which means, how could an attack be imminent if nothing could be found?) *.....and so much more I subsequently sent significant amounts of documentation I've found on the web to back all that up as well as recommend a couple of books I've either read or are reading. The responses I get are usually one or both of the following: 1. A blank stare 2. "But Clinton didn't....(or did)" do something (insert random action here such as, kill Osama Bin Laden, have intern sex, etc ) I pride myself on surrounding myself with intelligent, sensible people. I'm flabbergasted to find that I know someone who *still* believes the tripe (talking points) I mentioned above, in the face of facts to the contrary from reliable sources. (though one of the 2 people I had this conversation with in the past 3 months doesn't necessarily apply to this as she was a co-worker and not someone who's a friend or who I would hang out with).

just before the impending attack even though they weren't finding anything after close to 5 months of looking (which means, how could an attack be imminent if nothing could be found?) To clarify, the first impending attack is from the coalition, the second refers to Iraq against us.

I saw this on the web, and thought it was funny and sad at the same time.

Oooh, how James Bond or John Le Carre.... Updated:2007-01-11 10:04:13 Defense Contractors Warned About Spy Coins By TED BRIDIS AP WASHINGTON (Jan. 11) - Money talks, but can it also follow your movements? Mysterious Coins CIA, AP This device, fashioned to look like a silver dollar, can hold transmitters to track movements of people holding the spy coins. More Coin News: � State Quarter Program May Include D.C., Territories Talk About It: Post Thoughts In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside. The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada. Intelligence and technology experts said such transmitters, if they exist, could be used to surreptitiously track the movements of people carrying the spy coins. The U.S. report doesn't suggest who might be tracking American defense contractors or why. It also doesn't describe how the Pentagon discovered the ruse, how the transmitters might function or even which Canadian currency contained them. Further details were secret, according to the U.S. Defense Security Service, which issued the warning to the Pentagon's classified contractors. The government insists the incidents happened, and the risk was genuine. http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/defense-contractors-warned-about-spy/20070111063409990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

In light of the President's speech last night, and his passive turn of phrase (about the war) "mistakes have been made", I thought this bit of Gail Sheehy's article about George Bush's obesession with winning to be very telling: _______________________________ When Barbara Bush took her 13-year-old son and his best friend, Doug Hannah, to play golf at her Houston club, George would start cursing if he didn't tee off well. His mother would tell him to quit it. By the third or fourth hole he would be yelling "Fuck this" until he had ensured that his mother would send him to the car. "It fit his needs," says Hannah. "He couldn't lose." Once, after his mother banished him from the golf course, she turned to Hannah and declared, "That boy is going to have optical rectosis." What did that mean? "She said, �A shitty outlook on life.'" Even if he loses, his friends say, he doesn't lose. He'll just change the score, or change the rules, or make his opponent play until he can beat him. "If you were playing basketball and you were playing to 11 and he was down, you went to 15," says Hannah, now a Dallas insurance executive. "If he wasn't winning, he would quit. He would just walk off.... It's what we called Bush Effort: If I don't like the game, I take my ball and go home. Very few people can get away with that." So why could George get away with it? "He was just too easygoing and too pleasant." Another fast friend, Roland Betts, acknowledges that it is the same in tennis. In November 1992, Bush and Betts were in Santa Fe to host a dinner party, but they had just enough time for one set of doubles. The former Yale classmates were on opposite sides of the net. "There was only one problem�my side won the first set," recalls Betts. "O.K., then we're going two out of three," Bush decreed. Bush's side takes the next set. But Betts's side is winning the third set when it starts to snow. Hard, fat flakes. The catering truck pulls up. But Bush won't let anybody quit. "He's pissed. George runs his mouth constantly," says Betts indulgently. "He's making fun of your last shot, mocking you, needling you, goading you�he never shuts up!" They continued to play tennis through a driving snowstorm. "George would say, 'Play that one over,' or 'I wasn't quite ready,'" says Bush-family friend Bo Polk Jr. It is something of an in-joke with Bush's friends and family. "In reality we all know who won, but George wants to go further to see what happens," says an old family friend, venture capitalist and former MGM chairman Louis "Bo" Polk Jr. "George would say, �Play that one over,' or �I wasn't quite ready.' The overtimes are what's fun, so you make your own. When you go that extra mile or that extra point ... you go to a whole new level." _______________________________________________ The entire article can be found here: http://gailsheehy.com/Politics/polimain_bush3.html This was first published in Vanity Fair in 2000, and the above excerpt appeared in the latest issue of VF.

So why could George get away with it? "He was just too easygoing and too pleasant." Ha! I don't think this bit was included in the republished excerpt. Seems a bit incongruous now. ;-)

Now he just mostly comes off petulant.

Mali film puts West's blueprint for Africa on trial By Nick Tattersall1 hour, 42 minutes ago Africa's poorest are even worse off than they were a quarter of a century ago and despite years of debt relief, humanitarian aid and the goodwill of fund-raising rock stars, the West is to blame. So say the witnesses who line up to testify against Western financial institutions in "Bamako," a scathing film by Mauritanian-born director Abderrahmane Sissako, due to be released in Britain and the United States next month. The plot is simple. Mostly poor Africans who have had no say in how their economies are run plead their case against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, accusing them of imposing rules that have kept their nations mired in misery. Set in the dusty courtyard of his father's family compound in Mali's capital Bamako, Sissako's fantasy trial gives a voice to the voiceless, those who have felt the effects of measures imposed by Western economists but have had no easy way to reply. "It's not so much about identifying who is guilty as denouncing the fact that the fate of hundreds of millions of people has been sealed by policies decided outside their universe," Sissako says on the Website www.bamako-film.com. It would be easy to dismiss this as a theatrical gesture by an intellectual blaming his continent's ills on outsiders. But what makes Sissako's film compelling is that his roll-call of witnesses are not actors but real local people, including a would-be illegal migrant, an elderly villager and a former minister. One of the first, Madou Keita, is among thousands of young Africans who have undertaken epic journeys across desert and sea to try to get into "fortress Europe" and find work. Keita's bid failed when he was shot at by Algerian guards in the Sahara. Former Malian culture minister Aminata Traore also takes the stand, a local hero in Bamako after she employed Malian craftsmen to renovate one of the sprawling city's dirt-strewn neighborhoods in a bid to demonstrate Africa could help itself. "The world is certainly open to whites but it is not open to blacks," she says in her impassioned, unscripted testimony. WHO'S TO BLAME? The film, which opened in West Africa this month after premiering at the 2006 Cannes film festival, takes its broadest swipe at the "structural adjustment programmes" championed by the World Bank and IMF during the world recession of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The programmes set conditions such as cutting social expenditure and privatising state-owned enterprises in return for more loans. Critics say such measures cost badly needed jobs, profited only Western companies and left education and public health sorely underfunded. It may only be a fictional trial, but the arguments highlight a fatalistic sense felt by many Africans that the continent is a perpetual victim, once of the slave trade and colonisation, then of the Cold War and now globalisation. It is a debate which arouses strong emotions. Robert Calderisi, a development expert who spent much of his 30-year career at the World Bank and professes a passion for Africa, argues that a "spiral of pride, anger, poverty and self pity" has kept it behind the rest of the world. "Africa has been making its own history since independence and has been largely free of foreign domination since the end of the Cold War," he wrote in his 2006 book, "The Trouble With Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working." "Adjustment did not fail in Africa; it was never given a fighting chance. Africa was bleeding to death, but instead of worrying about the haemorrhaging, African leaders complained about the pain from the tourniquet," Calderisi wrote. DIALOGUE OF THE DEAF "Bamako" steers clear of self pity and its criticism is often good-humoured. The trial is punctuated by wry snippets of Malian daily life: at one point a French lawyer defending the West is ripped off as he buys a pair of fake Gucci sunglasses from a street vendor. In another scene, the family sits around the TV in their compound to watch the evening film. It is a Western and one of the most ruthless cowboys is black, an attempt to show that "the West alone is not responsible for Africa's ills," Sissako says. The IMF has taken the criticism on the chin, inviting some of those involved in the film to a recent reception in Bamako when its deputy head, John Lipsky, was in town. "The movie does give us a strong appreciation of the communication challenges the IMF faces," spokeswoman Gita Bhatt said, adding the Fund was now backing programmes in many African nations designed around their own poverty-reduction strategies. "We've listened to what donors and NGOs have said. And above all we've listened to what the governments and populations of our low-income member countries have said," IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato said in a visit to Gabon this month. The film's collaborators do not expect "Bamako" to bring about immediate change. But they hope audiences will realize the world's poor are not blind to what they see as the malign hand the West has dealt them. "At least they will know we know," one of the witnesses told Sissako during filming. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070112/film_nm/africa_west_film_dc

I was reading through this thinking what an interesting concept it is for the film when I realized I'd seen it at the NYFF. It was interesting, though a bit slow, too. It was interesting to see this trial in someone's yard, like a community gathering.

Also, I saw an ad somewhere for a show on Monday with the footage that George and Nick Clooney filmed when they were in Darfur. I don't know if it's on CNN or some other channel, nor do I know what time it's on.

Hee hee. 01 16 2007 Bob Hope Sadly Too Dead to Headline WCHA Dinner After a White House Correspondents Dinner marred by a speech that was actually, tragically funny, the WHCA has taken steps to ensure that never again will the C-SPAN-watching public accidentally crack a smile. This year�s dinner guest of honor: Rich Little. Yeah, the impressionist known for his humorous takes on Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Johnny Carson, and hopefully some people who aren�t dead. C-SPAN�s Steve Scully, president of the White House Correspondents� Association, said that this year, he wanted to pick someone who hadn�t previously headlined the event. The possibility of selecting Little dawned on him in November when watching Little do impersonations on �The Late Show with David Letterman.� We�ve embedded that Letterman appearance after the jump, so you can skip the dinner. If you remember the �70s, you can skip this post. Little to Head WHCA Big Night [Examiner] (The You Tube Letterman appearance is at the link.) http://wonkette.com/politics/rich-little/bob-hope-sadly-too-dead-to-headline-wcha-dinner-228966.php

You know, I was trying to keep quiet with the SOTU speech this week (way to go Webb with the Dem response!). But I read the transcript of the Cheney interview yesterday this blog post refers to and even I had to look twice at what he said. These people really don't care about the people who are their bosses (Us!!) and either really and truly think we're *that* stupid...(I'm on the fence about that sometimes myself)....or they truly are delusional. I'll put the transcript link at the bottom. It's a long interview, but stick with it. Interesting answers from Cheney. Nice snark from the blogger. Dick Cheney On Iraq by BarbinMD Thu Jan 25, 2007 at 06:00:55 AM PST When talking about the war in Iraq, there are at least three things that you can state with absolute certainty: -That the current situation is dire because of the unending sectarian violence. -That the biggest threat comes from the militias and death squads, many that operate within the Iraqi government and security forces. -That the lack of sufficient troop levels from the outset and nonexistent post-war planning led directly to the violence we see today. That is of course, unless you are Dick Cheney. Appearing on CNN with Wolf Blitzer yesterday, Cheney had a different point of view. When Blitzer said that there was a "terrible situation" in Iraq today, Cheney replied: No, there is not. There is not. There's problems, ongoing problems, but we have, in fact, accomplished our objectives of getting rid of the old regime, and there is a new regime in place that's been there for less than a year, far too soon for you guys to write them off. They have got a democratically written constitution, first ever in that part of the world. They've had three national elections. So there's been a lot of success. So there you have it. Never mind that 62 U.S. troops and nearly 1400 Iraqis have been killed this month alone, because they had elections last year. When the violence gets to be too much, just remember those waving purple fingers and be assured that we've accomplished our objectives. And what about the greatest threat we face in Iraq today? But the biggest problem we face right now is the danger that the United States will validate the terrorist strategy, that, in fact, what will happen here with all of the debate over whether or not we ought to stay in Iraq, with the pressures from some quarters to get out of Iraq, if we were to do that, we would simply validate the terrorists' strategy that says the Americans will not stay to complete the task -- -- that we don't have the stomach for the fight. That's the biggest threat right now. Who knew? So the next time you blame administration tactics, or the militias and death squads for the never ending violence in Iraq, stop, take a moment and blame yourself. Stop enabling the enemy by looking at the facts! [Ed. Note - Silly wabbits! ;-)] And what was the biggest mistake made in this war (besides starting it)? Ignoring the advice of military commanders that at least 500,000 troops would be necessary for success? Again, against the advice of the military, disbanding Saddam Hussein's army? Not providing proper security for both vital infrastructure and the Iraqi people in the immediate aftermath of the invasion? Nope: Oh, I think in terms of mistakes, I think we underestimated the extent to which 30 years of Saddam's rule had really hammered the population, especially the Shia population, into submissiveness. Damn those Iraqis! If only they had greeted us with flowers instead of being so submissive, why, the mission would have been accomplished years ago But the bottom-line is: We still have more work to do to get a handle on the security situation, but the President has put a plan in place to do that. Yes, they have a plan for victory in Iraq that is going to work this time. Or as the deputy director of national intelligence told the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday: Security is an impediment...Gains in stability could open a window for gains in reconciliation among and between sectarian groups and could open the possibilities for a moderate coalition that could permit better government," How could we ever doubt the "new way forward"? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/25/9055/25868 Transcript of CNN interview: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401567.html

Hmm, the formatting didn't come out like I envisioned or hoped. Oh well.

we have, in fact, accomplished our objectives of getting rid of the old regime Gee, and here I thought our objective was to get rid of the weapons of mass destruction. :-( It's so arragant--the same type of arrogance that precluded them from listening to their own military . . . on matters of military strategy. (Dorine)These people really don't care about the people who are their bosses (Us!!) It's the arrogance, again . . . and either really and truly think we're *that* stupid...( Every time I hear about Bush's abysmal approval ratings, I say to myself, wait a minute. That means a third of the country is still with him. Hard to believe.

Gee, and here I thought our objective was to get rid of the weapons of mass destruction. :-( Wait....I thought it was to bring democracy to them. :-/

(Cheney) there is a new regime in place that's been there for less than a year, far too soon for you guys to write them off. They have got a democratically written constitution And I just read yesterday that apparently a significant portion of their Parliament doesn't show up to work (ha, I guess even our Congress is guilty of that, though we're a bit more established ;-)) , and even live in other countries, so they can't really conduct any business.

I saw the Daily Show. Jon Stewart's take on Cheney's interview was better than the State of the Union. Man, oh man! What a jerk. Loved the part about how Cheney and his family are exempt. (Dorine) these people really don't care about the people who are their bosses (Us!!) Er, that's not really accurate. We're not their bosses. They don't serve at our pleasure. He's elected and that's that. We don't have a democracy. We have a representative democracy. (Mari) Every time I hear about Bush's abysmal approval ratings, I say to myself, wait a minute. That means a third of the country is still with him. Hard to believe. What's harder to believe is how quickly the idiots who voted him back in office turned. Wasn't his four-year demo of ineptitude and embarrassment enough? Weren't their financial losses enough?

(Karen) We have a representative democracy. According to the definition I got from Wikipedia....."The representatives act in the people's interest"....I'm not sure we have this either at this point. Not in the last 6 years. Perhaps a fraction of the people's interest...the top 1% and corporations. Because they're sure not representing the poor and middle class. And I stand corrected on the correct type of democracy. Thank you. And I find this part of the Wiki definition interesting.... (the italics merely represent what was a highlighted link in the text) "A representative democracy that also protects liberties is called a liberal democracy. One that does not is an illiberal democracy. There is no necessity that individual liberties are respected in a representative democracy. For example, "the United States relies on representative democracy, but [its] system of government is much more complex than that. [It is] not a simple representative democracy, but a constitutional republic in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."[1]" It seems many rights have been at the very least squeezed since 9/11. Patriot Act, anyone? What's harder to believe is how quickly the idiots who voted him back in office turned. While I know a couple of people who think the war has been botched, not one of them blame the Commander in Chief (only Rumsfeld or military people) or think it was the wrong thing to do in the first place. I haven't met any of those who turned yet to my knowledge.

(Karen) We have a representative democracy. According to the definition I got from Wikipedia....."The representatives act in the people's interest"....I'm not sure we have this either at this point. Not in the last 6 years. Perhaps a fraction of the people's interest...the top 1% and corporations. Because they're sure not representing the poor and middle class. And I stand corrected on the correct type of democracy. Thank you. And I find this part of the Wiki definition interesting.... (the italics merely represent what was a highlighted link in the text) "A representative democracy that also protects liberties is called a liberal democracy. One that does not is an illiberal democracy. There is no necessity that individual liberties are respected in a representative democracy. For example, "the United States relies on representative democracy, but [its] system of government is much more complex than that. [It is] not a simple representative democracy, but a constitutional republic in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."[1]" It seems many rights have been at the very least squeezed since 9/11. What's harder to believe is how quickly the idiots who voted him back in office turned. While I know a couple of people who think the war has been botched, not one of them blame the Commander in Chief (only Rumsfeld or military people) or think it was the wrong thing to do in the first place. I haven't met any of those who turned yet to my knowledge.

I'm going to bet virtually no one here but me is following the Scooter Libby trial. Two bloggers were allowed into the media room to report on it with the rest of the MSM (Mainstream Media) and have been liveblogging an unofficial and not exactly word for word transcript. It's comprehensive and I can't follow it all because it's time consuming, but what I've read from jury selection to the first few days of testimony have been mostly interesting. I find it of such interest since I have followed the Joe Wilson editorial/Valerie Plame CIA outing story since JW wrote his piece in the WSJ that the justification used in the 2003 State of the Union address for going into Iraq was untrue and based on false documents. I remember reading that Op-Ed and realizing that we were lied to. It was especially disheartening since while I wasn't a proponent of going into Iraq and didn't really see any connection to them and 9/11, I took it on a bit of faith and gave the President/Congress the benefit of the doubt that maybe Saddam really was actively working on WMD programs. (Now who's the Silly Wabbit? ;-)) Fitzgerald (I and others think oddly) didn't actually indict anyone for actually leaking the information, though Libby was for lying about it. What's becoming so fascinating in the first couple days of testimony is how involved the OVP (Office of the Vice Pres) and specifically Cheney himself was involved in trying to discredit Joe Wilson and throwing around the information that his wife was a covert CIA officer (she worked on uncovering WMD acquistion and distribution to and from Iran. Now, conveniently, she got kicked out of the way and the war drums are beating for Iran because of their unclear nuclear program). There was a good article in the WaPo yesterday summarizing the testimony of one of Cheney's aides and her description of the inner workings of what was going on initially. I'll put it in the next post since this has gone on longer than I planned or imagined. Look for the movie (TV-HBO or Film) within 2 years of the current administration leaving. It's probably half written now. ;-) I think it would be completely fascinating. It is now. Also, I'm going to make a guess that Fitzgerald felt he couldn't find a statute to charge any of the leakers under or he didn't feel it was prudent to accuse the VP of anything, at least while he's in office, the least of which would be directing or overseeing this whole smear campaign personally and trying to hide that the CIA info used in the SOTU as justification for the war was a lie. The word Watergate keeps coming to mind more frequently now. That started out small and look what happened.

I'm putting the whole article simply because I think you have to register to read stuff there. Or you used to. Though I don't know how many people read this topic, so maybe the few that do already are registered. In Ex-Aide's Testimony, A Spin Through VP's PR By Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 26, 2007; Page A01 Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you. This delicious morsel about the "Meet the Press" host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when the former Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial of former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Flashed on the courtroom computer screens were her notes from 2004 about how Cheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had played fast and loose with evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Option 1: "MTP-VP," she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidential appearance on the Sunday show. Under "pro," she wrote: "control message." "I suggested we put the vice president on 'Meet the Press,' which was a tactic we often used," Martin testified. "It's our best format." It is unclear whether the first week of the trial will help or hurt Libby or the administration. But the trial has already pulled back the curtain on the White House's PR techniques and confirmed some of the darkest suspicions of the reporters upon whom they are used. Relatively junior White House aides run roughshod over members of the president's Cabinet. Bush aides charged with speaking to the public and the media are kept out of the loop on some of the most important issues. And bad news is dumped before the weekend for the sole purpose of burying it. With a candor that is frowned upon at the White House, Martin explained the use of late-Friday statements. "Fewer people pay attention to it late on Friday," she said. "Fewer people pay attention when it's reported on Saturday." Martin, perhaps unaware of the suspicion such machinations caused in the press corps, lamented that her statements at the time were not regarded as credible. She testified that, as the controversy swelled in 2004, reporters ignored her denials and continued to report that it was Cheney's office that sent former ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate allegations of Iraq's nuclear acquisitions. "They're not taking my word for it," Martin recalled telling a colleague. Martin, who now works on the president's communications staff, said she was frustrated that reporters wouldn't call for comment about the controversy. She said she had to ask the CIA spokesman, Bill Harlow, which reporters were working on the story. "Often, reporters would stop calling us," she testified. This prompted quiet chuckles among the two dozen reporters sitting in court to cover the trial. Whispered one: "When was the last time you called the vice president's office and got anything other than a 'no comment'?" At length, Martin explained how she, Libby and deputy national security adviser Steve Hadley worked late into the night writing a statement to be issued by George Tenet in 2004 in which the CIA boss would take blame for the bogus claim in Bush's State of the Union address that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Africa. After "delicate" talks, Tenet agreed to say the CIA "approved" the claim and "I am responsible" -- but even that disappointed Martin, who had wanted Tenet to say that "we did not express any doubt about Niger." During her testimony, Martin, a Harvard Law School graduate married to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and a close pal of Bush counselor Dan Bartlett, seemed uncomfortable, shifting in her chair, squinting at her interrogators, stealing quick glances at the jury, and repeatedly touching her cheek, ear, nose, lips and scalp. Martin shed light on the mystery of why White House press secretary Scott McClellan promised, falsely, that Libby was not involved in outing CIA operative Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife. After McClellan had vouched for Bush strategist Karl Rove's innocence, Libby asked Martin, "Why don't they say something about me?" "You need to talk to Scott," Martin advised. On jurors' monitors were images of Martin's talking points, some labeled "on the record" and others "deep background." She walked the jurors through how the White House coddles friendly writers and freezes out others. To deal with the Wilson controversy, she hastily arranged a Cheney lunch with conservative commentators. And when New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof first wrote about the Niger affair, she explained, "we didn't see any urgency to get to Kristof" because "he frankly attacked the administration fairly regularly." Questioned by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Martin described how Hadley tried to shield White House spokesmen from the Niger controversy. "Everybody was sort of in the dark," she explained. "There had been a decision not to have the communicators involved." But Martin, encouraged by Libby, secretly advised Libby and Cheney on how to respond. She put "Meet the Press" at the top of her list of "Options" but noted that it might appear "too defensive." Next, she proposed "leak to Sanger-Pincus-newsmags. Sit down and give to him." This meant that the "no-leak" White House would give the story to the New York Times' David Sanger, The Washington Post's Walter Pincus, or Time or Newsweek. Option 3: "Press conference -- Condi/Rumsfeld." Option 4: "Op-ed." Martin was embarrassed about the "leak" option; the case, after all, is about a leak. "It's a term of art," she said. "If you give it to one reporter, they're likelier to write the story." For all the elaborate press management, things didn't always go according to plan. Martin described how Time wound up with an exclusive one weekend because she didn't have a phone number for anybody at Newsweek. "You didn't have a lot of hands-on experience dealing with the press?" defense attorney Theodore Wells asked. "Correct," Martin replied. After further questions, she added: "Few of us in the White House had had hands-on experience with any crisis like this." Staff writer Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501951.html

Here's the NYT article that talks about what I mentioned here: (Cheney) there is a new regime in place that's been there for less than a year, far too soon for you guys to write them off. They have got a democratically written constitution (Me) And I just read yesterday that apparently a significant portion of their Parliament doesn't show up to work (ha, I guess even our Congress is guilty of that, though we're a bit more established ;-)) , and even live in other countries, so they can't really conduct any business. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/world/middleeast/24noshow.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Yay for the Appeals Court. This has one of the stupidest (and in a way scariest) arguments (in bold below) I've heard for allowing pollution. And *this* from the *EPA* of all agencies. There are some people (and politicians) that are nuisances also. Should they be eradicated also? Updated:2007-01-27 10:00:51 Judge Rules Against Bush EPA Policy By LARRY NEUMEISTER AP NEW YORK (Jan. 26) - The Environmental Protection Agency must force power plants to protect fish and other aquatic life even if it's expensive, a federal appeals court said in a ruling favoring states and environmental groups. The decision late Thursday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that it was improper for the EPA to let power plants circumvent environmental laws - for instance, restocking polluted water with new fish instead of paying to upgrade their technology. It said the EPA's decisions must "be driven by technology, not cost," unless two technologies produce essentially the same benefits but have much different costs. "EPA's goal is to protect fish and the ecosystem while meeting the nation's need for reliable energy sources," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, the agency's assistant administrator for water. The agency was reviewing the decision, he said. The ruling drew praise from environmental groups and six states that had sued. "This decision is a strong and stinging rebuke of the Bush administration's underhanded practice of issuing rule changes to undercut environmental laws," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement Friday. The other states involved are Rhode Island, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. They sued after the EPA published regulations in July 2004 describing how power plants must protect aquatic life when they use water from bays, rivers, lakes, oceans and other waterways for cooling. Scientists say fish, larvae and eggs are killed in the water-cooling process, which is used heavily in states with many older, mostly fossil-fuel plants. The appeals court previously rejected arguments that some species are nuisances and require eradication. The court had also dismissed the claim that other species respond to population losses by increasing their reproduction. Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/judge-rules-against-bush-epa-policy/20070126192509990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

Ironically funny and sad. They do this thread every week as a wrap up of the week and all the Sunday shows. Someone in there is a big George Clooney fan, so there's usually a few pics of him put in as a side topic. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/27/215313/641

Since this moves into the political world, I'm going to post this tidbit about CIC here. Some conspiracists think ABC did a job on this series precisely because it showed a strong (nonmacho) woman president and would be free advertising for Hillary.

Wow, that's one thing I never read.

I have to wonder, why offer it up and then smash it to bits?? How unfortunate:-(

(Colleen) I have to wonder, why offer it up and then smash it to bits?? How unfortunate:-( If I were a conspiracist, the explanation would be ABC only destroyed the series after pressure was put on it by others.

And you might not be incorrect.

I don't know where that NJ Politics is now and I'm not going to bother looking since this topic is here, but Linda!... I see your hated billionaire, Democratic govenor is giving you a break on those property taxes you were so unhappy with (assuming he signs it). How 'bout that? N.J. TAKES AX TO PROPERTY TAX AP February 7, 2007 -- TRENTON, N.J. - The state Senate yesterday approved sweeping property-tax relief that would give most homeowners a 20 percent cut beginning this summer, helping reduce the nation's highest property taxes. The legislation, which also would limit future property-tax increases to 4 percent annually, goes to Gov. Jon Corzine for final approval. Corzine didn't say when he would sign the bill, but he hailed its passage. "Relief is on its way to overburdened property taxpayers in New Jersey, and I think we have reached a turning point with regard to reform," Corzine said. Senate Republicans joined Democrats yesterday afternoon to break a stalemate and approve the measure, which has been billed by Democrats as the largest property-tax cut for working families in state history. [Ed note: Perhaps a dubious claim at best. ;-)] "The people won," said Senate President and former Gov. Richard Codey. The legislation had stalled in the Senate on Monday as dissatisfied Republicans withheld votes and three Democrats voted against it. The relief is to take the form of a credit on property-tax bills this summer, but the state will send checks if a credit system cannot be created on time. http://www.nypost.com/seven/02072007/news/regionalnews/n_j__takes_ax_to_property_tax_regionalnews_.htm

I put this over here as I'm not sure where the conversation would go, if anywhere..this topic isn't necessarily just for politics, but any kind of news or interesting stories that aren't artsy. (Evelyn) she was trying to be mumsy, wifey and prez at the same time. (Karen) And that wouldn't reflect reality IYO? I'm putting this article in here not espousing any particular viewpoint about the above exchange, but just to show the irony of that being a topic of interest IRL in light of the news about that Married with Kids female astronaut going after that other female astronaut over a man. The article is discussing the effects of a woman having a high stress career and how well it is or isn't balanced. There's no lamp throwing, but there are reports of plate throwing for Evelyn. ;-) Updated:2007-02-08 08:08:37 Friend Points Out Astronaut's 'Mental Anguish' By RASHA MADKOUR and DAVID CRARY AP CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Feb. 8) - Lisa Nowak chose a juggling act of dauntingly high difficulty: to be an astronaut and a mother of three. Her background - high school valedictorian, Naval Academy graduate, test pilot - seemed to equip her for the challenge. Yet as she and some of her acquaintances acknowledged, the stresses on her and her family were extraordinarily intense. An Astronaut's Fall On Wednesday, transformed from space hero to criminal suspect, Nowak returned to Houston for a medical assessment, a day after she was charged in Florida with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping in what police depicted as a love triangle involving a fellow astronaut. The woman viewed as a role model by the schoolchildren she often addressed was met on the tarmac by police and escorted into a waiting squad car after her release on bail. Her head was covered by a jacket. She faced a medical exam at Johnson Space Center. NASA, at a loss to explain what went wrong, said it would revamp its psychological screening process in light of Nowak's arrest. The review will look at how astronauts are screened for psychological problems and whether Nowak's dealings with co-workers signaled complications. Nowak's children were with her husband, Richard, who works for a NASA contractor. She was being replaced as a ground communicator for the next space shuttle mission in March, a job in which she would talk to the astronauts from Houston during their flight. Some part of any breakdown may defy rational explanation, but those who know Nowak and NASA could sense the stress she was under. Dr. Jon Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who lost his wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia disaster, said Nowak provided invaluable support to his family then, at the cost of losing time with her own family. "She was the epitome of managing a very hectic career, making sacrifices to accommodate her family," Clark said in a telephone interview. "All those stresses can conspire to be overwhelming. ... Clearly she suffered a lot of mental anguish. "There is a lot of marital stress in the astronaut corps in general - a huge amount," Clark said. "It's not unheard of for things to change into relationships that are beyond professional." Clark also said there can be extra pressure on NASA's female astronauts - and the men, like himself, who marry them. "They made more sacrifices than the 'Right Stuff' guys," he said, comparing women astronauts to the original all-male astronaut corps. "They have to balance two careers - to be a mom and wife and an astronaut. ... You don't come home at night, like most of the male astronauts, and have everything ready for you." Clark expressed empathy with Richard Nowak, who separated from his wife a few weeks ago after 19 years of marriage. "He was a real low-key, go-with-the flow, unobtrusive person," Clark said. "You almost have to be to survive in the realm. ... It was hard on our marriage to have my wife gone all the time, and eventually have her career surpass mine." Lisa Nowak grew up in Rockville, Md., where she was co-valedictorian and member of the track team in high school. After graduating from the Naval Academy, she received a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, flew as a test pilot in the mid-1990s while caring for an infant son, and became a full-fledged astronaut in 1998. "It's definitely a challenge to do the flying and take care of even one child and do all the other things you have to do. But I learned that you can do it," she said in a recent interview with Ladies Home Journal. Last July, in the climax of her career, she flew on the space shuttle Discovery, helping operate its robotic arm and winning praise for her performance. However, there were signs of turmoil in her life as she tried to balance her career with raising a teenage son and 5-year-old twin girls. In November, a neighbor reported hearing the sounds of dishes being thrown inside Nowak's Houston home. And she had begun to form a relationship with William Oefelein, a fellow astronaut and father of two whose own marriage ended in divorce in 2005. Nowak told police Monday that the relationship was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship." Charlene Davis, the mother of Oefelein's ex-wife, Michaella, said Wednesday that Nowak - although friends with Oefelein for years - had nothing to do with his marriage breakup. "I think there were a lot of bad choices being made, and Lisa just made a horrible one," Davis said in a telephone interview. "And I just feel sorry for her. What the hell was she thinking?" The final unraveling came this week when police arrested Nowak for allegedly trying to kidnap Colleen Shipman, an Air Force captain from Florida whom she believed was her rival for Oefelein's affections. Police charged Nowak with attempting to murder Shipman based on weapons and other items found with Nowak or in her car: pepper spray, a BB-gun, a new steel mallet, knife and rubber tubing. Those who know Nowak away from the high-pressure atmosphere of NASA were stunned. "I was very surprised... She always seemed very normal to me," said Candis Silva, who lives three houses down from the Nowaks. "She was a good role model for our daughters." Thomas Nagy, a Palo Alto, Calif., psychologist who has studied the stresses facing dual-career couples, hesitated to offer any specific diagnosis of Nowak, but said such seemingly desperate acts could result from a chronic personality disorder or from a period of high stress that clouds one's judgment. "When people are in that role of trying to do everything to the Nth degree, they don't get enough sleep, they don't do enough activities that are fun, they don't get enough exercise," he said. "If we ignore those because we're trying to do it all, we pay a price - more anxiety, more depression." Jon Clark expressed hope that Americans would empathize with Nowak, rather than condemning her. "Obviously, she had some things that didn't go well," he said. "Any of us could be there. All of us have a dark side." Rasha Madkour reported from Houston and David Crary from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Joe Stinebaker in Houston also contributed to this report. http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/friend-points-out-astronauts-mental/20070207182009990002

(Dorine)The article is discussing the effects of a woman having a high stress career and how well it is or isn't balanced. My heart goes out to this woman. Who knows what caused her breakdown but having the type of job she had, with the time demands, risk, and stress, combined with raising young children, could not have been easy. Men in her position have always had support systems--i.e., WIVES--who kept the house running, made sure the homework got done, shepherded the kids to all the after-school stuff and doctor's check-ups, enabling the men to work the long hours, do the business travel, do the schmoozing, etc. Two careers can be very rewarding, but it ain't easy; I used to always say to Paul, especially when our son was little, that what we really needed as a family . . . was a wife. She sounds like the quintessential "good girl"--always did everything right, always did everyone proud--and one day she snaps. Poor thing. She needs a good lawyer to make sure that the ridiculous laundry list of alleged crimes gets cuts down to something that means no jail time. Sounds like some DA is trying to make a name for himself or herself on this woman's misfortune. I can only hope she has someone in her life to take care of her at this time.

what we really needed as a family . . . was a wife Otherwise known as a nanny. ;-) She needs a good lawyer to make sure that the ridiculous laundry list of alleged crimes gets cuts down to something that means no jail time. While I too, thought that some of those charges may not stick and may even be excessive, I wonder if it's really possible to get charges reduced that far. You have to admit, it was a bizarre laundry list of items she had with her. And did spray the woman with pepper spray. And the costumy items. God knows what that love letter they found in her car said, too. All the jokes are way too much though. I was reading an article today, I think about NASA changing or increasing their psych profiling of astronauts, where someone was talking about how she had compartmentalized her life into the different areas of overacheivement, but that it obviously broke down somewhere. Men in her position have always had support systems--i.e., WIVES--who kept the house running, made sure the homework got done, shepherded the kids to all the after-school stuff and doctor's check-ups, enabling the men to work the long hours, do the business travel, do the schmoozing, etc. And comments I read somewhere today made note that if this story were about a man, it might be considered quite macho, but for a woman it's considered something to make light of and make jokes about.

This is pretty fascinating. An ethnic Miao man walks inside a huge cave at a remote Miao village in Ziyun county, southwest China's Guizhou province February 12, 2007. The village of Zhongdong, which literally means "middle cave", is build in a huge, aircraft hanger-sized natural cave, carved out of a mountain over thousands of years by wind, water and seismic shifts. REUTERS/Jason Lee China's "last cave dwellers" refuse to leave Reuters Thursday February 15, 01:53 AM ZHONGDONG, China (Reuters) - For Wang Fengguan, a man's cave is his castle. He lives in a huge one -- and he has no intention of leaving. Neither do any of the other 20 families in his village. "Where else would we go?" said Wang, sitting in his house, built in the cave where his family has lived for more than half a century, deep in the poor, remote southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou. "This is our home. We are used to it," he added, in uncertain sounding Mandarin. Wang's village of Zhongdong -- which literally means "middle cave" -- is built in a huge, aircraft hanger-sized natural cave, carved inside a mountain over thousands of years by wind, water and seismic shifts. In other parts of China people live in houses tunnelled out of hillsides, but Zhongdong is, the local government believes, the last place in the country where people live year-round in a naturally occurring cave. The villagers are all ethnic Miao people, supposedly related to Southeast Asia's Hmong, and one of several minority groups who live in Guizhou. Getting to the cave is extremely difficult. It takes some four hours to drive there from provincial capital Guiyang, the last hour on a dirt road which clings precariously to the side of a mountain valley, high above a river. But the final way up to Zhongdong is to walk for more than an hour up a steep, rough stone path hewn out of rocks. Everything must come up the path -- food, concrete and even washing machines. The government has built houses for the villagers in a valley below the cave, but they don't want to go, saying the houses are "not up to standard" and leak during the heavy rains which characterise Guizhou's damp climate. "We thought about moving, but we don't want to go," said Wang Houzhong, sitting on the floor splitting bamboo to make mats. "We are China's last cave dwellers," he added, axe in hand. "Life is very bitter for us." ROOM FOR OPTIMISM To be sure, life in the village is tough. Villagers say they are lucky to make even 1,000 yuan ($129) per family a year. Women give birth at home, in houses with dirt floors and wood-fired hearths. The nearest hospital is a five-hour walk away. But in the last few years life has improved considerably, they say, somewhat optimistically. Electricity has arrived via wires strung over the mountains, and there is a primary school, which like almost every other building in Zhongdong has no roof. It does not need one as the buildings are deep inside the cave. Four houses now have televisions, some with DVD players, and some have washing machines. Satellite dishes are perched on outcrops at the cave's entrance and there is even mobile phone reception. The school has revolutionised life, villagers say. The children happily chat away in clear, unaccented Mandarin, unlike their parents and grandparents who still struggle with China's official language or don't speak it at all. "When I was younger, we used to have to walk three hours to school, and then three hours to get back home," said Wang Fengguan. "The new school is great." Adult literacy classes are also held. Progress is marked on the household registration forms pinned outside homes, with the Chinese characters for "has escaped illiteracy" placed next to the names of adults who have attended class. Daily necessities are still a struggle though. Villagers make the five-hour trek to the county town once a week to buy the things they cannot make or grow, like toothpaste and soap, and to sell their cattle. Water supplies are limited in the dry season. Buckets are set up around the cave to catch drips. Residents are building wells into the cave's floor, and are busy concreting them -- a measure, perhaps, of their commitment to stay in their remote home. ECONOMIC THREAT Exactly when their ancestors moved into the cave, and why, is a subject of debate. Some villagers say they have been there for generations. Others say they only moved in following the chaos that followed the 1949 Communist revolution, to escape bandits. There is a lower cave, too damp for habitation, and an upper cave that also has no residents. But ultimately it may be economics that kills Zhongdong. Already many villagers have left to work in richer parts of the country. Luo Yaomei's three children have all gone, leaving her to bring up their children -- her grandchildren -- in her thatched house blackened by smoke at the cave's entrance. "None of them want to live here," she said. "Of course the outside world is better," Luo added, sadly. (Additional reporting by Kitty Bu) http://uk.news.yahoo.com/15022007/325/china-s-cave-dwellers-refuse-leave.html

So McCain decided to announce his run for President on Letterman's show taped for tonight. While I would in the future if I thought they were worthy and have in the past voted for Republican Presidential candidates.....*GASP*, shocking to some of you I know!..... and I did used to favor McCain at one time, you'd have to pay me BIG $$$$ to vote for him now and even that might not be enough.

LOL, Dorine! As for McCain, time to dig out those flipflops!;-)

Ha! Too right, Lisa.

I told you it would be easy to find material for The Lives of Others remake, at least here. This stuff going on isn't sounding much different than the Stasi of the 80's or even Russia. Impeaching this guy first is a start, I suppose. Unfortunately time is running out and it's probably the only real one there's even a remote possibility of seeing, but I won't hold my breath. I think I'll just be happy at the moment that Henry Waxman will continue keeping the heat on the issue of the outing of CIA agent, Valerie Plame, with a congressional hearing next week with testimony from the Wilson's and hopefully one of my new heroes, Patrick Fitzgerald (FITZ!!) . [I can here the scoffing from the Bush supporters from here. ;-) But, yes, she was a *covert* (NOC) agent working on nuclear proliferation in Iraq and Iran, who's cover (including the front company) was blown all because her husband had the guts to call out Cheney and the administration on the lies they told to get us to war. I'll be happy to hear some evidence to the contrary.] I've been less fond of the NYT over the past several years, but this is spot on IMO. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/opinion/11sun1.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin March 11, 2007 Editorial The Failed Attorney General During the hearing on his nomination as attorney general, Alberto Gonzales said he understood the difference between the job he held � President Bush�s in-house lawyer � and the job he wanted, which was to represent all Americans as their chief law enforcement officer and a key defender of the Constitution. Two years later, it is obvious Mr. Gonzales does not have a clue about the difference. He has never stopped being consigliere to Mr. Bush�s imperial presidency. If anyone, outside Mr. Bush�s rapidly shrinking circle of enablers, still had doubts about that, the events of last week should have erased them. First, there was Mr. Gonzales�s lame op-ed article in USA Today trying to defend the obviously politically motivated firing of eight United States attorneys, which he dismissed as an �overblown personnel matter.� Then his inspector general exposed the way the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been abusing yet another unnecessary new power that Mr. Gonzales helped wring out of the Republican-dominated Congress in the name of fighting terrorism. The F.B.I. has been using powers it obtained under the Patriot Act to get financial, business and telephone records of Americans by issuing tens of thousands of �national security letters,� a euphemism for warrants that are issued without any judicial review or avenue of appeal. The administration said that, as with many powers it has arrogated since the 9/11 attacks, this radical change was essential to fast and nimble antiterrorism efforts, and it promised to police the use of the letters carefully. But like so many of the administration�s promises, this one evaporated before the ink on those letters could dry. The F.B.I. director, Robert Mueller, admitted Friday that his agency had used the new powers improperly. Mr. Gonzales does not directly run the F.B.I., but it is part of his department and has clearly gotten the message that promises (and civil rights) are meant to be broken. It was Mr. Gonzales, after all, who repeatedly defended Mr. Bush�s decision to authorize warrantless eavesdropping on Americans� international calls and e-mail. He was an eager public champion of the absurd notion that as commander in chief during a time of war, Mr. Bush can ignore laws that he thinks get in his way. Mr. Gonzales was disdainful of any attempt by Congress to examine the spying program, let alone control it. The attorney general helped formulate and later defended the policies that repudiated the Geneva Conventions in the war against terror, and that sanctioned the use of kidnapping, secret detentions, abuse and torture. He has been central to the administration�s assault on the courts, which he recently said had no right to judge national security policies, and on the constitutional separation of powers. His Justice Department has abandoned its duties as guardian of election integrity and voting rights. It approved a Georgia photo-ID law that a federal judge later likened to a poll tax, a case in which Mr. Gonzales�s political team overrode the objections of the department�s professional staff. The Justice Department has been shamefully indifferent to complaints of voter suppression aimed at minority voters. But it has managed to find the time to sue a group of black political leaders in Mississippi for discriminating against white voters. We opposed Mr. Gonzales�s nomination as attorney general. His r�sum� was weak, centered around producing legal briefs for Mr. Bush that assured him that the law said what he wanted it to say. More than anyone in the administration, except perhaps Vice President Dick Cheney, Mr. Gonzales symbolizes Mr. Bush�s disdain for the separation of powers, civil liberties and the rule of law. On Thursday, Senator Arlen Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, hinted very obliquely that perhaps Mr. Gonzales�s time was up. We�re not going to be oblique. Mr. Bush should dismiss Mr. Gonzales and finally appoint an attorney general who will use the job to enforce the law and defend the Constitution.

(Me) This stuff going on isn't sounding much different than the Stasi of the 80's or even Russia. Except maybe the informants. But then again, who knows. ;-)

I have no idea who this guy is and it doesn't really matter, but he gives good snark.... March 07, 2007 Re-Mixed Washington Post Editorials: The Subtextening [original editorial here, various take-downs here] No way! THE Mr. Washington Post?!? THE CONVICTION of I. Lewis Libby on charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice was grounded in strong evidence and what appeared to be careful deliberation by a jury. But I, the Washington Post, a faceless but omniscient entity hovering over the proceedings, know better. The former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney told the FBI and a grand jury that he had not leaked the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame to journalists but rather had learned it from them. But abundant testimony at his trial showed that he had found out about Ms. Plame from official sources and was dedicated to discrediting her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. It involved no missing white girls, no consensual oral sex, or claims about the book Love Story. So, in the word of Rick from The Young Ones: "Boh-weeeen!" The fall of this skilled and long-respected public servant, a true giant of a man whose appetite for gin and tonics at the fancy parties we both used to attend, is particularly sobering because it arose from a Washington scandal remarkable for its lack of substance. Certainly, it's not the kind of substance we look for in numerous articles by John Solomon about campaign finance scandals, loosely defined, or by the careful description of tiara jewels in our society pages. Mr. Wilson was embraced by many because he was early in publicly charging that the Bush administration had "twisted," if not invented, facts in making the case for war against Iraq. We, of course, roundly ignored this patchouli-smelling twat in favor of careful stenography from Pentagon press releases. A bipartisan investigation by the Senate intelligence committee subsequently established that the war was perfectly justified, that Wilson had helped to squirrel away Iraq's WMD to Syria, and had subsequently fomented sectarian strife. The partisan furor over this allegation led to the appointment of special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, a troubled foot fetishist who suffered from the tertiary stages of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Yet after two years of investigation, card-carrying Communist Mr. Fitzgerald charged no one with a crime for leaking Ms. Plame's name, or her choice of evening wear or remarkable resemblance to Virginia Madsen. It would have been sensible for Mr. Fitzgerald to end his investigation after learning about Mr. Armitage. Instead, like many Washington special prosecutors before him, he pressed on... but not in a good way in hoping to write a 600-page report about blowjobs like Kenneth Starr before him. Instead, he got all hot and bothered that his investigation was repeatedly lied to in an amateurish cover-up attempt. What a small, petty man. Mr. Wilson's case has besmirched nearly everyone it touched, even living saints like Vice President Cheney and even, amazingly enough, the infallible President who has fruitless, unproductive wars to conduct. Mr. Fitzgerald was, at least, right about one thing: The Wilson-Plame case, and Mr. Libby's conviction, tell us nothing about the war in Iraq. Then again, neither do we until the President sinks below 40% in his approval rating. http://norbizness.com/archives/002087.html

I don't get this reasoning at all. Some twisted logic. He's soooooo cute!! Some pics to run through (17).... http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,PB64-SUQ9MjAxOTUmbnI9MQ_3_3,00.html And a video (in German)...there's 20 secs of a man introducing the segment. Knut is ridiculously adorable and amusingly clumsy. Very cute bit at the end with his keeper. And he doesn't like his bottle taken away when he's hungry! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ35C7BD5eI&mode=related&search= Cuddly polar bear cub better off dead, activist says POSTED: 1828 GMT (0228 HKT), March 19, 2007 Story Highlights � Cub was ignored by mother, so zookeepers raised him themselves � Activist: "Feeding by hand is ... gross violation of animal protection laws" � Bear's story sparks controversy among politicians, animal activists BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Berlin Zoo's abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but an animal rights activist insisted Monday he would have been better off dead than raised by humans. "Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws," animal rights activist Frank Albrecht was quoted as saying by the mass-circulation Bild daily, which has featured regular photo spreads tracking fuzzy Knut's frolicking. "The zoo must kill the bear." When Knut -- or "Cute Knut," as the 8.7 kilogram (19 pound) bear has become known -- was born last December, his mother ignored him and his brother, who later died. Zoo officials intervened, choosing to raise the cub themselves. The story prompted quick condemnations from the zoo, politicians and other animal rights groups. "The killing of an animal has nothing to do with animal protection," said Wolfgang Apel, head of the German Federation for the Protection of Animals. Politicians weigh in on bear Greens politician Undine Kurth called the suggestion "fully unacceptable." Petra Pau of the opposition Left Party invoked the widely-reported case of an Italian bear dubbed "Bruno" who wandered last year into southern Germany, only to be killed by hunters at the behest of local authorities worried about residents and livestock. "Berlin is not Bavaria, therefore it will be better for Knut than Bruno," Pau said. Albrecht told The Associated Press his beliefs were more nuanced than reported by Bild, though he applauded the debate the article had started. He explained that though he thought it was wrong of the zoo to have saved the cub's life, now that the bear can live on his own, it would be equally wrong to kill him. "If a polar bear mother rejected the baby, then I believe the zoo must follow the instincts of nature," Albrecht said. "In the wild, it would have been left to die." The German animal rights organization "Four Paws" argued along similar lines, saying it would not be right to punish the cub for a bad decision made by the zoo. Other activists have also argued that current treatment of the cub is inhumane and could lead to future difficulties interacting with fellow polar bears. "They cannot domesticate a wild animal," Ruediger Schmiedel, head of the Foundation for Bears, told Der Spiegel weekly in its Monday edition. Albrecht cited a similar case of a baby sloth bear that was abandoned by its mother last December in the Leipzig city zoo and killed by lethal injection, rather than being kept alive by humans. But Knut belongs to the Berlin Zoo, and their veterinarian Andre Schuele, charged with caring for him, disagrees. "These criticisms make me angry, but you can't take them so seriously," Andre Schuele said. "Polar bears live alone in the wild; I see no logical reason why this bear should be killed." Schuele also argued that given the increased rarity of polar bears in the wild, it makes sense to keep them alive in captivity so that they can be bred. "Polar bears are under threat of extinction, and if we feed the bear with a bottle, it has a good chance of growing up and perhaps becoming attractive as a stud for other zoos," Schuele said. Knut, who recently posed for a photo shoot with star-photographer Annie Leibovitz for an environmental protection campaign, is scheduled to make his public debut at the zoo later this week or early next week, according to Schuele. Until then, Germans can follow the bear's progress in a vast photo spread and videos of Knut drinking from his bottle, bathing and playing with teddy bears and soccer balls, all available on the zoo's Web site. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/19/polar.bear.ap/index.html

Ah! That You Tube video above is taken from Knut's video podcast. They're in 1 - 4 min segments. The first 2 are too adorable (3 and 4 min ones). I think they have to be downloaded to watch unfortunately, but I don't mind keeping them. http://www.rbb-online.de/_/fernsehen/index_jsp/activeid=3609.html He's so cute learning to play in water. He didn't seem to like being thrown in a little pool at first. He played with a water hose that was turned on like some dogs I've seen.

While it's great that everyone is so indignant over the crappy conditions at the VA hospitals, mostly Walter Reed so far, this is nothing new. And it's not like no one could've known. I've been in VA hospitals and I've known people who worked in them (including a brand new one) and there were always complaints of lack of budget for equipment, even to replace equipment well used and in the older ones, not so great conditions. They've been making many of those hospitals operate on a shoestring for a long time. Unfortunately, now the need for them is so exponentially greater than in the fairly recent past. AP: Mold, Leaky Roofs Beset VA Clinics By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The Veterans Affairs' vast network of 1,400 health clinics and hospitals is beset by maintenance problems such as mold, leaking roofs and even a colony of bats, an internal review says. The investigation, ordered two weeks ago by VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, is the first major review of the facilities conducted since the disclosure of squalid conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. A copy of the report was provided to The Associated Press. Democrats newly in charge of Congress called the report the latest evidence of an outdated system unable to handle a coming influx of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Investigators earlier this month found that the VA's system for handling disability claims was strained to its limit. "Who's been minding the store?" said Sen. Patty Murray (news, bio, voting record), D-Wash., a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "They keep putting Band-Aids on problems, when what the agency needs is major triage." The review was conducted by directors of individual VA facilities around the country and compiled in a 94-page report to Nicholson. It found that 90 percent of the 1,100 problems cited were deemed to be of a more routine nature: worn-out carpet, peeling paint, mice sightings and dead bugs at VA centers. The other 10 percent were considered serious and included mold spreading in patient care areas. Eight cases were so troubling they required immediate attention and follow-up action. Some of the more striking problems were found at a VA clinic in White City, Ore. There, officials reported roof leaks throughout the facility, requiring them to "continuously repair the leaks upon occurrence, clean up any mold presence if any exists, spray or remove ceiling tiles." In addition, large colonies of bats resided outside the facility and sometimes flew into the attics and interior parts of the building. "Eradication has been discussed but the uniqueness of the situation (the number of colonies) makes it challenging to accomplish," according to the report, which said the bats were being tested for diseases. "Also, the bats keep the insect pollution to a minimum which is beneficial." In other findings: _In Oklahoma City, secondhand smoke from an outside smoking shelter sometimes infiltrated the building through the women's restroom. _Deteriorating walls and hallways were common, requiring repair, patch and paint in 30 percent of patient areas in Little Rock, Ark. _Numerous unspecified "environmental conditions" affected the quality of the building in New York's Hudson Valley, with the private landlord repeatedly refusing to fix problems. The VA is taking steps to relocate to another facility. _Roof leaks or mold at facilities such as Hudson Valley; North Chicago, Ill.; Indianapolis; Puget Sound, Wash.; Portland, Ore; and Fayetteville, Ark. Veterans groups said they were concerned about the findings but also appreciated the VA's aggressive efforts to identify problems. "We now expect these problems to be corrected immediately and not shelved due to insufficient funding or because the proper care and treatment of our wounded veterans is no longer in the national spotlight," said Joe Davis, spokesman of Veterans of Foreign Wars. John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 150,000 VA workers, added: "Clearly the problems facing the VA require increased funding as well as better oversight." In response, Nicholson this week ordered "immediate corrective action" to fix problems, with full accounting provided to the VA. He noted that an overwhelming majority of the issues were normal "wear and tear" items. In many cases where there were roof leaks or mold, officials had begun action to order patches or repairs, the department said. In some instances, they were moving to new facilities. "The level of detail in the reports and the corrective actions enumerated demonstrate your responsiveness to my request," Nicholson wrote in an order Monday to VA medical center directors. In interviews, VA officials said they were somewhat reassured by the report, which they said indicated no red flags rising to the level of problems at outpatient facilities at Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., one of the premier facilities for treating those wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Walter Reed is a military hospital run by the Defense Department. Critics long have said problems of military care extend to the VA's vast network, which provides supplemental health care and rehabilitation to 5.8 million veterans. But VA officials noted that despite some problems, the VA health system consistently outperforms private-sector hospitals in customer satisfaction. "There was no imminent threat of harm to patients," said Louise Van Diepen, chief of staff to VA's acting undersecretary for health, Michael Kussman. "We have no indication to lead us to believe there is a smoking gun." "Could it happen? Yes. But we're doing everything we can prospectively to monitor the situation," she said. Three high-level Pentagon officials have been forced to step down after the disclosures last month at Walter Reed. The controversy also has led to investigations by congressional committees, a presidential task force and the Pentagon. A separate review of the VA system for handling disability claims is under way to determine how to cut through bureaucratic delays, confusing paperwork and long appeals process as thousands of veterans return home from Iraq and Afghanistan. ___ On the Net: Department of Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.gov/ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070322/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/veterans_care_10