Scenes From A March

John Roberts to Citizens: Stop Hitting Yourself

During the dedication ceremony of a new building at the Syracuse University Newhouse School of Journalism, which has the words of the First Amendment etched into its windows, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts addressed the budding young reporters:

"The greatest threat to the rights you see spelled out in front of us is irresponsible use of them. My message to you is very simple: Don't blow it."
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Right back at ya, Jack.

ANALOGY OF THE DAY

Today Show, NBC:

"Letting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visit Ground Zero is like
letting Osama bin Laden visit Ground Zero."


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Pirate Cat Blogging

UNSEEN PHOTOS OF AUSCHWITZ

New York Times:

"In the Shadow of Horror,
SS Guardians Frolic"

Rather than showing the men performing their death camp duties, the photos depict, among other things, a horde of SS men singing cheerily to the accompaniment of an accordionist, Höcker lighting the camp’s Christmas tree, a cadre of young SS women frolicking and officers relaxing, some with tunics shed, for a smoking break.

The album also contains eight photos of Josef Mengele, the camp doctor notorious for participating in the selections of arriving prisoners and bizarre and cruel medical experiments. These are the first authenticated pictures of Mengele at Auschwitz.

The photos provide a stunning counterpoint to what up until now has been the only major source of preliberation Auschwitz photos, the so-called Auschwitz Album. Those photos depict the arrival at the camp of a transport of Hungarian Jews, who at the time made up the last remaining sizable Jewish community in Europe."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/ 1...g+HKlWGHH8h+Kxg

GREAT MOMENTS IN INSCRUTABILITY

"Greenspan says U.S. not headed for recession"
- Reuters, Monday Sept. 17, 2007 1:07pm EDT

"Greenspan: Recession risk up"
- Reuters, Monday Sept. 17, 2007 4:45pm EDT




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CHIQUITA FACES $25 MILLION FINE FOR PAYMENTS MADE TO PARAMILITARY GROUPS

Judge Royce Lamberth has confirmed a $25 million fine on banana company Chiquita for having given protection money to Colombian paramilitary groups.

In March, Chiquita pleaded guilty to paying $1.7 million to the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).

The firm said its only motive was the safety of its Colombian workers.

DOJ prosecutors said Chiquita Brands International paid the money between 1997 and 2004 to the AUC in return for "protection".

The AUC, which is listed by the US and EU as a terrorist organisation, has carried out massacres and assassinations, although it is now engaged in a peace process in Colombia.

Prosecutors said Chiquita also made payments to Colombia's main left-wing rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

Is Chiquita a victim, virtually forced to pay off armed gangs to protect its workers, or is it a soulless corporation, willing to do business with any violent or extremists group in order to sell its prodcut? I do not know.

CREEPING FASCISM IS OF NO INTEREST, GOVERNMENT SAYS

The White House and U.S. Department of Justice hired Mark McKinnon’s public relations firm to handle the Bush administration’s varying responses to the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, but the subject “is not a matter of widespread and exceptional media interest,” so the DOJ [claims that it] does not have to release 171 emails and other documents about it, according to a federal [FOI] lawsuit.

New Magazine for the Underserved Class

Next year, The Wall Street Journal will introduce Pursuits, a glossy monthly magazine about the lifestyles of the rich, in hopes of drawing more ads for expensive consumer goods.

Just what we need.

BADGE OF HONOR?

"Being attacked by the Democratic character assassination machine MoveOn.org is something Rudy Giuliani will wear as a badge of honor."
- Giuliani campaign spokeswoman Katie Levinson


“I wear their scorn as a badge of honor.”
- Vice President Dan Quayle on the media

It's no purple heart, but you take what you can get.

PEACE, BITCH!

FRIDAT CAT BLOGGING

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WEAKEST. POWER PLAY. EVER.

Arrested Woman Told Cops:

'I Don't Have To Move, My Uncle Is Tom Tancredo"


:)

LARRY CRAIG FLYING AGAIN

"Northwest's Detroit air terminal
closed by suspicious package"

.

H20 Tiger

Thanks to Plush Life

DOES RUDY GIULIANI ADVOCATE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON NEW YORK CITY NOW?

Apparently Rudy Giuliani has chosen to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks on America, specifically the Pentagon and the Twin Towers, by spending them with someone who has advocated massive, violent attacks on buildings in New York City, with goal of killing as many innocent people as possible.

What word would Rudy use if it were someone else advocating terrorism?

Disgraceful?


Yes, Mr. former Mayor, you are an uttter disgrace to humanity.

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UPDATE: Apparently, he also supports mass murder in Oklahoma City, and smearing widows of heroes killed on September 11, 2001.

Gray Whale Population Greatly Reduced

Reuters

The Pacific gray whale population, thought by some experts to have rebounded fully from the ravages of whaling, actually is back to a mere fraction of historic levels, scientists said on Monday.

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Extreme Family Planning

BERLIN (Reuters)

A German public television network Sunday sacked a popular talk show host and former news presenter after she had praised the Nazi's family policies at a news conference for her new book on child-rearing.

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Now we know what will get you fired from a network news job in Germany. In America, we are still conducting a long-form experiment in network-news craziness.

Cat Blogging Returns

THE DAILY SHOW: ANYTIME, ANYWHERE

"A new hub for Comedy Central's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart headlines a slate of two dozen sites that Viacom's MTV Networks will launch by the first quarter.

TheDailyShow.com, which is set to launch in the fourth quarter, will archive the entire video history of the show including headlines, interviews and the "Back in Black" feature.

TheDailyShow.com will present episodes in their entirety an hour or two after broadcast."

Remember when you had tell TiVo what you wanted to watch? Or when you had to program your VCR? Or just watch The Love Boat?

Good times.

FROM THE CHAMPAGNE UNIT TO CAMP CUPCAKE: BUSH AT WAR

Washington Post's Dan Froomkin:

More than four years after declaring " Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, Bush still can't make an announced visit to the war-wracked country.

But his supposed "visit to Anbar Province" was in some ways even more cynical -- and accepted even more gullibly by the media -- than his June 2006 visit to Baghdad. There, at least, he actually set foot on Iraqi soil.

This time, Bush visited Al-Asad Air Base -- an enormous, heavily fortified American outpost for 10,000 troops that while technically in Anbar Province in fact has a 13-mile perimeter keeping Iraq -- and Iraqis -- at bay. Bush never left the confines of the base, known as " Camp Cupcake," for its relatively luxurious facilities, but nevertheless announced: "When you stand on the ground here in Anbar and hear from the people who live here, you can see what the future of Iraq can look like."

TAKING THE FREE RANGE ZOO CONCEPT LITERALLY

A lion escaped from its cage at a Kazakh zoo over the weekend, the second such incident in a month.

The six-year-old lion called Adam sneaked out of his cage through a door that had been accidentally left open, Kazakhstan Today news agency reported.

The lion roamed around freely for half an hour before zoo workers lured it back to safety.

Just a month ago, three bears broke out of their enclosure in the same zoo in southern Kazakhstan.

Steve Fossett Missing in Nevada Desert

Plane carrying Steve Fossett is missing

A small plane carrying aviation adventurer Steve Fossett has been missing since Monday night, federal officials said Tuesday.

Fossett was last seen taking off from the private airfield at the Flying M Ranch near Yerington, Nevada, on Monday evening.

Bush: Dead Certain

Stories from the new book on Bush called Dead Certain include one that John Roberts suggested Harriet Miers for the Court, which two experts have alrady called a lie, and another that Bush was so exhausted from a one hour bike ride that he couldn't pay attention to the hurricane Katrina briefing.

In other news, even Col. Jack Jacobs is calling George Bush a liar for all his rhetoric about insurgents following us home from Iraq.

Labor Day Cat Blogging

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FBI SURVEILLANCE MUCH MORE POWERFUL THAN MOST PEOPLE REALIZE

Via Wired News and the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The surveillance system...connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected.

Details of the system and its full capabilities were redacted from the documents acquired by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Together, the surveillance systems let FBI agents play back recordings even as they are being captured (like TiVo), create master wiretap files, send digital recordings to translators, track the rough location of targets in real time using cell-tower information, and even stream intercepts outward to mobile surveillance vans.

FBI wiretapping rooms in field offices and undercover locations around the country are connected through a private, encrypted backbone that is separated from the internet. Sprint runs it on the government's behalf.

The network allows an FBI agent in New York, for example, to remotely set up a wiretap on a cell phone based in Sacramento, California, and immediately learn the phone's location, then begin receiving conversations, text messages and voicemail pass codes in New York. With a few keystrokes, the agent can route the recordings to language specialists for translation.

The numbers dialed are automatically sent to FBI analysts trained to interpret phone-call patterns, and are transferred nightly, by external storage devices, to the bureau's Telephone Application Database, where they're subjected to a type of data mining called link analysis.

SIGNS OF THE APOCALYPSE: MARK CUBAN ON DANCING WITH THE STARS

Yes, that's right.

Other sem-celebrity dancers include people you may not have heard of:

* Floyd Mayweather Jr

* Wayne Newton

• "Scary Spice"

• Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves.

• Actress Jennie Garth ("Beverly Hills, 90210")

• Marie Osmond

• Model Albert Reed

• Actress Jane Seymour ("Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman")

CHINESE MINERS ATE COAL TO SURVIVE

Reuters
Chinese brothers who tunnelled their way out of a coal mine collapse after being trapped for nearly six days survived by eating coal and drinking urine, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Brothers Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou were trapped while working at an illegal mine in Beijing's Fangshan District late on Saturday, August 18, the latest in a series of disasters to strike the world's deadliest coal mining industry.

Two days later, rescue efforts were called off and relatives began burning "ghost money" at the entrance of the mine for the dearly departed.

"At first there was no feeling, but then I was so hungry I couldn't crawl any more," Xianchen told the Beijing News. "I got so hungry, I ate a piece of coal, and I thought it quite fragrant.

"Actually, coal is bitter and unsmooth but you can chew up pieces the size of a finger. In the mine, we picked up two discarded water bottles, and drank our urine. You can only take small sips, and when you've finished, you just want to cry."

DEPARTMENT OF OVERREACTIONS: BULLETPROOF BACKPACKS

From CNET News blogger Leslie Katz

For all your back to school needs:

Bulletproof Backpacks

Some people will call the invention an overreaction, while others will view it as a wise protective gadget. It's sad--and sobering--to think that a bulletproof backpack could prove a practical back-to-school purchase, but it's not so far-fetched an idea in these days of campus violence.

MJ Safety Solutions, a Massachusetts company run by three dads, has developed what it says is the first full-size, lightweight ballistic protection backpack that's affordable and practical for kids. The $175 My Child's Pack contains a 20-ounce bulletproof panel that the creators say can ward off 97 percent of bullets. The packs can be used to offer upper torso coverage on the back or as a shield for frontal protection of the head and upper body.

A video ad on YouTube shows the bags undergoing tests at the shooting range--to the tune of Neil Young's "Four Dead in Ohio."

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DEUTSCHE BANK UPDATE

From the New York Times

"Investigators have determined that the broken equipment found in the basement of the vacant skyscraper was in fact part of a defective sprinkler system, not part of the standpipe, as originally believed. The finding means that an entire part of the standpipe was evidently missing, for reasons that are not clear.

It was previously announced that firefighters had been unable to get water above the fifth floor because of a shut valve and that parts of the standpipe system had cracks and other defects.

The Fire Department failed to visually inspect standpipes in the building every 15 days as required by city rules for buildings being demolished and had not done any inspections at the Deutsche Bank building since November 2006."

God love the FDNY, but someone seriously dropped the ball with regard to the Deutsche Bank building.

TINY CONSTITUTION

I am squishing yur konstitushunHugo Chavez holds new tiny red Constitution that allows him to be Leader For Life

Tiger Vs. The Purple Dinosaur

Doing Battle with The Purple Dinosaur of Doom!!!!!
Where Did Purple Dinosaur Go?????
Oh No, He's Getting Away!!!!!
Tiger Achieves Victory Over The Purple Dinosaur!!!!!

Brzezinski Offers Support for Obama

New York Times:

Right on the heels of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s assertion that she could handle the political ramifications of a terrorist attack better than her Democratic rivals, a major foreign policy figure associated with Democrats endorsed her archrival, Senator Barack Obama.

In an interview with Al Hunt that will air on Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” at 11 p.m. tonight, Zbigniew Brzezinski said that Mr. Obama is “clearly more effective and has the upper hand.” The national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter continued, “There is a need for a fundamental rethinking of how we conduct world affairs, and Obama seems to me to have both the guts and the intelligence to address that issue and to change the nature of America’s relationship with the world.'’

He called Mrs. Clinton’s foreign policy “very conventional.”

“I don’t think the country needs to go back to what we had eight years ago,” Mr. Brzezinski said.

HOW MUCH YOU WANT FOR STEALTH BOMBER?

As you may know, there is a big airshow going on in Russia right now. People have come from all over the world to gawk at the latest in airplane technology, as well as the old favorites. It's like any collection of geeks and their hobby, except this involves multimillion dollar hardware, some of which are advanced weapons.

On hand for view was a stealth bomber, which is, sadly, not actually invisible.

Apparently an "unidentified Russian, wearing sunglasses and surrounded by bodyguards," went up to the group of Americans guarding the bomber and asked if he could buy the stealth bomber, that according to Komsomolskaya Pravda.

One of the Americans told the guy it would cost at least $500 million.

"That is no problem. It is such a cool machine," the Russian was quoted as saying by Pravda, which said its reporter overheard the conversation.

It is a cool machine, it's true. Remember when we were at war with the Russians? I guess this is what is meant by the world is flat. Planes, too.

Senator Warner Urges Withdrawal

Senator John Warner
of Virginia






Senator John Warner, of Virginia, and former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called on President Bush to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq by Christmas, beginning in September.

Warner said Thursday that a pullout was needed to spur Iraqi leaders to action.

"In my humble judgment, that would get everyone's attention that is not being paid at this time," said Warner.
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GREAT MOMENTS IN CORPORATE BEHAVIOR

REUTERS:
"The head of one of the leading insurers in non-standard, high-risk personal auto insurance apologized on Thursday for some substandard behavior - spying in church on people who had the sued the company.

Progressive Corp Chief Executive Glenn Renwick apologized for the use of private detectives, who went undercover to join an Atlanta church group in order to discredit a couple suing the insurer.

"What the investigators and Progressive people did was wrong - period," Renwick, head of the third-largest U.S. auto insurer, said in a statement. "I personally want to apologize to anyone who was affected by this."

The statement was issued a day after the story appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The newspaper reported that a pair of detectives hired by Progressive became members of the Southside Christian Fellowship Church in August 2005 in order to get damaging information on two church members involved in a 2004 traffic accident.

The detectives talked their way into a private support group where members discussed abortions, sexual orientation and drug addiction, and taped the sessions, the newspaper said."

DEPARTMENT OF INEFFECTIVE PROTESTS

"A member of a Japanese right-wing group was arrested Thursday after he sent his severed little finger to the ruling party's headquarters in protest at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's failure to visit a Tokyo war shrine.

The 54-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of making threats after he sent his finger to the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo, said a police official in Okayama Prefecture, western Japan.

The envelope also contained a letter of protest and a disk showing images of the man cutting off his finger, the official said.

"I thought they would ignore me if I just sent the letter, so I put my little finger in as well," Kyodo news agency quoted the man as telling police."

CAESAR INTERRUPTUS

"Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome – thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world."
-Philip Atkinson
The Family Security Foundation, Inc.

Um, dude - they killed Caeser.

BLOGGER PZ MYERS SUED FOR BOOK CRITICISM

According to Wired Magazine, PZMyers, the brilliant science blogger Pharyngula, is being sued for libel by a guy named Stuart Pivar because of critical remarks he made about a book Pivar wrote called "Lifecode: From egg to embryo by self-organization."

Wired quotes a press release on Lifecode as describing it as

"... an alternative theory of evolution which contends that the embryo is formed by self-organization, as are crystals, rather than by a genetic code subject to natural selection. Accompanying illustrations depict hypothetical construction blueprints for the various body forms. Biological Self-organization has long been a contending alternate theory for the code of life; recent proponents include evolutionary biologists Stephen Jay Gould and Brian Goodwin."

I'm not qualified to judge if that's nonsense or has some validity, though anything that presents alternatives to evolution raises all kinds of red flags.

Here's what Myers wrote Pharyngula on that got Pivar peeved.

"The doodles in this book bear absolutely no relationship to anything that goes on in real organisms, but after staring at them for a while, I realized what this book is actually about.

This book is a description of the development and evolution of balloon animals."

I am qualified to judge the merits of his legal case. I haven't read the whole brief, but it sounds like Pivar doesn't have a leg to stand on. (Maybe he could grow one, like a crystal.) I would go so far as to call him an idiot and a moron, but he might sue me.

Or he might not be so dumb. Wired suggests, plausibly, that the whole thing is a publicity stunt. (Pivar is apparently rich or something). If true, this would be a great abuse of the legal system - not to mention a threat to bloggers of whatever political belief or ideology.

WE B LOOKN 4 2 DOODS

The FBI is asking the public for help in identifying two men who were seen behaving unusually aboard several Washington state ferries. The Seattle Post Intelligencer is not publishing the photos because neither man is considered a suspect nor has either been charged with a crime.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Who are Liz and FLo?

(A) Jenna's bridesmaids

(B) Two of the four identical quads

(C) The designated names of the next two hurricanes

(D) Malaysian dogs who catch pirates

NAZI FILES DIGITIZED, TRANSFERRED

BBC NEWS:

"The keepers of a vast archive of Nazi documents on the Holocaust have transferred copies of millions of files to museums in Israel and the US.

The electronic transfer is part of an agreement to open up the Bad Arolsen archive, overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The files, kept in Germany, were found in concentration camps and other Nazi prisons at the end of World War II.

The ICRC says the archive has now transferred many documents from the archive to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the US and to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Centre in Israel.

The 47 million files stored in the spa town of Bad Arolsen hold meticulously recorded information on forced labourers, concentration camp victims and political prisoners. They take up 26km (16 miles) of shelving.

Historians believe many more details about the Nazis' murder and brutal exploitation of millions of Jews, Roma (Gypsies) and other victims will be revealed.

So far, 12 million documents have been digitised for electronic transfer, the ICRC says.

In grey, bureaucratic language the Nazis kept records on the smallest details - from the number of lice on a prisoner's head to the exact moment of their execution."

Rove on Meet the Press

For the David Gregory - Karl Rove interview, click here, and scroll down: The Bobblespeak Translations

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ASHCROFT WAS "BARELY ARTICULATE"

"Notes taken by Director Robert S. Mueller III of the F.B.I. say that Attorney General John Ashcroft was “barely articulate,” “feeble” and “clearly stressed” shortly after a hospital-room meeting in March 2004 in which two top White House aides tried to persuade him to sign an extension for eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.

Mr. Mueller’s notes, based on a visit to Mr. Ashcroft’s room and released Thursday by the House Judiciary Committee, provide a fuller picture of the events surrounding a March 10, 2004, confrontation over the surveillance program. They go beyond the account that Mr. Mueller gave the committee in July and reinforce an account by James B. Comey, the former deputy attorney general who testified in May.

In providing corroboration for Mr. Comey’s version of events, Mr. Mueller’s typewritten entries served to rebut the suggestion of some Bush administration officials who have privately dismissed Mr. Comey’s account of the hospital standoff as an overwrought and one-sided description.

Mr. Mueller said in the notes that he had gone to the hospital after receiving a call from Mr. Comey, arriving at 7:40 p.m. and departing at 8:20. His notes said Mr. Comey had told him that Mr. Ashcroft, who had undergone gall bladder surgery the previous day, was in “no condition” to receive visitors.

Mr. Mueller said Mr. Comey had asked him to intervene with Mr. Ashcroft’s F.B.I. security detail to limit visitors.

'Comey asked me to meet briefly with the AG to see his condition,” he wrote. “He also asked that I inform the detail that no visitors, other than family, were to be allowed to see the AG without my consent (I so informed the detail).' "

Link to full story in the New York Times, Notes Detail Pressure on Ashcroft Over Spying

Cliff with Snow

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FOX NEWS WITH NEIL CAVUTO NAILS SUPERMODEL ANGLE TO CHINESE TOY STORY

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Next Up: The Housing Meltdown: What Does Naomi Campbell Think?

TOPIC OF CALCULUS

"A little known school of scholars in southwest India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Newton according to new research. Dr George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester says the 'Kerala School' identified the 'infinite series'- one of the basic components of calculus - in about 1350.

The discovery is currently - and wrongly - attributed in books to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz at the end of the seventeenth centuries.

The team from the Universities of Manchester and Exeter reveal the Kerala School also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places.

And there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the fifteenth century.

That knowledge, they argue, may have eventually been passed on to Newton himself."
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Say it ain't so, Isaac!

"JOHN FROM CINCINNATI" WASHES UP

The wave has crashed for "John From Cincinnati." A day after its first-season finale, HBO on Monday canceled the dark surfing drama.

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Best lead-in ever and they blew it.

Worst part is I never to got blog about how it might have been the worst tv show I have ever seen.

BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE BUNNY FENCE

BUNNY FENCE, BITCHES!

A fence built to prevent rabbits from entering the Australian outback has unintentionally allowed scientists to study the effects of land use on regional climates.

The rabbit-proof fence — or bunny fence — in Western Australia was completed in 1907 and stretches about 2,000 miles. It acts as a boundary separating native vegetation from farmland. Within the fence area, scientists have observed a strange phenomenon: above the native vegetation, the sky is rich in rain-producing clouds. But the sky on the farmland side is clear.

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NAME THAT SPEAKER!!!

“I have an employment record that I think would be attractive to any employer. I’ve worked in an industrial kitchen in a hospital; I’ve waited tables; I’ve worked in convenience stores and have been robbed at the point of a gun twice; I’ve pumped gas; I’ve babysat; I’ve cut lawns; I’ve delivered newspapers.”

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TROPICAL DEPRESSION?

Reuters:

"In Cape Coral, a town near Fort Myers on Florida's sun-drenched Gulf Coast, almost every other house on some of its streets has a for-sale sign outside.

With a bloated inventory of unsold homes and a growing number of homeowners forced by mortgage delinquencies to sell -- thanks to the subprime crisis and ensuing credit crunch -- southwest Florida's once warm clime for property has turned stone-cold.

Linda Setterlund, 61, owns a pristine three-bedroom, two-bath, Cape Coral house that has been on the market for about a year.

At a reduced asking price of $183,900, she said the house had been priced to match what she and her husband owed on it, after moving in three years ago with a 30-year fixed mortgage.

Setterlund said she and her husband had decided to leave the area to join family in Tennessee, but their decision was also prompted by growing real estate taxes and skyrocketing homeowner insurance rates after an active 2005 hurricane season.

"They're saying that we're heading for a recession but I think we're past that," said Setterlund, referring to the housing glut and its effect across much of south Florida.

"I think we're headed more into a depression."

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It's Hot

HE'S A REGULAR A-ROD

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. citizen Jose Padilla was the "star recruit" for a Florida terrorism support cell that sent the former dirty bomb suspect to an al Qaeda camp to learn how to kill, a prosecutor told jurors in closing arguments on Monday.

"Training with al Qaeda was a crime because al Qaeda trained people to kill," he said.

Wiretapped phone conversations between Padilla and Hassoun demonstrate that Padilla was patient and secretive, Frazier said.

"This is why he was a star recruit," he said.

* The Application Form *

The main evidence against Padilla is what the government calls an al Qaeda application form bearing his fingerprints, birthdate and similar background. It was recovered in Afghanistan and says the author speaks English, Spanish and Arabic, graduated from high school and trained as a carpenter, as Padilla did.

It used a name prosecutors contend was Padilla's alias, and lists as his sponsor a man whose name was in Padilla's address book when he was arrested.

Padilla's defense is expected to argue his fingerprints could have got on the form when investigators handed it to him to examine after his arrest.

The government has presented only indirect evidence Padilla ever went to Afghanistan. In other secretly recorded phone calls, another alleged recruit tells Hassoun that Padilla has gone to Afghanistan via Yemen and has entered "the land of Osama."

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In other words, they have a piece of paper with someone else's name on it.

Ironclad, gentelmen.

Cat Blogging Returns

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RNC DEMANDS "DUES" FROM VOTERS

The Republican Party has, sadly, become a kind of cult where it seems only mendacity and venality can thrive.

Latest case in point is the now notorious threatening "audit letter" the GOP is sending out to unsuspecting voters.

Some TPM commenters note the point that caught my eye too - that the letter demands "dues" - from letter recipients.

The letter threatens an "audit", demands dues, and links such threats to lack of support for the President.

The use of term "dues" is fraudulent on it's face -- the kind of cheap and sleazy trick one would suspect of the lowest spammer or direct marketer.

If the RNC isn't prosecuted for this, it will only because of, and not in spite of, the political nature of the mailing.

This is straight out of the playbook of fascist regimes, Soviet, Bolshevik, Italian Fascist, Nazi -- although I'm sure to say out loud is to violate DC protocol enough to give Cokie Roberts and David Broder the vapors.

We know the Bush administration has become a Cult of Personality, promoted by loyalists educated at places like Regent University, who swear an oath to him, and view the federal government as an instrument to promote the Bush Cult. This letter encapsulates that ideology: loyalty to Bush is loyalty to America, and Americans must be continually examined for deviation from that absolute fealty. In 1984, all citizens were expected to put in time devoted to promoting the party -- failure to do so would lead to suspicions of a lack of patriotism; perhaps of even helping the unseen enemy.

It's clear, yet again, that the party of been taken over by sniggering, junior league Nixonian ratfuckers (their term, not mine) who genuinely seem to have no morality whatsoever.

All societies produce their share of such people - the trick is to keep them, if not imprisoned, away from civilized, decent folk trying to lead their lives in peace.

Societal failure is to grant to control of the levers of power in the hopes that giving them what they wants will quiet them down and make them go away. That way, lies madness and chaos.
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"INCREDIBLE" SHRINKING OF ARCTIC ICE

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Analysts See ‘Simply Incredible’
Shrinking of Floating Ice in the Arctic

"The area of floating ice in the Arctic has shrunk more this summer than in any other summer since satellite tracking began in 1979, and it has reached that record point a month before the annual ice pullback typically peaks, experts said yesterday.

William L. Chapman, who monitors the region at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and posted a Web report on the ice retreat yesterday, said that only an abrupt change in conditions could prevent far more melting before the 24-hour sun of the boreal summer set in September.

"The melting rate during June and July this year was simply incredible,” Mr. Chapman said. “And then you’ve got this exposed black ocean soaking up sunlight and you wonder what, if anything, could cause it to reverse course."

Mark Serreze, a sea-ice expert at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., said his center’s estimates differed somewhat from those of the Illinois team, and by the ice center’s reckoning the retreat had not surpassed the satellite-era record set in 2005. But it was close even by the center’s calculations, he said, adding that it is almost certain that by September, there will be more open water in the Arctic than has been seen for a long time. Ice experts at NASA and the University of Washington echoed his assessment.

Dr. Serreze said that a high-pressure system parked over the Arctic appeared to have caused a “triple whammy” — keeping away clouds, causing winds to carry warm air north and pushing sea ice away from Siberia, exposing huge areas of open water."

- New York Times, August 10, 2007

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ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "TRUTH"

Speaking a Culture of Truth, this editorial is an instant classic in annals of the practice of Journalism in the 21st Century, where apparently truth has no meaning:

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Atlanta Journal-Constitution

'Objective truth' passes the test for letters to editor
By Angela Tuck, Public Editor
August 4, 2007

"Here's a question that has come up a few times in recent months: "Why does the AJC allow letter writers to make statements that aren't factual?"

Once it's printed in the newspaper, it's highly possible that someone will adopt the statement as fact, said Barbara Latimer, a reader from Rockdale County. Perhaps the newspaper should run a small disclaimer with the letter for clarity's sake, she said.

Editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker once believed all letters should be factually accurate, but now she's more likely to let readers have their say and let others decide whether the letter writer is indeed stating facts.

"I believe there is such a thing as an objective truth, but a lot of readers have an objective truth that differs from mine," she said.

"We live in such a politically polarized age that not everybody agrees on the facts. My letters policy tends to be a bit looser than those of some other editorial page editors. I believe as long as they are willing to sign their names to it, and it's not violent or libelous, we should print them."

Tucker says the AJC has printed many letters from readers insisting that PeachCare has run out of money because so many illegal immigrants are on the rolls. "That's not true, but if we don't print those letters, those readers will believe we're biased," she said.

Readers who still believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that they were taking to Syria are allowed to express that view even though it is clearly not true."

***************************************************************************

Oh well. It's only a newspaper.

George Packer Condemns Both Sides

"The same people who believed the first story refused to believe the second, and vice versa. In a sense, they believed or refused to believe each story before it was published—even before it had occurred. What mattered was whether the story supported or undermined their view of the war."
- George Packer, referring to Scott Beauchamp and O'Hanlon/Pollack

I generally like George Packer, but it isn't a question of "believing" one or the other. Like many who get sucked into the beltway vortex, he reduces to politics to a kind of catechism, easily ridiculed as dogmatic by journalists and pundits who imagine themselves inhabiting a higher realm of reason.

Packer et al will say "a pox on both your unthinking houses, liberals and wingnuts, why don't you wait until the facts are in before coming to a conclusion??"

But the facts are always rolling in from a place like Iraq. No wonder pundits write that they are paralyzed by indecision about what to do in Iraq. There's always going to be a reason to put off leaving, to find some slender reed of hope.

Which is another way of supporting the Bush policy wholesale. But that would be partisan.

***************************************************************************

Ninth Circuit Rules "Vote-Swapping" Legal

Back in 2000, those crazy kids on the internet had the idea to create a web site where people in safe states could swap their vote for Al Gore with a person in a swing state who wanted to vote for Ralph Nader.

Of course, it was all based on the honor system, and there was nothing to stop voters in safe states from voting for Nader anyway (to "send a message" or something) but I guess it was one more arrow in the quiver in a desperate attempt to prevent Naderites from handing this country over to George W. Bush and his coterie of Regents Death Eaters.

Yes, it's illegal to pay someone to vote a certain way (is that true Ed Rollins?) but this hardly qualified. But the busybodies who are so very concerned about the fairness of U.S. elections decided it was illegal, and the outraged California Secretary of State, Bill Jones, (yes these guys have real power) yammered about prosecutions so the websites shut down. Next stop: President Stupid.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, (just in time!) sensibly, that the website's efforts to unite voters interested in "vote-swapping" is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Court writes:

"Both the websites' vote-swapping mechanisms and the communication and vote swaps that they enabled were... constitutionally protected. At their core, they amounted to efforts by politically engaged people to support their preferred candidates and to avoid election results that they feared would contravene the preferences of a majority of voters in closely contested states. Whether or not one agrees with these voters' tactics, such efforts, when conducted honestly and without money changing hands, are at the heart of the liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment."

**************************************************************************

The Internet and blogging has gotten even more popular since 2000, so I've heard. This has great schoolyard potential. It used to kids would trade baseball cards or Pokemon or whatever. Now maybe you can trade one Kucinich vote in New York for an Edwards in Iowa, or something.

Bobblespeak Beat The Onion on McCain Snark

**************************************************************************

I see from Ana Marie's link (another acid-tongued liveblogger) that The Onion made a funny about John McCain riding Greyhound.

As is happens, they owe The Bobblespeak Translations a coke -- he beat them to it by a month.

THE ONION
August 6, 2007

DES MOINES, IA—"Citing a series of unanticipated disruptions to the Greyhound bus service, a red-faced and breathless Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) arrived 50 minutes after the start of the Republican presidential debates Sunday.

According to the beleaguered candidate, a series of departure delays, missed transfers, and a flat tire outside Oxford, OH forced him to arrive at the outskirts of Iowa's capital five minutes before the debate was about to begin."

The Bobblespeak Translations
July 8, 2007

Gregory: McCain is running the suckiest campaign ever

Purdum: he's not trying to pander to people anymore - he still supports the war

Gregory: he has no more money

Purudm: last year he had a private jet and last week he was seen in Row 29 of a coach

Gregory: on a commercial airline? Wow

Purdum: no Greyhound dood

*****************************************************************************

CRAZY FRENCH MAN IN AMERICA

*****************************************************
President Sarkozy and companions were headed for open water in a boat on Lake Winnipesaukee when he spotted Associated Press photographer Jim Cole and freelancer Vince DeWitt aboard Cole's boat, which was outside a buoy barrier monitored by the New Hampshire Marine Patrol.

Before Sarkozy spotted him, Cole had driven his boat up to the patrol boat, identified himself and received permission to be there.

"He was happy and smiling and he waved at the security people as he was coming out," Cole said of the president. "And then he noticed us taking pictures and his happy demeanor diminished immediately."

Coming alongside Cole's boat, Sarkozy, clad only in swim trunks, jumped aboard and began shouting at them.

"The president was very agitated, speaking French at a loud volume very rapidly," DeWitt said.

Both men said they repeatedly stated they did not speak French. Cole said that he asked whether any of the other passengers on Sarkozy's boat spoke English, but that no one answered or intervened.

Sarkozy picked up DeWitt's camera but then put it down. A woman then spoke up in English and relayed Sarkozy's request to be left alone, DeWitt said. The woman did not identify herself.

************************************************************************

Cat Blogging Returns

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**************************************************************************

16 DEMOCRATS VOTED FOR BUSH'S FISA BILL

Democrats who voted for the FISA bill:

* Evan Bayh
* Tom Carper
* Bob Casey
* Kent Conrad
* Dianne Feinstein
* Daniel Inouye
* Amy Klobuchar
* Mary Landrieu
* Blanche Lincoln
* Claire McCaskill
* Barbara Mikulski
* Bill Nelson
* Ben Nelson
* Mark Pryor
* Ken Salazar
* Jim Webb

Naturally Lieberman voted in favor, while I believe Chuck Hagel voted NO. (Was that so hard?)

I was liveblogging and caught Pryor and Landrieu's votes last night.

Not surpirsed by Salazar, and Webb - well he's still better than George Allen.

Others like McCaskill, Casey, Carper, Casey, Nelson (both) and Hillary's buddy, Evan Bayh, are a little disappointing.

Most surprising are people like Mikulski, Inouye, Klobuchar, and Feinstein. These are people from safe seats, who should know bettter.

Just out of curiosity - did they even read the bill?

********************************************************************

TURTLE ATTACKS NEW YORK

************************************************************


***********************************************************

BE THE FIRST ON YOUR BLOG WITH ALL THE NEW TALKING POINTS!

****************************************************
Apparently Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd have all called Barack Obama "naive."

But where did that meme start?

Here's what that rat-bastard author of The Bobblespeak Translations wrote as he was liveblogging the event over at that commie website Eschaton:

Q: will u meet with the leaders of the Scary Bad Countries

Obama: damm right i would why not Reagan met with teh Commies

Q: Hillary answer the Scary Man question

Hillary: unlike naive Obama i will not promise to meet with these doods i mean why meet with Castro for god's sake

Edwards: what she said
- 8:09 p.m.

The Bobblespeak Translations:
Come for the Humor, Stay for the Insights!
************************************************************
________________________________________________________________

17 kidz doods

****************************************************************

____________________________

"when do u c them?"
"all teh time"
******************************************************************

FISA Judge Struck Down Bush Spying

*************************************************************

Lately we've all been wondering: what's the rush to change the federal wiretapping and surveillance laws all of a sudden?

Bush has, of course, been going around demanding that Congress change the FISA statute, and Congress seems pretty willing to do it.

It turns out that a FISA Court judge ruled earlier this year that yet another one of Bush's warrantless spying programs violated the law.

So he needs to Congress to change the law to let him keep doing it. It's not clear exactly what the problem is, but indications are that it involves, unsurprisingly, spying on non-Americans having contact with people inside the United States.

But hey, at least he didn't just keep doing it and blow Congress off. So that's progress, sort of.

The Washington Post reports that the ruling prevented the NSA from monitoring telephone calls and e-mails originating outside the United States as the pass through the U.S.

I'm willing to bet this story was linked the Bush-friendly Washington Post in an effort to light a fire under Congress and create support for amending the law among the general public and pro-Bush bloggers.

Indeed, House Minority Leader John Boehner, mentioned the decision on Fox News, according the Post.

Reuters sums up the differences between Bush and the Democrats by saying Bush wants to spy on non-Americans based outside the U.S., even if they are communicating with someone inside the United States, without a warrant and without involving the FISA court.

Democrats feel, presumably, that vests too much power with Bush and his people, who do not exactly have a spotless track record.

***********************************************************************

WHAT WAS PROJECT X?

_______________________________________________________________________

Something has been bugging me since Alberto Gonzalez testified last week. We all know that Gonzalez may have committed perjury when he denied that there were objections to the President's surveillance plan. He admitted there had been objections, but to other activities. These are the activities that Bush has not confirmed even exist. What other surveillance actions was Gonzalez talking about?

Among others, Spencer Ackerman and Paul Kiel have already done great work regarding what they dub "Project X."

Simply, Project X may have been a highly intrusive, possibly illegal, surveillance program that raised such strong questions about its illegality that John Ashcroft, James Comey, and many others threatened to resign en masse unless it was changed.

Assuming it existed and we aren't just talking about the well-known FISA violations.

After the threat of resignations it was apparently, allegedly, changed to make it legal.

I will blog more on this, but for now I have two questions, concededly big questions.

(1) What was Project X?

(2) Is it still going on?

Update: I and others have long speculated that the project involved some form of large-scale sifting through massive amounts of data accessible electronically, including phone calls, e-mails, and internet traffic. In others words, data mining. Such a project would not be amenable, at least on an ongoing basis, to FISA court approval, nor would it necessarily violate, at least in the mind of someone like Alberto Gonzalez or John Yoo, the Fourth Amendment. Computers, either here or overseas, utilizing Echelon or other such technology, could search for designated patterns or keywords, raising a flag.

What then? Do they get a warrant? What if both parties are overseas? What if one is? Many more such questions could be asked.

I for one do not believe it likely that Total Information Awareness was completely shut down. For one thing, it goes against everything we know about the Bush administration.

Whatever its status, it is interesting that they remain resolutely secret about the details of a program they claim no longer exists.

*************************************************************************

Tom Tancredo. So Very, Very Wrong

____________________________________________________________________

"If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina," the GOP presidential candidate said. "That is the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they would otherwise do. If I am wrong fine, tell me,"

- Tom Tancredo

Tom, you are so wrong. So very, very, fucking wrong.

*******************************************************************

Is Mitt Romeny Too Weird to Be President? Part V

________________________________________________________________________________

"Did you notice in Lebanon, what Hezbollah did? Lebanon became a democracy some time ago and while their government was getting underway, Hezbollah went into southern Lebanon and provided health clinics to some of the people there, and schools. And they built their support there by having done so. That kind of diplomacy is something that would help America become stronger around the world and help people understand that our interest is an interest towards modernity and goodness and freedom for all people in the world. And so, I want to see America carry out that kind of health diplomacy..."

- Mitt Romney, this week

That's right.
Under President Romney, America is going to model it's foreign policy after Hezbollah.
***********************************************************************************

ONE GIANT COLD LEAP, BABY

_______________________________________________________________

Submarines accompanying a Russian naval mission aimed at boosting Moscow's claim to Arctic territory are shortly expected to dive below the North Pole.

The two Mir submarines plan to dive to the ocean floor, 4,200m (14,000ft) below the pole, to carry out tests and plant a capsule with a Russian flag.

A Russian official said the "risky and heroic" mission was comparable to "putting a flag on the Moon".

Melting polar ice has led to competing claims over access to Arctic resources.

Russia's claim to a vast swathe of territory in the Arctic, thought to contain oil, gas and mineral reserves, has been challenged by other powers, including the US.

***************************************************************

COMBINING HIPPY LOVE-INS WITH MEGA-CAPITALISM

_____________________________________________________________________

U.S. stocks had a tough week with the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffering its worst one-week point drop in five years, but a group of meditators promise their good vibrations will send the index past 17,000 within a year.

A group called the Invincible America Assembly made that claim and more on Friday, insisting they have America's prosperity under control and their positive vibes will bring fewer hurricanes and better U.S.-North Korean relations.

Through group transcendental meditation the assembly -- which has 1,800 people meditating daily in Iowa since it was formed in July 2006 -- releases harmonious waves which benefit all aspects of U.S. life, spokesman Bob Roth told Reuters.

And the group's leader, John Hagelin, said when that number reaches 2,500 within the next 12 months, America will see a major drop in crime and the virtual elimination of all major social and political woes.

Source: Reuters
************************************************************************

MIRACLES ARE HARD!

_______________________________________________________________________

BBC:

Instead of Spiderman or Bratz dolls, children in the US could soon be clutching a talking Jesus toy, a bearded Moses or a muscle-bound figure of Goliath.

Wal-Mart, the biggest toy retailer in the US, will for the first time stock a full line of faith-based toys.

There, the Tales of Glory dolls will take on what their makers are calling "the battle for the toy box" with some of the nation's most popular action figures.

The market is notoriously hard to crack, with every child wanting what their friends at school have and high-profile brands like Transformers and Spiderman dominating marketing.

So will the 12 inch Jesus doll quoting scripture or the 3 inch figure of Daniel in the lion's den open up children's imaginations - and their parents' wallets?

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Cat Blogging

Tiger posing with a photo of himself as a kitten

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WAS GONZALEZ TALKING ABOUT DATA MINING?

__________________________________________________________________________

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez testified this week there was dispute about Justice Dept. activities, but that it did not involve what he called the "terrorist surveillance program."

He may have been referring to large scale searches of electronic databases of domestic phone call and e-mail records, or data mining, according an article in the New York Times.

That the government can do this is well-known, utilizing the NSA's ability to intercerpt electronic traffic.

In 2004 there was disagreement within the Department of Justice over a program, but Gonzalez refuses to discuss it, and President Bush will not confirm its existence.

It may have involved Justice Dept. disagreements with the White House over the President's power to access large volumes of domestic records of phone calls and internet usage, looking for specific patterns or combinations of words, rather than usage by a person or group.

*****************************************************************************

NOT HOGWARTS, BUT CLOSE

*************************************************************

La Châtaigneraie is part of the International School of Geneva. We look over Lac Leman with stunning views of the Alps and the Jura.

These Units of Inquiry are planned under six organising themes:

* Who we are
* Where we are in time and place
* How we express ourselves
* How the world works
* How we organise ourselves
* How we share the planet

The children are divided into House Teams – Rhone, Alps and Jura.

There are various house competitions throughout the year i.e. Winter Sports, Cross Country, Tag Rugby, Athletics, Field Hockey, and Kwik Cricket.

Rules, attitudes in competition and team behaviour are stressed. Students also get points for poems, music, stories, and instruments to encourage the children to explore, express and develop creativity.

Athletics includes: Long jump, high jump, ball throw, sprints and long distance running and Gymnastics. Formal gymnastics will include the basic skills involved in handstands, rolls, head- stands, cartwheels, balances. The educational gymnastics programme is based on various themes i.e. travelling, space, direction, pathways, twisting, turning, jumping, stretching, curling and shape.

The Winter Sports Programme involves the basics of downhill and cross-country
skiing.

*************************************************************

FBI MISUSES NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS

Ann Broache:

The FBI's chief on Thursday attempted to defuse lingering concerns about abuse of secret requests for telephone and e-mail logs, as politicians proposed new limits on the practice.

Director Robert Mueller's afternoon appearance before a U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary oversight committee highlighted the lingering fallout over a Justice Department inspector general report issued earlier this year. That inquiry found the FBI underreported its use of a secret surveillance tactic--called a national security letter--and concluded "serious misuse" had occurred.

Mueller told the committee that he "absolutely understands" the concerns raised by the report, although he emphasized there were no findings of "intentional" attempts by FBI agents to sidestep the law.

**********************************************************************

IS THERE HOPE?

There's a lot of despair out there. Is there was any cause for hope?

There is.

Bush is, after all, very unpopular. Fred Hiatt loves him, but only the crazies in general public still do.

I would despair to the point of head-banging, or moving to another country if that weren't the case. But it's not as if Bush has enforced all his Creeping Fascism rules and policies and gotten away with it. He is widely hated, despised, ridiculed.

If Bush attempted to run again, he would be crushed, roundly rejected by the people. That is an undeniable fact. News coming out yesterday strongly suggest that this Administration is in free fall. The people, across the board, reject the man and all his works.

A lot of liberals and bloggers are putting their hopes in the most sluggish of solutions, impeachment, trial, removal; arrest, trial and The Hague. Which is fine.
Others want to stage a million man March on D.C. Which would be great.

But we may just have to wait and toss this crew out using old fashioned elections, which in the end is as good, and, I submit, maybe preferable, to a criminal trial. Which is more likely to be respected by the people, and by history? Which is more likely to have enduring effects? Which will bring about long-lasting change?

I'm not advocating one approach over the other. All I'm really saying is that there is some reason for hope. Bush is wrong and his critics are right. And everyone knows it.
****************************************************************************

PHOTO OF THE DAY

***OH NOES THEY BE GRABN MY BEEK***
**************************************************************
Chicken Elmos in China: Chang W. Lee / New York Times

BLADE RUNNER IS BACK

(Hollywood Reporter)

Director Ridley Scott is working on a "definitive" new version of his science-fiction classic "Blade Runner."

"Blade Runner: The Final Cut" will get a brief theatrical run in Los Angeles and New York, beginning October 5, before its December 18 DVD release through Warner Home Video.

Scott went back into postproduction to complete the new version of the film, which has been restored and remastered from original elements and contains never-before-seen and extended scenes. The film also includes new and improved special effects, director and filmmaker commentary and an all-new Dolby Digital audio track.

***************************************************************************

HALP I IZ THIRSTY

(Reuters)
New York University postgraduate students are developing a system that lets over-watered or dry plants phone for help.

The "Botanicalls" project uses moisture sensors placed in the soil that can send a signal over a wireless network to a gateway that places a call if the plant's too dry or wet.

Recorded voices are assigned to each plant to match its biological characteristics and to help increase the charm of the phone message and give plants their own personality.

Interactive communications student Rebecca Bray, who developed the concept with three colleagues, said the technology wasn't new. It's the way of communicating by voice and adding personality to the plants that's different.

"They will call and tell you they are thirsty and need a lot of water. They are also really polite," Bray told Reuters.

"We wanted to make sure that you weren't just getting phone calls that were really needy. So we have them calling you back when you've watered them to say thank you for watering me."

**********************************************************

NO PAPER TRAIL IN TIME 2008 ELECTIONS

Senators to abandon '08
e-voting paper trail mandate

"Democratic senators on Wednesday made another push for banning electronic voting machines that lack paper trails, but they've backed away from doing so in time for next year's presidential election.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chief sponsor of a contentious bill called the Ballot Integrity Act that proposes such changes, said she fears requiring all states to employ so-called voter-verified paper records in their systems, with some primaries only six months away, "could be an invitation to chaos."

******************************************************************************

Bombings Hit Iraqis Celebrating Soccer Win

(AP) Two suicide car bombings struck soccer fans in Baghdad as they were celebrating Iraq's victory in the Asian Cup semifinal on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 100, officials said.

The first attack took place about 6:30 p.m. when a bomber exploded in a crowd of people cheering near a well-known ice cream parlor in Baghdad's western neighborhood of Mansour, according to police and hospital officials. At least 30 people were killed and 75 were wounded, an Interior Ministry official said.

********************************************************

A REAL MAN WOULDN'T HAVE TO PAY FOR IT

***********************************************************

"The FBI wants to pay the major telecommunications companies to retain their customers' Internet and phone call information for at least two years for the agency's use in counterterrorism investigations and is asking Congress for $5 million a year to defray the cost, according to FBI officials and budget documents."

**************************************************************

Mass Funerals For U.S. Soldiers

******************************************************************

Twenty soldiers deployed to Iraq from this Army base were killed in May, a monthly high. That same month, the base announced a change in how it would honor its dead: instead of units holding services after each death, they would be held collectively once a month.

The anger and hurt were immediate. Soldiers’ families and veterans protested the change as cold and logistics-driven. Critics online said the military was trying to repress bad news about deaths. By mid-June, the base had delayed the plan.

On Base, a Plea to Give Each Death Its Due

*****************************************************************

Marc Ambinder Obsessed With Edward's Follicles

Ambinder, Atlantic Monthly blogger:

"Why doesn't John Edwards's hair equal Mitt Romney's face paint?

The primary difference is definitional: The centerpiece of Edwards's campaign is his anti-poverty efforts; he presents himself as a dedicated messenger for the cause, and he likes expensive haircuts, bought a gimungous house, etc. etc. His credibility as a messenger comes into question when he spends money ostentatiously. (The haircut was inadvertently billed to the campaign, a spokesman later said."

From The Atlantic Website:

About Marc Ambinder

Marc is an associate editor at the Atlantic and a contributing editor to both the Hotline and Naitonal Journal. He's a 2001 graduate of Harvard, and he pays his taxes in Washington, D.C.

--------------------------------------------------------

And he misspelled "National" in his own fucking bio.

***********************************************************

GREAT MOMENTS IN PUBLIC SAFETY

GREAT MOMENTS IN PUBLIC SAFETY

"Undercover Congressional investigators set up a bogus company and obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March that would have allowed them to buy the radioactive materials needed for a so-called dirty bomb.

“Given that terrorists have expressed an interest in obtaining nuclear material, the Congress and the American people expect licensing programs for these materials to be secure,” said Gregory D. Kutz, an investigator at the accountability office, in testimony prepared for the hearing.

The bomb the investigators could have built would not have caused widespread damage or even high- level contamination. But it still could have had serious consequences, particularly economic ones, in any city where it was set off."

Link to New York Times story by Eric Lipton

****************************************************************************

SARA TAYLOR DENIES BUSH INVOLVEMENT IN FIRINGS; REFUSES TO TESTIFY FURTHER

***********************************************************
TAYLOR REFUSES TO ANSWER; CITES "OATH TO THE PRESIDENT"

Sara M. Taylor testified before a Congressional panel a today, saying that she did not discuss firing U.S. Attorneys with President Bush.

"I did not speak to the president about removing U.S. attorneys," Taylor said. "I did not attend any meetings with the president where that matter was discussed."

When asked whether the president was involved in any way in the firings, Taylor couldn't rule it out, saying only, "I don't have any knowledge that he was."

"Who decided which U.S. attorneys to fire, and why were they fired?" Senator Dianne Feinstein asked.

Taylor cited Executive Privilege, saying she was trying to "determine what is a deliberation and what is a fact-based question," Senator Feinstein cut her off.

Sen. Feinstein: "You decline to answer."

Sara Taylor: "Yeah."

Later Taylor said, "I took an oath and I take that oath to the president very seriously."

Sen. Leahy replied, "Your oath is not to uphold the president."

"I think sometimes you've stepped on one side of the line and then not wanted to step on the other. This broad claim of privilege doesn't stand up," said Sen. Chuck Schumer.

But Republican Arlen Specter told her:

"I think your declining to answer the last series of questions by the chairman was correct under the direction from White House counsel. Whether White House counsel is correct on the assertion of executive privilege is a matter which will be decided by the courts," However, he said "congressional oversight has the better of the argument."

According to the AP:

"Taylor revealed a few other details: She said she did not recall ordering the addition or deletion of names to the list of prosecutors to be fired. And she disputed testimony by Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff, that Taylor wanted to avoid submitting a new prosecutor, Tim Griffin, through Senate confirmation. I expected him to go through Senate confirmation," Taylor said under questioning by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

She rather pointlessly tried to protect her friends in the White House.

"I don't believe there was any wrongdoing by anybody. I don't believe anybody in the White House did any wrongdoing."

(Sources: Associated Press; New York Times)
*****************************************************************************

First Rule about Firing Club?

Don't talk about Firing Club

Green Zone Hit By Multiple Rocket Attacks

Joe Klein at Swampland reports:

"AP is reporting that Baghdad's Green Zone was hit by as many as 35 rockets this evening--3 dead, 18 wounded. And while the Green Zone is mortared most nights, this seems an escalation by insurgents who, in this case, are NOT Al Qaeda, but most likely members of Muqtada Sadr's Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM) or, even more likely, members of the Iranian supported JAM Special Groups, who may operate outside Sadr's control.

US military intel sources in Baghdad told me a few weeks ago that these mortar attacks are often in response to specific events--like raids on JAM cells or members--but I wonder, in this case, if the attacks have anything to do with the growing split between Sadr and Prime Minister Maliki?"

***********************************************************************

So can anyone doubt that Joe Lieberman will increase his calls for attacking Iran?

Of course, if attacks were down, he would claim vindication. If Al Qaeda attacked, he would say he was right. If it's linked to Iran, then more war. If the days ends in "y" - it must be time for more war.

GREAT MOMENTS IN ENGINEERING

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"A yearlong study by federal investigators into the cause of the Interstate 90 tunnel connector ceiling collapse that killed a Boston woman in July 2006 has led to the conclusion that contractors and builders probably used the wrong kind of epoxy glue to secure ceiling panel anchors."

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Bush Invokes Executive Privilege For Taylor and Miers

********************************************************************************

"President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from two former aides about the firings of federal prosecutors.

In his letter regarding subpoenas the Judiciary panels issued, Fielding said, "The president feels compelled to assert executive privilege with respect to the testimony sought from Sara M. Taylor and Harriet E. Miers."

"You may be assured that the president's assertion here comports with prior practices in similar contexts, and that it has been appropriately documented," the letter from the White House said.

In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and refused lawmakers' demand that the president explain the basis for invoking the privilege."

Statement of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers:

"Contrary what the White House may believe, it is the Congress and the courts that will decide whether an invocation of executive privilege is valid, not the White House unilaterally."

Fielding was responding to a 10 a.m. deadline set by the Democratic chairmen, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Conyers, for the White House to explain it's privilege claim, prove that the president personally invoked it and provide logs of which documents were being withheld.

Associated Press: "As expected, Fielding refused to comply."
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Hot Cat Blogging

*********************************************************************************

Cat Blogging

The Electric Cat
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Great Moments in Journalism

Associated Press Headline:

"WHITE HOUSE CHIDES
CLINTONS OVER LIBBY"




"uhh.............. what??"

************************************************************

Bush Commutes Scooter Libby's Sentence

********************************************************************
Surprising no one, Bush has (effectively) pardoned Libby. There were two schools of thought on this. One, that Bush doesn't really care about anyone else, aside from how useful they can be to him, and so would not pardon Libby. The other, that Bush cares nothing for the law but prizes loyalty, and would not let Scooter go to jail.

Due to the cover given Bush for this action by the Beltway media, increasingly I was assuming he would pardon, but obviously they were going to wait until it looked like he would actually see the inside of a cell.

Lucky for Bush we are coming up on a holiday week, but I think we can assume that this will get some press coverage, regardless.

I believe Bush campaigned on restoring honor and dignity to the White House, but he has in fact accomplished something far more remarkable.

He has made Paris Hilton look good.
*********************************************************************

Is Mitt Romney Too Weird To Be President? Part IV

***************************************************************************
Obviously I'm late to this party, but given the ongoing series "Is Mitt Romney Too Weird To Be President?" I had to include a posting about Mitt Romney putting his dog the roof of family station wagon for a 12 hour drive. This is from the AP story:

"Seamus expressed his discomfort with a diarrhea attack. When Romney's eldest son, Tagg, and his four brothers complained about the brown runoff down the back windshield, their father quietly pulled the car over, borrowed a gas station hose and sprayed down both the dog and the kennel before returning to the road."

Terrific. Romney says the dog just loved it up there. I mean who wouldn't? Fresh air and everything.

The latest update in this story is Mitt's statement definitely proving he is not at all a strange person:

"My family pet used to climb up there and lie down on his own. And we love our family pets. Have always loved our family pets."

Well I'm convinced.

For more on Mitt's weirdness, check out Parts I, II, III.
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