Bloggers Protected by Shield Law

From the AP:

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- "A state appeals court on Friday rejected Apple Computer
Inc.'s bid to identify the sources of leaked product information that
appeared on Web sites, ruling that online reporters and bloggers are
entitled to the same protections as traditional journalists."

"In no relevant respect do they appear to differ from a reporter or editor
for a traditional business-oriented periodical who solicits or otherwise
comes into possession of confidential internal information about a company,"
Justice Conrad Rushing of the 6th District Court of Appeal wrote in a
unanimous 69-page ruling.

"We decline the implicit invitation to embroil ourselves in questions of
what constitutes 'legitimate journalism," he wrote. "The shield law is
intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news, and that is
what petitioners did here."

Cat in Pot

Remember to re-plant your cats when they get too big...

Bush's Numbers Take a Dive

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Diving Penguins!



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Kappes, Outsed By Goss, Is Back

"Steve Kappes, a recently retired CIA insider, has been offered the No. 2 slot at the spy agency, sources told CNN, to reassure the CIA operations community about Gen. Michael Hayden's appointment as director as well as ease concerns about that nominee's military ties.

The decision to tap Kappes is also seen as a move aimed at members of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee who have raised doubts about Hayden.

Kappes was a civilian operations officer who reportedly was forced out of the CIA by Porter Goss' associates after Goss became director in 2004.

Intelligence analysts and former intelligence officials said that Kappes' selection is a repudiation of Goss, who abruptly announced his resignation Friday after reported disagreements with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte."

PENGUINS!

BUSH DIPS BELOW FREEZING

EVERYONE GETS A PENGUIN



WASHINGTON — President Bush's approval rating has slumped to 31% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the lowest of his presidency and a warning sign for Republicans in the November elections.

The survey of 1,013 adults, taken Friday through Sunday, shows Bush's standing down by 3 percentage points in a single week. His disapproval rating also reached a record: 65%. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points.
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BUSH BAGS IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER

.

BAYOU SPRINGS, ARKANSAS (AP)- President Geroge W. Bush has told a Polish paper that his greatest moment in more than five years as President is capturing and managing to kill an elusive ivory-billed woodpecker.

"You know, I've experienced many great moments and it's hard to name the best," Bush told weekly "Poland Spring" when asked about his high point since becoming president in January 2001. "I would say the best moment of all was when I nailed an ivory-bill out on the swamps," he told the newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

"You know, those dang things are pretty much extinct, so finding one is not easy. And this sucker put of a hell of a fight before I finally managed to bag it," the President said.

The ivory-billed woodpecker, a magnificent bird, was until recently thought to be extinct, but the U.S. Department of Interior has a said a few may still exist in the wild.

"At first, I though it was a pilated pecker, but then I saw the flashing white wings and whispered, 'Dick, it's an ivory-bill!' I unloaded my rifle and emptied Saddam's pistol at it, but the critter hid in a tree. Finally, I grabbed an Uzi from one of my Secret Service guys and took it down," said the President.

Experts have determined that Bush got a true ivory-billed woodpecker, although "Dick hit the guy from Cornell [the Cornell Ornithology Lab] when his shotgun went off," the President said, referring the Vice President.

"As Paul Wolfowitz would say, 'ladies and gentlemen, I got him,'" the President added, grinning.


An ivory-billed woodpecker
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Friday Cat Blogging

There's a Fire in the Barn?

It's a good place to shop, by the way. I just spent some of my hard-earned money on Barney. I bought him a couple of toys to chew on -- but don't let him know until I get over there, because it's a surprise.
- George W. Bush


"BARK! BARK!""

"What's that, boy? Timmy fell down a well?

"Rrrrruff! Ruff! Ruff!"

"No? There's a fire in the barn?

"Grrrr! Grrrrr!"

"No? What is it boy?"

"WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!"

"What, American invaded a Middle Eastern country based on lies, thus trapping our soldiers in a quagmire and exacerbating problems of international terrorism?"

"ARF! ARF!"

"That's it! Good boy!"
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English Only?

Some people have said that we should only teach and speak English in the USA, saying "We are Americans and our language is English." But this kind of nativist, ignorant thinking is wrong.

Englishmen speak English.

Americans speak many languages.

If the nativists want to speak English, let them move to England, where they can hear it all they want.

Friday Cat Blogging

Bush Buddy Ken Lay Gets Angry

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From the NYT:

"After waiting 13 weeks to respond to his accusers, Kenneth L. Lay lost his legendary cool on the witness stand Wednesday.

Just minutes into his cross-examination by a prosecutor, John Hueston, Mr. Lay, Enron's founder and former chief executive, testily accused Mr. Hueston of personally preventing him from repaying a company credit line Mr. Lay had used to shore up his personal finances.

"Mr. Hueston, you know you blocked it," Mr. Lay said, his voice booming. "It's a simple answer."

Mr. Lay also struggled Wednesday to restrain his agitation when Mr. Hueston suggested that Mr. Lay had tried to tamper with potential government witnesses.

Before he took the stand, a number of legal experts had predicted that Mr. Lay would use the same folksy charm he employed during his heyday as the public face of Enron to seek to win over the 12 jurors deciding his fate in the criminal fraud trial here. But during his three days so far as a witness, Mr. Lay has found it harder and harder to maintain a kindly grandfatherly image.

Instead, Mr. Lay, 64, has become increasingly agitated, at times reacting impatiently even to his own lawyer, George McCall Secrest Jr., and lashing out at what Mr. Lay portrayed as a cabal of former Enron executives, investors and journalists whom he repeatedly blamed for the company's downfall in late 2001."

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A BLACK HOLE IN EVERY GARAGE

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A new study finds that supermassive black holes, located at the heart of some galaxies, are the most fuel efficient engines in the universe.

"If you could make a car engine that was as efficient as one of these black holes, you could get about a billion miles out of a gallon of gas," said study team leader Steve Allen of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University.


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Quote of the Day

"I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true. One, I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free."

- George W. Bush, April 24, 2006

Pat Robertson, Terrorism, Hurricane Katrina, and Abortion

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Here,we are interested in the truth.


So what exactly did Pat Robertson say about abortion, Hurricane Katrina, and terrorism?

From this weekend on CBS:

CBS News Sunday Morning

Broadcast April 9, 2006:

Rita Braver:

“But-- there was one-- at one point where you seemed to suggest that-- Hurricane Katrina and September 11th, the terrorist attacks, were divine retribution for abortion—“

Pat Robertson:

“Oh, I'll stop you on that one. There was Comedy Central that came out with a-- a-- a-- a-- a spoof saying Pat Robertson said Katrina was-- was-- divine retribution. And then the press picked it up. And Comedy Central said, ‘Hey fellas, we were just joking.’ I never said that.”

Rita Braver:

“So you never said that—“

(OVERTALK)

Pat Robertson:
“--I did—“

Rita Braver:

“--so this idea that you said-- that this-- that this was retribution for abortion—that–”

Pat Robertson:

“I never said it. “

RB:

“--never said it? “

Pat Robertson:

“Never said it.”


– CBS, April 9, 2006


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What did Pat Robertson say?


“You know, it's just amazing, though, that people say
the litmus test for is whether or not he supports the
wholesale slaughter of unborn children. We have killed
over 40 million unborn babies in America. I was reading,
yesterday, a book that was very interesting about what
God has to say in the Old Testament about those who shed
innocent blood. And he used the term that those who do this,
"the land will vomit you out." That -- you look at your --
you look at the book of Leviticus and see what it says there.
And this author of this said, "well 'vomit out' means
you are not able to defend yourself." But have we found
we are unable somehow to defend ourselves against some
of the attacks that are coming against us, either by
terrorists or now by natural disaster? Could they be
connected in some way? And he goes down the list of
the things that God says will cause a nation to lose
its possession, and to be vomited out. And the amazing
thing is, a judge has now got to say,
"I will support the wholesale slaughter of
innocent children" in order to get confirmed to the bench.
And I am sure Judge Roberts is not going to say any such thing.
But nevertheless, that's the litmus test that's being
put on, the very thing that could endanger our nation.
And it's very interesting. Read the bible, read
Leviticus, see what it says there.”


– Pat Robertson, Christian Broadcasting
Network's The 700 Club,
September 12, 2006


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On the terror attacks of September 11, 2001:

Jerry Falwell:

"The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this."

Pat Robertson:

"Well, yes."

Jerry Falwell:

"And I know I'll hear from them for this, but throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, – all of them who try to secularize America – I point the thing in their face and say 'you helped this happen'."

Pat Robertson:

"I totally concur, and the problem is we've adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government, and so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do, and the top people, of course, is the court system."

-- The 700 Club,
September 13, 2001


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FANTASYLAND, BITCHES!

"Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday he would not engage in "fantasyland" speculation about a possible U.S. attack on Iran, though he said the Bush administration is concerned about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Rumsfeld declined to comment on Iran's claim that it has has successfully enriched uranium for the first time.

"I'd rather wait and see what our experts say about it," the defense secretary told reporters shortly after the announcement from Tehran."


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Have They No Sense of Decency Left?

So yesterday we found out who the person was who released Valerie Plame’s name, as well as other vital national secrets, to a reporter as part of a disgusting slime and defend attack on Joe Wilson, which was itself part of a larger plan to cover-up the Administration lies promoting the invasion of Iraq.

It wasn’t Scooter Libby. It wasn’t Dick Cheney. It was George W. Bush himself. Of course, Scooter held the meeting with Judith Miller, where he disclosed the classified NIE, on the orders of Dick Cheney, on the direct orders of George Bush.

So said Scooter Libby under oath. The story has been out for almost two full days and has not been denied by the White House. Rather, the spin seems to be that Bush has the authority to do this as President.

Will this fly? Or will this finally be the sordid incident in a wasted career of a pathetic life that brings George Bush down?

He deliberately exposed the identity of an undercover CIA agent (who was working to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons) and revealed other national secrets to just threaten her husband, a hero who had stood up to Saddam Hussein in 1991, and who was asking questions about Bush’s reasons for going to war.

Will be people be outraged by this? Or will they buy Bush’s and the media’s argument that it’s okay, because when the President decides to leak a secret, it’s not a secret anymore because he decided to leak it?

Is that what this country has been reduced to? Bland acceptance of treason based on bullying and fear? Is this the newest twist on Nationalism? A hyper-aggressive embracement of mean-spirited cruelty, even at the expense of the safety of the country?

Where the decent part of nationalism is replaced the crude tactics that often accompany it -- intimidation, threats, violence, until, in the end, that is all it celebrates?

Should we have seen this coming with the treatment of John McCain in the primaries in 2000? With the mob that stormed the election office in Florida to rob Al Gore of the election? With the Swift Boating of John Kerry?

Have they shame? No sense of decency left, at long last?

Will this be George Bush’s legacy? To have debased and corrupted American politics, to have taken government to a new low, lacking all humanity, and any sense of restraint that are the hallmarks of civilization?

Bush Revealed National Secrets

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"Telling an aide to leak classified information to the New York Times is not a normal channel."

- Representative Jane Harman


Yes. He should have gone through Corpus Christi Caller-Times instead.



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How George Bush and Dick Cheney Betrayed America

According to the AP, citing court documents, Lewis Libby, Dick Cheney's top aide, has testified under oath that Cheney that said President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq.

The court filings allegedly say that Libby testified to the grand jury that Cheney told him to pass on information and that Bush himself who authorized the disclosure.

This led directly to July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and Judith Miller, where Valerie Plame's status was discussed, according to Miller's grand jury testimony.

But the court documents state that Libby revealed vital American national secrets "only after the vice president advised defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the National Intelligence Estimate."

"Defendant testified that the circumstances of his conversation with reporter Miller -- getting approval from the president through the vice president to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval -- were unique in his recollection."

Senator Cat Killer

"This is how I used to strangle kittens."

Friday Cat Blogging

Tiger was rescued from the streets, weighing 1 lb., back in September. Now he's six months old read to take on the world!