zed??

Thanks for the pic, WT!!

(You already know — that Peace Marine’s on my laminated card.)

TeddySanFran @ 2

Thanks for the pic, WT!!

(You already know — that Peace Marine’s on my laminated card.)

Those are some serious guns that guy’s got!

Zed?!!!
… sniff sniff … always a bridesmaid …

Watertiger, thank you for the photograph.

I understand that there is protection against self-incrimination, but it is nothing but frustrating to me that an official of our government is allowed to spend several hours of our time dodging questions he is required to answer fully, honestly and without obfuscation.

Then again, I suppose honesty would be just too much to ask for from George W. Bush’s administration.

-S

Tigre de Agua!!!

It has been a full week hasn’t it.

Rove is Gonzales’ handler. He’s everbody’s handler in the WH.

AZ Matt @ 6

Tigre de Agua!!!

It has been a full week hasn’t it.

I’m freakin’ dizzy from it.

No self- respecting wife will buy that excuse but it works for the White House ?!!

If Gonzales is typical of what the law schools are turning out these days, we need to seriously raise the bar.

OT (but not really as I was informed below) from Crooks&Liars Save Our Chocolate

(Pls pardon OT… multiply EPU’d)
Feeling adventuresome? Interested in who else is in the FDL community, and where they are? Maybe get in touch with them via anonymous message?

Check out this earlier FDL post.

Hope to see you on our unofficial FirePup Fan map. Pls don’t forget to pick the right pin for yourself, and to add a fun “shoutout” and maybe a pic. At this writing, there’re 311 of us with pins! :)
(… and now we return you to your normally-scheduled thread, in progress …)

Gavin is teh super-funniest.

OT-on cspan Sheldon Whitehouse is putting up the chart

I was going to try to do a post about the issue B.R.E.A.D. is taking on now–predatory payday lending–but I don’t think I’ll be able to pull anything together today. But you can read about it here and here.

People who prey upon the working poor deserve one of Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” awards.

1 year, 9 months to go.

Can we afford to give the idiot that much more time?

Afternoon, Watertiger!

These days sort of defy belief. In his masterful takedown of the Carter-Reagan years, Uncivil Liberties, Calvin Trillin referred to the (Harry) Golden rule of comedy:

In modern American society, anyone who attempts to write satirically about the events of the day finds it difficult to concoct a situation so bizarre that it may not actually come to pass while his article is still on the presses.

The rule is named after Harry Golden because in the late fifties, when he realized that the white people in the part of North Carolina he lived seemed to mind sitting down with black people but not standing up with them, he suggested that schools be integrated through the simple device of removing the chairs. As I remember, he called his scheme the Harry Golden Plan for Vertical Integration.

Not long after he proposed it, some libraries in the state were ordered by a federal court to desegregate, and they responded by removing their chairs.

Of course, bloggers have less time on the presses, and snark is safer than satire, but still…

Watertiger:

I found this on MSNBC the other day. Just a short piece of an interview with a survivor. Scroll down just a bit. Totally puts the lie to Derbyshire and the rest of the blame the victim crowd.

Hi Watertiger

I live clicking over and seeing your water tigers!

Renee in Ohio @ 15

I was going to try to do a post about the issue B.R.E.A.D. is taking on now–predatory payday lending–but I don’t think I’ll be able to pull anything together today. But you can read about it here and here.

People who prey upon the working poor deserve one of Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” awards.

These vultures go after military non-coms heavily. Any military town has an abundance of payday advance and legal loan sharking businesses and pawn shops.

solai @
14

OT-on cspan Sheldon Whitehouse is putting up the chart

After Whitehouse’s chart, I can’t wait to see what else Leahy & Co. have on Bush & Co.
It’s going to be a hot summer.

hey watertiger, as always, thanks for the link!

Oklahoma kiddo @ 20

These vultures go after military non-coms heavily. Any military town has an abundance of payday advance and legal loan sharking businesses and pawn shops.

There oughta be a law

Elliott @ 19

Hi Watertiger

I live clicking over and seeing your water tigers!

Elliott, Like this one?

Hey, Skippy!!

I guess the Nelson-Talent Amendment addressed that–specifically for military personnel–capping interest at 36%. We’re going to try to get something like that in Ohio, but for everyone, not just military.

The Wolfowitz debacle might have some real consequences in the developing nations tha depend on the Bank for assistance.

The World Bank

Will there be life after Wolfowitz?Apr 19th 2007 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition

Unloved and demoralised, the bank still has work to do, especially in Africa

The truth is perhaps more subtle. Some of the bank’s professionals complain that he is too secure in his own insights, unimpressed by the accumulated wisdom of the institution. That intellectual temperament may explain both his enthusiasm for invading Iraq and his lack of support in an institution that prides itself on its expertise. Moreover, if Mr Wolfowitz entered the bank expecting to fight his corner against a staunchly anti-war staff, his expectation may have been self-fulfilling. Certainly his underlings dislike the sectarian style Mr Wolfowitz seems to share with the man who appointed him.

If Mr Wolfowitz is an overconfident thinker, he also seems an insecure manager, too impressed by bumptious aides. The career staff resent his richly rewarded inner circle, drafted in from his past. They say Kevin Kellems, his press flak, and Robin Cleveland, his right-hand woman, make too much money (about $250,000 a year, tax-free). Staff are fond of sharing stories about Ms Cleveland’s aggressive style, some of which no doubt improve in the telling. “I am very focused,” she counters, exasperated by the rumour mill. “I am not asking for sympathy so much as fairness,” but “no one cares about that at this point.”

Two intimates hardly constitute “an army of Bush administration retreads”, as Mr Wolfowitz points out. But some of his attempts to widen the gene pool have proved disastrous. According to leaked e-mails, Juan Jos Daboub, a former conservative finance minister of El Salvador named last year as the bank’s managing director, last month ordered that all reference to family planning be expunged from the bank’s aid strategy for Madagascar. This is a country where, the bank said in 2004, the use of modern contraceptives is stagnant and sexually transmitted disease abounds. “I am biting my tongue to avoid saying something impolitic,” a bank official wrote at the time.

Demoralised, the bank is also compromised. Mr Wolfowitz has espoused a policy of “zero tolerance” towards graft and corruption in the bank’s staff and activities. The “actions of even a very small number of individuals can tarnish the reputation of an entire organisation,” he wrote in the latest report of the bank’s internal investigations unit. The unit last year found two people guilty of a conflict of interest; both were banned from bank employment. Moreover, the bank allocates aid to the poorest countries according to a formula in which “governance”, broadly defined, plays much the biggest role. Mr Wolfowitz’s underlings must rate a country’s state apparatus on a scale of one to six, and justify their scores to the government under scrutiny. Where people are promoted according to personal ties rather than merit, the bank gives a score of only two out of six; where ombudsmen and auditors exist, but lack authority, the bank gives a score of just three. So by its own measure, the bank might not now deserve much support.

…

The danger is that the president’s troubles will provide unsympathetic governments with an alibi for backsliding. If the bank lacks motivation and credibility, they will say, can it be as effective as it should be? And if it cannot, should not a responsible donor put its money elsewhere? There are now over 230 international organisations, funds and initiatives, the bank calculates. The United Nations agencies and the European Commission are now bigger donors than IDA (although not in the poorest countries). And Hilary Benn, Britain’s development minister, said this month that regional lenders, like the African Development Bank, have more “legitimacy” in the eyes of the governments they help.

The bank manages “common funds for common purposes”, as its president likes to say. That is a handicap when it peddles itself to donors. The first lesson of fundraising is limit yourself to a single cause. The American President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, one of many funds now dedicated to a narrow aim, does what it says on the tin. IDA, on the other hand, is the sum of 82 strategies, each supposedly cooked up by poor countries themselves. It pays for hundreds of projects, from demobilising gunmen in Burundi to, yes, promoting contraception in Madagascar.

Harder to raise, such monies are nonetheless more useful to poor countries than earmarked dollars. In Rwanda, for example, HIV/AIDS is contained, carried by 3% of the population. Other killers, however, claim the lives of almost 12% of infants before their first birthday. And yet $46m of aid to Rwanda’s health sector is earmarked for AIDS, whereas only $1m goes to fighting childhood illnesses of all kinds.

When IDA was invented in the 1960s, it was one of about a dozen donors in the average poor country. Now it jostles with over 30. This can put an intolerable burden on a country’s slim corps of capable civil servants. Each donor exploits the best people to ensure the success of its own projects, lest another donor exploit them first. The bank may be no better than others at building clinics or laying roads. But in a hopelessly fragmented aid industry, “IDA is the glue that holds all this together,” as Mr Wolfowitz said.

…

dakine01 @ 18

Watertiger:

I found this on MSNBC the other day. Just a short piece of an interview with a survivor. Scroll down just a bit. Totally puts the lie to Derbyshire and the rest of the blame the victim crowd.

Well, yeah, that was always the worst thing about Derb’s absurd action-hero fantasies — he had absolutely no way of knowing whether anyone had tried to rush the gunman. But since, in the action movie in his mind, it would certainly have worked, he could fantasize that they must not have. What a soulless creep.

Carol Iannone knows what caused the Virgina Tech shootings: co-ed dorms and English Literature.
And I’m sorry, some will really think me foolish, but I don’t think dorms should be co-ed, so that crazed, jealous boyfriends can enter their girlfriends’ dorms and kill them and the innocent young men who come to their aid. If it had been a single-sex dorm, the killer might not have been able to enter so readily. There aren’t enough difficulties getting young people through college these days so that we have to deal with “domestic disputes” in their dormitories as well?

Well, “get thee to a nunnery”!

I won’t call Iannone “foolish”, I’ll call her bat-shit crazy! “Guns don’t kill people…co-ed dorms kill people”!

I used to RA in an all-male dorm in Berkeley. There were two all-female dorms in the complex, as well. There were several rapes, attempted rapes, quite a lot of consensual sexual activity, etc. that occurred in those women’s dorms. Quite simply, short of having full-time security gaurds and metal detectors it’s unlikely that anyone would be deterred. And even then, someone INTENT on doing this could simply find some very easy ways of getting a weapon inside through a window or a fire escape.

I’m wondering, though…if those guns and ammo clips were sent to Cho at his dorm address. It would seem that such materials should never be allowed to be sent to an on campus address. And if he had an off-campus PO Box drop, how was identity confirmed for that? I’m surprised that weapons can be sent through the mail at all, given the risk that the weapons can end up in the hands of someone who wasn’t issued the original ID.

Gonzales took a five hour piss right there on national television and the Dems couldn’t figure out how to stop him.

watertiger @ 24

Elliott @ 19

Hi Watertiger

I live clicking over and seeing your water tigers!

Elliott, Like this one?

O WOWO,
YEs YeS yES!!!!
that was so fun to open! awesome

I love all the big cats, ’specially the Snow Leopard. I worry that they are being killed off in the Afghani War. I worry about a reckless US Cowboy idly picking one off, big-game hunting over there.

But, OH! your tigers are so beautiful!

Redshift @ 28

dakine01 @ 18

Watertiger:

I found this on MSNBC the other day. Just a short piece of an interview with a survivor. Scroll down just a bit. Totally puts the lie to Derbyshire and the rest of the blame the victim crowd.

Well, yeah, that was always the worst thing about Derb’s absurd action-hero fantasies — he had absolutely no way of knowing whether anyone had tried to rush the gunman. But since, in the action movie in his mind, it would certainly have worked, he could fantasize that they must not have. What a soulless creep.

Because in the fantasy movie in his mind, he gets to write the script, have everything move in slo-mo with stop action replay/re-wind and a director yelling “Cut” and “Action” when he screws up. Reality: he ain’t so good.

Gonzales’ testimony is not nearly as amusing while watching through the frame of the Unitary Executive.

John Chylek @ 30

Gonzales took a five hour piss right there on national television and the Dems couldn’t figure out how to stop him.

Especially at the end when he pretty much said, I didn’t do it and you can’t catch me.

Oklahoma kiddo @
7

Rove is Gonzales’ handler. He’s everbody’s handler in the WH.

Maybe that is why he resents being “handled” by Sheryl Crow!

I have no idea how I would react with someone pointing a gun at me. It’s never happened.

And I can bet pretty good money on the fact that it’s never happened to the Derbs. Where he (and his ilk) get off on this macho braggadocio shit in the face of the students’ deaths is revolting.

It’s not about them. It’s about the Derbs.

neokneme @ 35

Oklahoma kiddo @
7

Rove is Gonzales’ handler. He’s everbody’s handler in the WH.

Maybe that is why he resents being “handled” by Sheryl Crow!

Thanks for putting that up. ;0)

Wait — Justice Stevens and Pach have the same birthday? 420!

watertiger @
36

I have no idea how I would react with someone pointing a gun at me. It’s never happened.

And I can bet pretty good money on the fact that it’s never happened to the Derbs. Where he (and his ilk) get off on this macho braggadocio shit in the face of the students’ deaths is revolting.

It’s not about them. It’s about the Derbs.

He shows his credibility from the beginning when he calls himself, the “resident chickenhawk.” That line alone should disqualify him from any discussion on facing a fire-arm.

skippy @ 22

hey watertiger, as always, thanks for the link!

Skippy! Paparazzi was presented with red shoes made outta yer peeps!!

Kagro X over at kos writes about an article on Slate that suggests Gonzo was testifying in the context of “the Unitary Executive.”

April 19th — “National I Don’t Recall Day”

Give Monica immunity, subpoena the crooks,
impeach with Vermont and Dennis the K.

Renee in Ohio @
26

I guess the Nelson-Talent Amendment addressed that–specifically for military personnel–capping interest at 36%. We’re going to try to get something like that in Ohio, but for everyone, not just military.

36% ? wtf!?

What ever happened to restoring honor and dignity?

or…

Bush administration under a cloud

AP firing on both cylinders today!

AZ Matt @ 27
The WB & IMF should go out of business. The so-called Washington consensus has resulted in nothing but misery. I read somewhere that some European countries are directing their anti-poverty programs thru other routes. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch. It’s the silver lining in the Wolfie cloud.

Elliott @ 31 says:

I love all the big cats, ’specially the Snow Leopard. I worry that they are being killed off in the Afghani War. I worry about a reckless US Cowboy idly picking one off, big-game hunting over there.

But, OH! your tigers are so beautiful!

A few years ago, I was visiting my best friend in Florida. At the time, his ex worked at a Big Cat refuge. We went over there to celebrate his daughter’s b’day. I got a small tour and it was fascinating. Siberians, yellow tigers, snow leopards as well as regular, wildcats, panthers, pretty much everything. The friend’s ex had been mucking cages all day and I went out with her as she fed the last three, 2 females and a male. She went to the back and the females followed her and started eating. The male never took his eyes off me and paced in a circle as I was an unknown. I finally walked to the back of the cage so he would follow and get to his food. It was fascinating as you can see all the attributes and commonalities between the house cat and the big cats. What’s play for your feline companion gets you mauled by the big fellers.

Without Ari, would they have snapped up Scoots?
Without Monica, Gonzo may escape.

If I love and want to protect Mother Earth, and I do, then by implication I want Gore as my next president. Happy Earth Day!

Just for yuks, check this out – Karl Rove is a full fledged WATB.

WT, I just saw your “media stay away” post from VA Tech, and it reminded me of something I hadn’t thought about in connection with this. I was in the same college class as Jodie Foster (no, I never met her), and when the Hinckley shooting happened, students in general were very protective of her when the media swarmed the campus. And that was a situation where the events didn’t really have anything to do with her or the school. I can hardly imagine what it must be like for people at Tech.

One of our local news reporters talked about being told by a student that they don’t dare cry in public, because if they do, there will be a camera on them. How awful. As with the situation in ‘81, there was news there for a couple of days, but after that, there’s not. The newsbots can continue to talk about it, but there’s no reason for them to be there.

watertiger @ 36

I have no idea how I would react with someone pointing a gun at me. It’s never happened.

And I can bet pretty good money on the fact that it’s never happened to the Derbs. Where he (and his ilk) get off on this macho braggadocio shit in the face of the students’ deaths is revolting.

It’s not about them. It’s about the Derbs.

VTU is a former military school with a strong ROTC tradition. I would imagine a goodly number of individuals that were cowering in classrooms and running from the scene were ROTC students.

Even military people are told not to “charge” an armed assailant but to “hunker down” when under fire. This is when the soldier is both armed and wearing body armor.

Generally mass charges on armed individuals (as in WW1) requires considerable training and high morale under orders from a respected commander. It’s not likely to occur spontaneously, under fire, when others are panicking.

Cho probably encounter several hundred students in his attacks. Not one took the steps that Derbs indicated, and this at a school where one would think that there would be a good number of Conservative Republicans. Not one of those Conservative Republicans opted to throw their life away.

Maybe if the Bush Administration offers to give them a huge reward, or gives a post-mortem payment to their families??? That’s what they seem to think will increase recruitment for troops to go into the “charge the shooter without adequate protective gear” environments in Iraq.

Oh wait, Bush just suspended the provision that mandates that troops meet certain levels of “Preparedness” before being sent over!

watertiger @ 36

I have no idea how I would react with someone pointing a gun at me. It’s never happened.

[snip]

Don’t stop there. Think larger. Nice organization you got there. Would be a shame if something happened to it. Nice city you got there. You want to let it go down? [They have weapons, thanks to your tax dollars.] And you wonder why Congress becomes tacit. Put yourself in their shoes. What can be done?

My only consolation, they can’t kill us all.

tw3k @ 33

Gonzales’ testimony is not nearly as amusing while watching through the frame of the Unitary Executive.

Amen.

neokneme @ 44

What ever happened to restoring honor and dignity?

or…

Bush administration under a cloud

AP firing on both cylinders today!

Good for them, though it’s kind of sad that they still have to pretend that the lack of “honor and dignity” or bipartisanship is something that happened recently (perhaps because the didn’t report on it sooner), rather than that it was a lie from the start.

watertiger @ 36

I have no idea how I would react with someone pointing a gun at me. It’s never happened.

Having had bullets flying over my head, let me just say that, being unarmed, it all becomes about getting away.

Soooo . . .

What happened after whatiz name — Al Gore? won the 2000 election?

I don’t recall . . .

neokneme @ 44

What ever happened to restoring honor and dignity?

or…

Bush administration under a cloud

AP firing on both cylinders today!

I stand agape! Thanks for the linkys….;~)

There is speculation from Kagro X at Daily Kos about what we saw as incompetence and a miserable excuse for an Attorney General, might actually have been a performance designed to frustrate oversight and put forward again the “unitary executive” canard. Kagr X’s post highlights this article from Slate.com;
Maybe Alberto Gonzales was brilliant yesterday—and everybody missed it
http://tinyurl.com/335mud

SeamusD @ 58

There is speculation from Kagro X at Daily Kos about what we saw as incompetence and a miserable excuse for an Attorney General, might actually have been a performance designed to frustrate oversight and put forward again the “unitary executive” canard. Kagr X’s post highlights this article from Slate.com;
Maybe Alberto Gonzales was brilliant yesterday—and everybody missed it
http://tinyurl.com/335mud

No, Gonzo’s just another Bushie stooge, there to make the Decider feel like he is the smartest person in the room.

tw3k @ 33

Gonzales’ testimony is not nearly as amusing while watching through the frame of the Unitary Executive.

Well, yes and no. The one thing I find reassuring is that both on the unilateral executive and the signing statements, they may act as if they have those powers, but they shy away from saying it. They seem to think that if they can slink out of office without ever having those powers officially challenged, then they’ll somehow have established a precedent for them. But I don’t see it working — if they never assert those powers, then there’s no precedent to look back on, just executive branch officials pretending they don’t have to listen to Congress and being complete weasels when testifying. And considering that you can be sure that when the next Democratic president takes office, Republicans high and low will be trashing all of these executive branch powers, I think that’s as doomed as all the rest of Karl’s kleptocracy.

neokneme @ 44

What ever happened to restoring honor and dignity?

or…

Bush administration under a cloud

AP firing on both cylinders today!

I’m sure Deb Reichmann will have them back on the proper Bush-fellating track within the next two or three days.

Topo @
41

Kagro X over at kos writes about an article on Slate that suggests Gonzo was testifying in the context of “the Unitary Executive.”

Here it is:

This record reflects either a Harvard-trained lawyer—and former state Supreme Court judge—with absolutely no command of the facts or the law, or it reveals a proponent of the unitary executive theory with absolutely nothing to prove. Gonzales’ failure to even mount a defense; his posture of barely tolerating congressional inquiries; his refusal to concede that he owed the Senate any explanation or any evidence; his refusal to even accept that he bore some burden of proof—all of it tots up to a masterful display of the perfect contempt felt by the Bush executive branch for this Congress and its pretensions of oversight. In the plainest sense, Gonzales elevated the Bush legal doctrine of “Because I said so” into a public spectacle.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales once again offered his Sgt. Schultz defense. Like the bumbling German guard in Hogan’s Heroes, Gonzales essentially claimed “I know nothing, nothing!” Sadly, his own recent statements show that while Gonzales may be similarly stupid, he is not ignorant.

While claiming to have played no role in the evaluation of the fired attorneys, Gonzales claimed they lost his confidence nonetheless…

For the details, see:
“Gonzales’ Sgt. Schultz Defense.”

For the latest news, document dumps, email archives, hearing transcripts and other essential materials in the firings of U.S. attorneys, see:
“The U.S. Attorney Scandal Documents.”

neokneme @ 44

What ever happened to restoring honor and dignity?

or…

Bush administration under a cloud

AP firing on both cylinders today!

The first was just a campaign slogan designed to get votes. It had no basis in reality.

This site should get a bookmark — Not just for today, but for all the hurricanes to come.

The first picture could be captioned…Fickle Finger of Fate foments firestorm….The Waxman Cometh.

Thanks to you firepups!

“~}

Holden hates my brain and makes it burn with teh stupid.

TeddySanFran @ 65

Holden hates my brain and makes it burn with teh stupid.

I give him props for reading all of the transcripts and NOT going on a shooting rampage afterward.

The entire Bush/Rove game plan is to run out the clock. Alberto is just an arrow catcher, taking the hits that would otherwise reach Bush and Rove.

On the NewsHour, Arlen Specter said the Congress shouldn’t bother with investigations, because they take so long and the poor preznit only has a year and a half left.

Elliott @
23

Oklahoma kiddo @ 20

These vultures go after military non-coms heavily. Any military town has an abundance of payday advance and legal loan sharking businesses and pawn shops.

There oughta be a law

There used to be a law until Democrats like Biden, Lieberman, Dodd and others allowed the credit card industry and by extension the loan shark industry carte blanche in impoverishing the moribund middle class and others who were relying on credit cards to survive in this consumer-driven society.

Maybe the Dems can do something for the good of us all and forget the masters to whome they’re beholden and start dismantling that crippling bankruptcy is only for the corporations legislation they enacted a year and a half ago.

Then they can start on reviewing some of the more egregious executive orders this asshole has issued and maybe even OMG look into the outright criminality of everyday life that is the Bush Imperium.

Mutant Poodle @ 49

Just for yuks, check this out – Karl Rove is a full fledged WATB.

I recall the Ford CEO’s madeup story included the phrase “and then I broke protocol and actually touched the President.” But the idea that NONE of his minions can be touched is really, really odd. Perhaps they are all aliens from outer space (it COULD happen….)

-ck- @ 67

The entire Bush/Rove game plan is to run out the clock. Alberto is just an arrow catcher, taking the hits that would otherwise reach Bush and Rove.

On the NewsHour, Arlen Specter said the Congress shouldn’t bother with investigations, because they take so long and the poor preznit only has a year and a half left.

Their creation will live on after they are gone: The Permanent Republican Minority.

watertiger @ 24

Like this one?

————————
Ms. watertiger -

That be one kool kitty!

Redshift @ 60

tw3k @ 33

Gonzales’ testimony is not nearly as amusing while watching through the frame of the Unitary Executive.

Well, yes and no. The one thing I find reassuring is that both on the unilateral executive and the signing statements, they may act as if they have those powers, but they shy away from saying it. They seem to think that if they can slink out of office without ever having those powers officially challenged, then they’ll somehow have established a precedent for them. But I don’t see it working — if they never assert those powers, then there’s no precedent to look back on, just executive branch officials pretending they don’t have to listen to Congress and being complete weasels when testifying. And considering that you can be sure that when the next Democratic president takes office, Republicans high and low will be trashing all of these executive branch powers, I think that’s as doomed as all the rest of Karl’s kleptocracy.

Thank you for you perspective. It’s reassuring. :)

egregious @ 52

watertiger @ 36

I have no idea how I would react with someone pointing a gun at me. It’s never happened.

[snip]

Don’t stop there. Think larger. Nice organization you got there. Would be a shame if something happened to it. Nice city you got there. You want to let it go down? [They have weapons, thanks to your tax dollars.] And you wonder why Congress becomes tacit. Put yourself in their shoes. What can be done?

My only consolation, they can’t kill us all.

But with their cheerleaders and media darlings calling for al Qaida to bomb the Coit Tower, you can understand my occasional frisson of fear….

John Chylek @ 30

Gonzales took a five hour piss right there on national television and the Dems couldn’t figure out how to stop him.

And much of the mainstream media still hasn’t noticed.

Waccamaw @ 72

watertiger @ 24

Like this one?

————————
Ms. watertiger -

That be one kool kitty!

Very cool kitty!

OT. I got this from eurekalert.com

Ethanol vehicles pose a significant risk to human health, study finds
Mark Z. Jacobson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, Stanford University
Click here for more information.

Ethanol is widely touted as an eco-friendly, clean-burning fuel. But if every vehicle in the United States ran on fuel made primarily from ethanol instead of pure gasoline, the number of respiratory-related deaths and hospitalizations would likely increase, according to a new study by Stanford University atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson. His findings are published in the April 18 online edition of the journal Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T).

”Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution,” said Jacobson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. ”But our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage.”

Badwater @ 64

neokneme @ 44

What ever happened to restoring honor and dignity?

or…

Bush administration under a cloud

AP firing on both cylinders today!

The first was just a campaign slogan designed to get votes. It had no basis in reality.

These people would not know honor and dignity if they came upon them as a shroud of integrity.

?What?

?No one has yet snarked on MoDowd for once again channeling her inner Heathers?

(bathe, bathe)

Redshift @
50

WT, I just saw your “media stay away” post from VA Tech, and it reminded me of something I hadn’t thought about in connection with this. I was in the same college class as Jodie Foster (no, I never met her), and when the Hinckley shooting happened, students in general were very protective of her when the media swarmed the campus. And that was a situation where the events didn’t really have anything to do with her or the school. I can hardly imagine what it must be like for people at Tech.

One of our local news reporters talked about being told by a student that they don’t dare cry in public, because if they do, there will be a camera on them. How awful. As with the situation in ‘81, there was news there for a couple of days, but after that, there’s not. The newsbots can continue to talk about it, but there’s no reason for them to be there.

yo Redshift! I was in Jodie Foster’s class too. (and I didn’t know her either). What college were you in?

watertiger @ 67

TeddySanFran @ 65

Holden hates my brain and makes it burn with teh stupid.

I give him props for reading all of the transcripts and NOT going on a shooting rampage afterward.

Perhaps we should gift him with a Noonan ForceField, just in case he snaps.

dakine01 @
46

Elliott @ 31 says:

I love all the big cats, ’specially the Snow Leopard. I worry that they are being killed off in the Afghani War. I worry about a reckless US Cowboy idly picking one off, big-game hunting over there.

But, OH! your tigers are so beautiful!

A few years ago, I was visiting my best friend in Florida. At the time, his ex worked at a Big Cat refuge. We went over there to celebrate his daughter’s b’day. I got a small tour and it was fascinating. Siberians, yellow tigers, snow leopards as well as regular, wildcats, panthers, pretty much everything. The friend’s ex had been mucking cages all day and I went out with her as she fed the last three, 2 females and a male. She went to the back and the females followed her and started eating. The male never took his eyes off me and paced in a circle as I was an unknown. I finally walked to the back of the cage so he would follow and get to his food. It was fascinating as you can see all the attributes and commonalities between the house cat and the big cats. What’s play for your feline companion gets you mauled by the big fellers.

And they all like to nap in the sun.

TeddySanFran @ 80

watertiger @ 67

TeddySanFran @ 65

Holden hates my brain and makes it burn with teh stupid.

I give him props for reading all of the transcripts and NOT going on a shooting rampage afterward.

Perhaps we should gift him with a Noonan ForceField, just in case he snaps.

OOOH! Magic dolphins!

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/….._0422.html
The Anchorage Daily News article continues, “At the same time, Mary Beth Buchanan, Cohen’s well-connected benefactor and former boss, is in trouble herself, with investigators from the House Judiciary Committee wanting to question her over what role she may have played in deciding which U.S. attorneys got fired, allegedly for partisan reasons.”

Two months ago, during a press briefing, Sen. Stevens addressed Cohen’s appointment, which preceded by nine days an FBI raid of Alaska’s state legislative offices “that appeared to target the long-standing relationship between the oil field service company Veco and leading lawmakers.” One of the offices raided belonged to Alaskan state Senate President Ben Stevens, the US Senator’s son.”

jackie @ 77
So why is ethanol fuel so bad? Not what does it do, but how does it do it?

MC Rove…’nuf said.

http://www.markfiore.com/animation/mcrove.html

From Josh Marshall

Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) dies from cancer.

Can Harry and Nancy please get that USAPatriot Act amendment to the Oval pronto? Every article I read (like the one from Anchorage) sez the interim provision will be repealed in a few months.

This needs to be addressed right now before more damage is done by these cronybots.

neokneme @ 65

This site should get a bookmark — Not just for today, but for all the hurricanes to come.

The first picture could be captioned…Fickle Finger of Fate foments firestorm….The Waxman Cometh.

Thanks to you firepups!

“~}

Thanks for the linky

eCAHNomics @ 87

From Josh Marshall

Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) dies from cancer.

I guess Arnold gets to add a Republic to the House.

Here the rest of the press release from Eurekalert.com re;

Gasoline vs. ethanol

For the study, Jacobson used a sophisticated computer model to simulate air quality in the year 2020, when ethanol-fueled vehicles are expected to be widely available in the United States.

”The chemicals that come out of a tailpipe are affected by a variety of factors, including chemical reactions, temperatures, sunlight, clouds, wind and precipitation,” he explained. ”In addition, overall health effects depend on exposure to these airborne chemicals, which varies from region to region. Ours is the first ethanol study that takes into account population distribution and the complex environmental interactions.”

In the experiment, Jacobson ran a series of computer tests simulating atmospheric conditions throughout the United States in 2020, with a special focus on Los Angeles. ”Since Los Angeles has historically been the most polluted airshed in the U.S., the testbed for nearly all U.S. air pollution regulation and home to about 6 percent of the U.S. population, it is also ideal for a more detailed study,” he wrote.

Jacobson programmed the computer to run air quality simulations comparing two future scenarios:

* A vehicle fleet (that is, all cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc., in the United States) fueled by gasoline, versus
* A fleet powered by E85, a popular blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

Deaths and hospitalizations

The results of the computer simulations were striking.

”We found that E85 vehicles reduce atmospheric levels of two carcinogens, benzene and butadiene, but increase two others-formaldehyde and acetaldehyde,” Jacobson said. ”As a result, cancer rates for E85 are likely to be similar to those for gasoline. However, in some parts of the country, E85 significantly increased ozone, a prime ingredient of smog.”

Inhaling ozone-even at low levels-can decrease lung capacity, inflame lung tissue, worsen asthma and impair the body’s immune system, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The World Health Organization estimates that 800,000 people die each year from ozone and other chemicals in smog.

”In our study, E85 increased ozone-related mortalities in the United States by about 200 deaths per year compared to gasoline, with about 120 of those deaths occurring in Los Angeles,” Jacobson said. ”These mortality rates represent an increase of about 4 percent in the U.S. and 9 percent in Los Angeles above the projected ozone-related death rates for gasoline-fueled vehicles in 2020.”

The study showed that ozone increases in Los Angeles and the northeastern United States will be partially offset by decreases in the southeast. ”However, we found that nationwide, E85 is likely to increase the annual number of asthma-related emergency room visits by 770 and the number of respiratory-related hospitalizations by 990,” Jacobson said. ”Los Angeles can expect 650 more hospitalizations in 2020, along with 1,200 additional asthma-related emergency visits.”

The deleterious health effects of E85 will be the same, whether the ethanol is made from corn, switchgrass or other plant products, Jacobson noted. ”Today, there is a lot of investment in ethanol,” he said. ”But we found that using E85 will cause at least as much health damage as gasoline, which already causes about 10,000 U.S. premature deaths annually from ozone and particulate matter. The question is, if we’re not getting any health benefits, then why continue to promote ethanol and other biofuels?

”There are alternatives, such as battery-electric, plug-in-hybrid and hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles, whose energy can be derived from wind or solar power,” he added. ”These vehicles produce virtually no toxic emissions or greenhouse gases and cause very little disruption to the land-unlike ethanol made from corn or switchgrass, which will require millions of acres of farmland to mass-produce. It would seem prudent, therefore, to address climate, health and energy with technologies that have known benefits. ”

Our bishop-elect is speaking at tonight’s Soup and Study at church, so I’ll be heading out in about half an hour.

That doesn’t leave me time for a nap, does it? I’d better get to bed early tonight.

The problem with working Saturday morning is it makes the weekend too damn short.

-ck- @ 68

The entire Bush/Rove game plan is to run out the clock. Alberto is just an arrow catcher, taking the hits that would otherwise reach Bush and Rove.

On the NewsHour, Arlen Specter said the Congress shouldn’t bother with investigations, because they take so long and the poor preznit only has a year and a half left.

Rove has pictures of Spectre buggering little boys-I don’t know how else to explain his continually justifying BushCo’s criminality.

eCAHNomics @ 87

From Josh Marshall

Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) dies from cancer.

{{{{{{{{{{prayers and hugs}}}}}}}}}} to her family.

WT,

Once again, appreciate the Sunday giggles. Especially thanks for the Weingarten link….that dude almost never IS funny, hard as he tries, so I’ve basically stopped bothering……but he dun good this time.

This is why I have a love-hate relationship with the Washington Poop.
Sigh…..

And I LOVE those big kitties…..

Badwater @ 90

eCAHNomics @ 87

From Josh Marshall

Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) dies from cancer.

I guess Arnold gets to add a Republic to the House.

(nope. first there’s a special primary election, then a special general election if no one wins 50%. no gubernatorial appointments for house vacancies.)

thoughts and healing light to her family.

It takes a blogosphere (to raise up Times Select).

The cancer on the Bush White House, Iraq, is now spreading too fast. The president had barely returned to Washington when the empty hope of the “surge” was hideously mocked by a one-day Baghdad civilian death toll more than five times that of Blacksburg’s. McClatchy Newspapers reported that the death rate for American troops over the past six months was at its all-time high for this war.

Lying, cronyism and arrogance! (Oh my!)

TeddySanFran @ 87

Can Harry and Nancy please get that USAPatriot Act amendment to the Oval pronto? Every article I read (like the one from Anchorage) sez the interim provision will be repealed in a few months.

This needs to be addressed right now before more damage is done by these cronybots.

What are you talking about? have a cocktail linky?

neokneme @
35

Maybe that is why he resents being “handled” by Sheryl Crow!

Don’t Touch Me There

;>)

eCAHNomics @ 87

From Josh Marshall

Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) dies from cancer.

Sorry to hear that…for her family and friends, and also for us, since the Gropinator will surely name a Republican to succeed her.

You may all look at the baby pictures on the web page. Not that I am a proud pappa or anything.

Yes, I do think Gonzales is just another ventrioquist’s dummy for Rove to manipulate. I doubt he knew much about the day-to-day operation of the DOJ. He was/is just a figurehead for Rove & CO.

TeddySanFran @ 96

Badwater @ 90

eCAHNomics @ 87

From Josh Marshall

Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) dies from cancer.

I guess Arnold gets to add a Republic to the House.

(nope. first there’s a special primary election, then a special general election if no one wins 50%. no gubernatorial appointments for house vacancies.)

thoughts and healing light to her family.

Thanks for making me feel better. I didn’t remember that it was different for the House.

Everything has Rove’s fingers on it. The war, plame, the attorneys, you name it, Rove is the only thing that each scandal has in common, and he always skates.

trifecta @ 100

You may all look at the baby pictures on the web page. Not that I am a proud pappa or anything.

Trifecta, dude! You know your wife looks like Kate Winslet?

And congrats again on Tait. He’s one chubby cheeked varmint!

dakine01 @ 34

John Chylek @ 30

Gonzales took a five hour piss right there on national television and the Dems couldn’t figure out how to stop him.

Especially at the end when he pretty much said, I didn’t do it and you can’t catch me.

Agh. I can see I’m going to have to get out a remedial text on strategy.

The point was to let Gonzales piss on the carpet in such a way that 1) it was obvious to moderate Republicans and the media that Gonzales was a total piece of lying sh*t, that it wasn’t a figment of Democrats’ perspective, while 2) letting Hatch and Cornyn, immersed by conflicts of interest in Gonzales’ stench, each put their foot completely in it, and 3) allow Bush a chance to respond in such a glaringly obviously koo-koo fashion that the Republicans can only shake their heads and ask, When are Dems going to do something about him?

Ahem.

And we will assuredly do something about him, as Heloise asks (demands?), but only when we have a supermajority, veto-proof vote. That ain’t going happen as long as Republicans don’t figure this out to stop him.

trifecta @
101

You may all look at the baby pictures on the web page. Not that I am a proud pappa or anything.

Of course not, why should you be? Your wife did all the hard work… :})

dakine01 @ 107

trifecta @
101

You may all look at the baby pictures on the web page. Not that I am a proud pappa or anything.

Of course not, why should you be? Your wife did all the hard work… :})

Especially if she looks like Kate Winslet…

…sorry. Congatulations, and to the wee one, welcome to the world!

OT, again……:)

Noble Resolve 07: Four days of “simulated” nuclear terrorist scenarios in the US & Europe

By DL Abrahamson

Global Research, April 20, 2007
False Flag News

From April, 23 to April 27, the elite echelon of the military are running Noble Resolve 07, a four-day marathon of “simulated” terror attacks across the US and Europe. This includes a simulated detonation of a “loose” ten-kiloton nuclear weapon Virginia harbor, smuggled in by a “foreign nation.”

This week Dick Cheney has also been warning of the “very real” threat of a nuclear attack on an American city. Could the Nobel Resolve drills be used as a screen for a false-flag attack to be blamed on Iran, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, or sheep-dipped Americans like Adam Gadahn?

The drills are being run by Joint Task Force Command (JTFCOM), Northern Command (NORTHCOM), J9 Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate, FEMA’s command bunker, the Department of Homeland Security, and Virginia police.

The US Marines are also running “Emerald Express 07” in Virginia on April 24 as part of their Urban Warrior 07 drill package.

It is important to note the “Nobel Resolve” drills are dominated by NORTHCOM, the branch of “homeland defense” based in Colorado and responsible for shutting down the United States under martial law, as well as ushering in the merger of the US, Canada, and Mexico via the SPP.

Meanwhile the J9 Directorate, formulates various terror scenarios and uses advanced computer modeling to run drills and predict human reactions; Recent articles highlight how they are using virtual environments to create and manage realistic war scenarios with millions of “people.”

Some key quotes from the article:

“He said the scenario of the experiment’s first phase starts with multinational partners and goes down to individual municipalities. It begins with a threat that originates in Europe and travels toward the United States.”

“Kersh said that as the scenario progresses, other agencies and other layers of government become involved.”

“The problem eventually arrives at the commonwealth of Virginia with that threat making it into port and then blowing up. This will cause us to work the consequence management part of the problem”

“The fusion center is in a state police headquarters and it’s collocated with Virginia’s emergency operations center.” (ed: Mount Weather)

“coordinated with DHS, possibly to coincide with one of that department’s major exercises.”

We must remember that CIA agent Philip Giraldi warned the American Conservative magazine that STRATCOM would launch a nuclear attack on Iran in the wake of a new WMD-style attack on American soil.

And the Russian media and former Russian military members continue to warn that an American and Israeli strike on Iran is imminent.

While many drills are run every month, Nobel Resolve 07, with it’s “realistic” scenarios, comes at a time of increased geopolitical tension. It is reminiscent of the drills in 2005, where a ten-kiloton nuclear weapon was “simulated” to explode in South Carolina. Some speculated that four-star Gen. Kevin Byrnes, of the Fort Meade TRADOC command, was fired due to his exposure of the drill.

We should not live in a constant state of panic and fear, or make any irresponsible predictions about Noble Resolve 07. But in the coming days, we can email this information to blogs, media outlets, friends and family. Congressmen, and others to help inoculate against any possibility that rogue “red teams” inside the drills may be activated.

EvilDrPuma @ 103 says:

Thanks for making me feel better. I didn’t remember that it was different for the House.

I think that’s one of the rules that varies by state.

Eureka Springs @
98

TeddySanFran @ 87

Can Harry and Nancy please get that USAPatriot Act amendment to the Oval pronto? Every article I read (like the one from Anchorage) sez the interim provision will be repealed in a few months.

This needs to be addressed right now before more damage is done by these cronybots.

What are you talking about? have a cocktail linky?

via Raw Story: (my bold)

But now, the U.S. attorney scandal threatening to topple Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may cost Cohen his job here. His “interim” appointment will vanish when that classification is amended out of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, which is expected to happen in the next few months.

dakine01 @ 110

EvilDrPuma @ 103 says:

Thanks for making me feel better. I didn’t remember that it was different for the House.

I think that’s one of the rules that varies by state.

No wonder, then. There’s a limit on how much I’ll try to keep on the old gray-matter hard drive.

trifecta @ 101

You may all look at the baby pictures on the web page. Not that I am a proud pappa or anything.

Very, very cute!!!

darkblack @
99

neokneme @
35

Maybe that is why he resents being “handled” by Sheryl Crow!

Don’t Touch Me There

;>)

db: you are rude and i love you

Rayne @ 106 says:

And we will assuredly do something about him, as Heloise asks (demands?), but only when we have a supermajority, veto-proof vote. That ain’t going happen as long as Republicans don’t figure this out to stop him.

And he’ll be out of office when we get that veto-proof supermajority. Although he will contribute mightily to it happening just by his existence and presence.

dakine01 @ 110

EvilDrPuma @ 103 says:

Thanks for making me feel better. I didn’t remember that it was different for the House.

I think that’s one of the rules that varies by state.

I think that’s right.

trifecta @
104

Everything has Rove’s fingers on it. The war, plame, the attorneys, you name it, Rove is the only thing that each scandal has in common, and he always skates.

At some point someone will get tired of taking the fall for him. I’d like to think that it would be because someone finally developed some scruples but with this crew I don’t want to hold my breath.

Thanks Teddy.

Love that Crowminatrix darkblack!!
Don’t Touch Me There

Rover exclaims “my virtue!”

“I don’t recall” came in first for repeats during the Gonzales hearing.

I would bet that “I did not like the plan” might come in second.

Oops, I wanted to add that I am completely enamored of that pic by NYT, a vet replete with camo hat using his “guns” to hold up the truth.

Excellent.

realworld @ 117

trifecta @
104

Everything has Rove’s fingers on it. The war, plame, the attorneys, you name it, Rove is the only thing that each scandal has in common, and he always skates.

At some point someone will get tired of taking the fall for him. I’d like to think that it would be because someone finally developed some scruples but with this crew I don’t want to hold my breath.

No. Someone will decide that their future is more important than whatever secrets Rove has on them.

At the end of last post.

oddmommy @ 147

PeteCO @ 139

eCAHNomics @ 118
The alternatives aren’t good religion vs. bad religion. Don’t need religion at all. Ditch OT, NT, Koran, Book of Mormon & whatever texts other religions use, and stick with the Golden Rule.

After watching “Jesus Camp” yesterday, MrsCO, who is Jewish, commented that “My religion doesn’t pull crap like that”. My reply was that all the major religions have extremist factions, and as an atheist, I find it telling that moderate Jews, Muslims, and Christians don’t often call out their extremist co-religionists. Why is that?

One thing that distinguishes Judaism, though, is that there is no proselytizing.

From Kathleen
As I attended a conference in Columbus Ohio on Ohio State Universities campus, I was exposed to radical zionist.

As people approaced the building that the conference was being held a large group of religious Jews stood out front hassling every person (and I mean every person) that went in. A Rabbi SCREEAMED at every person going in with a megaphone calling people “MURDERERS, MURDERERS”. I went over and invited the Rabbi in to discuss the issues. He refused as we invited him in again and again. He then picked up the megaphone and screamed “murderer, murderer”.

I have friends with the Christian Peace Maker who have been to Israel 15 times. Living in Palestinian homes that are near some of the illegal Israeli settlements. These friends walk Palestinian children to school and live with the Palestinians whose houses are being targeted by the Israeli government for destruction. These friends have witnessed these children spit on , cursed at, rocks thrown at them and these childrens lives threatened by Israeli settlers.

Please do not tell me that there are not radical and violent Jews.

I have been witness to other examples of this radical and violent Jewish behaviour.

I’ve been a big proponent of the “Rove’s got pix” theory of the Unitary Executive, but it’s probably more layered than that. Rove’s probably got pix of their loved ones.

With all the bad news coming out daily for Bushco, how can anyone in their right mind think they should be allowed to remain in office one more day?

TeddySanFran @ 124

I’ve been a big proponent of the “Rove’s got pix” theory of the Unitary Executive, but it’s probably more layered than that. Rove’s probably got pix of their loved ones.

Well, between Rove’s pics of what . . . the girl Bush allegedly knocked up and drove across the border to have that little problem taken care of, and Gonzales’ secret Bush DUI files….

Obviously the leaked talk of the rehearsals was a set-up for the actual testimony. In essence, this Harvard-trained lawyer (not a legacy admission) wants to employ the Reagan defense—that at age approximately 50, he’s become a bumbling fool.
I don’t buy it.

Should AbuG listen to Newt?

…of being afraid to talk about the mess you have made, and being afraid to take responsibility for things you have done, and instead foisting upon the rest of us pathetic banalities because you don’t have the courage to look at the world you have created.”

The shoe fits anyway.

Marky @ 127

Obviously the leaked talk of the rehearsals was a set-up for the actual testimony. In essence, this Harvard-trained lawyer (not a legacy admission) wants to employ the Reagan defense—that at age approximately 50, he’s become a bumbling fool.
I don’t buy it.

But, but, but, Abu did a heck of a job.

Darkblack:

!Muy hilarioso!

so.

kathleen @ 123
The only trouble with being an atheist is that you are then a member of the most villified, discriminated-against group in the world. Those testy little religionists can’t let us get a toehold on their monopoly. However, we can “pass,” so as to prevent bodily harm.

Cleveland
The Plain Dealer, Saturday April 21, editorial

“Gonzales Begone”

“Bush should point the attorney general toward the exit, since he probably has forgotten how to find it…..a prosecutor running a grand jury might try to indict on far less foggy a memory bank…..Only two conclusions arise from such testimony. Either Gonzales won’t admit he runs his department, or he actually doesn’t run it. Either way, he needs to go…..It can’t happen soon enough”

Really, too many sticky things. It would put me at ease to have a strong, straight shooter in there who loves the law blindly for all. It is draining not to have confidence in people who are suppose to be giving you confidence.

The Anchorage Daily News does a really good job explaining the USAtty process, and how both Senators were bypassed, ending with:

Gonzales named Cohen to the job in Alaska under a provision inserted into the Patriot Act at the request of the White House when the law was amended by Congress in 2006. It allowed interim U.S. attorney appointments to become permanent without Senate approval.

Eight U.S. attorneys were fired, then replaced under that provision. As the scandal unfolded this year, the House and Senate passed bills restoring the previous selection method, but the bills are slightly different and need to be resolved in a conference committee before they become law. President Bush has said he would sign a final bill. According to a statement from Sen. Stevens’ office, Cohen would then lose his appointment.

oddmommy @ 80

yo Redshift! I was in Jodie Foster’s class too. (and I didn’t know her either). What college were you in?

JE — how about you? (Sorry for the delayed response; I had to do some of my spring cleaning.) Email me at razorsharpwit AT gmail if you like, and we can figure out if we know each other!

From the Israeli news…
Is this Leiberman any relation to to our own Joe Leiberman?

Efrat Weiss

Minister of Strategic Affair Avigdor Leiberman is suspected of accepting bribes, fraud, breach of faith and crimes in violation of laws against money laundering, police sources told Ynet Sunday after and eight-hour probe at the National Unit for Fraud Investigations offices in Bat Yam.

Throughout the day Sunday, a series of private businessmen were questioned on suspicion of involvement in the affair. Some had their premises searched, and in a number of cases materials were confiscated by police.

In the next few days investigators will review the information they have collected.

In his testimony to investigators, Leiberman completely rejected the suspicions against him.

Responding to the probe, Leiberman’s spokespeople declared his innocence and said his testimony should soon clear up the suspicions against him.

“During the past year (Leiberman) turned to the attorney general four times, in writing and in person, demanding to be probed quickly to put the affair behind him. Therefore he is pleased to have been summoned for questioning and hopes this will bring a swift end to the affair,” they said.

The Schlaff link

The lawmaker is suspected of accepting money illegally from Austrian financier Martin Schlaff, who was also the star of the Cyril Kern affair involving the Sharon family.

He is suspected of receiving funds through fictitious accounts registered in Cyprus and failing to report them. Police investigators demanded he account for the money, which was allegedly used to finance Israel Our Home’s last election campaign.

Over the past few months, police from the fraud unit traveled to Cyprus for a judicial inquiry to question witnesses linked to the affair.

Following their findings, Attorney General Menahem Mazuz authorized an investigation into the strategic affairs minister.

Another affair

Simultaneously, a probe into Leiberman has been ongoing since a State Comptroller’s Report in 2000 suggested fiscal irregularities in Israel Our Home’s books.

The comptroller’s report wrote that the party “received a credit line at an Israeli bank for one million dollars. A bank guarantee from a Vienna bank secured the credit line. The Viennese bank received a personal guarantee from a foreign resident as security for the guarantee.”

The ‘foreign resident’ is reportedly Martin Schlaff.

Exactly one year ago, during initial coalition negotiations between Kadima and Israel Our Home, Leiberman asked for the Interior Ministry portfolio. However, Mazuz ruled out the possibility due to the criminal investigation.

Oh those Bulldogs, connecting up and running the world….

Thank you, all.

There were… other pictures, but ‘we must remember the tiny tots’.

;>)

Kathleen @ 123;

My point exactly. My wife’s congregation is very liberal and most of the individuals I have met are fine people. Judaism has its nutcases, just as Christianity and Islam do. My question is, why are they tolerated within their respective religions?

PeteCO @ 138

Kathleen @ 123;

My point exactly. My wife’s congregation is very liberal and most of the individuals I have met are fine people. Judaism has its nutcases, just as Christianity and Islam do. My question is, why are they tolerated within their respective religions?

They’re louder – i.e., the squeeky wheel and all that.

PeteCO @ 138

Kathleen @ 123;

My point exactly. My wife’s congregation is very liberal and most of the individuals I have met are fine people. Judaism has its nutcases, just as Christianity and Islam do. My question is, why are they tolerated within their respective religions?

They are all minions of cultural continuity as long as they profess belief.

84% turnout in France

eCAHNomics @ 131

kathleen @ 123
The only trouble with being an atheist is that you are then a member of the most villified, discriminated-against group in the world. Those testy little religionists can’t let us get a toehold on their monopoly. However, we can “pass,” so as to prevent bodily harm.

Here’s another; what’s the difference between a religion and a cult? As far as I can tell, the answer is longevity. LDS and Scientology must objectively be defined as cults-nobody who hasn’t been brainwashed would buy that nonsense, surely?

FYI, Book Salon is upstairs

Texas Betsy @ 113

trifecta @ 101

You may all look at the baby pictures on the web page. Not that I am a proud pappa or anything.

Very, very cute!!!

cute! cute! cute!

Rayne @ 1.39 said -

Agh. I can see I’m going to have to get out a remedial text on strategy.

The point was to let Gonzales piss on the carpet in such a way that 1) it was obvious to moderate Republicans and the media that Gonzales was a total piece of lying sh*t, that it wasn’t a figment of Democrats’ perspective, while 2) letting Hatch and Cornyn, immersed by conflicts of interest in Gonzales’ stench, each put their foot completely in it, and 3) allow Bush a chance to respond in such a glaringly obviously koo-koo fashion that the Republicans can only shake their heads and ask, When are Dems going to do something about him?
____________________
I *do* love the way your mind works!

More OT stuff…

10 April 2007
The Disappearing Male

A new study from the University of Pittsburgh has found that during the past thirty years, the number of male births has steadily decreased in the U.S. and Japan. Perhaps more worryingly, the study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, also found that an increasing proportion of fetuses that die are male. In Japan, among the fetuses that die, two-thirds are male, up from just over half in 1970.

The study reported an overall decline of 17 males per 10,000 births in the U.S. and a decline of 37 males per 10,000 births in Japan since 1970. Lead investigator Devra Lee Davis said the figures translated to 135,000 fewer males in the U.S. and 127,000 fewer males in Japan.

Davis suggests that environmental factors may be one explanation for the shrinking male birth rate. “The pattern of decline in the ratio of male to female births remains largely unexplained,” she explained. “We know that men who work with some solvents, metals and pesticides father fewer baby boys. We also know that nutritional factors, physical health and chemical exposures of pregnant women affect their ability to have children and the health of their offspring. We suspect that some combination of these factors, along with older age of parents, may account for decreasing male births.”

The study notes that prenatal exposure to endocrine disrupting environmental pollutants may impact the SRY gene – a gene on the Y chromosome that determines the sex of a fertilized egg. Other environmental factors that also may affect the viability of a male fetus include the parents’ weight, nutrition and the use of alcohol and drugs.

“Given the importance of reproduction for the health of any species, the trends we observed in the U.S. and Japan merit concern,” said Davis. “In light of our findings, more detailed studies should be carried out that examine sex ratio in smaller groups with defined exposures as a potential indicator of environmental contamination.”

Related:
Canadian Men An Endangered Species
Environmental Factors Damaging Men’s Reproductive Health
Fertility Risk From Laptop Computers
Reproductive Problems Linked To High Plasticizer Levels
A Penis Doesn’t Always Make A Man

Source: University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

PeteCO @ 142

eCAHNomics @ 131

kathleen @ 123
The only trouble with being an atheist is that you are then a member of the most villified, discriminated-against group in the world. Those testy little religionists can’t let us get a toehold on their monopoly. However, we can “pass,” so as to prevent bodily harm.

Here’s another; what’s the difference between a religion and a cult? As far as I can tell, the answer is longevity. LDS and Scientology must objectively be defined as cults-nobody who hasn’t been brainwashed would buy that nonsense, surely?

My answer to your questions is “I don’t know, but Mormons are on the border.”

jackie @ 146
Not to worry. Read an article that scientists’ve been able to take female spinal (iirc) stem cells & turn them into sperm, so women can go on reproducing forever with or without men. So there.

dakine01 @ 110

EvilDrPuma @ 103 says:

Thanks for making me feel better. I didn’t remember that it was different for the House.

I think that’s one of the rules that varies by state.

IIRC, the only thing that varies by state is the time frame for calling the special election and perhaps who calls it (normally the Governor). This is for House vacancies. Senators are appointed by the Gov. for the balance of the term.

eCAHNomics
jackie @ 146
Not to worry. Read an article that scientists’ve been able to take female spinal (iirc) stem cells & turn them into sperm, so women can go on reproducing forever with or without men. So there.

LOL…as the mother of four boys and three grandsons, I’m not too worried about me…..:)

First to last…

The photos I have a curiousity about are still apparently not published for our consumption yet:

Josh Bolten’s office wall:

His wall collection of Bush photos, typical throughout the White House complex, is unique. The pictures focus exclusively on Bush’s hands at key moments in his presidency. Not a single photo of Bush’s face can be found.

PeteCO @ 141

eCAHNomics @ 131

kathleen @ 123
The only trouble with being an atheist is that you are then a member of the most villified, discriminated-against group in the world. Those testy little religionists can’t let us get a toehold on their monopoly. However, we can “pass,” so as to prevent bodily harm.

Here’s another; what’s the difference between a religion and a cult? As far as I can tell, the answer is longevity. LDS and Scientology must objectively be defined as cults-nobody who hasn’t been brainwashed would buy that nonsense, surely?

I think there’s a nexus of longevity and number of adherents. At some point (well) beyond the death of the founder, a cult becomes mainstream.

Blank Kludge @ 150

First to last…

The photos I have a curiousity about are still apparently not published for our consumption yet:

Josh Bolten’s office wall:

His wall collection of Bush photos, typical throughout the White House complex, is unique. The pictures focus exclusively on Bush’s hands at key moments in his presidency. Not a single photo of Bush’s face can be found.

Odd for an unmarried man in his 50s to fetishize (there is no other word) any body part of his Leader, eh?

TeddySanFran @ 153

Blank Kludge @ 150

First to last…

The photos I have a curiousity about are still apparently not published for our consumption yet:

Josh Bolten’s office wall:

His wall collection of Bush photos, typical throughout the White House complex, is unique. The pictures focus exclusively on Bush’s hands at key moments in his presidency. Not a single photo of Bush’s face can be found.

Odd for an unmarried man in his 50s to fetishize (there is no other word) any body part of his Leader, eh?

I reach no conclusions w/o seeing the evidence itself. But, there is ample room for ‘rampant speculation’…

Can’t some enterprising cub reporter score a lil sit down and surreptisiously snap a phone cam image? I mean, it is ‘out there’ – why no visual confirmation?

-ck- @67
“On the NewsHour, Arlen Specter said the Congress shouldn’t bother with investigations, because they take so long and the poor preznit only has a year and a half left.”

How does that man live with himself? He articulates situations and implications clearly and displays appropriate disapproval. Later (like L Graham), he folds on any ole flimsy pretext. Always. Ego or disdain?

SunnyNobility @ 155

-ck- @67
“On the NewsHour, Arlen Specter said the Congress shouldn’t bother with investigations, because they take so long and the poor preznit only has a year and a half left.”

How does that man live with himself? He articulates situations and implications clearly and displays appropriate disapproval. Later (like L Graham), he folds on any ole flimsy pretext. Always. Ego or disdain?

I can’t figure him out.
He owes favors and tries to cover with the wiffle-waffle?

Poor Bolten, he still thinks the president has hand.

-GSD

the words “bush” and “sex” should never be uttered in the same sentence. god!!! it makes me shudder to think of it.

@51

Didn’t one of the professors barricade the door and get killed for his efforts? Why doesn’t that count? His wiow said she got all these messages from his students saying he saved their lives.

SunnyNobility @ 154

-ck- @67
“On the NewsHour, Arlen Specter said the Congress shouldn’t bother with investigations, because they take so long and the poor preznit only has a year and a half left.”

How does that man live with himself? He articulates situations and implications clearly and displays appropriate disapproval. Later (like L Graham), he folds on any ole flimsy pretext. Always. Ego or disdain?

Spectre has always acted entirely consistently: watch what I say, not what I do. This has been his behavior since, I have read, he staffed the Warren Commission investigation into JFK’s assassination. He has always served the powerful by pretending to dissent, and then capitulating. He is an extraordinary utility for them in this role. Unfortunately, his long career and the never-forgetful memory of the blogosphere may be his undoing.

ruffian @ 159

@51

Didn’t one of the professors barricade the door and get killed for his efforts? Why doesn’t that count? His wiow said she got all these messages from his students saying he saved their lives.

Yes, the gentleman was a holocaust survivor. I also read that another professor managed to get some students from one classroom into his office where he locked them in before going back out and getting killed.

ruffian @ 158

@51

Didn’t one of the professors barricade the door and get killed for his efforts? Why doesn’t that count? His wiow said she got all these messages from his students saying he saved their lives.

This was the Holocaust survivor, yes? Therefore exempt from the general criticism of the wussified, university-feminized, unprotective, uninspired-by-United-Flight-93 21st century American male students, I imagine.

TeddySanFran @ 162

ruffian @ 158

@51

Didn’t one of the professors barricade the door and get killed for his efforts? Why doesn’t that count? His wiow said she got all these messages from his students saying he saved their lives.

This was the Holocaust survivor, yes? Therefore exempt from the general criticism of the wussified, university-feminized, unprotective, uninspired-by-United-Flight-93 21st century American male students, I imagine.

I’d like to see what they’d do if we had a draft. How dodgy would these big-stuffs be then?

Ruffin @ 159

i believe the selfless actions that ProfessorLiviu Librescu who was a Holocaust survivor if I correct) showed the true sense of courage that can not be reduced in any manner.

Elliott @ 163

TeddySanFran @ 162

ruffian @ 158

@51

Didn’t one of the professors barricade the door and get killed for his efforts? Why doesn’t that count? His wiow said she got all these messages from his students saying he saved their lives.

This was the Holocaust survivor, yes? Therefore exempt from the general criticism of the wussified, university-feminized, unprotective, uninspired-by-United-Flight-93 21st century American male students, I imagine.

I’d like to see what they’d do if we had a draft. How dodgy would these big-stuffs be then?

I’m sure they’d find they had “other priorities”.

vieravisonary @ 164

Ruffin @ 159

i believe the selfless actions that ProfessorLiviu Librescu who was a Holocaust survivor if I correct) showed the true sense of courage that can not be reduced in any manner.

the horrific bookends of a prized life

PeteCO @ 165

Elliott @ 163

I’d like to see what they’d do if we had a draft. How dodgy would these big-stuffs be then?

I’m sure they’d find they had “other priorities”.

Who knows, maybe we’ll find out, I’ll be able to hear the squealing from here!

A news update from Israel for MrsCo.

Ultra Orthodox suspected in anti-gay bombing.

-GSD

Elliott @ 166

vieravisonary @ 164

Ruffin @ 159

i believe the selfless actions that Professor Liviu Librescu who was a Holocaust survivor (if I amcorrect) showed the true sense of courage that can not be reduced in any manner.

the horrific bookends of a prized life

That is so true Elliott . . . but it also shows that individuals of selfless love and devotion can do great things in the most difficult of situations

Elliott @
166

vieravisonary @ 164

Ruffin @ 159

i believe the selfless actions that ProfessorLiviu Librescu who was a Holocaust survivor if I correct) showed the true sense of courage that can not be reduced in any manner.

the horrific bookends of a prized life

Maybe a little cold, but it would allow him to die knowing that he DID have a reason to survive the Holocaust, which I’ve read is a thought that has bothered many survivors.

dakine01 @ 170

Elliott @
166

vieravisonary @ 164

Ruffin @ 159

i believe the selfless actions that ProfessorLiviu Librescu who was a Holocaust survivor if I correct) showed the true sense of courage that can not be reduced in any manner.

the horrific bookends of a prized life

Maybe a little cold, but it would allow him to die knowing that he DID have a reason to survive the Holocaust, which I’ve read is a thought that has bothered many survivors.

Interesting viewpoint and one I will think about in the future. Thank you!

GSD @ 168

A news update from Israel for MrsCo.

Ultra Orthodox suspected in anti-gay bombing.

-GSD

Yep. They all have them.

Is it safe? Well, I’m throwing this out there for consideration. I wondered about guns receipts in the backpack. Who’s credit card was used? Is there info on that?

Then, there’s this today from AP:

Killer may have bought on eBay
Ammunition clips purchased on site

By Adam Geller and Chris Kahn, Associated Press | April 22, 2007

BLACKSBURG, Va. — An eBay account that investigators believe may have belonged to the Virginia Tech killer was used to buy two ammunition clips for the type of gun used in the rampage, according to the auction site.

The eBay account holder with the handle Blazers5505 also sold several books with violent themes and tickets to Virginia Tech football games and lists Blacksburg as his address.

A search warrant affidavit filed Friday stated that investigators wanted to search Seung-Hui Cho’s e-mail accounts, including the address Blazers5505@hotmail.com.

The account holder recently bought two 10-round magazines for the Walther P22, one of the weapons used in the massacre. The clips were bought from a gun shop in Idaho.

He also sold a graphics calculator that contained several games, and bought many books about violence, death, and mayhem.

[snip]

…They also hope to glean any relevant information from his e-mail and that of Emily Hilscher, one of the first two victims.

“Seung-Hui Cho is known to have communicated by cellular telephone and may have communicated with others concerning his plans to carry out attacks on students and faculty at Virginia Tech,” police wrote Friday in an affidavit seeking records from Verizon Wireless. Another possible clue: his phone calls home to his parents. The affidavit says Cho made frequent Sunday night calls home.

Police also sought warrants for Virginia Tech e-mail records in seeking a connection between Cho and Hilscher, who was killed at West Ambler Johnston Hall.

Hilscher’s roomie denies any known connection. Why aren’t they looking for a connection to Ryan, the other original vic? Or, maybe these are two separate unrelated incidents, with more than one perp. Just a possibility.

Oh, and about warrants. So quaint in post-9.11 U.S. and the PatAct and PatActII. Just ask the NSA for a printout.

If you haven’t seen this sermon of Pastor Hagee set to music and visuals, it’s a humdinger.

Especially when you find out that John McCain has been courting him.

-GSD

This house has sure gone crazy.

Check this out from Sid Blumenthal at Salon re: Bush and Rove’s efforts to dismantle the executive, the DOJ included. http://www.salon.com/opinion/b…..index.html

vieravisonary @ 169

That is so true Elliott . . . but it also shows that individuals of selfless love and devotion can do great things in the most difficult of situations

yes, you’re right. Oh, that he survived his first travail to sacrifice his life for others in a second terror.

Someday we will be able to read his biography, a thoughtful one. An inspiration.

Elliott @ 176

vieravisonary @ 169

That is so true Elliott . . . but it also shows that individuals of selfless love and devotion can do great things in the most difficult of situations

yes, you’re right. Oh, that he survived his first travail to sacrifice his life for others in a second terror.

Someday we will be able to read his biography, a thoughtful one. An inspiration.

This is what came to my mind:
““Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13

It is so true regardless of religion or belief. This was a true offering of love that few can understand and do.

Now that Governor Kaine has enlisted Tom Ridge to conduct the post-event analysis, I am sure he can sort out their silly use of warrants in the current investigation. Charming, that.

Ridge is an on-the-face absurd choice for Kaine, imho, since he’s corrupted by his abuse of the color-coded terror alert to enhance the BushCo image. Since so many questions about the campus police & administration performance that horrific day go directly to the University’s image, Ridge may have more to contribute than meets the eye.

TeddySanFran @ 136

Oh those Bulldogs, connecting up and running the world….

ahem. I’m about as “connected” as an abandoned railroad car. : )

And OH did I detest the “connected” old money elite that spawns the likes of W, in my New Haven years….

GSD @ 174

If you haven’t seen this sermon of Pastor Hagee set to music and visuals, it’s a humdinger.

Especially when you find out that John McCain has been courting him.

-GSD

This house has sure gone crazy.

I can’t believe I just spent 9 minutes watching that. It’s a joke, right? It looked like a Python skit with Terry Gilliam animations.

oddmommy @ 179

TeddySanFran @ 136

Oh those Bulldogs, connecting up and running the world….

ahem. I’m about as “connected” as an abandoned railroad car. : )

And OH did I detest the “connected” old money elite that spawns the likes of W, in my New Haven years….

Sorry, did not mean to offend. Just an Ephman here, surrounded by brother and Dad Elis. Meant in the spirit of kidding from another unconnected one, despite the appearance of legacies in my family tree.

Quick, turn on NBC — they’re going to do a news bit and they showed Sheryl Crowe…tivo time?

kathleen — just to be clear, I wasn’t suggesting that Judaism doesn’t have its share of radical hate-spewers and worse like the ones you’ve encountered…I just meant that — to the best of my knowledge — there is no branch of Judaism that advocates “converting” people, i.e., proseletyzing, forcibly or otherwise. That distinguishes Jewish “fundies” from the ideology, if not the methodology, of their Xtianist and Islamic counterparts.

Sorry, did not mean to offend. Just an Ephman here, surrounded by brother and Dad Elis. Meant in the spirit of kidding from another unconnected one, despite the appearance of legacies in my family tree.

no offense taken….took it in the spirit of kidding, meant response likewise.
But what’s an “Ephman”?

TeddySanFran @ 178

Now that Governor Kaine has enlisted Tom Ridge to conduct the post-event analysis, I am sure he can sort out their silly use of warrants in the current investigation. Charming, that.

Ridge is an on-the-face absurd choice for Kaine, imho, since he’s corrupted by his abuse of the color-coded terror alert to enhance the BushCo image. Since so many questions about the campus police & administration performance that horrific day go directly to the University’s image, Ridge may have more to contribute than meets the eye.

Ridge was there as Governor when Pensylvania brought in Enron

Oh my, I’ll never get that nine minutes of my life back from “Rev” Hagee either. Someone in his IT department is entirely too fond of their page-transition-effects key, methinks.

Eph = Williams College, founded by a bequest from the will Ephraim Williams in the northwestern forests of Mass.

TeddySanFran @ 186

Eph = Williams College, founded by a bequest from the will Ephraim Williams in the northwestern forests of Mass.

Good Ephraim made good use of his money!

OK kiddo @ 20

Also all over the lower-income areas of cities. They target mostly people without bank accounts.

beyond the book salon, there is a new thread

TSF:

I’m in the general Williams area of WMass, so I had a vague idea about this:
http://www.williams.edu/athlet…..p?sport=10

By virtue of the perfect season in 2006, the Ephs will carry a 14-game win streak into the 2007 season opener at Bowdoin.

I’ll look for a rematch to even this hockey result this year:
http://www.uscho.com/box/?date…..p;gender=m

Honorary Salem State Viking non-alum. Used to have rivalries w/Union, Merrimac and Lowell.

Elliott @ 167

PeteCO @ 165

Elliott @ 163

I’d like to see what they’d do if we had a draft. How dodgy would these big-stuffs be then?

I’m sure they’d find they had “other priorities”.

Who knows, maybe we’ll find out, I’ll be able to hear the squealing from here!

Perhaps they might have a case of Rush disease on their bottom sides? Or they could pull a bUSH and enlist but not show up of course if they do that then they would have to run for gov or Texas or POTUS!

Watertiger might consider gvim editor in the future:
71i I don’t recall [ESC]

and it’s done.

“Just the place for a Snark!” the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.
“Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What i tell you three times is true.”

How Lewis Carroll has the hunting party imagine the unimaginable

There are several different varieties of snark. Some have feathers and bite, and some have whiskers and scratch. Some are Boojums, which appear a more dangerous kind. When a baker met with this variety, he softly and suddenly vanished away and was never met with again.
The taste of the snark is meager and hollow, but crisp (apparently like a coat that is too tight in the waist), with a flavor of Will-o-the-wisp. It is sometimes served with greens. It also sleeps late into the day. While the snark is very ambitious, and has very little sense of humor, it is very fond of bathing-machines, and constantly carries them about wherever it goes. It is also handy for striking a light.
The domain of the snark is an island filled with chasms and crags, many months’ sail from England. On the same island may also be found other creatures such as the Jubjub and Bandersnatch. It is the same island where the Jabberwock was slain. The snark is a peculiar creature that cannot be captured in a commonplace way. Above all, courage is required during a snark hunt. The most common method is to seek it with thimbles, care, forks and hope. One may also ‘threaten its life with a railway share’ or ‘charm it with smiles and soap’.

I’m in one of those moods this evening. Va Tech is near my place of birth and early schooling. Such a sad story that English professors did not know this person’s name or remember seeing him, a senior. And while we clearly know he was delusional and was killing classmates, there appears to be little concern that Bush is delusional, is killing Iraqis and wants to see many more US soldiers killed. The VA Tech student did not listen or speak to others, sounds a lot like Bush, who uses soldiers for his backdrops. If the Dems bail out on legislation for benchmarks and a timeline, I’m bailing out on the Dems.

Does anyone remember what (then) Atty General Reno did after Waco? “It was mishandled, and ultimately, it’s my fault.”

I would LOVE to see a blogger track down a video of that press conference or her appearance before Congress and then play it alongside Gonzalez’ testimony.

Come on, you diggers! It has to be out there somewhere.

Clothed in but a fig leaf, I wear Nothing Improper, because Nothing Improper occurred.

http://www.nothingimproper.com