Ballet Day

and why was he here?

Eduardo Galeano

"I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America above all and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."

Galeano is widely known for his memorable quote, regarding the civilian-military administration of 1973-1985:

'People were in prison so that prices could be free'

During an interview with Amy Goodman on the night of Barack Obama's election as President of the United States, Galeano explained that

'The White House will be Barack Obama's house in the time coming, but this White House was built by black slaves. And I’d like, I hope, that he never, never forgets this.'

(Following the creation of TeleSUR, a pan-Latin American television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2005 Galeano along with other left-wing intellectuals such as Tariq Ali and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel joined the network's 36 member advisory committee.)

"'The national liberal media gets so snarky, it can’t stand itself', Dobbs said. 'Then all these too cute by half ideologues trying to pose as some sort of objective journalists. You know, these fools, start falling off their little high horses – it’s fun to me. But, I’m pretty sure you’re going to see a lot more snarky little nastiness coming out of the national liberal media."

Project much Lou?

"this machine kills fascists"

very artsy, and the kid is so cute

"Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World"--

"People are focusing on the past," says one General. "We are focusing on the future."

Today’s apologists for the U.S. Army's School of the Americas, the infamous training grounds for Latin American soldiers at Fort Benning, Georgia, do not try to deny their past sins. They no longer bother with disavowing their many graduates who went on to lead death squads in the "dirty wars" of the 1970s and 80s.

Instead they emphasize how much things have changed since the time when torture techniques were part of the curriculum.

They charge skeptics who doubt their newly humanized mission with fixating on a bygone age: "People are focusing on the past," says one General. "We are focusing on the future."
http://www.voiceoftheturtle.org/show_article.php?aid=260

Does this mean I have to set up the chairs?

He and Beck should combine their shows. That would be beautiful.

Hi, All!

Reposting to try to catch up...
=====================================

New York Times coverage by Scott Shane:

"The legal basis for this treatment [of Zubaydah (and others?)] is uncertain, but lawyers at CIA headquarters were in constant contact [emphasis added] with interrogators, as well as with Bybee's subordinate in the Office of Legal Counsel, John Yoo, who was drafting memos on the legal limits of interrogation."

=============================

So John Yoo was sitting in his bureaucrat's cubbyhole and was literally -- in REAL TIME -- there with the torture process. John Yoo HAS to be in the sadist category on this -- that category in which the sick individual gets excited not about wholesomeness and affection and beauty in Life, but only gets excited about Life from its proximity to Death.

John Yoo and F(r)iends remind me of those researchers whose unchecked curiosity gets to pathological states: Curiosity without limits always asks "What will happen if I do this?" and never asks the question within the framework of Morality! This is the usual Vivisectors' Code. Just as it makes Bad Science, it makes Bad Law.

John Yoo gives us the Chimera of Sadism -- Law and Vivisection (Torture) from his DOJ office where we can only guess how much sick enjoyment he experienced from his tasks of justifying torture. Yoo has invented a new profession that combines Law and Vivisection.

Is Barack Obama in favor of this development? His defense of the torturers and promise to protect them indicates his unwillingness to clean up the filth left by Bush in our government institutions. This indicates an acceptance of the New Law of John Yoo, does it not? And, if not, WHAT does it indicate? Obama should make clear soon what his intentions are, or we'll be justified putting him in the company of John Yoo and F(r)iends!

Everly Brothers, Walk Right Back

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDv8m2N-qdk&feature=PlayList&p=B7FB075688...

Happy Saturday Spring Day!

beautiful day here in Chicago! :)

Oh shit, I need to make a marinade! Grilling tonite!

"this machine kills fascists"

Spain: No torture probe of US staff

Spanish prosecutors have recommended against an investigation into allegations that six senior members of the administration of George Bush, the former US president, gave legal cover for the torture of "terror" suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

On Thursday, Candido Conde-Pumpido, Spain's attorney-general, said he would not support an investigation against the officials, including Alberto Gonzales, his former US counterpart.

It comes after assurances to CIA operatives by Barack Obama, the US president, that they would not be prosecuted for using waterboarding and other harsh forms of interrogation on suspects.

ERIC HOLDER, US ATTORNEY-GENERAL, ALSO OFFERED THEM LEGAL HELP IF ANYONE ELSE TAKES THEM TO COURT

over methods approved during Bush's presidency.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/04/2009417122346647673.htm...

Dear ,
On Thursday, President Obama stood up to intense pressure from rightwingers by releasing four of the infamous "torture memos." This is an enormous victory for those of us who worked so hard to elect President Obama, while also working tirelessly to defend the Constitution against the crimes of Bush and Cheney.
Unfortunately, President Obama also said he would not prosecute CIA agents who engaged in torture, simply because George Bush's lawyers told them it was "legal." President Obama also said Attorney General Eric Holder would use taxpayer dollars to defend torturers against lawsuits by torture victims, and to pay all judgments if they lost.
Tell Congress: No Amnesty for Torturers
http://www.democrats.com/no-amnesty-for-torturers
These decisions are intolerable and unacceptable. Torture is utterly immoral and un-American. It produced absolutely no useful intelligence . It recruited terrorists responsible for at least half the U.S. deaths in Iraq . And it endangered every U.S. soldier who may be captured in the future.
And torture is absolutely illegal. The U.S. ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture , which prohibits torture and requires prosecution of torturers. In 1947, the U.S. prosecuted a Japanese officer for waterboarding. No lawyer can "legalize" what is illegal.
Congress must take the following actions:
1. Demand the appointment of a Special Prosecutor by Attorney General Eric Holder for torture, warrantless wiretapping, and other heinous crimes of the Bush Administration. (Thanks to Rep. Jerrold Nadler for leading the way !)
2. Prohibit the use of any taxpayer dollars to defend government officials who committed such crimes against lawsuits, or to pay for judgments against them.
3. Impeach Judge Jay Bybee, the torture memo author who serves on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California.
4. Protect human rights by restoring Habeas Corpus and the Fourth Amendment (search and seizure), including repeal of the Orwellian-named Protect America Act, U.S.A. Patriot Act, the FISA Amendments, and Military Commissions Act.
5. End secret government by prohibiting use of "State Secrets," "Sovereign Immunity" and "Signing Statements."
Sign our Petition to Congress: No Amnesty for Torturers
http://www.democrats.com/no-amnesty-for-torturers
Through your patience and persistence, we are moving ever closer towards the restoration of the Constitution and the Rule of Law in the nation we love.
Thanks for all you do!
Bob Fertik
#####

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517033,00.html

The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government, the Times of London reported.

Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack.

Two nationwide civil defence drills will help to prepare the public for the retaliation that Israel could face. ...cont'd

I might have been mistaken... :(

Submitted by 60th Street on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 6:12pm.
beautiful day here in Chicago! :)
--------
Where are you really?

Some info on joblessness:

Jobless Rate Climbs in 46 States, With California at 11.2%

California and North Carolina in March posted their highest jobless rates in at least three decades, as unemployment increased in all but a handful of states during the month, the Labor Department said Friday.

California's unemployment rate jumped to 11.2% in March, while North Carolina rose to 10.8%, the highest for both since the U.S. government began a comprehensive tally of state joblessness in 1976.

The state-by-state employment figures showed only a few states avoiding the deterioration seen nationwide. Unemployment rose in 46 states during the month, and 12 states plus the District of Columbia posted unemployment rates in March that were significantly higher than the 8.5% nationwide figure the government released earlier this month.

The chief economist for California's finance department, Howard Roth, said the state's unemployment rate hasn't been this high since reaching 11.7% in January 1941. The highest level on record in California is 14.7% in October 1940, he said.

California lost 62,100 jobs in March, with Florida next at 51,900 jobs lost, Texas at 47,100 and North Carolina at 41,300, according to the federal figures.

California, the nation's most-populous state, has been hit particularly hard by the housing-market crash. That led to major job losses in the construction and financial industries. "We did it bigger in terms of the housing bubble," Mr. Roth said. "You pay for that by falling farther."

Still, the latest figures offered a "glimmer of hope," he said. March losses were about half the 114,000 jobs shed in February, a sign that the pace of decline in California's job market may be slowing.

Most economists expect job losses across all U.S. nonfarm employers to continue in April at or near the rapid pace seen in March, when 663,000 jobs disappeared.

More :

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123998769476529637.html

Public Provides Giggles; Bloggers Get the Book Deal
By JENNA WORTHAM
Publishers are hoping that millions of page views on a blog will translate into booming sales on the bookstand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/technology/internet/18blog.html?th&emc...

NASCAR is running the Sprint Cup in about 30 min in what will end a night race in Phoenix (only happens a couple of times a year). It's a tough course that sucks cars into walls. I hope Tony Stewart in the Old Spice car loses to Bobbie Labontte's Ask.com 96 car but nobody knows right now.

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho – The Aryan Nations has returned to northern Idaho with what it is calling a "world headquarters" and a recruitment campaign.

Coeur d'Alene resident Jerald O'Brien, who has a large swastika tattoo on his scalp, is one of the leaders of the white supremacist group and said he expects membership to grow because of the election of President Barack Obama.

He told The Spokesman-Review newspaper that the president is the "greatest recruiting tool ever."

Residents of a Coeur d'Alene subdivision found recruitment fliers on their lawns Friday and O'Brien said more fliers will be distributed. He said the group has "several handfuls" of members in the city.

The fliers show a young girl asking her father "Why did those dark men take mommy away?"

But many in the region reject the group.

"I saw Aryan Nations and put it in the trash," said Garvin Jones. "What's wrong with these people? Give me a break. I bet if you went back in their family history, not one is 100 percent white."

The newspaper reported that most people interviewed about the fliers declined to be identified for fear of retribution.

The Aryan Nations had a compound in northern Idaho until 2000, when the group lost a $6.3 million civil judgment in favor of two people who sued after being attacked by Aryan Nations' members.

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations has fought the Aryan Nations for decades and is offering its services to anyone threatened or harassed by the group.

"It's bound to be a small group of people trying once again to bring hate into the community," said Tony Stewart, a spokesman for the task force. "They don't have anywhere to operate from except a post office box."

O'Brien said he regularly flies two white supremacist flags outside his home on the east side of the city.

The newspaper reported that its files show O'Brien marching in a neo-Nazi parade in Coeur d'Alene in July 2004 and joining in a skinhead rally that drew eight people outside the Spokane County courthouse in Spokane, Wash., in June 2007.

O'Brien said he and Michael Lombard have taken over the group following longtime leader Richard Butler, who died in 2004.

The fliers are signed "Aryan Nations, Church of Jesus Christ Christian." O'Brien and Lombard are listed on the group's Web site as "pastors."

At least two residents who received the fliers called the Coeur d'Alene Police Department. Sgt. Christie Wood said no investigation is planned because distribution of fliers is protected free speech.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_re_us/aryan_nations

I know nobody here cares but...
Submitted by Fernando on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 7:41pm.
------
I know nobody there cares but I have been tweaking my homemade, Rube Goldberg, temporary, manually rotated, tomato-can-and-bailing-wire TV antenna (eat your heart out, Sunny J).

I sorta had to get a little serious about it because the only CBS affiliate anywhere near here went totally digital on April 17th, which means that I can't go to sleep lulled by Letterman unless I devise a functional way to receive digital broadcasts.

Thanks to the Internets tubes and a sense of direction (and a heap of antenna junk), I have located a shitload of very weak channels and subchannels on digital frequencies...but they are on the compass at 45, 92, 183, 196 and 340 degrees from here. Channel surfing includes running outside and back inside to turn the antenna and read the strength meter. I have a few channels programmed into the scan that I've only seen once for a few minutes. Most of the time their signals are too weak.

Making matters worse is that a few of the frequencies are VHF which is on one end of my boom-type antenna and the rest are UHF which is on the other end of the antenna.

What it boils down to (absent a motorized rotor), is I have access to this, this, and this channel or I can adjust the antenna and surf that, that, and that channel. I don't know what the hell is going to happen when the leaves come on the trees.

It kinda reminds me of the old tube (not transistor) television days when you had to get up and bang the top of the television to get a clear picture, except I have to go outside and aim my antenna like a howitzer.

How does this relate to Fernando's racing enthusiasm? Today I found a Fox subchannel broadcasting out of Arkansas.

Inbox...
Submitted by cent on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 6:32pm

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

I hope that this is the guy recruiting for the Aryan nations in Idaho, rather than a genuine movement

http://www.spinwatch.org/-news-by-category-mainmenu-9/276-dirty-tricks/4...

is both of their activities involve things going round 'n round.

Crank when there's a strong wind out of the west, point your antennae array toward OKC, see if you can't get KWTV.

Some people just live "The Fabulous Life".. ;)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Federal authorities aren't looking to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation's networks.

General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could "think like the bad guy." Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems.

In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will increase the number of cyberexperts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011.

With warnings that the U.S. is ill-prepared for a cyberattack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology to protect everything from the electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems, and nuclear launch codes.

President Barack Obama appointed a former Bush administration aide, Melissa Hathaway, to head the effort, and her report was delivered Friday, the White House said.

While the country had detailed plans for floods, fires or errant planes drifting into protected airspace, there is no similar response etched out for a major computer attack.

David Powner, director of technology issues for the Government Accountability Office, told Congress last month that the U.S. has no recovery plan for a digital disaster.

"We're clearly not as prepared as we should be," he said.

Administration officials says the U.S. has not kept pace with technological innovations needed to protect its computer networks against emerging threats from hackers, criminals or other nations looking for national security secrets.

U.S. computer networks, including those at the Pentagon and other federal agencies, are under persistent attack, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious assaults, possibly from other nations, such as China. Industry leaders told Congress during a recent hearing that law enforcement and other protections are too outdated to fend off threats from criminals, terrorists and unfriendly foreign nations.

Just last week, a former government official revealed that spies had hacked into the U.S. electric grid and left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service. The intrusions were discovered after electric companies gave the government permission to audit their systems, said the ex-official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

More here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_cyber_security_12

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/18/AR200904...

Five Bodies Found in Frederick County Home

MIDDLETOWN--Homicide came to this tiny town in northwest Maryland today for the first time in more than two decades, when police were called to a bright yellow house where they found the bodies of a mother, a father and their three small children...

...According to the Frederick News-Post, Billotti-Wood's parents were founding members of the Holy Family Catholic Community parish in Middletown, and the young mother taught religious education there, the Rev. Kevin Farmer told the city newspaper. He said he had last seen them a week ago, on Easter Sunday...
----------------------------
Have you ever read that the killer was an avowed atheist or agnostic? Even the nutcake Charles Manson was into some kind of satanic sick-fuck shit.

I wonder how the crazed killer statistics play out as a ratio of a given group? Are there similar percentages of deadly Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists/agnostics/don't-care's?

Just incase you missed this earlier..
An attempt at humor.. :)

http://samsedershow.com/node/4663#comment-327459

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Submitted by maggiesboy on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 8:24pm.
...point your antennae array toward OKC, see if you can't get KWTV.
----------
In my before-life around here (late 1970's and early 1980's) and recently, when the conditions are right, I have pulled-in some Tulsa channels on analog. I haven't tried to zero in on Tulsa digital channels yet. Oklahoma City is a lot farther away. It is well-over the curve of the horizon.

All I really want to see on television is Letterman and Saturday Night Live because they both air when I don't want to be sitting in front of a computer.

I am afraid that I will have to invest in an NSA-like antennae array with amps and boosters and rotators and electronic steroids and laser beams just to see the local newscast. Then a tree limb will drop and crush the aluminum like a beer can.

Fernando---When they tease you about watching overweight NASCAR billboards lumbering around and around, you can tell them that I got up at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday morning when I lived in the Caribbean so I could watch Formula 1 races live. If that isn't dedication, I don't know what is.

President Obama says he'll begin making good on his promise to cut wasteful spending on Monday. When he meets with his full Cabinet for the first time that day, the president will ask each one to come up with specific cuts for their department, Bloomberg reports. “We are on an unsustainable course,” Obama said in his weekly radio address, referring to ballooning debt and deficits. “All across America, families are making hard choices, and it’s time their government did the same.”

Obama pledged that dozens of government programs would get the ax in coming weeks. The president named a chief performance officer to help with efficiency: Jeffrey Zients, a former executive with the Advisory Board Co., a consulting and research firm. He also named Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra as his long-awaited pick to be the nation's first chief technology officer.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3R_838tpZb4&refer=h...

Today is Natl Record Store day, go buy a record from your favorite store and keep it real.

One more thing about radio/TV reception.

I live in an A frame so most of the walls are roof. When the composition shingles became worn I researched buying and installing a steel roof.

Everyone, every-fucking-one, said "Naw, it doesn't affect radio and TV reception." They all acted like I was some kind of goof for asking.

They were chock-full of bullshit. Maybe it doesn't make much difference if the roof is up above and not all around, but I'm here to tell you that living inside of a steel enclosure definitely affects signal strength.

(And, yes, I DID try to use the roof as an antenna. If it can be done, I didn't discover how.)

Natl Record Store day
new
Submitted by myrtletickner on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 8:55pm.
*******

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

I think I mentioned the pond comets I was putting in it and the death of last years koi and looking at the decomposing body embedded in the mud.

It wasn't decomposing. The fish was hibernating in the muck at the bottom of the pond. I see 2 of my 3 koi today along with the baby comets. The other one is black so it's hard to find.

http://www.goobertech.net/node/1906

That DHS report -- what an unnecessary piece of fear-mongering. What a waste of time that could have been spent on actual Law Enforcement. (Fear-mongering? Wasn't that supposed to be just a Bushworld tool? Look again!)

This report is an attempt to throw a bone at those who voted for change. This stuff about White Supremacists being thugs and crazies is nothing new. It is OLD NEWS. If these people break the law, then enforce the law; put the lawbreakers to trial and punishment. There's no need for the High Drama of a report like this one from the DHS, UNLESS it is being thrown at us as if to tell us, "Be Afraid" and "Get ready for some media blood sport when we give you another Media Madness Event like Ruby Ridge (Dem-style) or the Burning of eleven MOVE members (Rep-style)". Egad, the Oligarchy is SO OBVIOUS in their Media Bread & Circuses Diversions of the Masses, it's disgusting.

(I'd forgotten about the MOVE mass murder, until a friend reminded me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE )

Isn't anyone else tired of these repetitious efforts to MANIPULATE We The People??? They want to play us like we're rats in a cage with electrodes in our heads. It is beyond obvious since they've been doing it for soooo long now!

It is a diversion from what REALLY needs to be done, stuff that needs to get done like these:

o Repeal the Patriot Act

o End torture policies AND prosecute torturers and return the USA to the Human Race!

o Reinstate "habeus corpus" and "posse comitatus" and return this nation to the Civilized world!

o Break DHS into workable parts as separate institutions that can be AUDITED, with Directors who can be reviewed and fired if necessary.

o Get that NAZI term "homeland" OUT of the American governmental lexicon!

o Stop the unwarranted NSA-TelecomCorporate spying on Americans and REPEAL the domestic spying and immunity FISA legislation.

o Repeal GAT, NAFTA, CAFTA and the other outsourcing trickery of the globalization freaksters.

o Institute fair taxation policies. Tax the rich and make them pay their fair share. No more free ride for the Rich on our backs.

o Dump and crush the corruptible hitech voting machinery like one would do to recalled defective deathtrap vehicles. Don't let orrupt, hackable election machinery keep killing democracy!

o FINALLY investigate 9/11 with honesty and thoroughness.

o STOP rewarding the Banksters with bail-outs and deals! PROSECUTE the Banksters for their crimes and scams!

o Preserve Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, and get on track to EXPAND Medicare to cover EVERY U.S. citizen. Quit footdragging. Quit allowing Insurance Companies to call the shots. Quit using the epithet "entitlements"! Just give us not-for-profiteering healthcare!

And I know this list isn't complete!

And yet, DHS is trying to make a stir about old news. Enough fear-mongering propaganda already. Just use law enforcenment and take care of lawbreakers that way. Quit the disgustingly transparent "whip the public into a frenzy" routine, used so The People stay distracted. Egad!

on one of the stages of the french quarter festival

http://www.nola.com/fqfest/cam/index.ssf?video

http://www.nola.com/

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Saturday, Apr. 18 2009
ST. LOUIS A rally by about 70 members of the National Socialist Movement under
the Gateway Arch this afternoon ended about 3 p.m. with only one incident.

St. Louis police arrested a man who was breaking through a barrier where the
neo-Nazis were preparing for the start of the rally. The man, shouting
profanities at the few National Socialist Movement members, was tackled by
police, handcuffed and taken from the scene.

The incident occurred just before 1:30 p.m. The rally got under way about 2
p.m., with neo-Nazis marching into the sequestered area. They shouted "USA!
USA!," "Immigrants Go Home!" and "Seig Heil."

Their stiff-armed Nazi salutes were greeted by obscenities and extended
middle-fingers from some of the 150 counter-demonstrators and observers who
gathered outside barricades that the National Park Service had erected. About
40 Park Service rangers and St. Louis police officers were on hand this
afternoon

In a statement posted on the Internet, Steven Boswell, the NSM leader in
Missouri, said the purpose of the rally is to send a message from St. Louis to
Washington.

"When the average American has absolutely no voice; it is high time we stand
up. It is high time we defend ourselves. It is high time we take our country
back," the statement said.

Area clergy and assorted other groups protesting the NSM's presence in St.
Louis are holding a counter-rally in Forest Park. The protest gets under way at
2:30 p.m. at the bottom of Art Hill.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/stor...

i remember you last week talking about it

saying that your dead fish reminded you of chubby :)

Your lucky..A Frame's are very cool looking..

When I was younger some hippie guys built some A frames & huts at the bottom of some deserted cliffs below our house at the time..

They did a great job building the things..

But unfortunately,the folks who lived in a beach club about a mile north of there complained to the city &
the next day the Fire department burned them all down..

Watching them burn I remember thinking,why do people have to be such assholes..
Those A Frames & huts weren't hurting anyone & no one was using that land..

Anyhoo,that's my A Frame story.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

I said if there was a really strong wind out of the west, the humor therein being the wind could actually push a high frequency radio wave.

Oh never mind.

My humor often blows.

easy to miss, glad to see i'm not the only one missing jokes

and yes mb, even with the explanation i still don't get it

oh well

You're from the land of Marconi!

I may have to take a tonic and go lay down.

;-)

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc has stopped using India-based call centers to handle sales and reservations, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The move makes the airline the latest U.S. company to decide the cost benefits of directing calls offshore are outweighed by backlash from costumers, the newspaper said in a story on its website.

Delta said it stopped routing calls to India-based call centers over the first three months of the year. Customers had complained they had trouble communicating with Indian agents, the newspaper said.

"The customer acceptance of call centers in foreign countries is low," Richard Anderson, Delta's chief executive, said in a recorded message to employees, according to the newspaper. "Our customers are not shy about letting us have that feedback."

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE53H1...

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

The article does not say if Delta plans to re-open any call-center positions in the US.

yes but please don't get too technical on me now with frequency talks :)

i listened to your show a little bit today, it's good, i like the talking part too, i don't agree with your "less talk more music" motto, though the music is good don't get me wrong

for people with size 16 necks and size two hats.

They were originally billed as Pin-Head Homes but they bombed with that name and thus the A-Frame was born.

now are you?

it's all the way up there with nando saying chubby reminds him of a dead fish

stirring up some trouble here, the blog is too quiet tonight

I may mix it up more in the future, who knows. It's really a matter of time. I spent a lot more time actually trying to write this show, well the first two hours anyway.

Most of the time I just "rip and read". Rip and read refers to the practice of literally ripping stories off a teletype machine and reading them live on the air. No, I don't have a teletype machine! ;-) I have something much better. I have a toniD! ;-)

i caught you when you got mixed up at some point, mangled a couple of words, didn't bother me

egg head maybe, but no way a pin head.

People who are really smart and really funny tend to live in funny (shaped) houses. It's a 'murican thing. I don't understand it either. Who am I to say anyway? I live in a townhome that's 17.5 wide, 2 stories with a basement and an attached 1 car (barely) garage. I shouldn't get into real estate jokes.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22445.htm

Human Tide of Misery Flees The Anarchy of Somalia

As the world follows the escapades of the country's pirates, civilians are fleeing the anarchy on land, creating the world's biggest refugee camp

By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent

April 17, 2009 "The Independent" -- The lucky ones come with their families, others appear out of the thorn bushes, walking alone. Five hundred Somalis are now arriving at this bleak Kenyan outpost every day. They join a population of 267,000 and counting, in a facility built to shelter just 45,000. While the world has been captivated by the high seas drama of Somalia's pirates, this human tide has swollen the ranks of Dadaab, turning it into the world's largest refugee camp.

The new arrivals sit in their hundreds under a makeshift tarpaulin, trying to keep perfectly still in temperatures that reach 40C in the shade. It speaks volumes for the horrors unfolding in Somalia that people will abandon their homes, risk arbitrary arrest, death or starvation to reach the desolate welcome on offer in this corner of northern Kenya.

FUCK THEM...

GO PRAY TO ALLAH

YOU GENITAL MUTILATING MAGGOTS

anyway i have a solution

force all the males, of all ages, to drink a jim jones kool-aid

and send all their females to australia

(except the ugly ones; throw them overboard)

and don't gimme any of your bleeding heart lip

you janeane/maron loving maggots

..they have to be really bad before I take them out. In the first hour I said "insured" when I meant "uninsured". Then later I said "1 or more of us will get one of the medical conditions I was talking about when I meant to say most of us will get 1 or more of those conditions.

I leave it to the listeners to sort those things out. It's good exercise and promotes mental acuity. ;-)

with obama thinking about things to cut...

i hope he doesn't cut funding for my job

that would be a sonofabith thing to do particularly since his own mother used to work for some international aid agencies and this had some influence on how he came to be what he is, growing up in that environment, caring for the people of world, this is covered in his autobiography

i hope he doesn't cut funding for USAID (which pays for my job)

well if he doesn't have the minerals

i will...

CRANK IS A PINHEAD

AND HE FUCKS GOATS

WHY ISN'T THAT PIC NOT STRETCHING THE BLOG

ARE YOU A MAGGOT

DO SUCK DICK

: )

you're purist

you won't intervene

you sit on your hands all day...

ARE YOU A MAGGOT

DO SUCK DICK

a-o loves the little children
all the children of the world
red and yellow, black and white
they are precious in his sight
a-o loves the little chil'n of the world!

Come on ya big lug, grab a Coke and sing along..

I'd like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company
I'd like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills "Ah, peace throughout the land"

(That's the song I hear)
I'd like to teach the world to sing (that the world sings today)
In perfect harmony

(Lead singer and background singers singing simultaneously)

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony

Id like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves

Either get with the Kum Ba Ya or the gunships will be storming into port within 48 hours.

and some stirring up was needed?

Then we'll go roast marshmellows on sticks in the bonfire.

We'll get that blog-tourettes-syndrome under control in no time.

Gosh, when was the last time that happened?

but she's been recruited by the american enterprise institute

(the premier neo-con think tank)

but what choice did she have

*

yes, children...

i'm talking about trade offs

:) and now mb he's gonna make him spit it

that song has me written all over it...

in fact, i probably inspired it

maybe the songwriter was walking down the street and saw me punching a rubbish bin

and said...

one day i'll write a song about it

i'll take a rain-check

or send my surrogate... a miss cathy

..last year. I was taking something to my daughter, the prosecutor, and waiting at an elevator when this 14-15 y/o Somalian kid come bopping in. When the elevator didn't show up in 10 seconds he started kicking the buttons. I grabbed the little shit by the scruff of the neck and was dragging him around the corner where the security station was and he slipped out of his jacket, well it was a baggy shirt, and took off running. With my luck he's one of the ones they recruited to take back home and train to come back and fight.

My daughter doesn't like dealing with them. The men come into court and refuse to take her questions because they don't talk to women.

Delta stops using India call centers: report
new
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 9:37pm
*******
Probably not,Toni..

Unfortunately,I think they will probably go back to a automated call system..

Jerks !

It's a shame..Years ago,Delta use to be a real good airline too..

Just shows ya what a few mergers can do to you..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Don't be afraid, a-o... it's a virtual group hug, not a real one. You don't need a surrogate~
;-)

i cleaned that up...

i'm not totally evil.

morning, mire

my crumpets were moldy

so someone had to pay...

so why not crank
he lives in an a-frame
he has a pin-head
and he needs a lesson in aussie etiquette

: )

sends shivers down my spine

so you're wrong, miss cathy

beautiful miss cathy

and knock it in the street
and throw the trash at passersby
and piss on both their feet.

Shit, it must be contagious

so fucking great

i'm out of alignment with the rest of the world

(again)

anyway, i wouldn't go that far

yummmmmmmmm! :)

"this machine kills fascists"

somalia; or maybe he should increase them? i am confused...

but yeah, i understand how some of those attitudes can be irritating; kicking stuff... i wouldn't have scruffed his neck though, maybe just thrown some dirty looks hiw way (and then chosen to take the stairs)

"My daughter doesn't like dealing with them. The men come into court and refuse to take her questions because they don't talk to women."

Tell me about it. A Somali male student told me to shut up and sit down and that I was not to speak to him, and that I was not allowed to NOT check a book out to him (he'd written all over the book he was trying to re-check out). I told him that by virtue of me being on this side of the library check-out counter that I can decide to not check out a book to him, end of story.

Hello, welcome to America.

miss cathy

and her adopted mali son are in town

Online and Active! (in the last 2 min)
There are currently 3 users and 4 guests online.
Online users
Mel
air-ono
maggiesboy

(be careful what you wish for, mire)

You would talk sternly to the rubbish bin and help the elderly passersby across the street making sure they didn't step in the dog shit.

You're a straight-up A-OK kinda guy a-o.

or are you fajita partying all by yourself?

what arrogance
what a charmer

(and well done, mb)

...are wonderful, and extremely gentleman-like. I don't know what they think in their heads, but on the surface they are very respectful of me and the other women in the library.

.. at least they don't leave their undies in the study rooms like other students.

Put me in a special school,
'Cause I am such a fool,
And I don't need a single book to teach me how to read.
Who needs stupid books?
They are for petty crooks,
And I will learn by studying the lessons in my dreams
So turn off the T.V.
'Cause that's what others see
And movies are as bad as eating chocolate ice cream
They only sicken me
Don't let me play football
I'll sack the quarterback and jack the brother of the ball

(chorus)
I'm a troublemaker
Never been a faker
Doin' things my own way
And never givin' up.
I'm a troublemaker
Not a double-taker
I don't have the patience to keep it on the up.

I picked up a guitar,
What does this signify?
I'm gonna play some heavy metal,
Wishing you would die.
You wanted arts and crafts?
How's this for arts and crafts?
(guitar solo)
(That's Right!)
I'm growin' out my hair
I'm movin' up to Cherokee
I'm gonna be a rock star
And you are gonna bear with me
'Cause I can't book a job,
Like any other slob,
Punchin' in and punchin' out
And suckin' up to Bob.
Marryin' a bi-atch,
Havin' Seven ki-ads,
Givin' up and growin' old,
And hopin' there's a god.

(chorus)

I'm gonna be star
And people will crane necks
To get a glimpse of me
And see if I am havin' sex
And studyin' my moves
They try to understand
Why I am so unlike
The singers in the other bands
I'm such a mystery
As anyone can see
There isn't anybody else
Exactly quite like me
And when it's party time
Like 1999
I'll party by myself because I'm such a special guy

(chorus)

Follow me on twitter>> http://twitter.com/melr00k
My blog is back>> http://xanga.com/melr00k
Or give me a call>> Just dial 911 and ask the operator for Mel. They'll know what to do.

was our lead male librarian (swedish extraction) over-riding my decision and checking the book out to him, saying the things he did and said was "no big deal".

it's one thing to be ignorant, and another to be willfully ignorant.

now you're gonna force me to join the twitter world

6:43 today i saw a mouse

(actually, you're one hombre i will "follow")

please

do you have to have special equipment?

I've just started with the twitter myself and I have no followers.

I blame Ashton. He's hogging all the followers.

misogynists walk amongst us

my beef with the muslim culture is the wholesale disrespect for women

and i need to qualify my wholesale swipe at the muslim culture

i know many wonderful muslims

my doctor was turkish and his wife worked in the same clinic (as a doctor)

in short, i'm spitting on your "redneck" muslim

I do it from my computer.

Some people use their cell phones but I really don't care enough about what someone I don't really know is doing right now to have it vibrate my pocket...

But checking your twitter page and reading about people you admire and their mundane stuff is very cute and makes me smile... especially Oprah.

I've not interacted with a lot of Somali's but I did used to have long conversations with one who worked the desk at the apartment I had when I was working in D.C. Very articulate and humble as I recall. Just as we have tea-baggers, they have their own share of jerks. I would have done the same to any kid trying to destroy public property.

And I'm sure the one's who are diss'n my daughter in court have equivalents in this country as well. We call them conservative Christian whack-jobs.

I just hate little people with there tiny little hands and feet. They're all a bunch of pickpockets trained by the gypsies. I know my 3rd cousin on my mom's side saw it on FOX News.

it's unexplored territory for me, too...

i'm about to enter that world now

and mel...

ashton is a wanker

and btw, who's ashton

Yep, here with my "friend", Erin who is currently cutting the cilantro completely wrong...should I tell her?

(she's concentrating)

"this machine kills fascists"

I joined Twitter originally just to help Kutcher beat CNN in their little showdown and then I found that so many people that I admire had twitter accounts and updated regularly I just started adding people. Found Sam's twitter page and it linked here and here I am.

rejoice in the bizarreness of life~

join twitter?

yes? no?

the swede was a no-fuss guy

which only gives that somali the impression that americans are wimps

(think of democrats & republicans)
(cheney just had to sneer at reid and he'd piss in his pants)

if there were more dr. johnsons (aka, mb)

there'd be less bullshit.

my next door neighbours son whopped a muslim one night after the guy said "fuck australia"

anyway, my next door neighbours son is a dickhead too

"Found Sam's twitter page and it linked here and here I am."

I'll try this out..

ya, cathy

Submitted by air-ono on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 10:53pm.

misogynists walk amongst us

my beef with the muslim culture is the wholesale disrespect for women ...

____________________

If there's one thing air-ono deplores, it's Muslim culture's small-minded gender-prejudice.

To earn ono's admiration one must bountifully disrespect all of humanity equally.

you'll be my liason with "that" world

just the word "twitter"

sends shivers down my spine

Twitter Updates (from sam)
@steveagee I beg of you speed it up- I've got things to do

[good grief]

do i have to start an account

i'll find out...

clicking NOW!

..but your messages are limited to 150 characters. Basically all you do is log in and type a stream of consciousness into the little box and hit enter. Anyone who has "clicked" to follow you will get your message. You choose who you want to follow. Twitter can be helpful. For example if you sign up to follow Sam you'll know every time there's a new thread. Once you set one up you can choose to follow others.

You can follow anyone. Someone who is really good at it is Christopher Walken.

All you need is a computer.

http://twitter.com

will get you going....or not. ;-)

I did :) she did fine, just took three times as long, but, I have to admit, it was way cuter than how I do it...

"this machine kills fascists"

LAST SUNDAY someone here alerted us to CSPAN for a video with Amy Goodman of Democracy NOW! with an interview with Seymour Hersh. I tuned it in right away and it was FANTASTIC! However, I cannot find this video ANYWHERE. I can't find it on the CSPAN site or Democracy NOW! site. Amy gave a GREAT speech before she did a sit-down with Hersh. Did CSPAN deep-six this?

If you can find a link to this video, PLEASE POST!

Brick TeeVee coming up! (as soon as I can find this video!)

Thanks in advance!

a-o, my dear.

The swede is a no-fuss guy. It's our biggest point of contention. I like my friends deeply opinionated to the point of insanity. He is like McDonalds - serving a billion and giving nothing of any consequence. We have issues. I reported our roof falling in and he gave it "a number". To him it meant he'd done something about it.

more or less

it's like the live feed on fb?

we'll talk about this when i get home from twitter

: )

...is basically Facebook with everything taken out except the "What's on your mind?" part and your picture.

"this machine kills fascists"

I just started so I have updated exactly 1 time. A couple of good people to follow... CNN breaking news, Sam Seder, Rachel Maddow, Oprah (seriously it's so cute) also be weary of impostors. I usually judge an impostor by how many other celebs follow them. Rainn Wilson just outed a Tina Fey impostor who was pretty good and pretty funny so I didn't un-follow her.

I joined twitter back when it first appeared but never found a use for it until two days ago... seriously. Now I just go there to get a quick smile from it. Something about hearing some person you admire is having ice cream but keeps spilling it on herslf that just makes me smile from ear to ear.

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 8:57pm.

One more thing about radio/TV reception ...

(And, yes, I DID try to use the roof as an antenna. If it can be done, I didn't discover how.)

______________________

Tin-foiled in his attempt to use his roof as an antenna, Crank "It-obstructs-my-view-of-Venus." Bait begins the metal pruning necessary for him to watch David Letterman in peace.

"You have made me very angry -- very angry indeed!"

I think. How would I know fer sure?

and it didn't disappoint... synchronicity!!

star vox wants me to break free of malaise:

melr00k

I'm bored. That's good. It means I'll be working on a new project soon. I can't wait to see what I come up with. Boredom is my motivation.

(it would be like having my own little mel in my pocket)
(if i had a cell phone)
(and left the house, occassionally)
(like when i go to the supermarket)
(like when i'm in aisle #9 - i wonder what mel's up to)

i'll join up
THEN I GTG
and make cupboards...

*yawn*

Welcoming you to Twitter! Inbox X
Twitter to me
show details 8:16 PM (6 minutes ago)

Reply

Hello, new Twitter-er!

Using Twitter is going to change the way you think about staying in touch with friends and family. Did you know you can send and receive Twitter updates via mobile texting or the web? To do that, you'll want to visit your settings page (and you'll want to invite some friends).

Activate Phone: http://twitter.com/devices
Invite Your Friends: http://twitter.com/invite

The New York Times calls Twitter "one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet." TIME Magazine says, "Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app," and Newsweek noted that "Suddenly, it seems as though all the world's a-twitter." What will you think? http://twitter.com

Thanks again for signing up!

- Biz Stone and The Twitter Team
http://twitter.com/biz

Submitted by Cathy in Seattle on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 11:21pm.

ok, I twittered

I think. How would I know fer sure?

_____________

(Ha! You only think you twittered.)

If you ain't sure, you prolly ain't twittered yet.

to use my computer to check on jobs she applied for.

She still has hers but she thinks it's not for much longer so she trying to get something.

MB, I'll have some noooz coming to you soon. I found something just as Gloria arrived, now I have to go back and find it.

I have to assume Cathy was already taken. ;-)

most of my followers are mutterers, so twittering stuttering muttering pretty much makes up my day.

You know the one, about 5'4" from her head to the ground?

That one?

You make me feel like I don't know what to do with my hands.

Yes I am a yawner. I warned you. But I'm sure you can find someone who you admire who can bore you but in a good way. knameem?

twitter name

who are you on twitter?

Birds flying high
You know how I feel
Sun in the sky
You know how I feel
Reeds driftin' on by
You know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

Fish in the sea
You know how I feel
River running free
You know how I feel
Blossom in the tree
You know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don't you know
Butterflies all havin' fun you know what I mean
Sleep in peace when the day is done, that's what I mean
And this old world is a new world
And a bold world
For me
Fo-o-or me

Stars when you shine
You know how I feel
Scent of the pine
You know how I feel
Yeah freedom is mine
And I know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
It's a new life
For meeeeeeeeeeeee

And I'm feeling good

(I'm gonna go make soup)

See you "twitterers" later.

melr00k's 1 Follower: airono / air ono

so now what...

do i just bookmark your page

(and mel, you couldn't bore me in a month of sundays)

i think that's a good thing

: )

happy soup-making!

EXCITING!!

the way miss cathy does

(and i think that's a good thing)

Now, this Nation {& World?} has already abused and misused the Word TWIT .
whatev ... but i like the word, whatever. e-r
;)

I know, it's just crazy isn't it? ;-)

I'm following you now.

..I'm following both mel and air-ono. Let the cards play themselves out..

Now I am following you...

(I've got my eyyeee on you)

Soup time.

some call it "following" some call it "stalking"
whatever.. I'm doin' it.

twitter of a slack man (aka, ono)

6:38 i'm putting on a sock

8.09 i'm putting on the other sock

(mel abandons the chase)

Soup time...

hee-hee, and you're not having greens

Long time no see

That's what it's called a tweet. So you are now a tweeter!

I think it's absolutely rediculous and signed up for it because Sam started tweeting but I don't go to it much. Too busy looking for Nooooz for Blue Roots Radio.

Crank, from your neck of the woods. #24

Missouri-based American Sterling Bank closed by regulators (#24 for 2009)

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Sugar Creek, Mo.-based American Sterling Bank was closed by regulators Friday, marking the 24th bank failure of the year as the credit crunch continues to spread through the economy. American Sterling Bank had $181 million in total assets and $171.9 million in total deposits as of March 20, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC said Metcalf Bank of Lee's Summit, Mo. will assume the failed bank's deposits. The FDIC estimated the failure of American Sterling Bank will cost its deposit insurance fund $42 million.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/missouris-american-sterling-bank-s...

how are you doing that

miss x-ray vision

you doing the tweet too?

"you're blogging"

(d'oh)
(she got me)

"//and air-ono//
Submitted by air-ono on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 11:50pm.
how are you doing that

miss x-ray vision"

via the Magic of Twitter, A-o. I am following/stalking you.

Has reeeally shiney hair.

Really shiney.

Now I am following you....

I can sell you a twitter swatter, cheap. I bought a gross of them by mistake and can make you a deal!

i clicked on follow catsea
then clicked off
Ok. You're no longer following CatSea1959.

then i added you and mb

i don't know about this caper

it's, um, a bit rude

not having to ask for permission...

a bit like ceiling cat is watching you masticate

: )

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE ONO!

so you can sent messages

i thought it was read only

kinda like ceiling cat is reading you

but you can't see ceiling cat reading you

"I just pinched a HUGE LOAF! And it was THIS LONG! HAHA!"

melr00k / Mel Rook
maggiesboy / Chris Johnson
CatSea1959 / Catherine McCollum
airono / air ono

and here's a quirk...

there's 2 "following"

1 where i'm following 3 tweeters
and another where there's only mel
?

(did mb & cathy give me the slip)

g'nite blog-tweets.

I will follow you
follow you wherever you may go
There isn't an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep
keep me away
away from the bloooooooogggggggggg.

had e-cigarettes. Why?

would approve.

Because Ceiling Cat is just as naughty as Basement Cat.

I'm honored you will put up with my twittering, because they are guaranteed to be sillier than shite. Thanks for indulging me.

a-o, I am definitely following you.. I see it in my "following" list.

you showed Samoa, r u in The E.?

{i was contemplating asking you if Mytletown was the one near me...but then I saw your vid about Samoa?}
eek, says the misanthrope...BUT Tea Cheers ;) {that's just a wink :)

just received word that cathy put on her shoes

...

and six months ago mel made soup

was he talking about the soup nazi...

mb mia behind enemy lines

have heard from him since 1910

or did he just go to bed

and i'll maketh the cupboards

(ciao)

swings around like columbo...

just one more question

i have to physically click on your page

in other words, i don't get automatic pop ups

?

That's where I am going also. Work was a bit stressful today.

Night all!

g'night to all~

i can't crack her code

: )

i believe she's using an alias and speaking in tongues

some archaic greek

"bed"

?

hmmm...

bed

lie straight and horizontal

and have sweet dreams

and "bed"...

there's that word again

;)

Jeebus ! I haven't seen you around here in a long time..

How ya doing ? Good I hope.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Not yet..
Soon,I guess..
But,I need another Damn password to keep track of like I need a hole in me big old heed,ouy ! :)

There's A Piper Down ! - Michael Myers

There She Goes - The La La's

**

Building A Mystery - Sarah McLachlan

It Don't Matter To Me - Bread

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Not..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Sorry, I still get taken away by LOTR. ;)

PDA

Former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee was the primary author of "legal" memos purporting to justify torture.

He is now a federal judge.

Ask your Congress member to begin impeachment proceedings.

Please read - Thank You

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-yQdNjC3AY&feature=related

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

If it's Sunday it's Brick TeeVee!
Brick TeeVee Tortured Again!
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/4667

Man, look at the time!

I'll check in after 20 winks or so.

Hope to have the video of Amy Goodman and Sy Hersh soon.

Good Evening Sederville and GOOD NIGHT NOW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vYXebpLI7o&feature=related

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 1:59am.
Sorry, I still get taken away by LOTR. ;)

*******

What does LOTR mean ?
I'm just a bit slow sometimes..
Thanks.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

We have hope

...
In America as in many parts of Europe one can sense both a fear of action and a fear of non-action. A fear of change. A fear of promises of change. Fear that things can only get worse. A fear like that of a people inhabiting the wrong house, or the haunting fear that the real house it once inhabited is today occupied by usurpers. The New Class counts on the reluctance of people to rebel. For people have never rebelled easily. People count on reforms. People prefer reforms. People do everything possible to avoid real social convulsion and upheaval, even compromising with a Fascist police state.

On the other hand, change is in the air, and not the kind President Obama means. Protesters in these bloody days braved police tear gas and rubber bullets, in Strasbourg today suffering 50 injured and wounded and hundreds harassed and arrested. Old words are again current: rebellion, revolution, Socialism. Today’s political representatives of the New Class are aware that the spirit of mutiny is brewing. President Obama’s use of the word “change” is not enough. No wonder the New Class has armed itself with a set of anti-constitutional laws to crush the revolutionary spirit.

Again here I want to recall this pertinent quote from Schiller: “When the oppressed man can find justice in no other way, then he calmly reaches up into the sky and pulls down his eternal rights that hang there, inalienable and, like the stars, imperishable. When no other means remains, then he must take up the sword.”
(Friedrich Schiller, William Tell)

http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/the-new-class-and-the...

Rewind the videotape to 1961. John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Reggie Workman, and Elvin Jones hit the stage in Baden Baden, Germany and give you a very smooth version of “My Favorite Things.” A jazz classic, no doubt. And certainly a brilliant bit of archival footage.

Find us on Twitter: twitter.com/openculture

Hank Williams Jr's daughter ?
Yep..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXYUy1VZu-g&feature=channel

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."

http://www.urbandreamscape.com/

Each cloud shows an artist depiction of one of Jennifer Dumpert’s dreams that has been superimposed over the features of this San Francisco neighborhood using imagination and visualization methods.

...
Participants combined the following oneirogens in a proportion determined by which attributes most aligned with their dream intention:

Mugwort: Promotes lucid dreams, “astral travel” and visionary dreams. Contains thujone, the most active ingredient in absinthe.

Roman Chamomille: Calms dreams, reduces stress, and aids sleep. It is helpful for those who experience nightmares or restless sleep.

Lavender: Increases alpha waves, promoting tranquil, calm dreams. Relaxes the nervous system and reduces tension and irritability.

Rose: Works as an antidepressant. Promotes happy, pleasant dreams. Stimulating, uplifting, good as an antidote to sadness and fatigue.

Most of us slept unusually deeply yet had more dreams in the night than usual, often with a sense of continuity from one dream to the next.
...

http://www.realitysandwich.com/meeting_dream_world

http://podcast.bookstores.umn.edu/sedaris.m4a

Pretty dead for a Saturday night..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Over 206,000 US women have served in the Middle East since March 2003

In her new book, The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq, Helen Benedict examines the experience of female soldiers serving in the US military in Iraq and elsewhere.

Here, in an article adapted from her book, she outlines the threat of sexual violence that women face from their fellow soldiers while on the frontline, and provides testimony from three of the women she interviewed for her book.

More American women have fought and died in Iraq than in any war since World War II.

Over 206,000 have served in the Middle East since March 2003, most of them in Iraq. Some 600 have been wounded, and 104 have died.

Yet, even as their numbers increase, women soldiers are painfully alone.
...

Between 2006 and 2008, some 40 women who served in the Iraq War spoke to me of their experiences at war. Twenty-eight of them had been sexually harassed, assaulted or raped while serving.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8005198.stm

Matter of opinion I suppose...

I just think of it as 'non-commuter hours'... :)

French Green Clay used for health in many ways...so interesting...

http://www.janethull.com/newsletter/0209/the_secret_of_my_french_green_c...

...
Morales said that this was the 18th hunger strike he participated in; before becoming president, Morales was a long-time coca farmer, union organizer and congressman. He said the longest hunger strike he had been on lasted 18 days while he was in jail, according to Bloomberg. But Morales wasn’t alone: 3,000 other MAS supporters, activists, workers and union members also participated in the hunger strike, including Bolivians in Spain and Argentina.

Early in the morning on April 14, once it was official that the Senate passed the bill, Morales ended his strike. "Happily, we have accomplished something important," he told reporters. "The people should not forget that you need to fight for change. We alone can't guarantee this revolutionary process, but with people power it's possible."
...

http://counterpunch.org/dangl04162009.html

10pm.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Dead is a state of mind I guess...

The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq
Submitted by Alice on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 3:35am.

Twenty-eight of them had been sexually harassed, assaulted or raped while serving.

*******
That is so Fu*cked up !
All those Christofascists in the military are doing a really great job,aye ? Not !

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Since taking office, Obama, wittingly or otherwise, has headed the largest criminal enterprise in history — the mass looting of national wealth to enrich his Wall Street benefactors. He assembled a rogue economic team of Clinton/Robert Rubin retreads — to fix the current crisis they engineered.

In a March 13 article, (author and former Republican strategist) Kevin Phillips called them “recycled senior (Clinton administration) Democrats (responsible for the) tech mania, deregulation binge and (1997-2000) stock market bubble and crash. (Obama) extend(ed) the (disastrous) mismanagement and pro-Wall Street bias of the 2008 Bush regime bailout.”

He called Geithner and Bernanke “hapless,” the result of their ruinous misjudgments (and, along with Alan Greenspan, complicit) with finance-sector malfeasance.”

He said Summers will be “remembered for helping to block federal regulation of financial derivatives and orchestrat(ing) the 1999″ Glass-Steagall repeal, among his other “achievements.” He went down the list of key economic officials and trashed them all as the very types to be avoided, not appointed.

He noted that Bernanke was chairman of George Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers and added: “Imagine if FDR had retained Herbert Hoover’s chief economic advisor and loyal Republican Fed Chairman in 1933….To think that the pussycat Fed (would become) a saber-toothed tiger is a deception.” Worse still, ruinous economic policies “could prove fatal” if White House policies favor “Wall Street but not the national economy or American people” — the very direction they’ve now taken.

In a follow-up April 7 article, Phillips highlighted “The Disaster Stage of US Financialization…a much grander-scale disaster than anything that happened in 1929 - 1933. Worse, it dwarfs the abuses of debt, finance and financialization that brought down previous leading world economic powers like Britain and Holland.”

Today’s crisis represents “the bursting of the huge 25-year, almost $50 trillion debt bubble that helped underwrite the hijacking of the US economy by a rabid financial sector…” It’s realigning global power with America losing its economic leadership won in WW II.

“The ignominy deserved by Wall Street after 1929-1933 is peanuts compared with the opprobrium the US financial sector and its political and regulatory allies deserve this time.” Financialized America radically transformed the country, now “doubly staggering because of the crushing burden of its collapse.”

Yet major media pundits and reporters barely noticed and now claim relief is just a few quarters away — ignoring a metastasizing cancer, a national disaster, while policy makers heap fuel on a raging blaze now consuming us, yet too little public rage confronts them.
...

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/04/barack-obama-crime-boss/

Submitted by Alice on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 3:48am.
Dead is a state of mind I guess

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

The men and their families who were held there, and their grief and rage against American Soldiers is completely understandable...How are Obama's popularity polls in Iraq?

than voting for Ralph Nader...at least there's some inkling of memory of the people who did that do protest the futility of wars...

Why do the North Koreans dislike us?

Maybe because of what we Americans did to them.

The following is from a book about incidents of the Korean War. The book, "The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat" authored by Bob Drury and Tom Claven, in part tackles the political context of the Korean conflict, as well as what occurred in the conflict:

"Although Great Britain, Australia, and a few other nations dutifully sent a limited number of troops to Korea, their governments were not necessarily supportive, none wanted to see the war expanded to China. Even the usually bellicose Winston Churchill warned, "The United Nations should avoid by any means in their power becoming entangled inextricably in a war with China. The sooner the Far Eastern diversion can be brought into something like a static condition and stabilized, the better it will be."

But Churchill and other world leaders -- and to that list some added President Harry Truman -- had not fully taken into account what one critic called McArthur's "deranged blood lust." The Supreme Allied Commander confided to his staff that he wanted to strangle the Communist Chinese government in its infancy, before it could accumulate more power and territory. MacArthur dreamed of reinstating Chiang Kai-shek (or some other American puppet) to leadership in Peking -- if only Truman would untie his hands. To that end, he tried his best.

Beginning in early November 1950, MacArthur ordered his various air forces to turn upper North Korea into a "wasteland." Factories, cities, and villages across a 1,000-square-mile area were vaporized by air strikes. Three weeks before Fox Company [the Marine group whose activities this book details] climbed Toktong Pass, seventy-nine B-29s dropped 550 tons of incendiaries on the town of Sinuiju and, in the words of a British attache to MacArthur's headquarters, essentially "removed it from the map." A week later the town of Hoeryong was napalmed, creating "a wilderness of scorched earth."

The rest of the world may not have been paying attention to this carnage, but MacArthur's tactics were not lost on Mao Tse-tung. Mao intuited that it was time to face this threat and confront MacArthur before American bombers began appearing over Peking's Forbidden City." [Pages 42-43.]

[end excerpt]

===========================

So MacArthur sent an engraved invitation to Mao, huh?

We must not stand by and watch our military continue to commit atrocities, generation after generation.

It's never too late to declare peace.

MURPHYS - Cheri Huber, founder of the Zen Monastery Peace Center near Murphys, will give a series of free public talks in West Point, Murphys and Sonora.

Huber is the author of 19 books and has spent 30 years as a student and teacher in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition. She also is the founder and director of Living Compassion, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing peace and compassion to all aspects of life.

The first talk will be 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Blue Mountain Coalition for Youth and Families, 364 Main St., West Point. Huber will also speak at 7 p.m. May 12 at First Congregational Church in Murphys, and 7 p.m. May 14 at the Tuolumne County Library.

In a related event, volunteer PeaceStormers from Living Compassion in Murphys will spend several days next week with members of the Blue Mountain Coalition in West Point to build community gardens and an earth oven. The effort is based on the Buddhist concept of working to build sangha, or community.

Information: www.LivingCompassion.org.

-The Record

...
goodnight.

I am sorry I am so late in response.
Sorry I didn't write out, for I, too, at one time did not know LOTR, as you now know.
;)
Now I just got "lost" in The Matrix ;)
;

Now that's a movie marathon I can support.

It was incredibly good soup. I made enough for two days but ate it all in one sitting. I am a pig. I said I would come back to the blog but I was trapped in a shame spiral.

Common occurrence for me.

;)

Submitted by Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 5:00amon Sun, 04/19/2009 - 5:00am
*******
Thanks..I was racking my brain but,I couldn't figure
that one out.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

...ex-strays & strays and huge young/old-ish pup, Danu, there are times {especially during times which are cold} they need a bit more.

i was sifting through seder's tweeter

and i bump into: DonnaWhite58 / Donna White

she had a pretty pic so i clicked...

Who goes there?
Sorry, the account you were headed to has been suspended due to strange activity. Mosey along now, nothing to see here.

DAMN!

IT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO SEE

(congrats on the soup, btw)

there kinda is, ms_a

but i'm an id blogger, so what do i know...

and c'mon, ms_a

join the twitter revolution

and bring mmr along

drag him by the hair if you have too

I dove head first into this twitter phenom. I like how the earth is shrinking exponentially with each new application for staying in touch with other humans. It makes me feel really really good. We are moving ever closer to my dream of each and everyone of us just sharing thoughts. No secrets. No hidden agendas. No shame spirals. Instant communication. Instant gratification. Instant recognition. I can't wait.

(lol)

you're a sweet kid, mel...

shelaghc
Location: Under the rainbow

This person has protected their updates.

You need to send a request before you can start following this person.

SEND REQUEST

: )

knock-knock, can i inspect your closet

I cheated in my attempt to use no green vegetables. Peas were a given since it was pea soup but I thought I had red bell peppers and did not. So I used the green pepper. I also put in some jalapeno but it was yellowish enough to pass for non-green. I ended up using Onion, Potato, Carrot, Garlic, A little bit of Corn (frozen), and I threw in half a Tomato at the end of the cooking time along with the aforementioned Green bell Pepper and Jalapeno slices.

I can still t-t-t-taste it.

I want more.

& I am always afraid FOR whomever gets too "personally" close to me or to whomever "knows" me. So I don't want to "out" anyone these days. If ya don't have me{my} past,
...need I say more?
;)

I love that movie. A lot of people hated it. I liked the information society where everyone knew everything about everyone else. I truly think that that would be a thousand times better than what we have.

Misunderstandings are gone when everybody knows everything or at least has access to everything about everyone. We are almost there.

Honestly... the sheer number of people who have tumultuous pasts is mindboggling.

One of the best things about rehab or recovery meetings is hearing how many other people did severely dumb shit to get drugs or alcohol.

We are all so much the same it's awesome.

That's what I like about twitter. Hearing people who I can't imagine passing gas talk about the mundane.

We are all the same. Discovering that destroys the ego's hold on us. And free us from that shame spiral I spoke of earlier.

;) I especially LUV the ending!?!

Great end title song. Can't remember the song.

But remember Ms Anne...

There is no spoon.

i don't know if *sniff* i can follow you

*sniff*

and ms_a...

we only want to know if you're taking your knickers off

: )

Can't remember the name

I know. I know. I promised myself a rainbow of colours of vegetables on a sea of green pea soup but what I ended up with was a tasty meal.

I failed you, Ono.

I have sinned against you.

Will you ever forgive me?

I will make potato soup later this week but this time I will only use white or yellow vegetables and I swear I will not cheat.

It will be glorious!!

first i heard of it

but i'm out of the movie loop

on account everytime i walk into my dvd store i wanna puke

the amount of shite on offer is staggering

so i'll have to google video it

as the chances of my dvd store having it is remote

If I had any disposable income whatsoever I would invest in Netflix.

Netflix rules my world and they have the best selection of indie films and foriegn films and at this point I couldn't imagine my life without it.

i knew i could count on you

i'll have to check that out

or some similar service here

: )

That's what I was talking about. The world has gotten so small I'd forgotten that you were thousands and thousands of miles away. I thought you were my next door neighbour.

I need to sleep.

Mets have an early game today.

Goodnight bloggers.

I would be proud of the cooking that made it so good.

...well this is known ... including during a certain time ... to VOICE against WOLF KILLS {at that time} & so much more ... there was NO "NET" & issues had TO BE NOTICED in media {& had to do major things to get the attention...} again to make a stand against the MURDERS of WOLVES I & We took over the LA. CANADIAN EMBASSY!
:D I say I & We since they knew I was the leader, & I paid painfully for that... But It Twas Grand. {...plus did so much more} wonderful & INTENSE "protests".

:)
... I think I was answering Mel &A-O.

That makes you one of my heroes.

In my mind, there is absolutely nothing wrong with rebellion when it has good and right on it's side. Even if it fails one can still hear the echoes of a past uprising. It gives one pause. It makes those that would infringe on the rights of other being stop and think... Is this worth possible violent protests and actions.

I have a few riot charges on my FBI file as well. Nothing as awesome as yours but I won't be running for public office any time soon.

Not in this current form of government.

//quickflix.com.au — Whilst browsing the web at work i came across this little website. Its Australias Equivalent to netflix//

you're a tonic, mel

happy dreaming

...has anyone hear been arrested before...
I ALWAYS get kicked off...
;)

is what I'm trying to say. And a world without secrets. Is a world where folks in positions of power can't hide a god damned thing. Knameen?

;)

There is always a cop or police involved and the question comes to me and I have to reel off all the times I have been beaten by police and I always get excused.

Now I remember. You guys make it hard for me to go to sleep because you stimulate my mind and my funny bone and I end up staying up.

I have to get up in 6 hours so I'm just gonna close my laptop.

...but I iz a-feared for others...to unknowingly contact someone that has my type of history, without knowing...
:D
but truly I believe in your way AND AM GLAD you are finally going 2 Sleep zzzzz.
Pleasant Dreams...

...& Air-Ono, the knickers will be off very soon...
;)

Sunday Talking Heads: April 19, 2009
By: Elliott Sunday April 19, 2009 3:59 am

Washington Journal: 7:30am – Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor, Sr Congressional Correspondent & Michael Shear, Washington Post, White House Correspondent. 8:15am – Vance Patterson, Small Business Owner, Morganton, NC. 8:30am – Richard Rubin, Congressional Quarterly, Tax Policy Reporter. 9am – Peter Morici, University of MD, Economics Professor. email questions for guests to journal@c-span.org

ABC's This Week: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Republican House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). contact George

CBS' Face The Nation: Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod. Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA). National Rifle Association VP Wayne LaPierre. contact Bob Schieffer

Chris Matthews: David Ignatius Washington Post; Katty Kay BBC; Helene Cooper New York Times; Andrew Sullivan The Atlantic. Topics: Has Obama taken ownership of the economic crisis? Is Obama right to not pursue former Bush officials for torture? contact Chris

CNN's State of the Union: Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on "President Obama's trip to Latin America, the government's latest efforts to secure the Mexican border, and a controversial DHS report released this month that warns about the risks of right-wing extremism." Gov. David Paterson (D-NY) on legalizing gay marriage. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). Sen. John Ensign (R-NV). contact CNN

Fareed Zakaraia - GPS: Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Also, Special Representative Richard Holbrooke. contact CNN

Fox News Sunday: CIA director Michael Hayden. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), both members of the Armed Services Committee. email fns@foxnews.com

NBC's Meet The Press: White House National Economic Council Director Larry Summers. Roundtable: Dick Armey; Harold Ford, Jr.; Fortune Magazine's Nina Easton; The Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein; and Time Magazine's Rick Stengel. contact David

Newsmakers: Austan Goolsbee, Chief Economist of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. CSPAN at 10am & 6pm ET

Q & A: Janet Tavakoli author of "Dear Mr. Buffett: What an Investor Learns 1,269 Miles from Wall Street." CSPAN at 8pm and 11pm et, Monday 6am ET

Religion & Ethics: Church Aid in Elkhart -- Indiana faith communities are responding to the economic crisis. Rwandan Reconciliation -- Are repentance and forgiveness possible after genocide? Orthodox Chanting --- It is an ancient musical expression of longing to know God. On Easter and Updike - "Make no mistake: If He rose at all / It was as his body." for broadcast times in your area click here

60 Minutes: 401K Recession -- Never created to be a mainstay of workers' retirement funds, 401ks became just that to millions of Americans who are now facing uncertain futures because of the devastating losses in the stock market. Cold Fusion Is Hot Again -- Presented in 1989 as a revolutionary new source of energy, cold fusion was quickly dismissed as junk science. But today, the buzz among scientists is that these experiments produce a real physical effect that could lead to monumental breakthroughs in energy production. Blood Brothers -- Matador Cayetano Ordonez and his brother Francisco who these days are creating just as much drama outside the ring as in it.

To The Contrary: Topics: 1- Afghan women protest law legalizing marital rape; 2- Inside the mind of a female murderer 3- Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) on ending domestic abuse. Panelists: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC); The Heritage Foundation's Genevieve Wood; Former Clinton Appointee Patricia Sosa; and Center for Equal Opportunity Chair Linda Chavez. for broadcast times in your area click here

After Words: Neal Bascomb, "Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi" interviewed by former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman. CSPAN, 12 pm ET. CSPAN's Book TV schedule.

http://firedoglake.com/2009/04/19/sunday-talking-heads-april-19-2009/#mo...

If that was to me ;) Tea Cheers, Cathy in Seattle ...
sea U ;) *Poof*

{I have a wee bit of tea left to sip in Tankard :}
gotta "fly".. ;) Sea-ya
*Poof*

Write to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that he immediately initiate a civil rights investigation addressing a 27-year history of prosecutorial and judicial violations of Mumia Abu-Jamal's constitutional and international rights. If the Justice Department can guarantee justice for Senator Ted Stevens, it should do the same for noted journalist and multiple-award recipient, and international honoree Mumia Abu-Jamal. Demand that your elected officials endorse this campaign!

Initiated by the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC)
SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AT http://www.iacenter.org/mumiapetition

On April 6, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Mumia's appeal for a new trial based on evidence of racist jury selection on the part of the prosecutor during the original 1982 trial in Philadelphia. This appeal was based on the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court "Batson decision", a legal decision that says that prospective jurors cannot be selected based on their race.

This issue was considered the strongest basis for overturning Mumia's conviction, though certainly not the only one. According to Amnesty International's detailed review of the case, Mumia was denied at his trial in 1982 the right to a fair judge and unbiased jury, the right to represent himself and the right to adequate resources to prepare his defense. In addition, the prosecution withheld critical evidence from the defense, judge and jury; suborned the perjury of its chief witness; and intimidated at least one other witness to perjure herself. Since the AI report, more evidence has emerged of an ongoing conspiracy by the prosecution and members of the judiciary to keep out of the legal record evidence that points to Mumia's innocence. At the very least, this evidence indicates serious misconduct on the part of the prosecution and judiciary. It was precisely this kind of misconduct that led to the overturning, just two weeks ago, of the conviction of Senator Ted Stevens.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals' rejection of Mumia's appeal on the basis of the "Batson decision" shocked many legal observers, as the court set new and higher standards of appeal in complete violation of its own precedents. One of the members of the three-judge panel that arrived at this decision wrote a scathing 41-page dissent pointing to how Mumia was not granted the same rights that previous appellants were given by this very same court.

Please take a few minutes to read, sign and circulate widely the important letter below to Attorney General Eric Holder. Send copies to other officials demanding that they, too, demand a civil rights investigation. Only a powerful, international campaign can win long-overdue freedom for this outspoken, award-winning journalist and stop a 27-year-old conspiracy to silence him with legal lynching or life in prison without parole. Both options are outrageous violations of Mumia's human and constitutional rights, and we will not allow them to stand. Mumia needs our movement and our movement needs Mumia.

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AT http://www.iacenter.org/mumiapetition
US Department of Justice

Washington, DC

April 2009

To Eric Holder, US Attorney General:

We write to you with a sense of grave concern and outrage about the US Supreme Court's denial of a hearing to Mumia Abu-Jamal on the issue of racial bias in jury selection, that is, the "Batson issue". Inasmuch as there is no other court to which Abu-Jamal can appeal for justice, we turn to you for remedy of a 27- year history of gross violations of US constitutional law and international standards of justice as documented by Amnesty International and many other legal groups around the world.

We call on you and the Justice Department to immediately commence a civil rights investigation to examine the many examples of egregious and racist prosecutorial and judicial misconduct dating back to the original trial in 1982 and continuing through to the current inaction of the US Supreme Court. The statute of limitations should not be a factor in this case as there is very strong evidence of an ongoing conspiracy to deny Abu-Jamal his constitutional rights.

We are aware of the many differences that exist between the case of former Senator Ted Stevens and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Still, we note with great interest the actions you have taken with regard to Senator Stevens' conviction to assure that he not be denied his constitutional rights. You were specifically outraged by the fact that the prosecution withheld information critical to the defense's argument for acquittal, a violation clearly committed by the prosecution in Abu-Jamal's case. Mumia Abu-Jamal, though not a US senator of great wealth and power, is a Black man revered around the world for his courage, clarity, and commitment and deserves no less than Senator Stevens.

Cordially,
(Your signature will be appended here based on the contact information you enter in the online form)

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AT http://www.iacenter.org/mumiapetition

International Campaign for Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Sponsored by:

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC)
P.O. Box 16, College Station
New York, N.Y. 10030
(212) 330-8029
www.freemumia.com

International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Philadelphia, PA
www.freemumia.com
(215) 476-8812

Millions for Mumia
www.millions4mumia.org

International Action Center
www.iacenter.org
c/o Solidarity Center
55 West 17th St 5C
New York, NY 10011
For further information call: (212) 633-6646
__._,_.___

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC

last night's blog backandforth about tittering was very entertaining, and tempting but i will resist the urge to join the tweeter for now

in the meantime if anyone cares to follow me, Mire has grandchildren on her mind, mire is doing "grandchildren" now, this is a videoclip from September 2007 which I have titled the twits

Iran president urges full defense for US reporter
47 minutes ago
TEHRAN,Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said an American journalist sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of spying for the U.S. should be allowed to offer a full defense during her appeal, the state news agency reported Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_us_journalist

Fears for Pakistan grow as Taliban make gains
By Robert Birsel Robert Birsel
Sun Apr 19, 3:59 am ET

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan has repeatedly vowed action to stop militants but analysts say denial and dithering and a seething resentment of the United States among the Pakistani people have stymied effective policy.

Escalating violence by militants and the consolidation of their grip in some places, and infiltration into others, have raised fears about the spread of Taliban influence.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan falling under the sway of al Qaeda-linked militants is a nightmare scenario for the United States and Pakistan's neighbours, and would doom U.S. efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.

"There's a great sense of angst, a sense of unravelling," said Adil Najam, professor of international relations at Boston University.

"It seems that everyone has lost control, including the military, of where things are going. I don't think they've given up the fight, it's just they don't seem to know what they can do," he said.

President Asif Ali Zardari secured more than $5 billion in aid last Friday after telling allies and aid donors in Tokyo he would step up the fight against militants.

The pledges pushed up a stock market that has gained 33 percent this year.

But elsewhere the mood is grim.

Audacious militant attacks in the eastern city of Lahore and blasts elsewhere over recent weeks have sapped confidence. A suicide car-bomber killed 25 soldiers and police and two passers-by in the northwest on Saturday.

As well as across the northwest, the Taliban are infiltrating into Punjab province and Karachi city, analysts say. The release on bail of a cleric who used to run a radical Islamabad mosque has added to a feeling that the militants are on a roll.

FRIGHTENING

Rumours of attacks on schools have spread panic and embassies have warned citizens of the danger of attacks and kidnapping. Members of Pakistan's moderate Muslim majority say they feel intimidated by a vocal and aggressive minority.

Compounding the unease is a sense that the government has been distracted by political wrangling and is in denial.

"The general impression and perception at this stage is the government lacks the will to assert itself," analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi told Dawn television. "They are denying the threat that is moving towards Islamabad."

Policy has been flip-flopping between inconclusive military offensives and peace deals that critics say embolden the militants.

The International Crisis Group think-tank says responsibility for counter-insurgency has to be transferred to civilians from a military that continues to have links with some militant groups it sees as tools in its confrontation with India.

"It's inept in the way it conducts operations, it suffers huge losses, and then it signs peace deals, it appeases the militants," said the group's Pakistan director, Samina Ahmed.

Under the latest peace pact, authorities have virtually handed over the northwestern Swat region to the Taliban to end violence. But the militants have already pushed out and taken over a new area 100 km from the capital.

"The implications of appeasement are obvious," said Ahmed. "Peace deals have been signed from a position of weakness and the militants have gained ground. It is quite frightening."

More here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090419/india_nm/india391189_1/print;_ylt=Ag...

http://www.keephopealiveradio.com/listen.html

Men are a vital part of women's rights movement in Afghanistan
HEIDI VOGT | Associated Press Writer
3:05 PM CDT, April 16, 2009
KABUL (AP) — There are a handful of them at every women's rights gathering in Afghanistan: men.

Even though crowds of men threw stones and shouted insults at women protesting a law that critics say legalizes marital rape, a few men marched and chanted alongside the women this week.

These are the men — many of them politicians and intellectuals — who are taking up the battle for women's rights and calling for change in this patriarchal society. Activists say men's support for women's rights is vital in a country where men hold sway in government and in families.

Many people working on women's issues in Afghanistan agree: to empower women, you first need to enlist the men.

Sherwali Wardak, who runs women's literacy and business training programs, said the key to getting women involved is to persuade the men in their lives to allow it.

"The most important factor of working with women is to encourage the men to allow their women to enroll in the rehabilitation or development project," he said.

Wardak said some men won't let their wives or daughters go to training centers he sets up. And he says he's received threats.

"They write, 'Close this project because it is working for Christianity,'" he said. It's a common accusation of those who support women's rights in Afghanistan — that the advocates are stooges of the Christian West.

On Wednesday, the crowds of men who swamped men and women protesting a law they say legalizes marital rape were full of vitriol. The law gives a husband the right to demand sex every four days and regulates when a woman can leave the house. The law is not being enforced pending a judicial review ordered by the president.

"Death to you dogs!" and "Death to the slaves of the Christians!" the men shouted at the protesters. Some threw small stones at the demonstrators.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-as-afghan-men-wome...

Americans applaud public service plan, but right-wingers
are paranoid (again)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most Americans applauded last month when the Senate voted across party lines to expand national-service opportunities. But conservatism and the lunatic fringe, the biggest question was whether President Barack Obama had shape-shifted from Stalin into Hitler, or had morphed into some grotesque dictatorial hybrid unique to history.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/136448/paranoid_right-wingers_see_obama%2...

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed waterboarded
183 times in one month

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the May 30, 2005 Bradbury memo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 and Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/04/18/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-was-...

Obama: Wants suggestions
to cut spending waste

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Families are making tough decisions about their money and so too will their government, President Barack Obama said Saturday, promising that spending cuts are coming -- and soon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_economy

duck watch

shameful

is it any wonder these two confessed to everything under the sun

and shameful for obama too, to cover up for the torturers

I think of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, whose now combined fortune is dedicated to the fight against extreme poverty. Agnostics both, I believe ... Not all soul music comes from the church.

- Bono

Bono returns to his New York Times guest columnist spot a week after Easter with a spiritual meditation about the holiday and economics. The season of Lent is not just a time for individual reflection, opines the singer, but also for rethinking our social priorities. Of global projects like the fight against AIDS and malaria, he writes: “It’s not alms, it’s investment. It’s not charity, it’s justice.”

"Lent is upon us whether we asked for it or not,” he writes. “And with it, we hope, comes a chance at redemption. But redemption is not just a spiritual term, it’s an economic concept.” America has entered a moment of economic hardship, he warns, but in "the roughest of times, people show who they are. So much of the discussion today is about value, not values. Aid well spent can be an example of both, values and value for money.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/opinion/19bono.html?partner=rss&emc=rs...

so peaceful

John McCain's 24-year old daughter told the Log Cabin Republicans on Saturday that "old school Republicans" are "scared s**tless" of the future in a speech calling for a new brand of Republicanism.

"I think we're seeing a war brewing in the Republican Party," said Meghan McCain. "But it is not between us and Democrats. It is not between us and liberals. It is between the future and the past."

She summed up what she learned while campaigning for her father in three points:

"(1) Most of our nation wants our nation to succeed; (2) most people are ready to move on to the future, not live in the past; and (3) most of the old school Republicans are scared shitless of that future."

McCain described her politics as being "faithful to the original core values of the GOP while open to the realities of our changing world."

Without ever explicitly discussing her support for gay marriage, she signaled her affinity with the gay rights group by stating her support for people living "in full equality with each other."

McCain, who recently signed a book deal with Hyperion, told the Log Cabin Republicans that she was proud to join them in "challenging the mold and the notions of what being a Republican means."

To signal her brand of New Age Republicanism, she interspersed references to her tattoo, black clothing, and gay friends in a section of her speech that was otherwise devoted to her political priorities.

"I am concerned about the environment. I love to wear black. I think government is best when it stays out of people's lives and business as much as possible. I love punk rock. I believe in a strong national defense. I have a tattoo. I believe government should always be efficient and accountable. I have lots of gay friends. And yes, I am a Republican," she said to wild applause.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/04/mccainette-old.html

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has reappointed an ambassador to the US, reports the Wall Street Journal. Pending approval from Washington, the post will be the first exchange of diplomats between the two countries since Venezuela ejected its American ambassador last year in solidarity with Bolivia. The move is yet another signal from Chavez that he hopes to smooth Bush-era tensions with the US.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124010426789232155.html

bonjour tristesse from Francoise Sagan's popular novel

depicting some of the most stupid vapid American and French people ever to be featured on the screen; thank god we're over the fifties if this is what the fifties were like...

watching, waiting for deborah kerr to straighten up this bunch of fool and foolish empty headed rich people

trying to impinge on my absolute sunday morning escapism with a cold shower of reality "nooze"

liberal.

Someone should tell her. I know there used to be liberal Republicans and more power to her if she can bring them back but I doubt the majority of the minority is ready to accept that yet.

remind me of the pond outside my window.

Theis morning, in spite of the rain, there was a brown egret roaming the shores of the pond. Toward the middle there were some ducks floating. Later a commotion of honking announced the geese coming in for a landing.

It is very peaceful to watch this bit of wildlife. I am lucky to have it just outside my window.

And your grand daughter made a very pretty princess!

{:)}

For the killing of an anti-fence activist, Israel's peace activists have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv.

This, from YNet News:

Hundreds of demonstrators hit Tel Aviv's streets Saturday evening to protest the killing of an anti-fence activist during a recent rally in Bilin.

The protestors, who marched from Ben Zion Boulevard to the Defense Ministry headquarters, said they intend to continue to protest the construction of the West Bank security fence despite their fear of being hurt by IDF troops.

Several dozen police officers were on hand in order to prevent disruptions as result of the march. Protestors were holding signs reading "Democracy isn't built on the bodies of demonstrators" and "Mr. Defense Minister, how many children did you murder today?"
The plight of Israeli peace activists is one not often covered in the media. To see them so prominantly featured in a popular Israeli news outlet is encouraging.

-- Stephen C. Webster

doesn't mean I am anything like these french riviera bonjour tristesse people

must admit that watching the french riviera blue waters (minus the stupid rich people) provokes a certain longing though

It's just my way of informing the people on the blog and hopefully beyond.

encouraging news

maybe the onset of this new extremist regime with Netanyau might be provoking a healthy reawakening of much needed opposition from the left

IRS says $5 trillion sheltered in tax havens

There's an interesting rundown of factoids relating to the corporate use of tax havens at Southern Studies.

The big numbers are that the IRS estimates a total of $5 trillion is sheltered in all tax havens worldwide, at an annual cost to US tax payers alone of $100 billion.

However, some of the lesser bullet points are also interesting, in a sick kind of way. For example:

Number of U.S. companies that maintain post office boxes in one 5-story building in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven: over 18,000
Number of Bank of America tax havens in the Cayman Islands: 59
Number of people working in Iraq for Houston-based KBR who were listed as employees of two shell companies that exist only as computer files in a Cayman Islands office: 21,000
Under the arrangement, which KBR admits it created to avoid payroll taxes, amount in unemployment assistance those employees are entitled to collect should they lose their jobs: $0

The KBR part is particularly interesting in the light of an ABC/LA TImes report this week that KBR employees severely injured in Iraq are systematically having their claims challenged by AIG, which handles the insurance for those employees.

KBR employees have been catching a lot of flak over things like their shoddily-built showers electrocuting US military personnel. But it seems like the shoddiness cuts both ways.

-- Muriel Kane

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/04/irs-says-5-trillion-sheltered-in-tax-ha...

on YouTube, starts here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LFJtAGeBSE

..missin' the Mediterranean.

You really are a water person aren't you?

Substitute "Riviera Maya" and you got me. :)

-----

Well take away all stupid people who aren't Mexican and any Mexicans who enjoy collecting glasses from Señor Frog's.

Thanks for that! I may even dust off my favorite piece from APN on
Super-Rich Tax Cheats: http://americannewsproject.com/videos/super-rich-tax-cheats

You may want to check their front page today: http://americannewsproject.com/

He just blew it big time on ABC. Claiming every time we exhale and cows fart CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere implying CO2 is not a problem.

Uh, not sure of the chemical components of methane, hold on. Oh this is even better!

From WiKi

Methane is a relatively potent greenhouse gas with a high global warming potential of 72 (averaged over 20 years) or 25 (averaged over 100 years).[1] Methane in the atmosphere is eventually oxidized, producing carbon dioxide and water. As a result, methane in the atmosphere has a half life of seven years (if no methane were added, then every seven years, the amount of methane would halve).

The abundance of methane in the Earth's atmosphere in 1998 was 1745 parts per billion, up from 700 ppb in 1750. In the same time period, CO2 increased from 278 to 365 parts per million. The radiative forcing effect due to this increase in methane abundance is about one-third of that of the CO2 increase.[2] In addition, there is a large, but unknown, amount of methane in methane clathrates in the ocean floors. The Earth's crust contains huge amounts of methane. Large amounts of methane are produced anaerobically by methanogenesis. Other sources include mud volcanoes, which are connected with deep geological faults, and livestock (primarily cows) from enteric fermentation.

Methane is a significant contributor to global warming and the Kyoto protocol seeks to regulate its production.

Just said it was wrong to release the torture memos. Secret too shameful and will hurt America's reputation.

Typical response from typical right wing closet cases. Somebody needs to ask him directly about what other secrets he's holding back on.

gotta get up and move a little

The State Department announced late Saturday that "with regret" the U.S. would not be attending the controversial United Nations racism conference beginning Monday in Geneva. - The Hill

Submitted by maggiesboy on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 10:01pm.
...Then later I said "1 or more of us will get one of the medical conditions"...
-------------
You made me laugh with the above gaffe for a lot of reasons.

I like the binary choice: One or any number between one and infinity. It's pretty much everything except zero.

"So what'll it be buster? I ain't got all day!"

"I can't decide. What are my choices again?"

Considering the amount of bullshit that comes out of his mouth on a daily basis, he qulifies for his own catagory under methane cap and trade...

What kind of bull-shite talk is this?

Submitted by air-ono on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 10:00pm.

FUCK THEM...

GO PRAY TO ALLAH

YOU GENITAL MUTILATING MAGGOTS

anyway i have a solution

force all the males, of all ages, to drink a jim jones kool-aid

and send all their females to australia

(except the ugly ones; throw them overboard)

and don't gimme any of your bleeding heart lip

you janeane/maron loving maggots

Just said we should just "Keep Walking" regarding the torture memos. Says Obama should not have released torture memos and there shouldn't be prosecutions. She implied we should pretend it didn't happen.

What an idiot. She must be sucking on George Will.

it's A/O's awkward way of saying he wants you to go visit him.

"Moving forward..."

Submitted by toniD on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 11:49pm.
Crank, from your neck of the woods. #24

Missouri-based American Sterling Bank closed by regulators (#24 for 2009)

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Sugar Creek, Mo.-based American Sterling Bank was closed by regulators Friday...
-------------
toniD,

Sugar Creek is on the northeast fringe of the Kansas City metropolitan area. It's somewhere north of the Truman Sports Complex (Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums/Chiefs and Royals).

..and split.

Someday you will get sick from something.

I can't be more precise than that.

;-)

The State Department announced late Saturday that "with regret" the U.S. would not be attending the controversial United Nations racism conference beginning Monday in Geneva. - The Hill

Submitted by Fernando on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 11:01am.
-----

And here's why?

-----------

US decides to boycott United Nations conference on racism, citing concerns about Israel

By MATTHEW LEE , Associated Press

Last update: April 19, 2009 - 4:36 AM
Featured comment

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration will boycott "with regret" a U.N. conference on racism next week over objectionable language in the meeting's final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict free speech, the State Department said Saturday.

con't
http://www.startribune.com/nation/43227572.html

-------

After viewing Gloryoski's You Tube video of Amy Goodman, I am so phuccing disappointed in Obama. It is so disrespectful to those like King- who paid the ultimate price- so Obama could be where he is today.

That's a good site. I added it to my favorites.

Have to get ready. I'm going shopping with Harminder, my home care person. Her Husband finally got a visa, after 6 years, to come to the US. She wants to go shopping for a sofa and love seat before he comes. She is so excited! I promised I'd go with her to help pick out a sofa.

Cokie Roberts just said she's glad the CIA burned the torture tapes because it would be devastating for our reputation nd a recruiting tool for terrorists if they were allowed to be seen in public.

George Will said that because of torture we haven't had another 1993 WTC bombing or 911.

These people are waging all out war against simple logic! It's simply breathtaking how dumb they are.

"this machine kills fascists"

Submitted by maggiesboy on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 9:56pm.
...I live in a townhome that's 17.5 wide, 2 stories with a basement and an attached 1 car (barely) garage. I shouldn't get into real estate jokes.
---------------
Wow. How deep (long) is it? Can you reach out of a window and touch the house next door? And is every house in both directions similar to yours?

I don't actually live in an A frame in the strict sense. It's a modified A or a gambrel A depending upon who's doing the talking. It's similar to this one:

1,000,000 teabags costs $47,900.

(before tax)

"this machine kills fascists"

60th,

Cut your costs:

http://www.qinguang-trading.com/chanyingzhanshi.asp?classid=103

This Week's Clown Table
Submitted by 60th Street on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 11:42am.
----

It's a little strange don't you think? Unlike the left, the right is never shut out of the debate. Their insanity grows worse each day. Unless we stop it, something really ugly is going to go down.

Submitted by edna ellen poe on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 12:17pm.
...something really ugly is going to go down.
--------
Reminds me of an old girlfriend.

Joke says at least as much about "you". :)

The Feminists Will Eviscerate Me For This One
Submitted by Crank Bait on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 12:26pm

----------

Bah ha ha!

Submitted by gloryoski on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 12:31pm.
Joke says at least as much about "you". :)
--------
Yeah, yeah. Everybody's a critic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZCDkaIMQK0

Bibleman strikes a blow for insulting intelligence.

(The comments are better than the video.)

John Waters' pop art portrayal of the relationship between Ike and Tina Turner is all-too-accurate.

As a director of some of the most acclaimed highbrow B-movies of all time, Supertouch amigo JOHN WATERS needs no further introduction. Quietly working the night shift as a fine artist for years now, the Baltimore-bound obsessive’s hard work has finally landed him a spot in the most hallowed hall of the modern art world, namely, the GAGOSIAN GALLERY, where the artist’s solo “Rear Projection” show opened to a throng of Hollywood players, weirdos, fanboys and girls, and well-wishing lookie-loos on Saturday nite. Comprised largely of C-prints of photos Waters has taken of TV screens bearing his favorite stills from movies of all kinds, the works pulse with the raw humor and dry wit that is Waters’ hallmark. Of particular note in this top notch collection of works are several large-scale Pop “object” sculptures that include a giant roach motel, a reproduction of the $250-a-jar La Mere face cream (this is Hollywood, after all), and a monster bottle of poppers big enough to keep all of LA bugging for a month. The crown jewel, in Waters’ epic display, however, is the beyond-lifelike sculpture of a dapper Ike Turner circa 1965, kneeling before, and holding the strings of, a marionette doll version of Tina Turner. Quipped Waters on our private exhibition visit about the headlines in the NY Post after Ike Turner’s death: “You know what they wrote when Ike died?: “Ike Beat Tina to Death!”

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/art-domestic-violence-redux

Vote Out Larry Summers

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-klein/vote-out-larry-summers_b_18871...

(This is a heads up, but has links to both Naomi's WaPo piece and the POLL.)

Submitted by gloryoski on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 1:31pm.
Vote Out Larry Summers

-----

Yeah! And take that little bitch Timmeh Geitner with him.

You Tube has pulled the video!

Booger-Picking Domino’s Workers Face Felony Charges
By Casey Gane-McCalla, Assistant Editor April 16, 2009 1:13 pm

The New York Times is reporting that the two Dominos workers have been given felony charges for delivering prohibited foods.

Link

It is also being reported that the female, Kristy Lynn Hammonds, involved in the incident is a registered sex offender.

Link

Domino’s Pizza says it has fired two US employees who posted videos online of themselves behaving “inappropriately”.

Domino’s added that the affected franchisee had filed a criminal complaint against them and there were warrants for their arrest.

One of the videos, viewed on YouTube, appeared to show a staff member putting cheese up his nose and breaking wind on salami while preparing food.

Domino’s said it apologized for the actions of the individuals concerned.

Read the Whole BBC News Report

http://newsone.blackplanet.com/nation/arrest-warrant-issued-for-booger-p...

That my friend is DISGUSTING. If it is one thing I cannot handle is
boogers & puke @ the school I work @.
I just about hurl when I come across it or have to clean it. YUCK

The author JG Ballard, famed for novels such as Crash and Empire of the Sun, has died aged 78 after a long illness.

His agent Margaret Hanbury said the author had been ill "for several years" and had died on Sunday morning.

Despite being referred to as a science fiction writer, Ballard said his books were instead "picturing the psychology of the future".

His most acclaimed novel was Empire of the Sun, based on his childhood in a Japanese prison camp in China.

More here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8007331.stm

I feel very lonely without any of ya here.
Waiting 4 my mom to get here @ the house.
My stepbrother was supposed to come 2 - but
he has been having some serious addition problems,
he really has gone down hill since his dad (my stepdad)
died. Talking heroin here as far as the issue - I have
been there - it's not fun. But he has to "want to give it
up. He doesn't want it yet. It is a struggle. Evil heroin.

In the distance
She saw me comin' 'round
I was calling out
I was calling out
Still shakin'
Still in pain
You put me back together again
I was cold and you clothed me honey
I was down and you lifted me honey

Angel...
Angel or devil
I was thirsty
And you wet my lips

You, I'm waiting for you
You, you set my desire
I trip through your wires

I was broken, bent out of shape
I was naked in the clothes you made
Lips were dry, throat like rust
You gave me shelter from the heat and the dust
No more water in the well
No more water, water

Angel...
Angel or devil
I was thirsty
And you wet my lips

You, I'm waiting for you
You, you set my desire
I trip through your wires

Yeah...I need...I need...
I need...I need it...
I need...I need...all I need...yeah!

Thunder, thunder on the mountain
There's a rain cloud in the desert sky
In the distance she saw me coming 'round
I was calling out

don't know why but that made me really really happy.
ballet rules.
in my mindless media wanderings throughout the lib. I found this doc about the Ballet Russes -

http://www.balletsrussesmovie.com/

-
I would strongly reccomend.
Never knew I liked Ballet til I saw it and made the equation : hot russian women + skintight costumes + amazing dancing = ballet.
and of course,
Balanchine.
ecrasez l'infame

...you gave something {besides soup} so special to one that was in need...
:):(
:)

I laid in my bed for at least an hour after closing my laptop unable to get to sleep.

Trying to get to sleep can be exhausting.

with the garage door open. About 35' front to back, not counting the garage.

..ok, this is my crackerbox