An abortion rights group Tuesday submitted more than twice the number of the signatures needed to hold a statewide vote in November on whether to repeal South Dakota's ban on abortion.
Read the rest
From (America Blog)First, there is no war on terror - anymore. There was a war on terror, for a few months or so in late 2001, and it went quite well, for the short while it lasted. As you'll recall, America got hit and we retaliated, smartly, by going after the folks enabling Al Qaeda, the Taliban. Things went well in Afghanistan (for a while), then things went horribly wrong.
Since that time, whether by intent or neglect, the actual war on terror has been missing in action. We invaded Iraq for all the wrong reasons - Iraq had nothing to do with the war on terror. Lots of us knew that before Bush invaded. All of us know it now.
And at home, Bush has been systematically dismantling the very freedoms he keeps telling us that Osama hates and our soldiers are defending. Watering down the Bill of Rights, tearing up the Constitution, and ignoring the rule of law have nothing to do with the war on terror, unless you count Osama's very goals in that war.
"The problem isn't the war on terror, it's what Bush and his coterie of conservatives ideologues have done with the war on terror. They've taken a valid campaign, a valid battle, and twisted it beyond recognition in order to help push every agenda other than the actual war on terror itself."
Read the whole thing
(Via The Independant Online)
Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.
The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.
Read more
A video of a wild fox that decided to play on the trampoline in someone's back yard.
Yahoo News
To promote his protein shake, Pat Robertson claims to have
leg-pressed 2,000 pounds when he was 73.
"From the page"
Clay Travis of CBS SportsLine.com called the 2,000-pound assertion impossible in a column this week, writing that the leg-press record for football players at Florida State University is 665 pounds less.
"Where in the world did Robertson even find a machine that could hold 2,000 pounds at one time?" Travis asked.
Andy Zucker, a strength-training coach at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, said leg presses of more than 1,000 pounds represent "a Herculean effort, and 2,000 pounds is a whole other story."
OOPS..
I guess its amazing what you can do when your pants are on fire.
*****Can someone tell me where/how this post was mentioned? Thanks********
Video from Fox News Interview with Bill Frist:
HOST: You talk about a lot of issues that affect people's lives. And yet you're going to bring two constitutional amendments to the Senate floor in the next few weeks, one to ban same-sex marriage, another to ban flag-burning, both reportedly in the papers to mobilize your conservative base. I have to tell you, I talked to a Republican senator this week who said he may vote for both of them but said they're both pandering. Are gay marriage and flag burning the most important issues the Senate can be addressing in June of 2006?
as America Blog wrote:
Check out your wallet, your gas tank, your health care plan, and the condition of your friends and relatives fighting in Iraq, then think real hard about whether gay marriage and flag burning are the top two issues on YOUR agenda
LANGLEY, VA—A report released Tuesday by the CIA's Office of the Inspector General revealed that the CIA has mistakenly obscured hundreds of thousands of pages of critical intelligence information with black highlighters.
Via (The Onion)
James Sooy has developed a new pair of eyeglasses that mounts into the bridge of your nose, via piercing.
Dubbed, "Pierced Glasses", they offer people who are already cool about body piercings with a practical use for their love of body art.
You think pierced glasses are are too extreme? James perhaps summed it best...
"Paying ... to have someone cut your eyes and shoot a laser in them (just so you don't have to wear glasses) seems extreme to me..."
Democrat:
You have to be against capital punishment but support abortion on demand.
You have to be against abortion but support capital punishment.
Ever wonder what it would be like if the cast of Stomp lived in your apartment? This short will give you some idea.
Via (Neatorama)
Based on the classic "Will Return" sign, this clock is just the thing to get double takes in your office. Are you there? Are you coming back?
Price: $9.99
Via ThinkGeek
From secret detention centers to warrantless wiretapping, Bush and Co. give free rein to their totalitarian impulses.
Is the U.S. becoming a police state? Here are the top 10 signs that it may well be the case.
Kinda scary seeing them all in one place.. read it here
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller on Friday urged telecommunications officials to record their customers' Internet activities, CNET News.com has learned.
Read on Zdnet Via (America blog)
Via (J-walk blog)
Drawings of 10,000 sheep: The Sheep Market.
These were created by workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Each worker was paid $0.02 to draw a sheep facing left.
The Beauty of all this you can get people to do things like this, or that people will pay others to do it. Is this the next Million Dollar web page?
Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is "in the mix" in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress.
Speaker Hastert said tonight the story was "absolutely untrue" and has demanded ABC News retract its story.
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has provided information to the FBI about Hastert and a number of other members of Congress that have broadened the scope of the investigation. Sources would not divulge details of the Abramoff’s information.
"Whether they like it or not, members of Congress, including Hastert, are under investigation," one federal official said tonight....
Officials said the next logical investigative step would be for the FBI to seek a wide range of documents from the members of Congress named by Abramoff, including letters and business documents.
(ABC News) Via (America Blog)
Vice President May Be Called as Witness
Washington Post Via (America Blog)
Crooks and Liars has the video of Richard A. Viguerie interviewed on Countdown.
Viguerie writes: Bush's Base Betrayal
"I've never seen conservatives so downright fed up as they are today. The current relationship between Washington Republicans and the nation's conservatives makes me think of a cheating husband whose wife catches him, and forgives him, time and time again. Then one day he comes home to discover that she has packed her bags and called a cab -- and a divorce lawyer. As the philanderer learns: Hell hath no fury. . . .read on"
According to Dan Froomkin's White House briefing:A press release from Viguerie describes the reaction from the White House:
"Apparently the White House's response to my article in the May 21 Washington Post is to send out an e-mail from Peter H. Wehner, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, consisting of six quotes by me criticizing Ronald Reagan during his presidency.
"That's a lot easier than trying to respond to my arguments. That's a lot easier than trying to explain away the many examples I give of how Bush has betrayed the conservative movement. And that is standard operating procedure for this White House: Put the spotlight on the president's critic, rather than respond to the critic's arguments.
"Peter, I plead guilty to your implied criticism of me. I am, indeed, a consistent conservative. I put loyalty to conservative principles above loyalty to the Republican Party or a politician. . . .
"One final word, Peter. I knew Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush is no Ronald Reagan."
Richard A. Viguerie, one of the architects of the conservative movement writes:The main cause of conservatives' anger with Bush is this: He talked like a conservative to win our votes but never governed like a conservative.
For all of conservatives' patience, we've been rewarded with the botched Hurricane Katrina response, headed by an unqualified director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which proved that the government isn't ready for the next disaster. We've been rewarded with an amnesty plan for illegal immigrants. We've been rewarded with a war in Iraq that drags on because of the failure to provide adequate resources at the beginning, and with exactly the sort of "nation-building" that Candidate Bush said he opposed
Oh and it goes on.
Really telling is this quote:
"Then came the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and conservatives came to see support for the president as an act of patriotism."
Justine Smith has developed this theme and has begun producing a series of sculptures covered in (real) money. These have included "A Euro's for Life Not Just for Christmas", a series of twelve dog sculptures pouncing around a single pound coin. Each dog is covered with a different one of the currencies of the twelve countries that have joined the Euro. She has also produced the "E.U. Ewe", a sculpture of a sheep given a woollen coat made from a thousand pounds worth of Euro notes, and "Sacred Calf" a life sized calf sculpture covered with U.S. Dollars
Via (Sorry I forget already)
From (DailyKos)
"Everything on this page is a lie (except for the title)"
A seemingly endless list of the lies foisted on us in the past few years
Helen Thomas is old and batty.
Mexicans are taking our jobs.
Iraq sent its WMDs to Syria.
Democrats don't want to wiretap terrorists.
Joe Wilson admitted that Valerie Plame wasn't covert.
Karl Rove has a faulty memory.
Scooter Libby has a faulty memory
Nice to have it all in one place. There's tons more...read it.
From Atrios
Interesting post on the Republicans and their defense of marriage act.
An article (NOT appearing anywhere tomorrow) that takes them to task for "family values" as they actually live them.
Washington, DC, May 23 - Republicans say it is inevitable that some voters would be concerned and even distracted by the numerous personal indiscretions of the various candidates likely to seek the office of president, and express concern about whether they would be likely to repeat such behavior while in the White House.
Interesting background to the protest at John McCain's commencement address at The New School. McCain was there at Kerrey's invitation against the student's wishes. So it would seem was Kerrey.
MAUREEN DOWD: Make Poetry, Not War
"When a rigid-faced Mr. Kerrey chided the audience for being rude, a young woman yelled out, "You're a war criminal!" And a guy chimed in, "Yes, you are!"
It was a remarkable tableau to see the two iconoclastic vets, their bodies beneath the black gowns still bearing broken pieces from Vietnam, being pilloried by kids angry about another endless war, faceless enemy and feckless defense secretary.
Senator McCain came to Mr. Kerrey's defense in 2001. That's when graduate students called for the New School president to resign and for Congress to investigate him because a Times magazine piece had revealed that he had led a Seals unit that killed up to 20 unarmed civilians, most of them women and children."
Jean Rohe the student who burst John McCain's bubble before he could deliver his stump speech at her graduation from New School in New York.
"What if I tore McCain's speech apart before he even opened his mouth? After reading his speech a couple of times I picked out a few particularly loathsome sections--and believe it or not, none of these actually came from the extensive section where he defends his position on the war in Iraq--and I began planning an attack against him using his own words."
Claim: The youngest mother on record was a five-year-old Peruvian girl.
Status: True.
Read it
*** Update 09-06 Found The Ross Sisters again.. You can see this video again Click Here
This jumpin jivin film clip from 1944 features The Ross Sisters as they sing, dance, and contort themselves in a spectacular tribute to Potato Salad.
Dont miss it. via (hemmy.net)
Too late, you missed it... YouTube pulled it "This video has been removed at the request of copyright owner Warner Brothers Entertainment because its content was used without permission"
Check out something else here
Video Via (One Good Move)
Lisa is arrested for defying the new law in Springfield against teaching evolution after Reverend Lovejoy is appointed by Mayor Quimby (at Ned Flanders’s request) to be the town’s new “morality czar” in charge of promoting creationism; can a comment made in the show’s first season come back to save her? Guest stars Larry Hagman and Melanie Griffith.
CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A senior official in U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election campaign was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Wednesday for his role in suppressing votes in a key U.S. Senate race, a scandal that Democrats charge may involve the White House.
Read more
Transcript:
GREGORY: Let me ask you about your leadership. In the most recent survey, your disapproval rating is now one point lower than Richard Nixon’s before he resigned the presidency. You are laughing.
BUSH: I’m not laughing –
Watch the video on Think Progress
Amazingly cool!
Start on one image, zoom in and find its made up of others in an infinite loop of great photos
Via Washington Post
It's easier to rig an electronic voting machine than a Las Vegas slot machine, says University of Pennsylvania visiting professor Steve Freeman. That's because Vegas slots are better monitored and regulated than America's voting machines, Freeman writes in a book out in July that argues, among other things, that President Bush may owe his 2004 win to an unfair vote count. We'll wait to read his book before making a judgment about that. But Freeman has assembled comparisons that suggest Americans protect their vices more than they guard their rights, according to data he presented at an October meeting of the American Statistical Association in Philadelphia.
Remember the original NSA spying scandal and Christianne Amanpour?
From ABC News
The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly seeking reporters' phone records in leak investigations.
The original doesnt seen so far fetched. Read more
If you don't know who Murray Waas is, read this first:
Murray Waas - The New Bob Woodward
Then the interview in US News & World Report
A muckraker's day in the sun
Washington investigative journalist Murray Waas, 47, has been around awhile. As a teenager, he left George Washington University well shy of a political science degree to start his reporting career working for legendary muckraker Jack Anderson.
Via (Needle Nose)If you have hundreds of millions of phone calls you're trying to track a day, what do you get out of it? Remember, this is the same administration that had the information that could have stopped 9/11 from happening. They didn't translate it until September 12.
There's more and its good
. . . Every time this administration screws up, whether it's with homeland security, after Katrina, a massive failure even though they spent billions of dollars to make sure that thing wouldn't happen, when they screw up along the border, when they get caught doing illegal surveillance of Americans, they say, well, but 9/11, 9/11.
Well, I'd remind them 9/11 happened on their watch. I think Americans are getting fed up with simply using an excuse for your mistakes and classify everything else so that you can't talk about it.
The rude, clumsy puppet Mr. Bungle shows kids how to behave in the school cafeteria - the assumption being that kids ... all » actually want to behave during lunch.
Great! Watch it!
Via Yahoo News
Bob Cesca: Truthout Reporting That Karl Rove Was Indicted....
Stay tuned
Good evening, my fellow Americans. In 2000 when you overwhelmingly made the decision to elect me as your 43rd president, I knew the road ahead would be difficult. We have accomplished so much yet challenges lie ahead.
In the last 6 years we have been able to stop global warming. No one could have predicted the negative results of this. Glaciers that once were melting are now on the attack. As you know, these renegade glaciers have already captured parts of upper Michigan and northern Maine, but I assure you: we will not let the glaciers win.
Right now, in the 2nd week of May 2006, we are facing perhaps the worst gas crisis in history. We have way too much gasoline. Gas is down to $0.19 a gallon and the oil companies are hurting. I know that I am partly to blame by insisting that cars run on trash.
I am therefore proposing a federal bailout to our oil companies because- hey if it were the other way around, you know the oil companies would help us...Watch it on Crooks and Liars
On March 12th and June 10th, 2006 cities across the world will experience the naked joy of the worlds largest naked protest against oil dependency and car culture in the history of humanity. It is time to stop indecent exposure to automobile emissions and to celebrate the power and individuality of our bodies! Naked Bicycle People Power!
Sign up to today to participate in an existing event or start a new one! Read more...
President Bush’s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January.
(Wall Street Journal)
The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers security clearance.
cnn
Cnn
Bush's comments followed a USA Today report Thursday that telecommunications giants AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon have provided the National Security Agency with billions of records of domestic phone calls beginning shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
From America Blog:
The Chicago Sun Times Writes about Colbert at the Correspondants diner:
How's this for a newsworthy lead? It was perhaps the first time in Bush's tenure that the president was forced to sit and listen to any American cite the litany of criminal and corruption allegations that have piled up against his administration. And mouth-tense Bush and first lady Laura Bush fled as soon as possible afterward.
With some much phony outrage over the "The Star Spangled Banner," being sung in Spanish, "Nightline" found out that not many of our politicians even know the words in English.
Crooks and Liars Video
Joe: ...I've learned from this White House, that when things change these days, they almost always change for the worse. Let's face it. When one out of three of your own party wants you to lose control over Congress, it's time to take a long look-at the enemy within.
From (America Blog)
Comrade Bush needs you.Career appointees at the Department of Agriculture were stunned last week to receive e-mailed instructions that include Bush administration "talking points" -- saying things such as "President Bush has a clear strategy for victory in Iraq" -- in every speech they give for the department.
"The President has requested that all members of his cabinet and sub-cabinet incorporate message points on the Global War on Terror into speeches, including specific examples of what each agency is doing to aid the reconstruction of Iraq," the May 2 e-mail from USDA speechwriter Heather Vaughn began....
Another attachment "contains specific examples of GWOT messages within agriculture speeches. Please use these message points as often as possible and send Harry Phillips , USDA's director of speechwriting, a weekly email summarizing the event, date and location of each speech incorporating the attached language. Your responses will be included in a weekly account sent to the White House."Hat tip to Huffington Post.
These two really do love each other. I hoped to get the opportunity to do this. It took a while but kitty here finally slowed down. I knew once she got tired again she'd be ready to lay on Jon here. They actually clean each other. She'll lick his fur and then pretty soon he'll(Jon/dog) start licking her entire head. She just sits there and soaks it up until her whole head is wet and messed up.
lots more here
Via New York Daily News
WASHINGTON - CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned yesterday amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman.
I want one....A cross between a backpack and a puppet.
Recently sold on ebay for $1000 more pictures here on Stuff on Fire
websites set up to support those who've had the guts to publicly question Bush and Company
ThankYouStephenColbert.org - For his speach at the White House Correspondents Diner
ThankYouHarryTaylor.org - “In my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of my leadership in Washington,” Taylor told the president. “And I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and grace to be ashamed of yourself.”
ThankYouRayMcGovern.org “…I would like to ask you to be upfront with the American people. Why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary, that has caused these kinds of casualties? Why?” asked audience member Ray McGovern, who had a 27-year career as a CIA analyst.”
Via Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald
Ray McGovern, the 27 year CIA veteran who prepared and delivered Presidential Daily Briefings to Bush's father is now being "swift boated"
Fer instance. did you know that:
Washington Irving created the myth that everyone thought the world was flat til Columbus proved otherwise.
In a ceremony at the White House, President Warren G. Harding was inducted as member of the Klu Klux Klan.
YouTube pulled the video down due to copyright violations.
You can watch it here thanks to ABC News Added bonus, ABC video keeps the camera right on Bush during Colbert's fantasy news conference.
Via US News.com
Skewering comedy skit angers Bush and aides.
"Colbert crossed the line," said one top Bush aide, who rushed out of the hotel as soon as Colbert finished. Another said that the president was visibly angered by the sharp lines that kept coming.
"I've been there before, and I can see that he is [angry]," said a former top aide. "He's got that look that he's ready to blow
Via (Think Progress)
An audience member with 27 years in the CIA confronted Rumsfeld with his 2003 claim about WMD, “We know where they are.” Rumsfeld falsely claimed he never said it. The analyst then read Rumsfeld’s quote back to him, leaving the defense secretary speechless.
Golden Goose - A yearly talent show held at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. This video is a "live" performance ... all » of the first level from Super Mario Brothers
On Monday, a federal judge gave the Secret Service until May 10 to give a list of Abramoff White House visits to Judicial Watch.
But White House spokesman declined to say what is wrong with Secret Service list or why it is inaccurate.
Maybe it lists more than a few Chanukah parties???
This may be a commentary on the state of the media today .. I hope so.
Two post I put up yesterday are drawing a lot of traffic.
Truthiness Hurts
and
Pamela Rogers Teacher of the year? Video
By about 30 -1, the videos of Colbert roasting Bush out draws the video of Pamela Rogers dancing in a bra and g-string. Go figure. Obviously the media underestimates us. People really do care more about things of substance like how with the media's active and inactive participation we were lied into Iraq. Instead we're subjected to agonizing details about TomKat, Scott Peterson, or the Duke rape scandal. Stories that really only effect a small group of people and prevent the rest of us from getting real news.
Via Crooks and Liars
David Shuster reported on Hardball today that:
INTELLIGENCE SOURCES SAY VALERIE WILSON WAS PART OF AN OPERATION THREE YEARS AGO TRACKING THE PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS MATERIAL INTO IRAN. AND THE SOURCES ALLEGE THAT WHEN MRS. WILSON'S COVER WAS BLOWN, THE ADMINISTRATION'S ABILITY TO TRACK IRAN'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS WAS DAMAGED AS WELL."
Raw Story has the transcript posted. Larisa reported on this in Feb.
Didn't John Gibson say that Karl Rove deserved a medal for outing Valerie? Another question needs to be asked of this President. If Iran is such a threat, why does Bush still have on his staff a man (Rover) who betrayed the identity of a CIA agent that was working on this very serious issue.
Via US News.com
Skewering comedy skit angers Bush and aides.
"Colbert crossed the line," said one top Bush aide, who rushed out of the hotel as soon as Colbert finished. Another said that the president was visibly angered by the sharp lines that kept coming.
"I've been there before, and I can see that he is [angry]," said a former top aide. "He's got that look that he's ready to blow
"Let's, first of all, pray there's no hurricanes," Bush said. "That would be, like, step one."
I hope there's more to it than that.
via Washington Post
When asked why, he replied "Beats me"
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- An executive at a heart disease charitable foundation who embezzled close to a quarter of a million dollars over two years to pay a dominatrix to beat him was sentenced Tuesday to two to six years in prison.
more on CNN
Study: Americans sicker than English
Study finds more serious illness despite greater U.S. spending
Middle-aged, white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England, startling new research shows, despite U.S. health care spending per person that's more than double what England spends.
more on CNN
You've got to see the effects you can do with this: Logitech Quickcam Orbit MP.
Via J-walk Blog
Worship at every meal with JesusPan
