May 18, 2008 archive

May 18 2008

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 US military: soldier shot at Quran for practice

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

10 minutes ago

BAGHDAD – An American soldier used a Quran, the Islamic holy book, for target practice in a predominantly Sunni area west of Baghdad, prompting an apology from the U.S. military, a spokesman said Sunday.

Separately, mortar shells slammed into a residential area north of the Iraqi capital, killing at least four people and wounding 30, most children playing outside, officials said Sunday.

The shelling occurred as clashes broke out in Shiite areas late Saturday despite a truce reached last week by Shiite politicians and followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

May 18 2008

Brave New Films: The Real McCain 2.

May 18 2008

Long Past Time: Where Do The DoD Budget Monies Go?

Every year our Department of Defense budget grows to ever Huge Proportions and we’re givin the simpleminded reason that we’re getting our National Security Protection, and we simply except, no questions asked, don’t even get upset when corruption within is brought out, or outrageous costs for items we could purchase offshelf cheaper in a handware store.


Many have seen this YouTube Video of the barracks conditions for returning soldiers at Fort Bragg, or at least heard about it, which has brought about this,

May 18 2008

Republican VP Contenders – Get to know the Enemy – Part 1

I thought it might be fun and informative to get to know the people behind the names being floated about in the media regarding John McCain’s possible running mates in this year’s Presidential Election.

We know how that guy from Taco Bell became the running mate of George W. Bush.  Old Fourthmeal himself chose himself out of all the Neo-Cons on the planet, and….      

What?  It’s not Fourthmeal?  It’s fourth BRANCH??!? But, I thought it was all those refried beans from Taco Bell that made this administration so full of….What?  OK, OK!

We know how that guy from Halliburton became the running mate of George W. Bush.  Old FourthBRANCH (I hope you’re happy now) himself chose himself out of all the Neo-Cons on the planet, and became the VP from Transylvania.

While I don’t give John McCain high rankings on being the brighest bulb in the string of Christmas Lights, I still don’t think he is dumb enough to ask Vlad Cheney to assist this time.

Therefore, WE will assist Mr. McCain in his quest to find just the perfect combination of “right-wing-crazy” and “young enough to be his grandchild” Candidate for VP!

Come along and give me a hand with this one.

May 18 2008

US Cmdr in Iraq: Human Rights Law Doesn’t Apply

I’m in kind of a cranky mood. I don’t have much to say about this article, and I’m sure many of you have already read it: Iraqi court rulings stop at U.S. detention sites.

BushCo are masters at trying to legitimize illegality. It is their terrifying, unjust, enraging M.O. We see it at home, and abroad, in the conduct of this so-called GWOT. It is S.O.P.

They create legal limbo for all kinds of our fellow human beings, most innocent of any crime. GITMO is a terrible, shocking example of being in and out of the law.

May 18 2008

When the student is ready…

As we all know, this Buddhist saying ends with “the master (or teacher) appears.” I am not a Buddhist, nor do I play one on the blogs, but this saying has grounded me for years. I think I’d substitute “learning” for “master” in the quote though, so it would read “When the student is ready, the learning appears.”



(My Helper by Bill Rabbit)

May 18 2008

“…which I suppose would include myself.”

Alright, I’m sure you’ve seen some version of the below video where Chris Matthews asks sausage-brain to explain what appeasement means and protruding-forehead does his best imitation of Lenny from Mice and Men, “The rabbits, George. I want to pet the rabbits.”

But I’d like you to skip past “screaming-dude-who’s-greatest-college-experience-included-a-beer-bong-and-a-copy-of-Juggs” (I know its hard) in favor of a later moment… starting at 4:07 and going to the end… where Chris Matthews bemoans the denotative meaning of phrases like “appeaser” and “cut-and-run” and “WMD” and “patriotism”.

May 18 2008

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Country Joe and the Fish II



Who am I?

May 18 2008

Docudharma Times Sunday May 18



It’s All About The Maps

From The Flat Earth Society

Sunday’s Headlines:  Drilling for Defeat?    Obesity Threatens a Generation    China’s agony as quake parents cling to hope   Karma chameleon: He charms the West, but can the Dalai Lama save Tibet?   Sistine set-up: the 500-year-old art mystery    Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky ‘framed’ by key Putin aide     Hezbollah’s actions ignite sectarian fuse in Lebanon    Fledgling Rebellion on Facebook Is Struck Down by Force in Egypt    Aid vessel hijacked off Somalia    ANC votes to rename streets after party activists     Resentment grows in Paraguay over hydroelectric dam

Burmese children ‘facing death’

Thousands of children in cyclone-hit Burma will starve to death within weeks unless food reaches them soon, UK charity Save the Children has warned.

The charity said 30,000 under-fives in the Irrawaddy Delta were malnourished before Cyclone Nargis hit on 2 May.

It says energy-rich food now needs to reach them “before it is too late”.

The warning comes as a UN envoy is due in Burma to join international efforts to try to persuade the ruling junta to grant more access to relief workers.

Humanitarian envoy John Holmes will carry a letter from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Burma’s leader, Than Shwe, who has refused to answer Mr Ban’s calls.

May 18 2008

Beware the Terror of Campaign Bloat

As a recovering political junkie, I was prepared for Campaign ’08 to showcase all sorts of horrible visions that would threaten to throw me back off the wagon. Needless to say, I assumed these would all be thanks to the candidates, but nooooooooo. Their supporters have got in on the act as well, seemingly immune to that which Dr. Thompson once called “Campaign Bloat”:

Many appeared to be in the terminal stages of Campaign Bloat, a gruesome kind of false-fat condition that is said to be connected somehow with failing adrenal glands. The swelling begins within twenty-four hours of that moment when the victim first begins to suspect that the campaign is essentially meaningless. At that point, the body’s entire adrenaline supply is sucked back into the gizzard, and nothing either candidate says, does, or generates will cause it to rise again…and without adrenaline, the flesh begins to swell; the eyes fill with blood and grow smaller in the face, the jowls puff out from the cheekbones, the neck-flesh droops, and the belly swells up like a frog’s throat…The brain fills with noxious waste fluids, the tongue is rubbed raw on the molars, and the basic perception antennae begin dying like hairs in a bonfire.

May 18 2008

Bush Quits Golf, Starts Golo

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
By zwoof at 2008-05-17

LATE NITE ‘TOONING

Bush,” This is not golf and this is not polo which is for the elite. This is golo and it’s the most I can do for my country.  Plus, there’s none of them horses around.  I hate horses and ponies too.  Now watch this ….uh whatever it is”

May 18 2008

Iglesia………………………………………Episode 56

(Iglesia is a serialized novel, published on Tuesdays and Saturdays at midnight ET, you can read all of the episodes by clicking on the tag.)

Previous episode

“What The Fuck?” Iglesia, of course.

Her voice came from where her mouth used to be but wasn’t now, visibly at least.

Well, I am afraid to say” Rogers said solemnly “that it has come time to remind you that you are both, for lack of a better word, dead. You no longer have physical form, that you no longer possess bodies. Up until this moment it has been necessary and desirable for you to retain your ‘identities.’ Otherwise it was quite possible that you would just, well, disperse…as a sizable portion of  dead people are wont to commence doing when the realization of their fate penetrates and overtakes their consciousness. The forms that you have seemed to inhabit in your time here have been but constructions of you sense memories, augmented and enhanced by your humble host, myself.”

“However now that your true training is commencing in earnest, certain concepts that would interfere with that training….such as the concept that you retain, um, bodies…must be eliminated, or at least severely modified. You left your bodies behind on the earth plane, when you came here”