Typewriter

I lived in Berkeley for a time. On a quiet street, bursting with flowers and trees and a good mix of people, not too far from the campus. It was big and cheap, the first floor flat of a somewhat rickety house. My friends lived in the flat upstairs. And for a year, my brother lived in the other upstairs flat. These Berkeley years were some particularly good years of life. I was poor. A graduate student. But I was devoted to life and to literature, thrilling to their proximity, exuberant about philosophy and poetry. Even my depressions felt luxurious at the time. I was poor, but rich.

Wherever I am, I love walking around, and Berkeley was no exception. Weekends meant yard-sales, and I’d often pick up a little this or that, maybe even a $5 splurge. One weekend I spotted a vintage typewriter. For five bucks it was mine. That night, at home I fed one end of a long roll of yellow paper into it and started clacking. It wasn’t a fast typewriter; it was old and dirty, but even clean and oiled, I imagine you had to earn every word. I thought it would be fun to just leave it out and encourage visitors and friends to peck out a this or that, whatever struck them. Maybe I’d even bang out a few lines. Or my husband.

Over two years, the scroll grew longer, the yellow paper bunching up behind the typewriter and eventually, when I moved the table away from the wall, cascading onto the floor in a lazy, curving pile.

When we moved back to New York, scroll and typewriter came with us. It was such frenzied packing, I didn’t reread the scroll, just pulled it out of the typerwriter, rolled it up, and packed it and the typewriter away.  

Back in New York, the unpacking was fairly leisurely. I hadn’t sifted and sorted and pitched before moving, and was doing that as I unpacked. I was happy to come across that yellow roll of paper and I sat down to read it through. Certain things brought back clear memories, other things I was delighted to find as if for the first time, some things bored me, other things made me laugh, and I even cried a few times. I was taken by the idea of slowly reading, unfurling this scroll, an eclectic version of my history for the past two years. Unrolling, unrolling, at the top of the scroll were the oldest entries, moving further and further into the future the more I unrolled.

The last entry was one that I had never read before. I had to read it twice to really understand it. It made my heart race with fear, then anger, and sadness. It made me cry, my body vibrating with discord. From memory here:

Ha! Ha! Ha! you in your cushy rich happy life here in berkeley.who would’ve thought that the hippies parked in the van across the street for the past two weeks would crash in and break your world. What makes you think you should live this life. You think the world is just fucking beautiful don’t you? well, we’re here to tell you it’s not yours so we’re taking what should be ours. you only got what you have by ripping people off. [then, iirc, there was a long kind of nonsensical “poem” or quote or stream of consciousness. it was syntaxless in some ways, but portended some private meaning or menace]

Smack. On the second reading. It clicked.

A few months earlier, still in Berkeley, coming home one day from German class, I found the outer front door was open and the inner one slightly ajar. I pushed it open tentatively, nervous, calling out my husband’s name. Silence. And then I realized what else was so strange. The cats were nowhere to be seen. They were hiding. Silence and absence. And then it came into focus what wasn’t there: the CDs, the T.V., stereo, computers, deeper into the apartment, drawers were open, things flung about. I noticed on the mantle that beautiful clock my parents had given as a wedding present was askew; perhaps they left it there, like that, at an angle, when they saw it was engraved on the back. Later, the police would dust it for prints. The dusting powder was black and a strange consistency. I couldn’t altogether get it out of the cracks in the white paint of the mantle. We never got any of the items back, of course. We never expected to. It was just part of a social ritual, I suppose, to have the police over, and fill out a report.

And so, I discovered 3,000 miles and several months at a distance, reading the last entry rolled up inside that scroll of yellow paper, not only had we been robbed and violated,  but the thief had taken the time to bang out a nasty message, deride me, judge me, hurt me even more–pure venom and insult, which also hurt because it was so wrong; it seemed so unjust.

In the grand scheme of things, of course, it’s not a hurt unbearable; it may even have a lesson in it somewhere. I’m not sure where.  

Max Boot, you sick bastard…

Max Boot loves seeing dead brown people.  He and the Kagan’s and Kristol and the filthy turds that make up the neoconservative movement ought to be hand-cuffed together to a metal bar inside (or outside) of a large jet and flown over the Netherlands and summarily dropped from an altitude to be determined by the pilot, into Den Haag for their war-crimes trial.

The surge—these people touch themselves when they say it—is a success!  How do we know it: Simple–soldiers are dying, silly!

…[C]asualties cannot be looked at in a vacuum. A spike in casualties could be a sign that the enemy is gaining strength. Or it could be a sign that tough combat is under way that will lead to the enemy’s defeat and the creation of a more peaceful environment in the future.

The latter was certainly the case with the casualty spike during the summer of 2007. (More than a hundred soldiers died each month in April, May and June.) Those losses were widely denounced as evidence that the surge wasn’t working, but in fact they were proof of the opposite.

There you have it.  The surge is working when soldiers do not die and the surge is working when soldiers do die.  Therefore, the surge is always working…

Now, all of you people who are suggesting that the surge has only had the limited success it has had by (a) paying the Sunni extremists lots o’ cash to stop killing soldiers; and (b) Mr Sadr taking it upon himself to re-group, re-arm, re-train and have a temporary cease-fire, STFU and quit raining on Mr Boot’s parade…

The newspapers are predictably filled with articles about how 52 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq last month – the highest toll since September. Iraqi civilian casualties are also said to be at the highest level since August. These losses are being used to cast aspersions on claims of progress in Iraq.

Remember, death is good, and more death is better…  How dare anyone ‘cast aspersions’ about a mere 52 dead soldiers–have you no heart?

John McClinCain’s Pastor Hagee–My fave-o-right video!

Oh, nevermind…the John’s are as white as the inside of a loaf of Wonder Bread.  I forgot…

Nothing to see here…Move along…Tomorrow is Sunday and a real live negro will be preaching in Chicago…Let’s talk about that guy!

The Second Time on the “Second Lines”…

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

This is the latest carpetbagger insult to our people here in New Orleans. Mass Culture seeks to have it’s way with us and turn our cultures and our city into another version of Disneyland.

Like I’ve stated before, I don’t perform for tourists… I just live my life.

Here is the reference article: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/f…

Cross-posted from GentillyGirl. http://gentillygirl.com

Last Saturday, a major dissing of our Cultures and Traditions here in New Orleans went down: Da’ NOPD broke up a Second Line, a Jazz Funeral, in the Treme last Saturday. (Of course the local paper didn’t report on the event until the wee hours of the morning today.) This was as the mourners had finished and were walking to a place to share the Repast at a Community Center.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of this kind of funerary rite, here’s what it entails:`a procession heads toward the ceremonial place of passing (could be a business, a fishing hole, a certain park or the cemetery.) A brass band leads the folks playing dirges. When the selected place is reached, the words are said and the departed is ready to move on. Then the band strikes up a different beat and the mourners start to dance in order to help their friend move on to the other World. “Dancing them Home” is also a way to stop the tears and just remember our friend as we continue through day-to-day life. We are a Family. We take care of our own.

Once the Second Line is done, the folks gather in places and share food, drink and stories about the departed. Some members of the “Family” might be at one place, others at others. But this is usually how it goes down.

This is a Sacred ritual. It is rooted in Culture and Tradition, Respect and Humanity. This act is seen as essential by many of us as part of our Heritage and our City. Events such as this define us as a people and a Culture, the continuation of what has been for many, many years. As a Native I will say now: “This is part of our Birthright, our being a part of the Life that moves through the heavy damp air as it sways the Spanish Moss on the oak trees. Here is where we came from and in the fullness of time where we shall return. The muddy waters of Old Man River, the clays in the swamps… the scent of cypress trees… all of these things are also part of us. We dance the Dance of Life, knowing full well the fragility of the living, and we will not give our ancestral ways up. This is our home and these are our Traditions. This is OUR Dance.”.

This is why what happened last Saturday is an attack and an affront to the Culture of New Orleans. It is orchestrated by those of money and power. Our city is badly damaged by the Federal Flood, and they want the land for speculation, for those who would buy a condo near the French Quarter in order to “celebrate” three days once every year at Mardi Gras. To break the back of the old Cultures in order to be able to schedule and charge for every little thing we locals do as a matter of course. To make their way our way. These are the desires of malignantly evil creatures.

These are the carpetbaggers, those who swoop down when the we are hurting and gnaw on our bones even as we die. They only see New Orleans as a cash register, not the living entity that it truly is. Our Life, our city’s Life, is something they can never know. The Spirit of Place can never enter them because they cannot “feel”.

New Orleans belongs to Her people and they to Her. Native or adopted, it doesn’t really matter: we are all infected with Her elixir… the “Water of Life”. Our strange little anachronistic bastion of the Old World infused with the desire to just be ourselves in the midst of American Culture gone crazy. The reminder of what could be, if only one accepts it.

One paragraph of the above article caught my eye:

“Snuffing Saturday’s parade was an “attack on the culture,” the same culture that gave birth to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, said Wilson’s longtime friend, Jerome Smith. He found the timing ironic: At about the same time that police had scattered an authentic funeral march, near Esplanade and Claiborne avenues, Jazz and Heritage Festival-goers were lined up behind a band at the Fair Grounds, ready to follow a second-line recreated for tourists.

Need I say more?

Senn Fein

El Presidente Repeals Law of Supply And Demand

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

This past week we were all treated to a proposed executive repeal of the venerable Law of Supply and Demand by McCain and Clinton.  Today, not to be undone, El Presidente made it clear that they were too late, he had already issued an executive order nullifying the Law of Supply and Demand.  And by golly, he was going to take credit for that.

According to Bloomberg:

Hillary Clinton and John McCain are both pushing a “gas-tax holiday” to give consumers an 18.4- cent-a-gallon price break. Clinton says the plan will take excess profits from oil companies. McCain says it will help families buy school supplies.

Economists have a different take: They say the oil companies may end up the biggest beneficiaries, while the aid to families wouldn’t be enough to buy a $35 backpack.

The trouble with the plan, they say, is that oil prices are rising because of low supplies, and companies will continue to charge the average $3.60 a gallon and just pocket the money that would have gone to federal taxes.

And this doesn’t even mention that old bugaboo, the Law of Supply and Demand, which holds that decreasing price usually stimulates consumption.  This is that Law: If a bottle of beer was $2 and now it’s $1, wouldn’t you consider having 2 instead of one?  So the proposal, supposedly decreasing the price, would lead to greater oil consumption and then, uh oh, higher prices.

Fortunately, Barack Obama called bullshit on the proposal:

Slamming Clinton’s support for the gas tax holiday, [Obama] accused her of pandering to voters instead of offering a real solution to the energy problem.

“In a moment of candor, her advisers actually admitted that it wouldn’t have much of an effect on gas prices. But, they said, it’s a great political issue for Senator Clinton. So this is not about getting you through the summer, it’s about getting elected,” Obama argued. “This is what passes for leadership in Washington, phony ideas, calculated to win elections instead of actually solving problems.”

Obama said that a Clinton has deployed a surrogate, who is also lobbyist for Shell Oil, to pitch the gas tax holiday to voters. “It’s a shell game, literally,” Obama said. Some economists have said that the gas tax holiday may increase profits for the oil companies, as demand may rise with the reduction in price. The campaign said Obama was referring to Steve Elmendorf, a lobbyist for Shell Oil and a Clinton supporter.

2 points for a pun to Obama.  And this doesn’t even begin to touch the repeated calls on Righwing Talk Radio for a reduction not only of the federal gas tax, but also the state gas taxes.  This might add up in New York to the munificent sum of $40 cents per gallon, enough to reduce the price of regular gas from $3.65 to $3.20, reducing the price of a usual 15 gallon fill up from about $54.75 to $48.00, a saving of precisely $6.75 per fill up.  Whoop de F*ckin doo.  I bet that will buy a lot of stuff.  I bet that will really relieve your budget pressure.  And let’s completely omit that the Treasury needs the money from these taxes to build highways and roads.  So where is that going to come from?

Not to be undone by the arrant stupidity of the gas tax proposals, the MBA-in-chief today pointed out in his weekly radio address that the candidates were too late to repeal the Law of Supply and Demand.  Way too late.  El Presidente had already done it by fiat, and he intended to take full credit for it and its consequences.  In his weekly massage El Presidente explained:

U.S. President George W. Bush sought to assure Americans on Saturday that federal checks en route to them as part of a stimulus plan will help spur the ailing economy and pay for soaring gas and food prices.

“These rebates will deliver up to $600 per person, $1,200 per couple, and $300 per child,” Bush said in his weekly radio address.

“This package will help American families increase their purchasing power and help offset the high prices that we’re seeing at the gas pump and the grocery store,” Bush said, adding it would also provide tax incentives for business to invest and create jobs.

First, when a plunderer Rethuglican says “for business to invest and create jobs” you can invariably translate that language as “increase profits.”  It’s only if the shareholders aren’t too demanding for cash that there’s going to be any investment, and only if there’s investment can there be job creation.  This is Rethuglican talk, after all.  It means the money might trickle down.  But not necessarily.  Don’t hold your breath.

“Offset” is the term El Presidente used that’s most intriguing, most worth thinking about.  “Offset” is maybe an accounting term, but, alas, it’s not an economics term.  There is no such thing as “offset.”  If I receive $600 from El Presidente, and I spend it on gasoline this increases demand for gasoline, and voila! eventually increases prices.  If I receive $600 from El Presidente, and I spent it at Wal-mart, that increases revenues to Wal-mart, which will use the increased funds to hoard profits or maybe stimulate production of junky plastic things in China.  The money will flow to shareholders’ pockets or maybe to China.

How, you might wish to ask, does increasing gas consumption and driving prices higher “offset” anything?  Doesn’t that, in fact, make things worse?  A whole lot worse by continuing the current spiral?

Now you’re getting it.  If somebody arrived from another planet and looked at what’s going on with these proposals, s/he would think, “Oh, they’re just finding ways of putting more dollars in the pockets of the big capitalists.  And they’re marketing that to the plebians as if it were a balm for their economic woes.”  That would be about right.      

Real pony party: Kentucky Derby Day!

Please forgive me for usurping an open thread, but: I cannot believe that a site which has terrific pony parties almost every day of the week is ignoring the very real ponies running this afternoon in the 134th Kentucky Derby.

The last triple crown winner was Affirmed in 1978:

Affirmed is also known for his famous rivalry with Alydar, whom Affirmed met ten times, including in all three Triple Crown races, and who became the first racehorse to finish second in all three Triple Crown races.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A…

Somebody, please have a mint julep for me…I only wish I’d seen that Triple Crown at the time, not (belatedly) on YouTube.

In today’s race, Big Brown was the favorite as of this morning.  The NY Times has an interesting side story:

There is a lot riding on the Kentucky Derby for two charities in Louisville. Two corporations have bet on different horses, and if either of those wins, the charity chosen by the victorious bettor will be $10,000 richer.

Thus, if Big Brown, the leanly sculptured colt who is sponsored by United Parcel Service – also known as Big Brown – crosses the finish line first, U.P.S. will donate $5,000 to Metro United Way, and the KFC Corporation, operator of the chicken restaurant chain, will match that gift.

Should Colonel John end up wearing the roses, KFC will donate $5,000 to Colonel’s Scholars, a KFC program that provides college scholarships to needy students, and U.P.S. will make a matching donation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05…

Here’s hoping for another pony that can go the distance in all three races!  Cheers!

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 U.S. rocket strike in Baghdad wounds 20

By Waleed Ibrahim and Tim Cocks, Reuters

2 hours, 25 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military fired rockets at a target near a major hospital in eastern Baghdad on Saturday, wounding 20 people and damaging a number of ambulances, the head of the hospital said.

No patients were wounded at the hospital in the Sadr City stronghold of anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but 20 people at the scene of the blasts had been hurt, said Dr. Wi’am al-Jawahiri, manager of the al-Sadr hospital.

Jawahiri said windows at the hospital were shattered when three missiles hit what the U.S. military in Iraq called a militant “command and control” centre around 10.00 a.m.

Now with Business and Science.

2 Iran won’t talk to U.S. on Iraq till attacks stop: report

Reuters

Sat May 3, 10:45 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) – A senior Iranian official said on Saturday Tehran saw no need for more talks with the United States about Iraqi security until what he described as U.S. attacks on Iraqis stopped, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported.

Iranian and U.S. officials held three rounds of talks last year in Baghdad, high-profile meetings between two foes who have not had diplomatic ties since 1980 and rarely hold discussions. But plans for a fourth round have faced a series of delays.

Washington accuses Tehran of funding, training and equipping militias in Iraq, a charge Iran denies. Tehran blames the presence of U.S. troops for violence and instability in Iraq.

3 Zimbabwe opposition still undecided on run-off

By Cris Chinaka, Reuters

2 hours, 10 minutes ago

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s main opposition party said on Saturday it was still undecided on whether its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, should take part in a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe.

Election officials announced on Friday that Tsvangirai, who heads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had beaten Mugabe in the March 29 presidential poll but failed to win the absolute majority necessary to avoid a second ballot.

The MDC has accused election officials of rigging the results, which showed Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent of the vote to Mugabe’s 43.2 percent. The party says Tsvangirai won the election outright and Mugabe’s rule is over.

4 Bush says rebate checks will boost ailing economy

By Thomas Ferraro, Reuters

Sat May 3, 11:15 AM ET

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush sought to assure Americans on Saturday that federal checks en route to them as part of a stimulus plan will help spur the ailing economy and pay for soaring gas and food prices.

“These rebates will deliver up to $600 per person, $1,200 per couple, and $300 per child,” Bush said in his weekly radio address.

“This package will help American families increase their purchasing power and help offset the high prices that we’re seeing at the gas pump and the grocery store,” Bush said, adding it would also provide tax incentives for business to invest and create jobs.

5 Dalai Lama envoys prepare for China talks

by Parul Gupta, AFP

40 minutes ago

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Two Dalai Lama envoys will hold talks with Chinese officials Sunday in southern China, a spokesman for the exiled Tibetan leader said, even as Beijing kept up its barrage of criticism against him.

The talks, taking place seven weeks after protests in Lhasa turned deadly and just three months before the Olympic Games in Beijing, were to be held in Shenzhen, just over the border from Hong Kong.

“They (the two envoys) will arrive in China today from Europe and the US. The talks will be held tomorrow in Shenzhen,” Chhime R. Chhoekyapa, secretary to the Dalai Lama, told AFP.

6 Olympic torch back in mainland China

AFP

Sat May 3, 11:46 AM ET

SANYA, China, (AFP) – The Olympic torch returned to the Chinese mainland Saturday, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, ready for its first relay here.

A chartered plane carrying the flame landed at Sanya Fenghuang International Airport in the southern Chinese holiday resort of Hainan at 10:35 pm (1435 GMT), Xinhua said.

Luo Baoming, governor of Hainan province, received the flame from the Olympic organising committee, according to the report.

7 Student-loan legislation moves forward

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, The Christian Science Monitor

Fri May 2, 4:00 AM ET

In moving this week to shore up the student-loan market, the federal government aims to avert a credit crunch that some warned could make it harder for students to borrow for college.

On Thursday, Congress sent to President Bush for his signature a bill that is designed to give lenders the confidence and the liquidity they need to continue providing federal loans to students. It would also increase federal loan limits to lessen the fast-growing reliance on private loans.

The news comes just in time to buoy thousands of families weighing college and financial-aid decisions.

8 White Zimbabweans bring change to Nigeria

By Sarah Simpson, The Christian Science Monitor

Fri May 2, 4:00 AM ET

Shonga, Nigeria – Musa Mogadi says he is better off since “the whites” came. He’s got a new job, learned new farming skills, and he can chat on a mobile phone while zipping around the countryside on a motorbike.

Three years ago, Mr. Mogadi got by as a subsistence farmer. But he now earns a regular wage as a supervisor on one of this town’s new commercial farms.

He’s applied skills he learned from some of the two dozen white Zimbabwean farmers who moved to Nigeria in 2005, after being kicked off their land by President Robert Mugabe and later attracted by large parcels of land on offer under 25-year leases and commitments of support from the Nigerian government.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Recommended

9 Lawmakers seek probe of Pentagon public relations program

By ANDREW MIGA, Associated Press Writer

Fri May 2, 4:42 PM ET

WASHINGTON – Forty-one House members are calling on the Defense Department inspector general to investigate a public relations effort that relied on retired military officers to defend the administration’s Iraq war policies.

“When the Department of Defense misleads the American people by having them believe that they are listening to the views of objective military analysts when in fact these individuals are simply replaying DoD talking points, the department is clearly betraying the public trust,” the lawmakers wrote in a joint letter to Defense Department Inspector General Claude M. Kicklighter on Friday.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who organized the letter, said it was important for the inspector general to find out how high-ranking officials within the Pentagon were allowed to operate a program aimed at deceiving the American people.

10 Southeast Asia says to cooperate over food security

By Gde Anugrah Arka and Ed Davies, Reuters

Sat May 3, 9:22 AM ET

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Southeast Asia nations meeting in Bali agreed on Saturday to cooperate over the rice market, but stopped short of concrete measures to deal with rocketing prices of the region’s staple in most meals.

The issue of food security has hijacked the weekend meeting of trade ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the Indonesian resort island.

“The ministers affirmed that access to adequate and reliable supply of rice and stable prices are fundamental to the region’s economic and social well being,” said an ASEAN statement.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Viewed

11 As Putin apprentice takes over, Russians weigh an enigma

By DOUGLAS BIRCH, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 6 minutes ago

MOSCOW – It might be a tale out of a 19th century Russian storybook: A clerkish young lawyer apprenticed to a powerful man rises, through Byzantine political intrigue, to become ruler of Russia.

But Dmitry Medvedev is not guaranteed a fairy tale ending.

The 42-year-old attorney, who has long served as an adviser, fixer and friend to Vladimir Putin, will be inaugurated as Russia’s president Wednesday. The ceremony will mark the start of three days of pomp and circumstance that will include Putin being named prime minister Thursday and the annual Victory Day parade Friday in Red Square.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Emailed

12 Computer keyboards can be dirtier than a toilet: study

Reuters

Fri May 2, 12:30 AM ET

CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) – Think twice before eating those dropped crumbs off your computer keyboard — you might as well be eating off a toilet seat, according to a new study on the amount of germs on keyboards.

A study by British consumer magazine “Which? Computing” asked a microbiologist to examine 33 keyboards in a typical London office, a toilet seat and a toilet door handle, for bugs generally found in unhygienic places.

Four keyboards were judged potential health hazards and the microbiologist recommended the removal of one keyboard as it had 150 times the pass limit of bacteria — five times filthier than the swabbed toilet seat.

13 The Androgynous Pharaoh? Akhenaten had feminine physique

By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, Associated Press Writer

Fri May 2, 4:12 PM ET

BALTIMORE – Akhenaten wasn’t the most manly pharaoh, even though he fathered at least a half-dozen children. In fact, his form was quite feminine, which has puzzled experts for years. And he was a bit of an egghead.

Dr. Irwin Braverman, a Yale University physician who analyzed images of Akhenaten, has a new theory on why. He’ll be presenting his findings at an annual conference Friday at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on the ailments and deaths of historic figures.

The female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused the pharaoh’s body to convert more male hormones to female hormones than needed, Braverman believes. And Akhenaten’s head was misshapen because of a condition in which skull bones fuse at an early age.

From Yahoo News World

14 A first for Saudis: Mozart performed publicly and women come

By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 22 minutes ago

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – It’s probably as revolutionary and groundbreaking as Mozart gets these days. A German-based quartet staged Saudi Arabia’s first-ever performance of European classical music in a public venue before a mixed gender audience.

The concert, held at a government-run cultural center, broke many taboos in a country where public music is banned and the sexes are segregated even in lines at fast food outlets.

The Friday night performance could be yet another indication that this strict Muslim kingdom is looking to open up to the rest of the world.

15 On Japan’s secretive death row, inmate becomes cause celebre

By CHISAKI WATANABE, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 11 minutes ago

TOKYO – Iwao Hakamada, Japan’s longest serving death row inmate, has insisted for 40 years that he is innocent of the four murders he was convicted of. The evidence was suspect, he says, and his confession was coerced.

Now the judge who wrote the ex-boxer’s death sentence agrees.

“My feelings about Mr. Hakamada remain the same – I believe he is innocent,” said Norimichi Kumamoto, who now reveals that he argued for acquittal but was outvoted by two other judges in their secret deliberations before handing down their ruling in 1968. As the junior judge, he was tasked with writing the death sentence order.

16 China condemns Dalai Lama ahead of planned talks

By John Ruwitch, Reuters

Sat May 3, 10:46 AM ET

SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) – Beijing called the Dalai Lama a criminal on Saturday, as representatives of the exiled Buddhist leader gathered for a meeting on Sunday in China to discuss the most serious unrest in Tibet for nearly two decades.

The condemnation suggested the government was in no mood to compromise following riots and protests in Tibet which have shaken China’s preparations for the Beijing Olympics and stoked Western criticism of its rule in the mountain region.

“Patriotic people of Tibet strongly condemn and vehemently denounce the litany of crimes committed by the 14th Dalai Lama and his followers,” said the official Tibet Daily, according to the region’s official news website (www.chinatibetnews.com).

17 Bolivia’s richest province seeks autonomy, raising fear of political crisis

By Boris Heger and Jack Chang, McClatchy Newspapers

Fri May 2, 4:58 PM ET

SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA , Bolivia – This divided country faces a constitutional crisis Sunday when its richest and second most-populous province votes whether to declare itself autonomous from President Evo Morales’s national government, a referendum the president has called illegal.

If the referendum passes, as polls show it overwhelmingly will, leaders of Santa Cruz province say they’ll elect a state legislature, organize local police and otherwise set up a government equivalent to that of a U.S. state.

Morales has called the referendum a move to split up this nation of 9.1 million and to thwart his government’s efforts to rewrite Bolivia’s constitution so that its indigenous majority wins more political power. Bolivia has a centralized government, where police, taxation and other government functions are controlled by federal officials.

18 In bad omen for Musharraf, Pakistani coalition to reinstate chief justice

By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers

Thu May 1, 6:53 PM ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan’s fragile coalition government agreed Thursday to reinstate the chief justice and 60 other judges fired by Pervez Musharraf , a move almost certain to spell trouble for the U.S.-backed president, government officials said.

Under a compromise between the parties that’s expected to be revealed Friday, the judges will be restored, but the powers of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry will be reined in. Also, the pro-Musharraf judges who took the oath of office in November will be kept in office.

According to officials close to the negotiations, Chaudhry’s tenure will be limited to five years in office, meaning that he would have another two years in the job. Previously, he could have continued until retirement in 2013.

19 Mugabe’s Strategy for Victory

By ALEX PERRY, Time Magazine

Sat May 3, 1:35 AM ET

More than a month after Zimbabwe went to the polls, electoral authorities on Friday finally announced a result in the presidential race: a do-over. The Zimbabwe Election Commission said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 47.9% of the vote to President Robert Mugabe’s 43.2%. That means that, officially, no candidate has won an outright victory of more than 50%, a scenario which, under Zimbabwean electoral law, mandates a second round run-off within three weeks. “Since no candidate has received the majority of the valid vote cast… a second election shall be held on a date to be advised by the commission,” chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi told reporters in Harare.
From Yahoo News U.S. News

20 Bills seek punishment for use, display of fake weapons

By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 32 minutes ago

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Concerns that realistic-looking toy weapons are confusing police and threatening safety have led 15 states to try going beyond gun control and cracking down on fake firearms.

Officer Micheal Hoover knows a fair amount about guns as a sniper instructor for a Tennessee SWAT team. He recalls the night two years ago when a car pulled up beside him on a highway and the passenger waved what looked like an Uzi.

“It scared me,” he said. “If anyone is in their right mind, I don’t see how it wouldn’t.”

21 Woman from Mali who underwent circumcision fights for asylum

By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 51 minutes ago

SILVER SPRING, Md. – Alima Traore doesn’t remember when part of her genitals was removed as a young child in her native Mali. But even at 29, she still lives with the consequences.

There’s the pain, the fear of future medical problems, and a persistent feeling that she has been robbed of an important element of being a woman.

“It is like some part of you is taken away. I don’t feel complete at all,” she said of the practice, meant to suppress sexual desires and maintain the honor of young girls. “A woman is complete when you have all parts of your body.”

22 Booming elsewhere, high-speed rail sees delays in US

by Michael Mathes, AFP

Sat May 3, 1:06 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – In November the Eurostar bullet-train blew the doors off commuter rail travel, sprinting the 213 miles (343 kilometers) from London to Paris in two hours 15 minutes — and leaving tortoise-slow US trains in the dust.

Over a similar distance — Washington to New York — America’s lone high-speed train, the Acela Express, takes a full 45 minutes longer.

Top speed for nearly every other passenger train in the United States? A pedestrian 79 miles per hour (127 kilometers per hour), with average US speeds far slower.

23 So long, SUV: high fuel prices fuel shift in US car sales

by Joseph Szczesny, AFP

2 hours, 59 minutes ago

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) – Automotive trends traditionally don’t change nearly as fast as fashions in clothing or music.

But as sales of new vehicles in April dropped to their lowest level since the 1992, raw numbers also indicated US consumers were — at warp speed — foregoing beloved trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) for mid-sized and compact cars and hybrids with better fuel economy.

“Smaller vehicles are going over big,” said Toyota Motor Sales president Jim Lentz. “With oil prices at record levels, compact cars and hybrids continue to lead the way,” Lentz said.

24 How Much Did Rumsfeld Know?

Time Magazine

Sat May 3, 1:50 AM ET

Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq in 2003-2004, has written a new memoir, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story, an account of his life and his service in Iraq. Sanchez was a three-star general – and the military’s senior Hispanic officer – when he led U.S. forces in the first year of the war. He was relieved of his command by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2004 following the revelations of the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. In 2005, Marine General Peter Pace, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called him to say his career was over and he wouldn’t get the promotion to a full general – four stars – that Sanchez says he was promised. Six months later, at Rumsfeld’s request, he showed up at the Pentagon for a meeting with the defense secretary shortly before retiring. In this exclusive excerpt, Sanchez details what happened next:

25 Should US Olympians Speak Out?

By SEAN GREGORY, Time Magazine

Sat May 3, 1:50 AM ET

Unfair or not, the Olympics have never been simply about sports. Just ask any member of the 1980 U.S. team whose lifelong Olympic dream died when President Jimmy Carter ordered a boycott of the Moscow games to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. And the 2008 Games in Beijing promise to be one of the most politically charged Olympiads in modern times, offering a unique platform for protest groups seeking to highlight issues ranging from the host country’s crackdown in Tibet and its economic ties with the Sudanese government responsible for the atrocities in Darfur to its domestic political repression. Already, demonstrators have disrupted the Olympic torch relay in Paris, San Francisco and other stops, sparking nationalist outrage on the streets of China. As August’s opening ceremonies draw closer, athletes heading for Beijing are increasingly aware that they’re heading into a season of political controversy – particularly since many of those mounting the protests are demanding that athletes take political stands on their issues.
From Yahoo News Politics

26 Long-running `Ted and Don’ show showing age with voters

By RON FOURNIER, Associated Press Writer

Sat May 3, 10:18 AM ET

BUTTE, Alaska – For decades, Alaskans have contentedly called Ted Stevens senator, and Don Young congressman, their Republicans in far-off Washington.

Now other, less flattering names are creeping into conversation. Crook, for example. Or jerk. Or old, washed up.

And because of it, Democrats sense opportunity even in the Last Frontier, a state that has dealt them mostly defeat for a generation.

27 US mulls sending 7,000 more troops to Afghanistan: report

AFP

2 hours, 38 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States is considering sending an extra 7,000 troops to Afghanistan next year to make up for a shortfall in contributions from NATO allies, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Citing unnamed senior administration officials, the newspaper said if the plan was to be approved, the number of US troops in the country would rise to about 40,000, and entail at least a modest reduction in troops from Iraq.

President George W. Bush told allies at a NATO summit in Bucharest last month that the United States would significantly increase its force levels in Afghanistan next year.

28 US religious rights panel wants Vietnam, Pakistan blacklisted

by P. Parameswaran, AFP

Fri May 2, 9:27 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US religious freedom watchdog on Friday asked the State Department to include Vietnam, Pakistan and Turkmenistan in its global blacklist of religious freedom violators, and maintained Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, on a watchlist.

In its recommendation to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom also wanted Myanmar, China and North Korea to be kept in the department’s “country of particular concern” blacklist together with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Eritrea and Uzbekistan.

The independent commission, set up by US law to monitor religious freedom across the globe, also maintained Afghanistan and Bangladesh in its watchlist together with Belarus, Cuba, Egypt and Nigeria.

From Yahoo News Business

29 Buffett again rebuffs advocates who want Klamath dams out

By JOSH FUNK, AP Business Writer

24 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. – American Indian tribes and salmon fisherman were rebuffed a second time Saturday in their bid to win support from billionaire Warren Buffett for a proposal to remove four hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River.

Buffett again told the group that his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., won’t decide the fate of the dams owned by its PacifiCorp utility.

He said Berkshire will defer to regulators in California and Oregon, where the Klamath runs, and to federal officials. Buffett also said he promised regulators when Berkshire bought PacifiCorp in 2006 that he wouldn’t interfere with the utility’s operating decisions.

30 Fed likely to prefer lending over interest-rate cuts

By DAN SEYMOUR, AP Business Writer

Sat May 3, 12:46 AM ET

NEW YORK – The Federal Reserve’s decision Friday to lend more to banks may be a sign that policy makers want to avoid cutting interest rates any further, as they combat a credit crisis that is far from over.

The Fed cut rates to 2 percent this week from 5.25 percent in September. With the value of the dollar falling against foreign currencies, and rising commodity costs pressuring consumers at the gas pump and the grocery store, the central bank wants to steer clear of actions that will push prices up even more.

By lending directly to banks, the Fed can provide capital that banks need to lend to consumers and businesses without fueling higher prices in industries that don’t, said Bill O’Grady, chief investment strategist at Wachovia Securities.

31 JPMorgan says no near end to financial crisis: report

Reuters

Sat May 3, 11:52 AM ET

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) does not expect the U.S. financial crisis to end soon and will remain very cautious, its top executive said in comments published by a German weekly on Saturday.

“We can only speculate how deep and how long the recession in the United States will really be and how that in turn will impact banks,” James Dimon told “Welt am Sonntag.”

“But we are not done with the crisis for a long time,” Dimon said, adding that it was not the company’s job to make bets on the future.

32 Capital flows will return to Asia once credit crunch ends: ADB

AFP

1 hour, 32 minutes ago

MADRID (AFP) – Once the global credit crunch eases Asia will see the return of the large capital inflows which put the squeeze on their economies, a senior Asian Development Bank (ADB) official said Saturday.

“We can expect massive capital inflows into Asia once financial stability is restored,” Masahiro Kawai, the bank’s head of regional economic integration, said at a the ADB’s annual meeting in the Spanish capital Madrid.

Global financial markets were still in the middle of the credit crunch that emerged from the US subprime crisis but confidence will be restored in six to 12 months, he said.

From Yahoo News Science

33 Major Arctic sea ice melt is expected this summer

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer

Fri May 2, 9:12 PM ET

WASHINGTON – The Arctic will remain on thinning ice, and climate warming is expected to begin affecting the Antarctic also, scientists said Friday.

“The long-term prognosis is not very optimistic,” atmospheric scientist Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University said at a briefing.

Last summer sea ice in the North shrank to a record low, a change many attribute to global warming.

34 Scientists to capture DNA of trees worldwide for database

By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer

Fri May 2, 9:11 PM ET

NEW YORK – The New York Botanical Garden may be best known for its orchid shows and colorful blossoms, but its researchers are about to lead a global effort to capture DNA from thousands of tree species from around the world.

The Bronx garden is hosting a meeting this week where participants from various countries will lay the groundwork for how the two-year undertaking to catalog some of the Earth’s vast biodiversity will proceed.

The project is known as TreeBOL, or tree barcode of life. As in a similar project under way focusing on the world’s fish species, participants would gather genetic material from trees around the world.

35 Mechanical squirrels, robot lizards jump into research

By STEPHANIE REITZ, Associated Press Writer

Sat May 3, 7:26 AM ET

AMHERST, Mass. – One gray squirrel, its bushy tail twitching, barked a warning as another scrounged for food nearby. It was an ordinary spring day at Hampshire College, except that the rodent issuing the warning was powered by amps, not acorns.

Dubbed “Rocky” after the cartoon character, the robo-squirrel is working its way into Hampshire’s live-squirrel clique, controlled by researchers several yards away with a laptop computer and binoculars.

Sarah Partan, an assistant professor in animal behavior at Hampshire, hopes that by capturing a close-up view of squirrels in nature, Rocky will help her team decode squirrels’ communication techniques, social cues and survival instincts.

36 NASA Delays Shuttle Flight to Hubble Space Telescope

Tariq Malik, Senior Editor, SPACE.com

Fri May 2, 11:31 AM ET

HOUSTON – NASA has pushed back the planned launch of the final flight to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope by up to five weeks due to external fuel tank delays, mission managers said Thursday.

Space shuttle program manager John Shannon said that the additional time required to include post-Columbia safety improvements in two shuttle fuel tanks supporting the Hubble servicing mission have delayed the spaceflight to no earlier than late September. A seven-astronaut crew was slated to launch toward Hubble aboard NASA’s shuttle Atlantis on Aug. 28.

“We really cannot make that date with the external tank processing,” Shannon told reporters in a briefing here at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “I really think it’s a small price to pay, to tell you the truth, four to five weeks for all the improvements that we’re getting on this tank.”

37 Station’s First Female Commander Confident of Soyuz Fix

Tariq Malik, Senior Editor, SPACE.com

Fri May 2, 1:01 PM ET

HOUSTON – The first female commander of the International Space Station (ISS) said Friday that she is confident Russian engineers will find the source of a glitch that sent a Soyuz spacecraft off course during her April 19 landing with two crewmates.

U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, who commanded the station’s six-month Expedition 16 mission, told reporters here at NASA’s Johnson Space Center that Russia’s Federal Space Agency and an independent group looking into her off-target landing and an earlier one from October should find the root cause.

“They’ll get to the bottom of it,” said Whitson, adding that the Russian agency’s decision to include outside investigators in their review will aid the process. “That will be a better way of having it less biased.”

38 Cloud Rat Rediscovered after 112 Years

LiveScience Staff

Thu May 1, 11:15 PM ET

The greater dwarf cloud rat was thought to live in the canopies of tall trees in the Philippines, but the last sighting of one was 112 years ago. Now it has been found again.

One of the rodents was found in Mt. Pulag National Park in the Philippines.

The fist-sized mammal has dense, soft, reddish-brown fur, a black mask around large dark eyes, small rounded ears, a broad and blunt snout, and a long tail covered with dark hair.

“This beautiful little animal was seen by biologists only once previously – by a British researcher in 1896 who was given several specimens by local people, so he knew almost nothing about the ecology of the species,” said Lawrence Heaney, curator of mammals at the Field Museum and leader of a team that rediscovered the rat. “Since then, the species has been a mystery, in part because there is virtually no forest left on Mt. Data, where it was first found.”

Let’s talk about the “potential for voter fraud”

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

In upholding the Indiana voter suppression, er disenfranchisement, er “ID” law, the US Supreme Court’s decision contained the following head smacking passage (hat tip to BooMan and Adam B):

The record contains no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history. Moreover, petitioners argue that provisions of the Indiana Criminal Code punishing such conduct as a felony provide adequate protection against the risk that such conduct will occur in the future. It remains true, however, that flagrant examples of such fraud in other parts of the country have been documented throughout this Nation’s history by respected historians and journalists, that occasional examples have surfaced in recent years, and that Indiana’s own experience with fraudulent voting in the 2003 Democratic primary for East Chicago Mayor — though perpetrated using absentee ballots and not in-person fraud — demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election.

Now, I have written a thing or two about election fraud and election integrity issues over the past few years, so I think that I have a bit of a perspective here.


The fact that the US Supreme Court has put the above statement in its opinion is stunning in and of itself.  The fact that the discussion about “voter fraud” has centered on the “mysterious evil person who knowingly gives false information in order to vote (or vote in a different precinct)” (oh, the irony there) is one of the biggest problems in the overall area of election integrity.

The number one and number two issues, at least to me, are (1) the fact that time and time again, the voting machines have been proven to be completely unreliable, unverifiable and even more important, owned by major partisan private companies – and have had their President of its’ election unit installing secret software patches on machines in Democratic districts, leading to mysterious 10+ point swings away from popular Democrats at the very last minute and (2) the entire system is corrupt from the inside – a system where bogus “voter fraud” claims can lead to strict laws that are specifically meant to disenfranchise likely Democratic voters, aggressive purging of voter rolls (beyond what even the company in charge of the purging was comfortable with), “caging”, phone jamming and many other documented acts that resulted in tens of thousands of people (mainly likely Democrats) being disenfranchised or suppressed in each of the elections since 2000.

Let’s jump back to the Supreme Court decision again to answer the question posed by those who may ask what the big deal is to get a voter ID, let alone one that is free.  This is from Souter’s dissent:

The need to travel to a BMV branch will affect voters according to their circumstances, with the average person probably viewing it as nothing more than an inconvenience.  Poor, old, and disabled voters who do not drive a car, however, may find the trip prohibitive, witness the fact that the BMV has far fewer license branches in each county than there are voter precincts.

—snip—

The burden of traveling to a more distant BMV office rather than a conveniently located polling place is probably serious for many of the individuals who lack photo identification.  They almost certainly will not own cars…..and public transportation in Indiana is fairly limited.

The decision further indicates that in order to get the “free” voter ID for the first time, one has to get a birth certificate, a US Passport or something else that….costs money.

So it is ok to disenfranchise “some” people in order to make sure that all of this “voter fraud” – no examples of which were provided (Ann Coulter’s lawbreaking noted above notwithstanding) – doesn’t run rampant.

One other thing to note about photo IDs – roxy at ePluribus Media noted that in Ohio, there was a “glitch” in the system for processing such ID requests, leading to a massive slowdown in the amount of ID cards that are being issued (emphasis mine):

A little article in the Toledo Blade  gives one pause … The article is not long, but though sparse on words it speaks volumes. On Monday it seems there was a little “glitch” with the server at the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. This server is actually a service allowing states to access federal databases as part of the verification process when issuing any state ID cards.

This little “glitch” apparently reduced the number of applications processed in Ohio, from a normal 10,000 per day to 35.

It seems this is not a new problem. A report in the Daily Journal back on Nov. 25th 2007 reports the same type of issue, but which mainly impacted Missouri.

Great, so we have two other states where this is an issue for those who don’t already have photo IDs – and guess which party they are more likely to vote for?

On top of this – how many cases of such “voter fraud” are we talking about?  Well in mid 2006, the US Department of Justice put out a release regarding the “massive” voter fraud that they have uncovered and investigated.  And there was lots to be “proud” of:

As a result of the Initiative, nationwide enforcement of election crimes has increased dramatically. At present, 195 investigations are pending throughout the country. Moreover, since the start of the Initiative in 2002 over 300 investigations of possible election crime have been opened, and over 125 election crime matters have been closed after investigation; 119 individuals have been charged with ballot fraud offenses and 86 individuals have been convicted of these crimes; and 48 individuals have been charged with campaign financing fraud and 42 individuals have been convicted of these offenses.

In over four years, only 42 individuals have been convicted, and under 50 have been charged with campaign finance fraud – now if we think of those who have been heavily lined to campaign finance fraud, one party comes to mind in a big way – and that isn’t the one who keeps pushing “voter fraud” laws.  Only 86 people were convicted of “ballot fraud” (of course, Ann Coulter was cleared after calling in a favor from her well connected boyfriend), out of 300 investigations.  

These are NOT large numbers, and of course, in a country with 300+ million people, less than 150 people NATIONWIDE being convicted of election-related offenses is not a huge number.  I wonder if this included the republicans involved in the New Hampshire phone jamming, or the republicans involved with illegal redistricting in Texas or republicans involved in Jack Abramoff’s illegal money laundering or republican US Attorneys involved in bringing bogus charges up or republicans involved in illegal voter caging.

Now, let’s contrast that to the tens of thousands of Floridians who were disenfranchised in 2000, or the hundreds of thousands of Ohio voters in 2004 who were disenfranchised, or those in New Hampshire in 2002 from the illegal phone jamming.  

And let’s talk about the “potential for fraud” in the highly hackable, highly unreliable machines that fix count the vote for 80% of this country.  Or the countless other documented stories of people being disenfranchised in 2004nearly all of them ones who wanted to vote for Kerry.

So, if the bar is now being set to “undocumented and unsubstantiated cases of potential voter fraud”, then let’s go all the way.

The Diebold and other electronic voting machines have certainly met the threshold of “potential fraud”, being that the companies are tied in with the republican party, are easily hackable and have show too many “irregularities” and vulnerabilities (all  “coincidentally” favoring one party) to be relied on.

The voter roll “purges” certainly have the potential to create fraud – especially in Florida where far too many eligible voters were sinisterly removed from the voting rolls, so why are they not being challenged as unconstitutional?

The counting of ballots in secret by partisans, especially where there are no safeguards in place is certainly indicative of potential fraud.  The threat of dismissal of those who do not “find” voter fraud (as in the US Attorney dismissal in Seattle, for example) leads to potential fraud.  

Secretary’s of State who are aligned with or are a high level operative in a candidate’s campaign (like Blackwell in 2004 as well as Harris in 2000) can (and has) led to fraud and disenfranchisement – not “voter” fraud but wholesale “election” fraud.

I can go on and on and on.  The point is that if we are to let the activist judges on the SCOTUS sanction disenfranchisement of voters and suppression of votes based on what “might be”, then let’s do this the whole way – the entire system is not only corrupt but it corrupt in one direction.  To think that the 2006 election was fair just because the Democrats won both Houses of Congress is laughable.  There were a number of House races that should have also gone to the Democrats.

The game is fixed.  The deck is stacked.  And don’t think it isn’t already being stacked for this November as well – from the hackable voting machines to the disenfranchisement to the suppression that will occur on Election Day.

The SCOTUS decision was another nail in the coffin that is the farce of “free and fair elections”.  There is no such thing, and will not be such a thing until the severity of the problem – the depth of the rot – is called and exposed for the entire country to see and that the system itself undergoes a wholesale change.

Paper ballots aren’t the problem.  People showing up to vote more than once or without proper ID is not the problem.  

Rigging the entire system from the inside is the problem.  And it is a problem in nearly every state.

And until that is addressed and changed, voter ID laws will just continue to be the shiny object that distracts from the fact that each of the past four elections have, in one way or another – on one level or another – been stolen.

Senator McCraaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzy!

People here object to the kind of language….that I used to my wife…..in front of a bunch of people….so we can’t talk about what I called my wife…. in front of a bunch of people, that would be wrong…..but it wasn’t wrong for me to use that kind of language……in front of a bunch of people.

We are in Iraq for the oil!………..No we aren’t!………….ok, um….ok, um……Ok, um….sorta?

Tweety

   

“You know, if somebody else were to say that, they would be accused of being a communist, or radical, or a leftist…for John McCain, a war hero, to say that we’re fighting in the Middle East to protect our oil sources is an astounding development.”

If we cut the gas tax….the Oil Corps won’t just raise their prices!

Kick Russia out of the G-8! I’m sure they won’t mind a bit!


Fareed Zakaria calls “the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years.”

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Pony Party: Dazed and Confused

I forgot about pony party because I have an out of town guest.

Oops. Here is your morning art…..

And a pop song to contemplate….

I like that whole “too shy” concept even though it doesn’t describe me….

Save your money on “Iron Man”….. I went to humor a friend. Short summary: white dude redeems himself with help of female personal assistant with secret crush on him mixed with skeptical realism, and loyal best friend who happens to be black second and doesn’t get to do much. Basically world order is restored by the rightful heir: the middle aged white man.

Have a great day. Please don’t recommend pony party, hang out chit chat and then go read the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list. Probably won’t be another pony party as I am in host mode. So bootleg up peoples.

Laugh for today

A Saturday funk, with a stomach not wanting to cooperate so I decided to read my Docudharma. But the wolves were not helping my mood.

I was answering ek hornbeck when my doorbell rang. My creaky old bones rise and stagger to the door…”why would someone ring a bell at my place at 10 AM on a Sat?”  “Don’t they know I’m cranky?”

I open the door and there are two, nicely dressed people…one a youngish(younger than me), slender woman in a brown trench/raincoat and the other was a young boy (HS age) in a suit carrying a Bible.  Then there is me….gray, frizzy hair, pajama pants, and a green t-shirt. The t-shirt says: “i used to be a Druid but I was excommunicated.”

The woman gives me a suprized look as she opens her mouth…then she laughs and points at my shirt. “That’s funny”, she says. I look at the Bible and figure, I don’t have time for this.

“Yes,” I reply, “Thankyou, but I am not interested. Go someplace else.”

As I start to close the door she says, “But we have some inspirational things to share with you!”

“That’s all right, someone else will like them.”

So, I go down to Mr. Temmoku who is doing his exercises. “Who was at the door? Some religious group?” He can tell from my face.  I just nod and point to my t-shirt. We both laugh and I feel so much better now. What great timing! I love this shirt!

Have a great Saturday!

Law and Disorder. Weigh in, because this is confusing.

A married woman in Texas was with her lover in his pick up truck in her family driveway when her husband came home and saw them together.  She cried “RAPE” and he fired his gun at the pickup as her lover (remember, he thought the guy was a rapist) drove away.  

After the smoke cleared, the prosecution charged the woman with involuntary manslaughter.

From CNN:

A Texas woman who caused her lover’s shooting death by falsely crying rape was convicted Friday of involuntary manslaughter.

snip

In late 2006, Darrell Roberson came home from a late-night card game to find his scantily clad wife with another man in a pickup truck in the driveway. Tracy Roberson was with her lover but cried rape, and her husband fired four shots into the truck as Devin LaSalle drove off, killing him.

Read the entire story here, if you wish.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/…

Originally the husband was charged with murder, but once the actual details of this situation came to light, the charges were dropped against him and his wife was charged instead.

Legally, this seems at first blush to be really unorthodox.  

The person firing the weapon that kills a person and ultimately is not charged with a crime, due to the fact the shots were fired under false pretense.  

Did this person need to fire shots in the first place?  

Was a phone call to the police enough, or was the passion of the moment simply too much to expect an average human to react reasonably?

First, wouldn’t you go directly to your wife who is, in your estimation, under duress?  Perhaps then, get the license of the vehicle the alleged perpetrator is driving, or at least the description and then call the police?  Or, would you go to the nearest firearm and start shooting because you can see your wife is no longer in danger but the perpetrator is getting away?

Tough one, for me.  Since I don’t own any firearms, the question is easily answered.

However, that doesn’t mean that if there was a baseball bat sitting in the yard, under the circumstances, would I have grabbed it and started beating the guy if I could get to him, or???

This is not a delicate question, but what do you THINK you would do?

Do you agree with the legal outcome?  Or,

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