May 22, 2008 archive

Who Won America Idol?

I Don’t Know

Nor Do I Care To Know

As It Is Unimportant

Thursday’s Headlines:   Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts   Different goals take Clinton and Obama to Florida   UN head tours cyclone-hit Burma   Pakistan makes peace deal to end pro-Taliban violence   Mbeki deploys troops as xenophobic violence spreads to Zulu   Uganda: Implementing Tax Amendments   Berlusconi clamps down on Gypsies   The Big Question: Is Iceland the happiest place on the planet, and what can we learn from it?     Israel contemplates giving up Golan Heights to Syria    Lebanon rivals agree crisis deal    Mexico boosts police ethics to fight drugs

Senate reaches deal on Iraq war funding

Tentative $165 billion fund backs Pentagon operations in Iraq, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – The Senate plans to vote Thursday on providing $165 billion to fund Pentagon operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, under a deal that likely would doom billions of dollars in domestic programs.

A plan announced Wednesday night by Senate leaders would pay for the wars until a new administration take over.

But it would likely kill money for 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits for the jobless, heating subsidies, fighting Western wildfires and aid to rural schools, among many programs backed by senators in both parties despite a promised veto from President Bush.

It has been 10 long days since the devastating 8.0 Sichuan earthquake and although there have been several recent rescues of people that have been trapped for 9 days, the mission has moved into the recovery stage.

According to China Daily Online, there are 5 million homeless in the region and 32,666 still missing. There are 25,681 still in hospital.

Many children have been orphaned but all have been adopted.

When earlier this month the ACLU released a new slew of FOIA documents — unredacted portions of Admiral Church’s 2005 report on detainee abuses at “war on terror” prisons abroad — the spin machine of the American Psychological Association sprang into action. APA propagandist, and Ethics Director, Stephen Behnke was called upon to take up the cudgels, whereupon he wrote an unctious, dissembling letter to the ACLU.

In a letter dated May 15, Behnke praised ACLU for “uncovering details surrounding the treatment of detainees at detention facilities run by the U.S. government around the world.” Then he reiterated APA’s paper commitment to “the humane treatment of detainees.” In between the lofty presentation of ideals and grand commitments, Behnke also made the following points (quoting from his letter, which has circulated via email, but not to my knowledge is online — bold text below is my editorial emphasis):

Thanks for stopping in….

Hang out and chit chat for awhile… and when you’re done

check out some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

O & Please don’t rec the pony party, another will trot up in a few hours.

(^.^)

It occured to me this morning that I’ve seen some new ‘faces’ around…

And that we’ve probably grown some since I joined in mid-September.

So I went on a search and found that the  last three users to join were

1366~kyledeb on May 19, 2008

1365~YippieAgain on May 19, 2008

and 1364~ohmproject on May 19, 2008!!!  

I’d like to extend a Warm Welcome to these and ALL the {{{new dharmenizens}}}

I’m sooo happy you’ve found your way here!

I urge & encourage, no implore & entreat you to open up, join in the conversations going on… We’d like to get to know you (^.^)

^{we’d love to meet all you ‘lurkers’ out there also…don’t think we don’t know you’re there!}

Please ask questions, jump in anywhere if you don’t understand… Pony Parties & News on the Front Page are always open threads… many people stop by these without commenting- this is a Great Place to put questions! Everyone is very friendly & helpful & will be happy to answer you.

We blog here in what I call 3/4 time… I sometimes re-visit the same essay for 3-4 days having long, extended conversations.

So, know that your question WILL be seen, just maybe not immediately (for immediate help see ‘contact us’)

And this leads us to…. be sure to check in your ‘Recent Replies’ (right side of page under ‘menu’ is ‘your comments’ then hit the ‘recent replies’ tab) with regularity! Sometimes you will get a reply to a comment you made yesterday or the day before.

While you are on Your Page be sure to look over ‘Profile’. This is where you can set your preferences… I’m not sure about comment preferences (see ek hornbeck or On The Bus) but under Display Prefs you can set ‘# of recent comments’ and ‘recent essays  diaries’ to 50 each and never have to leave the front page (^.^)

Also on the right hand side is a ‘Series’ link under DharmaDocs. Most of the ongoing features are listed here….it’s an easy way to catch up on your favorite series!

These are my favorite features at docudharma… I’m hoping others will share theirs ::anyone?, c’mon y’all… help me out!::

Welcome! I’m glad you’re Here!!!

O! & there is only one rule….

Be excellent to each other!

Join us over at the EENR Blog for a live blog with IA-4 Democratic candidate Kevin Miskell! At 4pm pacific time Kevin Miskell will be at EENR to answer any questions you have about his run for Congress in Iowa’s 4th district. Hope to see you there!

Kevin Miskell is a fifth generation Iowa farmer from Story County, Iowa. When family farmers were facing an economic crisis under Reagan, Miskell became very involved in his community working to help save family farms. Here’s a snippet from Miskell’s website about his backround as a family farm advocate:

For the past 21 years, he has been active in grassroots politics across the state, promoting sustainable agriculture and fighting to protect the environment. During these past two decades, Kevin has worked with elected officials on both the state and national level on legislation relating to agriculture, rural economic development and renewable energy.

During the past four years, Kevin served as Vice President of Iowa Farmers Union, a grassroots organization that promotes the viability of small family farms and sustainable agriculture.

Since 2003 Kevin has worked on the staff of three presidential campaigns. In 2003, he worked for Senator Bob Graham. When Graham dropped out of the race, Kevin was hired by Senator John Edwards’ campaign to serve as his Midwestern Director of Rural Policy and Outreach and worked again in this capacity in 2008.

More below the fold….