Ain't it sad

That our citizens have to retain a lawyer to forward the goal of fair and legal elections?

Paul Lehto Retained By Election Integrity Advocates In San Diego
Breaking!
Guest blogged by Emily Levy of the California Election Protection Network and the CA-50 Action Committee
Attorney Paul Lehto, who specializes in cases involving election law, business fraud and consumer law, has been retained for work on the issues surrounding the illegal election conditions in San Diego County.
Lehto came to the attention of BRAD BLOG readers when he filed a lawsuit in Washington state against Sequoia Voting Systems Inc.
He has also appeared as a guest on The BRAD SHOW of April 23, 2005. To listen to that interview, click here.
More details will be posted when they become available.
(DISCLOSURE: Paul Lehto is also a legal advisor for VelvetRevolution.us, a Voting Rights and Election Reform organization co-founded by BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman.)

And that the

U.S. Could Take Lessons from Mexican Voting Process
Published on Saturday, July 22, 2006 by the Madison Capital Times (Wisconsin)
by Norman Stockwell


And that Americans are misinformed, disinformed and uninformed about the rest of the world, and, in particular, the Middle East
Jul. 21, 2006 - 1:46 PM
Amateur Hour
The Fog of Cable
Lawrence Pintak
Napa Valley, Calif. -- As someone who lives and breathes Middle East politics and media, I have had the bizarre -- and frustrating -- experience of watching the current conflict play out on U.S. cable television, and I am reminded once again why many Americans have such a limited -- and distorted -- view of the world.
I run a center for television and new media at The American University in Cairo, which puts me at the crossroads of journalism in the Arab world. For me, monitoring a crisis like this would normally mean the voracious consumption of Arab and U.S. media -- television, newspapers, Web sites and all the rest.
But for the first week of the war, I was on vacation in California with my family. That has meant catching glimpses of the conflict in bite-sized snatches on cable television between forays to Disneyland, trips to the beach and aquarium tours -- much, I suspect, like many other Americans this summer.
At times, the coverage has seemed as much a fantasy as Disney's Space Mountain, and the level of Middle East knowledge on the part of some television anchors only a few notches higher than that of the tattooed biker couple waiting in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
Take, for example, a CNN interview with an American high school student who had been visiting his father's relatives in Lebanon when the conflict broke out. With his tearful American mother in the studio, he was asked by phone whether he was frightened. No big deal, he replied, explaining that he was north of the Christian port of Jounieh, far from the fighting. Betraying her woeful ignorance of Lebanon's geography and politics, the anchor replied that he sounded like a typical "macho" young man who didn't want to worry his mother.
The anchor might have looked at a map before going on air.
Hype abounded. "This could be World War Three!" more than one reporter was heard to say. The same dramatic images were endlessly repeated, as if on a loop. Rumor was elevated to fact -- and the networks seemed proud of it. One CNN promo showed an unedited sequence in which a nameless photographer told Anderson Cooper, in northern Israel, that there was a rumor of rockets on the way. Cooper then turned to the camera and authoritatively reported, "The police say more rockets are coming."
So much for checking sources.
To be fair, there was also a fair share of solid, informed reporting. Yeoman's work has been done by Nic Robertson in Beirut, Matthew Chance in Gaza and Christiane Amanpour on the Israeli border, as well as CNN anchor and Beirut veteran Jim Clancy, NBC's Martin Fletcher on MSNBC and the handful of others who are based in, or spend significant time in, the region. The problem comes with those -- like Cooper -- who have parachuted into the Middle East with little grounding in the region, and the anchors back in the studios in London and the U.S. The errors of the uninitiated embeds in Iraq have been endlessly repeated.
One example: CBS refugee John Roberts, now CNN's senior correspondent, eruditely pointed to pro-Hezbollah demonstrations in Syria as evidence of a Sunni-Shiite split. The only weakness in that analysis is that Syria is a Sunni nation, so the demonstrations point to exactly the opposite -- Sunni-Shiite unity on the issue of Hezbollah's actions.
Over on Hardball, NBC correspondent Dawn Fratangelo's discussion of potential dangers to American evacuees quickly disintegrated into confused talk of Hezbollah rockets in northern Israel. That's the other direction, Dawn.
There was little effort to identify the politics of many of the pseudo-experts who were trotted into the studios. Right-wing Lebanese Christians and representatives of Israeli-backed think tanks -- both with axes to grind -- were offered up as independent analysts. Anchors and reporters, meanwhile, frequently wore their politics on their sleeve. When an American woman trapped in southern Lebanon decried Washington's failure to stop what she said was Israel's brutal killing of civilians, CNN anchor Tony Harris snapped back, "That's not the view over here," and cut her off, saying he didn't have time to debate the issue.
As is so often the case these days, celebrity reporters themselves frequently became the story. Anderson Cooper spent more time on-camera than the protagonists in the conflict, and MSNBC endlessly looped an outtake of Richard Engel repeatedly flubbing his on-camera standup as Israeli bombs fell behind him, much, I suspect, to his embarrassment. A failure to remain cool under fire is not something to be proud of.
NBC anchor Brian Williams made much of the fact that when he went on a helicopter flight with an Israeli officer to take a look at the fighting, "We got closer than we intended." Turns out that some shells landed in the distance. War is Hell, Brian.
Even more troubling was the fact that the Williams segment, along with reports by several other NBC correspondents, ran on Scarborough Country, an overtly politicized talk show, further blurring the line between news and opinion and muddying the waters of cable journalism.
Amid segments from such stalwart NBC correspondents as Martin Fletcher, there was Scarborough describing Hezbollah as an "Iran-backed terror group" and throwing former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak softballs like, "Why is it the more Israel is willing to give up to the Palestinians, the more your country comes under attack?" Meanwhile, conservative iconoclast Tucker Carlson, sans bowtie, has been out there "reporting" from the Israeli border, asking real NBC correspondents such leading questions as, "Do we have any idea whether this city was targeted by Hezbollah because of its Christian population?" (This isn't just about "good" Christians and "bad" Muslims, Tucker.)
There is plenty of room on cable television for politicized talk shows of all stripes. But in allowing -- or, rather, ordering -- its respected news correspondents to appear on such shows, the networks are trading credibility for ratings and cementing their transition from purveyors of news to citadels of infotainment.
Lost in the fog of hype and self-aggrandizement on the cable segments I saw was much of the subtle complexity of the conflict. Instead, it was too often reduced to the black-hat/white-hat characterization that has guided U.S. policy toward the region.
My view was one slice of the coverage. I did not see the main network evening newscasts or the morning shows. What I did was what so many Americans do these days -- I grazed cable news in fits and snatches. And I came up hungry.
Lawrence Pintak is the director of the Adham Center for Electronic Journalism at The American University in Cairo. A former CBS News Middle East correspondent, his most recent book is Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam & the War of Ideas. He can be reached at lpintak ~at~ aucegypt.edu.

The BRAD BLOG : What is San Diego County Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas Hiding—Besides the Truth?

Welcome to the 50th Congressional District.

Nice

Navy Orders TB Tests for 6,000 on Aircraft Carrier
Crew members and civilians aboard the Ronald Reagan will be screened after a sailor is diagnosed with the disease.
By Tony Perry, Times Staff WriterJuly 23, 2006
SAN DIEGO — The Navy has decided to conduct tuberculosis tests on all 4,800 crew members and 1,200 civilians who were recently aboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan after an initial round of tests showed many crew members tested positive for the disease, officials said Saturday.The first round of tests was ordered after a sailor was diagnosed with active tuberculosis. The ship returned to San Diego on July 6 after a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf. Officials tested 776 crew members and civilians who were thought to have had contact with the sailor. Positive results showed up in 4.4% of them...


There are 3 million people in this county.

And these guys came back
July 9, 2006
After six months at sea, thousands of San Diego based sailors return home after being aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. KUSI's Paul Bloom gives an in depth look at the historical homecoming, as well as, the mission out at sea.
Story Created: Jul 12, 2006 at 4:35 PM PST

It's treatable, and not life-threatening in most cases. If that's all they're bringing back from cruises, we're all gonna be A-OK. I just wish they'd test them before they dump them off the boat.

Bush approval 50 State survey now

Bush approval survey State by State

Pay close attention to the Ohio and Florida approval rates now, compare them with current approval ratings of blue '04 States and tell me the election wasn't stolen.

I dare you.


Oh, Jurrassicpork is fun-neee today and when you're done with the pitchurs & the laughs, read the rest .

Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported. Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.

Katy? STFU

Oh boy oh boy oh boy, I just love it when Katy Couric gives me an opportunity to shred her blonde cheerleading ditzy...stuff.


Couric Wouldn't Go To War Zone
Posted Friday July 21, 2006 at 10:45 AM
Couric is right to point out that a single parent (of already bereaved kids) has an extra duty to be responsible with her children's only remaining parent. Unfortunately, given her earlier statement about cheerily rushing into the zone in service of the story, the burden is now on Couric to resolve the inconsistency, and decide which one she means so that either can be credible.

Lori Piestewa

She was a single mother with two small children, a boy, 4, and a girl, 3.

A Wrong Turn in the Desert
By Osha Gray Davidson
Rolling Stone, 27 May 2004
Only twenty-three years old, Piestewa saw herself as a Hopi warrior, part of a centuries-old tradition developed by a people who once resisted an invasion and occupation by the U.S. military – much as the Iraqis are today. She went to war, but she believed above all in peace, in doing no harm to others. "I’m not trying to be a hero," she told a friend just before the invasion. "I just want to get through this crap and go home."
Her fellow soldiers remember her differently. When Jessica Lynch thanked a long list of people at her triumphant homecoming in West Virginia, she devoted her final words to Piestewa, her former roommate at Fort Bliss, Texas, where the two had been stationed before the war. "Most of all," Lynch said that day, "I miss Lori."
Since the attack, Lynch has insisted again and again that she was not a hero, that she was only a survivor. Asked who was a hero that day in Nasiriyah, she doesn’t hesitate. "Lori," she says firmly. "Lori is the real hero."
Jessica Lynch with a picture of Lori. (Photograph by Ben Lowy page 2)

Mom, Hopi, hero: Piestewa an icon
By Billy House and Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
April 10, 2003

And oh, look, the wing-nuts who have controlled Arizona since it became a state decided it was time to change the name of Squaw Peak.

Climb Piestewa Peak, (formerly called Squaw Peak)

Update: Katy Correction
(corrected section)
The big question remains: what about Katie?
Katie Couric, who takes over CBS Evening News in September, told Access Hollywood on May 30th that she would not venture into Iraq, in response to an interview regarding injured CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier. At the time Couric was still a co-anchor of NBC's "Today" show.
"I think the situation there (Iraq) is so dangerous, and as a single parent with two children, that's something I won't be doing," Katie said.
But following growing tensions between Israel and Lebanon in recent weeks, and her stepping in as the sole anchor at CBS Evening News, she now says she would travel to the Middle East.
At the CBS TCAs on July 16th Katie said, "I think, yeah, of course I would want to be there. I think -- in terms of traveling, I think it will be done on a case-by-case basis. I think sometimes correspondents who have been covering beats for months and even years often have a great handle on what's going on in a certain global hot spot. But clearly if it's going to serve the story, advance the story, and be helpful to the story, I would like to be there. I think it really depends on the situation and what's happening."
(Access Hollywood regrets that the earlier version of this story was misleading)

So, what you're trying to say here is basically if there's no risk in a war zone you'll go, right Katy? Ohhhh.....just smile pretty OK, Katy?

Lebanon Israel Facts the Media Isn't Telling You

Tired of warmongering brainwashed fuckwits

I'm tired of being tailgated (get out of my tailpipe, damnit!) to the point of being frightened, only to have the asshole go around me, then cut me off and lo and behold, I discover a Bush supporter sticker on their vehicle. I have a progressive sticker on my car. Hmmmm. I generally don't cut off, flip off or climb up into Bush supporters tailpipes, why can't they leave me alone?

Yesterday was different, I got tailgated doing 50 OFF the interchange, I flipped him off and almost got in a wreck with another guy trying to get ON the interchange.

My sincere apologies go out the the poor guy in the phone company work van.

To the asshole in the Beamer that wouldn't get off my butt----FUCK YOU.


Sometimes the "corporate culture" in this city is just too much for me to handle. The city (and it's handmaiden newspaper the UT, basically an extension of this) are controlled by defense contractors, here's just one example), the military and real estate developers. I'm not even going into the mess the developers have made, but think "bubble," ok? Freakin 25% percent of people here used creative financing for their outrageously overpriced homes last year. Nuff said. Anyhoo it's seems like sometimes if you want to make enough $ to survive on, you become almost like a collaborator in the war machine. Before I became politicized, I did it. It's everywhere. Everyone here knows someone in the military, or retired from the military, or working for a contractor, or working for a contractor to a contractor. It just IS. It's inescapable. So, people's livelihoods depend on it, so they support it, or they did support it, and then it became their life. I don't know which came first, the chicken or the egg?
This is my home.
I was born here.
This sucks.
No wonder I always felt like a fish out of water.

By the way, what was the agenda atBilderberg last month?
Is Lebanon just the warm up for more Israeli agression outside it's borders?
Hmmmmm?

Precision Targeting?

...Red Cross hit
The International Red Cross told Aljazeera that they could not reach areas in Selaa town because of the destruction and road closures.
In al-Ansariya, a Red Cross centre was hit by an air raid, injuring a medic, Red Cross sources told Aljazeera...

WTF were you aiming at, fucktards?

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land
U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
How Israel manipulates and distorts American public perceptions

WNBC Today June 21 - Vincent Ferrari Interview

AOL retention manual

Indonesia

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=tsunami+death+toll

Muckraking in Java's gas fields
Southeast Asia Jul 14, 2006
By Chris Holm
JAKARTA - On May 27, a natural gas drilling operation in Indonesia's East Javaprovince got exceptionally messy. ...Indonesia's national environmental watchdog, Wahli, estimates the costs of theclean-up could reach more than US$200 million. Meanwhile, in the town of Sidoarjo,thousands of the displaced villagers hunker down as best they can in a large sectionof a market converted into a makeshift refugee center. With their crops in ruins andtheir workplaces shuttered, they have been promised a subsistence income ofUS$30-$70 a month by Lapindo and are subsisting largely on handouts.And still the mud continues to flow. Around the drilling site, the land has beentransformed from green paddy fields into inhospitable seas of asphalt-colored muck.Near its center, a black geyser roars, like an unearthly scene from a volcanic plateau. Mired at the center of the muck is the drilling company, Lapindo. To manyIndonesians, the lines between the cause and effect of the mud seemed clear: theypointed directly at the prospector - and down into the almost three-kilometer deephole it had dug.

acquisition Oilfield Glossary


Santos activity map
Exploration Program LNG and oil are the focus of Santos' 25-well high-impact exploration program for 2006. Total expenditure across the company’s Australian and overseas exploration areas is forecast at $225 million compared with $187 million spent on exploration in 2005. Reflecting the widening geographical nature of Santos’ exploration portfolio, 17 of the 25 wildcat wells will be drilled outside of Australia. This includes eight wells in the Company’s core Indonesian area, two in its emerging Timor-Bonaparte region, and seven wells to be drilled in new Santos areas of interest such as Egypt (three wells) and the shallow water Gulf of Mexico in the USA (four wells). In Australia, two wells will be drilled in the Carnarvon Basin offshore Western Australia, one well in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, two in the Otway Basin and three wells in the onshore Cooper Basin.
Materiality is weighted towards the third and fourth quarters of 2006 when the Lynedoch and Evans Shoal South prospects will be drilled in the Timor-Bonaparte along with exploration wells in the Kutei and East Java basins in offshore Indonesia...
Increase in profit before tax by 21% and net profit by 23% to..

Post-mortem to be done on south-east whale
Last Update: Wednesday, July 5, 2006. 11:43am (AEST)
A dead pilot whale found beached off the South Australian south-east coast will be transported to Adelaide for a post-mortem examination.
The four-and-a-half metre pilot whale found at Eight Mile Creek yesterday will be transported to Adelaide in the next couple of days. It is hoped a cause of death for the half-grown whale can be determined. The Environment Department says there have been five cases of whales beaching themselves in the south-east over the past four years. However, most of those whales had been smaller in size. District ranger Ross Anderson says most of the past whale beachings had occurred after seismic testing had been carried out in the area, but there was no proof of a connection to tests currently being carried out. The whale carcass will be examined by the South Australian Museum when it is transferred later this week. Santos, the company carrying out the seismic surveying, says it is impossible to say what caused the whale's death. A spokesman says the company follows strict guidelines to ensure the protection of marine mammals within its test areas. The company has only been able to complete limited days of seismic testing off the south-east coastline due to adverse weather conditions.

Chevron's Approach (to renewables)
Marine seismic vessel
This marine seismic vessel is towing multiple streamers that contain hydrophones. Air guns emit a signal like a sound wave that travels through the water into the Earth, passes through strata with different seismic responses and filtering effects, and returns to the hydrophones to be recorded as seismic data.


Think they'll need one of these off the coast of California?

Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. Announces Signing of Purchase and Sale Agreement for Majority Interest in Beta Oil Field Unit
JULY 10, 2006 - 08:30 ET
LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA--(CCNMatthews - July 10, 2006) - Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. (TSX:PFE)(the "Corporation") wishes to announce that further to its news release of February 24, 2006, it has signed a definitive Purchase & Sale Agreement with Aera Energy LLC regarding the sale of its 71% interest in the Beta Unit, offshore California. Before the acquisition is completed, the Corporation is required to satisfy a number of financial and regulatory requirements, further particulars of which have been filed today on SEDAR as an additional News Release at http://www.sedar.com/.Netherland Sewell & Associates (NSA) estimated Proved Reserves of 19.78 Million barrels of 14 degree API oil and 3.23 Bcf of gas as of May 1, 2006 for the Unit. It also estimated 11.61 Million barrels of Probable oil reserves, 1.93 Bcf of Probable gas reserves, 31.26 Million barrels of Possible oil reserves and 4.84 Bcf of Possible gas reserves. These estimates are based on forecasted price scenario and have PV10% values of US$ 193.90 Million, US$ 89.29 Million and US$121.14 Million for Proved, Probable and Possible reserve categories respectively.The Beta Oil Field is located in San Pedro Area, in Federal waters nine miles offshore Long Beach, California. The leases in question are POCS 300, 301 and 306. A complex of two production platforms (Eureka and Ellen) and a facilities Platform (Elly) handle production from these leases. Platform Edith, also in the Beta Oil Field in lease POCS 296 is neither owned nor operated by Aera and is not included in this acquisition.The Beta Field was discovered in 1976 by Shell Oil Company...

Umm. that's like ONE day's worth of oil for the US.

CA Election Cannot be Certified

So what is the truth?

Does Iran's President Want Israel Wiped Off The Map - Does He Deny The Holocaust?
An analysis of media rhetoric on its way to war against Iran - Commenting on the alleged statements of Iran's President Ahmadinejad.
By Anneliese Fikentscher and Andreas Neumann
Translation to English: Erik Appleby
04/19/06
...There again we find the quotation already rendered by n24: "In the name of the Holocaust they created a myth." We can see that this is completely different from what is published by e.g. the DPA - the massacre against the Jews is a fairy-tale. What Ahmadinejad does is not denying the Holocaust. No! It is dealing out criticism against the mendacity of the imperialistic powers who use the Holocaust to muzzle critical voices and to achieve advantages concerning the legitimization of a planned war. This is criticism against the exploitation of the Holocaust...

(my emphasis, and don't get me wrong here, I'm definitely no fan of Islamists, I think they way they dismiss women's right is self-defeating and stupid in the long run. Religious fanatics of any brand make me head for the nearest exit, peace out. )

The west must recognise that Israel's agenda is in conflict with its own The Olmert government, Hizbullah and Hamas are tacitly united in rejection of any moves towards a compromise peace
By David Clark
07/17/06 "The Guardian

Americans Want U.S. Out of Mid-East War
Angus Reid Global Scan : Polls & Research
July 17, 2006

(umm, hellllllooooooo? any of our "representatives" aware of this nifty little factoid, or are they on the phone to their brokers trying to dump Halliburton stock, now that the no-bid deal has ended?)

Lopez Obrador leads protest in Mexico

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Sun Jul 16, 4:49 PM ET

July 17, 2006 Beat the Press and search for Truth

THE MEDIA WAR AND THE MIDDLE EAST
MASSIVE MARCH IN MEXICO FOR VOTE RECOUNT
READERS DEBATE MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

You are the producer of NBC’s Meet The Press. The big story of the week is the escalating war in the Middle East. You want to have a smart discussion of the issues and perhaps inform the public in more depth than they get in the daily news. What do you do? ( same link as above )



Tomgram: Bush's Faith and the Middle East Aflame

The Force Is Not with Them
The Middle East Aflame and the Bush Administration Adrift
By Tom Engelhardt

So, as the world spins on a dime, where exactly are we?

As a man who is no fan of fundamentalists of any sort, let me offer a proposition that might make some modest sense of our reeling planet. Consider the possibility that the most fundamental belief, perhaps in all of history, but specifically in these last catastrophic years, seems to be in the efficacy of force -- and the more of it the merrier. That deep belief in force above all else is perhaps the monotheism of monotheisms, a faith remarkably accepting of adherents of any other imaginable faith – or of no other faith at all. Like many fundamentalist faiths, it is also resistant to drawing any reasonable lessons from actual experience on this planet...

Crap. After reading Danny and Tom I want to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head.

update: Go see Virt, he's providing a valuable service for those of us who need to laugh.

Israel and Energy

Last night I watched Paradise Now and then Munich for the first time. Besides disgusting me even more about (ALL) secret police services, it made me wonder about Israel's energy supplies. Disparity of wealth can be directly tied to control, or lack of control of energy supplies,

Pentagon plans to sell jet-fuel
Published: Saturday, 15 July, 2006, 01:25 PM Doha Time
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon yesterday notified Congress of plans to sell Israel jet fuel valued at up to $210mn "to keep peace and security in the region."

NYMEX Crude Oil (Light) prices for futures.

Israel presses for oil from shale
Proposed energy plant could help vastly reduce oil imports
By Neal Sandler Businessweek online
Updated: 9:34 a.m. PT July 6, 2006
Some challenges
...A Haifa-based engineering firm called A.F.S.K. Hom Tov, which owns the patented process, is now gearing up to exploit the opportunity. “The technology could reduce dependence on imports and substantially reduce Israel's overall energy bill,” says Israel Feldman, the company's co-founder and managing director. A.F.S.K. Hom Tov has proposed building a plant that could produce up to 3 million tons of oil annually, or roughly 30 percent of Israel's current oil imports...

Where Does Israel Get Oil?
If you're selling, they're buying.
By Daniel Engber
Posted Friday, July 14, 2006, at 6:19 PM ET
...Meanwhile, Israel continues to seek nearby suppliers. In the lead-up to the war in Iraq, there was some talk of restarting an abandoned pipeline that runs from Mosul, Iraq, to Haifa. In order for this to happen, Israel would need to somehow wrangle the support of the Syrians, since they control part of the route...

Eight dead in Haifa rocket attack
Press Association
Sunday July 16, 2006 9:58 PM

BLM Announces Results of Review of Oil Shale Research Nominations
Bureau of Land Management For Immediate Release: Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Chevron USA to Acquire 122 USA Petroleum Gas Stations in California for Undisclosed Sum
AP
Chevron to Buy 122 Stations
Friday July 14, 5:44 pm ET

Chevron Bankrolling Opposition to California Clean Energy Initiative
ThinkProgress
June 21, 2006

Oil Shale Reserves

Containing the Military Industrial Complex
Remarks at DemocracyFest July 15, 2006
Op Ed by David Swanson

Pipelineistan messaging

So back to the war that’s not a war. The most obvious thing about media coverage is the fact that without exception the MSM has accepted the version put about by the Israeli government, that its barbarous assault on Lebanon was in ‘retaliation’ for a Hizbollah attack on Israel. But does anyone really believe this? Well yes, the MSM does and it has done a very good propaganda job on behalf of the Zionist goverrnment in pushing this lie.

Only one story made a reference to a report that the Israeli soldiers were captured by Hizbollah forces on the Lebanese side of the border. So what is going on here? http://www.williambowles.info/



Dispute over Nigeria 'explosions'














LATIN AMERICAN MARKETSMexico dips as thousands gather for election protest
Update: 2:10 PM ET Jul 13, 2006

Gazprom to Search for Turkish oil
By Reuters, London Published: Saturday, July 15, 2006 zaman.com
Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil and gas company, announced that it would initiate a common venture with Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled natural gas monopoly, with the aim of searching for oil and gas in seas and constructing pipelines from Venezuela to Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
Petrobras Chairman Jose Sergio Gabrielli said that they stopped searching for oil in European seas and the Black Sea some time ago. He added that they were working on projects, including searching for oil and gas in Turkey’s seas.

Petrobras Says $20 Bln Gas Pipeline From Venezuela Not in Plans
July 14 (Bloomberg)

Sooo, Reuters & Bloomberg, which is it?

The DemocracyFest boo

I whipped off a quick post this morning, then thought I couldn't believe my own ears, and was not sure whether it was appropriate, and deleted it. I thought I was too quick to anger. I don't like Navarrette, and I never have.

Brad has a long explanation of what went on, and & here's the audio, thanks to DK http://www.punkblog.org/FrankenEdit071406h3.mp3

I listened again. Too hasty on the delete button, pr'haps.

demfest & otl

Oy, I just realized the OTL (Over The Line Tournament) is this weekend.

Notoriously vulgar: http://sandiegoblog.com/archives/2004/08/05/over-the-line-photos-2/

So you guys can go ogle, drink beer and generally act like idiots when you're done at DemocracyFest. Just shoot straight out the 8. Bring a designated driver, the City's broke and DUIs are really expensive here, and don't ask me how I know that, it wasn't me, man.

Jon Elliot at DeomcracyFest

Who is he?

listen now, live, through the computer, internets, you know, those tube thingies ?

Howard Dean on now.

DemocracyFest

Wishing I was at
DemocracyFest

But we can all listen to Scooter
from there right now.

Do No Harm?

A new controversy about the death penalty focuses not on the convicts, but on doctors and nurses who help end their lives. NOW asks the question: Should medical professionals play a part in state executions?

I'll watch it.
I have very mixed feelings on the death penalty.
I believe in assisted suicide.
(We don't make our pets suffer, but grandma has to? What kind of BS is that? )

I think it's a damn shame what happened to Dr Kevorkian.

'Remember I did not advocate assisted suicide, I only advocated that a person should have the right to have an option if he or she, in sound mind, needed and desired it while in irremedial pain and suffering and terminal,' he told the newspaper.

Palast reporting in Mexico on another oily stolen election and Plame-Wilson lawsuit docs

Amy Goodman, Greg Palast Democracy Now

Need RealPlayer, 1 hr long. Greg's report is 20 minutes in.

Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson Sue Dick Cheney,
Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby
Valerie Plame Wilson, Joseph Wilson, IV v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby,
Karl C. Rove, Richard Cheney, and John Does 1-10. July 13, 2006
from FindLaw

Karma for a war profiteer

Remember the ten million dollar bat mitzvah that the war profiteer who sold defective body armor threw for his daughter?

...For Brooks, the highlight of the $10 million gala was a performance by rockers from Aerosmith. So pumped was the middle-aged Long Island businessman that he reportedly donned a hot pink, metal-studded suede pantsuit to cavort onstage with Steven Tyler....

...might have to exchange his pink rock star costume for an orange jumpsuit...

Bwaaaa haaaa haaaa haaa ha ha ha hah


Ok, now stop laughing, here's a possible solution to the war is a racket thing.

I was reading Pen and Sword's post:
Preemptive Overreacting in the Next World Order
Thursday, July 13, 2006

And generally I appreciate what he has to say. Not today, it's hot, I'm impatient and I want him to read the book on this page and the CounterPunch article right here:
Public Good Should Trump War Profiteering
Nationalize the Defense Industry!
By JOHN STANTON
July 6, 2006

SAN DIEGO COUNTY REGISTRAR STYMIES BUSBY/BILBRAY HAND COUNT!

BLOGGED BY Brad ON 7/13/2006 5:37AM
EXCLUSIVE: SAN DIEGO COUNTY REGISTRAR STYMIES BUSBY/BILBRAY HAND COUNT!

audio on qui tam (fraud) suit filed:
http://www.bradblog.com/Audio/MikeMalloy_MikePapantonio_071206.mp3

And finally the UT carries an AP report on the voting machines, not that it matters, it's old news and pablum



Fucking pompous, arrogant assholes from hell. How much more of this crap do the elite think we can take and still guarantee their safety? And do they think that police brutality will work forever?

oil slicks

Cheney's Oily Interests
BLOG Posted 05/16/2006 @ 11:43am
Katrina vanden Heuvel




Cheney Starts New Cold War Over Oil
By Mark Ames, The eXile. Posted June 1, 2006.


Putin Blames U.S. for Russian Diplomats’ Murder in Iraq
Created: 12.07.2006 14:08 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:08 MSK, 6 hours 5 minutes ago
MosNews

Enron fraud suspect found dead
12/07/2006 16:22 - (SA)

Terror in Mumbai: IT could be next target
Rakesh Goyal
July 12, 2006
...The bombs strategically targetted the local trains: the transport lifeline of Mumbai. All the blasts were in the first class compartments which carry middle and senior management of corporations, banks and government, apart from owner-managers from various markets. Thus, the target-segment was chosen carefully to break the middle layer of the industrial hierarchy and create terror. Until now, this class was never targeted...

update: Yeesh, I didn't even think of the possible nuclear implications

MARITIME SECURITY & MARITIME COUNTER-TERRORISM
Paper no. 1176
06. 12. 2004
by B.Raman
...15. The LTTE had been examining for many years the possibility of an explosive-laden suicide bomber piloting a microlite aircraft crashing on a land or sea-based target. A Sikh terrorist arrested by the Indian authorities in the early 1990s had stated during his interrogation that during his training in Pakistan, the ISI had asked him to join the Mumbai (Bombay) Flying Club, go on a solo flight and crash his trainer plane on to the Mumbai off-shore oil platform...

Dollar gains on US trade; oil, gold rally
Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:03 PM GMT
By Steven C. Johnson
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar on Wednesday was on track for its biggest one-day gain against the yen in 18 months, boosted by a smaller-than-expected U.S. trade deficit in May and growing uncertainty about Japanese monetary policy
Gold, meanwhile, hit a six-week high, supported by higher oil prices, while technology shares dragged U.S. stock markets lower after European antitrust regulators fined Microsoft Corp..
U.S. Treasury debt prices also slipped as investors unwound safe-haven plays established after Tuesday's deadly train explosions in Mumbai, India's financial hub....


North County Reps vote to lift offshore drilling ban
By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
Last modified Wednesday, July 12, 2006 12:27 AM PDT
NORTH COUNTY ---- Local Republican congressmen, including newly elected U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray, have voted for a bill that would allow companies to drill for oil and gas off the coast of California and other coastal states.

Awww crap, what does Bilbray, the (environmentalist *cough* surfer *cough*) care?
His kids prefer indoor activities in Virginia.


Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. Announces Signing of Purchase and Sale Agreement for Majority Interest in Beta Oil Field Unit
JULY 10, 2006 - 08:30 ET
LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA--(CCNMatthews - July 10, 2006) - Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. (TSX:PFE)(the "Corporation") wishes to announce that further to its news release of February 24, 2006, it has signed a definitive Purchase & Sale Agreement with Aera Energy LLC regarding the sale of its 71% interest in the Beta Unit, offshore California. Before the acquisition is completed, the Corporation is required to satisfy a number of financial and regulatory requirements, further particulars of which have been filed today on SEDAR as an additional News Release at http://www.sedar.com/.Netherland Sewell & Associates (NSA) estimated Proved Reserves of 19.78 Million barrels of 14 degree API oil and 3.23 Bcf of gas as of May 1, 2006 for the Unit. It also estimated 11.61 Million barrels of Probable oil reserves, 1.93 Bcf of Probable gas reserves, 31.26 Million barrels of Possible oil reserves and 4.84 Bcf of Possible gas reserves. These estimates are based on forecasted price scenario and have PV10% values of US$ 193.90 Million, US$ 89.29 Million and US$121.14 Million for Proved, Probable and Possible reserve categories respectively.The Beta Oil Field is located in San Pedro Area, in Federal waters nine miles offshore Long Beach, California. The leases in question are POCS 300, 301 and 306. A complex of two production platforms (Eureka and Ellen) and a facilities Platform (Elly) handle production from these leases. Platform Edith, also in the Beta Oil Field in lease POCS 296 is neither owned nor operated by Aera and is not included in this acquisition.The Beta Field was discovered in 1976 by Shell Oil Company...

Umm. that's like ONE day's worth of oil for the US.

Peak Oil

An Open Letter to Greg Palast on Peak Oil
Sun, 09 Jul 2006 20:09:01 -0700















Oil Country




I think Peak Oil is real, but who am I?
Just someone who loves to read non-fiction.
I rarely read fiction anymore.

spin the mexico vote

Who's winning, & who's spinning?

Guess it depends on what your Google search terms are, eh?

mexico vote fraud

mexico vote

I'm finding this vastly amusing at this point.

elections stolen by the elite...again

Resident calls for recount in 50th District runoff
Last modified Thursday, July 6, 2006 10:04 PM PDT
By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO ---- A registered voter living in the 50th Congressional District filed a formal request with the county registrar of voters office late Wednesday asking for a hand recount of all the ballots in the June 6 special election runoff...


...On June 29, Haas certified the election results, kicking off a five-day period in which requests could be filed for a recount of the votes. However, due to the holiday, the deadline ended Wednesday.Registrar of voters spokesman Mike Workman said that county counsel is now reviewing Jacobson's request for a recount, as will registrar Haas upon his return to the office. Once that review has been completed, Haas will discuss with Jacobson the projected costs of conducting the recount ----- a process which can cost the requesting party as much as $2,000 to $3,000 a day, Workman said. He added that depending on how detailed Jacobson wants the recount to be, it could take several days to complete....

The comments section for this article is a good example of some of the opinions in the county. I'm pretty sick of the Repugnanthuglican bullies, I 'd like two minutes alone with some of these morons.

So what's up with the recount? How much will it cost?


Greg Palast is investigating the selection of the new Mexican president via ChoicePoint, the company that helped prevent probable democrats from voting in Florida in 2000.

and they wonder?

Interesting video presentation on women's issues 2006

Just a Girl

Virt comments on new company merger

Virt at Assimilated Press