The Weblog Awards 2006

What fun. I suppose I've become rather insular in my blog reading. I read the blogs I have linked on my page. I like them. I have some others that I read somewhat regularly, but frankly, the only time I venture into the right wing nuttosphere is when someone I read regularly is linked to them. I DON'T like them. I did like some of the lefty blogs on the list. I've never visited a couple of them before, but I'll be back to check out this one.

I'm off to finsh voting. (click on the title link, join the fun)

Update: for someone like me, who reads the lefty blogs, this looked like a reich-wing love-fest. One of those bloggers stalked me, and terrorized me, and it left a really bad taste in my mouth. It still tastes bad. I hope the motherfucker rots in hell.

House Leadership Chided for Foley Scandal

Chided?

to listen via NPR
by Brian Naylor
...What began with a frenzy of allegations, fueled by explicit communications and accompanied by outrage, ended Friday with something less than a slap on the wrist...
...the three Republicans and three Democrats on the subpanel found that while Republican leaders failed to protect underage pages, no rules were broken...

'Scuse the cynicism, but wtf else is new?
Bipartisan bischmartisan, eh, feh.
Bizness as usual in that sewer I call Washington.

Catch 22, reading now

Yeah, yeah, why didn't I read this in High School?

Believe me, you DON'T want to know about my High School experiences.

Finally finished Les Misérables

Wow. What a great ending. It's been a really long time since a book made me cry, or really feel deeply. I was not happy slogging through sixty pages on the battle of Waterloo, I almost gave up there, that was tedious. I'm glad I stuck it out. Fifteen hundred pages (paperback). The last long book I read was on the Arms of Krupp

What caught my attention this morning

Or, what I woke up to this morning after that damn Iraq report put me to sleep a few times last night, yeesh what a fucking snoozefest that thing is.

So, here we go------

Group claims 'tobacco'-style lobby shields toxic interests
PERCHLORATE MAKERS BLOW SMOKE ON HEALTH ISSUE
The Los Angeles-based group Environment California says an industry-funded group is using "misleading research and tobacco industry-style lobbying to influence the debate on the effects of perchorate." Perchlorate is a rocket fuel ingredient and "a known thyroid inhibitor" often present in water supplies near military and manufacturing sites. The Perchlorate Study Group (PSG) "has lobbied for maximum contaminant levels of 200 parts per billion (ppb) in drinking water, much higher than the 24.5 ppb threshold favored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the 6 ppb limit being considered by the state of California," reports Fred Ortega.
"More than half of all studies on the health effects of perchlorate published between 1995 and 2005 were funded by" PSG, which was founded by Lockheed Martin, Aerojet and Kerr McGee, "in response to efforts to regulate the potentially dangerous chemical."
Environment California also notes that PSG retained the PR firm APCO Worldwide, which previously helped "Phillip Morris to fight anti-tobacco regulations," to "help undermine the case for thorough perchlorate cleanup."
SOURCE: DailyBulletin (Ontario, California), December 4, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5513

crap. Crap. CRAAAAAAAAAP!

The Decider can declare Martial Law?
How long have I had my head up my ass?

How did I miss this?
Fine Print in Defense Bill Opens Door to Martial Law
By Jeff Stein, CQ National Security Editor CQ.com
12/06/06

That Iraq Report? More of the Same

The great Baker-Hamilton crock: A classic bullshit-cloud in the proud tradition of congressional "studies"
MATT TAIBBI

Bonus: Caption contest (did you think I could resist THIS picture?)

IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT (click on link to download pdf file) I think it's interesting that a search of the report brings up 'Iran' or 'Iranian' 83 times.

Hmmm. Let's Google 'Iran Currency' just for shits and giggles.

Gates Hearings

I watched part of the morning Gates Senate hearings on CSpan.

Ben Nelson (D FL) asked how he would deal with the with Guard and Reserve policies?

Gates said he was unfamiliar with the policies.

Um, the ones that had Lousiana National Guard members in Iraq during Katrina?

Um, yeah those.

Gates' Assets Include Defense Stock
By SHARON THEIMER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 5, 2006; 7:54 PM

Yeah, Gates probably had other stuff on his mind. He said something about Turkey. I wonder if he's familiar with this hinkiness regarding Turkey

and what's this mean?

photovoltaic

The Revolution Will Be Solarized
By David Roberts, Grist Magazine. Posted December 2, 2006.
...It's not just that we're moving toward alternatives, it's that we're moving toward distributed [power generation] as well. If both of those are true, solar is the only viable option...



Will solar-cell shortage end in 2008?
September 11, 2006 1:12 PM PDT



Solar cell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Boeing Wins Contract to Build Solar Cells for Renewable Energy
ST. LOUIS, Aug. 28, 2006

Have we had enough?

Runaway victory for Chavez
AP
4 December 2006 13:08
...Conflict and ambition have marked the rise of Chavez, from a boy selling homemade sweets in a dusty backwater to a failed coup commander in 1992 and now a leader who could set the tone of Latin American politics for years to come...

Bush Mulls Resumed Energy Drilling Off Alaska
Bristol Bay, Alaska, is home to endangered whales and sea lions and the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.
..."House Republicans scheduling a vote next week to expand offshore drilling off Florida’s coast, only underscores that G.O.P. stands for Gas and Oil Party.”...
By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: December 4, 2006

Pelosi: Our Coasts Need Lasting Protection from Oil and Gas Drilling
By: Nancy PelosiPublished: Dec 4, 2006 at 07:41

Haven't the energy industries and the vehicle manufacturers run this country long enough?

2008

The 2008 Presidential Race

Big Bush backers turn to Giuliani
28th November 2006, 10:45 WST

Um, yeah, I'll let Wonkette deal with most of this one

I'll ad a little

And I heard about this book on Ring of Fire today: Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11

Saudi Arabia vs Iran

"A shooting war between Saudi Arabia and Iran would certainly make for interesting times in the oil markets... "

A cauldron nears boiling point
Nawaf Obaid
December 1, 2006

Nawaf Obaid, an adviser to the Saudi Government, is the managing director of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project in Riyadh and an adjunct fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The opinions expressed here are his own.

X-mas joy

“It’s Always Christmas Time” For Credit Card Companies
But Consumers Can Get Trapped by Abusive Fees and Practices

Try not to get eaten alive by the damn credit card companies when you shop for all your loved ones this year, eh?

Forced marriage, abuse behind self-immolation by Afghan women

Forced marriage, abuse behind self-immolation (definition) by Afghan women
Kabul, Nov 15: Forced marriage and chronic abuse are among the key triggers for the growing cases of self-immolation among women in Afghanistan, a regional conference heard yesterday. The high rate of illiteracy -- with under 20 per cent of women said to be literate -- and an incompetent justice system also meant many women could not see their way out of problems and so took their own lives, the three-day meeting heard.The conference of about 400 people, including from other countries that have similar rates of suicide such as Bangladesh, Iran, India and Sri Lanka, was called to try to find ways to stop the phenomenon.

Islamic women an asset for humanity: president
TEHRAN, Nov. 28 (MNA) -- In the Islamic world there are many women scientists and scholars who are regarded as not only assets for Islam but assets for all humanity, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said here on Tuesday.

Wow. Them are some extremes.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad writes a letter to the American people:

Ahmadinejad castigates US policies
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2006
0:10 MECCA TIME, 21:10 GMT

The Iranian president has in an open letter urged the American people to demand the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and reject what he called the US government's "blind support" for Israel...

"Undoubtedly, the American people are not satisfied with this behaviour and they showed their discontent in the recent elections," Ahmadinejad wrote. (here's the whole letter)

Ummm, yeah.

Dear President Ahmadinejad,

This American woman is sorry that my stupid president pooped in your backyard, and you're right, he poops all over the world, including on us Americans, but it looks like you got some of your own dog poop to clean up, eh? And....umm.. here's a little clue for you and maybe you could pass it on to some other leaders in the Middle East? A large percentage of the American public has no fucking clue what a "Zionist" is. Um..yeah, and another thing. This shit ain't gonna happen in America. Why? Because American women won't have it. They're meaner.

(references from the Sibel Edmonds OpEd again...Since the 1950s Turkey has played a key role in channeling into Europe and the U.S. heroin produced in the "Golden Triangle" comprised of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. These operations are run by mafia groups closely controlled by the MIT (Turkish Intelligence Agency) and the military...
... "Bad as it is with Iran, North Korea, and Libya having nuclear-weapons material, the worst part is that they could transfer it to a non-state group. That's the biggest concern, and the scariest thing about all this. There's nothing more important than stopping terrorist groups from getting nuclear weapons.")

And here is a bizarre example of the globalization of sexual exploitation:

Bulgarian man arrested in Iowa for trafficking prostitutes in France
Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006

Hard to look at

As I watch this I can't help but to feel resentment as military aircraft flying overhead, and the 10 lane highway 20 metres from my window make it hard to hear the Iraqi national orchestra as they play a popular Western piece, something from the Nutcracker, I think, but I'm not sure.

Paying The Price: Killing The Children Of Iraq
Broadcast 03/06/2000 ITV Runtime 75 Minutes
A documentary film by John Pilger
Sanctions enforced by the UN on Iraq since the Gulf War have killed more people than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, including over half a million children - many of whom weren't even born when the Gulf War began.

Saudi will intervene in Iraq if US withdraws-aide
29 Nov 2006 11:10:32 GMT
Source: Reuters
Background
Iraq in turmoil
More WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Using money, weapons or its oil power, Saudi Arabia will intervene to prevent Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias from massacring Iraqi Sunni Muslims once the United States begins pulling out of Iraq, a security adviser to the Saudi government said on Wednesday...
...Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer and exporter and a close U.S. ally, fears Shi'ite Iran has been gaining influence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein's government.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney held talks with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on Saturday. Details were not disclosed....

...- or the Saudi king "may decide to strangle Iranian funding of the militias through oil policy. If Saudi Arabia boosted production and cut the price of oil in half ... it would be devastating to Iran ... The result would be to limit Tehran's ability to continue funnelling hundreds of millions each year to Shi'ite militias in Iraq and elsewhere."

Greatest Oil Reserves by Country, 2006
Health and Science—Environment and Nature—Energy

Debating to the numbers (or more on Saudi production)

UN: Afghan government officials protecting opium trade
posted November 29, 2006 at 11:45 p.m.
A new report says wiping out heroin production, which reached a record high in 2006, could take a generation.

If you watched the documentary you won't wonder why I decided to throw the last article into this post. It's probably one of the kinder things we can't seem to stop from happening in the M.E. I wonder if the increased number of children suffering from cancers can get their hands on it? That's where the morphine needs to go. I wonder where the heroin is ending up?

The Highjacking of a Nation
by Sibel Edmonds
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes."Justice Felix Frankfurter

She thinks like I do

GNN contributor Heather Wokusch is the author of www.heatherwokusch.com

How the Republicans Could Win It All Back in 2008
Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:46:50 -0800
...Signals from top Democrats that they will stand behind Robert Gates to be the next Defense Secretary are also disturbing, given ongoing questions over Gates’ role in the Iran-Contra affair and charges of his having politicized intelligence at the CIA. If the Democrats give Gates a blank check during his confirmation hearings, they will have some explaining to do in 2008...
...Investigations, subpoenas, and the forced handover of secret administration documents would help the Democrats shed light on many levels of Bush & Co. corruption and malfeasance, which if properly communicated to the US public, could only help the Democrats in 2008. Unfortunately, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has indicated that he’s “not heavily into investigations,” adding, “That should be way down at the bottom of our agenda.”

Is conflict in Iraq a civil war?

(sigh)

Riverbend asked that in February
"...I’m reading, and hearing, about the possibility of civil war. The possibility. Yet I’m sitting here wondering if this is actually what civil war is like. Has it become a reality? Will we look back at this in one year, two years… ten… and say, “It began in February 2006…”? It is like a nightmare in that you don’t realise it’s a nightmare while having it- only later, after waking up with your heart throbbing, and your eyes searching the dark for a pinpoint of light, do you realise it was a nightmare…"

Our nightmare began in January 2000 when the Presidency was handed to some legacy, frat boy, spoiled, useless brat who's been in over his head his whole fucking life and now he's flushing our country down the toilet and blowing up the Middle East.

Can the world wake up from this nightmare?

Update: Randi Rhodes says the CIA was asking this same question in January of 2004.

Monday morning history

Mmmmm hmmmmm, really effing sick of turkey.

So, how about some history?

No, no, not the crapola they serve you in jr. high or high school, but the real stuff, OK?


Howard Zinn on The Uses of History and the War on Terrorism
Howard Zinn is one of this country's most celebrated historians. His classic work "A People's History of the United States" changed the way we look at history in America. First published a quarter of a century ago, the book has sold over a million copies and is a phenomenon in the world of publishing - selling more copies each successive year.
Broadcast - 11/24/06 - Democracy Now!

Listen or read transcript

The Current Crisis in the Middle East
True to form, Noam Chomsky makes a sweeping and copiously detailed indictment of U.S. Middle East policy, brooking no contrary or alternate views. His history-filled lecture (interrupted by occasional applause) focuses on four crises, involving the Palestinians, the Lebanon invasion, the Iraq war and the “impending catastrophe in Iran.” While to many the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel seems hopeless, “degenerating to tribal warfare, an endless cycle of revenge and fanaticism,” says Chomsky, a “very clear solution” has long existed:
09/21/06 Runtime 110 Minutes

See what they do to whistleblowers here?

I've been following the Stephen Heller and Sibel Edmonds cases for a while now and I predicted this.
Why?
Because of course if you have evidence of malfeasance by the highest levels of government they gonna smack you down. Then they gonna tell the the public about it while the public is distracted by the holiday. The government is so fucking predictable.

DIEBOLD WHISTLEBLOWER STRIKES PLEA DEAL ON FELONY CHARGES

'State secrets privilege' blocks fired translator from suing FBI
Updated 11/24/2006 12:17 AM ET

Deep thoughts?

The Elephant Speaks
Deep Thoughts from the Republicans
(San Diego CityBeat)

Deep thoughts?
Huh.
No mention of how the war that their cheerleading helped set in motion is going.

Fucktards.

They probably think the war on drugs is a good thing too. They probably don't know that stuff like this happens, and you can bet your ass Negroponte knows about it, so does Ollie North.

Happy Thanksgiving

Theo-Con propaganda and spies

I have no idea why all the spy stories caught my eye this morning, but they did. Propaganda is always fascinating to me.

Glenn Beck interviews Benjamin Netanyahu
CNN - Video 11/15/06 Runtime 5 Minutes
War Pimp Alert
U.S. & Israeli Propaganda Manufacturing Consent For War With Iran

Bush's Desire for a Conflict With Iran Is A Crisis Made in Israel
By Scott Ritter, Nation Books. Posted November 20, 2006.

CIA analysis finds no Iranian nuclear weapons drive: report
By Agence France-Presse
11/19/06 "AFP"-- -- WASHINGTON - A classified draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House, a top US investigative reporter said on Saturday

Scroll down to May 11

Israeli Actions in the Americas

USS Liberty incident
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Did the CIA kill Bobby Kennedy?

Spy leaves egg on U.S. faces
Book says Ali Mohamed engaged in terrorism for two decades
By THANE BURNETT
11/19/06 "Toronto Sun"
"For almost two decades, the former Egyptian army commando succeeded in living a double life. Brazenly slipping past watch lists, he moved in and out of the U.S. with impunity, marrying an American woman, becoming a naturalized citizen, and posing as an FBI informant—all while acting as chief of security for Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri."
This sentence fascinates me because a long time ago I knew somebody who knew somebody, who knew somebody who would pay lower income American women around $2500 to marry men from the Middle East so that the men could get their citizenship. I don't know anybody who did it and I immediately turned my nose up with disdain, even though you didn't have to live with them, and could divorce them as soon as they got their citizenship. Poverty was better than dealing with those men to me. I didn't like the ones I'd met. The ones I'd met, for the most part, treated this American woman disrespectfully, & I 'd heard from other women, that I wasn't alone in feeling this way. I wonder if the woman who married him loved him, or she was poor, or what? I haven't read the book.

Poisoned spy 'had death threats'
Alexander Litvinenko is being treated in a London hospital
Update on condition
A friend of a former Russian spy seriously ill in a London hospital said both had received e-mail threats days before his poisoning.

angry, frustrated, so what else is new?

1:39 hours video:
Why We Fight

United States Rides Weapons Bonanza Wave
Published on Saturday, November 18, 2006
by Foreign Policy in Focus
by Frida Berrigan

So there you go. People all over the world think America is some wonderful democracy and the Americans are just blood-thirsty killers who want war, otherwise they would vote differently and the American people could stop the wars, right?

Bbbbbzzzzzzzzzzt!

Fucking wrong answer dudes.

They obviously haven't seen Why We Fight

Propaganda is exposed in the movie.

If somebody who is rich and powerful enough (VP Cheney) wants to make money on wars, it's gonna happen. The American people don't vote on that, and since the last two Presidential elections were stolen (my opinion, and I'm not alone) even though they did vote it didn't fucking matter.

Watching this again made me wonder if the Dems were granted this win because Cheney made enough money, and Bush bought land in Paraguay, so all these rotten fuckers will leave the country before they can be tried as war criminals.

Y'all keep your eyes peeled down there in Paraguay and do me a favor?

Do to these top guys, the guys who really run things, do what they taught you how to do, remember? at the SOAs?

lmao

:) Democracy

Richard Dreyfus on Bill Maher

Funny guy!

Ole Gadaffi's yammering out his neck again.

"The West exploits tribalism, sectarianism and (skin) colour to feed war, which leads to backwardness and Western intervention in a number of countries," he said.

WTF, are we also backing the Janjaweed? Aren't they Arab Muslims? Isn't the whole Darfur crisis Muslims killing Muslims?

Leads to backwardness? So, it's the West's fault that there is some backwardness on the African continent? Maybe something got lost in translation here?

Oh, yeah, and there's the oil question, which I suspect also, but who wants to get their mitts on this oil?
Who wants to know about it?

What's that you say? China, that harbinger of human rights is investing in Sudanese oil?

Umm, yeah, so why do we want to get involved in another civil war again?

Oh boy, Jon Tester, Jim Webb and Koppel talks about a documentary he did for the Discovery Channel in Iran on Press the Meat watch it here
about 40 minutes in Koppel says the dirty word: OIL

Bush appointing people like crazy

Bush Choice for Family-Planning Post Criticized
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006; Page A01
...Eric Keroack, medical director for A Woman's Concern, a nonprofit group based in Dorchester, Mass., will become deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in the next two weeks, department spokeswoman Christina Pearson said yesterday.

yeah, take a look at the services offered and think about what you see.

no ruling yet

Judge tentatively rejects California medical marijuana suit
The Associated PressPublished: November 16, 2006

SAN DIEGO: A state judge tentatively rejected San Diego County's challenge of California's decade-old law permitting marijuana use for medical purposes before hearing oral arguments from the county meant to change his mind....

San Diego County sued California and its health services director in February over the state's decade-old law permitting use of the drug with a physician's approval.
Two other California counties, San Bernardino and Merced, joined San Diego as plaintiffs. All three counties have refused to comply with a state requirement that counties issue identification cards for medical marijuana users and maintain a registry of people who apply for the cards....

...California's law allows people suffering AIDS, cancer, anorexia, chronic pain, arthritis and migraine and "any other illness for which marijuana provides relief" to grow or possess small amounts of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.
Since California voters passed the law with 55 percent approval in 1996, 10 other states have adopted measures protecting qualified patients from prosecution. They are Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Last week, voters in South Dakota rejected a ballot measure to permit marijuana use for medical purposes.
In 2003, the California Legislature amended the 1996 bill to direct county health departments to issue identification cards to medical marijuana users.
Counties, which did not receive money to fulfill the requirement, have been slow to issue ID cards, but San Diego was the first to refuse on legal grounds.

Yeesh, let's hope the judge doesn't have a pow wow with these dipshits , the will of voters in California won't have a chance if he does.

Ugh

San Diego votes Republican they have no idea WHY THEY DESERVED DEFEAT .

Was it live or was it Diebold TSX touchscreens and Diebold optical scanners?
They use the same memory card, I think.

Thank God for the rest of the country, anyway.

Matthew Simmons October 2006

GOP dirty tricks

Scoobie points us to the American Prospect who's Rick Pearlstein tell us to keep in mind the GOP dirty tricks:

...In California's 50th District -- where Democrat Francine Busby had hoped to win a rematch against incumbent Brian Bilbray in Republican felon Duke Cunningham's former seat -- Busby staffers shut down their phone banks because they were reaching so many callers enraged at the "Hi-I'm-calling-with-information-about-Francine-Busby" deluge....

I can't help but wonder if people who voted for Bilbray read this?

or this: San Diego's Potemkin Villages
By Neil Morgan
Friday, Sept. 29, 2006 This is a transcription of Neil Morgan's remarks at the Helen Edison lecture series presentation held at UCSD Sept. 26.

and I rolled my eyes when this guy started talking up Pete Wilson. I wondered which Pete he was talking about, or if he knew about this Pete Wilson .

oh yeah , here's an update on the vote count here in podunk