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Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Did Bush whack Iglesias?

Nothing this Administration does surprises me anymore.

Monday, April 23, 2007

CBS evening blues

Gail Shister
Katie Couric hasn't redeemed the No. 3 newscast. Can she survive as anchor?
By Gail Shister
Inquirer Columnist

...Katie Couric is an expensive, unfixable mistake.... "She's trying too hard," Tyndall says. "She's overthinking her role. She's got to stand back. It's a very Zen problem. To be the face of Evening News, she's got to be self-effacing."

Self-effacing isn't the first adjective that comes to mind with Couric. She arrived at CBS with her own group of producers, bookers and assistants, which didn't sit well with the staff.

"She sees herself as a star and thinks the whole news department is here to serve her," says a longtime CBS correspondent...

Sympathy for Katy? Nope, not here.

I'm not the only one who thought it was a bad idea.

More Than 1 in 4 Diebold Systems Found to Have Recorded Votes Incorrectly in Cuyahoga County, According to 2006 Election Audit

Some Ballots Counted Twice, Others Not At All, Database Found Corrupted, Old, Not Recommended for Use by Microsoft
Raw Election Data Held as 'Diebold Trade Secret' by Registrar Michael Vu Who Was Forced to Resign...Though He's Now Been Hired by San Diego!

Friday, April 20, 2007

PBS NOW on teevee tonight

Dayum I love Gore Vidal

listen to him on this mp3

Gun lobbyists (scroll down to watch video)

Federally Funded Boffins Want To Scrap The Internet

Ok, some of this links in this article I take with a grain of salt. That's a wise thing to do with most information floating around on the Internet.

I want that choice though.

This is not China, where the government acts like it has the right to control even the smallest details in all of it's citizen's lives.

It bothers me that American based
multi-national corporate interests have no problem jumping right into bed with the Chinese government.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Gonzales testimony

Lemmee break it down for ya.

Gonzales No sé nada. (pronounced no say nah-dah)



Double Negative in Spanish

no... nunca/no... jamás (never). no... nunca más (never again). no... tampoco (neither, not either). no... nada (nothing). no... nadie (no one). no... en/por ninguna parte (nowhere). No sé nada. (I don't know anything, or I know nothing.) No conozco a nadie aquí. (I don't know anybody here, or I know nobody here.).

Democracy Now on Blackwater West

Three out of four registered voters in Potrero don't want this mercenary camp in their community.

Blackwater Plans for New Military Facility Near San Diego Draws Fire From Residents, Peace Activists and Local Congressmember
Thursday, April 19th, 2007

Listen to it now with your RealPlayer
Note: This content may require the latest RealPlayer, which is not available on Windows 95, Mac OS9 or Linux systems.
or listen to the mp3 of the whole show

It's quite enlightening. The political connections are interesting. This company's behavior indicates that it thinks it's above military and civilian law. It's outrageous.

For more on how to help stop this camp from being built:

Stop Blackwater.net

Citizens Oversight.org

Nah, we don't need no steenking immigration reform

Last night I watched Homegrown terrorism explodes in Europe , and The Muslim Americans on PBS. Perhaps because of this, this morning I woke up thinking about criminal activity in immigrant communities all over the world.

Immigrant smuggling and gang activity
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 @ 1:30 pm 2172 Rayburn House Office Building

Human trafficking profits spur horrors
Vicious organizations move thousands of immigrants through Valley every day
Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 23, 2006 12:00 AM

Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Smugglers Suspected in Freeway Shootout


Now don't start in on me, because I know that it is rare. Most immigrants, legal or illegal do NOT engage in illegal activity (unless it involves paying coyotes or buying fake documents ). Then they can work for some asshole who is increasing profits by paying less than they did when American citizens would do the jobs. The whole cycle of exploitation makes me sick.

The
STRIVE act is not the answer. It's a way for large corporations to use and throw away their slaves when they are done with them. The Gonzales hearings are getting all the press today, but there is supposed to be a meeting going on right now.

Get ready for another big immigrant rally on May 1, 2007

Monday, April 16, 2007

I don't like guns

I'm sad today. Today's shootings bring back memories that are painful and frightening for me.

When I was a teenager I knew someone for a short time who had a schoolgirl crush on
Brenda Spencer's father. That was weird. Creepy and weird. I still remember her face, but not her name. Teenagers are weird, ok? I'm sure she got over that crush. I dunno, I never saw her again.

I lived pretty close to the border when
the McDonald's massacre happened.

A few years later a friend blew half her head off with a .357 magnum. I don't know if I'll ever get over that one, she asked me to come pick her up that day. I told her no because I didn't trust myself to drive. I was exhausted from working the night shift and taking care of my daughter during the day. My ex had recently threatened to "take me out." I didn't know whether he had guns at that time or not. I knew that he had had them years before he met me.

Did you know that
more people commit suicide (in the US) with guns than are killed by someone else with guns?

None of these experiences were as painful as the day my daughter came home from school and told me that she was afraid to go to school. They had locked down her school because some kid was playing in a nearby canyon with a bee-bee gun. I guess the school administrators were skittish because of the
Santana High shootings.

Lastly, my friend's son is living in another state because his friend was killed in a stupid gang shooting. The ones who did it are in jail, but their homies will find him if he comes back. He wasn't even in a gang. My friend misses her son. I miss her son.

All the pain and fear I have felt is NOTHING like the people experience in Iraq on a daily basis. There are fewer people in Iraq than there are in my state . Does anyone else wonder what it would be like if 60 people a day died because of firearms in California?

I do.

I am sorry for the people who lost loved ones today in Virginia.

I am sorry for the people who lose loved ones every day in Baghdad .


Update 12:02 PM 4/17/2007 According to an IANSA report published in 2006, gun-related incidents result in 300,000 fatalities and one million injuries worldwide every year. Many of those guns come from the U.S.

Mexican authorities reported that 80 percent of guns in the country came from the U.S., 50 percent of handguns seized by Canada's gun crime task force were also smuggled across the U.S. border and 30 percent of guns recovered by Japanese authorities originated in the U.S., the IANSA found.

Danny Schechter says it all on the Imus thing

I loved it

Sunday, April 15, 2007

I think San Diego voters deserve better than this

San Diego County recently hired Cuyahoga County, Ohio’s disgraced elections official, Michael Vu, who resigned under a storm of controversy stemming from the rigged recount in 2004 and a 2006 scientific study condemning Cuyahoga’s elections. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner recently fired the entire Board of Elections....

...One table in the ESI report on Cuyahoga County’s May 06 primary election reports what went missing (p.110) during Michael Vu’s watch:
13 VVPAT Summaries (voter verifiable paper audit trails)
86 VVPAT Cartridges
29 DREs (touch screen voting machines; one was later found)
24 DRE Election Archives (the archives displayed no data)
3 DRE memory cards....

Boo Who Vu?
April 13, 2007 at 14:17:18
by Rady Ananda
http://www.opednews.com/


*******************************************************************************

... Haas said that Vu was specifically hired to be assistant registrar, and that county officials were still searching for a permanent registrar. Retired Riverside County * Registrar Mischelle Townsend was named San Diego County's interim director last week....

"I'm disappointed, I think San Diego voters deserve better than this," Carlsbad attorney Ken Simpkins said. ....


Yeah, we do. But in this backasswards rednecked run Repugnant Thuglican town, we are not going to get it.

Whistleblowers

Well,

yesterday's primer on whistleblowers is topped of by Stephen Heller's post over at BradBlog:

"STEPHEN HELLER: Take a Deep Breath and Blow Hard!".

Ahhhhh, I feel hope again.

War sucks

Russia rules out military scenario for Iran - MP-1
17:05
13/ 04/ 2007

Missing American feared a victim of ‘dirty war’
By Guy Dinmore in Washington and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
Published: April 13 2007 20:56 Last updated: April 13 2007 20

Iran leads attack against U.S. dollar
by Jerome R. Corsi
Global Research, April 12, 2007

Dollar slide accelerates
By Richard Blackden
Last Updated: 8:31pm BST 13/04/2007

Currency converter
Sunday, April 15, 2007
1 US Dollar = 0.73950 Euro
1 Euro (EUR) = 1.35227 US Dollar (USD)

The Israel Lobby.
Portrait of a Great Taboo
The Power of the Israel Lobby in the United States
This is a must watch video

Thwarted Warrior
OpEd News
April 12, 2007 at 09:36:23
by Bob Koehler Page 1 of 1 page(s)

Uranium dust
John Upton/Tracy Press
Wednesday, 11 April 2007

Proposed explosives tests upwind from Tracy will release as much as 450 pounds of radioactive depleted uranium dust into the air every year, according to an air pollution permit application filed Friday by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The blasts will annually release other elements into the air, some of which will also be radioactive, the application reads.

A permit allowing the blasts was approved with no public scrutiny by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District in November, but was withdrawn after a community backlash...


You CAN Handle The Truth - Poison DUst - 1of4

1
2
3
4

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Do you know where your pension is invested?

This week, NOW takes a close look at hedge funds—sometimes secretive and often very risky investment accounts that have brought incredible wealth and power to some, but with the potential to spell dire consequences for ordinary Americans.
(26 minute video)
Brancaccio doesn't mention in the video that Gary Aguirre and Mike Aguirre are brothers. I think their parents should be proud. It takes courage to keep following the money trail even when it leads to what may be the rich and powerful committing fraud.

This Aguirre's fight is with SEC He says he was fired for pressing a probe
By Bruce V. Bigelow UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 24, 2006

Gary Aguirre's Sacking Should Spur Probe
Published on July 20, 2006
By Don Bauder

Big fish swim freely in SEC pond
Commentary: Former investigator has exposed agency's fear of the powerful

By David Weidner, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:10 PM ET Dec 7, 2006

Chris Reed of the U-T said "reader complains that this is mean-spirited. If it comes across that way, that wasn't my intention. Whatever my opinion of Mike Aguirre, I don't know Gary Aguirre and have no way of judging his allegations."
I'm not linking to Chris Reed's blog because he IS mean spirited. Bulldog for the rich and powerful in this county if you ask me. I had a quite
nasty email exchange with him over those expensive garbage voting machines, and the behavior of my congressional representative's children. I was quite angry and I have a tendency to become mean spirited also. This bitch bites. You've been warned.

Letters to the editor indicate that citizens like Mike Aguirre


So when the elite (and their bought and paid for "journalists") try to blame the middle class for for tanking the world economy:
Low savings rate in U.S. seen as danger

It's totally ludicrous. The elite are sucking everything they can out of the middle class. In fact they are sucking the life out of the middle class. The middle class are going to be surprised when they have no pension because one third of the money moving around Wall Street is in hedge funds that they don't know anything about.

If you think that there is no public corruption in the US , you are seriously deluded. Check out the Corporate Crime Reporter's for 2004. (pdf)

More on whistleblowers:


Notable Whistleblowers (NOW on PBS)

Whistleblower (Wikipedia)

Kill the messenger: whistleblowers and cover-ups (Sourcewatch)

Friday, April 13, 2007

New study links dinosaurs to living species

Updated Thu. Apr. 12 2007 10:40 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff




Hmmmmm, maybe these guys?



Uhhhh, nope.

These guys

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

It's Time to Fight Population Growth, Which Exacerbates Global Warming and Sprawl

AlterNet Envirohealth
By Katha Pollitt, The Nation. Posted April 9, 2007

It's ridiculous that we don't fight attempts to promote population growth while we wring our hands over global warming, species loss and suburban sprawl.

...When we think of overpopulation the usual image is of some teeming Third World slum, and indeed most population growth will come in the developing world. But actually it's the developed world that's doing the earth in. Every American uses as much energy as forty-eight Bangladeshis, and as many resources as an African village...

CIA country birthrate rankings

The article and comments were interesting to me.

Congress Must Cut Off Bush Family War Profits

Yesterday I tried to dig up more information on the Bush Family.

It was so depressing, frustrating and sickening that I quit.

Bush family war profiteers

Have I mentioned how much I hate these people?

Monday, April 09, 2007

Electronic voting in San Diego



What Went Wrong With The Electronic Voting Machines in My San Diego, California Precinct
March 2, 2004

DOWN FOR THE COUNT (LA CityBeat)
Riverside County’s outspoken registrar was a national poster child for touchscreen voting, but problems with the machines may have just ended her career
~ By ANDREW GUMBEL ~ 06-24-04

One of America's Worst Elections Administrators Gets a Promotion! Congratulations Mikel Haas!
San Diego County Chief Promotes Hard Rightwing Haas to Top Executive Position in County! -->
March 24th, 2007

San Diego faces registrar search again
Last modified Monday, April 2, 2007 9:16 PM PDT

Sunday, April 08, 2007

I used to have a bumper sticker that said

"Welcome to San Diego, Now Go Home"


Most residential water users wrongly billed

Sanders to push cutting 300 jobs

City Council To Vote On Controversial Pay Raises
POSTED: 4:24 pm PDT April 6, 2007
UPDATED: 4:56 pm PDT April 6, 2007
SAN DIEGO -- In the midst of a financial crisis, San Diego City Council members will vote next Monday on whether to give themselves a 25 percent raise, NBC 7/39 reported

SAN DIEGO, THE CITY THAT “KNOWS HOW” TO FACILITATE – THEN, TO COVER UP CORRUPTION


San Diego sewage spills

After perusing the state of "America's Finest City", do you think the sticker was cruel?

Friday, April 06, 2007

Saudi Arabia, US and oil

The Saudi Royal Family (2002) - CBS News -

BALKANS: FOCUS - WAHABIS SEEN AS GROWING REGIONAL THREAT

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador (part II)



Yup, the slimy, evil little bastard did it again.


Mmmmmm, there's more to this story:

Bush ties Democrats' hands with recess appointments
By Elana Schor (from The Hill)
April 05, 2007
Three controversial recess appointments that President Bush made late Wednesday are further aggravating already frayed relations between the White House and Congress, but Democrats’ options for undoing or delaying the nominations appear limited.

Bush installed three disputed picks during the Senate’s weeklong recess: Sam Fox, whose $50,000 donation to the 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had doomed his prospects with Democrats, as ambassador to Belgium; Susan Dudley, a critic of government rulemaking in principle, as White House regulatory czar; and Andrew Biggs, whom Senate Finance. Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had pledged to reject due to his views on Social Security privatization, as deputy commissioner of Social Security.

Recesspool (from TomPaine.com)

Thursday, April 05, 2007

SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER

Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m.PUBLIC PROTEST!WE NEED YOUR HELP!

SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER USA'S PLAN TO BUILD A MERCENARY TRAINING FACILITY "BLACKWATER WEST" -- IN POTRERO!!

1. Attend the Scoping Meeting: The County Department of Planning and Land Use will hold a Public Scoping Meeting on Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m., at the Planning Commission Hearing Room, Department of Planning and Land Use, 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123. The Scoping Meeting is an opportunity for the public to comment on the project and provide input into what should be covered in the environmental impact statement. (note: written comments can also be submitted by April 27)

2. Attend the demonstration: THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC PROTEST "NO BLACKWATER! STOP BLACKWATER!" FROM 4:30 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M. , THURSDAY, APRIL 5, ON THE SIDEWALK ON RUFFIN ROAD IN FRONT OF THE COUNTY FACILITY JUST PRIOR TO THE SCOPING MEETING! Please bring signs with this theme. Join with citizens from Potrero who are fighting this project that affects all of us! WE NEED EVERYONE THERE!!!

"One citizen opposed to the project revealed that Lori Spar—listed with the California Bar Association as an attorney with a law firm representing Blackwater on July 31, 2006 —has since unexpectedly surfaced as a land use/environmental planner for the Department of Planning and Land Use.

"She walked into our Mar. 1, 2007 Save Potrero meeting, representing the County," said former Potrero planner Carl Meyer...
More from Raw Story (I told you the people that run this town are crooked)

More from Sourcewatch

Update: My local corporate newz is pathetic.

One station showed ten seconds of the protestors and a two minute interview with someone involved with the project.

You think you can buy anything in Tijuana?


HA, the local government can be bought, especially if you're a RepugnantThuglican.

Even the newz.

The
VNR about brushing your cat's teeth was especially revealing.

Always a big fucking deal when there's a
SWAT standoff, ,

You know, keeps people afraid and in their homes behaving themselves. Like we need more paramilitary assholes in this town or something.

Update: the VNR loving newz channel did cover it after all, with a pro-project person getting the last word in.

Yes, Mr. Erik Prince, you spoiled little douchebag, spreading $$ around this town, and sucking up to Preznit poopypants does pay. For such a good Christian man, doesn't it bother you to train killers, or make a profit on the death and destruction that is war?

Dickhead.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

China to extend Sudan military ties


But China, which buys much of Sudan's oil and wields veto-power over UN resolutions, has rejected UN forces without Khartoum's agreement.

Somehow, I don't think China gives a rat's ass about those people in Sudan

Central Africa: Darfur Crisis Snowballing Across Central Africa
Posted to the web April 3, 2007

And don't bag on me about Iraq, I've taken heat for five frigging years for my dissenting views, which are NOW mainstream, except that the mainstream media (liberal my ass, corporations aren't liberal, & the shareholders and rich CEOs are rarely "mainstream") won't frigging report that. You think I voted for Bush? Bwaaa haaaa haaaa haaha, don't make me laugh.

Dear Thom Hartmann

Since you get "several hundred e-mails a day" and can't respond to any of them I'll respond to what I'm listening to now.

You're talking about the prevalence of SSRI prescriptions in the US, due to the privatization of every government program under the sun, and the loss of education dollars.

Thom, watch
The BBC's "The Trap."

I made it easy for you, the first part is good, but I linked you to the second part, which throws in all the important stuff from the first part.


Ooops, forgot the hat tip to neo-resistance

New Book Details Kissinger's Control over Nixon

My first thought was, "Oh, Kissinger was Nixon's Karl Rove." Then I read all of it (it's short), and realized that that nasty old war-monger is influencing Bush too.

Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed by the greed, arrogance and stupidity of those in power. How much power? How much money? How much cruelty towards other human beings?

These turds never get enough. Didn't their mothers hug them?

Monday, April 02, 2007

Stop Blackwater's mercenary camp in San Diego

Update 11:45 AM 12/5/2008
US mulls unusual tactic as Blackwater charges loom
By MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN – 6 hours ago
Charges could be announced as early as Monday in the shooting, which left 17 civilians dead and strained U.S. relations with the fledgling Iraqi government. People familiar with the charges said they may include an aggressive Reagan-era anti-drug law cracking down on assault weapons....
...Though drugs were not involved in the Blackwater shooting, the Justice Department is pondering the use of a law, passed at the height of the nation's crack epidemic, to prosecute the guards. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 law calls for 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes of any kind, whether drug-related or not.

More of my posts on Blackwater.

Since this post pops up frequently in Google searches, I'm linking newer informational posts to it in the form of Updates: This post has links to articles that highlight Blackwater's shenanigans in San Diego thru OCT 31 '07

Update 9:33 AM 10/5/2007

Stop Blackwater West Encampment and Demonstration
STOP BLACKWATER WEST CAMP, RALLY AND WALK!--- October 6 and 7, 2007 Two day Educational Encampment and Walk to Stop Blackwater in Potrero, California Join us

5 minute video on why Blackwater should be stopped from GoLeftTV

Remember this?
Mercenary camp coming right up!




Well well well, a little birdie sent me this:

Stop Blackwater Demonstration and Public Hearing Thurs.,April 5
SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER USA'S PLAN TO BUILD A MERCENARY TRAINING FACILITY --"BLACKWATER WEST"-- IN POTRERO!!

Blackwater USA, the private military contractor that trains mercenaries and is under investigation by Representative Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform plans to build an 824-acre training facility in Potrero, a small town in southeast San Diego County.

We need your help to stop this project!

1. Attend the Scoping Meeting: The County Department of Planning and Land Use will hold a Public Scoping Meeting on Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m., at the Planning Commission Hearing Room, Department of Planning and Land Use, 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123. The Scoping Meeting is an opportunity for the public to comment on the project and provide input into what should be covered in the environmental impact statement.
(note: written comments can also be submitted by April 27)

2. Attend the demonstration: THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC PROTEST "NO BLACKWATER! STOP BLACKWATER!" FROM 4:30 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M. , THURSDAY, APRIL 5, ON THE SIDEWALK ON RUFFIN ROAD IN FRONT OF THE COUNTY FACILITY JUST PRIOR TO THE SCOPING MEETING! Please bring signs with this theme. Join with citizens from Potrero who are fighting this project that affects all of us!

WE NEED EVERYONE THERE!!! For more information, please contact The Peace Resource Center of San Diego, 619-263-9301 or info@prcsd.org

Some resources about Blackwater USA:
Documents regarding the :Blackwater West" project and the scoping meeting can be found at: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/docs/PR/4-27-07/0620001.html

Jeremy Scahill's Nation Magazine article about Blackwater, "Bush's Shadow Army" and view short video at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill
Jeremy Scahill audio interview on Truthdig (mp3)

San Diego Reader article, Feb. 22, 2007, on "Blackwater West" http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=1566
(Bauder notes: "The company's owner, Erik Prince, has given lavishly to politicians, including former representative Tom DeLay, who left Congress in a lobbying scandal, and Duncan Hunter ($1000 in 2004).")


Read Jeremy Scahill's book: "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercentary Army"; Jeremy Scahill will speak in San Diego on May 1 and 2. Details of both events will be posted at prcsd.org/webcalendar

Hey, it's springtime, San Diego is lovely. Come on down!!!!

And Terry mentions the Golden Eagles that are nesting in the area, which I didn't know about: Blackwater Training Camp Planned in San Diego County