Monkeyfister

From the ongoing series... Watch it while you can.



If, like me, you've been "Cable Free since 2003," the good denizens of Daily Motion have been posting these amazing documentary episodes for free download. Go there, don't miss this incredible Documentary series about our wonderful planet. This Documentary is too important, and too visually stunning to miss. It's a BBC Production, and all they care about is not having to pay for the bandwidth, as per their FAQ. Here, you can watch every episode in really good resolution for free.

Nevermind the DRM Monkeys at Google, Daily Motion is European-based... Watch this Doc Series-- it'll do your soul some serious good. Same for your whole family.

Here is The Shallow Seas, Part One, for starters, you can view at full screen. if you have a good video card, you can watch it full DPI on your TV. Other subsequent parts are at the link.


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Labels: Daily Motion

Seems they've got a mysteriously different plan in mind...

via Reuters

Saudi television showed King Abdullah receiving Cheney in the desert town of Tabuk in the far north of Saudi Arabia. Cheney was due to leave later on Saturday for Cairo.

He said on Friday the heightened U.S. military presence in the Gulf demonstrated Washington's resolve in a standoff with Iran over Tehran's nuclear plans.

Saudi Arabia shares U.S. concerns about Iran's nuclear program, which the Shi'ite power says is only for civilian purposes.

But Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies Egypt and Jordan want Washington to press Iraq's Shi'ite-led government into a new political deal with Sunni Muslims and are concerned about U.S. troops leaving Iraq before such an agreement.

I sure would like to know the full scope of the Saudi Plan. I doubt that Snarlin' Dick will allow that to be known, however.

No one was shot in the face by the American Pit Bull, or so they say.


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Labels: Dick "dick" Cheney, Halliburton, Iraq, Iraq Civil War, Iraq Oil, Saudi Arabia, Saudis

Oh do, please, have a look...

Like Water Drumworks

Like Water Drumworks is a grass roots effort to share and celebrate the joys of music and movement. Drawing heavily upon West African cultures, specifically drumming and dancing, we offer classes, programs, events, instruments and performances related to and celebrating the joys of music and movement. Like Water strives to teach humbly, craft with excellence and perform with respect and pride.

Approach: We believe in celebrating, understanding and sharing the similarities and differences of people throughout the world. Extensive travels and studies in West Africa have prepared us well to link our audiences, students and each other to the undeniably beautiful common Spirit shared by all.

They'll be performing at the Wheatland Music Festival, in September, in Michigan. I can't wait!


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Labels: Like Water Drumworks

Check out my Good Friends, Del Castillo performing "Rios Misticos"...



Damn, those kids are alright! I just wish that they'd post MORE of their live performances to Gootube.

Don't worry, Lou Dobbs-- they're all legal.



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Check out this flawless Classical guitar work from a 14-year-old Chinese girl... Amazing...



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... and absolutely not the way we've hoped it to work out (mainly, in our favor, and at our order). China is, after all, sitting in the catbird seat, with billions of dollars of our debt, much of our manufacturing contracts, and nothing really to lose. I say that that because it's true.

China has been China for over 4000 years. This correction just might bite them a little, but, they are CHINA. They have suffered through much worse, and they are, at this time, flush beyond flush. Economically, they are doing better than they have ever imagined, with only a handful of "economic free-trade zones" within their borders. For them, considering any other country beyond their borders is historically secondary at best. Frankly, to them, their rising manufacturing-level middle-class Proletariat is rather a political threat. Putting a stop to that is actually in their (Maoist) best interests. Call this Tienanmen 2.0.

via Asia Times

China will have to choose between the lesser of two evils, namely the protection of employment in its export-dominated industries or the safety net being created by investments in property and stocks by millions of its citizens. I believe it will choose to protect people's wealth more than lower-end manufacturing jobs; therefore a sharp revaluation of the Chinese currency, the yuan, is certain in the next few weeks.

In its aftermath, the economic cognate will have to shift from production to consumption; therefore we should see the stock prices of exporters falling even as those of companies servicing domestic demand will increase. Banks will have to absorb billions of yuan in defaults from the export sector, particularly to the many inefficient state-owned companies in northern China. That will cause a sharp decline initially in their stock prices, but I expect the outlook to improve rapidly thereafter.

For the rest of Asia, a yuan revaluation would set off increased volatility as investors try to take profits and other Asian countries adjust their currency values. In turn, their holdings of US and European government bonds as part of foreign-exchange reserves would diminish, sending up bond yields globally. That is how the adjustment in China would likely set off broader stock-market declines globally as investors come to terms with both higher interest rates and lower Asian appetite for Group of Seven assets. Sharp declines in stock prices would necessarily follow in most major Asian markets.

This correction would prove cathartic to the performance of Asian economies in the decades to come, but in the short term, pain is unavoidable.

I DO hope that Asia Times is in error, but, in reports like this, they seldom are. This situation is rather like the Spanish Inquisition... Nobody expects it. Meanwhile our liquidity crisis is only just beginning, and the threat of China's correction would be crushing. This is very worth keeping an eye on. Make plans accordingly.


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Labels: Bush Economic Policies, China, FUCT, Global Economy, US Dollar, US Economy, WalMart America

For years now, Bartcop has been keeping a tally of how much Oil the Bush Family Evil Empire has been stealing from Iraq (scroll about 3/4 down his page). His numbers might be a bit inflated, but, the concept is dead on. A new US report says Billions of Dollars of Iraqi Oil is missing. Of course, they don't indict the Bushies, but, it is painfully obvious.

via NYT

Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.

Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.

The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country’s oil industry.

This article certainly lends credibility to his theory-- which I've been willing to believe since the start-- but, they do not come out and say that we're carting it away. Sure, Iraqis, and some others are siphoning off a bit here and there, but, I believe the vast majority is going into US Navy and USNS Oiler Ships, being transferred to Corporate tankers out on the High Seas and coming home.

There is absolutely no fucking way that Locals could steal oil on this grand of a daily scale. WE are the only thieves capable of such a massive High Crime. By all reports, their oil is not going anywhere right now, save for their own refineries, and Al Basra Oil Terminal and the smaller, offshore Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal. Mostly, to OUR tankers, and GUESS who holds the no-bid contract for repairing the meters at those terminals, which were destroyed in the 2003 invasion... You got it-- President Cheney's Halliburton. Of course, progress in repairing those meters is behind schedule-- see the following link.

Domestic attacks result in the CLOSING of the pipelines, not in continued production susceptible to siphoning. At the most, they'll get a few tanker trucks of crude from their attacks. It's simply a matter of scale. WE are the only party capable of perpetrating a theft of this scale at this time. See Also

High Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Oh, BTW: We haven't seen $50 per barrel Oil in a long, long time. The average price is much closer to ~$63 per barrel. The valued loss is MUCH higher. President Cheney and his pets at Halliburton are ROLLING in oily money. Fuckers.



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Labels: Cheney, George W. Bush, Halliburton, Iraq Oil, Iraq War, Peak Oil

Go read...

via Blah3.com

I'm starting to believe that these numbers are so huge that people can't wrap their brains around them. What we need to do is start casting the cost of the war in terms they can understand. Here's an example.

Let's pick a small to medium-sized city, near a major metropolitan area - my arbitrary pick is Camden, New Jersey. Close to both Philadelphia and New York City, connected to major highways, on a major waterway. The median home price in Camden (as of 2006) is $212,000. Divide the median price of a home in Camden by the four year cost of the war, and you have enough money to buy 2,948,113 homes.

The 2005 population of the city of Camden stood at 80,010. Using the median cost of a home and dividing it against the number of homes you can buy in Camden for what Bush's War is costing us, you could buy every person in the city of Camden, New Jersey just about 37 houses.

Estimates say that there are roughly 3 million homeless people in the US. The cost of Bush's War could virtually wipe out homelessness in this country.

But that would be way too sane of a use for all that money, and Bush's masters in the defense industry wouldn't see any of it. So we're going to drop nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars in a country that no longer wants us there.

As Paradox puts it, that's just sick.

Pick a city, pick a subject, and do the math. This bullshit war is killing America.

Bravo Zulu, Stranger.



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Labels: George W. Bush, Idiot Bushies, Idiot US War Planning, Iraq War Cost, Republican Timebombs...., Republican Values

I'm just about to jump into the car, and make a trip down to the Memphis Farmers' Market. They opened up just last weekend, and I'm geeked to see what they've got this early in the season. One of the best things about the Market, is that it is on the Streetcar line, and they offer ample, free parking for us out-of-towners.


Memphis Farmers' Market

For Local Readers:

Dates: Saturdays, May 5th - October 27
Time: 7 am to 1 pm, rain or shine
Location: Pavilion at Central Station
Front Street at GE Patterson
In the South Main District
Free Parking adjacent to the market
For information, call 901-575-0580


Featured produce this week:
bok choy & baby bok choy
lettuce, arugula and micro-greens
spinach
broccoli rabe
chicory
swiss chard
onions

Plus:
spring cut flowers
plants & herbs
fruit trees & shrubs
beef- two kinds! (from my favorite Local Provider, Neola Farms, whom I'll soon live a bike ride away from!)
and much more!

Ohhhh, yeah!


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Labels: Farmers' Market, Local Economy, Memphis, Organic Farming

As soon as the video is available, I'll get it posted here.

If you're not watching Bill Moyers' Journal, you're wasting your brainpower.

Here's The PBS Video

Later tonight, WKNO TV (Memphis PBS) is running the original "12 Angry Men." I think that I'm going to do a video search for that movie, as it is one of the best films/scripts of all time.

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Labels: Bill Moyers

Castro seems to be lightening up in his old age. Here, he speaks the truth about Biofuels, ethanol.. Food to fuels.

via Cuba.cu

Energy is conceived of as just merchandise. Like Marx warned us, this is not due to the perversity or callousness of some individual capitalist or another, but rather the consequence of the logic of the accumulation process, which is prone to the ceaseless “mercantilism” that touches on all components of social life, both material and symbolic. The mercantilist process did not stop with the human being, but simultaneously extended to nature. The land and its products, the rivers and the mountains, the jungles and the forests became the target of its irrepressible pillage. Foodstuffs, of course, could not escape this hellish dynamic. Capitalism turns everything that crosses its path into merchandise.

Foodstuffs are transformed into fuels to make viable the irrationality of a civilization that, to sustain the wealth and privilege of a few, is brutally assaulting the environment and the ecologic conditions which made it possible for life to appear on Earth.

Transforming food into fuels is a monstrosity.

Capitalism is preparing to perpetrate a massive euthanasia on the poor, and particularly on the poor of the South, since it is there that the greatest reserves of the earth’s biomass required to produce biofuels are found. Regardless of numerous official statements assuring that this is not a choice between food and fuel, reality shows that this, and no other, is exactly the alternative: either the land is used to produce food or to produce biofuels...

He's right, because he's lived through it. We can have food or fuel-- We CANNOT have both.


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Labels: Biofuels, Castro, Cuba, Ethanol, Food, Food Security, US Economy

Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Lub Dub, Lub Dub...

via Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of countries on the World Bank board believe Paul Wolfowitz should resign as President of the World Bank, bank board sources from rich and developing nations said on Friday.

"It is now very clear that a majority of members think Mr. Wolfowitz must resign," said one board source from a developing country, which received instructions from its capital this week not to support Wolfowitz's continued leadership.

"We believe that the World Bank cannot continue under the leadership of Mr. Wolfowitz," the source told Reuters.

The bank's 24-nation board this week delayed a final decision until next week over Wolfowitz's future, which hangs in the balance over a pay and promotion deal he approved for his companion, Shaha Riza, a World Bank Middle East expert.

I can't imagine him making through the next week. Perhaps I should have put the dance portion of the blog here... You can always scroll down.


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Labels: Neocons, Total Bullshit Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank

It's that part in the blog...



For her sheer Joie de'vivre.



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Heavy duty. The MOOOOON, Bitches!




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This is short, but beautiful. Based on Native American Prophesy.



When you find yourself at that crossroad, as I have, please, choose wisely. We'll be here, waiting for you.


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The Vultures circle...

via Reuters

RIVERSIDE, California (Reuters) - Twice a day, would-be real estate moguls gather on the local courthouse steps for the latest can't-miss opportunity in California's land rush: the foreclosure auction.

Beneath the shade of a magnolia tree, veterans and "newbies" crowd around auctioneer Gary Oberdalhoff as he lists a property whose owners couldn't pay the mortgage, one of thousands to go on the block in this sprawling, arid region 50 miles east of Los Angeles.

"Do I have any opening bids?" Oberdalhoff asks. Several step forward to show him cashier's checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the bidding begins.

It might be a scene straight out of the Great Depression, if you ignore the Bluetooth wireless headsets.

A record level of home foreclosures has hit the U.S. housing sector after years of reckless lending to risky borrowers. To those on the courthouse steps, that spells opportunity. Unlike during the Great Depression, investors are still eager to enter the market.

"A lot of people's misery is other people's gains," says investor Bryon Bettencourt. "It's just the way of the world, dog eat dog."

Oh, yeah, sure, "Dog eat dog," Mr. Bettencourt.

Boot to the head.




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Labels: Foreclosures, Housing Bubble, Real Estate Crash, Real Estate Industry, US Economy

Nobody seems to be noticing the huge meltdown happening in the oil-rich Nigerian Delta, or seem to understand the impact that it is, and will have on our oil supply.

via All Africa.com

The crisis in oil-rich Niger Delta region further degenerated yesterday, when gunmen abducted four U.S. oil workers from a barge off a coast near Chevron's Escravous crude export terminal in Warri, Delta State.

The abduction of the American oil workers came on the heels of Tuesday's release of 11 workers of Daewoo Engineering and Construction by Niger Delta militants. The released foreigners were three Koreans and eight Filipinos.

According to reports, the barge operated by U.S. contractor, Global Industries was laying pipelines for Chevron at its Okan oil field, when the oil workers were attacked by militants.

"Armed men on two speed boats with rifles and RRG's (rocket-propelled grenades) boarded (the barge). Four American personnel were abducted," said a source who does not want to be quoted.

Reacting, Chevron Corp. Wednesday confirmed the abduction.

The abducted contractors are believed to be employees of Global Marine Systems, a U.K.-based company, a Chevron spokesman said.

---

Daily Champion recalls that Niger Delta militants on Tuesday blew up three oil pipelines in Brass, Bayelsa State, forcing Italian oil company, Eni to stop production of 150,000 bpd feeding its Brass export terminal.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has forced the shutdown of almost a third of Nigeria's oil capacity, said that attack was designed to embarrass President Olusegun Obasanjo in his last days in office.

More from Falls Church News-Press

Last week they began kidnapping foreign workers at an alarming pace —22 foreigners kidnapped in 36 hours— and overran offshore platforms and production ships. On Monday, the strongest militant group issued a chilling ultimatum. “All foreign and local nationals working with multinational oil companies and their contractor should vacate Ijaw territory (the oil producing region) immediately.” “All foreign embassies should withdraw their nationals from our homelands.” “Nothing can protect them --- No more hostages taking -- Any national caught shall be summarily dealt with.” By the way, these guys have a good track record for doing what they say they are going to do. The next morning, three major oil pipelines were bombed, shutting down another 150,000 barrels per day of oil production. Total production shutdown by the insurgency is now on the order of 900,000 barrels per day. The insurgents have demonstrated that they have the capability of shutting down most, if not all, of Nigeria’s oil production.

Should this happen, we might find our imports running a million barrels a day short this summer, unless we can outbid the Chinese. Replacing this much lost Nigerian oil production will be very expensive at the gas pump.

Where oil flows, war follows...



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Labels: Nigeria, Oil, Oil Producers, Peak Oil

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Flake (R-AZ) offered an amendment responding to the President's unilateral assertion of power with regard to the electronic surveillance of Americans on US soil. Specifically, it states that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) shall be the exclusive means by which domestic electronic surveillance for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence information may be conducted, and makes clear that this applies until specific statutory authorization for electronic surveillance, other than as an amendment to FISA, is enacted.



I saw it at Crooks & Liars.

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Labels: Abu Gonzales, FISA, George W. Bush, NSA

I read this several days ago, but, have waited to post about it in order to give time for any rebuttals. As I haven't found any, I'll link to Cernig's post about it.

via The Newshoggers

But it appears that few, if any, of North America's organic bee keepers have been affected. An email being circulated from a Canadian organic beekeeper claims that:

I'm on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies.

While another organic beekeeper blames the problem on commercial grower's practises which force their bees to grow larger than they would in the wild.

In case you weren't aware, and I wasn't for a long time, the foundation in common usage results in much larger bees than what you would find in a natural hive. I've measured sections of natural worker brood comb that are 4.6mm in diameter. What most people use for worker brood is foundation that is 5.4mm in diameter. If you translate that into three dimensions instead of one, it produces a bee that is about half as large again as is natural. By letting the bees build natural sized cells, I have virtually eliminated my Varroa and Tracheal mite problems.

Note to MadSat: As a beekeeper, yourself, I invite you to jump in and post whatever addendum you'd like to this. You certainly know more about this than I do. What I DO know is that your bees seem pretty happy and healthy.


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Labels: Bees, Organic Farming

I've always loved this kind of stuff...




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Yeah, I know, it's strange to follow up Seuss with Burroughs, but, I post 'em as I finds 'em.



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With Dr. Seuss', "The Lorax"...




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Stupidity and hubris, plain and simple. Their goal appears to be the destruction of the renewal of the Kyoto Protocols.

via Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States is trying to dilute a declaration on global warming to be made at next month's G8 summit, sources close to the talks said on Friday, putting it on a collision course with hosts Germany.

In a draft of the declaration dated April 2007 seen by Reuters, the United States objects to a pledge to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius this century and cut world greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Washington also questions whether the United Nations is the best forum to tackle the climate crisis and rejects a section stating that carbon markets are a key means of developing and deploying climate-friendly technologies.

"They have rejected any mention of targets and timetables, don't want the U.N. to get more involved and refuse to endorse carbon trading because it must by definition involve targets," one well-placed source said on condition of anonymity.

The leaders of Britain, the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, Italy and France will attend the summit hosted by Germany in the Baltic resort town of Heligendamm from June 6-8.

There's an old adage about how when everyone at a party eats garlic, no one smells it. I think it applies in a way here. When the eight richest countries in the world agree to take the same measures, the overall impact on the Global Economy is minimized, and the benefits are maximized. But, when the richest, and most polluting of those eight countries refuses to sign on, the entire plan falls apart. Like at the party, you end up with one loud, bitchy bore, ruining the evening by complaining about all the garlic breath. But, in this case, that whiny bitch is killing the rest of the world through its conspicuous over-consumption and pollution.

What will it take? Is it time for the rest of the G8 to threaten Trade Sanctions to bring us in line? Can China and India really keep us afloat?


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Labels: Global Warming, Globalism, Idiot Bushies

And China gets "Most Favored Nation" trade status, yet again. sigh

via Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. investigators found shuttered factories when they arrived at the Chinese food processors blamed for putting the chemical melamine into vegetable proteins shipped to America, officials said on Thursday.

The proteins were used in feed for pets, hogs, poultry and fish. All the suspect products have been traced to two makers in China, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said during a news conference.

"We visited the two facilities and there is essentially nothing to be found because they are closed down," said Walter Batts, head of FDA's office of international investigations. An FDA team has been in China since April 30.

"Nothing is available to be seen at the facilities. They were closed down, machinery dismantled," said Batts.

Chinese officials did obtain samples at the facilities in April and sent them to an independent laboratory for testing, he said. "We assume we will have access to those when the results are ready."

In other words, we're on our own, folks. Grow as much of your own food as you possibly can. Buy from local Organic farmers for the rest.

Sarah, at Corrente Wire has more on how China is being allowed to kill us, and the animals that we love.


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Labels: China, FDA, Melamine, Tainted Foods, Tainted Pet Foods

This is good news...

via Multi-Housing News

Washington, D.C. -- The newly introduced “Securing America’s Energy Independence Act” is the largest solar energy legislation ever introduced in the United States.

The bi-partisan legislation has been introduced in the House as HR. 550 and in the Senate as S. 590. If passed, it would make solar energy more affordable across the country—in many states, solar energy would be cheaper than buying from the grid.

The bill extends the 30-percent federal solar investment tax credit, currently set to expire at the end of 2008, for another eight years. It also modifies the photovoltaic incentive to $1,500 per half-kW of capacity, and removes the $2,000 residential cap.

Another good reason to call your Representative and Senator.


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Labels: Congress, Solar Power, Sustainability, Sustainable Living

Soon to be a movie starring Johnny Depp.




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He's gone.

via Reuters

TRIMDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair announces when he will step down on Thursday, 10 years after winning power in what was hailed as a new dawn for Britain that has since been darkened by the Iraq war.

Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush's closest ally over Iraq, leaves office out of favor among voters for sending British forces to join the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

A ruling Labor Party rebellion in September forced him to say he would quit within a year to allow his long-time heir apparent, finance minister Gordon Brown, to take over.

I hope his replacement is sane.


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Labels: Britain, Tony Blair

Oh... Strike that headline:

via Reuters

HAVANA (Reuters) - The dismissal of charges in the United States against a veteran anti-Castro militant and accused bomber prompted outrage and frustration on Wednesday in Cuba, where he is seen as public enemy No. 1.

A U.S. judge dismissed immigration fraud charges on Tuesday against Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, 79, a former CIA operative who is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela on charges of downing an airliner and other bomb attacks.

Cuba has portrayed the U.S. case, in which Posada Carriles was accused of entering the country illegally, as a smokescreen to protect him from facing justice for larger crimes.

He is considered a terrorist in Cuba and Venezuela, where he is accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Even Cubans who do not support their communist government were outraged that Posada Carriles walked free after the judge dismissed immigration charges.

George W. Bush and Abu Gonzales harbor terrorists in America.

Ain't they tough on crime. Republicans keep us safer from terrorists? How? By buddying up with them, and allowing them to live in Florida-- that's how.

Ohhh-- Tricksy plan, there, Republicans.


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Labels: Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush, Republican Values, Terrorism, War On Some Terror, War OnTerror And Shit

Tonight on PBS-- "Secrets of the Inquisition." Check your local listings...

via PBS

Based on previously unreleased secret documents from European Archives including the Vatican, Secret Files of the Inquisition unveils the incredible true story of the Catholic Church's 500-year struggle to remain the world's only true Christian religion.

This should be good viewing. Here, in Memphis, we're getting parts I and II, tonight. The link has a nice preview video.


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Labels: PBS, Spanish Inquisition

And God Bless Him for it!

VoteVets.org



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Labels: George W Bush and the Troops, Iraq War

Oh thank the stars! However, it seems that there are some hinky shenanigans at play behind the ISP dropping Mr. Young and company...

via Computerworld

May 08, 2007 (InfoWorld) -- The Deepwater defense contractor scandal has echoed from the halls of Congress across the World Wide Web, and despite being shut down by its ISP after posting documents considered central to the controversy, online resource Cryptome.org remains alive.

On May 7, Cryptome transferred its archives to Network Solutions, a move necessitated by a termination of service notice received from its previous Internet service provider, Verio, on April 18.

Since Cryptome was founded in 1999, Englewood, Colorado-based Verio had weathered a stream of complaints from people who took issue with controversial documents posted to the site's pages, yet the firm allowed the resource to remain online.

But on the same date that Cryptome's operator first posted key congressional testimony about Deepwater -- a military procurement fraud scandal currently under investigation by Congress and the Department of Justice -- Verio suddenly gave the site two weeks notice to find another home.

Cryptome, founded and operated by John Young, a 72-year-old architect from New York, is an exercise in the dissemination of notorious information. Over the years the site has angered the likes of British Intelligence and the Japanese Ministry of Justice, along with stateside government and business officials, for posting declassified documents, photos and maps that the groups weren't happy to see surfacing online.

I'm just glad that good folks heard the call, and threw John the lifeline that he needed.


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Labels: Cryptome

Queen Elizabeth got the last laugh on George. God Save The Queen...

via Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Britain's Queen Elizabeth flashed a bit of royal wit at President George W. Bush on Tuesday, getting back at him for a faux pas a day earlier that nearly placed her in the 18th century.

With a playful grin, the queen opened a dinner toast to the president saying: "I wondered whether I should start this toast by saying, 'When I was here in 1776...'"

The 104 guests invited to the black-tie gathering at the home of British ambassador David Manning erupted in laughter. Bush laughed along and the queen smiled broadly before continuing with her text.

You GO, girl.


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Labels: George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth

This vaccine issue has been totally spun out of Reality, already.

Sure the Christianists are batshit crazy in all of their rhetoric about this vaccine, but, look folks-- cities or school boards mandating this series of shots (which really hasn't been conclusively tested), at about $150 per dose x 3, to every young girl within its borders means only one thing-- obscene profits for Merck.

Yes, folks, right now would be a FANTASTIC time to invest in Merck. This vaccine may just well have saved Merck's bottom line for decades to come. Three cheers for BigPharma-- they scored a coup with this one.

It's fine that it should be made available to Health Departments and doctors-- but, absolutely NOT mandated for 51% of our future population. It would certainly be much better if more testing would be mandated, instead of mass-vaccinations.

The rhetoric has jumped the shark, and the reality of what's happening has been clouded. Is HPV real? You bet it is. Is the vaccine good? We don't fully know yet, but, it's hopeful. Should we be concerned about BigPharma field-testing their drugs on our nieces and daughters? I think so. Their record of late has been atrocious-- Vioxx and Melamine right at the top of the list. Is Merck's profit margin really worth it?

One more time:




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Labels: Big Pharma, Christianists, HPV, School Boards, Vaccines

Wow. People are dying mixing that Buttery Flavor... No shit.

via WaPo

Ortiz, 44, is among a group of California food-flavoring workers recently diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare and life-threatening form of fixed obstructive lung disease. Also known as popcorn workers lung, because it has turned up in workers at microwave-popcorn factories, the disease destroys the lungs. A transplant is the only cure.

Since 2001, academic studies have shown links between the disease and a chemical used in artificial butter flavor called diacetyl. Flavoring manufacturers have paid out more than $100 million as a result of lawsuits by people sick with popcorn workers lung over the past five years. One death from the disease has been confirmed.

So far, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, has found eight flavoring workers with fixed obstructive lung disease, most of those with bronchiolitis obliterans. Twenty-two more have below-normal lung capacity, which may be the beginning of the disease.

"They're finding it there because they're looking there," said David Michaels of the department of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University. Michaels, assistant secretary of energy in the Clinton administration, accuses OSHA of "regulatory paralysis."

"It's not some carcinogen where you get cancer 30 years from now or something. The people are dying right in front of you," Michaels said. "You can't wait until you have all the evidence. You have to regulate it."

Even less is known about the health effects of eating diacetyl in butter-flavored popcorn, or breathing the fumes after the bag is microwaved. The Environmental Protection Agency has studied the fumes but is waiting for the industry to review the study before releasing it. The Food and Drug Administration has diacetyl on its list of substances "generally recognized as safe" but has not studied it.

Re-read that last graf, there... That should chill a person.

Seriously worth considering going back to good ol' popcorns. It burns just the same, but, probably healthier. I've never been a big MicroCorn fan, really. Now, I'm glad that I'm not.


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Labels: Bush Admistration, Corporate Values, Corporations, Corporatists, Corporatocracy, FDA, Tainted Foods

I reallllly don't think laying my baby on the blanket with a Cobra is in the Dr. Spock's instruction manual, nor on my own list, and I sure as hell hope it would not be on my future wife's list of proper things to do with a baby.

Just Sayin'.

Holy Cow! And the baby crawls back for more-- the parent(s) LET IT... WTF? Dafanged snake?


Via: VideoSift

Ummm... !???!... Three cheers for the "Cranium-Forward Strategic Offensive Charge" manoevre! !???!


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Labels: WTF

Things are progressing sweetly toward the purchase of my first home...

The Appraisal just came back, and I'm happy to find that the Appraiser valued the property at ~$10,000 over the purchase price of the loan, and ~$5,000 over the Loan Value, so, I'll have some equity built in. That's good, but, I certainly will not bank on it.

Obi-Loan Kenobi needed new Savings Statements, W2's, and a pay stub, so, I just sent them off this morning. He says that everything is looking golden for a May 16th Closing Date. All that we're waiting for is the Lawyer to get all the paperwork together for us.

If we all remember, I was feeling very nearly this confident in my last home purchasing endeavor, and it was the absolute 11th hour when everything went to hell, so there is still reason to worry, but, I think that this deal is going to sail through at this point.

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed.



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Labels: American Dream, First-Time Home Ownership, Home Buying

sigh...

Can he not get anything right?

The American people are proud to welcome Your Majesty back to the United States, a nation you've come to know very well. After all, you've dined with ten U.S. Presidents. You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 -- in 1976. (Laughter.) She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.(Laughter.)

-- George W. Bush, Preznit of the United States, 07 May 07

Something tells me that she would have torn out her womb with her own teeth, if she knew that she had given birth to that imbecilic thing occupying the Oval Office.


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Labels: George W. Bush

ooooo... wow!



Find Out More About Her



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I believe them!

We Love America More Than Anyone


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And the event was Handicapper Accessible, too.

via Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A record 18,000 people took off their clothes to pose for U.S. photographic artist Spencer Tunick on Sunday in Mexico City's Zocalo square, the heart of the ancient Aztec empire.

Tunick, who has raised eyebrows by staging mass nude photo shoots in cities from Dusseldorf, Germany, to Caracas, smashed his previous record of 7,000 volunteers set in 2003 in Barcelona, Spain.

Ahhh... Mexico.


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Labels: Art

Coffeeghost begins his demolition of the Christianists' cute, but silly "6000 year-old Earth" idea...

Coffeeghost:

I respond to VenomFangX’s video “The Age of the Earth” in which he uses some bogus arguments to prove that the age of the planet is 6,000 years.

This is the first part of three. In the first two parts, I debunk VenomFangX’s arguments. In the third part, I explain how we know that the earth is 4.55 billion years old.

The other two videos have yet to be posted. I'll try and keep up to date as they are released.

OK. I need to tell you all a longish story of an episode that I had with my Dad back in July of 2000... (cue harp gliss)

Back in that Summer, I was working at an International Arts Academy, called Interlochen, in northwest Lower Michigan. Just a few miles north of there, is Sleeping Bear Dunes, one of the wildest, and most beautiful places in Michigan, and a favorite place for me, since I was able to drive. As the link says, the Bear towers over 1200 feet above Lake Michigan...

OK, OK... So, my folks are now in their 70's, and I knew that my chance to take them out to my all-time favorite place in Michigan, a three mile hike out to the wild top of the Bear was getting short. So, I proposed the idea to them one night, when they were planning to come up to visit. While I was growing up, my parents took us to see some beautiful parts of my fair former state, and I knew that they would love this place, if they could make the dune hike. They did just fine.

Now, my Dad made the weirdest transformation from a very activist pro-Union IBEW Master Electrician, to a pro-Republican Fundamental Christianist, starting in the early Eighties. He was one of the first to buy into Grover Norquist's and Ralph Reeds, and Pat Robertson's buffoonery... To this day it's been difficult for me to deal with, but I love my parents too much to further hold that against them... ANYWAY...

The afternoon was wonderful, the weather was clear, and absolutely perfect as I got my parents out on the precipice of the Big Bear, over-looking Lake Michigan, where the only footprints to be seen were our own, where all at once, one is made to feel expansively huge, and insignificantly small by the combined scales of height, of the land and and width the land and water. It truly is humbling.* My parents were duly awestruck, as I always will be.

After a while, and a little picnic and rest, my Dad, totally overwhelmed by all of this, began talking about the Majesty of God's Creation, and how wonderful it was that God put all of this, everything exactly where he wanted it, and lo, these 6,000 years later, things are a bit worn, but, exactly as he placed them, all this beautiful, fresh blue water...

Just after our little snack, and before my Dad's soliloquey, I got it into my mind to impress my parents with some fossil remains within the sandstone layers of the dunes. I was about 10' down the face of the dune cliff for several minutes examining bits of sandstone break-away littering the face, when Dad began his monologue. He was just getting around to God placing all this fresh, blue water here, when I found a nice, inch-thick, ten-inch diameter plate of sandstone, and ever so gingerly, popped open one of the faults in its layers. There, embedded in the sandstone, were at least five perfectly preserved sea scallop shell fossils, along with a host of other salt-water creature fossils... "and lo, these 6,000 years later, things are a bit worn, but, exactly as he placed them, all this beautiful, fresh blue water..."


I had wanted to show them how amazing it was that 1200 feet above fresh-water Lake Michigan, one could find evidence that everything was once under a salt-water ocean, but, I simply could not after hearing the old man's words. So, I carefully wrapped it up in my shirt and jacket in my backpack, and clammed up, and climbed back up to say, "Yeah, Pop-- it's amazing."

That piece of sandstone is sitting in my living room right now, and I'm charging batteries to take a picture of it for you. It's survived seven big moves, now, and I'm hoping that it survives the one into my new house.

So. There's is my little story. The Earth is old, not 6,000 years young. Forty days and nights of the flood and water recession-- yes, the Bible says that after forty days, the Ark sat on solid ground-- would not, and could not put one to two-inch sea scallops 1200 feet above a giant, fresh-water inland lake system. Period.

Christianists, you can enjoy your ideas all that you want in your Churches, and in your homes-- that is the Law, but, the minute that you try and make your beliefs Public Law and policy, you are going to be stopped, questioned, and turned away, every time.






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Labels: Atheism, Christianists, Reality

Having lived in Italy for nearly two years in the mid-1990s, I can not only laugh at this, I can attest to much of it. E si, Io sono Italiano.




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A sane Republican out of Texas? Go on...



On these points, Representative Paul is dead on, and it's no surprise that they tried to cut his microphone to kill his message. I actually appreciated his words at the first Republican debate, in contrast to the other nine jokers. Of course he's not insane enough to be able to capture the Republican Base's nomination for Preznit, but, I'm glad that he's in their race.

Follow the link to see his platform. I'd think that there are plenty of Democrats that could get behind him, as long as he's got no hidden agenda up his sleeve. Hell, If I were to strangely take a step to the Right, (doubt that!) *I* might be the type to vote for him. I actually know very little about him, save that he's sided with Dems on the USAPATRIOT Act, and has voted against NAFTA, GATT, and other similar policies and agreements, and what I saw at the debate.

I remember, as a young voter, that I was disappointed that Ross Perot was blackmailed out of the 1992 race by George H.W. Bush. Ron Paul's platform seems similar to Perot's. I suspect that we're going to see a similar interest in Paul from Independents, "Libertarians" and "Centrist" Democrats.


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Labels: One Sane Republican, Republican Congress

For Susie...



One short piece in this film slapped me upside the head-- Nixon's speech on November 03, 1969. In that televised speech he told America that he had an agreement with South Vietnam, and that as the South Vietnamese forces grew stronger, that the US would stand down. Then he said, "I have not, and do not intend to set a timetable for our withdrawal."

Boy, doesn't that sound fucking familiar?

Whig has sent along the Text of Nixon's November 3, 1969 speech. Thanks, whig.



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Wow. Check this out--

via Auntie Beeb

From a distance, as we rounded a bend and first caught sight of it, I couldn't believe the strange structure ahead of me was actually real.

A concrete tower - 40 storeys high - stood bathed in intense white light, a totally bizarre image in the depths of the Andalusian countryside.

The tower looked like it was being hosed with giant sprays of water or was somehow being squirted with jets of pale gas. I had trouble working it out.

In fact, as we found out when we got closer, the rays of sunlight reflected by a field of 600 huge mirrors are so intense they illuminate the water vapour and dust hanging in the air.

The effect is to give the whole place a glow - even an aura - and if you're concerned about climate change that may well be deserved.

It is Europe's first commercially operating power station using the Sun's energy this way and at the moment its operator, Solucar, proudly claims that it generates 11 Megawatts (MW) of electricity without emitting a single puff of greenhouse gas. This current figure is enough to power up to 6,000 homes.

But ultimately, the entire plant should generate as much power as is used by the 600,000 people of Seville.

It works by focusing the reflected rays on one location, turning water into steam and then blasting it into turbines to generate power.

They are beginning a similar project in the desert outback of Australia, except, instead of using water, they are using the super-heated moving air in the tower to move wind turbines:



A pilot project of this design is already generating power in Madrid, Spain. See the video at the link.

And here is a project in the California desert:

Labels: Solar, Sustainability