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Today: 92 articles and 519 comments as of 14:17.
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Alamoudi gets 23 years
Today's Headlines
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
CD Tries to Show Shatner's No 'Has Been'
Run for your lives!!!EFL.
Just in time for Halloween comes a CD from a guy more likely to inspire a holiday costume than a musical following — William Shatner. The one-time James T. Kirk of "Star Trek" fame has released an 11-song collection this month, a follow-up to his 1968 spoken-word debut that garnered such critical infamy it became a camp classic. So it must be asked: Is this a trick or a treat? "It's a treat for me," Shatner, 73, said by telephone from Los Angeles, where he was taping an episode of "Boston Legal," his latest TV show. "I hope nobody turns a trick on it."
Well, the possibilities of using it in interrogations at Guantanamo was discussed here yesterday.
The new album — slyly titled "Has Been" — once again puts Shatner's choppy, emphasis-added words to music. But this time he's penned his own lyrics and tempered the cheese quotient with a few musical friends. Ben Folds, who produced and arranged the new album and co-wrote many of the songs, wrangled guest appearances by Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins and Brad Paisley.
Speaking of has-beens. God, I can hear Henry screaming now...
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/15/2004 3:46:54 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I must have the CD to play in my new Stryker.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/15/2004 15:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like music to build thong-wearing human pyramids by.
Posted by: BH || 10/15/2004 16:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Spock...........help me........Spock......
Posted by: Jarhead || 10/15/2004 16:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Reverse warp thrusters and set up a containment field to protect us all from the music...
Posted by: borgboy || 10/15/2004 17:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Brad Paisley is not a has been. He's at the top of his game. He does have a good sense of humor and seems to have the rare ability not to take himself too seriously.
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 18:43 Comments || Top||


Bank teller laughs off armed would-be robber
A bank clerk didn't need a weapon to ward of a would-be robber. When the masked man pulled out a gun, she just laughed in his face. The suspect was so humiliated he ran away. The bungled holdup occurred Thursday at a small bank on Zagreb's [Croatia] main square, police said. The 31-year-old clerk, identified only as Martina S., "laughed aloud" at the threat from the bandit because she knew she was protected by a bulletproof glass, said Gordana Vulama, a police spokeswoman. After cackling at the thief, she coolly picked up the phone to call police, Vulama said. The failed robber spun around and fled the scene, police said. Police are searching for the suspect, Vulama said.
Posted by: Dar || 10/15/2004 11:40:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 12:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Get this...he said "I have a gub" Can you believe it?
Posted by: eLarson || 10/15/2004 14:45 Comments || Top||


team america debuts today-movie review with spoilers
In three weeks, millions of Americans will choose between neo-conservatism's foreign-policy-as-fulfilment the-Book-of-Revelations vision of the future and the pansy-ass internationalism of a progressively nutty Leftist establishment run by emasculated queers who watch art-house fag films like Before Sunset. For independent voters resistant to utopian ideology, as well as relentlessly immature Hollywood boy geniuses who make millions of dollars playing with construction-paper cutouts and speaking win funny voices, this election represents a stark dilemma: Nobody wants to waste his or her vote on a third-party candidate—especially when there's no fruitcake like Ross Perot who makes vote-wasting enjoyable. (Ralph Nader, though a fruitcake, is no longer enjoyable.) In fact, it's obvious to all that the big-government romantics on both sides of the Culture War have totally lost their minds.

Thank God for Team America: World Police, the marionette-o-vision Homeland Security drama from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone opening nationwide October 15. This movie is more than just therapy for anyone who has missed nights of sleep trying to decide between Empire and Appeasement or allowed their girlfriends to drag them to see Before Sunset: It is a moral vision of America's future delivered by two of our nation's finest political thinkers. It also makes your breath fresh, your teeth whiter, and teaches children their multiplication tables.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: muck4doo || 10/15/2004 10:56:17 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anyone else find this review, well, more offensive than anything Parker and Stone have ever done? I mean "Jew Talk"?

(And I'm speaking as someone who's seen -- and enjoyed! -- "Cannibal: The Musical")
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/15/2004 11:09 Comments || Top||

#2  You know I wasn’t going to see this, but when I heard the LLL were angry with the film I will have to see it! Not o give the entire movie but I hear most of the LLL are killed during the movie. Also taking my son for a rare Dad/Son movie night. He is a big South Park fan and has done wonder to shape his political leanings. The LLL mistakenly thought that Trey Parker and Matt Stone were making fun of only conservatives. Shallow people they are they never really look at the true plots of the South Park episodes. Ever see the rain forest episode? They trashed the eviro-nazi but good in that one. Can’t wait to see it!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/15/2004 11:17 Comments || Top||

#3  ROFLMAO!!!

"There are three kinds of people in this world..."

Sorry, RC, but I've been trying to stop laughing so I could comment for about 5-6 minutes, now. I've been to Coporate Mofo a few times before - so their "style" isn't a surprise for me. Oh man, my sides hurt like hell. And my face - I haven't laughed this hard in months. I've had to correct 20-30 errors in just this little snippet. But I can mutiply like a Corp Mofo, now, lol!

Before Sunset / Sunrise must be Beyond the Valley of Suckiness.
Posted by: .com || 10/15/2004 11:28 Comments || Top||

#4  I laughed. I cried. I laughed somemore. And that was just from reading the CorporateMoFo.com movie review. Can't wait to see the real thing. If you've got any doubts, go see the online trailer and the clips on the official movie web site.

Mucky: Thanks for posting this link. Made my day.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 10/15/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#5  I've been to Coporate Mofo a few times before - so their "style" isn't a surprise for me.

*shrug*

Doesn't do much for me.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/15/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#6  sory you didnt like it rc. woohoo ima outta work early today and am head to em theeter right now. ima try an come back later with em thoughts on it. :)

ima close my eyes when itn come janeane garafolo scene tho.
Posted by: muck4doo || 10/15/2004 13:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Bruce Westbrook, reviewing it for the Houston Chronicle, said he found the performances "wooden".

(He didn't like the movie. He said it didn't have the "subversive" character of South Park. I'll bet he just didn't get all the jokes.)
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 10/15/2004 13:32 Comments || Top||

#8  mucky, can't do that, janeane is just like the hideous car wreck or road kill that one can't help but look at......
Posted by: Jarhead || 10/15/2004 15:38 Comments || Top||

#9  lol! ima get em purdy good nonymus name. jus got back and ima give it two thumb up. gonna go get the soundtrack in em while. ima can't get song out of my head. america, f*** yeah! must see if lotta profanity isnt bother you. also be ready see hot n heavy puppet porn.
Posted by: Chinese Chinelet7536 || 10/15/2004 17:15 Comments || Top||

#10  was almost forgot. yourn gonna love kim jong ils pet panthers.
Posted by: muck4doo || 10/15/2004 17:18 Comments || Top||

#11  yeah, I dig the puppet porn to dude...hey, wait a minute.....wrong website.
Posted by: Jarhead || 10/15/2004 19:58 Comments || Top||


Select few 'can identify liars'
A University of San Francisco study found only 31 people out of 13,000 could identify in nearly all cases when someone was lying. ... The study said the wizards [human lie detector] had a "natural talent" although they were highly motivated and tended to be older. Police, lawyers and FBI agents were all among the groups who were unable to tell if people were lying.
Tap, tap. No. not a smidget of a movement. Stuck or sumtin'?
Lawyers... what a fine species of humanity. Lying is their modus vivendi, they must presume by default that everyone else is lying, for their lack of imagination, hence any discerning ability is removed from their mindscape. Police and FBI do not lag far behind, but that is more of a professional deformation than a lifelong credo.

The wizards' success rate was even higher than the traditional polygraph test, which is used in the US and is claimed to have a 60% to 70% success rate.
Posted by: Memesis || 10/15/2004 5:38:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The only exception was subjects observing John Kerry. Those who could see his lips move or hear his voice could determine that he was lying.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 9:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I've been identifying liars for years.
These are the tell-tale characteristics:
white male over 50
elaborately coiffed hair
expensive suit
face seen frequently on network tv around 5:30 PM, CDT.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/15/2004 15:16 Comments || Top||

#3  You forgot: mouth is moving...
Posted by: badanov || 10/15/2004 15:19 Comments || Top||

#4  I can almost always tell when someone is lying. They hesitate in the wrong places and emphasise the wrong words. The real give away is the unnecessary and unexpected details.
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 20:06 Comments || Top||


Sheesh! Jet crashes in my back yard.
Well actually it was about a half mile away, but still! :/
Jefferson City (Missouri), Oct. 15 (AP): A small jet with no passengers went down in a residential area in this central Missouri city, damaging a building, authorities said. Only the pilot and co-pilot were aboard the CRJ2, a two-engine regional jet that could seat up to 50 people, when it crashed yesterday in Jefferson City, police Capt. Michael Smith, said. There was no immediate information about injuries, either to anyone in the plane or on the ground in the neighbourhood a few kilometers east of downtown. The plane damaged a building, but Smith said today that the structure was not believed to be a house. "As of yet, we have recovered no bodies," Smith said. Neither major hospital in the city reported receiving victims from the crash.

Smith said the plane was apparently experiencing engine problems when it went down last night. The plane was operated by Memphis-based Pinnacle Airlines, a regional carrier affiliated with Northwest Airlines, Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhouch said.
Posted by: RJB in JC MO || 10/15/2004 7:35:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I told you not to put out your Christmas lights so early. "They'll think they're landing lights, " I said. But would you listen? Hell, no!
Posted by: Dar || 10/15/2004 13:27 Comments || Top||

#2  C'mon Dar, those are Halloween lights I tell ya! :D
Posted by: RJB in JC MO || 10/15/2004 15:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Tell me again about the Great Pumpkin and his eight reindeer?
Posted by: Dar || 10/15/2004 16:46 Comments || Top||


Japan Shaken by Strong Offshore Earthquake
A strong offshore earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 shook southern Japan today. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The quake was centred some 55 miles below the ocean floor near Yonaguni Island, which lies between Okinawa and Taiwan, about 1,240 miles south-west of Tokyo, the Meteorological Agency said.

There were no reports of injuries or structural damage, according to Okinawa Prefectural Police. They said the quake, which occurred deep below the ocean floor, was not felt in Okinawa's prefectural capital of Naha. The Meteorological Agency said there was no threat of tsunam.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 1:44:03 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Taiwan Struck by Magnitude 7 Quake, Worst Since 1999
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan was struck by a magnitude 7 earthquake, its worst since the trembler that killed 2,500 people in 1999. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The quake occurred at 12:08 p.m. and was centered 109 kilometers (66 miles) off the northeast shore, the Central Weather Bureau said. It was also felt in southern Japan. A building in Taoyung county south of Taipei collapsed. ``We have dispatched a rescue party to check of anyone was trapped in the building, said Chan Chang-hao, a firefighter in the county. No further details were immediately available.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 1:42:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Blair hoses down Catholicism talk
PRIME Minister Tony Blair today dismissed speculation that he intends to convert to Roman Catholicism. Blair is an Anglican but has accompanied his wife Cherie, a Catholic, and their children to Mass regularly, triggering several reports in recent years that he might switch faiths. Several British newspapers today quoted a Catholic priest, who regularly presides over services at Blair's country estate Chequers, as saying he thought Blair might convert. "If you ask me do you think he wants to become a Catholic, I would say yes," Father Timothy Russ, was quoted as saying. The Guardian newspaper quoted Russ as saying: "He didn't say to me, 'Can I become a Catholic?' What he said to me was 'Can the prime minister be a Catholic?"

Blair dismissed the reports today, when asked about them by reporters accompanying him to a political summit in Hungary. "I am saying no. Don't they run this once a year?" he said, referring to the regular surfacing of the story. "I think they do. Every year I get this. My wife is a Roman Catholic," Britain's news agency Press Association quoted him as saying. Britain's state religion is the Church of England, a Protestant denomination. There is no constitutional barrier to a prime minister being a Catholic, though there hasn't been one since the early 18th century, when the title of prime minister first came into use, said constitutional expert Lord St John of Fawsley. By law, the monarch must be a Protestant.
Posted by: tipper || 10/15/2004 10:48:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Must be getting close to Guy Fawkes Day. Wonder if the Guy will have a Chiraq mask this year.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 11:58 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Rare photos tell you more about Russian president
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 20:34 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is my imagination going haywire, or does Putin resemble Pat Paulson?
Posted by: Dave D. || 10/15/2004 21:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Putins daughter are blonds! Good looking blondes from what I can see too.
Posted by: Charles || 10/15/2004 21:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Ok, so he gets up and scratches his balls in the morning like every other guy. So what? That election was still rigged.... and not in some dumb "selected not elected" kind of way either.
Posted by: Secret Master || 10/15/2004 22:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Vlad is just a man. He has children to worry about, that should put some at ease.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 10/15/2004 23:28 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Nuke reports are mistaken: Taiwan officials
Why no, we're not happy to see you, and never mind what's in our pocket.
Taiwan did have plutonium-related experiments several decades ago for the development of nuclear power, but none was about extracting plutonium as an ingredient for nuclear weapons, and the experiments were abandoned in the late 70s, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said yesterday, in response to a recent news report.

The Associated Press on Wednesday reported from Vienna that information from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) indicates Taiwan's plutonium separation experiments probably continued until about 20 years ago. The AP attributed that finding to unnamed diplomats, whose information was based on preliminary samples taken in Taiwan by IAEA inspectors.

AEC officials yesterday said that the report was misleading. "Several decades ago, Taiwan did carry out plutonium-related experiments in a bid to analyze the element's chemical characteristics," AEC Vice Chairman Yang Chao-yie (???) told the Taipei Times. "At that time, scientists believed that the mixture of oxidized uranium and plutonium might be a possible fuel for nuclear power plants and other things," Yang said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 10/15/2004 1:15:02 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The cement igroos? They left over from Arctic theme mini gof clorse"
Posted by: Shipman || 10/15/2004 8:25 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Collapse of Australian democracy turns the refugee tide [Parody. I think.]
EFL. Hat tip: Cracker Barrel Philosopher
HERE is a report from the New York Times:

THE international community is bracing for an influx of political refugees following the collapse of democracy in Australia.
Send 'em to Phwrance!
Last night the UN Security Council was in emergency session on the situation in Australia, where John Howard seized power in a bloodless election on Saturday. The defeat of democracy had been long foreshadowed by the country's artists and intellectuals, as well as by some prominent columnists.
Just like in America.
"For this to happen in one of the world's most stable democracies is a tragedy that must not be allowed to go unchallenged", said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Sounds like that weasel.
Mr Howard's election coup occurred without violence. It was brilliantly organised and took the form of more than 7700 mini-coups in so-called "polling places" around the nation.
No wonder the intellectual "elite" are so shocked; the "little people" aren't supposed to have any say-so! What do they know?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/15/2004 10:57:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can and WILL this happen in the U.S.? I really hope so! ;-)
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/15/2004 11:27 Comments || Top||

#2  CS - from your keyboard to [insert diety of your choice]'s eye!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/15/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||


Europe
Spain justifies calls for new EU line on Cuba
Spain is to try to persuade its partners in the European Union to modify policy towards Cuba, on the grounds that it is not working, a senior government minister said Friday. Her statement follows a controversy over remarks made by the Spanish ambassador in Havana which led Cuban dissidents to walk out of a Spanish national day reception there last week. Carlos Alonso Zaldivar told his guests that the Socialist government elected this year had embarked on "a reflection" with EU partners to find a way out of the present "deeply unsatisfactory" state of relations with Cuba. "We want to move beyond the current situation and resume dialogue with all political and social sectors" in Cuba, the ambassador had said.

In June 2003 the EU adopted diplomatic sanctions against Cuba after the arrest of 75 disidents, protesting against the heavy sentences passed on them and the execution of three Cubans who were trying to flee the country. Among the EU measures was a decision to invite dissidents to embassy receptions to mark national days. "The only thing we highlighted is that it is proper to work, as is already the case, in the framework of the EU to modify a policy which so far has shown istelf fairly ineffective," Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, deputy prime minister, told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting. She said the "basic aim" of the government headed by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is "the defence of human rights" in Cuba, arguing that government policy towards Cuba and dissidents "has been very clear over the last years and remains so today."

Zapatero sought to play down the embassy incident in Hungary Friday saying that it was government policy to "demand firmly and strongly" change in Cuba, while acknowledging that Madrid wants sanctions against Cuba eased. He also restated Spain's "open disagreement with the human rights and liberties policy of the regime of Fidel Castro." The opposition conservative Popular Party called Thursday on Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos to apologise to the dissidents or fire the ambassador "immediately".
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 4:34:17 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The only thinkg that will work is to starve the Castro brothers to death. If Spain gives any support to the Castro's it proves they have fecal matter where grey matter should be.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/15/2004 19:51 Comments || Top||


Polish newlyweds paid to procreate
Have a baby and get a check. That's the deal officials in a southern Polish county are offering newlyweds. Couples can get about $570 for having children within two years of their marriage. The leader of the county council is alarmed by what he calls a frightening decline in the birthrate. In the region where the baby bonus is being offered, funerals outnumbered births by 2-1 last year. Officials are also offering couples free use of a hall for their wedding receptions.
Posted by: Dar || 10/15/2004 3:21:44 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bet Mucky advises an electro duck.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/15/2004 15:52 Comments || Top||

#2  How many Poles does it take to make a baby?

__________borgboy sez u tell me
Posted by: borgboy || 10/15/2004 20:31 Comments || Top||


Another American Ally Survives LLL Attack
Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka won a parliamentary vote of confidence Friday, heading off the prospect of renewed political turmoil in a country that is a key U.S. ally in Iraq and the European Union's largest new member. The lower house of parliament voted 234-218, with no abstentions, to back Belka's five-month-old minority government.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 1:02:54 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Deal close in Nazi `gold train' case
Holocaust survivors from Hungary are nearing a deal with the United States government in the "gold train" case, in which the survivors are suing for compensation from the U.S. for valuables that were stolen by the Nazis and turned over to the U.S. military but never returned to the owners. Attorneys for the survivors, who filed a class-action lawsuit in May 2001, asked a federal judge in Miami, Florida, to postpone a hearing due to take place last Wednesday because they wanted to continue negotiations with the U.S. Justice Department. The judge accepted the attorneys' request, in which they said they had been making "substantial progress toward a resolution." The new hearing is set for this coming Wednesday.

The gold train case relates to a train carrying artwork, jewelry, gold and other valuables that the pro-Nazi Hungarian government had plundered from Hungarian Jews in 1944. At the end of World War II, U.S. military forces seized the train, which had been sent to Austria. The survivors' lawsuit contends that the property was never returned to its owners or heirs and was instead looted by U.S. military personnel. Meanwhile, Jewish community leaders reacted with restraint to reports of progress. World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman is due to deliver a speech today in which he will say that the U.S. should decide now on some arrangement in the gold train case, because if it doesn't, it will have failed where other governments around the world have succeeded.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 11:29:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Norway royal bloodline 'British'
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 11:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DNA testing to follow.
All of those experts from the Simpson trial are rushing to Oslo to offer their services!
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 11:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Some people (and I use the term loosely) just can't leave well enough alone.

This information, if true, is supposed to help the Norwegians how, exactly?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/15/2004 11:59 Comments || Top||

#3  And this just in: British royal bloodline 'German', 'Greek', 'Spanish', 'French', 'Dutch'...
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/15/2004 12:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Almost all of Euorpean royalty is related(alot of hemophiliacs in the Royal houses),no news here.
Posted by: Raptor || 10/15/2004 12:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Of course, if true it didn't have to be "artifical" insemination. But that opens a whole seperate pile of fun.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 10/15/2004 13:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Fortinbras was a Brit?...
Posted by: mojo || 10/15/2004 14:11 Comments || Top||


German job goes to lowest bidder
Germany's JobBerlin.com job auction site is unlike other Online auctions where the highest bidder wins. Here the person asking for the lowest salary gets the job. The jobs on offer range from porn star to mason, removal helper to topless waitress and erotic cameraman to telephone assistant. Porn producers have shown a particular interest in the site, considering it an ideal way to find new - and especially cheap - talent. The makers of the website plan to expand their services to Munich, Hamburg and Cologne.
Posted by: tipper || 10/15/2004 10:42:06 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is so rong! LOL!
Americka comes to Germany. This has the beginings of a perfect market.

I want Amazon to take the same steps.... I'll give ya 11 centavos for It Takes A Village, if you pay postage.

Posted by: Shipman || 10/15/2004 16:02 Comments || Top||


Zapatero accused of rejecting religion
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has come under attack from his country's Roman Catholic bishops over proposed legislation on same-sex "marriages" and on removing religious teaching from state-run schools. Last week, as parliamentary votes on these issues drew closer, church officials stepped up their barrage of criticism of what they call Mr. Zapatero's "road map" to undermine religion and enforce secularism in Spain. The spokesman for the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the Rev. Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, declared on state-run television that some of the Zapatero government's planned legislation was "a virus" that would eat away at the country's religious faith. And Catholic Archbishop Carlos Amigo of Seville charged that "the secular state was persecuting religion."

Mr. Zapatero, who was elected in March, says the measures are Socialist Party election promises that the government is putting into effect. "What the government will put before parliament is strictly a reflection of what was supported on polling day," he said.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 2:32:59 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Catholic Church still has teeth in Spain. As Zappy will find out.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/15/2004 2:49 Comments || Top||

#2  OldSpook you sure of that? Doesn't sound like it in the article. It's sounds like the church is going to get steamrolled.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/15/2004 3:42 Comments || Top||

#3  ol Zappy - what a great guy. Didn't they hang Mussolini from a lamp post? I suppose there is still hope.
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 5:23 Comments || Top||

#4  So is it a good thing that The Catholic Church still has teeth in Spain? Of a good thing that there are 32,000 religion teachers in their schools? Or that they are paid through a govt subsidy? If the church still had any moral power, it wouldn't need to bludgeon it's agenda through by using secular muscle. Of course, they've been doing it so long it's like breathing to them.

Another interesting point: only 5% of young Spainards abide by the church's sex rules. Sort of like here, only more so. So, all these people are BAD catholics? Must be tough to be good. So does the church throw all these people out, deny them communion, etc? Or does it figure their $ is as good as anybody else's?
Posted by: Weird Al || 10/15/2004 7:14 Comments || Top||

#5  "Congress shall make no law with respect to an establishment of religion." Articl One, bill of rights. The framers were worried about winding up with something similar to the church of england. Based on current performances such as this and the bishops in the US, they should have been a lot more worried about the church of rome.
Posted by: Not Amused || 10/15/2004 8:35 Comments || Top||

#6  I see I've drawn out the Catholic Bashers. Welcome aboard.

1) Yes it is a good thing the Church still has a vocie in Spain - if it didn't we'd not be able to vocally protest evils like Abortion. And, natrually, the Church is for sinners - if you are perfect, cast the first stone. As for young people, they aren't exactly known for thier wisdom, are they? ANd there are a heirarchy of things in terms of importance. The obedience to the moral teachings on sexual conduct is fairly far down compared to abortion and war for ANY religion, if you bother to think about it. ANd that's your problem: you reflexively bash, not thinking, when it comes to Religion Wierd Al - you're consistent about it.

2) "Not Amused" the US constitution does not apply in Spain. Did you know that?

Why are you worried about an Archbishop speaking to his faithful and advising them of the spiritual cost of actions they are taking? There is no threat to the 1st amendment there by the "Church of Rome". Kerry people all the time say "Vote Your Conscience". Well, that's what Catholics are urged to do all the time - but its an INFORMED conscience, especially when it comes to the cooperation with evil and the risk of your soul if you support a candidate that supports evil. That is what the Archbishop was pointing out to Catholics. Given the abhorrent nature of Abortion, and the requisite destruction of human life in embryonic stem cell research, the view of the CHurch is that to vote for someone who promotes this evil is to sanction it formally, and thus tie yourself to the enablement of mass evil, 40 million abotions a year in the US. If you truly believe it then its akin to voting for Hitler, or Stalin, in terms of the mass killers of the 20th centurie.

*IF* you are Catholic, then you recite the creed every mass, out loud, as an oath to God, that includes "I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic Church". Note the emphasis. This means you accept the authority of the Church as it descend from the powers granted the apostles by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and you therefore accept its dogma -the core teachings.

In Catholic theology, there can be no disagreement on dogmatic issues. On doctrinal issues (celibate priests for example) there is room for argument. But on dogma (Human life is sacred and begins at conception) there is no wiggle room. If you accept that, if you truly are Catholic, then the Archbishop's words are directed at you. If you are not self-bound to the Catholic Church, then feel free to ignore the Archbishop.

Given that you are not Catholic, why are you so worried? Do voters who truly vote their conscience bother you? DO preachers and Bishops who exercise their first amendment rights for pratice their religion freely frighten you?

It seems they do from your posts. You look to be taking the "left wing" position of freedom of speech that's common these days. "Freedom for me but not for thee".

I say freedom for all - remember the first amendment was put there to prevent people from being muzzled in the great public debate, and to prevent repression of religious people by the state or a state church.

You seem to think it was put there to completely muzzle religion in the public arena of ideas. Sorry, but you are wrong.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/15/2004 10:17 Comments || Top||

#7  AMEN!
Posted by: domingo || 10/15/2004 10:58 Comments || Top||

#8  I believe in the entire 1st amendment, including the part regarding free speech, so we have no problem there. OS, I knew it was you as soon as I starting reading your post, didn't have to get to the end. You are absolutely entitled to your beliefs. I could care less. Am I catholic? Nope. Christian? Nope. Jew? Nope? I am what I am, and don't feel the need to proclaim it at great length. Left wing repression of freedom of speech? Please. I don't engage in personal attacks, and hope you don't have to either. Politically, a pox of both their houses. I took the libertarian test a few weeks back, and scored 100%. I don't object to anyone's religion. At all. Unless they try to tell me they have the only key to their particular heaven. So I guess in that sense I'll bow to your position. Feel free to have members of your church attack anyone they like. Just accord everyone else, the ones you don't like, the same priviledge.

Do these preachers frighten me? Not particularly. I simply dislike people who think they have the only truth, no matter which side of the line they're on. Do I distrust the upper hierarchy of the church? Absolutely. Live with it.
Posted by: Weird Al || 10/15/2004 11:12 Comments || Top||

#9  OBTW, not muslim either. Truly a religion of evil. I may not trust a few people in the catholic church, but I don't trust any of these folks.
Posted by: Weird Al || 10/15/2004 11:35 Comments || Top||

#10  OS AMEN! There are a lot of socialists in Spain and a TON of Catholics too. Zappy would be wise to court their vote as well, if not I can't see his party winning a second term. Wierd Al...Your a Mormon?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/15/2004 11:42 Comments || Top||

#11  OK - thanks Wierd Al for clarifying that.

ANd, believe it or not, I often ahve vehement disareements with the upper heirarchy fo the Catholic Church, especially on doctrinal matters, like mandated celibacy for Priests. I'd prefer the eastern model: if you are married you can become a priest, but only the celibate monks would be able to move to the bishop and cardinal level as only they woudl be "married to the Church" - married priests would be parish priests. And thats where they woudl be the most releveant and helpful - after all, in many ways it is easier for a father to counsel about children than it is for a celibate priest.

Likewise, some of the Vatican's actions often appear to be officious meddling and based in euro-socailism rather than the Catechism and Gospel. Sometimes they forget that the Apostolic part entails that they are servants of the Church, not the other way around. If they are not carefuly, they drift toward the way Muslims do it.

As for the Muslims - the more you read thier Khoran, and the "scholarly" research about Dhimmis, and Khefirs, and their treatment of them, and the belief in a strict Master-Slave relationship at the core of their theology (thus promoting a hierachy of master-slave relationships from the Imam to the follwoers to thier slaves to the unbelievers, etc), the more you will see it is a truly twisted religion.

Add to that the warping of the even more extreme Tawhidists of the Salafi's (Osama Bin Laden, Taliban), and the Wahabbis (Al Zarqawi, and the SUnni radical in Saudi and Iraq), and you have a truly poisonous admixture that has grossly distorted Arab culture for the worse, for centuries.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/15/2004 12:07 Comments || Top||

#12  Mormon? Not a chance. Now there's bunch of crazy people. They may be more or less harmless, I'm not sure. I've read a little bit of the book of Mormon for the sake of information. First, the whole thing is obviously written (badly) by one guy. Second, it doesn't even make sense.

The closest I come to being anything is Buddhist. It isn't really a religion in the strictest sense, but says more to me than the others, which I've spent many years studing in a comparative way. Sort of a lifetime hobby, if you will.

Posted by: Weird Al || 10/15/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#13  "Likewise, some of the Vatican's actions often appear to be officious meddling and based in euro-socailism rather than the Catechism and Gospel."

OS: Thank you. That's what I've been trying to say, but you said it better.Leave Caeser's to Caeser and god's to god, etc. And I agree on the priests. Monks in many religions have often been celibate, those who directly minister to their congregations are different.
Posted by: Weird Al || 10/15/2004 12:16 Comments || Top||

#14  Reaching Out To Our Weird Al.... Now is the time! Grab ahold of that snake that is in your heart and lookit! Lookit Look at It! In the Eye! Grab ahold of that snake around the throat breather! See if Now! Looks different! Snake eyes a little crossed! Yes! Amen! Now! Talk to the snake! Say I've have no god but Liz Montgomery! Find the truth and drop a fiver in the plate! It's for the children!
Posted by: Durwood || 10/15/2004 16:08 Comments || Top||

#15  Weird Al:
I cannot agree with your assessment of the Mormons as "crazy people," though I must admit that their holy book leaves a great deal to be desired next to the Bible proper. I would like to mention that, on the whole, Mormons are a solid, reliable, sober, and patriotic people who make good neighbors. They may wear funny underwear but they are good Americans on the whole.
Posted by: Secret Master || 10/15/2004 16:09 Comments || Top||

#16  The secret of the Garment is leaked! Typical panhandle trash!
Posted by: Durwood || 10/15/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||

#17  (chuckle) Actually, Durwood, I was raised Southern Baptist.... which involved a lot of singing but very little serpent handling. I believe you are thinking of the infamous Church of God with Signs Following, which was founded in 1914 by the Reverend George Went Hensley; a real hell raiser by all accounts. There are maybe 2000 of them scattered around Appalachia.
Posted by: Secret Master || 10/15/2004 16:25 Comments || Top||

#18 
The one on the right would make a better national leader then the one in charge of Spain currently.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 17:26 Comments || Top||

#19  Didn't say the mormons were'nt solid people. they are, as far as I know. Said they were crazy. Stand by the statement. Lots of other crazy people in the world. They're in good company.
Posted by: Weird Al || 10/15/2004 18:41 Comments || Top||

#20  Cobarde ibn Zapatero has rewarded al-Qaeda by pulling out of Iraq too soon and dealt simultaneous life-threatening blows to freedom and the family by warping marriage in ways it was never meant to go.

Way 2 go(not).
Posted by: Korora || 10/15/2004 19:01 Comments || Top||

#21  OldSpook. You still didn't answer my question. Does the Catholic Church still have enough clout in Spain to stop Comandante Zapatero's anti church plans?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/15/2004 19:45 Comments || Top||

#22  SPOD, I don't know. I suppose we will find out. The Church has spent a lot of its "moral capital" on the Anti-war side of things over there in Europe, so they may not have much to stand on to oppose the government they wanted, given this government did withdraw like the clique at the Vatican's foreign office wanted. Although they now want troops in Iraq to help stop the loss of life... Go figure.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/15/2004 22:11 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Interview with Col. Bud Day
America's Most Highly Decorated Living Veteran Calls Kerry 'a Man of Benedict Arnold Qualities'
Col. George E. "Bud" Day is America's most highly decorated living veteran officer. He served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, receiving more than 50 combat awards and the Congressional Medal of Honor. What he wants now is to stop John Kerry from being elected President.

Day traveled from his home in Florida to Washington, D.C., last week to participate in the filming of two new ads by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. In one of the spots, he directly addresses Kerry: "How can you expect our sons and daughters to follow you, when you condemned their fathers and grandfathers?"

In the early 1970s, when Kerry was meeting with America's Communist enemies in Paris and falsely claiming to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that U.S. forces in Vietnam were committing war crimes on a day-to-day basis, Day was a POW, languishing in a North Vietnamese prison. During his five-plus years of captivity he was brutally tortured. Now he is one of several former POWs featured in Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, a documentary about the effect of the anti-war movement on American POWs in Vietnam. The film, which portrays John Kerry in an unsympathetic light, will soon air in part on 62 broadcast stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, despite loud protests from the Kerry camp. Many of the company's stations are in swing states.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/15/2004 4:34:27 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks TW, this guy's military background is truly remarkable. God Bless the good Colonel.
Posted by: Jarhead || 10/15/2004 19:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Hand Salute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: anymouse || 10/15/2004 20:26 Comments || Top||

#3  We know what a hero JOhn KErry is. How about Bud Day?

DAY, GEORGE E.

Rank and organization: Colonel (then Major), U.S. Air Force, Forward Air Controller Pilot of an F-100 aircraft. Place and date: North Vietnam, 26 August 1967. Entered service at: Sioux City, Iowa. Born: 24 February 1925, Sioux City, Iowa. Citation: On 26 August 1967, Col. Day was forced to eject from his aircraft over North Vietnam when it was hit by ground fire. His right arm was broken in 3 places, and his left knee was badly sprained. He was immediately captured by hostile forces and taken to a prison camp where he was interrogated and severely tortured. After causing the guards to relax their vigilance, Col. Day escaped into the jungle and began the trek toward South Vietnam. Despite injuries inflicted by fragments of a bomb or rocket, he continued southward surviving only on a few berries and uncooked frogs. He successfully evaded enemy patrols and reached the Ben Hai River, where he encountered U.S. artillery barrages. With the aid of a bamboo log float, Col. Day swam across the river and entered the demilitarized zone. Due to delirium, he lost his sense of direction and wandered aimlessly for several days. After several unsuccessful attempts to signal U.S. aircraft, he was ambushed and recaptured by the Viet Cong, sustaining gunshot wounds to his left hand and thigh. He was returned to the prison from which he had escaped and later was moved to Hanoi after giving his captors false information to questions put before him. Physically, Col. Day was totally debilitated and unable to perform even the simplest task for himself. Despite his many injuries, he continued to offer maximum resistance. His personal bravery in the face of deadly enemy pressure was significant in saving the lives of fellow aviators who were still flying against the enemy. Col. Day's conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the U.S. Armed Forces.

This man deserves to be heard.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 20:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Colonel Day in the O Club at Brooks AFB in 1976. As a brash young captain, struck by seeing that much blue (Medal of Honor + Air Force Cross) that high in the ribbon cluster, I initiated a conversation and quickly discovered that Colonel Day is more than a hero, he is a true gentleman. He was, and is, one of America's finest.
Posted by: RWV || 10/15/2004 21:16 Comments || Top||


The NY Sun Notices Guardian Letter Campaign
London Guardian Seeks to Rally Voters Against Bush
A liberal British newspaper's campaign to influence the White House race, by having its readers write to undecided voters in a key county in the must-win state of Ohio, has prompted senior Republican lawmakers to question whether the Capitol Hill press accreditation should be withdrawn from the publication's two Washington correspondents.

The write-in campaign started this week by the London-based, 400,000-circulation Guardian, is focused on Ohio's Clark County and is seen as a bid to deliver the state to Democrat John Kerry. Readers are being encouraged by the paper to sign up by e-mail to receive the names and mailing addresses of Clark County voters and are advised to be courteous in their missives.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert is unimpressed, however, by what the Guardian calls its "public service." His spokesman, John Feehery, said the Guardian's campaign is partisan and therefore "unethical" and "inappropriate" for a newspaper. "We tend to let the Standing Committee of Correspondents decide on accreditation status in the press galleries, but the Guardian's action raises serious questions, and we would hope the committee will look at all of this very closely. It is a clear problem and the position of their journalists is untenable," Mr. Feehery told the Sun.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/15/2004 1:23:01 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting to see that this Guardian is being accused of anti-American editorial. I must say that I have never felt that way. Anti-Bush; yes. Anti-war; yes. And certainly highly partisan in favour of Kerry (or better yet Nader in many correspondents opinion) but not anti-American. Possibly anti- the CEOs of America Inc.. Still....it is quite a stupid thing to do in my opinion as a liberal British reader of the paper.

Just a sure fire way to irritate people and swing many towards doing the oposite to which the mpaper desires...just goes to show that despite the America-baiting prejudice of many of my UK peers, we are all just as capable of failing to think through our actions!
Posted by: Kitcar || 10/19/2004 5:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Kitcar you think they are doing this because they like US? No the hatred the Guardian has for me, my country and, my president is pretty plain by what they publish as "news" and editorial content. The pure hate of the United Strates and anti-US sentiments of the UK public are a matter of record at the BBC on a daily basis.

With it's JFK support the Guardian wishes to further the goals of Mr. George Sorros and his leftwing liberal terrorist appeasers. Those who still don't understand that everything changed in the US on 9/11. We will fight these terrroists where they live not where we live. If a bunch of screwy UK twitters want to get in the way then they are going to get mashed under the wheels.

I hope that The Guardian loses all access to US government sources. You can go to my website and see how I think how some in UK press should be treated. Oh yes and to any citizen of Britain so inclined to meddle in the US election, stay out of my election and I will stay out of yours.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 6:57 Comments || Top||

#3  "the hatred the Guardian has for me, my country and, my president..."

You, no. Your country, because of your president. Your president, well, that's pretty obvious.

"what they publish as "news" and editorial content"

You have room to talk don't you. You're probably one of the spoon-fed acolytes of Fox News, one of the most biased, stupid and inaccurate news services in the world.

We may have a pretty poor leader, but at least we posess the intelligence to know that our goverment is under par. With old Dubya holding the keys to the most powerful country in the world, we have far more frightening times ahead.

Maybe the letter writing campaign was a step too far, but any American with an iota of intelligence (no-one in Texas then) must be able to figure out how bad that neanderthal is at running the country. The hidden microphone scandal of a week or two past shows how this 'man' cannot string a coherent sentence together.

Toodle pip old chap, from a tea drinking 'Limey' from English-shire. :)
Posted by: Snoluck Phusing8642 || 10/19/2004 17:34 Comments || Top||

#4  ROFL!!! Excellent! The astoundingly misinformed but terribly articulate, urbane, witty, wonderful, LLL tool-fool Soros poofta-ponce spouts! I'm sold, Mr Tea Sipper! *bravo* *golf clap* I'll gather up my paltry iotas, shed my Neanderthal posture, medicate my skinned knuckles, and vote for Skeery straight-away!

Lol! You knew better, but being an asinine and inane Loonie, you just couldn't help yourself, lol! And now your eyes are green again - which means you're a quart low.

FOAD / HAND!
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 17:48 Comments || Top||

#5  That's quite a cover you have for yourself there, Kitcar. As long as you say you don't disike Americans, just the president they pick and the policies they support, you think you appear a fair, intelligent person. That's what you'd like to communicate to all those around you, like so many of your fellow Europeans-"we care, we were with you, America, after 9/11"-not because it's a genuine feeling, but because that's the impression you want to leave. It's not who you are, it's all about the PR about you.

It's quite amusing to see Europeans poking at President Bush's supposed idiocy, when they themselves are suffering from cognitive diarrhea. Think through the majority European stance about military force, which has been used ad nauseum in regards to the case of Iraq. Europeans are largely opposed to the use of force, EVER. But what would have happened to Europe had the US stood back and let you continue with that delusional philosophy in WWII and in the Serbian/Bosnian conflict. Think there'd be any Jews on mainland Europe today? Think there'd be a Bosnian alive today?

And isn't that equally true of what would have happened to Iraqis under Saddam had Europe won out in the end? Your philosophy in action looks a lot like rubber stamping genocide while you posture as being caring, humane people.
Posted by: Jules 187 || 10/19/2004 17:56 Comments || Top||

#6  How come all the trolls have such unique names Þ
How in the heck do people supposedly in the UK know whats on FOX news? They don't they except what United States hating crap towels like the Gaurdian say. If you hate my president you hate me. We elected him. Note I said elected. Excuse Kerry is talking shit on TV and I need to vomit.
Yea FOAD. HAND.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 18:02 Comments || Top||

#7  it's so mind boggling to comprehend the arrogance involved in believing that Americans care what a bunch of fossilized socialists want or need.

Americans have their own lives and give little thought to the fact that a bunch of hand-wringing stiffs have little better to do than to make themselve feel superior by assuming that 250 million people all fit neatly into their preconceived stereotypes. As they say, bigotry is the ultimate expression of ignorance....or perhaps in this case, arrogance.

Get your own life - losers.
Posted by: 2b || 10/19/2004 18:19 Comments || Top||


Dueling Documentaries: ABC to air documentary on Kerry in Vietnam
ABC TV has produced and will air next week a documentary on the Vietnam War fight that has both distinguished and dogged John Kerry's presidential campaign. ... [T]he 1969 incident for which Kerry won a Silver Star has also been the focus of one of his most virulent enemies, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who charge that all the senator-to-be did that day was shoot one wounded Vietnamese teenage boy in the back as he fled. Recently ABC interviewed survivors of that skirmish, and it plans to broadcast the results of those interviews on Thursday at 11:35 p.m. EDT.
Set your calendar, if you have a strong enough stomach.
Interviewees include those who witnessed Kerry's boat approach the village of Nah Vi, saw fighting and knew both casualties and survivors. An anti-Kerry documentary focusing on his anti-war activities is also expected to air over Sinclair Broadcasting channels before the election.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/15/2004 1:31:46 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


ABC Political Dir. Mark Halperin's Daddy Head of Soros Policy Ctr.
As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.

Red diaper baby Mark Halperin follows in father's direction. Lots of details on what Daddy did (Pentagon Papers, friend of Philip Agee, State Dept. laptops stolen), brother David's Clinton White House adventures, his own pecidillos as he shaped the how the news is presented at ABC.

Read the whole thing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/15/2004 1:57:26 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Coincidence? "WE DON'T THINK SO!"
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 16:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Philip Agee - Ohoh! is he in Cuba or Switerland these days?

All the rest is nasty but ... Agee.
Are we up against Trotskites with Kerry et.al?
I keep thinking of the old spy novel..
"Trotsky's Run".

I watched the PBS Frontline special on Bush and Kerry. I can't get over the fact they everything Kerry does revolves around "His Vietnam Experience and Lessons". Sort of like somebody stuck in a bad fugue. I can't help thinking Manchurian Cand...
Posted by: 3dc || 10/15/2004 22:52 Comments || Top||


Butt out Brits, (Clark County) voters say
EFL Reg Req
Forgot to include the source URL...
The War of Independence was a long time ago, but some Clark County voters are feeling the itch to tell those across the big pond where to bloody well go. Linda Rosicka, Clark County Board of Elections director, said she heard a common sentiment Thursday about a British newspaper's attempt to influence America's presidential election: "We already fought the American Revolution."
But have they paid their bill for the voter list yet?
"For the most part, I don't think people are too impressed," Rosicka said. "Clark County people are fiercely independent.
Pretty sharp. They figured out al-G without reading a full issue.
Marie Lewis, a Manchester, England, resident, said she got the name and address of a Clark County voter, wrote a letter and sent it via air mail Wednesday. "I've got very mixed feelings, but I've got to do my bit
for the anti-war effort,"
Lewis, who has visited Ohio twice, said. "I apologized for interfering but then interfered. "I couldn't stop myself," Lewis said. asked him to vote for anyone but President Bush." Lewis cited a desire for peace as the reason she wrote someone she has never met let alone heard of.
It wasn't Lewis' country that was attacked, was it? Big Ben's still standing, the Tower is untouched.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 2:44:32 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Retired Wittenberg University political science professor Richard Flickinger said people should view the letters as an expression of concern from a group of people rather than that group trying to sway the vote."

Spare me the bullshit, professor...
Posted by: Pat Phillips || 10/15/2004 15:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh dear, sorry about that. Here it is.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 16:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Note to the Gaurdian for future American electoral missions.

1. Above all Americans want to be left alone to mind our own affairs.

2. Nothing pisses Americans off more than someone who ignores the above and invites themselves into our affairs.

3. Coming in a close second in pissing Americans off, are people who assume that we need help with our votes or in appreciating our impact on the world etc etc. We vote our own minds thank you and so far we are doing a pretty damn good job of it.

4. In the future the Gaurdian should contemplate the possibility that just maybe the reason why their little colonies have so greatly surpassed the mother land is precisely because of all the above.

You'd think that 228 years might be enough time to understand where they went wrong the first time but apparently not!
Posted by: peggy || 10/15/2004 16:33 Comments || Top||

#4  I stumbled across the guardian letter writing campaign while browsing cnn.com and I’m hugely embarrassed by it. The whole concept is ill thought out, inflammatory and offensive to our closest allies. Offensive toward a nation of people who are possibly the most hospitable and friendly a Brit is likely to visit. Alas ‘Guardian readers’ are far from representative of most British people. “The Guardian Reader” - due to its vehemently leftwing partisan reporting – has become an epithet that characterises our own Looney left. Woolly jumper wearing aging hippies and rebellious middle-class students who enjoy their daily dose of establishment bashing, self-righteous reporting over a vegan breakfast.

If it’s any consolation we have to put up with these morons daily.
Posted by: Englishman || 10/19/2004 10:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Fantastic story. I found it absolutley hilarious. Almost as funny as Boris Johnson having to apologise to the entire city of Liverpool for implying they're all scallies wallowing in their own victimhood....
Posted by: thundertaker || 10/21/2004 9:12 Comments || Top||

#6  thks Englishman - confirms most of our assumptions. Welcome here any time!
Posted by: Frank G || 10/21/2004 9:35 Comments || Top||


Vandals target GOP signs in York
Just more for our list of Dim dirty work.
Posted by: Bill Nelson || 10/15/2004 1:40:51 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As I suggested yesterday...
SPRING LOADED BOOBY-TRAP WITH RUNNY DOGGY POOP!
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 14:17 Comments || Top||


ABC Nightline Interview Vietcong
I know I'm missing something here. Let's go interview Charlie, maybe he has an insight into this matter that none of the Vets who were there do. Duh! WTF. Hell they would have interviewed Ho Chi Minh if he was alive. LMAO.This is hilarious. Both in Unfoit for Coammnd and in Hanoi John's own autobiography are 180 degrees out of sync wit this piece. Did ABC ever consider interviewing the Vets that were there. Bizzaro news coverage.
Posted by: Bill Nelson || 10/15/2004 1:33:43 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kerry Dinky Dou !! Kerry Dinky Dou !!!
Ha Ha Ha
Posted by: crazyhorse || 10/15/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#2  It's what we do. I long for the days of joshing with FDR about the dead trout and his shrew of a wife.
Posted by: E R Murrow || 10/15/2004 15:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, she was a bitch wasn't she, Eddie? But try dealing with Joan Crawford when she's got a package on. Jesus...
How 'bout a smoke?
Posted by: Walt Winchell || 10/15/2004 16:02 Comments || Top||

#4  This had to come from the ABC Goebbelist, Mark Halperin, and his "ANIMAL FARM" view of the election... "All candidates are equal, but some are more equal than others."
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 16:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Better get statements from the bar girls too! they always have juicy stories about GIs. Maybe they will find a tall, long faced, 30ish vietnamese running around we may have a male heri to the Kerry name! PLEASE OH PLEASE! As far as interviewing charlie....LOL. I am sure they will get an honest story there.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/15/2004 19:09 Comments || Top||


Anything To Get Elected [Krauthammer Bitch-Slaps KEdwards]
Too good to EFL. Editors, move to page 71 if you need to. Hat tip: Power Line.
After the second presidential debate, in which John Kerry used the word ``plan" 24 times, I said on television that Kerry has a plan for everything except curing psoriasis. I should have known there is no parodying Kerry's pandering. It turned out days later that the Kerry campaign has a plan -- nay, a promise -- to cure paralysis. What is the plan? Vote for Kerry.

I'm not making this up. I couldn't. This is John Edwards on Monday at a rally in Newton, Iowa: ``If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.''

In my 25 years in Washington, I have never seen a more loathsome display of demagoguery. Hope is good. False hope is bad. Deliberately raising for personal gain false hope in the catastrophically afflicted is despicable. Where does one begin to deconstruct this outrage?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/15/2004 11:55:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dr Krauthammer is so lucid. It is amazing he was a Mondale-ite in 1984...
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 12:27 Comments || Top||


WTF? Teresa's cure for Arthritis: Gin and White Raisins?
Drudge - breaking
TERESA SHARES REMEDY FOR ARTHRITIS AT CAMPAIGN STOP: 'You get some gin and get some white raisins — and only white raisins — and soak them in the gin for two weeks. Then eat nine of the raisins a day'...

For an extremely rich loony bag-lady, she's a peach. I hope they never shut her up.....lol!
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 10:49:30 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  White raisins? What is she a shaheed now?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/15/2004 10:51 Comments || Top||

#2  dunno - he's not linking to a source yet, but I saw that and my jaw hit the space bar....white raisins??? Gin explains a lot of her fugue states on the stage
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 10:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmm the Dim health plan perhaps. Ok let's bleed the patient for a while.
Posted by: Bill Nelson || 10/15/2004 10:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Actually, that's been around for quite a while. It seems to work for some people, though no one knows why.

My question is, with her money and complete separation from reality, how did she find out about it?

It's more a remedy for the "little people."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/15/2004 11:00 Comments || Top||

#5  RACIST RACIST RACIST!

WHITE RAISINS
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 11:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Are these the same raisins the suicide bombers get?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#7  sounds like a Kerry plan to import arthritis drugs from France and Britain
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 11:07 Comments || Top||

#8  LOL - it's from Reno Gazette Journal: Headline is Heinz Kerry Pitches Health Care
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 11:29 Comments || Top||

#9  After 8 weeks of the Heinz-Kerry treatment you reach the magical 72 virgin raisins and spontaneously blow up.
Posted by: Urako || 10/15/2004 11:32 Comments || Top||

#10  1. I LIKE white raisins. Like whats your problem?

2. Gin. Well i usually go easy on that. But between Bush and Kerry, thats pretty good reason for more gin right there.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 10/15/2004 11:33 Comments || Top||

#11  1. I LIKE white raisins. Like whats your problem?

2. Gin. Well i usually go easy on that. But between Bush and Kerry, thats pretty good reason for more gin right there.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 10/15/2004 11:33 Comments || Top||

#12  1. I LIKE white raisins. Like whats your problem?

2. Gin. Well i usually go easy on that. But between Bush and Kerry, thats pretty good reason for more gin right there.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 10/15/2004 11:33 Comments || Top||

#13  Make that 8 days.
Posted by: Urako || 10/15/2004 11:38 Comments || Top||

#14  She must have gotten it from 'cesarean-sections-cure-palsy' John Edwards....

Junk science just like their junk 'Plans'....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/15/2004 11:45 Comments || Top||

#15  A peek into nationalized Health Care under Kerry's Administration
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 12:00 Comments || Top||

#16  If/when Bush wins in a couple of weeks, can the T-lady be found a position as White House Jester?
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/15/2004 12:20 Comments || Top||

#17  if that crew gets in the white house, may Heaven help us.
Posted by: anymouse || 10/15/2004 12:28 Comments || Top||

#18  If/when Bush wins in a couple of weeks, can the T-lady be found a position as White House Jester?

The only position 'T' wants to be in is while wearing a strap-on.
Posted by: badanov || 10/15/2004 12:30 Comments || Top||

#19  My question is, with her money and complete separation from reality, how did she find out about it?

Probably growing up in Mozambique.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/15/2004 12:39 Comments || Top||

#20  What's with the raisins? Sounds like a way to ruin some perfecly good gin, assuming there is such a thing.
Posted by: Grush Spinesh6335 || 10/15/2004 13:06 Comments || Top||

#21  One of the doctors here can probably correct me on this if I'm wrong, but doesn't alcohol in general make many forms of arthritis worse?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 10/15/2004 13:09 Comments || Top||

#22  One of the problems with THK's theory is that a lot of arthitis patients take over the counter pain killers.

Having a lot of gin with these can be a problem. In particular, if you drink heavily and take tylenol, its a big strain on the liver.
Posted by: mhw || 10/15/2004 13:35 Comments || Top||

#23  "Sounds like a way to ruin some perfecly good gin, assuming there is such a thing."

Ahem. **ANY** gin is perfectly good gin.
Posted by: Dave D. || 10/15/2004 13:55 Comments || Top||

#24  Just wait until you hear her cure for spinal cord injury John Edwards has been bragging about.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/15/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#25  ANY gin is good gin? What is this, an anglophile? Phuii! Maybe good for cleaining grease off car rims, but... 12 year old single malt Scotch - Macallan's to be specific. Drink of the gods.
Posted by: Weird Al || 10/15/2004 14:41 Comments || Top||

#26  Talisker, neat. Lagavullin will do, too. Or Oban in a pinch
Posted by: lex || 10/15/2004 15:04 Comments || Top||

#27  Tanqueray is considered the best gin.
Posted by: badanov || 10/15/2004 15:07 Comments || Top||

#28  Talisker's OK. Dalhwinnie is lovely. Haven't tried the others. Laphroaig tastes like iodine. Can't account for all tastes.
Posted by: Weird Al || 10/15/2004 15:26 Comments || Top||

#29  Being British by birth (and American by choice) I have always believed in the medicinal and therapeutic value of gin. I have never been afflicted with arthritis however, and I believe that the first lush lady self-designate has an obligation to provide some clinical evidence.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/15/2004 15:49 Comments || Top||

#30  I've heard ordinary gin won't do - it has to be Gordon's.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 10/15/2004 16:09 Comments || Top||

#31  Giving the serf a little credit here, but it looks like he can only shit in one spot. Thank god the Moslem Albanians are on our side. Right Boris?
Posted by: Francis Marion || 10/15/2004 16:34 Comments || Top||

#32  Whoopsie. My Bader looks like time to call down clan McJihadi on Big Ed? Say it ain't so!
Posted by: Francis Marion || 10/15/2004 16:36 Comments || Top||

#33  So that's how we'll save on Health Care.
Posted by: danking70 || 10/15/2004 17:05 Comments || Top||

#34   I've heard ordinary gin won't do - it has to be Gordon's.

That's all Tarayza drinks. All day long.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 17:19 Comments || Top||

#35  So it has come to this: the most heavily commented article on Rantburg today is Tarayza's arthritis cure. I'm sure she's feeling no pain. I can hardly wait for this election to be over.
Posted by: Tom || 10/15/2004 19:36 Comments || Top||

#36  no wonder Tayrahsah looks drunk and says stupid things all the time.
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 19:36 Comments || Top||

#37  I thik she has a penchant for this
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/15/2004 20:34 Comments || Top||

#38  gin is horse linament, right?
nasty stuff.
gimme rum, matey!
Posted by: meeps || 10/15/2004 22:18 Comments || Top||


More on Fraudulent Registrations from the Washington Times
Anti-Bush registration drive stirs fraud concern
A coalition of liberal groups committed to defeating President Bush has spent more than $100 million orchestrating the largest voter-registration drive in U.S. history, raising concerns of widespread voter fraud in 14 battleground states. At the same time, Democratic Party officials are gearing up to challenge unfavorable Election Day results in a number of states through "pre-emptive strikes," charging that Republicans prevented minorities from voting even before any such incidents are confirmed. Working under the banner "America Votes," the 32-member coalition — led by the anti-Bush America Coming Together (ACT), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and MoveOn.org — has played a key role in what election officials have called a massive increase in registered voters nationwide.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/15/2004 7:58:17 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DO democrats/liberals hate Bush so much that they are willing to abuse its laws to destroy the foundations of our Republic?

They are attacking the very basis for Democracy in the nation: the faith of the voters in the election system. And they are doing so cynically and fraudulently.

Its "any means neccesary", just like Joe Stalin, Pol Pot - any means to achieve their ends. Immoral. Evil. Despicable that Americans would destroy the nation in order to achieve power. This is the same evil that Nixon was vilified for.

And there is not a peep coming from the Kerry camp nor the Democratic Party about these actions by the lunatic fringe.

Where is our free press to point this out?

What the hell happened to the Democratic party?
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/15/2004 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2 
And there is not a peep coming from the Kerry camp nor the Democratic Party about these actions by the lunatic fringe.


You're assuming it's coming from the lunatic fringe.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/15/2004 10:49 Comments || Top||

#3  you're also assuming the lunatic fringe is distinct and independent from the Kedwards kamp
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 10:52 Comments || Top||

#4  OS,

Do not minimize the stakes for the wacko wing of the Democrat Party. If they loose this election, they could be frozen out of power for a long time. Control of the final branch of government, the Supreme Court, could pass from its shakey 5 vote liberal majority to a solid strict constructionist majority that would last at least a decade. After 2008 there will be another redistricting that will move more legislative districts and electoral votes into Red states. The politicians who cut their teeth on Viet Nam are coming to the end of their careers. They do not want them to end in the minority without a new generation of sychophants to pick up the torch. It has slowly been going on for 20 years. Even Clinton only co-existed with it, loosing control of the House when he tried to implement socialized medicine; he did nothing to roll it back. So now they are looking into the dark abyss and yes, they will do anything for power.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 11:03 Comments || Top||

#5  OS, There are a number of events in the last few years after which nothing was the same: (1) Watergate where the press pulled down a sitting president, (2) the rejection of Robert Bork for "political" reasons, (3) the politicizations of all executive branch agencies, especially FBI and CIA, during the Clinton Administration, (4)the filibustering of judicial appointments, etc

The partisanship in the press is a continuation of past performance. It is not surprising to me that the LLL would cheat in registrations and at the ballot box. I see the attitude in the LLL of defeat the right at all costs. All costs means all costs.
Posted by: SR71 || 10/15/2004 11:51 Comments || Top||


Scratch Japan from "Foreign Leaders for Kerry" list
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 09:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  HT to Captain's Quarters
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  So he lost Japan and Italy today, Poland last week. Who's he got, besides Jack and the french poodles?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 9:35 Comments || Top||

#3  I think there would be trouble if it's not President Bush - Tsutomu Takebe, LDP Chairman
{THWACK} - Sound of a boxing match; uppercut hits glass jaw.

Mrs. D. - You forgot "Gerhard the Magnificent"
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 11:40 Comments || Top||

#4  List :

Govts for Bush
Japan
Italy
UK
Australia
Iraq
Afghanistan
Poland
Czech Republic
Hungary
Israel
Bulgaria
S Korea
Pakistan
Ukraine
more...


Govts Kerry
France
Germany
France
Belgium
France
Spain
France
N Korea
France
Canada
France
Cuba
France
Sweden
France
Iran
France
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 11:48 Comments || Top||

#5  BigEd you forgot mighty Luxemburg -- and surely the following would prefer Kerry too:

China, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Syria, North Korea, Egypt, Venezuela, Sudan, Cambodia (finally, he'd get to visit...)
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 10/15/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#6  LUXEMBOURG; Thanx Kallie, I forget the LITTLE THINGS, but I did have N Korea...
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 12:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Putin's agin im, too. Kerry's starting to look almost unilateral. Or maybe just bilateral.
Posted by: lex || 10/15/2004 15:06 Comments || Top||

#8  lex, I understand that too, even though he is on the opposite side of a lot of issues, Putin seems to question if Kerry is, as they say, playing with 52 cards...

His attitude seems to be, "W and I disagree on so much, but at least he doesn't carry around a magic hat...."
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 16:18 Comments || Top||

#9  "W and I disagree on so much,..."

Hell, I disagree with W & Co on a whole lot of things, but he does seem to understand the WoT and that's rather high on my list at the moment.

Besides, the phrase 'plan to win the peace' is starting to drive me into a blind, murderous rage every time I hear it.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/15/2004 17:18 Comments || Top||


2 New SwiftVet Ads Up
"They Served" and "Why"
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 9:17:29 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does one think Kerry will have a sudden pain from a big bite taken out of his behind, or has Teresa's "cure"* made him so numb that he is oblivious to the world around him?

*



These brave guys really skewered Senator Pompous excellently
Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 12:10 Comments || Top||

#2  After 9 or 10 of those raisins, Kerry can hardly feel Teresa's strap-on.
Posted by: John Simmins || 10/15/2004 14:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Jeeze - John Thanks for that image. gaaag.

It will take more than a few glasses of gin to wipe that one away.
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 19:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Bravo John, that's what I'm saying. You know she's wearing the thigh-high boots with the stilleto heels and he's on all fours barking like a dog and licking the soles.....I need to dry-heave now.
Posted by: Jarhead || 10/15/2004 20:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Jarhead: I'll be sending you my therapy bill for the next decade or so at least.
Posted by: Charles || 10/15/2004 22:09 Comments || Top||

#6  "Mama spank!"
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 22:25 Comments || Top||

#7  That image.....
... talk about your WMD.....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/15/2004 23:19 Comments || Top||


Protesters Form Pyramid, Children Scream In Terror
Posted by: Charles || 10/15/2004 08:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like these guys will find out that the community standards are a bit different in Intercourse than the City of Brotherly Love. Glad I live in Blue Ball.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 8:58 Comments || Top||

#2  ROFL!!! More cognitive dissonance / dissidence / dissidense / whatever, lol!
Posted by: .com || 10/15/2004 9:01 Comments || Top||

#3  I get the feeling these are the type of men who, um, like to form a human pyramid in thongs with other men. Which is likely to diminish the power of their demonstration that Abu Ghraib was a terrible, terrible thing.
Posted by: BH || 10/15/2004 9:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Thong tip!
always remember: the sock stuffing goes in the front!

such mistakes can frighten children....
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 9:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Is that on the road to Paradise Mrs. D.?
Posted by: Shipman || 10/15/2004 10:03 Comments || Top||

#6  They expected to be taken seriously without having a Big, Giant Puppet on hand? I don't think so...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/15/2004 10:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Howz the Monty Python sketch go? "...pool sides filled with fat German businessmen forming vast human pyramids and frightening the children...."
Posted by: Craig || 10/15/2004 10:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Did they start singing "YMCA" afterwards?
Posted by: mojo || 10/15/2004 11:13 Comments || Top||

#9  Don't know about you, Shipman, but Blue Ball is not my idea of Paradise. Now, Bird-in-Hand...
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 11:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Mrs. D! You little minx!
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 11:25 Comments || Top||

#11  Were they protesting or DEMONSTRATING? This was in Philly you know. If there were kids there they were WAY out of line, but thats been the tone of the Democrats this election.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/15/2004 11:36 Comments || Top||

#12  if they did this in front of children couldn't they be charged with more than just dis orderly conduct?
Posted by: smokeysinse || 10/15/2004 16:36 Comments || Top||

#13  Some of the largest people I've ever seen were in a Quarryville diner, I figured they lived in Blue Ball.

Yes, I do love the PA State Railroad Museum.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/15/2004 16:41 Comments || Top||


2004 Election: Voter Fraud Roundup
There's been a request for a one-stop summary of the incidents of voter fraud leading up to this election. The National Review Online's KerrySpot blog sent me to HobbsOnline, by Nashville journalist and PR man Bill Hobbs, which has exactly that. Go ye and read all the dirt, and try not to burst a blood vessel.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/15/2004 12:43:22 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  After reading that, I think I'm a potential customer for Tater's stash...
Posted by: .com || 10/15/2004 1:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Is anyone but me worried about why (yuou know who) has been so quiet? All we get is the odd "Fry 'Em Up" Is the end near? Should we buy likker? Fish Hooks? Well bred dawgs? Is the end near?
Posted by: Shipman || 10/15/2004 16:45 Comments || Top||


News from Clark County Ohio
EFL Reg Req
I have a cousin in Clark County. She's not happy.
Readers of a British newspaper have been invited to write Clark County voters with the aim of persuading the undecided to vote for either George W. Bush or John Kerry.Features editor Ian Katz said the unique idea stemmed from many foreigners' feelings of helplessness
Perhaps they should consider increasing defence spending
while they watched the unfolding of the U.S. election — an election they feel will have a strong impact on the entire world. "The United States is the most powerful country by far," Katz said from London.
Funny, I don't recall London paying attention to our petitions when they were the most powerful country in the world. Just wanted to tax us.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 3:59:55 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember, sign up early and often Rantburgers - spare some Ohio resident a whiny letter from some snotty British socialist.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/15/2004 2:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Here's my letter to Jennifer C.:

As you can see from the enclosed printouts, I got your name and address by e-mail from The Guardian, a left-wing newspaper in England. They got it from Clark County voter registration rolls, and seem to think it’s a good idea to give it to a British citizen (or anyone on the world, including your home town, with an Internet connection) to write to you and tell you how to vote in our upcoming Presidential election. They claim they’re not telling people which of our presidential candidates they want you to vote for, but – in case you don’t know anything about The Guardian – I can assure you they don’t want you to vote for President Bush.

I’m obviously not a British citizen, and it’s not my business how you vote (though it’s certainly more my business than it is the business of a foreigner). I just thought you’d like to know that The Guardian invaded your privacy by giving your name and address to a total stranger, though they were courteous enough to assure that total stranger, when they gave me your name and address, that they’ll protect my privacy. (“We will not use your email address for any other purpose or pass it on to any third parties.”)

I’m guessing from your address there’s a good chance you live alone (as I did when I lived in an apartment). Guess they didn’t care that they might be giving your address to a weirdo or stalker. Luckily, I’m neither. Just thought you’d like to know.

If you’d like to thank The Guardian for invading your privacy and interfering with our election, send your thoughts to: Emily Bell, editor in chief of Guardian Unlimited, editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk.

Cordially,

Barbara Skolaut

Not as funny or pithy as some letters others have written, but it gets the point across.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/15/2004 3:20 Comments || Top||

#3 
The newspaper also encourages letter writers to include their name and address with the hopes of recipients replying and maybe even creating pen pals, Katz said.
Oh, sure, that'll work.

Who wouldn't want to be pen-pals with a snotty, oh-so-superior busybody from another country?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/15/2004 3:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Mrs D. Your comments are spot on
Barbara - great letter! I'd bet the residents of Clark county are going to be ticked!

Oh...and I especially loved this line from the Guardian saying they had a positive response from some, receiving :"reasonably intelligent letters to the newspaper saying “good on you” for its efforts." LOL!

I'm sure the people of Clark county are really going to respond really well to the arrogance of these fossilized, socialist, snobs.

Now I've never been to Clark County, so I don't know much about those folks, but someone needs to let the winner of that contest know that those guns in their gun racks, the're real.

And the only way I can imagine that the guardian got quotes to put around that "good on you" was if someone said, "the tar and feathers will look......."
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 4:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Barbara - Your letter was perfect. Period. Simply perfect. *kudos*
Posted by: .com || 10/15/2004 4:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Anyone thinking "Backlash"? Could this push Clark County hard toward Bush?

I hope so - it would be a fitting result.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/15/2004 10:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Barbara--Excellent letter! I have a gentleman's name and address I need to write to as well. I'll use your letter as a guide, with your permission.
Posted by: Dar || 10/15/2004 11:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Just a quick note for my fellow Ohioans if you get a letter from a well meaning reader of Al-Guardian. The accepted method of closing a letter to your new Lefty Pen-Pal is:

Sod off, you bloody git
Posted by: A Jackson || 10/15/2004 21:21 Comments || Top||

#9  Hello chaps;
The letter writing was a silly idea wasn't it? You are happy to trumpet your (rapidly dimishing status) as world's policeman and (ahem) greatest democracy (i assume thats some form of American humour i don't get) but the second well meaning people in another democratic nation (your allies of almost 200 years i'll point out) tap you gently on the shoulder and suggest that perhaps we all share the same planet and would you possibly mind just hearing our point of view for a second in between your flag waving and merry gunslinging and you react in this shocking jingoistic kneejerk way. Now i don't for one second hate americans or america (two of my flatmates last year were American; one was even a republican! i know! with a passport and everything!; and we got on splendidly, we could even talk about politics like rational adults) and i'm not an 'enema uf fridum' as your illustrious pres would doubtless say (after all, having a feeling of social responsibility towards my fellow man is doubtless the true mark of a communist athiest) but please, please, take a look at the world, take your foot off the peddle of your SUV and just think for one second 'good lord, maybe those foreign chappies have a point and aren't just a bunch of whiney liberals and terrorists; perhaps the welfare of the world and a good future for my children is worth more than cheap gas, super sized meals and a new set of patio furniture'. You know, if you feel like it;

toodle-ooo
Posted by: AthiestSocialist!! || 10/17/2004 23:43 Comments || Top||

#10  O and PS;
Here is a link to some of the responses that have poured into the Guardian's office in London http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1329858,00.html ; it's headlined 'Dear Limey Assholes' and contains some wonderful examples of that peculiar gunboat diplomacy so favoured in the US at present;
Posted by: AthiestSocialist!! || 10/17/2004 23:58 Comments || Top||

#11  Calm down now, you Republicans. The Guardian is only a leftie-pink-liberal-whiney etc etc paper to you guys. To most people here in Europe, it's more a centrist, common-sense sort of paper. No need to get all hot and bothered and to start stroking your guns, you mixed-up people! Come on, you gave the world The Lucy Show! Where's your sense of humour? And US papers non-partisan? Tell that to Rupert Murdoch! Ta-ta.
Posted by: Shemble Whaiger3886 || 10/19/2004 10:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Guardian - common sense? centrist? Take your thumb out of your posterior.
Posted by: Howard UK || 10/19/2004 10:08 Comments || Top||

#13  LOL Guardian 'centrist' 'common sense'!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA. Non-sense, more like. The Guardian is a left wing rag whose only redeeming feature is that it's not as ridiculously slanted as its sick midget cousin, The Independent. If you want centrist reporting you buy The Times or the Telegraph. Most people who buy newspapers do, as the circulation figues indicate.
Posted by: Abu Anus || 10/19/2004 10:23 Comments || Top||

#14  Well my nice lefty letter writing EUropean friends let me introduce you to Revernd Smileys notorious Wall 0' Guns (3 states and 2 Canadian provinces.) My cave here is just smack dab full O' guns infact there is so little room in here from all the guns, reloading equipment computer and, amateur radio gear I can hardly move around. I literally have my one foot on an ammo can full of 7.62x51 to feed to my various rifles and carbines in that calibre and the other on an ammo can to feed my 45 calibre handgun.

Be glad I don't live in Clark county Ohio. I might get as they say, hostile.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 10:25 Comments || Top||

#15  Bugger. That was me. Using a pseudonym I was going to use elsewhere to devastating comic effect, but decided against. Ho hum. When will I ever learn?
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/19/2004 10:25 Comments || Top||

#16  I stumbled across the guardian letter writing campaign while browsing cnn.com and I’m hugely embarrassed by it. The whole concept is ill thought out, inflammatory and offensive to our closest allies. Offensive toward a nation of people who are possibly the most hospitable and friendly a Brit is likely to visit. Alas ‘Guardian readers’ are far from representative of most British people. “The Guardian Reader” - due to its vehemently leftwing partisan reporting – has become an epithet that characterises our own Looney left. Woolly jumper wearing aging hippies and rebellious middle-class students who enjoy their daily dose of establishment bashing, self-righteous reporting over a vegan breakfast.

If it’s any consolation we have to put up with these morons daily.
Posted by: Englishman || 10/19/2004 10:30 Comments || Top||

#17  Come, come Aby Anus, don't play the old circulation figures game. That's like saying Hitler must have been right because most people in Germany liked him. I think you'll find, as the UK has swung to the right, that the Guardian now occupies a position that many people could accurately describe as centrist. Anyway, this discussion must be boring to our republican friends so, without any further ado, over to Sock Puppet and all his talk about big long rifles.
Posted by: Shemble Whaiger3886 || 10/19/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#18  AtheistSocialist:

Here is what I would say to Euro snobs like you: I don’t think Guardian readers quite appreciate just how fed up with Europe parts of America are becoming. This effort to influence our elections will only reinforce that trend.

You berate us for overthrowing Saddam Hussein while you wink at the “sophisticated and nuanced” governments of France, Russia and China who cut blood-drenched, illegal deals with him in direct violation of your much touted UN resolutions. European governments wanted to humiliate Bush and disempower America so much that they were willing to keep a psychopathic mass murderer in power to reach their goal-Turkey, Germany, France-you can look in your own mirrors on that point.

The world stood by doing nothing while wringing its hands over the tragedies in Rwanda, Sudan, etc., where HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF HUMANS DIED NEEDLESSLY. Apparently, it never occurs to you that humans might have to use force to stop people who commit evil acts. The only thing the international community appears to want to do is TALK about problems, hold out its hand for the dole, and blame blame blame America.

Do you imagine there isn’t blood on your hands when you wish the world was a better place but won’t act to make it so? Chirac says it best for you-“war is never justified”. This flawed philosophy permeates Europe, and suggests that the holocaust in Germany and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia might well have succeeded, had American courage to face down evil not intervened. The current rift in international relations isn’t due to lack of American intellect; it’s due to the international community’s consistent and cowardly inaction in the face of crimes against humanity.

We have come to view many of you as incapable of sound judgment, unethically indifferent to human suffering and too spineless to ever commit to action when words fail. Wear the smug face of the international community if you like, pontificating on those backward, stupid, ornery Americans; it will have no consequence on our choosing leaders with a solid sense of right and wrong and the courage to back it up with action.
Posted by: Jules 187 || 10/19/2004 11:16 Comments || Top||

#19  Why do you always end a post with a duck and run, Shemble? Don't worry - you'll grow up soon enough. The Guardian is not only left of centre - that's not its main crime. It churns out poor quality, unbalanced, brazenly opinionated reporting. That's why most people who, given a choice of broadsheets, steer towards the Telegraph or the Times. Even lefties. I bet you know a fair few lefties who read the Telegrah or the Times rather than the Guardian. I do. Maybe your parents' friends. The Guardian's crude propaganda, written for idiots.

When did the UK 'swing to the right'? About the time the Guardian's circulation figures went down the pan? When was that then, mate?
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/19/2004 11:18 Comments || Top||

#20  Well, I like The Guardian. I like the Times, too, for sport and stuff, and the Telegraph is always hot on true crime and for sex stories involving servicemen and women. And I occasionally force myself to read the Daily Mail, if I need to get any of your sort of bile.

You could say, then, that I enjoy a balanced read. And it is on this basis that I call the Guardian centrist. Well, more than it used to be, anyway.

By the way, the UK's swing to the right is gradual and ongoing. Being able to recognise trends like that is a part of growing up.
Posted by: Shemble Whaiger3886 || 10/19/2004 11:34 Comments || Top||

#21  Well, I like The Guardian

haha...that would mean, according to Bulldog, that you are an idiot ;-)
Posted by: 2b || 10/19/2004 11:37 Comments || Top||

#22  Golly! So it does! Well spotted, and a much valued contribution to the debate. The fact that I also enjoy elements of the other papers Bulldog mentions kind of muddies your point, but never mind.
Posted by: Shemble Whaiger3886 || 10/19/2004 11:44 Comments || Top||

#23  ...the Daily Mail, if I need to get any of your sort of bile.

My sort of bile? Sounds like it's more your sort of bile. I've never bought the Mail. Used to live with a Labour and union activist who did, though. Bile! Ha! That's rich coming from you.

By the way, the UK's swing to the right is gradual and ongoing.

On what basis do you make that optimistic claim, Shemble? Because the Labour Party is seeing sense in certain areas (despite increasing the power of the state, never reducing it)? Or perhaps because you yourself are drifting ever leftwards? If you honestly think a marginal media laughing stock like the Guardian is centrist, you've got a serious perspective problem.
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/19/2004 11:45 Comments || Top||

#24  Shemble - if you read the news reportage in the other papers rather than just the true crime, sex scandals and bile, maybe you'd have more of a point...
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/19/2004 11:48 Comments || Top||

#25  Come now, let's not get our knickers in a twist about this. When you consider the US of A's 'involvement' in other country's elections (Think Chile and Salvador Allende. Think the Congo and Patrice Lumumba) a few letters from Brits to Americans are small beer.
Posted by: Elmoling Grenter5116 || 10/21/2004 12:27 Comments || Top||

#26  Think current day. Hell, make that current generation. Get back to me when you manage that, K? AlG and their entire readership can fuck off.
Posted by: .com || 10/21/2004 12:34 Comments || Top||

#27  Interfering in another countries elections is plain wrong-it doesn't work and it's none our business anyway. But it's a little rich for Americans to start raising hell over this when you're interfering in e.g Belarus as we speak.
Posted by: MikhailLabour628 || 10/24/2004 21:12 Comments || Top||

#28  George Sorros is, just like he is in the US election.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/24/2004 21:36 Comments || Top||


Kerry Insults Italian Military
All Italy is abuzzing today about a Kerry gaffe aired last night on HBO in Italy. As reported in today's Corriere della Sera in Italy, Defense Minister Antonio Martino criticized John Kerry for an incredible remark that the conditions of the Iraqi Army were so bad that even the Italian Army could kick their a**es.
Martino remarked that Kerry, "instead of saying what he thinks, should think about what he says."
Several prominant Americans have insulted the post-WWII Italian military for no reason, including an ambassador on a tour of their navy in a skiff, who asked whether they should instead be taking a glass-bottomed boat. The Italians are very sensitive on the subject.
Mind your manners, JFK. Silvio's got a pair.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/15/2004 11:20:22 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Got a couple of media outlets of his own too, doesn't he?
Posted by: mojo || 10/15/2004 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Thank you to the Italians for your service in Iraq!

Kerry's gross ignorance of European affairs is a hazard in anyone who holds national office.
Posted by: mom || 10/15/2004 0:48 Comments || Top||

#3  For that matter, the Italian Army can kick all the French ass it cares to.
Posted by: RWV || 10/15/2004 0:57 Comments || Top||

#4  All dissing of the italian military is based on it's poor leadership and morale in WW2. The Italians under Rommel were respectable fighters.
Kerry is a complete moron classist moron.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/15/2004 1:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Wow. A few more remarks like this and Kerry will not have any Europe left to be nuanced and diplomatic with.

Fabrizio Quattrocchi was a civilian, but if the Italian Army has any more like him, they've got spunk and to spare.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/15/2004 1:20 Comments || Top||

#6  I've always thought that Italian military deficiencies in WW2 were related to a widespread reluctance among Italians to get their asses shot off for Mussolini and his master, Hitler. This is scarcely something to fault them for.
Even so, the Italian forces did have much to be proud of, and many of their deficiencies are exaggerated in popular history.
The daring feats of the Maiale ("human torpedoes" ie, UDT mini-subs) were among the most remarkable of the whole war, and reflect a flair for special operations that is still evident today.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/15/2004 1:50 Comments || Top||

#7  So this means Kerry has sneered at

--Allawi (a "puppet");
--Kwasniewski and the Poles (pimps);
--the Italians (clowns);
--and, through his silence, the Australians, for favoring the war and re-electing Howard by a landslide.

What a disgusting, pathetic, petty little sh*t this man is! He's as nasty and stupid as Jimmy Carter. Screw this shameless little opportunist.
Posted by: lex || 10/15/2004 1:55 Comments || Top||

#8  RWV

You should watch your history. In June 1940 Italy stabbed France in the back (Roosevelt's own words) but despite being heavily outnumbered and depleted the Army of the Alps repulsed the Italians with heavy losses. Only in the far south of the front (Army of the Rhone was more concerned about Germans adavancing from the North) did the Italians manage to make a tiny advance and reach the outskirsts of Menton: the first village after the border, just a couple miles of it. BTW, the success against the Italians boosted the morale of the Army of the Alpes whose detached units stopped the Germans who were advancing towards Lyon


Sock Pupppet of Doom.

The Italians problem was not only lack of leadership and morale but abyssal equipment. During Wavell's ride in late 1940 they had nothing who could take the Matilda tank, their second line units had guns who were over fifty years, the bad thing being that those guns missed the revolution who occurred around 1890 and were crap even in 1914. But the few units who were devcently equipped and led were not respectable they were heroical. It was the Ariete division and the Italian paratroopers who fighting agasint impossible odds managed to save the Afrika korps at el Alamein.

For the Italian navy: it was a white elephant: it was poorly trained since all the money went to build ships who looked impressive on paper but lacked essential facilities. At Cape Matapan the Italians lacked ammo with reduced flames for night fighting, meaning that the British gunners could easily pick Italian ships from the flames of their guns while that those same flames had a severe effect on the night vision of the Italian gunners.

But Italian manned torpedoes infiltrated Alexandria's haebor and inflicted severe damage on two British battleships. A testimony of Italian courage.
Posted by: JFM || 10/15/2004 2:26 Comments || Top||

#9  JFM...interesting.

Ahh..but that was then....now the only thing the French have in their arsenal are Belgian chocolates that they offer to their enemies if they will go away.
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 4:20 Comments || Top||

#10  JFM - If Bush wins, I think it'll be time to get you outta there. You've done your bit, we should get your tail over here where you belong. What sort of climate do your prefer, friend? We've got it, regardless, somewhere in the US.

Now if Skeery wins, well, you'll have to go underground and wait it out, like me. It could get pretty bleak... no make that: it will get pretty bleak. And it will take 4-6 years to undo the damage of those 4 years, so I'm figuring on about 10, total, just to return to the current point. Of course, we'll have gained some bloody but useful experience in that time, being fucking defenseless and having no leadership. Israel might have a few smokin' holes and be largely uninhabitable and Iran may be slagged to glass. I think the silver lining of a Skeery win is that we'd have to kill or deport a large chunk of our loonies when they refuse to accept Skeery's failed re-election or successful impeachment, whichever it turns out to be. That would be a bloody good thing, bro. I'll come back for the festivities.

Then you can come home.

Cheers, bro. Please ignore our more strident anti-French voices. They're lumping everyone in with the Chirac regime. Bad leaders can take good people for a bad ride. Zappie and Skeery come to mind immediately. Be patient with us.
Posted by: .com || 10/15/2004 5:25 Comments || Top||

#11  JFM...are you French? If so, I'm sorry. Nothing against you personally and the other good French people who are being taken for a socialist ride.

It's just that the whole Anti-American thing wears on us and we get tired of it.

My apologies.
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 5:31 Comments || Top||

#12  Not quite, 2b. Beijing is looking to buy more than chocolates from Chirac.
Posted by: rkb || 10/15/2004 5:34 Comments || Top||

#13  sigh...I suppose we will all be in a similar position if Kerry wins.

But I'd be concerned if I were Chirac. Kerry will probably just give China the nukes for free...to deter them from using them and all that other psychobabble....and cost Chirac his lucrative contracts.
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 5:40 Comments || Top||

#14  Have you noticed lately that the candidate who keeps saying we need to build strong alliances and repair our relationship with traditional allies has been systematically insulting all of the coalition members? I'm starting to wonder if this is a tactic to drive our real allies away in order to affect our success in Iraq. It has that weird feeling, like the Cheney comments, that he is saying one thing while meaning another.
Posted by: BH || 10/15/2004 9:23 Comments || Top||

#15  I just posted a linked story about Japans' leaders slamming Kerry re: NK specifically, but the "coalition of bribed and coerced" was a particularly non-nuanced bit of stupidity
Posted by: Frank G || 10/15/2004 9:28 Comments || Top||

#16  The Italian Army in WW2 had pre WW1 and WW1 equipment(not sure about quality of the leadership)they were badly out classed.JFM,come to Arizona.We have a fine wine called Tombstone Red,goes great with scorpion,tarantula,and rattlesnake.
Posted by: Raptor || 10/15/2004 9:50 Comments || Top||

#17  BH...like the Cheney comment...

That's an interesting observation. But I still suspect he is just stupid and says whatever pops into his head from one crowd to the next - never remembering or caring.

Kerry's mom to lil' Kerry's mom: son, it's a good thing you have all that ambition, cause you sure don't have any brains. And remember, integrity, integrity, integrity!
Posted by: 2b || 10/15/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#18  ...and, through his silence, the Australians, for favoring the war and re-electing Howard by a landslide.

Kerry wasn't actually silent; his sister went there to ostensibly do a get-the-expat-vote. She informed the Aussies that the bombings in Bali and at their embassy were because they'd joined the US on the WoT; essentially saying the best way to be safe was to not re-elect the current government.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/15/2004 11:43 Comments || Top||

#19  WWII was an abberation, and we were lucky because of it, but remember the Italians have a fightin' tradition going back 2500 years!

Posted by: BigEd || 10/15/2004 12:31 Comments || Top||

#20  Tell us again JFM! It's worth hearing often! Seriously.

Far as the Italian Navy, I recall that the Captain of the Queen Elizabeth was making fun of them about the same time the attached mine went off.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/15/2004 14:01 Comments || Top||

#21  After the war Luigi Durand de la Penne (the italian who entered Alexandria) had a decoration pinned on his chest by none other than by the commander of one of the damaged battleships.
Posted by: JFM || 10/15/2004 17:47 Comments || Top||

#22  What happened to the Italians since the time of Julius Caesar? I think they may actually have gotten tired of war. The early middle ages was apparently a pretty violent time, with Lombards and Muslims constantly attacking, and driving most of the inhabitants up to the hilltop towns that you see everywhere today. Later these towns spent several centuries fighting each other.
Posted by: V is for Victory || 10/15/2004 18:03 Comments || Top||

#23  .com and raptor

My sincerest thank you, I am still not ready to move but I prefer hot and dry climates. :-)
Posted by: JFM || 10/15/2004 19:01 Comments || Top||

#24  They DID conquer Albania! and let's not forget the snazzy military uniforms...
Posted by: borgboy || 10/15/2004 20:35 Comments || Top||

#25  In WWII, the Ghurkas said the Italians were some of the bravest fighters they faced. That's good enough for Me.

Heck, I sure wouldn't fight very hard for Il Duce or Der Furher either.

But back to the main point, after this many times, I don't think it's a slip any more. J. Forbes Kerry is more comfortable with our enemies than our friends, just like Jimmeh.

You know what? I do question his patriotism. I used to think he was just your standard idiotarian, but I now think he's still a hate-America leftist and always was. His "flip-flops" are just when he's torn between his beliefs and trying to not act too far to the left for Massachusetts voters.
Posted by: jackal || 10/15/2004 21:54 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Possible South Park Episode Where Kenny Converts to Islam
New episodes of South Park begin later this month.

I'm hoping they will have one where Kenny becomes converts to Islam and becomes a shaheed to take out a saugage truck.

Read the story line at the link.
Posted by: mhw || 10/15/2004 8:04:38 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why not Kenny has already been killed repeatedly, Gone to Hell. What ever it will be good and I will watch it if it's not on during Inuyasha.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/15/2004 8:10 Comments || Top||

#2  I love how the other kids have gotten used to Kenny dying, eventually not even noticing it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/15/2004 9:00 Comments || Top||

#3  You mean they killed Kenny? The BASTARDS!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/15/2004 9:14 Comments || Top||

#4  I think the story will have to acknowledge that Kenny is reincarnated which will bring a Hindu theme into the episode. They already have had episodes where they say that God is a Bhuddist rat and that the 'correct' religion is Mormon.
Posted by: mhw || 10/15/2004 9:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh my God! They converted Kenny! You bastards!
Posted by: BH || 10/15/2004 9:37 Comments || Top||

#6  that the 'correct' religion is Mormon.

Have you seen the episode in which Mormons move to town? Not exactly flattering to the LDS.

Of course, they could work in another "Super Best Friends" story, since Buddha was a member...
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/15/2004 10:45 Comments || Top||

#7  RC
you must be a south park fan like myself

yes I saw the Mormons move to town episode

very funny especially the 'dumb, dumb, dumb' song

i think Josiah Smith is already a super friend - in the episode about Blainotheism I think the Josiah Smith character was worried that Blaine followers were growing almost as fast as Mormons
Posted by: mhw || 10/15/2004 11:53 Comments || Top||

#8  The funniest part about the Blaine Followers episode:
"How do we kill a giant statue of Abraham Lincoln?"
"A giant statue of John Wilkes Booth?"
Posted by: Charles || 10/15/2004 22:12 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Would-be Iranian organ donor goes to hospital to commit suicide
An Iranian man has attempted to commit suicide at a hospital in the southern city of Shiraz in a bid to give up his organs to needy patients, a hospital official said Thursday. Abdolreza B., 30, turned up at the hospital and then "shot himself with a Kalashnikov outside the operating theatre," said the official. "He is still alive. Two bullets went through his throat and exited at the back of his head. His brain was not badly damaged, but he's not in a good state," said the hospital official, who asked not to be named. When police were called, they found an organ donor card together with a letter asking doctors to give his body parts "to sick people who need them".
Posted by: tipper || 10/15/2004 10:25:09 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dammit! I told you not to do that! It's in one of the commandments. Ummmm.... it right here... yep It's the 18th Commandment, Thought Shall Not Kick Thy Own Bucket.

Now! Pay Attention! Who's still drawing to an inside strait?
Posted by: The Lord God || 10/15/2004 16:52 Comments || Top||


Iran's 'vampire of the desert' faces death penalty after murdering 17 children in brickwork slum
An Iranian man known as the "vampire of the desert" was facing the death sentence yesterday following the gruesome murders of 17 children and three adults in the slums of Pakdasht, near the capital, Tehran. Relatives of the victims greeted the verdict by throwing chairs at the defendants as the court heard that Mohammed Bijeh, 30, raped many of the children before strangling or bludgeoning them to death.

The accused was handed 16 life sentences and his accomplice, Ali Baghi, a 24-year-old heroin addict, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In a separate incident, a 16 year old girl was beaten and hung for refusing the advances of a lecherous iman.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper || 10/15/2004 10:22:02 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Economy
Flu shot seekers get dose of reality
It's the question of the week: Who will be able to get a flu shot this year, and when? Health officials announced a plan to allocate the nation's limited supply of 22.4 million doses of Aventis Pasteur vaccine that has not yet been distributed to nursing homes, hospitals, medical groups and public health departments serving high-risk people, but details on where it's going are sketchy. One thing for sure is that it will go out in a trickle, not a flood. The first 14 million doses will be sent out over the next 6-8 weeks, at the rate of about 3 million doses a week, said Patrick Libbey, director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. (Related story: Experts answer questions about the flu shortage)

Thousands of flu clinics were canceled last week, and some state and local health departments said they have no vaccine at all, after Chiron announced that its license to make flu vaccine at its Liverpool, England, plant had been suspended by British authorities because of contamination concerns. Chiron was not able to deliver the 46 million to 48 million doses of vaccine it had promised, abruptly cutting the expected U.S. vaccine supply roughly in half.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 5:22:06 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Energy Costs Hit Family Budgets Hard
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 16:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But with gasoline near $2 a gallon and home-heating costs on the rise, the 29-year-old resident of Fredericksburg, Va., says there's less money for food, clothing and entertainment - which nowadays means a trip to Blockbuster, not the local movie theater.

Please. The cheapest regular unleaded gas here in my neck of the woods is about $2.20/gal. P/U is even higher than that (close to $2.50/gal). Being near $2/gal (most likely under that) is a bargain as far as I'm concerned.

Now if only the finances of oil traders could be administered a sizable little shock....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/15/2004 18:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I paid 2.49 for premium Wed. That means it's 2.53 today I would bet. But what do you expect from a whiney Democrat from Virginia?

Wake up folks cheap energy is going to be a thing of the past unless we start using something other than oil based transportation.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/15/2004 19:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Sock, I am glad I am not the only one out there using premium. At around $2.50 in some urban locations what will the price be by News Years Day? That is if the current energy market trending extends itself into late December.


Fill her up Joe, with high test.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/15/2004 20:49 Comments || Top||


Cargo haulers struggling to keep up with production increase
Truckers, railroads seek solutions after 6% production rise
U.S. truckers, including J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. and railroads such as Union Pacific Corp., are hiring more workers and asking customers to spread out shipments because of record demand for cargo hauling. "This situation will continue for the foreseeable future," said J.B. Hunt chief executive Kirk Thompson at a Georgia Tech University forum in Atlanta on truck and rail demand. "Drivers are the key issue. Whether you are saying you want to add capacity is irrelevant if you can't find drivers." Shipping demand is rising as industrial production surges about 6 percent this year. The American Trucking Associations' index of truck shipments last month reached a record and has climbed 15 percent in the past year. The backlog of cargo ships waiting to unload Asian imports was at a high this week, and rail shipments have risen 5.3 percent from last year's record. "Spreading things out by days of the week and seasonally would help," said Thompson, whose company's biggest customer is largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Many customers "do a good job shipping on weekends, but receivers don't keep docks open then and drivers have to wait until Monday to unload," he said. "Being creative about ways to move that freight a little earlier in the year will create a little more capacity."

Retailers and manufacturers have had to adjust because of the demand for rail and truck capacity. Best Buy Co., the biggest U.S. electronics retailer, has had to ship goods by air at times to keep stores stocked, said Eric Morley, the company's director of logistics. Truckers need to offer "a substantial pay increase" to get more drivers, Thompson said, declining to provide a figure or details of his Lowell, Ark.-based company's pay scale. Hunt has more than 15,000 workers. U.S. truckers are paid an average of $43,000 a year, said Robert Costello, the trucking group's chief economist. He said the group hasn't determined how many more drivers are needed or how much pay will have to rise to attract them. The trucking industry needs to hire about 36,000 workers a month this quarter to fill growing demand and replace those who leave the business, said Eric Starks, vice president of freight consulting firm FTR Associates Inc. in Nashville, Ind. There are about 2.2 million intercity truck drivers, he said. Union Pacific is adding about 5,000 train-crew workers this year and ordering locomotives to help end delays.
Posted by: Dar || 10/15/2004 3:15:39 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: North
Sex, Politics, Religion, and Egypt
Posted by: tipper || 10/15/2004 10:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Tech
Upgrade for Commando Subs to LCS
October 15, 2004: The U.S. Navy is conducting experiments with a SSBN (nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine.) The 16,700 ton, 22 year old USS Georgia is a Trident class boat, and normally carries 24 ballistic missiles, and a crew of 154. But the missiles, and the crewmen and equipment needed to maintain them, have been removed. This has created lots of free space. The original plan was to give navy about 60 SEAL commandos most of the now vacant space, and two of the empty missile silos. The other 22 silos would be loaded with 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles. But that plan is being reconsidered as new equipment becomes available. Better communications gear, and more new UAV, UUV (unmanned subs) and USV (unmanned little ships) designs, create new opportunities. So the Georgia is having a high tech command center built into it, for handling additional robotic recon vehicles, and the operations of the SEALs. This series of submarine alterations and tests at sea is being called "Operation Silent Hammer." 

The nuclear powered Georgia can move, underwater, at a steady rate of about 800 kilometers a day. This means that within a week or ten days, it can reach just about anywhere on earth. Most of the earth's population lives close to the ocean, and the SEAL sub like the Georgia could get to a hot spot, send off robotic recon vehicles and SEALs to quickly check out the situation. Still carrying about a hundred cruise missiles, the Georgia would still have sufficient firepower to take care of many situations. If new work is not found for SSBNs like Georgia, they must be scrapped, in compliance with a nuclear disarmament treaty.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/15/2004 9:22:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fifteen years ago the Navy was looking into what at the time was called the Arsenal Ship. The Georgia and her fellow trident class boats are well suited to the role of being a mobile firepower base. But I wonder how well they would operate close in shore
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 10/15/2004 16:28 Comments || Top||

#2  I propose using the Georgia to liberate Polyneisa.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/15/2004 17:28 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Tsvangirai to know his fate today
The verdict in Zimbabwe's treason trial of Morgan Tsvangirai is expected today. Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), faces a possible death penalty if found guilty.

Tsvangirai is accused of allegedly plotting to "eliminate" Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, and organising a military coup ahead of the 2002 presidential polls. The MDC leader has denied the charges. The state based its case on evidence from its star witness, Ari Ben Menashe, the former Israeli intelligence official, and a grainy video he secretly recorded of a meeting he held with Tsvangirai in Canada.
Bob is a lot of things, but subtle he's not.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/15/2004 12:45:10 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Found not guilty, government did not prove case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Posted by: Old Fogey || 10/15/2004 12:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Why do I think being found not guilty won't stop Bob from finding a way to execute him.
Posted by: Steve || 10/15/2004 16:49 Comments || Top||

#3  I saw what you did in NOLA.
Posted by: The Lord God || 10/15/2004 16:53 Comments || Top||



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sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2004-10-15
  Alamoudi gets 23 years
Thu 2004-10-14
  Caliph of Cologne Charged With Treason
Wed 2004-10-13
  Soddies bang three Bad Guyz
Tue 2004-10-12
  Caliph of Cologne extradited to Turkey
Mon 2004-10-11
  Security HQ and militiamen attacked in NW Iran
Sun 2004-10-10
  Libya Arrests 17 Alleged al-Qaida Members
Sat 2004-10-09
  Afghanistan: Boom-free election
Fri 2004-10-08
  al-Qaeda behind Taba booms
Thu 2004-10-07
  39 Sunnis toes up in Multan festivities
Wed 2004-10-06
  Boom misses Masood's brother
Tue 2004-10-05
  Sadr City targeted by US forces
Mon 2004-10-04
  ETA head snagged in La Belle France
Sun 2004-10-03
  Arafat calls on world to end Israeli campaign in Gaza
Sat 2004-10-02
  109 Terrs Killed in Samarra Offensive
Fri 2004-10-01
  IDF force with 100 tanks enters northern Gaza

Better than the average link...



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