Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have yet to show their baby daughter off in public, but eager fans were given an unusual preview with the chance to see a bronze cast depicting her first solid stool.
The scatological sculpture -- more doodoo than Dada -- is purportedly cast from 19-week old Suri's first bowel movement and will be shown at the Capla Kesting gallery in Brooklyn, New York, before being auctioned off for charity.
The artist behind the work, Daniel Edwards, previously courted controversy with a life-size nude sculpture of pop star Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug. That work was shown at the same gallery in April.
"A bronzed cast of baby's first poop can be a meaningful memento for the family," gallery director David Kesting said, adding that he hoped the work would attract bids of up to 25 or 30,000 dollars.
The sculpture, which sits on a wooden mounting with a glass casing, is to be sold on eBay next month with proceeds from the sale going to infant health charity March Of Dimes. As of Wednesday it had attracted a top bid of 41 dollars.
"Mission: Impossible" star Cruise and Holmes announced Suri's birth in April. The entertainment press, which dubbed the pair "TomKat," has shown a seemingly insatiable appetite for news of the pair and their "TomKitten."
A spokeman for the couple was not immediately available Wednesday to comment on the sculpture.
#2
"A bronzed cast of baby's first poop can be a meaningful memento for the family," gallery director David Kesting said, adding that he hoped the work would attract bids of up to 25 or 30,000 dollars.
I don't know who's more fucked up here, the lunatic parents who wanted this done, the loony tunes artist who cast it, or this guy, who I assume said the above with a straight face.
I wish I was rich and insane...
#5
I was just going to comment that this is a load of crap.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2006 15:23 Comments ||
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#6
The "sculptor" probably just used Shinola. Tom would never know the difference.
Posted by: SLO Jim ||
08/31/2006 15:55 Comments ||
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#7
Uhm, baby's first poop is this black tar goo. It is not a "stool" as we understand it. This is just a lie. And Tom Cruise is involved. Whotta surprise.
Paris Hilton's career as a pop star is fizzling as quickly as one of her blink-and-you'll-miss-it relationships. In its first week out of the gate, Hilton's first CD is being widely seen as a certified flop. "Paris," which features the single "Stars Are Blind," sold a lackluster 75,000 copies in the United States - a pittance compared to Christina Aguilera's first-week sales of 320,000, according to Soundscan. And projected sales for next week are said to be a measly 30,000, which is a larger than normal second week drop. "Paris" is languishing at the bottom of Billboard's Hot 100 - so Hilton's label rushed out her second single, "Turn It Up," which isn't doing very well either.
That makes sense. I guess. In a Paris Hilton kind of way.
"The international outlook is not much better for her," one industry source told Page Six. "The international people are not inclined to do a big push since she can't back up the album with a tour. Obviously, she can't sing live."
If she can't sing at all, she can't sing live...
The source added that Hilton was advised a year ago to train her voice, work with choreographers and learn an instrument to prepare for a limited tour, but "obviously she didn't listen."
"I'd love to, but I'm booked up..."
Hilton's rep, Elliot Mintz, said, "To me, [the album] sounds huge. For a newcomer, this is incredibly impressive."
"Yeah! Tell 'em, Mintzie!"
Meanwhile, Hilton's reputation as a slut dirty girl put one of her former sex partners on edge after they'd been to bed together. Elijah Blue Allman, the hunky son of Cher and Gregg Allman, boasted to Howard Stern the other day that he had a fling with Hilton before she was famous - but he got nervous right afterward that he might have picked up a sexually transmitted disease from her. Allman says he was so worried, he raced downstairs and grabbed a household cleaning product to pour over his private parts and "disinfect" them.
"Mom! Where's the Clorox?"
While Stern flipped over the tawdry tale, aired over his Sirius Satellite Radio raunchfest show, Hilton wasn't thrilled with the disclosure. "She's not happy about it," said a source, despite the fact Allman tried to lessen the low blow by noting she was a "sweet girl" nonetheless.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Hilton's CD Instant Tanker
I forsee a strong aftermarket in the beer coaster sector.
#3
We went to the movies last week (Cars) and they were playing "You'll Go Blind" "Stars Are Blind" on the theatre sound system before the previews started.
It was . . . undistinguished. It wasn't even into "so bad it's good" or "laugh-out-loud bad" territory. It just kinda laid there and failed to impress. (Sorta like Paris, I guess! Right, Chlorox Boy?)
Posted by: Mike ||
08/31/2006 7:22 Comments ||
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I confess. It was me. I shouldn't have had the chili. I was hoping no one would notice...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The dirty little secret of Global Warming is that it doesn't matter how much CO2 is released into the atmosphere, the theoretical maximum increase in global temperature is less than two tenths of one degree celcius. Anyone with high school physics should understand this.
Therefore they need a positive feedback mechanism that CO2 triggers to cause an increase beyond this, hence this kind of 'research'.
Of course, the other dirty little secret is that were such a positive feedback mechanism to exist, then why hasn't it run away at some point in the past and given the planet a much hotter climate. The reality is the current climate is within a couple of degrees of the warmest it's ever been going back several million years.
#2
The reality is the current climate is within a couple of degrees of the warmest it's ever been going back several million years.
Proof?
I have to disagree with that statement. There simply is not enough data to support it.
Perhaps a better way to put it would be that apparently a mechanism exists that compensates for any temperature imballances > +- 2 deg C, since there has been no runaway effect as far as we know, in the past.
I have a reason to believe that even severe distortions caused by external factors (near-ELE type of event) would be rolled back witnin a couple of decades.
#5
twobyfour, there are plenty of past temperature reconstructions and they all look more or less the same (sample at Wikipedia). We are currently close to the peak temperature of the current interglacial. Almost all of the last 2 or 3 million years has been much colder than currently (I guess that's why they call it an Ice Age).
You may dispute the accuracy of these past temperature reconstructions, but I can tell you they are generally accepted and are largely unchanged since the 70s when they were used to argue Global Cooling was the imminent disaster.
And BTW the past temperature record supports a the contention that were the earth to warm much from here, the result would be a rapid fall in temperatures and a return to the Ice Age (proper).
Anyway, the temperature record shows no evidence of runaway warming at temperatures a couple of degrees higher than currently (in the last 2 or 3 million years), which was my point.
#6
phil_b, Yes, I know all these points. But I also know there is a lot of anomalous data that point to different scenarios.
And BTW the past temperature record supports a the contention that were the earth to warm much from here, the result would be a rapid fall in temperatures and a return to the Ice Age (proper).
Well, how about "Climatic Optimum"? The average temps stood about 1.5-2 degrees above the average Holocene temps. For almost 2500 years. It has been calcualted by some that if the temp is 1 degree above the current average, the ice sheets would disappear in the span of 700 years (some sources give 300 years figure). Completely. Now, imagine that you have 2500 years with 2 degrees above "normal". First, the "ice age" did not occur when the temps dropped, and second, most of ice, if not all, was gone at the end of this period. Hencetoforth, if someone tells me that they drilled ice cores spanning 400kya, I am suspicious. More so that I've seen what happens to ice sheets during summer. The surface melts during the day and the resulting water seeps through, taking particles and gas bubbles downward. It refreezes during night, creating faux layers.
I also have problems with deep sea sediments. The selection of the sediment location was skewed, in the sense that locations that provided the thickest layers were picked. But the problem is that there are locations in deep sea that have almost no sediments at all. Should be uniform, across the globe, especially in location that are not subject to ocean currents and are deeper than locations with ample layers of sediments, no? Not the case.
Those are just 2 examples why I don't subscribe to the current (spanning a couple of mya) climatic paradigm.
Since when do the Warming advocates toss in the effect of random but unrelenting major volcanic activity? What are their assumptions on frequency and size? One major eruption and you get a year without summer. Get a series and youre rapidly cooling.
#8
And what, prey tell, is the estimated accuracy of temperature crysal-balling going back millions of years? How does that estimated accuracy compare with the estimated change in temperature? And how do both of those compare with the estimated change in solar output?
Ya don't know?
Shut up.
O.K., I wuz rude. From what I have read recently, those three numbers are within the same ball park, maybe even the same infield. Possibly within the pitcher's mound.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/31/2006 21:43 Comments ||
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#9
No Bobby, not rude, a perfectly good point with an emphasis! ;-)
#10
Anginesing Angeremp2779, actually, since some cooling is taking apparently place lately, the "Global Warming" proponents started to use "Global Climate Change", so they would not look stupid.
When was the last Etna volcanic activity, I think 2002? Anyway, it went on for almost a couple of months. During that time, this volcano alone spewed as much of pollutants and CO2 as all humans generated during the previous 15 years.
#2
What we do know now is that indeed there is DNA evidence to compare against another person. That said DNA certainly been compared against members of JonBenet's family. If there was any connection, do we doubt the prosecutors would have not brought a case against them?
#3
Have they tried following the money? The ransom demand for $118,000 was the exact amount of John Bennett's most recent bonus payment. Which white male (from DNA found) at John's work had knowledge of the exact amount of his bonus? Who'd he brag to - mentioning the exact amount? Or, who'd they choose to do the deed after supplying a "suggested" figure for the ransom?
Did they test all the males at his workplace? Who quit or moved and left town?
#5
I know a guy who ended up marrying a gal he met at his bank. He was wealthy. She divorced him a year and a day later. Now he's less wealthy. Don't forget to check the money handlers, too.
The controversial Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, the only writer in Arabic to win the Nobel Prize for literature, died yesterday in a Cairo hospital, aged 94. Best known for his "Cairo Trilogy", Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1988 for works that "formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind".
But he did not receive only plaudits. He was declared an infidel by Muslim militants and al-Azhar, the highest Islamic authority in Egypt, banned his 1959 novel Children of Gabalawi on the grounds that it violated Islamic rules by including characters who clearly represented God and the prophets. Mahfouz survived a knife attack in 1994 that damaged a nerve and seriously impaired his ability to use his writing hand. "They are trying to extinguish the light of reason and thought. Beware," he said after the attack.
Dignitaries from around the world, including George Bush, the United States president, paid tribute to the author yesterday. "On behalf of the American people, the president and Mrs Bush extend their deepest sympathies to Mr Mahfouz's family and friends and to the Egyptian people for the loss of an extraordinary artist who conveyed the richness of Egyptian history and society to the world," a White House statement said.
The son of a merchant, Mahfouz was the youngest son in a family of four sisters and two brothers. He obtained a philosophy degree from Cairo University at the age of 23, at a time when many Egyptians had only a primary education. He worked in the government's cultural section until retiring in 1971. His 1945 book New Cairo combined social criticism and psychological insight to portray living characters in popular quarters of Cairo. It adopted a realistic style that critics say started a new school of Arab writing. Another four such works followed.
Mahfouz stopped writing between 1949 and 1956 while he observed the changes that saw the fall of the monarchy, the end of British rule and the rise of the military under the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser. However, he came back full force with a trilogy, narrating developments in Egypt through the eyes of a middle-class family over three generations, that covertly attacked the new army rulers.
In the 1960s, when no Egyptian dared voice dissent, he indirectly criticised Nasser's rule in Small Talk on the Nile and Miramar. Mahfouz's support of Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel brought him the wrath of many Arab countries, who banned his novels. But many of his works have been made into Arabic films and his books have sold widely across the Arab world. He publicly opposed Islamic militancy, but before the 1994 assassination bid, he had declined police protection. Two men were hanged in 1995 for the attack.
#1
They are trying to extinguish the light of reason and thought. Beware.
Chilling words, all the more so because they're absolutely true. He knew what he was up against.
He sounds like a brave man. Courage and imagination are a powerful combination in any man, but in a writer it's a mix that can be absolutely devastating. The vain, the stupid, and the evil all seek to destroy him because they know that he, through his words, has the power to move others to action with nothing other than a few good phrases and the truth.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
08/31/2006 9:12 Comments ||
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#2
Hey, Keith Olbermann (See Opinion)- this is dissent -
In the 1960s, when no Egyptian dared voice dissent, he indirectly criticised Nasser's rule in Small Talk on the Nile and Miramar. Mahfouz's support of Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel brought him the wrath of many Arab countries, who banned his novels.
Olbermann's just a whiney child.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/31/2006 9:25 Comments ||
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#3
I had to study him in high school. It was soooo boring.
PROVISIONAL Cuban leader Raul Castro said his brother Fidel Castro's recovery from gastrointestinal surgery was "gradual and satisfactory", the official newspaper Granma said today. The statement on Fidel Castro's health came during a meeting on Sunday between Raul Castro and visiting Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal, the daily said. Raul Castro, 75, informed Bilal of his 80-year-old brother's gradual and satisfactory recovery, since he was operated on late last month and handed the reins of power to his younger brother. He also said absolute tranquility reigned in Cuba and that the entire population was behind the decision to significantly raise the war capacity and disposition of Cuba's armed forces.
"It takes a gallon of rum and two live chickens a day, but he's hangin' in there!"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2006 00:00 ||
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BANGKOK, Thailand - The top US official on refugees on Thursday urged Asian countries to help North Koreans fleeing hunger and repression in their communist country - a week after Thai police arrested 175 of them for illegal entry. We are aggressively encouraging all the governments in the region to provide opportunity for North Koreans ... to allow them to move on and resettle in third countries, US Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey told a news conference during her visit to Bangkok.
Thai police raided a house in Bangkok on Aug. 22 and arrested 175 North Koreans. A Thai court convicted 136 of them for illegal entry and jailed them for a month because they could not afford to pay their fines. Sixteen were granted permission for resettlement to South Korea before the arrest, and the remaining 23 were children under the age of 15. Neither group was charged, but the minors were staying in jail with their families.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said his agency had been granted access to the jailed North Koreans and would assist them to find third countries for resettlement. Most wanted to resettle in South Korea, he said.
Thousands of North Koreans, facing hunger and repression in their homeland, have made their way abroad in recent years, many taking a long and risky land journey through China to arrive in Southeast Asian countries. They usually seek asylum at the embassies of third countries, though many are believed to be in hiding.
Under Thai law, illegal immigrants have to be deported, but Thai authorities said they would consider humanitarian concern in dealing with the jailed North Koreans. Thailand expressed its dissatisfaction that the country had increasingly been used by North Koreans as a transit point to go to third countries, fearing it could cause diplomatic tensions with North Korea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2006 11:47 ||
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EFL
A Chinese court jailed a reporter for a Singapore newspaper for five years on Thursday for spying, the latest in a series of high-profile cases illustrating China's curbs on the media and dissent. Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based China correspondent for the Straits Times who has been detained in China since April 2005, was also deprived of his political rights for a year and had personal property worth 300,000 yuan (19,400 pounds) confiscated, Xinhua news agency said. Ching, 56, was charged with spying for Taiwan, the self-ruled island over which Beijing claims sovereignty. He was detained in the southern province of Guangdong where, his wife has said, he had travelled to collect documents related to disgraced former Chinese Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang.
Court officials in Beijing reached by telephone declined to comment on the verdict or sentencing in a trial which was held behind closed doors. Ching's wife could not be reached. Ching's lawyer, He Peihua, and a family member left the court by car. Reached by telephone, the lawyer said the family had asked him not to reveal any details.
The China-born Ching, like many Hong Kong residents, holds a passport of the Special Administrative Region as well as a British National (Overseas) passport issued in the waning days of British colonial rule. He is also a Singapore permanent resident. Xinhua last year said Ching had received millions of Hong Kong dollars from Taiwan's intelligence apparatus and used the money to buy unspecified information on China's political, economy and military affairs between 2000 and 2005.
On Friday, a Beijing court dismissed charges that a Chinese researcher for the New York Times had illegally leaked state secrets, but sentenced him to three years for fraud. Zhao Yan, 44, had been accused of telling the U.S. newspaper details of rivalry between Chinese President Hu Jintao and his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, over military appointments in 2004. Days before Zhao's sentencing, China jailed blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng for four years and three months for damaging property and disrupting traffic in what critics considered an unusually harsh sentence.
A report (pdf format) submitted by Barbara Frey, Special Rapporteur, whatever that is, to the UN Human Rights Councils's Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, whatever that is.
Re-reading it, I think the point is that the Special Rapper wants to class self-defense as something less than a "right" (i.e., as a manner of criminal defense) because if it were recognized as a "right" it would be something governments would be bound to guarantee -- and that leads right to Prof. Glenn Harlan Reynold's argument that a right to arms should be guaranteed as an international right. How could governments "guarantee" such a right (in the sense of doing something more than saying "you can plead this as a defense if prosecuted" -- as might be expected the UN document treats "rights" as something more than "the government must leave you alone" -- while outlawing the items a person needs to exercise that right? This leads to the anomaly that the report claims that the right to life is a "right," but the right to keep from having your life taken is not. I suppose it equates to -- you have a "right," however unenforcable, to be protected by government, but not to defend yourself if it fails to do so. As might be expected from the source, the concept of "right" is rather ineptly socialist: rights are what you may ask the government to do for you. (And of course strongly of the legal positivist school: rights are not something that pre-exist government, and any official declaration of them, derived from a deity, morality, or man's nature. Rather, in this view they are created by the document, or government, that acts to write them down. Created, as opposed to guaranteed).
#2
No need for people to defend themselves. Governments (and the UN) will defend people - the same way they defended the Armenians, the Jews, the Cambodians, and the Tutsis.
#3
Find sharp corner. Bang head repeatedly until the pain of this proclamation diminishes.
Sure it's a right, but you don't have to if you don't want to.
And we all know how well the UN will protect your interests. For an example, just look at, uh, err, the goats in . . . no, the children in . . . no, Israel's conflict with . . . . Forget it.
Stooooopid! Stooooopid!
Where do they find these guys? What horrible twist of fate gave them brains that see logic in this? Are we talking about the same thing here? This is why people banded together into tribes, states, and countries, fer Gawd's sake! It's all based on the law of the jungle no matter how you cut it.
#4
#3 gorb - I think you're banging the wrong person's head....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/31/2006 20:51 Comments ||
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#5
As I remember my pre WWII history, submarine warfare was considered immoral, merchant shipping would never be attacked, cities would never be bombed and a bunch of other stuff I forget.
But when the shooting started, these perceptions all went away almost instantly. Whatever it took to win was done. Ruthlessly.
Hopefully, this useless, ineffectual organization of know nothing international bureacrats and hacks goes the same way. The only thing it's good for is obstructing victory.
Don't worry Joe. They'll be lining up to kiss your ass once you whip Lamont.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose independent re-election bid has rankled Democrats, says he expects a cold shoulder or two from Senate colleagues when he returns to Washington next week.
"Obviously, some of my colleagues may be coming up more directly to embrace me, some may be looking to avoid eye contact," the Connecticut senator said in a telephone interview Thursday with The Associated Press. "I'm just going to do my job and that will be that."
The three-term lawmaker is defying his party after his primary loss to Ned Lamont. Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other prominent senators, have abandoned Lieberman and rallied behind Lamont.
Lieberman said he is determined to stay his independent course -- and is careful to separate personal relations from politics.
"I'm intent on making it business as usual as much as possible, which is to do my job for the people of Connecticut," Lieberman said of his return to Capitol Hill.
"I feel like I've got good personal relations with most of my colleagues, apart from the politics," he said. "We're all pros, and campaigns come and go."
He described the Senate as collegial.
"After all is said and done, I've always felt it's basically 100 people working in the same place," the veteran senator said.
Lieberman did not say whether he would attend the traditional Tuesday luncheon with other Democratic senators. He said the demands of the campaign could limit his Washington schedule, though he stressed he would be in the Senate for key votes and other business.
Lieberman, however, said he plans to attend party luncheons when he can.
"My bottom line on the caucus is, if I'm in Washington when a caucus is being held, I will go to the caucus as I normally do," he said.
Lamont, who plans to be in Washington next week for meetings with party leaders, union leaders and business groups, will not attend next week's party luncheon.
Lieberman said he has not asked colleagues for support for his independent campaign.
"I intentionally have not done that," he said. "I know the rules of the political game as it's normally played."
The senator noted that he lost his primary despite endorsements from several prominent Democrats. The vast majority of those Democrats have spurned Lieberman and lined up behind Lamont in the general election.
But Lieberman said he was heartened by the support of five colleagues: Sens. Ken Salazar, D-Colorado, Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, Mark Pryor, D-Arkansas, Thomas Carper, D-Delaware, and Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska.
"I've been really grateful for some of the Democrats who called me up and said they'd stick with me," Lieberman said. "I don't know how much that means in Connecticut, but it means a lot to me."
Lieberman also noted that Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has endorsed him, had also offered to campaign with him. She is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Lieberman is the panel's ranking Democrat.
Lieberman said he was returning to Washington with a sense of optimism about his chances in the three-way race that also includes Republican Alan Schlesinger.
"I feel good about where I am in the campaign," he said. "I feel good and it's in that spirit of optimism that I return to Washington next week."
After much speculation, a staffer to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, admitted to Cox Newspapers today that the senator is the lawmaker who placed a secret hold on legislation that would open up the obscure world of government contracting to public scrutiny.
Until now, it was a political whodunnit as to who quietly blocked legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year.
While speculation centered on Stevens, there was no confirmation. Under Senate rules, the hold remains cloaked in secrecy unless the senator who places it lifts it.
Aaron Saunders, spokesperson for Stevens, said Coburn was informed two weeks ago that his boss had concerns about the bill. Namely, Stevens is concerned that the bill would create more bureaucracy. He wants to see a cost-benefit analysis.
Saunders said there was nothing secret about what Stevens did.
Senator Stevens has always preferred to handle this at the staff level or member to member, Saunders said. He doesnt like running to the blogosphere or the media.
Our reticence in getting out there is that Stevens doesnt want to be in the media attacking Coburn, Saunders said. He has never addressed legislative concerns in the media. It is just not the way the senator has ever operated.
Placing a hold is a normal part of doing business on Capitol Hill, Saunders said. He noted that Coburn has used the same parliamentary maneuver to block bills coming out of the Commerce Committee.
Senator Stevens is not trying to show Senator Coburn or any other senator up publicly. Going to the blogs and the media with these concerns is not the way we have ever operated.
The measure had been unanimously passed in a voice vote last month by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Stevens is a member of. Stevens did not attend the meeting where the bill was approved, according to a vote tally obtained by Cox Newspapers.
The bill has support from heavy hitters like Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. It was on the fast track for floor action before Congress recessed on Aug. 4 when Stevens put a hold on the measure.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/31/2006 19:05 Comments ||
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#2
BZZZZT! He had Donk help from that ol' Grand Kleagle hissownbadself Rob't "Name everything in W VA after me" Byrd
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd admits that he placed a "secret hold" on legislation that would make uncovering the Byzantine world of federal contracting as easy as typing a Google search.
Tom Gavin, spokesperson for Byrd, confirmed to Cox Newspapers that the senator placed the hold on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., before voting on the measure.
Byrd joins Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, for holding up the bill right before Congress left town on August 4.
Byrd merely wanted more time to evaluate the legislation that would create a new database of some $2.5 trillion in federal spending on contracts, loans, financial assistance and insurance.
"Senator Byrd wanted time to read the legislation, understand its implications, and see whether the proposal could be improved," Gavin said.
Byrd has released his hold, now that there "has been time to better understand the legislation," Gavin said.
"Senator Byrd believes that the bill should be debated and opened for amendment, and not pushed through without discussion," Gavin said.
"There was an effort to pass a bill on an important subject without debate just before the Senate recess," Gavin said. Senators have an obligation to their constituents to know what they are voting on before signing off on any proposal, he said.
"On August 2, the last day before a month-long Senate recess, a Senate committee gave its approval to a brand new piece of legislation, cosponsored by Senator Obama and Senator Coburn," Gavin said. "That same day, there was an effort to rush the legislation through the Senate without any Senator having the chance to ask questions," he said.
as Ace sez: "uh huh"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2006 20:43 Comments ||
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#3
Payback for the Alaska oil exploration bill?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/31/2006 21:30 Comments ||
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Posted by: Captain America ||
08/31/2006 19:06 Comments ||
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#3
Galileo will be like the familiar US-built and operated Global Positioning system, but promises greater accuracy - to within 1m, compared to GPS's 10m.
Morons. One of our projects did grading (dirt work) with a machine and GPS within 1", or 25 mm (0.025 meters). I assume the North Koreans and Iranians get 10 meter accuracy with US GPS satellites.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/31/2006 21:35 Comments ||
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An East Timor rebel leader who played a key part in a revolt that devastated the country has escaped from jail, Australian police have said.
56 prisoners are currently unaccounted for, one of those being Alfredo Reinado...
Australian Federal Police said on Wednesday that international police working in East Timor had confirmed that Major Alfredo Reinado and 55 other inmates broke out of Becora jail in the capital, Dili, earlier in the day. "It is understood 56 prisoners are currently unaccounted for, one of those being Alfredo Reinado," a police spokesman said. "Exact details of how they managed to escape are not known at this time."
The spokesman said international police, under the direction of the United Nations, were searching the area. Australian Broadcasting radio said the escapees were not armed. Reinado and 20 followers were arrested by Australian soldiers in July. He was being held on charges of attempted murder and firearms offences.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2006 00:00 ||
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FOR years the United Nations attempted to cover up perverted and outrageous behaviour by uniformed and civilian personnel who have served in East Timor since 1999. But as a new wave of more than 2000 UN-employed police and staff prepare to travel to the capital Dili, Sukehiro Hasegawa, the top UN official in East Timor, has acknowledged for the first time that the UN system failed to bring anyone to justice for crimes that included sex abuse of children and bestiality.
...the UN system failed to bring anyone to justice for crimes that included sex abuse of children and bestiality...
Dr Hasegawa declared that the UN's Integrated Mission in East Timor (UNMIT), which became operational on Monday, would enforce a "zero tolerance" policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse committed by UN personnel. He said several UN staff would be employed solely to enforce the policy, which will include briefings for all staff.
... and slide shows, when the come with the interesting cases...
Dr Hasegawa, a special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the UN "places a great deal of importance" on efforts to prevent the abuse of East Timorese by any of 1608 international police, including 130 Australians, 34 military liaison officers and about 500 civilian staff who will make up the mission.
... in 2001, two Jordanian soldiers were evacuated home with injured penises after attempting sexual intercourse with goats...
Among deeply religious East Timorese, the behaviour of a small number of the 18,000 UN personnel from 113 countries who have served in East Timor was spoken about only in whispers. But the UN establishment in New York was shocked when it received an internal report last month exposing a culture that covered up behaviour that enraged many UN staff, several of whom resigned in disgust. The report revealed that peacekeepers left behind at least 20 babies they had fathered to Timorese women who are now stigmatised and in some cases ostracised by their communities. It revealed that one UN peacekeeper from an unnamed country sexually abused two boys and two girls in the enclave of Oecussi, and in 2001, two Jordanian soldiers were evacuated home with injured penises after attempting sexual intercourse with goats.
The UN Security Council urged countries sending personnel to East Timor to conduct pre-deployment awareness training about sexual exploitation and abuse...
"Aaaaaiiiieeee! My doinker!"
"Mahmoud, you idiot! Here! Let me show you how to do it!... Aaaaaiiiiieeee!"
A resolution passed last Friday by the UN Security Council urged countries sending personnel to East Timor to conduct pre-deployment awareness training about sexual exploitation and abuse of the local population. It also urged countries to "take disciplinary action and other action to ensure full accountability in cases of such conduct involving their personnel". The 15-member Security Council established UNMIT for an initial six months "with the intention to renew for further periods" after violence erupted in Dili in April and May.
#1
two Jordanian soldiers were evacuated home with injured penises after attempting sexual intercourse with goats.
They were previously posted in Afghan/Pak areas?
Posted by: john ||
08/31/2006 12:50 Comments ||
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#2
Not only goats. Remember the aussie soldier evacuated after an armed standoff between his pals and jordanian soldiers, all this because he reacted to one jordanian having forced a young timorese boy to fellate him?...
#3
Not only goats. Remember the aussie soldier evacuated after an armed standoff between his pals and jordanian soldiers, all this because he reacted to one jordanian having forced a young timorese boy to fellate him?...
Haven't we been told a thousand times that abusive treatment by soldiers only creates more terrorists? What, are soldiers from Muslim countries exempt now? I so hate these secret rules and exceptions!
CHENNAI, India - More than 11,000 Tamil refugees have fled to India since January to escape renewed fighting between the Sri Lankan army and separatist rebels and more are likely to come, officials said on Thursday. The figure includes a batch of about 500 refugees who travelled by boat to reach Mandapam camp in southern Indias Tamil Nadu state late Wednesday, said a senior government administrator from Ramanathapuram district.
Ramanathapuram, 700 kilometres (434 miles) from Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, is the district nearest to Sri Lanka, ravaged by ethnic conflict since the early 1980s. So far 3,310 (Tamil) families have crossed over since January this year, said the Ramanathapuram official who asked to remain anonymous. In figures, we are talking of 11,193 refugees, he said.
India, whose Tamil population totals 62.2 million, shares close ethnic and cultural links with the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, who living mainly in the islands north and the east.
The refugee tally was confirmed by C.P. Chandrahasan, who heads the Organisation of Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation, a non-government organisation in Chennai. With the new refugees, we have more than 70,000 displaced Sri Lankan Tamils who have sheltered in India since the early 1990s, said Chandrahasan, a Sri Lankan Tamil living in India since 1983.
Chandrahasan warned of more refugees streaming into India because of the escalating violence in Sri Lanka.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2006 11:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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A U.S. student who sued school officials after he was made to censor his T-shirt that labeled President Bush "Chicken-Hawk-In-Chief" and a former alcohol and cocaine abuser won an appeal Wednesday to wear the T-shirt to school.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Zachery Guiles, who through his parents claimed his free speech rights had been violated when school officials made him put duct tape over parts of his T-shirt that showed a Bush image surrounded by cocaine, a razor blade, a straw and a martini.
Guiles, who as a seventh grader in 2004 wore the T-shirt to Williamstown Middle High School in Vermont once a week for two months after purchasing it at an anti-war rally, appealed the case after a lower court ruled in favor of the school.
The school argued the images were offensive because they undermined the school's anti-drug message.
The T-shirt read "George W. Bush" and "Chicken-Hawk-In-Chief" with a picture of the president's face wearing a helmet superimposed on the body of a chicken.
The back of the T-shirt showed lines of cocaine, a martini glass and smaller print that accused Bush of being a "Crook," "Cocaine Addict," AWOL," "Draft Dodger" and "Lying Drunk Driver."
The appeals court said while the T-shirt "uses harsh rhetoric and imagery to express disagreement with the president's policies and to impugn his character," the images depicted "are not plainly offensive as a matter of law."
"We conclude that defendants' censorship of the images on Guiles's T-shirt violated his free speech rights," the ruling said, noting the T-shirt was censored after only one parent with opposing political views complained.
"Guiles's T-shirt did not cause any disruption or confrontation in the school," the ruling said.
Lawyers involved in the case and the school were not immediately available for comment.
The court agreed with the lower court that ruled Guiles' suspension from school should be expunged from his record.
In my day, we'd have just taken him behind the school and beat the snot out of him. Problem solved.
#1
At the end of the day Bush is still in office and while this kids records are cleared, he is still a druggie moonbat with no future. But then that will be bush's fault too. He has a future in being the moonbat son mother cindy never had.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/31/2006 14:09 Comments ||
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#2
Time to clean house.
This caustic debris attitude, allowing this kid to wear this shirt in a school, while considered freedom of speech which is corroding our society as a whole, then compare this to the cartoons that have been censored because they make Mohammed look bad.
Come on people, you can't have it both ways.
Even if some of the accusations are true, people make mistakes, why do people keep trying to drag our leaders through the mud. I'm certainly not happy with alot of what Bush did in the past, but we need to support our country and come together to make it strong. These filth undermine what we're about as americans. These so called parents influencing their kids in this direction only promotes ill will and destruction of our integrity and strength as a nation. We need to focus on our strengths, not keep the mistakes of the past dragging us down.
I hope we're listening to the conversations of these parents. I wouldn't be surprised if they have ties to some groups that fully support terrorist cells.
Here I go again getting paranoid. hmmm, maybe I'll change my name from Jan to paranoid
Posted by: Jan ||
08/31/2006 16:16 Comments ||
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#3
"Guiles's T-shirt did not cause any disruption or confrontation in the school,"
The disruption would have been Guiles' if his classmates didn't get a correction from the administration. On the weekend, someplace around town. Some other 'youth' might express himself in a far lesser constrained manner. By having the administration take the figurative fall, it is likely young Guiles avoided having to take a real one. Just the natural behavior pattern of adolescent males sorting out group identity and positioning.
Since the court doesnt grasp the sense of provoking words, can we expect the same consideration of gays, women, and ethnic groups when such T-shirts are aimed their way? Of course not. Its hate speech. Its not hate speech when its focused at Republicans.
#4
Tim Guiles said he is not surprised that his son is at the center of a First Amendment firestorm.
Ive been involved as an environmental activist for years, and Ive brought Zach to anti-nuclear protests, Guiles said. He has grown up with activism around him Its really a natural progression to find this cropping up in his life.
Oh, look! Pop's an old hippie! There's a shocker...
#5
Who cares. Some moronic teen ager getting his 15 minutes. He'll prolly end up working the rest of his life at a blockbuster video or some "vintage" record store (if he's lucky).
Pro-family groups are defending a psychologist who screens potential officers for the Minneapolis Police Department after he was suspended because of his past affiliation with an Illinois group that opposes special legal recognition for homosexuals.
Interim Chief Tim Dolan announced Aug. 24 that the police department would stop using Michael Campion's screening services until it could conduct an investigation into his relationship with the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) and whether his personal religious beliefs influence his psychological evaluations.
Campion was a member of IFI's Board of Directors from 1998 to 2005, according to IFI Executive Director David Smith. In a release issued Tuesday, Smith said it is "ironic that advocates of tolerance and diversity would deny Dr. Campion's right to exercise his First Amendment freedoms of speech and association, not to mention his freedom of religion."
Lt. Greg Reinhardt, a spokesman for the Minneapolis Police, declined to comment for this article. However, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that, Dolan admitted when he announced the suspension that there is "no indication of any bias in Campion's work."
Smith called the suspension the result of pro-homosexual activists targeting a Christian who believes homosexuality is wrong.
"The politically correct crowd is pressuring the city officials to suspend [Campion] because he is affiliated with a socially conservative religious organization," Smith said.
Smith told Cybercast News Service that he's confident Campion never let his personal beliefs about homosexuality affect his psychological evaluations.
"If you ask Dr. Campion if he's approved candidates for these positions even if they were homosexuals, he will tell you, of course he has," Smith said. "If they're qualified, they're qualified."
Smith criticized the Police Community Relations Council, the group that raised concerns about Campion's affiliation with IFI, for not proving he had done anything wrong. Smith said all the group has done is "taken a step back to complain about an affiliation and not necessarily how that affiliation has played out in his professional life."
Campion's firm, Campion, Barrow & Associates, offers "comprehensive psychological services" and specializes in public safety and high stress positions, according to its website.
The company uses an evaluation called the "National Comprehensive Assessment for Public Safety," which "utilizes multiple sources of information from objective testing, background information, clinical interviews, and synthesizes them into an objective, valid and highly defensible actuarial risk rating designed to predict job performance."
According to the Star Tribune report, the police employ Campion as a freelance screener for the department, and he is not under contract. There is no indication Campion will not return to the job if the investigation shows no bias.
Calls requesting comment from Campion were not returned Wednesday.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have yet to show their baby daughter off in public, but eager fans were given an unusual preview with the chance to see a bronze cast depicting her first solid stool. 
PROVISIONAL Cuban leader Raul Castro said his brother Fidel Castro's recovery from gastrointestinal surgery was "gradual and satisfactory", the official newspaper Granma said today. The statement on Fidel Castro's health came during a meeting on Sunday between Raul Castro and visiting Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal, the daily said. Raul Castro, 75, informed Bilal of his 80-year-old brother's gradual and satisfactory recovery, since he was operated on late last month and handed the reins of power to his younger brother. He also said absolute tranquility reigned in Cuba and that the entire population was behind the decision to significantly raise the war capacity and disposition of Cuba's armed forces.
BANGKOK, Thailand - The top US official on refugees on Thursday urged Asian countries to help North Koreans fleeing hunger and repression in their communist country - a week after Thai police arrested 175 of them for illegal entry. We are aggressively encouraging all the governments in the region to provide opportunity for North Koreans ... to allow them to move on and resettle in third countries, US Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey told a news conference during her visit to Bangkok.
An East Timor rebel leader who played a key part in a revolt that devastated the country has escaped from jail, Australian police have said. 
FOR years the United Nations attempted to cover up perverted and outrageous behaviour by uniformed and civilian personnel who have served in East Timor since 1999. But as a new wave of more than 2000 UN-employed police and staff prepare to travel to the capital Dili, Sukehiro Hasegawa, the top UN official in East Timor, has acknowledged for the first time that the UN system failed to bring anyone to justice for crimes that included sex abuse of children and bestiality.
CHENNAI, India - More than 11,000 Tamil refugees have fled to India since January to escape renewed fighting between the Sri Lankan army and separatist rebels and more are likely to come, officials said on Thursday. The figure includes a batch of about 500 refugees who travelled by boat to reach Mandapam camp in southern Indias Tamil Nadu state late Wednesday, said a senior government administrator from Ramanathapuram district.
