Up the Whazoo

I hope you have a lot of Vaseline to soothe the burn from the screwing our collective anal cavity has been getting for the past seven years because we are about to be rectally assaulted even harder ... and with a bigger dildo~!

700 Billion Dollars- That's correct 700 Billion!

That is what the shrub and the cabal are telling congress (which means us ... the Taxpayers) they want and that they want to give to their buddies to 'help' them out of the mess they made for themselves - with the help of the shrub and the cabal - while giving us the hard one up the whazoo.

You want to talk about gall, stupidity, arrogance, incompetence ... if this doesn't twist your beak then you are dead.

To paraphrase another ... get ready for inflation like we've never seen, gas shortages, runs on regional banks, and other such life experiences ...

Something Wicked this way comes ... indeed!

Obama hits McCain on lobbyists, Social Security

Campaigning in Florida, Democrat Barack Obama criticized Republican presidential rival John McCain on Saturday for his past advocacy of deregulation, ties to lobbyists and support for partial privatization of the Social Security system many of Florida's elderly residents depend on.

The Democratic presidential nominee used McCain's words to portray him as an opponent of federal regulation of the banking industry.

McCain, a 26-year veteran of Congress with a long history of opposition to such regulation, now says more controls are needed to prevent a repeat of the financial turmoil that sent the stock market plunging this past week.

"There's only one candidate who's called himself 'fundamentally a deregulator' when deregulation is part of the problem," Obama said during an appearance at Bethune-Cookman University, arranged to highlight his campaign's effort to reach out to women voters.

Obama noted that McCain said in a trade publication that opening the health insurance market to more vigorous competition nationwide, as was done with the banking industry, would provide more choices.

"So let me get this straight," Obama said. "He wants to run health care like they've been running Wall Street. Well, Senator, I know some folks on Main Street who aren't going to think that's a good idea."

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation," McCain said..

Obama said in Jacksonville: "John McCain said he wants to do for health care what Washington did for bankers."

McCain has criticized Obama this week, including in television ads, for ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two faltering mortgage giants that government took over earlier this month. But Obama said McCain is the one who's campaign is filled with current or former Fannie and Freddie lobbyists.

"There's only one candidate whose campaign is being run by seven of Washington's most powerful lobbyists, and folks, it isn't me," Obama said, adding that he doesn't "take a dime" from Washington lobbyists and special interests.

"So when John McCain says that lobbyists 'won't even get past the front gate' at his White House, my question is, 'Who's going to stop them?' Those seven lobbyists," Obama said.

In Jacksonville before 12,000 cheering backers, with another 8,000 outside the rally, he argued that McCain has no solutions for the nation's economic crisis.

"His solution was to blame me for it," Obama said. "I would say Sen. McCain is a little panicked."

He accused McCain of relentlessly pushing deregulation, the sort of loose controls many blame for the turmoil on Wall Street.

On Social Security, Obama said he'll protect and strengthen the program, while McCain wants to privatize it.

McCain favors partial privatization, giving younger workers the option of diverting money they pay in Social Security taxes to private accounts. President Bush pushed such a plan in 2005 but dropped it after Congress pushed back.

Obama said that given events of the past week, with several major investment firms either allowed to fail or be taken over by the government, "millions would've watched as the market tumbled and their nest egg disappeared before their eyes."

"I know Sen. McCain is talking about a 'casino culture' on Wall Street, but the fact is, he's the one who wants to gamble with your life savings," Obama said.

Cheney must keep records, judge orders

Oooh, that's gotta hurt ...

Dick Cheney must preserve a broad range of records from his time in office, a federal judge ordered Saturday, ruling in favor of a private watchdog group.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the records are not excluded from preservation under Presidential Records Act, which gives the national archivist responsibility over the custody of and access to the records at the end of a president's final term.

Thecabal had sought a narrow interpretation of the act to allow for fewer materials to be preserved by the National Archives.

"Defendants were only willing to agree to a preservation order that tracked their narrowed interpretation of the PRA's statutory language," Kollar-Kotelly said in her order. This position "heightens the Court's concern" that some records will not be preserved without an injunction.

Cheney chief of staff David Addington has told Congress that the vice president belongs to neither the executive nor legislative branch of government, AP reported. Instead, he said, the office is attached by the Constitution to Congress. The vice president presides over the Senate.

The lawsuit -- naming among its defendants Cheney, the Executive Office of President and the National Archives and Records Administration -- was filed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, commonly known as CREW.

In response to the ruling, Cheney spokesman James R. Hennigan said that "we will not have any comment on pending litigation."

The judge's order is the most recent setback to the cabal's position on openness of executive branch records.

In December, a federal judge ruled in another CREW lawsuit that the White House cannot hide behind a shield of privilege over release of its visitor logs.

U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that the information was a public records request, subject to Freedom of Information Act disclosure of "agency records."

The White House had claimed exclusive control of the documents, subject to the complete discretion of the president over their release.

CREW sought the visitor records of prominent conservatives James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Wendy Wright (Concerned Women of America) and seven others, including the late televangelist Jerry Falwell.

Public Smoking Bans Work Across the Board

After a ban on smoking in all enclosed public places was introduced in Scotland in March 2006, there was a 17 percent reduction in hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome, says a new study that provides further proof that smoke-free laws provide health benefits.

Researchers found the number of admissions in the 10 months after the ban was 2,684, compared with 3,235 in the 10 months before the ban. Nonsmokers accounted for 67 percent of the decrease. There was a 14 percent reduction in admissions among smokers, a 19 percent reduction among former smokers, and a 21 percent reduction among people who'd never smoked.

The study also found that people who'd never smoked reported a decrease in their weekly amount of exposure to secondhand smoke.

While admissions for acute coronary syndrome decreased 17 percent in the 10 month's after the Scottish ban, there was a 4 percent reduction in England (which has no such legislation) during that same period. In the decade preceding the ban, Scotland had a mean annual decrease of 3 percent.

Previous studies have suggested that banning smoking in public places reduced hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome, but it wasn't clear whether the reduction involved nonsmokers, smokers or both.

The new study was published in the July 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Earlier this month, an International Agency for Cancer Research report said smoke-free policies are extremely effective at reducing smoking rates, exposure to secondhand smoke, and smoking-related heart disease.

Another study, published in the journal Circulation, found the number of acute coronary events dropped significantly among adults in Rome after Italy banned smoking in public places in 2005.

For more information:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about smoke-free policies.

Ten fire-safety tips for homeowners

1. Stack woodpiles at least 30 feet from any structure.

2. Locate LPG tanks at least 30 feet from any structure; maintain 10 feet of clear space around tanks.

3. Keep the following tools ready and handy: a round point shovel with a long handle, a rake with a long handle, a ladder tall enough to reach the roof, one or more 5-pound fire extinguishers, at least one bucket, a garbage can full of water with a bailing bucket.

4. Keep driveway clear and accessible to fire engines. Remember, they are twice as big as a car.

5. Make sure your number is clearly visible from the road. Use four- to six-inch reflective numbers to mark your address.

6. Locate all fire hydrants in your neighborhood.

7. Never prune near power lines. Call your local utility company first.

8. Landscape with fire resistant plants.

9. Maintain all plants by regular watering and by removing dead branches, leaves and needles.

10. Landscaping should be spaced so that fire has no clear path to burn up to the house or nearby plantings.

Pictures of the Scottish Highlands

Steve Carter has some wonderful shots of the Highlands.

Reminds me of the places I want to know, to paraphrase an old song.

See the photos here.

Palin as Misogynist

Palin as Misogynist

By Gerry Fern

What can we make of Sarah Palin? She is a woman, looks normal, acts normal on the stump, but is she normal? I would say she is not. She is a misogynist and perhaps that is the most disturbing thing about her.

I do not understand why so little is being written about this fact, or the mainstream media has not picked up on it, not to mention bloggers. Honestly, the silence is confusing.

We live in a very dysfunctional society. It is unfortunate that some people are abused by the system and others know how to game it. As an executive I was accused of sexual harassment by two female employees that knew how to play the game. Both accusations came to nothing, but they did leave me bitter and very weary of dealing with female employees.

In my personal life, I am the husband of a woman that was brutally assaulted, lived through 10 years of therapy with her and we still deal with the consequences of that day almost on a daily basis.

What do I make of Sarah Palin? A woman that forced abused woman to pay for rape kits. That the state of Alaska had to pass a bill exclusively to stop Wallisa , her town, from continuing this horrendous practice. Does this woman have a soul? A heart? It is not enough that these women were abused, they should also pay for the investigation that so often will never bring anybody to justice?

Now as result of the investigation into the firing of Walt Monegan, the public Safety Commissioner that was fired because he refused to fire her brother in law, Sarah has come up with a new plausible reason why he was fired. He was fired because, “he had gone over her head in seeking federal money for an initiative to combat sexual assault crimes, before she had approved the program.” A program that would have,” use(d) the federal money to hire retired troopers and law enforcement officials, and assign them to investigate the most egregious cases of sexual assault — including those against children.” Wow, let’s not investigate these things. And let’s fire the idiot that thinks this is the state’s responsibility. If people do not want to get raped or children abused maybe they should not be so damned attractive.

I am not an advocate of the invasion of privacy, but this is a special case. In a home where we have a child whose dad and mother is in question, yes I am referring to Trig, I do not ever remember such a high profile infant whose paternity is in question, do you? And now her daughter is pregnant. Great!!! A mother that apparently is indifferent to child abuse, rape and other crimes. The Governor of the state with the highest cases of rape, incest, child abuse and domestic violence. The ex-mayor of a small town with 42 meth labs. Let’s have an investigation of what is going on in that home. Something smells here.

*****

Gerry Fern posted this piece over on the blog at BartCop. Read more of what was said @ BartBlog

Obama still ahead in polls

Gallup poll daily tracking from Wednesday through Friday finds Barack Obama maintaining his lead over John McPain among registered voters, by a 50% to 44% margin…

And they still insist it is the other way around whenever a repugican opens its mouth?!
It must be nice to live in such a deluded state of being - I wonder what are the drugs they are on and can the rest of us get some.

American Psychological Association members can't aid in military torture

A majority of members in the American Psychological Association have voted in favor of a resolution that forbids members from aiding in torture. This was spurred by the complicity of APA members in conducting torture-based interrogation at Guantanamo Bay and other American and American-affiliated secret prisons:

The ban means those who are American Psychological Association members can't assist the U.S. military at these sites. They can only work there for humanitarian purposes or with non-governmental groups, according to Stephen Soldz, a Boston psychologist. Soldz is founder of an ethics coalition that has long supported the ban...

Psychologists have been involved in decisions that approve of coercion methods, including "taking away comfort items like clothes and toilet paper from detainees" to help extract information from them, Soldz said.

He said that some even declined to diagnose post-traumatic stress in detainees because that would suggest detainees had been abused or harmed while in custody.

...

Whereas the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Mental Health and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture have determined that treatment equivalent to torture has been taking place at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. [1]

Whereas this torture took place in the context of interrogations under the direction and supervision of Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs) that included psychologists. [2, 3]

Whereas the Council of Europe has determined that persons held in CIA black sites are subject to interrogation techniques that are also equivalent to torture [4], and because psychologists helped develop abusive interrogation techniques used at these sites. [3, 5]

Whereas the International Committee of the Red Cross determined in 2003 that the conditions in the US detention facility in Guantánamo Bay are themselves tantamount to torture [6], and therefore by their presence psychologists are playing a role in maintaining these conditions.

Be it resolved that psychologists may not work in settings where persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law (e.g., the UN Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions) or the US Constitution (where appropriate), unless they are working directly for the persons being detained or for an independent third party working to protect human rights[7].

2008 APA Petition Resolution Ballot,

Psychologists vote against role in interrogation

Blast targets Marriott Hotel in Islamabad

A suicide truck bombing destroyed the packed Marriott Hotel, near the Parliament building and the prime minister's home, in the city of Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday night.

The attack killed at least 40 people and wounded another 200, police said.

People were still trapped in the hotel, which burst into flames after the explosion caused a natural gas pipe leak, officials said. The fire was still burning at 2 a.m., six hours after the blast.

Rescuers worked to moved bloodied bodies from the hotel but were forced to stop for fear that the structure could collapse.

Details and the number of fatalities are still unclear because of conflicting initial reports. It is unclear if only one or two vehicles were involved in the attack.

The gas leak set the top floor of the five-story, 258-room hotel on fire, police said, and the blaze quickly engulfed the entire structure.

Cockpit recorder recovered in fatal SC jet crash

Investigators say they've recovered the cockpit voice recorder from a fiery South Carolina jet crash that killed four and critically injured former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity DJ AM.

National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said Saturday that the recorder has yet to be analyzed. She says authorities investigating the crash at Columbia Metropolitan Airport have yet to rule anything out for causing the crash, but the plane took off in clear weather.

The Learjet overshot the runway, and hurtled across a five-lane road shortly before midnight Friday.

Barker and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, were in critical but stable condition at a burn center in Georgia. The pilot, co-pilot and two passengers died.

*****

Heard about this as it happened from my son who lives near the airport.

Malaysia frees blogger held for suspected

Malaysian police on Saturday freed a prominent political blogger who was arrested for suspected sedition after he launched an online protest against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's embattled government.

The case underscores the government's struggle to tackle increasing public dissent amid a threat by the opposition to topple Abdullah's administration through parliamentary defections.

The blogger, Syed Azidi Syed Aziz, drew the government's ire last month when he posted a picture of Malaysia's national flag upside down on his popular blog and urged other Internet bloggers to follow suit to protest the country's political and economic problems.

Authorities arrested Syed Azidi on Wednesday, saying he was being investigated for sedition, which is punishable by up to three years in prison.

Syed Azidi said in a statement posted on his "Kickdefella" blog that he was released Saturday. He said police treated him "well and most of the time, beyond the call of duty."

Police officials familiar with Syed Azidi's case could not immediately be contacted, and it was not clear whether he would face formal charges later.

Ahead of Syed Azidi's arrest, authorities detained another political blogger, an opposition lawmaker and a journalist last week under a separate law that allows detention without trial.

The politician and the journalist have since been freed following a public outcry, including by the law minister, who resigned in protest.

Public pressure on the government mounted Saturday as the Malaysian Bar, the main lawyers' group, held an emergency meeting to denounce the arrests under the Internal Security Act, which is used against suspects deemed to be threats to national security.

The lawyers issued a resolution calling for the Internal Security Act to be abolished and for the government "to immediately and unconditionally release all persons presently detained without trial." Activists estimate there are about 60 such detainees.

___

Syed Azidi's blog: http://kickdefella.wordpress.com/

As the fortune cookie crumbles

Went out for Chinese this evening and got doubly blessed by Buddha!
Two fourtunes in my fortune cookie:

You have the potential and the ability to accomplish great things.
and
You will have a change for a better job or status shortly.

Now, how cool is that ...

Flooding in Thailand kills 14, sickens over 53,000

Floods in Thailand have killed 14 people and sickened more than 53,000 others, including many who contracted waterborne ailments after wading through floodwaters, the government said Saturday.

The 14 people were swept away by flash floods that hit 36 of Thailand's 76 provinces over the past nine days, the Ministry of Public Health said.

It warned residents that floodwaters were full of parasitic leeches, human waste and bacteria that can cause skin infections and fungus.

The ministry said 53,946 people were sickened, with 35 percent suffering from skin funguses and 27 percent from cold and respiratory problems. Others suffered from diarrhea, it said.

"We urge that people travel through flooded areas by boat or wear long pants tied at the feet with plastic bags if they must wade through flood water," Prat Boonyawongwiroj, permanent secretary for public health, said in a statement.

Officials were calculating the damage from the floods, which destroyed farmland and inundated villages, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Center said.

Heavy downpours in northern and northeastern Thailand at the height of the rainy season caused rivers to swell, Water Resources Department Director-General Siripong Hungspreuk said.

Damage to collider forces 2-month halt

The European Organization for Nuclear Research says its new particle collider has been damaged worse than previously thought and will be out of commission for at least two months.

On Thursday, the organization said the collider - the world's largest - malfunctioned within hours of its launch to great fanfare, but its operator didn't report the problem for a week.

Spokesman James Gillies says experts have gone into the Large Hadron Collider to examine the damage.

Gillies said Saturday the part that was damaged will have to be warmed up well above absolute zero so that repairs can be made. He said that will require having to shut off the new particle collider do to the repairs.

*****

I guess that means we have two months to wait to see that Black Hole the thing is 'supposed' to create then.

Earthquake sets off buried WWII bomb

Austrian authorities say a small earthquake set off a large World War II-era bomb in the garden of a Vienna home.
No one was injured in the explosion.

Investigators think the bomb weighed up to half a ton. It lay buried for decades in the garden, and no one knew it was there.

But when a minor quake shook parts of the Austrian capital, the bomb exploded.

Officials say the homeowner heard a dull bang Friday evening and went outside to see what happened.

Experts were still on the scene Saturday to examine the crater left by the blast.

All for the love of Labs

Moving pets is a job, let me tell you.
I spent the better part of today taking down and re-erecting a kennel for my Labs and moving them.

I am tired.