SAY WHAT?!

From the "You've got to be kidding!" Department:

Conservative professor: 'saddest part' of 9/11 attacks was impact on Bush

As the outgoing administration coasts toward a quickly approaching, inevitable end, its dwindling number of staunch supporters is waging a media offensive in an effort to polish the blood-soaked legacy of George W. Bush.

We've heard it echoed in every corner of the national media. Bush wants to be seen as a "liberator of millions." Rove insists that "history will be kind" to his former boss. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is sure that "this generation" will thank George W. Bush.

That remains to be seen. But even for Republican lackeys and apologists who seek to obscure Bush's monumental failures in the pages of history with obfuscations and outright lies, this one is low.

"For me, the saddest part about the terrorist attacks of 9-11 is the long-term impact on the presidency of George W. Bush," wrote Tony Campbell, an adjunct professor of political science with Maryland-based Towson University, on The Moderate Voice Monday.

Nevermind the 3,000+ Americans who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Or the resulting wars. Or that one of the countries Bush chose to invade had nothing to do with the attacks. Or even the lingering, unanswered questions as to just how exactly the 9/11 attacks were pulled off.

Read the rest at Raw Story.

Damn, the sheer stupidity of some really does amaze one doesn't it?

Stokey the Bear

Dudley Do-Right

Ha, Ha, Ha

Shrub Presidential Library a laughingstock

Here's a London Times OpEd piece suggesting, (suggesting hell, outright saying), that the shrub's $300-million Presidential Library on the campus at Southern Methodist University is going to be repository of lies and a bit of a joke.

Oh, it will be a repository of lies all right - and some whoppers, too ... but a 'bit' of a joke? I mean come on it will be a laughingstock

Read more in the London Times.

Worth a thousand words

GOP donor Robert Toussie - whose scammer son Isaac was pardoned and then un-pardoned by the shrub - poses with the shrub earlier this year.

The shrub posed for a smiley photo with Robert Toussie, the repugican donor and father of pardoned/no-you're-not real estate scammer Isaac Toussie.

From the New York Daily News.

Faux News lying again

FDR pretty much saved capitalism and steered America out of the Great Depression.

But at Faux News the story is that Roosevelt prolonged the Great Depression.
(well if the truth be known - he did prolong the Great Depression of the repugicans from 1930 to 1981 ... for the rest of us he pretty much ended the Great Depression in the USA)

Read more at Campaign for America's Future.

The war on terror is a trillion-dollar boondoggle

The war on terror is a trillion-dollar boondoggle, so far.
And it's not just money spent to line the pockets of cronies and crooks, like the Wall Street boondoggle, oh, no ... no sir, it's billions and billions and billions and ... spent just to make the problem worse.

See the rest in Time Magazine.

Cops steal from Toys for Tots

The four District of Columbia police officers reportedly caught on tape stealing from Toys for Tots “tarnished” the department’s image, a police official said.

Police confirmed that the four officers had been put on desk jobs as internal affairs investigates them for stealing toys. Officials said if the officers did take the toys intended for the city’s youth, they will be prosecuted.

See more at the DC Examiner.

Makes you wonder

Alaska State Troopers delayed their execution of a search warrant for Bristol Palin's baby daddy's mother on Meth charges until after the election.

Think on that for a while.

Basically it is the opposite of a political railroading -- they stopped their police work for the election.

That is criminal in and of itself. Isn't it? Or, it should be!

Read the rest in the Washington Post.

No Photography in Photography Contest

A photographer taking pictures for Amtrak's annual "Picture Our Trains" contest has been arrested by Amtrak Police for taking photos of the trains from a public platform in New York City's Penn Station.

See the full story at carlosmiller.com.

Not our best moment

In not one of our best moments ...

North Carolina, lawmakers are proposing a pittance pay-off to victims of the state's long-running eugenics program.

More from the Associated Press.

Did you know ...

Last week's coal ash disaster in Tennessee is already about three times the size that "officials" first said it was.

And did you know that coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste ...

See more at ThinkProgess.

All hell breaks loose in the middle east ...

... and the shrub refuses to interrupt his vacation?!

While the shrub has been 'briefed' on the situation, he has opted not to interrupt his final vacation as president to make a public statement on the crisis.
For the idiot, who has enjoyed the most vacation days as sitting president — including days spent relaxing in comfort during hurricane Katrina and in the lead-up to 9/11 — it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the shrub prioritizes vacationing over crisis management.

Read more at think progress

Ellie Nesler dies at 56

Ellie Nesler, who sparked a national debate about vigilantism after killing her son's accused molester in a courtroom in 1993, has died of cancer.

A spokeswoman for the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento says Nesler died there Friday morning.
The 56-year-old had battled breast cancer since 1994.

Nesler shot Daniel Driver five times in the head during a break in his preliminary hearing in a Tuolumne County courtroom.
Driver had been accused of molesting four boys, including her son Willy.

She was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served three years of a 10-year sentence before winning an appeal based on jury misconduct.

The case became a 1999 TV movie, "Judgment Day: The Ellie Nesler Story."

Chemistry student busted for Meth and bombs in error

Annalee Newitz at i09 writes about Lewis Casey, a Saskatchewan college student who built a home chemistry lab and was arrested by police who thought he was brewing Meth.
A few days later, the police realized that the chemistry major wasn't manufacturing drugs but kept him in stir anyway because the lab could allegedly be used for making bombs.

From i09:

On December 24, Casey was finally released into his parents' custody, pending a trial to determine whether he was building what police called "improvised explosive devices."

Yesterday Casey's lawyer told local journalists:

My client is a very intelligent young man . . . he's very keen in chemistry, a very curious young person and very capable, very knowledgeable in the area and he was always curious with regard to chemistry, chemical compounds, chemical reactions, that kind of thing. So from my client's point of view, it's completely innocent insofar as he had no intention of creating any explosives or explosive devices. As people probably know, anything in your house can constitute or be used in chemical or explosive devices, including sugar and cleaning compounds, Mr. Clean, bleach, detergents, all those sorts of things.

"Teen with Home Chemistry Lab Arrested for Meth, Bombs"

Troubling trends

Black teenagers are killing each other in rising numbers but the troubling trend has been masked by a falling crime rate in the United States, according to a study released today by Northeastern University.

FBI crime statistics show overall decreases in murder and other violent crimes.

But a report by criminal justice professors James Alan Fox and Marc Swatt uncovers other disturbing trends within that data.
Among their findings: an increase of more than 39 percent in the number of black males between the ages of 14 and 17 killed between 2000 and 2007, and an increase of 34 percent in the number of blacks that age group who committed homicide.

The increases for white male teens age 14-17 during that same period were nearly 17 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

Sneezing and sexual thoughts

Earlier this month over on our sister blog I posted a blurb about research showing that every time a man sneezes he is thinking about sex.

So myself and several male friends have been doing our own 'research' into the correlation between sneezing and thoughts of sex for the past few weeks.

I am able to report that preliminary findings indicate the initial study to be grossly flawed in that absolutely no instance of sexual thoughts occurred prior to,during or after any sneezes in the last few weeks from either myself or any of my friends participating in the highly scientific research.

So the premise that women could tell what is on a man's mind when he sneezes is debunked for now ... the 'research' will continue.

Did You Know ...

That in the United States it is illegal to boycott products from Israel or to even ask if a product is made in Israel or from Israeli materials!

You can boycott products from any other country or source of any product or ask about the country of origin or source of any other product until you are blue in the face if you want to ... but don't even think of boycotting junk from Israel!

Diabetic News: Thiamine 'reverses kidney damage'

Doses of vitamin B1 (thiamine) can reverse early kidney disease in people with type 2 diabetes, research shows.

Read the rest at the BBC.

Stalin - Greatest Ever, Not

Stalin continues to be popular with many Russians

Former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was beaten by medieval prince Alexander Nevsky in a poll held by a TV station to find the greatest Russian.

Stalin came third, despite being responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviets in labor camps and purges.

Alexander Nevsky fought off European invaders in the 13th century to preserve a united Russia.

In second place was reformist Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, who was assassinated in 1911.

Read the rest at the BBC.

Still, he came in THIRD?! What does that say about the Russians and how they view things?

Duchess of Carnegie refuses to leave

From CNN:

Editta Sherman has marked more than half a century's worth of new years in her apartment above New York's Carnegie Hall. But it's unlikely she will be raising her glass there next year. Known as the Duchess of Carnegie, the 96-year-old came home a few days ago to find an eviction notice on her door. But she's not going without a fight. "They'll have to take me out of here with their bare hands," Sherman says.

Full Story

Just in case you missed it ...

The Detroit Lions of the NFL have achieved what no other team has ever achieved ... a perfect season!

With a perfect 0 and 16 record the Lions are the only team in NFL history to loose all 16 games in a season.

The head coach is already gone and the rest of the team should be packing their bags just to be prepared - the odds are most will not be with the team next season ... other coaches, trainers, players, etc.
There is a real possibility that none of the current team will be with the team next season - however small it is, it is there.

US seeks 147-year sentence in Taylor torture case

Federal prosecutors in Miami are seeking 147 years in prison for the torture convictions against the son of ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor.

A judge is scheduled January 9, 2009 to sentence 31-year-old Charles McArthur Emmanuel, also known as Chuckie Taylor.

Emmanuel was convicted in October of committing torture and other abuses as head of a paramilitary force in his father's government.

It was the first use of a 1994 U.S. law allowing prosecution for torture overseas.

Prosecutors say the lengthy sentence would send a worldwide message against torture. Emmanuel's court-appointed lawyer didn't immediately comment.

Charles Taylor is on trial before a United Nations tribunal for alleged war crimes in Sierra Leone.

*****

All right, when to the trails for the shrub and the cabal for committing torture to begin and are their sentences to be comparable?!
Or is the fact that they are white and Taylor is black have any bearing on the case?

Taylor should be locked away for his actions and the severity of them.
However the sentence of 147 years is a stretch.
Handing him that many years is nothing but a publicity stunt ... it sounds better than 'Life and a day', which is what it should be.
That implies the notion he will never leave prison except feet first in a pine box, whereas 147 years leaves the remote possibility of he's being released from prison prior to his death as a foul taste in the mouths of his victims.

The shrub and the rest of the cabal deserve no less.

Yes, Ohio, there is a Santa Claus!

And in the small town of Ashland, Ohio, about 50 miles southwest of Cleveland, Santa’s name is Lance.

Lance, inc., actually.

In a rarity in recent times, Lance inc. is in the news -- not for something negative like excessive executive pay in the face of shareholder losses and employee firings – but for compassion and kindness.
For no apparent business reason, the snack food corporation swept into Ashland and gave 274 unemployed bakery workers a reason to celebrate this year.

The story begins in October when the Archway cookie factory was closed by its owners, a private equity firm (read: tax dodge for repugicans and/or their cronies).
Despite assurances that the closing was temporary, within days, the locks were changed, bankruptcy was filed, and the almost 300 employees were left without jobs or benefits.

Even in Ashland, hard hit by the economy and losers of over 200,000 jobs during the shrub and cabal junta, the closing came as a blow.

...as of last week, 60 of the original 274 Archway employees were back to work, with their seniority, health benefits, and pay intact, as Lance re-opened the bakery with plans for full-capacity production by the end of 2009.

Not satisfied with bringing good cheer to the 60 rehires, Lance gave each of the former archway employees a $1,500.00 gift card and the promise that bringing all of them back to work is the intention.

Full story at examiner.com

Blago Schmago

Read RS Janes take on the Blago persecution here.

In which he asks: Is Illinois’ F**king Golden Boy Merely the Stooge for a Partisan GOP Attack on Obama and the Dems?

It is a long editorial worth the read and he ends it thus:

This is not intended as a defense of Rod Blagojevich; he’s probably a typical political slime bucket in the ‘Hizzoner’ Chicago tradition but, nonetheless, he has some very powerful business forces that want him out of office, and he deserves to be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Up to now, the BM and Fitzgerald have convicted him before a jury has even seen the evidence and, no matter if he’s cleared of all charges, his reputation and political career are permanently ruined.

My guess is Fitzgerald may even quietly drop most of the charges by March – without palpable irony, he’ll blame the firestorm of media coverage as the major reason, a conflagration he ignited, likely for his own political advancement.

That may well be the actual case of political corruption here.

Broom factory at Wyoming prison opening to visitors

The days were long, the work repetitive and the conditions rough.
But for prisoners, the opportunity to work in the Wyoming Territorial Prison's broom factory was probably better than passing time in a cell.

Now the operators of the historic site want visitors to get a taste of old-fashioned prison labor.
The state recently completed a two-year restoration of the wooden building, which sits next to the stone prison that housed Butch Cassidy.

Officials are building a hands-on exhibit inside the building, where visitors can make brooms using replicas of the original tools the prisoners toiled over.
They hope to debut the exhibit when the park opens for its summer season.

"This was a very functional building so we wanted to have that feel in here," site curator Teresa Sherwood said as she pointed out pieces of original equipment and recently purchased bales of broom corn.

Friends Dancing

Friends doing what they do best in Asheville.

Welcome new readers

Carolina Naturally would like to welcome our newest readers in our newest country: Ethiopia

Daily Horoscope

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Use your wits to figure out how to bring more money in.

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