Sporting Lokeren wins first match of the new season

54 people have died in a southern Lebanese village in the deadliest attack yet in the 19-day Israeli offensive

Lebanese police said that at least 54 people, including 37 children, were killed in the attack in the village of Qana.

The missiles struck just after one this morning, levelling a three-story building where two extended families had taken refuge in the basement from heavy Israeli bombardment in the area.collateral damage

Oakland Police Spies Chosen to Lead War Protest

Two Oakland police officers working undercover at an anti-war protest in May 2003 got themselves elected to leadership positions in an effort to influence the demonstration, documents released Thursday show.

The department assigned the officers to join activists protesting the U.S. war in Iraq and the tactics that police had used at a demonstration a month earlier, a police official said last year in a sworn deposition.

At the first demonstration, police fired nonlethal bullets and bean bags at demonstrators who blocked the Port of Oakland's entrance in a protest against two shipping companies they said were helping the war effort. Dozens of activists and longshoremen on their way to work suffered injuries ranging from welts to broken bones and have won nearly $2 million in legal settlements from the city.

the Police Department no longer allows such undercover work. uhuh!

What has the White House, and Bush's mob attorney, Gonzales, worried

At issue is a growing legal threat of the president and other top administration officials facing prosecution for violations of the U.S. War Crimes statutes, which since 1996 have made violation of Geneva Conventions adopted by the U.S. violations of American law, too.


Gonzales knows the seriousness of this threat. As he warned the president, in a January, 25, 2002 "Memorandum to the President" (published in full in the appendix of Barbara Olshansky’s and my new book, The Case for Impeachment), "It is difficult to predict the motives of prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges based on Section [the US War Crimes law]." In another part of that same memo, Gonzales notes that the statute "prohibits the commission of a `war crime'" by any U.S. official, with a war crime being defined as "any grave breach of" the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War or of the Geneva Convention's Article 3. That article extends protection to combatants in other than official wars or formal armies. Gonzales, in that memo, also pointedly notes that the punishments for such violations, under U.S. law, in the event that mistreated captives die in custody, "include the death penalty."
It's interesting how this has become the tactic of choice for the criminals in the White House. When Bush was caught violating the clear provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by authorizing spying by the National Security Agency on Americans' communications without a warrant, the administration went to Congress to seek legislation retroactively authorizing the crime.

According to the Krauthammerian moral doctrine, you are perfectly within your rights. After all, I am “hiding among civilians,”

Say I “capture” your wallet on a crowded bus, and make for the back in an effort to evade your attention. In pursuit, you push over a few old ladies, floor a woman carrying a baby, and trample several young and rather small children. Not only that, but you start shooting — and hit five or six people without landing a bullet on me.

link

'Everything In My Life Is Destroyed, So I Will Fight Them'

Trusting the Israeli army and air force, which are breaking the Geneva Conventions almost every day, is a dodgy business.

On a Red Cross mission of mercy when Israeli air force came calling

By Robert Fisk

07/28/06 "The Independent" -- -- It was supposed to be a routine trip across the Lebanese killing fields for the brave men and women of the International Red Cross. Sylvie Thoral was the "team leader" of our two vehicles, a 38-year-old Frenchwoman with dark brown hair and eyes like steel. The Israelis had been informed and had given what the ICRC likes to call its "green light" to the route. And, of course, we almost died.

Trusting the Israeli army and air force, which are breaking the Geneva Conventions almost every day, is a dodgy business.

Their planes have already attacked - against all the conventions - the civil defence headquarters in Tyre, killing 20 refugees. They have twice attacked truckloads of refugees whom they themselves had ordered from their villages.

They have already attacked two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances in Qana, killing two of the three wounded patients inside and injuring all the crew - a clear and apparently deliberate breach of Chapter IV, Article 24 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.i think mister fisk lives in lebanon

Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War

JULY 20, 1979

The Security Council,

Taking note of the report and recommendations of the Security Council Commission established under resolution 446 (1979) to examine the situation relating to settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, contained in document S/13450,

Strongly deploring the lack of co-operation of Israel with the Commission,

Considering that the policy of Israel in establishing settlements in the occupied Arab territories has no legal validity and constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949,

Deeply concerned by the practices of the Israeli authorities in implementing that settlements policy in the occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem, and its consequences for the local Arab and Palestinian population,

Emphasizing the need for confronting the issue of the existing settlements and the need to consider measures to safeguard the impartial protection of property seized,

Bearing in mind the specific status of Jerusalem, and reconfirming pertinent Security Council resolutions concerning Jerusalem and in particular the need to protect and preserve the unique spiritual and religious dimension of the Holy Places in that city,

Drawing attention to the grave consequences which the settlements policy is bound to have on any attempt to reach a peaceful solution in the Middle East,

1. Commends the work done by the Commission in preparing the report on the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;

2. Accepts the recommendations contained in the above-mentioned report of the Commission;

3. Calls upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;

4. Requests the Commission, in view of the magnitude of the problem of settlements, to keep under close survey the implementation of the present resolution and to report back to the Security Council before 1 November 1979.

Adopted on July 20, 1979 at the 2159th meeting by 14 votes to none, with 1 abstention (United States of America).

blessing of the bombs?

Arab Land Seized by Israel in 1948-1949 in Violation of UN Partition Plan

Israeli black op is what triggered this latest flare up

I have that opinion at this time . The idf black op forces where inside Lebanon deep inside I'd venture to guess target marking.

these schlomo's go deep into enemy territory doing recon, and eventual painting of targets for the USA made "smart weapons"..

now I'm also of the opinion that the idf has been doing fly overs testing for any radar defenses for a long time before this last dust up. Maybe not radar. But certainly looking to gage any response from the lebanese army, anything to provoke hostilities.
the reshaping of the middle east is a longer term goal of a faction around the world not just USA and Israel, condi rice admitted just the other day that these are"birth pangs" blather blather...They knew this was going to happen we knew it was going to happen. The marketing and pretext just had to be opened up. The packaging set up proper to dupe the rest of the gizmobrained assholes that occupy the planet.

there were spies on another nations soil always have been and at anytime can be triggered to start a conflagration.

this kind of shit isn't tolerated anywhere else why should Lebanon be any different. Watch it happen the same way with Iran. If it works on one network sitcom the next season all the imbecile networks are using the same formula.........




The militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift reaction from Israel, which sent ground forces into its neighbor to look for them.

The forces were trying to keep the soldiers' captors from moving them deeper into Lebanon, Israeli government officials said on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli military would not confirm the report.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called an emergency Cabinet meeting and said Lebanese guerrillas would pay a "heavy price" for Wednesday's attacks.

"These are difficult days for the state of Israel and its citizens," Olmert said. "There are people ... who are trying to test our resolve. They will fail and they will pay a heavy price for their actions."

have you seen the this version?

Energy companies expected to report combined second-quarter profits of more than $30 billion

AP) Five of the world's largest energy companies are expected to report combined second-quarter profits next week of more than $30 billion, a bounty fueled by worldwide economic growth and political instability that helped keep oil above $70 a barrel.



economic growth? Try rampant speculation on the commodities markets. More and more hedge fund players entered the petroleum markets as a way to boost profits. Consumers be damned they have a pretty good idea that we are not going to stop driving our cars and trucks. We still need to get to work to buy fookun food the bastards. Then in our panic from gasoline shock we can be had for tricks and bobbles like "lite rail". This state at one time after the second world war had one of the greatest trolley rail systems in the western world. So I've been told. What happened to it? it was sold off to Mexico city so we could ride buses and drive our own cars.

flash forward 50 years and now we need to re-build rail service in this state because of the expansion gridlock on the freeway systems? These freeways were never intended to have the amount of traffic that is daily put upon it.

we have expansions out farther and farther from the core industrial cities and less and less road capacity. So re-build the fookun lite rail at a ridiculous cost to everyone concerned and then a few zillion probably not even born yet as they will be saddled with further debt.

but the few energy companies that own all the energy products globally can gouge consumers at will and nobody blinks twice. They do blink at the pump for a second but its forgotten very soon after driving away. if I'm wrong let me know but I can't see much throttling back on the driving done in this part of the country, actually I see none.

anytime day or night there a scads of people out driving around getting something with a car. These gougers know it and won't stop until its costs then in sanctions of some kind. 'we the people" are not represented at the table when it comes to making sanctions so I'm not holding my breath as to when or if they will ever come.........
gas gougers make billions per quarter and we all still drive around like fookun Rockefeller, link

Shiite masses are to be crushed and the power of right-wing, pro-US forces-above all, the Christian Phalange-vastly expanded.

The Real Aims of the US-Backed Israeli War against Lebanon

AS the onslaught against Lebanon enters its tenth day, Israeli troops are poised for a full-scale invasion that has been prepared by murderous aerial bombardment, and the far-reaching imperialist aims of the war have become all too clear.



With the full political, financial and military backing of the United States, the Zionist regime is attempting to transform Lebanon into an Israeli protectorate. This military operation is a continuation and escalation of the imperialist geo-political restructuring of the Middle East and Central Asia that began with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and whose goal is the establishment of US domination of the entire region.

Urgent! UK government sources confirm war with Iran is on

Jul 25, 2006, 10:30

By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
On-line Journal

Jul 24th, 2006 In the last few days, I learned from a credible and informed source that a former senior Labour government minister, who continues to be well-connected to British military and security officials, confirms that Britain and the United States " . . . will go to war with Iran before the end of the year."

As we now know from similar reporting prior to the invasion of Iraq, it's quite possible that the war planning may indeed change repeatedly, and the war may again be postponed. In any case, it's worth noting that the information from a former Labour Minister corroborates expert analyses suggesting that Israel, with US and British support, is deliberately escalating the cycle of retaliation to legitimize the imminent targeting of Iran before year's end. Let us remind ourselves, for instance, of US Vice President Cheney's assertions recorded on MSNBC over a year ago. He described Iran as being "right at the top of the list" of "rogue states". He continued: "One of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked . . . Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards."

But the emphasis on Israel's preeminent role in a prospective assault on Iran is not accurate. Israel would rather play the role of a regional proxy force in a US-led campaign. "Despite the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the Bush administration has not reconsidered its basic long-range policy goal in the Middle East . . ." reports Seymour Hersh. He quotes a former high-level US intelligence official as follows:

45% of those killed in Lebanon are children and of the 500,000 people who have fled to safety, some 200,000 are children”?

Did you know?
By Gabriele Zamparini
Jul 25, 2006, 05:27



By Gabriele Zamparini


“I, Tsilli Goldenberg, Israeli citizen

'Accuse you - Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel, Amir Peretz, Minister of Defense, Dan Halutz Head of Staff Chief Commander of the Israeli Army, of committing this bestial barbaric slaughter in Lebanon.

I accuse you of committing Crimes against Humanity towards the Palestinian People. I accuse you of deserting our soldiers, when their lives could be saved by negotiations, and I accuse you of starting an unjustified war in my name.” - Tsilli Goldenberg, Masarik 11, Jerusalem 93106 Israel

Did you know that “the daughter of Israel’s newly elected prime minister added her voice to those of the anti-Israel [sic] forces around the world when she actively participated in a demonstration outside the home of IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, calling him a ‘murderer’”?

Why not?

Department of Conspiracy Theories: Uptown shooting was a government black-op!

It has been hard to avoid the news coverage of the murder of Michael Zebuhr, the 25-year-old graduate student from South Carolina who was shot twice in the head as he walked down an Uptown street with his mother on March 18. Zebuhr, it seemed, was the very unfortunate victim of two cold-blooded muggers.


Or was he? On the internet discussion boards, a competing theory has emerged. Zebuhr, the thinking here goes, was not a random victim; he was, rather, the target of a government black-op.

So why would the government want to kill a promising young bioengineering student about whom no one can seem to utter a negative word? Because, you naive dolt, Zebuhr was a member of 9/11 Scholars for Truth, an organization of students and academics who believe the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were orchestrated by rogue elements within the U.S. government.

Speculation about Zebuhr's shooting matter has been rampant on various 9/11 chatboards for the better part of two weeks. (Click here or here or here if you've got the fortitude).

Otherwise, here's a sampling of some of the typical posts:
I think this was a black op hit. Michael was very active in the 911 truth movement, and was a full member of Scholars for Truth. Many in the truth movement will probably see this as the first martyrdom in the war for truth.


They can condition otherwise innocent people to act upon a trigger. I'd say that's how they took out Bobby Kennedy, Oswald and Lennon.

Blackops has been known to pay ass't gumbas, tweakers and crackheads to do their dirty work, since getting an agents hands dirty on low profile targets is not worth the risk, since there's always the possiblity of slopping the hit. Who's going to believe a stooly gang banger that says the Fed set him up?

Since when do two muggers hit on a group of four people, then randomly shoot one of the people in the head when the money is handed over and no resistance offered? Could this indeed be an execution? An attempt to intimidate and silence the rest of the 911 Truth Movement?

Don't buy it? Maybe you just can't handle the truth.

UPDATE: Jim Fetzer--philosophy professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, author of the Wellstone-was-rubbed-out book, "American Assassination: The Stange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone," and founder of 9/11 Scholars for Truth--reports that he has talked to a Minneapolis homicide detective and, based on that conservation, believes there is no connection between Zebuhr's killing and his involvement with the 9/11 truth movement.

President Vladimir Putin is set to keep US oil companies out of a lucrative gas field

Putin plan to shut out US oil giants

Kremlin will favour Norwegian firms to develop Barents Sea field after differences with Bush scupper Russia's bid to join WTO

Conal Walsh
Sunday July 23, 2006
The Observer

President Vladimir Putin is set to keep US oil companies out of a lucrative gas field in the latest sign of the deteriorating relationship between Moscow and Washington.

The Russian leader is expected to favour Norwegian companies and reject bids by America's Chevron and ConocoPhillips after failing to secure backing from the United States for his country's attempt to join the World Trade Organisation.

The tit-for-tat snub will be a blow to US companies scrambling for access to Russia's huge gas reserves at a time of high energy prices. It comes after Putin failed to resolve differences with US President George Bush over trade and human rights at the G8 conference in St Petersburg last week.

The two leaders were barbed about each other's democratic records at a tense G8 press conference. Putin later publicly praised Norsk Hydro and Statoil, the Norwegian firms that are competing with US companies for a role in developing the highly prized Shtokman gas field.

'There is very little chance the American majors will win that tender now,' a Russian oil analyst said yesterday. 'Putin was hoping WTO membership would be wrapped up in time for St Petersburg. The failure to do that is a blow to his prestige.'

A final decision on awarding the contracts - which involves extracting and transporting gas from Shtokman in partnership with Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled company - was also originally expected before the G8 summit but has been postponed until next month at the earliest.

As well as the US and Norwegian companies, Total of France is also on the shortlist to develop the 3.7 trillion cubic metre gas field, which is located in the Barents Sea, near the Arctic Circle.

Igor Shuvalov, a Putin aide, warned in April that the US firms' chances of participating in the undersea drilling project were tied to US support for Russia's WTO bid, although this has since been denied by the Kremlin.

Last week, however, Putin singled out the Norwegian bidders for praise when asked by reporters about energy deposits in the Barents Sea.

'You have probably heard that we are holding talks with several countries on the development of different fields, but companies from Norway are among the first on this list,' he said.

He added: 'They don't go around with their noses in the air. They work objectively, very professionally.' Viktor Khristenko, the Russian energy minister, also praised the Norwegian firms' record on protecting the environment last week.

Analysts have tipped the Kremlin to pick the Norwegian contractors following the recent resolution of a Barents Sea territorial dispute between Oslo and Moscow.

But the Shtokman project is also important to Russia's long-term relations with the US, since most gas from the field is to be shipped to north America in the form of liquefied natural gas. Participation by Chevron or ConocoPhillips could help ease access to the US market.

Russia has been very reluctant to allow foreign oil groups access to its energy reserves other than as junior partners on joint ventures with Gazprom. Russia supplies 25 per cent of the European Union's gas but has also resisted EU demands that it loosen Gazprom's control over the country's pipeline network.

A dispute over gas prices earlier this year between Russia and Ukraine led to temporary disruptions in the flow of gas to western Europe and prompted Dick Cheney, the US vice president, to accuse Moscow of using energy as a tool of 'intimidation and blackmail'.

But these diplomatic ructions have not extinguished the appetite of western investors for Russian energy stocks. Last week the oil group Rosneft successfully floated in London and Moscow with a $10.4bn placing.

Despite its size, the IPO represents only a small fraction of Rosneft's total equity, and the company remains majority-controlled by the Russian state.

Sound like anything you've heard lately?

"The Führer felt obliged to strike back only after Polish troops had crossed the German border at several places. The German fight is a defensive fight. We fight because we were forced to fight by the insults and demands against us, because of the brutal suppression of ethnic Germans in Poland, and because of the open announcements that they would do everything in their power to strangle National Socialist Germany through military or economic means." -- Die Wehrmacht (1939, Nr. 19, p. 2, available online)

summer time raymi titties

been awhile thanks raymi

Long tall corn stalks

Back in the early seventies we would go to a old neighbors farm for a week or so to be left there. To give the 'rents a respite from us I suppose. ('rents wasn't a word back then, it is today and I like it.)we had been around farmish places before. There was 80 acres just north of our house that was often times left alone for us hellions to roam around and "check shit out". I remember the summer of 1976 that we stayed there, we being me and my brother. It wasn't a big working farm but a small family hobby type farm where you could have your own horse chickens geese a couple cows and acre upon acre of corn. Now kids and corn fields in summer heat is a sensation you shouldn't soon forget. I don't know if I've forgotten but I was reminded today as I drove by a corn field that had to be 7'-8' tall. What brought me back to the summer of '76 was the spacing of the rows and the height of the stalks. And I'm thinking to myself, were they that close together back then?Were they that tall back then? Being younger smaller less aware they seemed so large and so roomy to run and hide in .
to chase each other in to peal off ears and throw them as hard as you could at each other. The smell was dirt and dusty and sweet. You could run around inside a canopy of corn leaves all day. It was cooler in the shade it seemed. Not that we would really notice how hot it might have been. We wore shorts and mostly no shirts tennis shoes with no socks. A bunch of snot breathing savages. Our uncles called us little savage Indians. Butch hair cutted savages. But back to the farm on Sunday we had to clean up come in from the fields and go into town to watch the parade look around at the fair meet up with gulag operators('rents)see the fireworks then go home. In '76 we had bicentennial fever if you remember right. The large town we went to see the fireworks in had painted all the fire plugs with patriotic acutremons. I remember that part. I also remember driving to town from the farm. The dad that owned the farm was called Robert big bob he was a cowboy type. Wore pointy boots a straw cowboy hat had a giant belt buckle tight dirty wrangler jeans. And a huge chaw of tobacco in his mouth. Well there is always a fight in a larger family for the window seat in car trip. I mean there might be six or eight kids packed into a freekin car that was built back in the late '60's. No seat belts not restraint except for someone yelling about stopping the car to smash heads if shit didn't settle. Anyway I won the fight for the window seat. This seat was directly behind big bob the driver. We pull out on the main highway the hot air rushing around in the car the 4-65 air conditioner was in full force and I decide what a big shot I am and set my elbow on the door sill my hand on the top of the door and peer out at the countryside rolling by. When I feel a cool wet splat on my forearm. This is a huge wet splat . As I pull my arm in and look at what hit me I see bigbob looking in his rear view mirror grinnin that slick cowboy bob grin. I look and its slime he just spit out his window that landed all over my arm. Disgusting slimy brown spit all over and I just got cleaned up for the fair. I had to wipe this crap all over the pants I was wearin and it still stained my arm. Couldn't say anything or ask for help cleaning it. number one nobody was allowed to put their arm out a window like that and two I fought so hard for the seat I couldn't be complaining now that I hadda roll up the window to keep from getting pelted anew from big bobs spitoon..........

no comment

blogging away in the ether.

please no comments today i don't have time to respond.

too many lazy fat guys online blogging about nothing of interest, i thought at least a little skin would draw some readers.

you can get my schtic on any number of millions of blogs.

so go the fook away.......

oreallys war on Christmas

I know its July and hot hot hot but I was thinking cool thoughts and naturally my mind wanders to Christmas time when it used to be frosty cold and snowy. And what is Christmas if not the warrior season when all the world is at war with Christmas and of course catholic christmasians. Maybe you all knew this but bill oreally lives somewheres in manhasset long island and you gotta know he was way pissed off about the lighting tree fiasco. He prolly regaled every one on his freak show about this guy in his town. But I just found it today like a pebble in the sands of time when I first see it it ceases to be the amazement of the billions of years its already been here and is now my exclusive property of wonderment. And throught the good graces of al's internets we have blogs so I can let you all in on what has excited and enthralled me today.......



Manhasset is a heavily Catholic community, which caused some tension when the North Hempstead Supervisor objected to a priests blessing at a 2005 Christmas tree lighting in the village.

He added that military force could “trigger changes in Iran,” causing them to embrace regime change.

Bill Kristol is asking for regime change again!! and again and again. this time you know its iran. this trumpet has been blowing for years about iran. iran has oil it has friends in china it has friends in russia in india in pakistan..... hell they got friends all over wanting to buy oil and gas.
guess what? according to neococksuckers they are pure evi;l just waiting to drop a newklar bomb on israel and then float a couple on drones to the clevelands. believe it or ask ahmed chalibi if you don't believe me. if you still need further proof ask judy miller at her vacation home.........



from think progess.org

Kristol Suggests People of Iran Would Embrace U.S. Attack, Triggering Regime Change »

This morning on Fox, Bill Kristol continued to escalate his calls for war against Iran, stating, “We can try diplomacy. I’m not very hopeful about that. We have to be ready to use force.” Kristol claimed the people of Iran would embrace “the right use of targeted military force.” He added that military force could “trigger changes in Iran,” causing them to embrace regime change. Watch it.


Kristol’s argument is a regurgitation of what he argued would result from the Iraq war. This is what wrote on the pages of the Weekly Standard in the days leading up to the Iraq war:

We are tempted to comment, in these last days before the war, on the U.N., and the French, and the Democrats. But the war itself will clarify who was right and who was wrong about weapons of mass destruction. It will reveal the aspirations of the people of Iraq, and expose the truth about Saddam’s regime. … History and reality are about to weigh in, and we are inclined simply to let them render their verdicts.

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

Stem cell hypocrites

Has anybody mentioned lately what a liar and hypocrite the president of the united states is? I mean today, yesterday, the day before? Ok I will then today.
this giant bloviateing pustual has the gall to expound on stem cells as potential babies being killed if the lil cysts are harvested instead of being tossed in the trash as is now the case and in the same brain of his he has ordered and condoned the killing of tens of thousands of innocent civilians as collateral damage in wars fostered by his ignorance, arrogance and hubris.

john Bolton expounded on the virtues of who should live and who deserves to die the other day too. These people, (I mean the nasty assed republican neoconartist that have taken over the American government)have the unmitigated nerve to tell the rest of the planet who when and why you are going to be allowed to live.

An already viable alive human being has less chance of making it to see the sunrise tomorrow in Iraq than does a fucking cyst in a laboratory somewhere!

luckily so far for the most of us in America, bombs are not raining down on our heads at the moment. How long that can last who knows. But as long as evil doers are in charge and are representing this country around the world we can look forward to the hate coming home to rest on our heads to let some of us go to an early long goodnite............

So he's willing to spend more than 20 times what it would cost to put in this safe-port material.

Bill Clinton's view of how parties differ
Excerpts of former President Bill Clinton's remarks earlier this month at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colo.

Published: July 18, 2006

I don't know how long they can make this old dog hunt. Ever since 2000, the 2002 and 2004 elections were about, "No matter how bad you think we are, you can't vote for them, because you can't trust them to defend the country. And oh, by the way, forget about global warming; let's talk about flag burning and gay marriage." I mean, I just don't know how long you can milk that old cow without its milk running dry. ...

My advice is that we should have a national campaign which basically reiterates what we believe the differences are between -- not just Republicans and Democrats, but the relatively discrete section of the Republican Party that is totally controlling national government. ...

Karl Rove said that he was going to say we lived in a pre-9/11 world and Republicans lived in a post-9/11 world. You tell me. Example one: The White House and the House Republicans opposed spending $648 million a year to put in very high-technology, sophisticated scanning equipment that would at least give us a screen on all the cargo containers coming into all the ports and airports in America. They said, "We can't do that. It's too expensive. ..."

What was their first priority this year? Repealing the estate tax. What does it cost? About $250 billion over 10 years! For less than 1 percent of the American people. ... So he's willing to spend more than 20 times what it would cost to put in this safe-port material. The Republican Party in the Congress are willing to spend more than 20 times what it would cost to make 300 million Americans safer to help less than 1 percent of us. That tells you all you need to know about the differences. ...

I think Democrats tend to believe that the source of the country's economic strength and national greatness is in ordinary, middle-class citizens. And therefore we believe we ought to have a country of equal opportunity and shared responsibility. Republicans believe the source of the country's greatness and economic strength is in the economic and political elite that agree with the conservatives that are running things. And therefore they believe we should concentrate wealth and power to a maximum extent.

The Democrats believe in a government that's open and accountable and concentrates on empowering people. The Republicans that run Washington believe in a government that's secret and unaccountable and concentrates on helping their crowd.

We believe, we Democrats -- it makes us look weak sometimes -- that we're not right all the time. And therefore we believe policy should be made on the basis of evidence and perfected through argument. They believe policy should be made on the basis of ideology and rammed through by attack.

Great seats, but what happens when one hits your neighborhood?

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب

"Dear friends and colleagues ,
You will all have to excuse me for sending this. It's pictures of the bodies of babies killed by the israelis in South lebanon. They are all burnt. I need your help. I am almost certain these pictures won't be published in the West, although they are associated press pictures. I need your help exposing them if you can. The problem is these are people who were asked to leave
their village , Ter Hafra , this morning , within two hours , or else. ... So those who were able to flee went to the closer UN base where they were asked to leave. I think that after the Qana massacres in 1996 when civilians were bombed after they took chelter in UN headquarters , the UN does not want to be responssible for the lives of civilians.A FEW MINUTES AGO , the
Israeli asked the people of Al Bustan village in the south to evacuate their homes. I am afraid massacares will keep happening as long as Israeli actions are uncheked. Please help us if you can
Hanady Salman"

Israel kills 32 civilians in air strikes:

07/15/06 "Reuters" -- -- BEIRUT - Israel killed at least 32 civilians on Saturday, including 15 children, in air strikes meant to punish Lebanon for letting Hizbollah guerrillas menace the Jewish state's northern border.

Israel's bombing of Lebanese roads, bridges, ports and airports, as well as Hizbollah targets, is its most destructive onslaught since its 1982 invasion to expel Palestinian forces.


An Israeli missile incinerated a van in south Lebanon, killing 20 people, among them 15 children, in the deadliest single attack of the four-day-old campaign launched by Israel after Hizbollah captured two of its soldiers and killed eight.

Police said the van was carrying two families fleeing the village of Marwaheen after Israeli loudspeaker warnings to leave their homes.
All but three of the dead have been civilians.

"Fascism: Past and Present"

Dr. Clifford A. Kiracofe on "Fascism: Past and Present" on
The LaRouche Show
Saturday, 3:00 p.m. EDT

download show

mp3 of show

He took on the nation's War Party, whether it was headed by Richard Nixon, LBJ, that union-bashing Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, or Bush 1 or Bush 2.

War-Monger in the Pulpit
The Rev. Billy Graham is No Phil Berrigan

By WILLIAM HUGHES


snip

Berrigan, a WWII U.S. Army veteran, a 2nd Lieutenant in the infantry, saw protests "as prophetic acts," based on the Biblical injunction of beating swords into plowshares. Rev. Graham, who brought his type of religious crusades to Baltimore before, in 1949 and 1981, on the other hand, has been in league with the warmongers. He comforted, cozied up to, and covered for them. And, as a result, Rev. Graham regularly got his invitations to the White House, along with photo ops, too, on the lawn or in the Oval office, with whomever was the president at that moment. All of it was very nice, indeed. Rev. Graham was giving these presidents' warmongering policies his imprimatur, while the gutsy Berrigan was doing hard time in a federal prison hole for saying "no" to them.

Also, Rev. Graham never heard a shot fired in anger during his long career. Berrigan did! He learned about the horrors of war at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, and in the trenches of Western Europe, and not from watching any Steven Speilberg movie. He also stood against the war in Vietnam and mentored a new generation of antiwar activists, while also opposing the oppression of the poor in Central and South America, Apartheid in South Africa, the crime of British colonialism in the north of Ireland and the brutal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people.

"a suicide state".

HOW TO LOSE THE WAR ON TERROR
snip

Reflecting on bin Laden's post-September 11 messages, he provides this exegesis of bin Laden's words: "The hollowness of the World Trade Center, whose imposing towers crumbled so easily in the face of al-Qaeda's attack, represented the void at the heart of Western civilization itself, not least because the attacks of September 11 were followed by a significant if partial breakdown of America's much-vaunted culture of democratic rights and civil liberties, including even a suspension of certain provisions of the Geneva Convention."

Devji then adds: "This fact was not lost upon any participant in the jihad, to whom it demonstrated that the West's moral superiority was not only hypocritical, because its boasted freedom was based upon the un-freedom of others, but hollow as well, because it could not preserve this freedom even for its own citizens."

Osama bin Laden's thinking mirrors the views of America's takfiris - if you simply poke at the West's structure it will crumble like burned paper. In fact, according to bin Laden, the attacks of September 11 were of little account in terms of actual damage, particularly when compared with the damage the US would inflict on itself in its reaction: the United States and its allies would turn in on themselves; they would seal their borders, spy on their own people, expand domestic police powers, detain people without a warrant, hold people without evidence, torture suspects, violate international norms and subvert foreign governments - becoming, in his words, "a suicide state".

snip
PART 5: The politics of indignation

Putin's message to the G8 is loud and clear: we're back.

THE ROVING EYE
Russia and Iran lead the new energy game
By Pepe Escobar

Whatever the West may have thought about it, Russian President Vladimir Putin has already spectacularly preempted this weekend's Group of Eight (G8) summit in St Petersburg with his own bit of Pipelineistan news. Putin announced in Shanghai on June 15 that "Gazprom is ready to support the construction of a gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and India with financial resources and technology".

He was referring to a fabled US$7 billion, 2,775-kilometer, 10-year old project - an Iranian idea - which should now be finished by 2009, developed by Gazexport, a Gazprom subsidiary. As a result, by 2015 both India and Pakistan should be receiving at least 70 million cubic meters of natural gas a year.

Thus the two top global gas producers - Russia and Iran - reached a strategic partnership abiding not only by their own interests but the interests of India, Pakistan, China and part of Central Asia, something that spells nothing less than an auspicious economic future for a great deal of Asia - independent from any American interference.
Washington was not amused.

The occupation has been one vast extended crime against the Iraqi people, and most of it has occurred unnoticed...

"In reality both Abu Ghraib and Haditha were merely more extreme versions of the day-to-day workings of the American occupation in Iraq, and what makes them unique is not so much how bad they were, or how embarrassing, but the fact that they made their way to the media and were publicized despite attempts to cover them up. Focusing on Abu Ghraib and Haditha distracts us from the daily, little Abu Ghraibs and small-scale Hadithas that have made up the occupation. The occupation has been one vast extended crime against the Iraqi people, and most of it has occurred unnoticed by the American people and the media."

A Dig led by Nir Rosen

Who ever heard of an occupying army committing rape??? You raped the country, why not the people?"

"Rape. The latest of American atrocities. Though it's not really the latest -- it's just the one that's being publicized the most. The poor girl Abeer was neither the first to be raped by American troops, nor will she be the last. The only reason this rape was brought to light and publicized is that her whole immediate family were killed along with her. Rape is a taboo subject in Iraq. Families don't report rapes here, they avenge them. We've been hearing whisperings about rapes in American-controlled prisons and during sieges of towns like Haditha and Samarra for the last three years. The naiveté of Americans who can't believe their 'heroes' are committing such atrocities is ridiculous. Who ever heard of an occupying army committing rape??? You raped the country, why not the people?"

Riverbend, Baghdad Burning

Look out ! It's the headbutt's song! Zidane il a frappé - C'est la danse du coup de boule

...a few reckless individuals within the current administration betrayed that trust...

Valerie and Joseph Wilson held a press conference this morning to announce the civil suit against Cheney, Rove and Libby.

Valerie: I am proud to have served my country by working at the Central Intelligence Agency. I and my former CIA colleagues trusted our government to protect us as we did our jobs. That a few reckless individuals within the current administration betrayed that trust has been a grave disappointment to every patriotic American. Joe and I have filed this action with heavy hearts but with a renewed sense of purpose. I would much rather be continuing my career as a public servant than be a plaintiff in a lawsuit, but I feel strongly and justice demands that those who acted so harmfully against our national security must answer for their shameful conduct in a court of law.


more at crooksandliars.com

"When you are over there, you are lower than dirt, you are expendable as a soldier in general, and as a woman, it's worse,"

Female Soldiers Treated 'Lower Than Dirt'

By Rose Aguilar, AlterNet. Posted July 14, 2006.

The case of Suzanne Swift reveals that women deployed in the Middle East are facing rape, abuse and sexual harassment -- from their own comrades-in-arms.

U.S. Army Specialist Suzanne Swift will spend her 22nd birthday tomorrow confined to the Fort Lewis base in Washington, where she is awaiting the outcome of an investigation into allegations that she was sexually harassed and assaulted by three sergeants in Iraq.

Swift says the sergeants propositioned her for sex shortly after arriving for her first tour of duty in February 2004. She remained in Iraq until February 2005. "When you are over there, you are lower than dirt, you are expendable as a soldier in general, and as a woman, it's worse," said Swift in a recent interview with the Guardian.

When Swift's unit redeployed to Iraq in January 2006, she refused to go and instead stayed with her mother in Eugene, Oregon. She was eventually listed as AWOL, arrested at her mother's home on June 11, sent to county jail, and transferred to Fort Lewis.

"She's miserable and isolated," says Sara Rich, Swift's mother. "It's not good to have an idle mind while you're dealing with PTSD and sexual trauma. I want them to release her so I can get her the care she needs. I'm tired of waiting."

A colonel outside of Swift's chain of command is investigating the case, but Rich says she has been given little information with no time frame. "I believe they're trying to break her down using fear and intimidation."
...more. alternet.org

in this quarter there is no doubt that soldiers sent "over there" did rape and murder a young girl at Haditha, torture burn and kill her family and anyone else they saw fit to die in that day. There is no democratisation going on "over there" only the breeding of more instability, the breeding of more suicide bombers, the breeding of more time bombs that will will come back to us as blowback. And not part of the law of intended consequences. You do reap what you sow. Some times surely, not always but these times we will get it back at us. If the rape pillaging and torture of our own female soldiers is going on, that may be reported on eventually by the women telling other woman, or their closest families. The soldiers doing the pillaging has small fear of being found out for crimes against their own. There is no reason to believe they fear any retribution for killing raping torturing murdering any of the civilian populations "over there" they are immune to the stench they cause all over themselves and spread it back onto us and they care even less. These are the soldiers I'm supposed to support/ this is a president "commander in chief' that I'm supposed to support? I think I'll refrain still from posting any outrageous stickers of support and will obey no flag for as long as these warriors are out and about on their deadly rounds....

Presidents are just civilians

Presidents are just civilians, armies can be mustered only by those who govern with our democratic consent, and government itself serves at the pleasure of the people and does so only for the people, not for the glory of our leaders.

This is, however, liberalism versus conservatism in the larger, historical sense, in which conservatism means an empire that exists by crushing most of its own people into fodder for the military under the heel of a powerful oligarchy with a monarch at its head, not first among equals but gods over men. And "liberalism" means the United States of America - a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" in which we all have inalienable rights that make each of us the equal of any president, and of any king.

i have no clue on punctuation or if avedon wrote any of this piece. i just like the sounds of it

unregulated speculation that is costing consumers billions of dollars – and vastly enriching people like T. Boone Pickens.

Speculators – not supply and demand – are to blame for skyrocketing gas prices
COMMENTARY | July 11, 2006

A bipartisan Senate report, largely ignored by the media, says that there's no oil shortage and none is expected. Rather, it's massive, unregulated speculation that is costing consumers billions of dollars – and vastly enriching people like T. Boone Pickens.

By Henry Banta
Hbanta@compuserve.com

The conventional explanation for high gasoline prices doesn't work. The notion that energy demand, especially in places like China and India, created a world-wide oil supply shortage which drove up prices and caused Americans to pay more at the pump cannot be squared with the facts.

On June 26, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations issued a report on the role of market speculation on the prices of oil and gas that leaves the accepted wisdom in need of stark revision.

snip

The precise effects of the infusion of speculative money into the oil and gas markets cannot be determined, but they are clearly significant. First, the amounts involved are enormous. Financial institutions, hedge funds, pension funds, and other investors have put billions into energy commodities markets. One of the more important economists in the field has calculated that the amount of money invested in commodity index funds "jumped from $15 billion in 2003 to $56 billion in 2004 and on to $80 billion today."

Needless to say, these institutions have no use for petroleum other than to sell it to someone else. Second, by all accounts, the traders are doing extremely well. Out front is T. Boone Pickens who is reported to have made around $1.5 billion last year. While not in that league, there is a long list of others who have made millions.

snip

Finally, lurking in the report is more than a hint that all this speculation in ever-rising oil prices could come to a bad end. The report quotes one oil trader, "At some point, this oversupplied market has to begin to break down this house of cards which is dominated by speculative entities, and when those entities decide to start liquidating their futures positions in crude and gas, look out below."

HUNGER STRIKERS AT MAZE PRISON 1981

On Sunday Sands lapsed into a coma. His parents, brother Séan and Marcella were with him to the end, which came at 1. 17 on the morning of Tuesday 5 May 1981.

It was announced by the Northern Ireland Office thirty- five minutes later with a terse statement: 'He took his own life by refusing food and medical intervention for sixty-six days.' -the Speaker of the House of Commons, George Thomas, rose to tell Parliament with the words.. 'I regret to have to inform the House of the death of Robert Sands Esquire, the Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.'
But I'll wear no convict's uniform
Nor meekly serve my time
That Britain may call Ireland's fight
Eight hundred years of crime.

I HAVEN'T READ MUCH ABUT SHEEHANS STRIKE ATTEMPT , BUT I WONDER IS SHE AND OR ANYBODY WITH HER WILLING TO TAKE THESE ACTIONS TO THIER ZENITH.....?

zidane headbutt for the end of soccer madness '06

italia wins on pk's 5-3 i think thier 4rth overall cup
viva italia

i'd like to see more headbutts in nascar, instead of green, white, checker

World cup today from Germany/ Winston cup from Chicago

I don't care what you redneck fuckers call it now, nextel cup doesn't work with world cup now does it?
in the bloggosphere poetic license is used with abandon so I can only say to purists fuck off.

frogs against italianos in world cup finals action.

redneck race cars going left for three hours in chicago for a sheetrock company.

A white buffalo is said to be as rare as one in 10 million.

Baby white buffalo roams to zoo, looking for a name

AMANDA RIDLEY, Staff Writer
Published July 8, 2006

Lots of people like rare meat, and Hollywild Animal Park now has some of the rarest … on the hoof.

An all-white baby buffalo, born June 17 in Colorado, is on display at the animal park in northwestern Spartanburg County, zookeeper David Meeks said.

Baby buffalos typically are born orange or red. A white buffalo is said to be as rare as one in 10 million. It is a sacred figure for some Native American tribes.

Clemson University's John Gibbons, who specializes in the reproductive physiology of cows and horses, said white bison typically change colors as they mature, and the baby could darken in the next six months to a year.

It is a sacred figure for some Native American tribes.

tunnel flooding jokes :aka fake terroristas

headbutt? was there a red card issued?

"I will never apologise for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what it has done. I don't care what the facts are."

Vice-President George H. W. Bush, August 1988

18 years ago today, Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) took off from Bandar Abbas, Iran at 10:17 am local time on its way to Dubia, UAE with 290 passengers and crew aboard.

snip


The first missle broke the aircraft in two. No one aboard had a chance.

What happened that day was a tragedy. What happened in the days following was a cover-up.
The official naval report was never fully unclassified. Parts of it that were given to the public were misleading, if not outright fabrications.

This is a profound threat to our democracy, and we underestimate it at our peril.

"Media Matters"; by Paul Waldman
A declaration of war


This week, the conservatives declared war.
Not on The New York Times. Not even on the media in general. No, this week the entire conservative movement -- from the White House to Republicans in Congress to Fox News to right-wing talk radio to conservative magazines -- declared war on the very idea of an independent press.

They declared war on the idea that journalists have not just the right but the obligation to hold those in power accountable for their actions. They declared war on the idea that journalists, not the government and not a political party, get to decide what appears in the press. They declared war on the idea that the public has a right to know what the government is doing in our name.


s/f mediamatters.org

“Our research goal is to provide the warfighter with a kind of information radar to better understand the information battlespace.”

Blogs Study May Provide Credible Information

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research recently began funding
a new research area that includes a study of blogs.
By William J. Sharp / Air Force Office of Scientific Research Public Affairs

ARLINGTON, Va., June 29, 2006 – The Air Force Office of Scientific Research recently began funding a new research area that includes a study of blogs. Blog research may provide information analysts and warfighters with invaluable help in fighting the war on terrorism.

Dr. Brian E. Ulicny, senior scientist, and Dr. Mieczyslaw M. Kokar, president, Versatile Information Systems Inc., Framingham, Mass., will receive approximately $450,000 in funding for the 3-year project entitled “Automated Ontologically-Based Link Analysis of International Web Logs for the Timely Discovery of Relevant and Credible Information.”


s/f
thinkprogress.org

All he does is hit singles

last night twin Shannon Stewart returned to the line up after a 6 week stint on the dl. All he did was go 4-4 with all singles and a late inning walk that ended up being the game winner. Steward wasn't in the leadoff position that he usually occupies but seventh as designated hitter to keep an eye on his planter fascia wound. Steward has always been a huge spark plug for the twins, I hope he was sitting on the bench just itching to get in on this giant twin resurgence that could make for a great summer of baseball pennant chase watching. The Detroit tigers finally lost to somebody (pirates 9-2) so the twins actually gained a single game, the first in about a month of this hot streak for both teams. And the Chicago white sox they did win yesterday 8-6 over the cross town cubs.

GO TWINS

U.S. To pay $48 million to cover damages to Gaza power station

United States officials said they expect that U.S. funds will be used to pay for the damages caused by an Israel Air Force strike Tuesday on a Palestinian power station in the Gaza Strip. The power station was insured by a U.S. government agency, according to The Boston Globe.

snip


The power station in Gaza was built over a period of five years, at a cost of $150 million. In 1999, the Enron Corporation, along with Palestinian businessman Said Khoury, began working on the project. In 2000, Khoury's Morganti Group purchased Enron's share of the project.


just so you know a u.s. government agency that insures something, isn't an entity of itself making money by itself, its a tax payer funded entity. I don't have to tell you that if this shit is true we the people will again pay for our 51st states aggressions and apartheid policies...........
A spokesman for the agency said the insurance purchased by the Morganti Group covers instances of political violence, which include wars and acts of terror.

ZIDANE REFUSES TO RETIRE

i missed the entire match owing to a fookun picnic in the states. and you know there wasn't a fookun futbol fan anywhere around. this was in the heart of central minnesotas sand dune country, noodle salads and sweaty pictures the order of that day....... a salute to france and french beautuies

BRAZIL 0-1 FRANCE

Brazil - France

The rematch of the Final of 1998 !
Will this be Zidane's last match?

The Rooney stomp

Portugal wins : Ricardo defeats England AGAIN

Ricardo won the match for Portugal by stopping 3 English penalties.
This isn't a first for Ricardo, he did it in the European Championship 2 years ago too.
The country that lost on penalties then ? England.

Going to penalties?

Still 0-0 in the England-Portugal match.

Whitewashing a criminal government

US press buries Israeli kidnapping of Palestinian parliament

It's bad enough that the Israeli government went and seized as political prisoners, essentially as hostages, 87 Hamas members of the Palestine Authority (PA) parliament yesterday, including eight cabinet ministers. Once again, Israel has demonstrated its contempt for virtually every known code of conduct honored by civilized (and, usually, even by uncivilized) governments around the globe.

But what was even more appalling was the response of American media, which didn't think the kidnapping of a third of the government of a supposedly sovereign state authority was all that significant. Consider this headline and subheads from the Washington Post: West Bank Settler Killed / An 18-year-old Israeli settler was found executed today. Israel arrests more than 80 Hamas officials.
Israel has demonstrated its contempt for virtually every known code of conduct

Editor at large Welcome aboard

We here at itwassooted have added an editor at large. Our new addition was sought after by many blogs worldwide and we are very fortunate that he has chosen to grace us with his presence. He has an incredible sense of IT as in he gets IT . Don't feel left out if you don't always get IT. We are still not sure how much of a presence he will cast but we welcome him anyways. He is European we can get a wider perspective on events, titties, poker and beer welcome beercur......

england vs portugooooooooooooal up next

could you score with these two beauties?