Premature Burnage!

Ummm... Oooops!

The guy burns the Burning Man four days too soon!!

Paul Addis was released on bail. Pershing County Sheriff’s Office photo via Associated Press

SF Gate: Multimedia (image) 

Rehab.. No No No!!

Amy Winehouse

Father-in-law: Boycott Winehouse albums
08/28/2007 7:55 AM, AP Jill Lawless

Amy Winehouse's father-in law says fans should stop buying her records to force the singer to seek help for what he called a drug addiction.

Giles Fielder-Civil said he believed Winehouse and his son, Blake Fielder-Civil, had used cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin and were in "abject denial" about their problem.

"I think they believe they are recreational users of drugs and they are in control," Fielder-Civil told British Broadcasting Corp. radio Tuesday. "Clearly they are addicts."

He said fans should send a message to Winehouse "that her addiction and her behavior are not acceptable."

And He is Such a Pious Man too...

Senator admits toilet 'lewd conduct' arrest: 

"A REPUBLICAN senator has admitted pleading guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct in a men's toilet at a Minnesota airport. Larry Craig, of Idaho, was arrested by a plain-clothes officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in the men's room at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, according to a police report cited by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. 

Craig gave no details of the incident that prompted his arrest on June 11 but confirmed that he had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. Craig, married, a father of three, paid more than $US500 ($A605) in fines and fees related to the misdemeanour charge, and was given one year's probation. 

According to the police report, Craig entered a cubicle next to the police investigator, placed his bag against the door and tapped his foot, a gesture commonly used to try to pick up men in public toilets. 

Craig played an active role in the 1998 impeachment of former President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. In 2006 he voted for an amendment to the Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman."

Wish I Was There

Bye Bye Alberto!

The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia: 

"Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington."

FOX Attacks Iran

Please sign their petition and volunteer to call their advertisers. Do not let Democracy die in this country.

FOX Attacks Iran:

"'My station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at FOX News.' That is CNN's Christiane Amanpour explaining why the major television networks failed to accurately inform the public in the lead-up to the Iraq war, choosing instead to follow FOX's lead.

Now, FOX is beating the drums for war with Iran. Robert Greenwald's short film, 'FOX Attacks: Iran', outlines the evidence from the station's own broadcasts, comparing their reporting before the Iraq war with what they are saying now about Iran."

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

In some previous, and largely unreported poll, it was apparent that (if given the chance) Kucinich was the one candidate that most represented what the people want. From his ideas about healthcare, elimination of NAFTA, foreign policy etc... his thoughts are echoed by the majority of the people.

So I suppose it is not surprising that he is not given the chance that the establishment's candidates are given in this "democracy" of ours.

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

Reminded of author Ralph Ellison's landmark novel of social injustice, one columnist dub's presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich the "2008 election’s invisible man." Tristam reprints an email from the Kucinich campaign so readers can see for themselves "how the media decides whether someone exists or not." A partial list of the “outrages” that prompted "thousands [to] flood... the ABC News website and other online news sites with comments of protest":

• Congressman Kucinich was apparently deliberately cropped out of a “Politics Page” photo of the candidates.
•  Sometime Monday afternoon, after Congressman Kucinich took a commanding lead in ABC’s own on-line “Who won the Democratic debate” survey, the survey was dropped from prominence on the website.
•  ABC News has not officially reported the results of its online survey....
•  AND, as every viewer of the nationally televised Sunday presidential forum is aware, Congressman Kucinich was not given an opportunity to answer a question from moderator George Stephanopoulos until 28 minutes into the program.

ABC has failed to respond to these points, perhaps because it's not so easy to justify blatantly biased coverage of an actual event with the usual lines about how they "don't think non-viable candidates deserve the same amount of attention," etc. This isn't a non-effort on their part, but a pro-active effort—and not so dissimilar from their approach in previous election seasons; see FAIR's Action Alert: ABC Narrows the Field (12/11/03) and the subsequent Activism Update: ABC Responds to Critics of Campaign Coverage (12/12/03).

WoOoOOooooHooooo

What a storm!!! Haven't seen it like this for quite a while.

The Zionists Attack on Humanity

MIDEAST: When the Occupation Gets Really Filthy

“The Israeli military came inside the valley and cut about 50 apricot and walnut trees since May. And now, they are coming to cut more trees. This is all because of what they are building through this land — my land. Here, they are building a sewage channel to run raw sewage through this valley collected from four Israeli settlements near here.” 

Abu Swai is one of approximately 4,000 residents of the Palestinian village of Artas, located southeast of Bethlehem city. Artas is known regionally for its succulent vegetables, and fruit and nut trees. But over the last few months Israeli occupation forces have brought dozens of bulldozers to the eastern valley fields of Artas to construct a wall that will cut villagers off from this fertile land, while a concrete tunnel for raw settlement sewage grows longer each day."

A Really Good Question

Iran, US: Bury the Past!

"Is it logical to threaten Iran with nuclear weapons and expect it to give up its nuclear program?"

RIP Leona Helmsley

"We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."

Leona Helmsley 1920 - 2007

OOOPS!

That Is A Step In the Right Direction

Cancer Panel Attacks U.S. Food Subsidies

A new presidential report on cancer takes on not only tobacco companies but the food industry while calling on the federal government to "cease being a purveyor of unhealthy foods" and switch to policies that encourage Americans to eat vegetables and exercise.

The report, issued on Thursday, also urged changes in public and private insurance policies to encourage doctors to spend more time counseling patients on how to stay healthy by eating right, exercising and avoiding tobacco.

Federal, state, and local policies have actually made healthful foods more expensive and less available, have limited physical education in schools and created an environment that discourages physical activity, the report said.

"Ineffective policies, in conjunction with limited regulation of sales and marketing in the food and beverage industry, have spawned a culture that struggles to make healthy choices -- a culture in dire need of change," said the report, available on the Internet at http://pcp.cancer.gov.

When Will This End?

Every day there is a news about another abuse of privileges and opportunities. These people are Aliens.

Commerce, Treasury Funds Helped Boost GOP Campaigns

Washington - Top Commerce and Treasury Departments officials appeared with Republican candidates and doled out millions in federal money in battleground congressional districts and states after receiving White House political briefings detailing GOP election strategy.

Political appointees in the Treasury Department received at least 10 political briefings from July 2001 to August 2006, officials familiar with the meetings said. Their counterparts at the Commerce Department received at least four briefings - all in the election years of 2002, 2004 and 2006.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether the White House's political briefings to at least 15 agencies, including to the Justice Department, the General Services Administration and the State Department, violated a ban on the use of government resources for campaign activities.

Just for Laughs

How many zeros is that?

An offbeat South Carolina prison inmate has filed a handwritten lawsuit seeking $63 quintillion from Michael Vick.

That’s $63,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Or as Jonathan Lee Riches put it in his handwritten lawsuit, "$63,000,000,000 billion." The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Richmond on July 23.

Riches -- who has developed an Internet cult following for his propensity to file strange lawsuits naming multiple diverse defendants -- claims that Vick stole his pit bulls and sold them on eBay to "use the proceeds to purchase missiles from the Iran government."

In the complaint, Riches scrawls that "Michael Vick has to stop physically hurting my feelings and dashing my hopes."

Inmate sues Vick for $63,000,000,000,000,000,000 -- chicagotribune.com

Mabel and Madge are in Danger

Cat thyroid disease linked to chemicals

An epidemic of thyroid disease among pet cats could be caused by toxic flame retardants that are widely found in household dust and some pet food, government scientists reported Wednesday.

The often-lethal disease was rare in cats until the 1980s, when it began appearing widely, particularly in California cats. That was at the same time industry started using large volumes of brominated flame retardants in consumer products, including furniture cushions, electronics, mattresses and carpet padding.

Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency noted a possible connection between hyperthyroidism and flame retardants. The chemicals -- known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs -- mimic thyroid hormones, so experts have theorized that high exposure in cats could cause overactive thyroids.

Cats that remain indoors and eat fish-flavored canned food were found to be the most highly contaminated.

Fuck the Citigroup Center--500 West Madison

What a bad experience. When you enter the Citigroup Center and 500 West Madison, there is an idiot in a red suit seating there checking your IDs. Now it is not enough that I have a "sheriff's Id" that is harder to get than a passport and/or a driver's license and certainly harder than a State ID--but is that enough for this mother fucker in a red suit? NO!! You have to show your driver's license and then they SCAN it and keep it in their database. What the fuck?

I asked to talk to the supervisor and this other idiot in a black suit comes up and start saying: "what are you aksing me?" What am I aksing you? At that time, I knew any conversation with that imbecile was going to be futile.

So, fuck 500 West Madison and MD Realty--and fuck them once each day and twice on Sundays.

Ahh...

this blog thing is good therapy. I feel better already.

Free Your Music

Get Your Music Off of Your iPod

What You'll Need:

1. An iPod (obviously)

2. Either a Windows or Mac machine.

The simplest method for grabbing tunes off of your iPod is also the geekiest. Just enable the "Disk Mode" feature of the iPod from within iTunes, which will allow you to mount the iPod as a hard drive. Then, you can browse the disk using Windows Explorer or the Mac's Finder.

How To (Mac)

On a Mac, you'll need to enable hidden folders in the Finder.

1. Launch the Terminal by going to Applications > Utilities and double-clicking on Terminal.app.

2. Paste in these lines of code:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

killall Finder

3. If you ever want to make the hidden folders disappear again, just run the code again, but change TRUE to FALSE.

How To (Windows)

Similarly, you can copy songs from an iPod onto a Windows PC by enabling hidden folders to be viewed. Here's how.

1. Open your My Computer directory.

2. Double click on your iPod.

3. Go to Tools > Folder Options > View.

4. In the Advanced Settings list, under Hidden files and folders, check the radio button for Show hidden files and folders. Then click OK.

5. Go to iPod_Control > Music.

You'll see the iPod's music organized randomly into a bunch of folders. Copy those into your music directory. Although the filenames of the songs will be scrambled, their ID3 tags will be intact, so you'll be able to navigate the songs as usual on your computer or another iPod. While these slightly inconvenient methods work, there are plenty of software apps that make the process of browsing and copying files much easier.

Ahhhh... To be A Role Model!!!

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday signed into law the controversial Interception of Communications Bill, which gives his government the authority to eavesdrop on phone and Internet communications and read physical mail.
The legislation has drawn outspoken opposition from the political opposition and civil society organizations as trampling on the civil rights of Zimbabweans.

[…]

But Communications Minister Christopher Mushowe said Zimbabwe is not unique in the world in passing such legislation, citing electronic eavesdropping programs in the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa, among other countries.

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/Zimbabwe/2007-08-03-voa58.cfm

Mike Luckovich

Another Happy Family

He wants to spend more time with his family. That's nice.

Karl Rove, Adviser to President Bush, to Resign

Karl Rove, the architect of President Bush's two national campaigns and his most prominent adviser through 6-1/2 tumultuous years in the White House, will resign at month's end and leave politics, a White House spokeswoman said this morning.

They Should Unionize...

After all, Unions brought us the weekend...

Are the Bees Dying off Because They're Too Busy?

All across America, a mysterious disease is wiping out bee colonies. This malady causes all the bees in a hive to seemingly vanish overnight, abandoning their brood in the nursery, as well as their stores of honey and pollen. Other bees and pests, which normally plunder deserted honey, shun these hives. This baffling die-off dealt a financial blow to commercial beekeepers this season and raised fears of environmental and economic disaster. For farmers, no bees means no pollination.

But pollination is happening like mad in Leah Fortin's tiny yard in North Oakland, Calif. Busy little bee bodies cover the clumps of lavender, salvia and roses that line her driveway. More bees work the malaleucas on the parking strip, those trees with shaggy bark that look like giant Q-tips when they're in bloom.

Another "Collision"?... Yeah Right.

So far in each and every stage "collision" the DemocRATS who hold the majority have caved into the demands of the White House and their Republican counterparts. So what collision? What...where...who? It's all a joke.

Bush, Congress could collide on Iran

Taking military action against Iran could put President Bush on a collision course with Congress, leading Democrats and a Republican lawmaker cautioned Friday following Bush's threat of unspecified consequences for alleged Iranian meddling in Iraq.

It's been the consensus for months among the Democrats who hold the majority that Bush must get congressional authorization before any military strike.

But the authorization would be no easy sell. Two knowledgeable U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because intelligence on Iran is highly classified, said that the administration so far doesn't have "smoking-gun" evidence that could be used publicly to justify an air attack.

It Belongs to All of Us...

The fuck is this? Arctic? Wasn’t there an agreement hat the place was to be used for science and such by everyone?

The move comes a week after a Russian sub planted a flag on the Arctic seabed. Moscow claims rights to half the Arctic. The US, Norway and Denmark also have claims.
Canada uses military might in Arctic scramble

Right at the Edge

Stocks tumbled around the world today while the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks in Europe, Japan and elsewhere continued pumping money into the financial system to keep it functioning despite spreading turmoil in the credit markets.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 100 points in the opening minutes of trading, following a loss of 387 points Thursday. The plunge Thursday was the index’s second-worst of the year and shaved nearly 3 percent off its value.

Market Volatility Continues on Wall Street

Definitely Useful

Ridiculously Useful Shortcuts Easily Forgotten

There are some truly invaluable keyboard shortcuts in Mac OS X and related apps that can get lost in the noise. Here a few I found or was reminded about recently.

1. Space goes down one page in Safari. Shift-Space goes one page up.

2. Command-Shift-A summons the Applications folder in the Finder. Command-Shift-U brings up Utilities.

3. Control-Command-D will bring up a floating dictionary panel over any word in a standard Cocoa NSText-based view or WebView.

4. Option-Esc will offer autocompletion in just about any standard Cocoa text view. I'm not sure exactly how the list is constructed, but most of it seems to come from the built-in dictionary (see the Daring Fireball post about this)

5. A subset of Unix-style key bindings work in many text contexts. Control-E goes to the end of a line, Control-A goes to the beginning, and so on.

6. Option-Command-H hides all apps except the frontmost one.

Flaberghgasted!!

This is about racism--After you have overcome the jaw dropping sound and sight, listen to the lyrics. This kid is... There are no words.

Where is the Opposition?

So what is it about Democracy that these people hate so much. Accountability. These assholes (and I am sorry--I cannot refer to these crooks any other way that has a hint of respect) hate America and Democracy so much that they would feel at home in Libya--Mr. Ghazafi has nothing to be ashamed of.

I wish I could write up a test and then get to grade it too... I bet I would get straight As!

The law, which permits intercepting Americans’ calls and e-mails without a warrant if the communications involve overseas transmission, gives Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales responsibility for creating the broad procedures determining whose telephone calls and e-mails are collected. It also gives McConnell and Gonzales the role of assessing compliance with those procedures.

The law, signed Sunday by President Bush after being pushed through the Senate and House over the weekend, does not contain provisions for outside oversight -- unlike an earlier House measure that called for audits every 60 days by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Same Agencies to Run, Oversee Surveillance Program

Holly Shit!!!

BTW--notice the discoloration on the guy's forehead.

Whether it’s from a struggle to differentiate themselves from the crowd, a new crazy way of artistic expression, or simply because they ran out of space, some people have started getting tattoos on their eyeballs. And we’re not talking about permanent makeup or anything else on the outside of the eye -- we’re talking ink injected right into the cornea.

Wanna do something crazy? Get a tattoo ON YOUR EYE

RIP--Hal Fishman

Hal Fishman 1931-2007

 For those who may want to know, Hal was a fixture of Los Angeles news. In fact, the news anchor character in The Simsons is modeled after him.

Bridges...

You know--If we have trouble building bridges that last here at home, can the Iraqis trust us to build bridges that won't collapse for them? I would review the contractors' credentials in Iraq if I were the Iraqis.

Just a thought...

Bridge Collapse Revives Issue of Road Spending

Even as the cause of the bridge disaster here remains under investigation, the collapse is changing a lot of minds about spending priorities. It has focused national attention on the crumbling condition of America’s roadways and bridges — and on the financial and political neglect they have received in Washington and many state capitals.

Hiroshima Remembered

This is a great site. It has a lot of information about all the efforts made in the days and months before the Bomb was dropped. It is interesting to view all the classified information that was produced in those days.

The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II: A Collection of Primary Sources

A Collection of Primary Sources

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 162

Edited by William Burr - 202/994-7000

Posted - August 5, 2005

Updated - April 27, 2007

You Won't Hear This on CNN

Israel's Jewish Problem in Tehran

There is an interesting problem with selling the "Iran as Nazi Germany" line. If Ahmadinejad really is Hitler, ready to commit genocide against Israel's Jews as soon as he can get his hands on a nuclear weapon, why are some 25,000 Jews living peacefully in Iran and more than reluctant to leave despite repeated enticements from Israel and American Jews?

What is the basis for Israel's dire forecasts – the ideological scaffolding being erected, presumably, to justify an attack on Iran? Helpfully, as George Bush defended his Iraq policies last month, he reminded us yet again of the menace Iran supposedly poses: it is "threatening to wipe Israel off the map."

This myth has been endlessly recycled since a translating error was made of a speech Ahmadinejad delivered nearly two years ago. Farsi experts have verified that the Iranian president, far from threatening to destroy Israel, was quoting from an earlier speech by the late Ayatollah Khomeini in which he reassured supporters of the Palestinians that "the Zionist regime in Jerusalem" would "vanish from the page of time."

I Wonder...

... If these are the same people who voted for Bush.

Is New Mexico a State? Many Americans Don't Know

New Mexico Magazine has a monthly compilation of stories about Americans who don't know that New Mexico is a U.S. state. The editor, Walter Lopez, talks with Lynn Neary about the bank tellers, cell phone providers and ticketing agents who tell New Mexicans that they reside in another country.

Coming Soon... Lake Inferior

Lake Superior changes puzzle scientists

the mighty Superior is losing water and getting warmer, worrying those who live near its shores, scientists and companies that rely on the lake for business.

The changes to the lake could be signs of climate change, although scientists aren't sure.

Superior's level is at its lowest point in eight decades and will set a record this fall if, as expected, it dips three more inches. Meanwhile, the average water temperature has surged 4.5 degrees since 1979, significantly above the 2.7-degree rise in the region's air temperature during the same period.

That's no small deal for a freshwater sea that was created from glacial melt as the Ice Age ended and remains chilly in all seasons.

Wierder and Wierder

Someone tell these stupid fucks that the best way to reduce crime is to give people jobs and hope for a better future. These imbeciles should go to the legislature and watch them rather than go to court.

Christian court watchers keep tabs on judges

Frustrated with widespread drug abuse -- especially of easily accessible prescription painkillers -- a handful of mountain churches are moving away from their traditional role as a refuge for the poor and addicted. Now they're more interested in law enforcement.

The Community Church of Manchester is leading the way through "Court Watch," a program in which volunteers attend court hearings to monitor judges overseeing drug-related cases.

"It's kind of a new position and very controversial," said Becknell, who also runs his church's local Christian television station. "A lot of churches shun getting involved in politics or going to court."

The Rev. Doug Abner, pastor at Community Church -- whose slogan for a 2004 anti-drug march was "get saved or get busted" -- said the presence of Court Watch volunteers puts "mild pressure" on judges "to do the right thing." The volunteers collect information for a database and look for trends in drug crimes.

The program concerns some other people of faith, who say it cuts against Christian values.

Penn-Chavez 2008

Sean Penn meets Chavez in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela - Sean Penn applauded President Hugo Chavez as the Venezuelan leader lambasted the Bush administration and demanded an end to war in Iraq.
Chavez met privately with the 46-year-old actor for two hours Thursday, praising him as being "brave" for urging Americans to impeach President Bush.

"In the name of the peoples of the world, President Bush, withdraw the troops from Iraq. Enough already with so much genocide," Chavez said before an auditorium packed with his red-clad supporters.

Fascism 101

White House Manual for Silencing Critics

So the truth comes out.

After a myriad of stories about people being excluded from events where the President is speaking, now we know that the White House had a policy manual on just how to do so.

Called the “Presidential Advance Manual,” this 103-page document from the Office of Presidential Advance lays out the parameters for how to handle protesters at events.

“Always be prepared for demonstrators,” says the document, which is dated October 2002 and which the ACLU released as part of a new lawsuit. (For a copy of the lawsuit or the document itself, go to http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/protest/30298prs20070628.html.)

In a section entitled “Preventing Demonstrators,” the document says: “All Presidential events must be ticketed or accessed by a name list. This is the best method for preventing demonstrators. People who are obviously going to try to disrupt the event can be denied entrance at least to the VIP area between the stage and the main camera platform. . . . It is important to have your volunteers at a checkpoint before the Magnetometers in order to stop a demonstrator from getting into the event. Look for signs they may be carrying, and if need be, have volunteers check for folded cloth signs that demonstrators may be bringing.”

With Democrats Like This...

Senate Votes To Expand Warrantless Surveillance

Democrats "have a Pavlovian reaction: Whenever the president says the word 'terrorism,' they roll over and play dead," said Caroline Fredrickson, Washington legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Round up of Some Old Blogs Not Published...

Where else will you get value like this?

French woman arrested after expensive art kiss

A Cambodian-born French woman faces prosecution for criminal damage after planting a kiss on a painting by the American artist Cy Twombly, leaving the imprint of her lipstick on the otherwise immaculate white canvas.

Senate Work Held Up by Republican Filibusters

The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats' razor-thin win in last year's election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans' exile to the minority.

Seven months into the current two-year term, the Senate has held 42 "cloture" votes aimed at shutting off extended debate - filibusters, or sometimes only the threat of one - and moving to up-or-down votes on contested legislation. Under Senate rules that protect a minority's right to debate, these votes require a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member Senate.

Indiana BP refinery cleared to dump mercury in lake

Although the federal government ordered states more than a decade ago to dramatically limit mercury discharges into the Great Lakes, the BP refinery in northwest Indiana will be allowed to continue pouring small amounts of the toxic metal into Lake Michigan for at least another five years.

A little-noticed exemption in BP's controversial new state water permit gives the oil company until 2012 to meet strict federal limits on mercury discharges. In documents, Indiana regulators predict the refinery won't be able to comply and will ask to continue polluting after that date.

Federal records analyzed by the Tribune show BP puts 2 pounds of mercury into the lake every year from its sprawling plant 3 miles southeast of Chicago in Whiting, Ind. That amount is small compared with the mercury that falls into the water from air pollution, but mercury builds up in the environment and is so toxic that even tiny drops can threaten fish and people.

Crash of 2008---Here We Come

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street plunged anew Friday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 280 points after comments from a Bear Stearns executive reinvigorated the market’s fears of a widening credit crunch.

The huge drop was a fitting end to two extraordinarily volatile weeks on Wall Street and followed back-to-back triple digit gains in the Dow. This time, the catalyst for a sharp skid was Bear Stearns Cos. Chief Financial Officer Sam Molinaro, who described conditions in the credit market as the worst he’d seen in more than two decades.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 283.62, or 2.11 percent, to 13,179.71.

Broader stock indicators also slid. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 39.34, or 2.67 percent, to 1,432.86, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 64.73, or 2.51 percent, to 2,511.25.

The session also saw a notable rise in the bond market, as investors fled to the relative safety of fixed-income investments. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.70 percent from 4.77 percent late Thursday. Bond prices move opposite yields.

Stocks Fall Sharply Amid Credit Fears
(via The New York Times)

Those Days of Police State Are Over...

... At least until the next patriotic hysteria.

D.C. Pays $1million to Demonstrators:

The District of Columbia has agreed to pay $1 million to about 120 protesters who were improperly rounded up by police during demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The settlement Wednesday is the largest payout to date by the city for police actions during the Sept. 27, 2002, protests.

Charles Ramsey, who was police chief at the time, initially defended the arrests but later acknowledged they were improper. Police failed to order the crowds to disperse or warn that they faced arrest.

A larger class-action lawsuit is pending, covering more than 400 people who say they were illegally arrested at Pershing Park near the White House. The city previously agreed to pay more than $640,000 to settle lawsuits filed by 14 other demonstrators who said they were illegally rounded up by police.

Ron Paul ‘Surprise Fave Among Troops’

Now this is very interesting. Ron Paul is the one who believes in finding the reason(s) why the terrorists terrorize our world (for which he was chastised by the Giuliani the Idiot).

WHAT’S UP: Among Republicans running for president, the anti-war candidate - Texas Rep. Ron Paul - has the highest total of campaign contributions from service members, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission reports. Paul collected $14,840 from service members, slightly more than the $14,775 collected by Arizona Sen. John McCain, a supporter of the war in Iraq. The other Republican candidates got $2,600 or less from contributors who identified themselves as service members.

WHAT’S NEXT: Paul, who served as a flight surgeon in the Air Force in the 1960s, and McCain, a Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, could not be further apart in their views of the Iraq war, which is the biggest military issue so far in the 2008 campaign that is just beginning. The current front-runner in the race, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, received $2,550 from military contributors, the FEC report shows.

The Army Times: Ron Paul ‘Surprise Fave Among Troops’
(via Antiwar.com)

Like One Reason Was Not Enough...

Why sex?

The reasons people give are clustered in four groups:

Physical
-My hormones were out of control
-I was attracted to the person
-It seemed like good exercise
Goal-directed
-I wanted to get a raise
-Because of a bet
-I wanted to change the topic of conversation
Emotional
-I realized I was in love
-I wanted to say ’thank you’
Insecurity
-I didn’t know how to say ’no’
-I felt obligated

The 237 reasons to have sex