Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha he he he hee ho ho ho ho ho.....aaahhhh! Oh gawd!

Pa Gov. Ed Rendell claims Fox coverage of the primaries is the fairest and best balanced...

ROFLCOPTER TRDMFFLASH (Tears running down my face from laughing and sides hurting!)

A woman would have to be crazy to enlist in the military

It's a dirty boys club. It stinks and I'm writing letters.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) writes in the LA Times:

Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.
[...]
A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer.
[...]
At the heart of this crisis is an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks. According to DOD statistics, only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007, including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial, the equivalent of a criminal prosecution in the military. Another 218 were handled via nonpunitive administrative action or discharge, and 201 subjects were disciplined through "nonjudicial punishment," which means they may have been confined to quarters, assigned extra duty or received a similar slap on the wrist. In nearly half of the cases investigated, the chain of command took no action; more than a third of the time, that was because of "insufficient evidence."
[...]
The absence of rigorous prosecution perpetuates a culture tolerant of sexual assault — an attitude that says “boys will be boys.”

"Boys will be boys" my ass. What the hell is wrong with our country? Doesn't anyone bother to psychologically evaluate enlistees? I still maintain that if you know anyone who is considering enlisting in the military, tie them up until their urge goes away. It's for their own good. They'll thank you one day.

Do not support the military industrial complex. Write your congress critters, your newspapers and make a stink. Wanna serve your country? Start writing.

FABULOUS READ.........(it's about Silver and Gold & JFK)

SILVER, GOLD & THE LAST AMERICAN HERO JFK (hero, def. a man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength)

News.

I want my REAL Jersey Tomato back........NJ Taking Garden Out of Garden State?

Monday March 31, 11:50 am ET
By Tom Hester Jr., Associated Press Writer
Farmers Worry Proposal to Cut Agriculture Department Could Take Garden Out of Garden State

This makes absolutely no sense at all. It apears that Gov. Jon Corzine is proposing to make New Jersey the third state without a Department of Agriculture as he looks to slash spending amid chronic state budget problems.

New Jersey needs its farmers. SPRAWL cannot win here. This is a HUGE slap in the face.
If I were still living in Jersey, this would be my next cause. I would be heading down to the legislative building right now. I still go back to Jersey in August to get my "Jersey Tomatoes"



(Did you know that the farmers in NJ wanted the state vegetable to be the The Jersey Tomato? the state vegetable.......wait a minute is a tomatoe a fruit, or is the tomato a vegetable?)

"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."

Well, all I know is that during my time living in NJ, I lived for the farmer's stands ALL OVER THE GARDEN state during the summer. Oh that Jersey soil!

Knowledge is also knowing when to leave things be. I really can't imagine the old farmers in the state letting this happen.

WTF Corzine!!

I should round up some of the college students here in Connecticut to show these Joisey kids how to fight sprawl. Check out this fabulous opinion from yesterday's Hartford Courant on Seeing Sprawl from a Students' Perspective
Two students expressed profoundly skeptical thoughts on the topic. One said "sprawl is the perpetuation of segregation due to the systemic misuse of institutions promoting whiteness" and another added "through sprawl misery and success co-exist, one feeding off the other." The utopian suburb, she continued, does not exist: "it did not exist in 1950 and it still does not exist."


---------------------------


In Search of the Jersey Tomato (great little story)

HE STORY OF THE JERSEY TOMATO begins, not on an idyllic farm, but at the old Salem County Courthouse. On September 26th, 1820, just after noon, Robert Gibbon Johnson mounted the stairs of the courthouse carrying a basket of ripe, red tomatoes. A crowd began to gather. Johnson was going to eat a tomato! Doctor James Van Meter stood at his side as Johnson, one of the county’s wealthiest and most respected citizens, addressed the onlookers. Holding up one of the tomatoes, which were widely believed to be poisonous, he announced, “The time will come when this luscious scarlet tomato, rich in nutrition, a delight to the eye, a joy to the palate whether fried, baked, broiled or even eaten raw, will form the foundation of a great garden industry.” Then he bit into the tomato, and kept on eating until the basket was empty. From that moment on, The Jersey Tomato wasn’t just a booming New Jersey industry, but a round, red icon of summer.

It’s the perfect creation story for a food that defines the New Jersey summer as definitively as the cheesesteak defines Philadelphia, except for this: Robert Johnson’s often-recounted tomato-tasting is probably nothing but a myth. But then, maybe that’s fitting, because the ideal of The Jersey Tomato is also pure myth.

MAKE A MYTH A REALITY
(not the genetically modified reality though)

Aways down below in the comments...

Saborlas said,
"All these arguments cannot match my counter-argument of putting bacon in my ramen."

I realize it's either a little late, or awfully early for an OFSP but
Is this another way of describing the act of "porking somebody's hootenanny?"

Gun Laws vs. The Madness

First, most of the NRA terrorist enablers in this country will immediately and frothingly screech "Guns don't kill; PEOPLE kill!" in response to this post.

Fuck them. I own guns myself, and I have a 4th Amendment that says what's mine is mine, stays private and you'd better not try to screw with me.

I also have a 1st Amendment, and I'm not afraid to use it.

So there.

We have seen cases in just the past few months of people who've gone seriously sideways and started shooting up their places of residence, employment, education, etc. When asked (provided the perpetrator lives past the crime scene), we usually get the answer that the person was:

1. On drugs.
2. Insane at the time (but all better now).
3. Just plain pissed off.

The Republican-led Legislature of the State of Florida, who dwell within the

prophetically phallic Capitol Building in Tallahassee, are considering a bill foisted upon them by the NRA and a gaggle of pure psychotics who have apparently lost their senses entirely as well as their faith in institutions such as government, the police and the courts. Apparently believing that we are reverting to the Wild West, the bill would allow employees to take their guns with them to work, so that if someone shows up to start shooting, they can shoot back.

Uh-huh.

Let me lay a smidgen of wisdom down on you - the bulk of the workplace violence in this country comes not from a pissed-off customer, but from the workers in the workplace. That's right; your fellow employees.

It's bad enough that Florida allows anyone who can pass a simple criminal background check to own a concealed firearm (I've read editorial letters from rubes who want us to parade around with firearms openly showing, says it makes for a "polite society"), but we also have a law on the books that says you don't need to run if someone approaches you with a gun. You can stand your ground and shoot them as long as you can articulate that your life was in jeopardy.

I'll have 'OK Corral' for $600, Alex.

With so many people likely to lose even the moiety of their marbles that they still have after endless reruns of 24 and first-person shooter video games (which are dandy at teaching hand/eye coordination, aiming and the use of the one shot-one kill philosophy), what is the NRA driving at by insisting that their paid lackeys in the Legislature drive this bill forward?

Which brings me back to their screeching war cry at the beginning of this post.

Yeah. A gun's a tool, just like a hammer or a typewriter or a computer; it's what you do with it that requires personal responsibility. A gun, though, is the only of those four items that when used properly is designed to kill.

And recall the old adage that if you have a hammer, all your problems look like nails.

If you have a gun, all your problems look like targets.

Al Gore's New campaign (Tells 60 Minutes That Doubting Global Warming Is Man-Made Is Akin To Believing Earth Is Flat)

That's CBS's title (and subtitle)

Watch the full interview with Leslie




13 minutes long - here's a 4 page summary on cbs's webiste

discuss politely please

(my jury is still out on Al - blackdog please help me in the comment section - don't want to delete any - plus I might have to take a nap pretty soon)

The new.... "NEW FED SWAT TEAM"

Let's start at the very beginning

Oct/1999


Clinton, Republicans agree to deregulation of US financial system:

An agreement between the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans, reached during all-night negotiations which concluded in the early hours of October 22, sets the stage for passage of the most sweeping banking deregulation bill in American history, lifting virtually all restraints on the operation of the giant monopolies which dominate the financial system.

The proposed Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 would do away with restrictions on the integration of banking, insurance and stock trading imposed by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, one of the central pillars of Roosevelt's New Deal. Under the old law, banks, brokerages and insurance companies were effectively barred from entering each others' industries, and investment banking and commercial banking were separated.

(the rest is history.....or is it still being played out Hillary?)

This has GOT to be an April Fool's joke.....

From Surfing The Apocalypse:

It is almost beyond belief that Congress would allow the creators of the source of most of the country's woes to now possess this level of control and power.

The Republic is truly lost...

PPT to come out of the Closet

Here's the story from yesterday's NYTimes:

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

The proposal is part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the nation’s hodgepodge of financial regulatory agencies, which many experts say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they set off what is now the worst financial calamity in decades.

Democratic lawmakers are all but certain to say the proposal does not go far enough in restricting the kinds of practices that caused the financial crisis. Many of the proposals, like those that would consolidate regulatory agencies, have nothing to do with the turmoil in financial markets. And some of the proposals could actually reduce regulation.

(oh Eliot Eliot Eliot.....SO close.....why didn't you just send the 80 grand in cash???? -- stupid stupid stupid Eliot)

Con't from The Surfing The Apocalypse Network:

I would like to think that this is some sort of sick April Fools joke, but, alas they are serious! What happened to free markets?? This is the same blue-print as the now failed Bush Administration Preemptive Strike Foreign Policy. The notion that the "financial SWAT team" goons will muscle their way into the private dealings of an institution that THEY think poses a risk to THEIR fraudulent fiat money Ponzi scheme is frightening. Presumably fund managers will be secretly flown to detention centers where "water-boarding" will be allowed to extract critical information like where they are hiding their gold!

What about this little gem…

QUOTE
"Under the Treasury proposal, Fed officials would be allowed to examine the practices and even the internal bookkeeping of brokerage firms, hedge funds, commodity-trading exchanges and any other institution that might pose a risk to the overall financial system."

What a peach! The FED SWAT team can raid any institution, hedge fund, exchange, and see what key investment positions are and then pass it along to Goldman Sachs who can then make a fortune trading against them as they did with the position data they had confidential access to during the LTCM bail out!!

If you think I am a little over the top consider this…

QUOTE
"While the plan could expose Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds to greater scrutiny, it carefully avoids a call for tighter regulation."

So why would they want to have more scrutiny if they are not going to have tighter rules???? Hey, don’t pay any attention to the guys with the night vision goggles wandering around your office they just want to have a closer look at your financial dealings.

Is this designed to fix any problems for Joe and Jane America? Nope!...

QUOTE
"The blueprint also suggests several areas where the S.E.C. should take a lighter approach to its oversight. Among them are allowing stock exchanges greater leeway to regulate themselves and streamlining the approval of new products, even allowing automatic approval of securities products that are being traded in foreign markets."

Oh! You mean like the self regulation of the mortgage industry that allowed mortgages for anyone with a pulse and the self regulation of the rating agencies that allowed a triple A rating for any re-packaged debt originated by someone with a pulse! And the re-packaged garbage instrument can be automatically approved as long as it is for export to some unsuspecting investor with a pulse overseas! That should help.

Here is the real killer quote from general Paulson

QUOTE
"I am not suggesting that more regulation is the answer, or even that more effective regulation can prevent the periods of financial market stress that seem to occur every 5 to 10 years," Mr. Paulson will say in a speech on Monday, according to a draft of the speech. "I am suggesting that we should and can have a structure that is designed for the world we live in, one that is more flexible."

WAKE UP FOLKS

I am awake, but I don't know what to do.

What should we do? Can we do anything? How would we even begin to do anything?

I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW

crossposted at BigBrassBlog

But will he be allowed to assume office if he wins this election THIS time?

Senior Democrats mull Al Gore's nomination

Plans for Al Gore to take the Democratic presidential nomination as the saviour of a bitterly divided party are being actively discussed by senior figures and aides to the former vice-president.

The bloody civil war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has left many Democrats convinced that neither can deliver a knockout blow to the other and that both have been so damaged that they risk losing November's election to the Republican nominee, John McCain. Former aides to Al Gore now believe he could emerge as a compromise candidate

Former Gore aides now believe he could emerge as a compromise candidate acceptable to both camps at the party's convention in Denver during the last week of August.

'Nuff said.

Since valium doesn't work;
Trying to follow Red's request...

Hillary and McCain video games

Bill Maher's team of writers came up with video games for Hillary and McCain. I'm sorry but the "John McCain's Virtual Fireplace" absolutely slayed me. Look at the hand holding the poker in the fireplace. I'm not anti-old people. I will soon be there... but still

Gay Scientists Isolate Christianity Gene

Finally, the idea that Christianity is a lifestyle choice can be put to rest. If you're a Christian, you cannot help it for you were born that way.



hat tip slatev

Connecticut's Superdelegates

First, let me state that I have no idea whatsoever how this process works. I am usually pretty good at searching, reading and then finally understanding. My head is spinning right about now, so I'll look to my blondesense family to help me. I do understand that WE THE PEOPLE do not elect these superdelegates. It seems to be a retarded process that I am not meant to understand. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) -- HELP!

Anywho - here is the Front page story from yesterday's Hartford Courant:

McCain-Clinton A Tossup

(But Poll Shows State's Voters Like Obama Vs. GOP Candidate)

John McCain could become the first Republican presidential candidate to carry Connecticut in 20 years if Democrats nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton, a new poll shows.

"It goes to the argument, 'I am electable, she is not.' That's a poll only for the superdelegates," said Nicholas Paindiris of Glastonbury, an Obama delegate. "In Connecticut, we already have eight."

A national Gallup poll this week favored Clinton on electability.

Electability is a concern for the superdelegates — senior party and elected officials who are not bound by primary results. Connecticut has a dozen, including Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr. of Brooklyn, who was chosen Tuesday night by the other delegates.

Obama is favored 8-1 over Clinton among the Connecticut superdelegates who have publicly expressed a preference. They include Williams, the co-chairman of Obama's state campaign.

The only publicly uncommitted superdelegates are U.S. Rep. Joseph Courtney of the 2nd District, Nancy DiNardo, the Democratic state chairwoman, and John Olsen, a member of the Democratic National Committee. ( Here's huffpo's off-the-bus scoop on DiNardo )



From democratic convention watch:

Wednesday was Connecticut's turn to name it's add-on superdelegate: The Connecticut Democratic superdelegate ranks are complete with the selection of State Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams, D-Brooklyn....he is a leader of the Obama campaign in Connecticut. More specifically, Williams is co-chair of Barack Obama's Connecticut Leadership Council along with Ned Lamont, and we will be adding him to the Obama column.





and here's the entire superdelegate list





“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.”

~ Mahatma Ghandi

Feds inspect radioactive cat

The feds are using sensors on I-5 to search for radioactive isotopes. The sensors are so sensitive that it detected a cat in a car traveling 70 miles per hour that had cancer and underwent treatment three days prior. Homeland Security is also randomly screening passengers for passports during domestic ferry runs in the San Juan Islands in Washington.
via current.com


Read the story here from Seattle Times:
Watch out, you're being watched


h/t to our reader Tom

Here's What I Hope

I hope that Karl Rove is sweating like the pig that he is tonight. How sweet would it be for someone to prove that he was behind the prosecution of Don Siegelman? There are allegations that his fingerprints are all over the prosecution. Congress is very interested and wants to talk to the governor. And then there was that CBS piece that somehow mysteriously disappeared from the airwaves in the governor's home state. Some very interesting (in a squirrely kinda way) things went on with Siegelman's indictment, trial and sentencing.

An appeals court has now overridden the trial judge and ordered Siegelman released during his appeal (after he'd sat in prison for over a year), finding the appeal raises several "substantial questions of law and fact." That's legalese for "there's a significant chance we are going to overturn this verdict."

The court that sprung him is a very conservative federal court. Two judges signed the order, one a Clinton appointee, the other a George HW Bush appointee. One of the judges (the Bush appointee) wrote the opinion on the Alabama sex toys case that many of us might recall.* So I don't think any of us might call her one of them there librul activist judges.

There's a lot of smoke right now. I think it would be hilarious if it turned into an inferno that burned Karl's house down.


* We stand in solidarity with our vibrator-deprived sisters in Alabama.

So much for the "Liberal Media"

On Sunday's Press the Meat, Chuck Todd, Political Director of MSNBC talked about the free ride they give McCain.

McCain's free media ride


Today, John Amato of C&L was on MSNBC to talk about those comments and when he did, Mark Mullen cut him off changing the topic to Al Gore!

Amato on MSNBC

We shoot them; we bomb them; we beat them to death...

And now:
Classified Memo Reveals Iraqi Prisoners as "Starving"
"A classified memo written by a top military official stationed in Western Iraq reveals that a prison in downtown Fallujah is so overcrowded and dirty that it does not even meet basic “minimal levels of hygiene for human beings."

"The conditions in these jails are so bad that I think we need to do the right thing in terms of caring for the prisoners even with our own dollars, or release them,” says the memo, written late last month by Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commander of U.S forces in western Iraq.

"The classified document, leaked to the website Wikileaks, a website where whistleblowers can "reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations," was authenticated by the organization.

"The memo contains other shocking revelations about conditions at the jail, including a massive shortage of food and water. The prison is said to be run by Iraqi officials. US Marines ("The few, the proud, the well-fed") oversee operation of the facility."

I have NEVER been more sick to my stomach in my ENTIRE life - I can't even compose myself at the moment......

Hannity Hypocritically Defends Obama




Part 2




Here is Paster Manning's video "Obama is a Mack Daddy" that is being discussed:




Here is the story from News Hounds (They watch Fox so we don't have to). Unfortunately I HAD to watch because I was just over my parents house (Fox is on 24/7 over there) checking up on them, and Fox and Friends was "covering the story". I had to leave before I started a fight.

Can I Make A Suggestion?

Can we here at BlondeSense move away from all the invective and nastiness based on whom our chosen Democratic nominee might be?

Cruising the liberal blogosphere is not all that much fun right now. There is a lot of good political news (see, Seigelman, Don) that is being drowned out amongst all the screeching and biting and clawing between Clinton and Obama supporters. Obama's preacher's a racist! Hillary's a liar! Obama is using dog whistles! Hillary is playing the race card! GAH!!!

This is not healthy and it's not helpful to the real goal of getting the country back on a better trajectory than it is in right now.

The Republican house of cards assembled over the past eight (and more) years is about to come crashing down on their precious pointy heads. Nothing stands in the way of moving the country in a more progressive direction but our own inability to see the forest from amongst the trees. Threats from one candidate's supporters that they'll never vote for the other are simply silly if one sincerely believes that 7 years of King George's reign have been nothing more than an unmitigated disaster for the country and the world. We have far more in common than we have differences.*

So . . . PEACE!

And I'll start. Let me apologize to our long time reader Gaia sighs for taking in after her yesterday in one of the comment threads. It is not helpful to alienate one's allies. I was wrong and I admit it.

*And fer fuck's sake, please stop feeding the trolls. It should be pretty obvious that their goal is to cause bitterness and distrust between those who should be friends. What exactly would anyone hope to gain by arguing with them? Does anyone really think the trolls' comments "prove" anything? Do anyone really think their responses will "prove" to the trolls they are wrong? The trolls' own comments demonstrate they are cretins. Let's leave it there. Please.



(Graphic shamelessly stolen fron konagod's blog)

Interesting....

What's the true cause of anger?
Anger isn't really a bad thing, but the sometimes accompanying aggression isn't very pleasant. How one deals with anger may implicate serious biological or psychiatric disease.

Have you been bullied at work?
About 1/3 of us have been bullied at work.

Found! Oldest recording of human voice
A 10 second snippet of a woman singing 'Au clair de la lune' from 1860 has been found. A fascinating gadget called a "phonautograph" scratched sound waves onto a sheet of paper blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp. Imagine that? See also BBC

Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls
another great piece by Laura Knight-Jadczyk about how history may have been more casually influenced by flying space debris.

Spring is Aurora Season
The weeks around the vernal equinox are prone to northern lights, but how the does know what season it is in the northern hemisphere on earth?

'Earth Hour' to plunge millions into darkness
Twenty-six major cities around the world are expected to turn off the lights on major landmarks, plunging millions of people into darkness to raise awareness about global warming, organisers said.

U.S. military suspends Afghanistan ammunition deal
How the hell does a 22 year old kid from Florida get a $300 million dollar contract with the pentagon to sell ammunition to Afghan soldiers? Not only that... it's old crap from China. duh. See also Raw Story with picture of kid.

Obligatory Friday Sex Post - Weirdness Edition

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

NZ man sentenced after claiming to have been raped by a wombat
March 28, 2008 - 7:55AM

A New Zealand man who claimed to have been left speaking Australian after being raped by a wombat has been sentenced to 75 hours community service.

Arthur Ross Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker, admitted in the Nelson District Court yesterday to the charge of using a phone for a fictitious purpose, after calling police with the message, "I've been raped by a wombat".

Police prosecutor Sergeant Chris Stringer told the court that on the afternoon of February 11 Cradock called the police communications centre, threatening to "smash the filth" if they arrived at his home that night.

When asked if he had an emergency, he replied "yes", Mr Stringer said.

On a second subsequent call to the communications centre, Cradock told police he was being raped by a wombat at his Motueka address, and sought their immediate help.

He called police again soon after, and gave his full name, saying he wanted to withdraw the complaint.

"I'll retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because he's pulled out," Cradock told the operator at the communications centre, who had no idea what he was talking about, Mr Stringer said.

"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know, I didn't hurt my bum at all," Cradock then told the operator.

Mr Stringer said alcohol had played a big part in Cradock's life. However, defence lawyer Michael Vesty said alcohol was not a problem that day.

Judge Richard Russell said he was not quite sure what motivated Cradock to make those statements to the police.

In sentencing, he warned Cradock not to do it again.

"Unrest?"

More like "Round 2."

While the Bushite Junta, John McCain and the neoconservaties ("Getting Shit Wrong Since 1992") were crowing about how the Surge in Iraq was turning that benighted country into a Happy Land of Hearts and Flowers, things were happening.

The brass over there slowed down the release of hostages - er, soldiers - to their anxiously waiting families. Explanation? They wanted a pause to see what progress they've made. From a purely military standpoint, I can actually appreciate that; you need to stop and assess what's going on, then adapt. It's an organic, dare I say evolutionary process.

But at the same time we paused at 140,000 troops, the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki decided to impose the central government's writ upon the southern city of Basra. Basra has the distinctions of being Iraq's second-largest city, its major oil hub and almost completely dominated by sectarian militias and criminal gangs since Saddam Hussein's troops were pushed out by our invasion in 2003.

The British last year withdrrew their last forces from Basra proper, for the relative safety of the air base outside the city.

The major militia in Basra is the JAM, or Jamiat al-Mahdi or Mahdi Army, headed by a Shiite cleric named Moqtada al-Sadr. He declared a unilateral cease-fire last year, and even the US grudgingly concedes that the cease-fire helped with the surge to quiet things down a tad.

Now, here's where things get interesting; the core of the Iraqi Army is made up of two militias, that of the Dawa Party and that of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Guess who is the leader of the Dawa Party's militia?

Nouri al-Maliki.

It's been accused that al-Maliki is trying to crack down on the JAM in order to reduce its influence in the provincial elections coming up in October, although the official line is that the Army's just trying to impose order.

Meanwhile, armed clashes and protests sparked by the Army's incursion into Basra have spread into seven other cities and towns, including the Shiite holy city of Kerbala and Baghdad, where mortar rounds and rockets have been launched into the so-called Green Zone. People living in that walled compound have been told to stay close to reinforced shelters and keep their helmets and body armor handy.

Yep, looks like The Surge was working - but not any longer.

Will the Iraqi army finally manage to do a job all on its own? Or will JAM beat their ass?

Stay tuned.

Some Stuff


It is to cry! So sad!



Religion coming to the White House?



Hillary's Lincoln Bedroom Donors

Wright Effect had Wrong Effect for Hillary

Not that I believe in polls or anything, but after reading No apparent ‘Wright effect’ in new NBC/WSJ poll I see that Obama's popularity hasn't diminished among Democrats but Hillary's has. Republicans who once supported Obama, unsurprisingly, are a bit taken back by it all. Clinton's negative campaigning is taking its toll on her.

I'm surprised she took the low road knowing what she knows about politics first hand- the low road works for conservatives but not for progressives. Whose side is she on anyway? But then again, we can't really trust the press to report anything accurately, so who the hell knows?

This blonde would be happy to see no more religion bashing in politics. If candidate's pastors or religious beliefs are going to be scrutinized as a regular feature of seeking office, things will get so dirty, so nasty and so low that it will take a revolution to stop the madness... and this crap is going on with 3 supposed Christians, mind you. Just goes to show that a theocracy would never work in this country.

Stop Loss Makes Prisoners of 60,000 Americans

From Pentagon Holds Thousands of Americans 'Prisoners of War' by Penny Coleman at Alternet.

"I was a great soldier once upon a time," Goldsmith says.

He graduated at the top of his class in basic training and was on the commandant's list in the Warrior Leadership Course with a 94.6 percent average. He aced every test, mental and physical, received commendations and medals and promotions, but by the end of his first deployment he knew he was in serious trouble.

His CSM (command sergeant major) Altman, however, had told his battalion, "If any of you go try to say you're depressed and thinking about killing yourself, you're going to get deployed anyway, and when we get there, you'll get to be my personal I.E.D. (improvised explosive device) kicker!" So he self-medicated; he drank. A lot. "All I wanted to do was black out."

What kept him going was the end that was in sight. He just had to hang on till his contract was up, and then he could go home, go back to school, and finally be a 20-year-old kid. Then days before he was scheduled to get out, his unit was locked down, stop-lossed as part of the surge. He was looking at another 18-month deployment.

At first he thought he was having a heart attack. It turned out to be a panic attack. He was diagnosed with depression, anxiety disorder and adjustment disorder, given a lot of pills and told he'd be fine. Or at least fine enough to go back.

The day before his unit was to deploy, Memorial Day 2007, he went out onto the memorial field at Ft. Stewart, where trees are planted for every soldier from 3rd Infantry Division killed in Iraq. He mixed pills and vodka, and tried to die.

Meanwhile, while the scandaldates are squabbling:

There's a post over at Cryptogon where the headline sorta says it all:
"Wall Street Journal on Real Estate Collapse: 'Demolish some of the least-wanted houses, with taxpayer money if necessary'"
to which a commenter attaches a comment, "US is being sold off." and a link to EconomyinCrisis.org where you will find such juicy tidbits as:

FOREIGN OWNERSHIP OF U.S.INDUSTRIES
Sound recording industries 97%
Commodity contracts dealing 79%
Motion picture and sound recording industries 75%
Metal ore mining 65%
Motion picture and video industries 64%
Wineries and distilleries 64%
Database, directory, and other publishers 63%
Book publishers 63%
and
Foreign Financing of U.S. Government Debt
Japan $517.2 Bn
China $405.5 Bn
United Kingdom $299.7 Bn
Brazil $128.8 Bn
Oil Exporters $126.7 Bn
Luxembourg $76.3 Bn
Hong Kong $54.3 Bn

The very height of propaganda

Oh for crying out loud.
Gag me with a spoon or one of those hand held metal detectors.

A US Senator and presidential contender must deal with this bullshit? Hell I wouldn't vote for McCain unless he was running against the evil dickster himself and there was no other choice and I hadn't had a chance to move to a foreign country yet, but McCain shouldn't put up with this (unless of course he did it for a photo op.)



Look. He's smiling. Isn't that cute?

Your face is too close to my crotch buddy. Come next January, the SS will have your hands tied behind your back if you try THIS again.

What could the AP Photographers be trying to tell us?

While Jenna reads a story to children at the WH Easter hoohah, a nearby child yawns widely.



This is the audience at a talk given by First lady, La La (Land) Bush at Rolling Ridge Elementary School in Olathe, Kan