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Tuesday, May 31, 2005

My Latest letter to the Network News

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 9:13 PM

This is my latest letter to the Network News channels, the main ones, CBS, ABC, NBC and PBS. I will probably send this also to the cable news channels, and a modification of this to the major radio programs, but this took long enough to write that this is all I'm doing TODAY. :)


From: Joy
Date: 05/31/05 12:12:06
To: nightly@nbc.com
Subject: Campaign Launched to Demand a Presidential Inquiry




To the staff of NBC News,

The lack of coverage by the major networks of the Downing Street Memo has been appalling. I'm not sure if it's because you are all afraid of the administration, or your corporate owners are sitting on the news, but either way, because the media is not COVERING the NEWS, our soldiers are dying. Your complicity with the lies of the current administration of Neoconservatives make you equally guilty of this travesty. I write to remind you of your responsibility as "journalists" though that title you wear very loosely now.

I long for the days of journalistic integrity when Woodward and Bernstein remembered their duty to be the fourth estate, as a check and balance to curb the tyranny of governmental power, during the Watergate era. Or the days when an unjust war was primarily ended due to the courageous coverage of the Vietnam War by journalists such as the now scape-goated Dan Rather. Where are "journalists" now? Covering stupid, non-stories like Michael Jackson, the "Run-Away Bride" and other infotainment that does not constitute news! Or they are busy making apologies for covering a story that was true (Bush's service record), even if the documents that Rather relied on were probably forged by Karl Rove to release information that they could later discredit. (This btw, is what Karl Rove does, he is a master at Machiavellian techniques, and ABC owes Dan Rather an apology).

more

Monday, May 30, 2005

Memorial Day musings

   By Marion Delgado at 6:30 AM

You know, I was drinking a "Pina Colada Chaos" Raging Cow, my favorite of its five outrageous flavors, and contemplating the sacrifices of our troops, many of whom have served more than 5 months in Iraq. The fruits of all our soldiers' efforts are clearly visible in the streets of Kirkuk today. There is very little trash in the streets, many more people in the markets and shops, and children have returned to school. This is all evidence that the work they are doing as a battalion and as American soldiers is bettering the lives of Kirkuk's citizens. I am proud of the work we are doing there in Iraq and I hope all of our readers are as well. I was also thinking of the low price, stability, security, and tremendous variety of software available for the Windows Longhorn system, which is out now as a demo for developers and which will, God willng, be ready for consumer use when many of our troops return.

Truly, we live in a God blessed nation with proven GOP leadership.

I am having a very American Memorial day, and I know the soldiers we have lost in the past would have wanted us to drink Raging Cow, use only Longhorn (I'm a convert - after I left the Macintosh, I was up and running on XP Pro in one day, Boy Scouts' Honor - it's true!), and support this democratic effort in Iraq. I also feel it's a nice gesture if we can join our fallen dead by getting into fatal car accidents over the Memorial Day weekend, but, as we say in net lingo, YMMV (your mileage may vary).

Friday, May 27, 2005

Bush and Blair Planned war Nine days after Sept. 11, 2001

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 11:00 PM

My oh MY!

Apparently Bush and Blair planned on the Iraq War 9 days after 9/11, according Christopher Meyer the former British Ambassador to the UN.

I wrote a blog here...

This is historical context as the article is age, but it was suppressed by our press...

John Conyers wants you!

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 8:09 PM

Congressman John Conyers posted an appeal to get 100,000 signatures on a new letter to the President and members of Congress today regarding the Downing Street Memo...

Go sign on! We are getting a lot of signatures already, but it would be better to get even more than 100,000.

  • Ed. Note: Direct link to Congressman Conyers' letter, here.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Obvious envious grumbling from the tinfoil-hat liberal cheap seats!

   By Marion Delgado at 6:51 PM

Blogging for Dollars


Anything for a buck

By J. Ryan

Leading Internet marketing firm pays bloggers to shill

It looks like the folks at USWeb.com, a leading Internet marketing firm, have taken the idea of shilling one step further and could very well be in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act.

While searching the online postings at CraigsList, I came across an interesting post, which read, “Get paid for blogging… We will pay you to post to your blog. We pay $5 via PayPal per blog posting. To start earning cash, email me with your name and blog URL. We are looking for people to pay today. If you don’t have a PayPal account, we can also send you a gift certificate for iTunes if you like.”

So I sent off an email requesting further information. The reply email came from Ed Shull (ed@uswest.com) and read, “This is pretty simple. I will provide a subject, you write a short (50 word min.) post, we pay you $5. The first subject is a flower site. You should give a favorable review of the flower site, Dot Flowers.” The rest of the email went on to explain that in the review I must link to the Dot Flowers website using the anchor text “buy flowers online.” It also included a list of things I could write; such as “they have better pricing,” and that their site loads faster than the competitors sites. There was also info about the technical aspects of the site, such as the code used behind the pages and that it’s “error free.” After completing the post, the instructions were simple, “…please send me a URL to the post and your PayPal address. Also, let me know how often you wish to post for us, and we will send over more subjects. Thanks, Ed.”

Being a poor unemployed tech worker hoping to get into writing as a way to make money, the first thing that came to mind was, Hey that’s a pretty good deal to make a quick five bucks, and possibly more while doing very little work. Being a one-time journalism major, the second thing that came to mind was, to go ahead and do something like this would be unethical and possibly illegal. The problem is that the posts are not reviews at all. They are in fact paid advertisements disguised to look like the actual view or opinions of the person or consumer writing the blog.

The blogger is not required to say anywhere in the post that the views presented have been paid for by the advertiser. Even though it’s common practice for advertisers to write copy that has the look and feel of a news story or a consumer endorsement, according to the FTC they are required to include that the information in the article or review is in fact a paid advertisement.

In section 255.2-(b) of the “FTC Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials In Advertising,” it clearly states that, “Advertisements presenting endorsements by what are represented, directly or by implication, to be “actual consumers’’ should utilize actual consumers, in both the audio and video or clearly and conspicuously disclose that the persons in such advertisements are not actual consumers of the advertised product.”

So who’s responsible for violating the FTC guidelines? Would it be the responsibility of the agency or company that approved and paid for the review (ad) or their client, and not that of the person writing and posting to their blog. In other words, the blogger is merely writing poor copy that amounts to a deceptive ad. Or does the responsibility rest on the shoulders of the blogger posting the paid review on their site without disclosing that the reviews are actually paid advertisements?

I phoned the FTC to ask how these rules apply to bloggers. Unfortunately they were unable to answer my question. I was told that they could not answer my question in regards to how the rule applies or offer any legal interpretations as to how it may be applied. In addition, I also sent the FTC an email asking the same question and stating that I was writing an article regarding bloggers and advertising on the Internet. I did receive a reply back from the senior press officer at the FTC, Claudia Bourne Farrell (CFARRELL@ftc.gov). She wrote me back to inquire as to whom I was writing the article for. I informed her that I was a freelancer and not working for any particular publication. After my reply I received no further emails from her regarding the matter and additional emails went unanswered.


This was basically a blog-post, and it got this wonderful reply (no idea if this is stupid or satire, as is usually the case nowadays):


Well I love the idea, what a great marketing technique, and its been used for years, maybe the nba should fine Michael Jordan for all those years he wore his Air Jordans, when he really didn’t have them on off the court?

I think that the seo techniques used are very valid an a great idea Ed Shull is a Marketing Genius!

now I, going to place an order for flowers at dotflowers.

oh and if iterested dotflowers appears to be located here.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Let's talk killin' them journalists

   By Marion Delgado at 9:56 PM

I posted this:
Why absolutely everyone should be concerned about the death of Marla Ruzicka


I believe American forces, at least "special" ones, are murdering journalists, and insurgents and rebels and terrorists and third world government hit squads certainly are - in the case of Al Qaeda, torturing and murdering, as they did to journalist Daniel Pearl. Protesters can end up like Laurie Berenson or like Rachel Corrie. Surely it's disturbing to realize that the stakes somewhere else are probably higher than you want to play for.


This drew this response (not a bad response, and, frankly, it was very nice to see someone comment on one of our posts, but a response I can't agree with at all):

Come back to the shallow end with the rest of us. You are in over your head. Yes, the "war" is wrong but to say the insurgents are right is bordering on lunacy. Furthermore, to purport that journalists are being eliminated/assinated is obviously wild speculation. If you had any kind of proof you would either be dead or too scared to say so.


I regard AAR-IRC.blogspot.com as a place where you can cut throught the pussyfooting (look at how they tore up CBS and Newsweek over stories that were almost certainly right over trivialities) and say what you BELIEVE to be the case. I'm basing it on the undisputed fact that US troops are killing journalists regardless of where they are. And the fact that ignorant Americans accepted the line that the perennial home of journalists in Iraq, the Palestine Hotel, was targeted because American troops thought fire was coming from there - that alone is an OUTRAGE. It means you think all journalists, including US ones, are traitors, anti-American traitors. It means you're too stupid to know the first thing about recent Iraqi history, and you don't care. Regular troops, pilots, etc. are doing this, usually, but I believe a hit squad attacked the car the Italian journalist was in, or else an officer high up used his regular troops as a death squad.

How wild is this? Let's look at what the president of my union has said about this? Clearly, she falls far short, as did Eason Jordan, of saying what I am. Both of them are in the public eye. But still, it puts what I am saying firmly in bounds:

Guild Chief Under Fire for Comments About Attacks on Journalists in Iraq:
Guild Chief Under Fire for Comments About Attacks on Journalists in Iraq

By Joe Strupp

Published: May 20, 2005 4:40 PM ET

NEW YORK Linda Foley, national president of The Newspaper Guild, drew criticism Thursday from some conservatives for comments she made last Friday about the killing of journalists in Iraq. Foley said, among other things, that she was outraged by 'the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq. I think it's just a scandal.'

Last month, Foley sent a letter to President Bush criticizing the U.S. investigation into the deaths of journalists in Iraq.

The backlash became so severe Thursday that staffers at Guild headquarters in Washington, D.C., stopped answering the phone because of abusive phone calls and 'people screaming at us,' Foley said. Instead, callers were required to leave messages on voice mail and await a return call.
"

Body and Soul: The birth of outrage

The birth of outrage

Mazendana2 I try to avoid the right-wingers scandal mongering, but sometimes my jaw just hits the table.

Today is one of those days.

A little history first:

March, 2003: British journalist Terry Lloyd, one of the few non-embeds, was wounded when coalition forces fired on his jeep, which was clearly labelled "TV." Six months later, it was revealed that he was wounded a second time when a U.S. helicopter gunship fired on the civilian vehicle that was transporting him to the hospital. He was dead on arrival at the hospital in Basra. Two colleagues travelling with him disappeared. A British investigation established that one, Hussein Othman, was killed. The second, Fred Nérac, is presumed dead, but his body has never been found. The Defense Department ignored requests from Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists to conduct a search for the missing men and an investigation into the deaths.

April, 2003: Al-Jazeera's Baghdad office was bombed, killing journalist Tareq Ayyoub. Coincidentally, in November 2001, Al-Jazeera's office in Kabul, Afghanistan, was destroyed by a U.S. missile. A state department spokesman said the Baghdad bombing was a "mistake," and that he "personally cannot imagine that a country which respects general freedoms can target media establishments."

April, 2003: Taras Protsyuk, a Ukranian reporter who worked for Reuters, and José Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish television station, Telecino, were killed when an American tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, where most international journalists were staying. At the time, a military spokesperson engaged in a bit of indirection, stating that "We don't know every place journalists are operating on the battlefield." The victims, of course, were not on a battlefield. They were in a hotel. And commanders were well aware of their location.

May, 2003: The Committee to Protect Journalists investigated the Palestine Hotel deaths and concluded that the "attack on the journalists, while not deliberate, was avoidable." The Pentagon, and commanders on the ground, knew that journalists were based at the Palestine Hotel, but failed to convey the information to the tank commander who fired on the hotel. It was not until November, 2004 that the Pentagon, eighteen months after the CPJ filed a FOIA request, released its redacted report on the incident, which came to the conclusion that coalition forces bore "no fault or negligence" in the journalists' deaths. CPJ notes that the military's report makes claims contrary to evidence and does not explain why troops were not told that journalists were in the hotel.

August, 2003: Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was shot and killed when US troops in two tanks opened fire on him while he was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison. The soldiers alledgedly mistook his camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Other reporters working in the area say that the soldiers knew that Dana was a journalist. The Committee to Protect Journalists called for a full, public investigation. A somewhat less than full and public investigation concluded that Dana's death was "regrettable," but the soldiers "acted within the rules of engagement." It will not, however, say what those rules of engagement are.

March, 2004: Two journalists working for Al-Arabiya, Ali Abdel Aziz and Ali al-Khatib, were killed by US fire in Baghdad. Arab journalists demanded an open investigation of their deaths, and walked out of a press conference given by Colin Powell in protest.

April, 2004: Reporter Asaad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh who worked for Al-Iraqiya, a US-funded media network, were killed near Samara when when U.S. and Kurdish troops opened fire on them.

May, 2004: An Iraqi technician from al-Jazeera, Hamid Rashid Wali, was shot and killed during clashes between the US Army and Moqtada al-Sadr's militia. The International Federation of Journalists called for an independent inquiry into his death.

May, 2004: Reuters reported that three of its local staffers in Iraq were detained by US forces and subjected to physical, psychological and sexual abuse. An Iraqi journalist working for NBC, who was arrested, also claimed to have been abused. The U.S. military said there was no evidence of abuse. Aidan White, the International Federation of Journalists' General Secretary, describes how such conclusions are reached:

"In these cases, just like the media killings at the Palestine Hotel a year ago, the military tries to reach conclusions without even interviewing eye-witnesses and the alleged victims,” said White. “The US approach to violence against journalists is woefully inadequate and so-called investigations are filled with inaccuracies, inconsistencies and breathtaking conclusions that exonerate the military and deny justice to the victims.”

Throw in a lot of lower level harrassment of reporters, and a political climate in which a reporter filming an uncomfortable story becomes the object of right-wingers drooling over the prospect of Marines doling out "justice" in the field.


And when American and European forces admittedly target and kill journalists, they are simply redefined as nonjournalists.


This from the Spectator in the UK should refresh people's memories about how unthinkable the US (or rather, NATO, led by the US) targeting journalists is:

When It's Ok To Kill A Hack
Two can play at hiding the truth. Siddharth Varadarajan, senior assistant editor of the Times of India, noticed that the CPJ had not included in its list the 16 journalists and support staff killed by Nato's bombing of the RTS (Radio-Television Serbia) studios in Belgrade in April last year. Varadarajan e-mailed the CPJ to get an explanation for this 'glaring' omission. Judy Blank, communications director of the committee, replied that the 16 had been deliberately left off the list. She said that the CPJ condemned the attack on the RTS studios as a threat to all journalists covering the Yugoslavia conflict, but shared Nato's view that RTS was a medium not of information but of propaganda. Therefore, its staff did not qualify as journalists under the committee's Extremely broad definition'.

By the way, and this was before the big crackdown on dissidents and journalists with American ties in 2003, the Committee to (allegedly) Protect Journalists noted several countries where the slightest deviation from the party line resulted in the immediate death of journalists, then usually listed Fidel Castro as being among the top ten (often top 3) enemies of press freedom on earth in terms of journalistic freedom (let's face it, he was not even close to being the worst even in what remains of the communist world, let alone comparable to places like Uzbekistan or the Ukraine, where journalists disappeared all the time, or about a third of the nations in Africa, or ... but he IS an official US enemy).
One of the proud boasts in CPJ literature is that it 'accepts no government funding'. Governments are the enemies of a free press. Governments arrest and torture journalists. Governments close newspapers. Governments censor television news reports. Corporations, from which the CPJ does solicit funds, apparently do not. On its board arc employees of the major American media companies, some of them owned by larger conglomerates with interests well outside the news business.

CPJ accepts funds from the networks, including Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, which in December 1997 fired two television journalists, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson. Akre and Wilson are suing Fox's Tampa station, Channel 13 WTVT, for dismissing them when they sought to inform the Federal Communications Commission what the station was doing about a report they had prepared on synthetic hormones in Florida's milk supply. According to the two journalists, Fox 13 did not want to be seen killing the story. 'Instead,' they explained in a legal complaint, 'we were repeatedly ordered to go forward and broadcast demonstrably inaccurate and dishonest versions of the story. We were given those instructions after some very high-level corporate lobbying by Monsanto [the powerful drug company that makes the hormone] and also, we believe, by members of Florida's dairy and grocery industries.'


by the way the French-based Reporters without borders is even worse than the American, capitalist-funded CPJ - they have been gunning for Cuba to an absurd degree since they started publishing their lists of press freedom worldwide. They've been openly critical of the very idea that press monopolies or control by giant corporations is ever detrimental to press freedom at all.

Reporters without Borders Unmasked

TNG/Guild Reporter: Government funds color press group’s objectivity

The reason seems to be that RSF/RWB is actually a creature of the US State Department - making RSF's case that totalitarianism comes more easily from the State than from private funders.

From the beginning, RSF has made Cuba its No. 1 target. Allegedly founded to advocate freedom of the press around the world and to help journalists under attack, the organization has called Cuba "the world's biggest prison for journalists." It even gives the country a lower ranking on its press freedom index than countries where journalists routinely have been killed, such as Colombia, Peru and Mexico. RSF has waged campaigns aimed at discouraging Europeans from vacationing in Cuba and the European Union from doing business there ­ its only campaigns worldwide intended to damage a country's economy.

The above is not a matter of chance because it turns out that RSF is on the payroll of the U.S. State Department and has close ties to Helms-Burton-funded Cuban exile groups.


But fortunately for the public sector, it turns out RSF/RWB is actually mainly funded by Bacardi Rum, with an old grudge against Castro, and by an ad/PR conglomerate heavily dependent on Bacardi's business.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Ancient scroll material left out of KJV and NIV bibles

   By Marion Delgado at 12:26 AM

Tue Jun-04-02 02:06 PM (This would have been Matthew LXIX:I-III)

And on a certain day Jesus came to a village wherein a herd of swine were much disturbed. The Lord, who always troubled with the least creature just as the lord God sees every sparrow that falls and clothes the smallest lily in the field, spoke unto one of the swine and enquired as to the problem.

'Well,' said the largest boar in the herd, 'We're all infested with demons from the last time you came through. We're the descendents of the survivors of the herd that went off the cliff and into the water.'

Taking pity on them, Jesus said, 'Demons typically hang out in the heart valves of swine. Unfortunately, only by sacrificing some heart valves can you be rid of these tormenting imps.'

Realizing that Jesus could do surgery without cutting and stitching, the swine implored him to help them, nonetheless.

'Very well,' Christ replied. 'Do you see that herd of racist, xenophobic tobacco-pushing Republican corporate whores over there?' If you will donate a heart valve each to the largest boar in the herd, the demons will leave you and infest them.'

And so it came to pass, that the Lord made that the valves passed from the swine even into Jesse, which was the name of the largest boar in the herd of republicans, and thence into his fellow republicans.

Weaker in heart but stronger spiritually, the swine thanked Jesus and frolicked off, albeit at a gentle pace.

Mindful of the results of his last intervention, Jesus enquired of the republicans how they had been affected by being infested with demons of a sudden.

'I haven't noticed a thing, Lord,' said Jesse. The other republicans concurred.

And so it came to pass that all were pleased. And the disciples and also the people of the village marvelled much at the works which the Lord had caused to "


The above was discovered by me in mid-2002, and represents a major Christian find.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

The doubling of child malnutrition in Iraq is baffling

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 4:37 AM

Picked this up from Daily Kos today and like her I have the same sense of outrageous rage. And like her, I have very little else to say, as it's so infuriating, it needs no embellishment. So let's let Terry Jones of Monty Python have the stage, ok?

more

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Bill Moyers Rocks!!! Stunning Speech!

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 4:48 PM

The Conference on Media Reform is over today, but oh my the keynote speech was Bill Moyers today and he positively rocked!

One thing he said that drew thunderous applause was when he remarked on his detractors that are still criticizing him even though he's retired, that they might motivating him to "get out of my rocking chair, and back into the anchor chair".

As usual, he was brilliant.

Check it out.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Frist gets more than he bargained for

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 6:25 PM

from Democratic Underground's front page

U.S. Senator got more than he bargained for when he stopped off to buy shoes

Frist was buying pricey shoes beneath the offices of Americans United to Protect Social Security, and .. 40 to 50 people demonstrated against Frist's support for President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security ... On a side note, the Senator received a parking ticket because his SUV was illegally parked.

http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=3342839

What a sock puppet! Rolling Eyes

Is the CIA Behind the Iraqi "Insurgents"--and Global Terrorism?

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 3:31 PM

Frank Morales of the Centre for Research on Globalisation writes a disturbing article that the CIA and Donald Rumsfeld may be purposely trying to provoke acts of terrorism against Americans and others.

more

Friday, May 13, 2005

John Conyers Demands Special Counsel of Abu Ghraib

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 6:04 PM

Rep. Conyers continues to be one hell of a statesman! He continues to show his courage!

rawstory.com

MEMBERS SEEK WAR CRIMES INQUIRY
51 congressmembers write Gonzales: 'We are writing to request that you appoint a special counsel to investigate whether high-ranking officials within the Bush Administration violated the War Crimes Act or the Anti-Torture Act by allowing the use of torture techniques banned by domestic and international law at recognized and secret detention sites in Iraq, Afghanistan Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere... Developing...

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Bolton Forced Ex-Wife into Group Sex

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 4:13 PM


Rawstory today has revealed that Larry Flint is pursuing a story that John Bolton, the Bush nominee forced his ex-wife to participate in group sex.

Now I'm not a prude, if people wanna have an orgy and it's safe sex, I have no problem with it, but forcing someone to do it is WRONG.

Bolton is such a slime! These neocons are such hypocrites... Go Larry! Bolton is sleazier than you!!

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

More on that Downing Street Memo - WP refuses to cover story

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 6:23 PM

Apian on Daily Kos posted a Diary today entitled:

Downing Street Evidence -- Washington Post Refuses to Cover Story

Evidently they aren't reporting this story because it's not news, it's because it is too explosive.

"In his weekly column, Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler reported without comment that readers had criticized the newspaper for ignoring a leaked British memo on the Iraq war published in the British Sunday Times. Getler's failure to offer a judgment about the Post's editorial decision is remarkable, not only because he regularly responds in his column to reader criticisms, but because of the explosive content of the memo." ...In contrast to the U.S. media, U.K. news outlets devoted considerable coverage to the memo, and its disclosure reportedly had a significant impact on the Labour Party's loss of seats in the House of Commons. Yet ombudsman Getler simply reported that he had received reader complaints and moved on." - Source: Media Matters for America, Readers complain, but Wash. Post ombudsman mum on lack of coverage of U.K.-Iraq memo, May 9, 2005,
Check out Apian's Diary

Limbo, How LOW will the Bush admin go?

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 6:02 PM

How Low Will these Vipers Go?

Typical! One more way to screw the American consumer in this case children. The EPA is now inviting Industry to Mimic Practices of Discontinued CHEERS Study.

You may remember CHEERS (Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study), the EPA program that would have paid primarily poor black families $900 plus giving them a video camera to document the effects of pesticides on young children. This was done at the behest of the chemical companies and drew the wrath of Barbara Boxer and other Democrats. She threatened to block the appointment of Stephen Johnson to head the EPA, unless they canceled CHEERS.

...

Now the EPA is encouraging companies to do what they canceled.
more

Neutral Viewpoint Science: How to procure white peacocks

   By Marion Delgado at 5:03 PM

"'How to procure white Peacocks ' :

These science facts conform to both the latest discoveries of actual science, and God's Word the Holy Bible. They are selected to have a "neutral viewpoint" - asserting neither secularism nor faith.
In former times, white Peacocks were such a rare sight in Colen, that every one admired them as a most strange thing. But afterward they became more common, by reason that merchants brought many of them out of Norway. For whereas black or else party-colored Peacocks were carried into that country to be seen, they turned white, for there the old ones sit upon their Eggs in the air, upon the tops of very high mountains, full of snow, and by continual sitting there, it causes some alteration in their own color, but the young ones which they hatch, are white all over. And so no doubt but some such courses will take good effect in all kinds of Birds, for if we take their cages or coops wherein they are kept, and their nests wherein they sit, and white them on the inside with some plaster, or else cover them all over with white colored curtains and so keep them in with grates, that they may not get out, but there couple and sit, and hatch their Eggs, they will yield unto us white broods."

How to End the War

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 3:36 PM

Naomi Klein shares her insights about how to end the war, reconstruction efforts and democracy in Iraq.

"In looking at democracy in Iraq, we first need to make the distinction between elections and democracy. The reality is the Bush administration has fought democracy in Iraq at every turn.

"Why? Because if genuine democracy ever came to Iraq, the real goals of the war - control over oil, support for Israel, the construction of enduring military bases, the privatization of the entire economy - would all be lost. Why? Because Iraqis don't want them and they don't agree with them. They have said it over and over again - first in opinion polls, which is why the Bush administration broke its original promise to have elections within months of the invasion. I believe Paul Wolfowitz genuinely thought that Iraqis would respond like the contestants on a reality TV show and say: "Oh my God. Thank you for my brand-new shiny country." They didn't. They protested that 500,000 people had lost their jobs. They protested the fact that they were being shut out of the reconstruction of their own country, and they made it clear they didn't want permanent US bases. "

More at Truthout.org

Monday, May 09, 2005

Susie Bright's Journal : "Aggressive Verbal Dominant Top" Seeks Submissive Male Who Can Reinstate White House Press Pass

   By Marion Delgado at 9:07 PM

Susie Bright's Journal : "Aggressive Verbal Dominant Top" Seeks Submissive Male Who Can Reinstate White House Press Pass: "'Aggressive Verbal Dominant Top' Seeks Submissive Male Who Can Reinstate White House Press Pass

AlljeffphotosxToday I read a new interview with James Guckert, the gay S/M hooker who changed his name to the more butch “Jeff Gannon,” and posed as a journalist in the White House Press Corps, “reporting” for a fake news site. That rascal!

Gannon got hand-fed by the Bushies like he was their very own pet peacock. One day, some of Jeff's colleagues in the press box finally crawled out of their slumber and said, “Whoa, he's weird— Who is this dude?”

If I sound disdainful of how the mainstream media is handling Jeff’s expose, perhaps I’m just fed up with being bewildered.

It’s been a good month since anyone with a browser and a minute to spare has been able to see pictures of Gannon’s shaved erection on his live out-call web ad.

But on Sunday the New York Times, continuing the curious timidity of every other paper of record, played down this man’s true identity once again! In the NYT magazine interview, Deborah Solomon wrote that Gannon “apparently earned [his] living running a gay escort service.”

Apparently? Used to? This is the man’s entire past, present, and future!

As for “running a service,” where’s the reception desk? Are we supposed to infer that Gannon fills out employee time cards like the Mayflower Madam? No sirree— Jeff Gannon has been a one-man hot military beat-your-ass stud, and the only thing he runs is a carefully honed sales pitch. He is one discrete, butch, jarhead whore— and the only thing that is “apparent” is that he is one of the best, according to his customer reviews.

When I talk to my friends, I find that many don't know who Guckert is. Sometimes they've heard that some weirdo infiltrated the White House Press Corps by mistake. Maybe they heard he was right wing, or that he entertained "

That Pesky Memo

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 6:18 PM

Bush Lied, Soldiers and Iraqis Died



All about that memo that the London Sunday Times revealed on May 1, 2005.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

The Oilman's Burden

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 10:21 PM

My husband wrote this in 1991, when the first gulf war occurred... it's as applicable NOW as it was then.

THE OILMAN'S BURDEN

Take up the oilman's burden,
Send forth the best we breed.
Commit our kids to slaughter,
In service of your greed.

The homes they shall not gladden,
The loves they shall not wed.
Tie on a yellow ribbon,
They'll be our "honored dead".

Take up the oilman's burden,
Ye dare not stoop to less,
Nor call on conservation,
To curb your avarice.

What lands will ye not plunder,
What waters ye not spoil?
What death of elk and otter,
What seabeds fouled for oil?

Take up the oilman's burden,
Think of the good it brings.
It gives us Ziploc baggies,
And lubes our piston rings.

And as the war clouds rumble,
And fury fills the sky,
How many oilman's children
Are marching out to die?

Take up the oilman's burden,
Are we the less to blame?
Have we not fed your habit,
And is this not our shame?

Tom Williams, 1991

Thursday, May 05, 2005

CNN: Ringbearers still at large

   By Marion Delgado at 3:50 PM


Mordor (CNN) - Reports from the field have just arrived that the notorious group of ring bearers known mysteriously only as "the nine" were spotted by a band of orcs entering the terrorist safe haven known as "Lothlorien" several days ago. The Mordor State Department issued an official proclamation today that the group were known to be armed and dangerous and had already caused the death of many orcs in the region as well as the notorious brutal murder of a high ranking Balrog previously residing in Moria. They warn that any concerned citizens were to contact the Mordor Foreign affairs office immediately with information as to the whereabouts of these fugitives and to not try and confront them themselves.

"We will act in our utmost to bring these terrorists to justice" President Sauron declared today. "These terrorists are attacking our way of life, our culture and the way we live. The world must know that the collected will of the dark lords minions will be strong and resolute."

First detected in the town of Bree in the north of middle Earth, these terrorists wasted no time in coldly taking the lives of all nine Ringwraith Agents when it was discovered that they were on a plot to topple Mordor. It is believed that the group is composed of primarily hobbits backed up by support from a wide variety of races including dwarves, elves, humans and a mysterious backer only known as "Mithrander".

"I must stress, hobbits are a primarily peace loving race" President Sauron warned today after a spate of hate attacks against hobbit dwellings. "These hobbits are extremists, fundamentalists, they do not speak for hobbit kind".

Agents also believe that these terrorists have strong links to the group that assassinated the foreign diplomat Smaug earlier this age. If so, it would explain the impressive array of mythical weapons that the group has acquired.

So far, the terrorist group has been utilizing safe houses in Elvish country to evade capture and have slipped past even the most stringent defences the Dark Lord has set in place. Residents are afraid for their children and people have stopped going out at night. "How am I going to let my kids go out and torture humans if I know that theres a group of orc killers roaming the countryside?" a concerned mother said today.

Experts believe that, if these rogues are not brought to justice, a rash of copy-cat attacks will follow and severely hurt the economy.

-- written by CNN correspondent, Saruman

LOTR by CNN

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

CALL TO ACTION

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 4:23 PM

Take three minutes, sharpen your fingers and shoot off an email to Keith Olbermann of Countdown on MSNBC, regarding John Conyer's letter to President Bush.


Since Keith Olbermann has shown that unlike the other network and cable news shows, he WILL cover important topics like the vote manipulation in Ohio, it's very likely that he will respond to enough emails about John Conyer's letter regarding the leaked document that the Time's of London has released.


This is a big story and Rep. Conyers is right, it's not being covered by our media. Ask Keith to interview Rep. John Conyers. By the way, thank you Rep. Conyers, for being a true American hero.


Keith's email is KOlbermann@msnbc.com


Politely beg him to cover this story, you might use words like "responsibility" and "informed public" or something.


We need to get moving while the story is hot, folks!

Monday, May 02, 2005

"Military Intelligence" does it again!

   By Fancy Pants Elitist at 5:53 PM

Apparently, our fine military did it again....
The Pentagon released a 40-page redacted report on Saturday, so heavily blacked out that whole pages were missing, on the incident of the accidental death of Italian Intelligence Officer, who was shot by US soldiers in Baghdad.


SOP, right...


Well, sometimes people do a little digging and guess what?

"A Greek medical student at Bologna University who was surfing the web early on Sunday found that with two simple clicks of his computer mouse he could restore censored portions of the report.


He passed the details to Italian newspapers which immediately put out the full text on their own websites."


Whoops!


I checked both files, the original PDF
that the Pentagon released
and the now unredacted microsoft word document against each other, and indeed the entire report can be revealed by right clicking on the blacked out word. Which is precisely what this enterprising student did.


All I can surmise is whoever put the original pdf on the internet is just a tad technologically challenged.


I don't know if the report is accurate and that this is what really happened, Sgrena said it isn't, but why censor a document that doesn't really reveal much, they were censoring things that weren't sensitive!??


Your fine military at work, once again.


Here's the BBC article

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