Report: IAF attacked N. Korean nuclear shipment to Syria

There is little news coming out today for some reason, but what is out there is almost universally ugly.

The secret IAF foray into Syrian airspace was in fact an Israeli air strike directed at a North Korean boat delivering suspected nuclear material to Syria, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

According to the report, the North Korean boat was disguised as a cement shipment. The Post report also claimed that the IAF attacked an "agricultural research center" which Israel believed was in fact a facility used by the Syrians to extract uranium from phosphates.

The report quoted an anonymous source who said that he received his information from Israelis who participated in the attack. According to that source, Israel took significant measures to protect the secrecy of the mission, briefing only those pilots who actually carried out the strike, and not the pilots of the planes providing cover. Further, the pilots who were involved in the attack were only told details after they had already taken off.

Speculation over the IAF foray into Syrian territory has been the subject of considerable debate since news of the mission broke last week.

On a Friday, a senior US nuclear official said that the North Koreans were in Syria and Damascus may have had contacts with "secret suppliers" to obtain nuclear equipment.

Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not name the suppliers, but said there were North Koreans in Syria and that he could not exclude that the network run by disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan may have been involved.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Israel had gathered satellite imagery showing possible North Korean cooperation with Syria on a nuclear facility.

Semmel, who is in Italy for a meeting Saturday on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, said that Syria was certainly on the US nuclear "watch list."

This is what happens when the Bush administration opens a Pandora's box of pre-emptive attack.

Via Jerusalem Post.

Forbidden drug residue found in imported pork from U.S., Canada

Two things come immediately to mind.

First, I'm sure its no secret China won't take pork products containing ractopamine, so none should have been sent to them. That is none should have been sent unless someone was trying to pull a fast one on the Chinese.

The second thing is how well is the FDA protecting US if they allow the existence of a drug most countries in the world deem unsafe for use in edible animals.

Actually a third thing comes to mind. What is an inedible animal?

Chinese quality control administration said on Saturday that its local officials recently found ractopamine residue in frozen pig kidney imported from the United States and frozen pork spareribs from Canada.

Ractopamine is forbidden for use as veterinary medicine in China.

The 18.37 tons of frozen pork kidney in 1,350 cases and 24 tons of frozen pork chop in 1,600 cases were imported through the Panyu port in south China's Guangdong Province.

The local quarantine authority of Guangdong Province has returned the goods to exporters, said the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).

According to the administration, the local authority of Guangdong has found ractopamine residue in ten batches of pork products from the U.S. and one from Canada by the end of August.

Ractopamine is a kind of adrenal stimulant, which may promote the growth of pigs and ox and help them grow more lean meat. It was forbidden for use as veterinary medicine in most of the countries across the world.

The European Union had forbidden the use of it in edible animals in a decree published in 1996, and China banned the drug in feedstuff and potable water for animals in 2002.

Picture is of rats being cooked over charcoal in Thailand. All animals are edible.

Via Xinua.

Arctic sea route opens as ice melts

Just a reminder...climate change isn't grinding to a halt. Something has to be done.

I know I'm speaking/typing to the choir here. Just do what you can. Get rid of incandescent light bulbs. Save gasoline. Walk or bike if you can. None of us is doing as much as we can, including me.

The Arctic's Northwest Passage has opened up fully because of melting sea ice, clearing a long-sought but historically impassable route between Europe and Asia, the European Space Agency said.

Sea ice has shrunk in the Arctic to its lowest level since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, ESA said, showing images of the now "fully navigable" route between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

A shipping route through the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic has been touted as a possible cheaper option to the Panama Canal for many shippers.

"We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3 million square km," said Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Centre, describing the drop in the Arctic sea ice as "extreme".

...

Polar regions are very sensitive to climate change, ESA said, noting that some scientists have predicted the Arctic would be ice free as early as 2040.

Almost all experts say global warming, stoked by human use of fossil fuels, is happening about twice as fast in the Arctic as elsewhere on the planet. Once exposed, dark ground or sea soak up far more heat than ice and snow.

Via Reuters.

Bush administration dogged by NKorea-Syria nuclear links

This can't be good at all. Regardless what the "real" facts are, there doesn't seem to be any sunny outcome to this story.

Divisions have appeared again in US President George W. Bush's administration over a North Korean nuclear disarmament deal amid leaked US intelligence citing alleged atomic links between the Stalinist state and Syria.

As North Korea moves to declare and disable its nuclear weapons program under a six-party deal, reports in the New York Times and Washington Post have suggested Pyongyang may be helping US arch rival Syria build a nuclear weapons facility.

The reports, citing unnamed sources, were based on intelligence information supposedly from Israel's flyover and apparent raid last week on targets inside Syria.

The information could have been provided by hawks within the Bush administration who are against the rapidly-progressing deal with North Korea, some experts said.

They questioned the timing of the reports, coming just ahead of key six-party talks among the United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia, where Pyongyang is widely expected to agree to declare and disable its nuclear arsenal by the end of 2007.

"There is supposed to be an effort by some officials to torpedo the North Korea nuclear deal by portraying North Korea as a 'proliferator,'" said Joseph Cirincione, a weapons expert, who was once a key advisor to Congress.

He likened the reports to those that surfaced in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 during which officials provided apparently incorrect intelligence information about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

I've repeatedly put to you an invasion of Iran is coming and now its looking like NoKo is back on the stove and Syria too. Just trying to offer up some dots. You can link them together.

Via Channel NewAsia.

Mexican president postpones trip to United States

Mexican president Felipe Calderon

Now how did they find a president like that? Imagine, taking care of your people instead of going to your ranch on a junket!

President Felipe Calderon's office said Friday that he has postponed a planned Sept. 23-26 visit to the United States because he wants to concentrate on relief efforts for flood victims and legislative issues at home.

Via Boston Globe.

Survey: over 70% Chinese netizens have health problems

OK, Americans, here's a challenge for ya. I'm sure you can beat the Chinese at this. Let's see ya raise these numbers. K?

Especially the 70% psychological problems. That one should be particularly easy.

About 73 percent of Chinese netizens are in sub-healthy state with 70 percent of them suffering from psychological problems, according to a survey conducted by 39.com.

The survey said 73 percent of the 150,000 respondents have dizzy, insomnia and arthralgic problems and half of them suffer from stomachache from time to time.

More than 70 percent netizens have suffered amnesia, anxiety and scatterbrained problems, however, 90 percent of them never resort to psychological doctors, the survey showed.

Surfing on the Internet kills netizens' time for physical exercise. 51.4 percent of the respondents said they spent less than 3 hours every week in taking exercise and 12.5 of them didn't do any exercise in the last half year.

The Internet also sharply reduces users' time for sleeping. The survey said that 84 percent of them sleep for less than eight hours a day.

Via Xinhua.

Officer resigns over YouTube videos

I have nothing to say except: good, she was too stupid.

A city patrol officer who posted a series of homemade videos disparaging blacks, Jews, Cubans and illegal immigrants on YouTube.com resigned Friday, the mayor's office said. [not a link to her page - ed]

Considering most(?) people around the world can view YouTube, how did she ever imagine she could get away with this?

Via Boston Globe.

'Proxy war' could soon lead to direct conflict, analysts warn

This is what the people most familiar are saying about the Mid-East right now and it doesn't sound very good.

The growing US focus on confronting Iran in a proxy war inside Iraq risks triggering a direct conflict in the next few months, regional analysts are warning.

US-Iranian tensions have mounted significantly in the past few days, with heightened rhetoric on both sides and the US decision to establish a military base in Iraq less than five miles from the Iranian border to block the smuggling of Iranian arms to Shia militias.

The involvement of a few hundred British troops in the anti-smuggling operation also raises the risk of their involvement in a cross-border clash.

US officers have alleged that an advanced Iranian-made missile had been fired at an American base from a Shia area, which if confirmed would be a significant escalation in the "proxy war" referred to this week by General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq.

"The proxy war that has been going on in Iraq may now cross the border. This is a very dangerous period," Patrick Cronin, the director of studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said.

Iran's leaders have so far shown every sign of relishing the confrontation. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared yesterday that American policies had failed in the Middle East and warned: "I am certain that one day Bush and senior American officials will be tried in an international court for the tragedies they have created in Iraq."

In such circumstances, last week's Israeli air strike against a mystery site in northern Syria has triggered speculation over its motives. Israel has been silent about the attack. Syria complained to the UN security council but gave few details. Some say the target was Iranian weapons on their way to Hizbullah in Lebanon, or that the sortie was a dry run for a US-Israeli attack on Syria and Iran. There is even speculation that the Israelis took out a nuclear facility funded by Iran and supplied by North Korea.

It seems, from my reading, few doubt Israel did fly over Syria and did drop bombs. No one was killed because there were no people where the bombs were dropped. Think of it as a firing range.

Via Mathaba.

Ordinary life hardly the norm in Baghdad

This is a "good" story only because it points out how "horrible" life is in Baghdad. If we can't know what's happening and have empathy for the people, we've no chance of ever leaving Iraq.

"Today, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods are being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who live among the people they protect. Many schools and markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down. And ordinary life is beginning to return."

— President Bush in his speech Thursday on Iraq

Guess it depends on your definition of "ordinary".

Bush[...] is speaking the opposite of what's going on on the ground."

— Ali Mohammed, Saidiyah in southwest Baghdad

Via McClatchy.

Federal Agencies Flunk Their Audits

Sometimes it seems there is an infinite number of things needing fixin' in Washington DC.

Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. An Associated Press review shows that the two departments' financial records are so disorganized and inconsistent that they have repeatedly earned "disclaimer" opinions, meaning that they simply cannot be fully audited.

"It means we really can't put any faith in the numbers they use," said Ross Rubenstein, who teaches public administration at Syracuse University's Maxwell School.

The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 requires, among other things, that the financial systems of major federal agencies "comply substantially" with generally accepted accounting standards. Each year, those agencies are required to release results of outside audits.

The AP review of financial statements from the federal government's 15 executive departments shows that most pass their audits, although many agencies - including NASA, the Coast Guard and FEMA - have been frequently cited for serious accounting errors.

The entire Homeland Security Department, with a $35 billion budget this fiscal year, passed its first audit in 2003 with strong stipulations, but has failed every one since.

And the Defense Department, with a $460 billion budget this fiscal year, has never even come close to passing. Because that department makes up at least 20 percent of all federal spending, the entire federal government also has failed its audits since the congressional mandate took effect.

Failing an audit in any other venue could have dire consequences - a public company's stock could plummet, state and local governments could see bond and credit ratings sink. But for the federal government, effects are less direct because the U.S. Treasury is a guaranteed funding source.

Via Associated Press.

White House reports little Iraqi progress on benchmarks

Ya see the thing is, ya always have to wait for the second shoe to drop and it usually does on a Friday.

In sharp contrast to the sunny tone that President Bush struck in his address to the nation Thursday night, the White House reported Friday that Iraq's leaders had made little headway over the past two months toward meeting 18 key benchmarks for progress aimed at ending high levels of sectarian violence.

Bush said Thursday that emerging success in Iraq had made it possible for him to start to withdraw troops, beginning with 5,700 who will leave Iraq by December. The president acknowledged that Shiite Muslim Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's government had failed to achieve national reconciliation, but he said progress in local politics would lead to improvements at the national level.

How stupid can Bush be to lie to US on Thursday and then report he lied on Friday?

Is Homer Simpson eligible to run for president? Just asking.

Via McClatchy.

High US cocaine cost shows drug war working-Mexico

Is this good news or not? Being a lazy ass blogger, I don't know. But I am serious with the question.

Mexico's attorney general said on Friday fewer drug-related killings at home and rising narcotics prices in the United States showed his government is winning the war against cartels.

President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops and federal police to combat drug gangs since the start of the year but hitmen continue to carry out daylight revenge attacks across Mexico. A police chief of the central state of San Luis Potosi was killed by gunmen on Thursday.

Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said that while cartels were still powerful, the number of drug killings this year in Mexico has steadily fallen, from a peak in March of 319 deaths to 195 in August.

Cocaine and methamphetamine prices are rising across 8,000 U.S. towns and cities and purity is falling, showing fewer drugs are getting into the United States, he added.

The reason I'm asking this question is because of: inelastic demand. I'm sure many of you know about this, but some may not.

Inelastic Demand is something like gas for your car
- when the price goes down, some people will buy more, but not a lot more
- when the price of gas goes up, there is a small number of people that buy less, but, essentially, people still have to have gas to travel by car, so they will continue buying - so we say the demand is "insensitive" to price
- another way of saying the demand is insensitive is to say the demand does not respond to price
inelastic demand is for things that do not have close substitutes

Yes the quoted text above didn't translate well.

OK, back to the topic. What if you need something? I mean really really need it. And the price of what you need keeps going up and up? And what if you can't afford the higher and higher prices?

We need to watch the crime statistics. If cocaine is getting too expensive, are robberies, burglaries, muggings going up too? Are the drug prices making people less safe?

Then there's the other side of the coin. If these drugs get too profitable, more people with have an incentive to get into the trade.

This is where we enter the realm of unintended consequences.

Via Reuters.

Definition via MRK 106.

Cat blogging

Alpaca Vicugna Pacos

Well, its sort of cat-like. Check out the tail, fur, ears, four legs, nose and mouth.

Close enough for blogging.

Its all yur's

PUNT!!!1!!

"They understand that their success will require U.S. political, economic, and security engagement that extends beyond my presidency."

-- Pres. Bush, on Iraq, mult, 9/13

Via Hotline.

Must read IMHO

The only question I offer is...do you have the courage to really take democracy where it should go?

Via Chuck Dupree.

Gotta do this

Many have posted about this and I, in my infinite wisdom passed, but... This is so vile it has to be mentioned.

Who gives a shit about dead bodies?

And Mr. Boehner responded:

"The investment that we're making today will be a small price if we're able to stop al Qaeda here, if we're able to stabilize the Middle East, it's not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids."

These people are so cavalier (stolen from Bob) about these people it makes me sick.

You fucking asshole, these are our kids!

Where is the fucking outrage? Why are Americans so damn quiet?

Do you have a son, daughter, wife, husband, cousin, niece, nephew, friend who could be killed in Iraq at any time? I don't, but I feel for those who do.

Yeah, I'm a fucking bleeding heart liberal.

Via Big Shot Bob in Texas.

I wear a Stetson, not a tinfoil hat, but...

How many unanswered questions can we indulge? Did the towers fall as is physically likely? What about that building 7? (am I right about that?) Why did the idiot in chief sit like a lump with a child's book in his hands when told about a fucking catastrophe? Why is Carrot Top popular?

OK, forget the last question.

You and I have no idea what really transpired on 9/11. We saw the pictures. We know Boeing planes hit the WTC, but we know little else and may never know.

Please follow the link. This guy ain't some whacko. He seriously wants to know.

Don't get fooled again.

Via No Quarter.

MonkeyPigeon

Via Neatorama.

OK, help me here

From Petraeus's mouth.

The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said on Monday the flow of Iranian weapons into Iraq has increased but that Iranian Quds force trainers had withdrawn.

Oops, backpedal? The Quds force has withdrawn?
If memory serves me, which it usually doesn't. Weren't we wary of the Quds force?

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has described as based on "hard fact" U.S. assertions that an elite branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps is training and arming Shi'ite extremists in neighboring Iraq. U.S. President George W. Bush recently accused Iran's Quds Force of supplying weapons, including armor-piercing bombs, that were used to kill U.S. soldiers. RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari talks about the Quds Force and its alleged role in Iraq with Mahan Abedin, director of research at the London-based Center for the Study of Terrorism and editor of "Islamism Digest" journal.

Hey, but we're helping all we can too.

Astounding report from the GAO, that our miliitary leaders have no blessed idea where 190,000 AK-47’s given to Iraqi security forces have gotten off to. But, it’s not just the AK-47’s that are missing without any clues, but a whopping 30% of weapons given to the Iraqi security forces.

I'm be thinking I need MUCH stronger meds to deal with this shit.

Via Reuters.

H/T The Crone

U.S.-IRAQ: Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge

Some adults are playing in Iraq, but they aren't the ones Bush likes. I love the "ass-kicking little chickenshit" part. It really reminds me of Bush. I've known many and was equally repulsed. Maybe my not being one is why I've always been a fucking peon.

In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.

Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon's mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus's recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.

The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to "bad relations" between them is "the understatement of the century".

Fallon's derision toward Petraeus reflected both the CENTCOM commander's personal distaste for Petraeus's style of operating and their fundamental policy differences over Iraq, according to the sources.

The policy context of Fallon's extraordinarily abrasive treatment of his subordinate was Petraeus's agreement in February to serve as front man for the George W. Bush administration's effort to sell its policy of increasing U.S. troop strength in Iraq to Congress.

In a highly unusual political role for an officer who had not yet taken command of a war, Petraeus was installed in the office of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, in early February just before the Senate debated Bush's troop increase. According to a report in The Washington Post Feb. 7, senators were then approached on the floor and invited to go McConnell's office to hear Petraeus make the case for the surge policy.

Fallon was strongly opposed to Petraeus's role as pitch man for the surge policy in Iraq adopted by Bush in December as putting his own interests ahead of a sound military posture in the Middle East and Southwest Asia -- the area for which Fallon's CENTCOM is responsible.

Via IPS.

Must read IMHO

Do yourself a favor and read something a bit more optimistic than the tripe I serve you.

Via Big Shot Bob in Texas.

Gotta do this

Not to pick on Della Femina particularly, but these people are paid...PAID, to be on the ol' TV.

Hire me. I speak just as incoherently as they and for much less money.

This is a contagion that has to be stopped. Hell, I could offer you limitless examples of such fractured speech without ever quoting anything by Bush.

DELLA FEMINA: I think that he just won people over by saying, I haven’t got an answer. Sometimes coming up with a fast answer will—there are people who are looking at him and saying, I know we should get out, the surge isn’t working. They now believe that they’re right and the surge isn’t working. There are other people saying, I’m telling you, the surge seems to be working. They believe—so he didn’t change anyone.

What they wanted was status quo. They wanted everyone to say, Well, gee, this guy is—he’s very impressive. He’s a war hero.

I think the biggest mistake that was made was the anti—the “Petraeus Betray us” that ran just before that. I mean, what a setup that was. Snow could get up and say, Gee, this is a hero. How could we treat this man this way?

I would offer you a picture of Della Femina, but do your own search. You won't believe how many images appear. Enough you can't decide which are her and which aren't. Even Don Imus showed up!!!??

Gotta love the internets tubes.

Via Balloon Juice.

Guess Who's Afraid of an Open Internet?

It just goes beyond anything I can comprehend and can't wait to see what "gifts" Bush still has in store for US.

Open Internet advocates just received a parting gift from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

In a Thursday filing to the Federal Communications Commission, Gonzales' Department of Justice urged the agency to oppose Net Neutrality -- the principle that all Internet sites should be treated equally.

The DOJ stated that broadband companies like AT&T should be able to erect toll booths and filter traffic -- upending the even playing field that has made the Web an unrivaled engine of democratic discourse and new ideas.

The DOJ ruling once again proves the point: Powerful corporate and government gatekeepers are working together to dismantle Internet freedoms and impose their will upon the Web.

While Gonzales' feckless reign at Justice is near an end, his legacy at the department is becoming clear: The DOJ has established itself as a friend to the powerful and enemy to the basic freedoms that Americans once took for granted.

As Gonzales slinks back to Texas, he is merely pulling last-minute favors for friends in high places. This week's filing reeks of the same sort of cronyism that has left a slime trail wherever the attorney general has gone.

Via mediacitizen.

Must read IMHO

I just hope this laziness will stop soon. But still, this is something you should read.

Via Chuck Dupree at Bad Attitudes.

Must read IMHO

Thank God this only happens in totalitarian states.

Uh? Say what?

Via theBhc.

BTW. Do a search on "protest zone" and you'll be amazed how often this happens.

OK, Eli. I give up. This makes no sense to me at all

First Google entry for "spiiderweb tight"

WTF?

Is someone out there weirder than I?

Can't imagine it.

It was a very short, but interesting competition with you.

Not to rub it in or anything, but...

The Impotent Terrorist

Several hundred deaths don't really count? For real? Just asking.

I've not killed anyone nor authorized any deaths in like forever. How impotent am I?

Never mind.

McConnell Misleads Congress

Whoda thunk it?

In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell testified that the recent high-profile arrests of terror suspects in Germany were made possible by the amendments to FISA passed by Congress last month. According to the New York Times:

Not so much.

Via Anonymous Liberal.

Ted, what?

I know free phones are a big deal, but...

Each handset has an effective range of about one kilometre.
That's 0.62137119 miles

I can't even reach my nearby neighbors nor my children with this "free phone" service.

Maybe I'll wait for more.

Via A Bunch of Numbers (hint: Ted Compton).

Take this Eli

It seems SPIIDERWEB™ is on the first page of a Google search for Your Slip Is Showing.

Deal with it, Eli.

Via http://www.google.com.au/search?q=your%20slip%20is%20showing&hl=en&rls=GFRG,GFRG:2007-16,GFRG:en-GB&start=20&sa=N.

Something most bloggers need

Our wonderful Bullshit Meter. Which is especially relevant while Petraeus is in town.

This might piss off many people, but I can't help that

You all know the term "sweatshop". This is a carefully chosen word to be used with Westerners who can't take the heat in Mexico and Asia. It conjures horrible images, but do the people in such shops see horror?

Yes, there's forced labor, forced abortions, long hours, beatings, but those aren't the norm from my experience. I've known both adults and children who've worked in sweatshops and they don't want them eliminated. Perhaps I've not talked to those mistreated. This isn't a scientific treatise.

These sweatshops provide honest work (not usual) for what is locally decent pay and often aren't as hot as the outdoors. The workers are indoors, out of the sun, in an air conditioned building or at least with fans (adequate for most). Many in such climates don't like air conditioning. They provide work for children, yes children, who need to work to support the family and can't afford to go to school.

Your fucking standards are not held by everyone in the world. Sure, many would like nice homes with air conditioning and carpeting where the kids could play video games and eat burgers every day and get fat, but they're realists and know its better to survive than hold out false hope.

Travel. See the world and see what many people accept. You'll also see most of those people are much happier than you or I. Check out Ireland at least. People there have much less than Americans, but they really are more content with their lot.

The abuse and mistreatment of sweatshop workers has to be addressed stopped. Inhumane treatment of anyone is, well, inhumane. Which is why we have the word "inhumane". Duh!




However, if you check out pictures of sweatshops and cubicle farms...what's so different. The US, and I suspect most first world countries, treat their employees about the same as those working in sweatshops. At least that's my experience.

Hell, my boss had a whip! Well, I'll admit I gave it to him, but only on the understanding he wouldn't use it on me.

Something special just for you

Still can't upload fucking images so just go to Jonco.

The bad news is Blogger is screwing me. The good news is they usually correct their problems within a couple days.

We get what we pay for.

An interesting study...

OK, the Brittney post should redeem me for this one, K?

A study conducted by UCLA's Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle.

For example: If she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features. However, if she is menstruating, or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire.

No further studies are planned at this time.

Via Jonco.

I have no choice. Gotta mention Brittney on MTV

Its unavoidable. I'm not a celebrity follower, but some people keep popping up whether I choose it to happen or not. Brittney, Paris, Angelina, Brad, Craig, Clinton... I think you get the idea.

I've read a couple items mentioning Brittney is out of shape. Fuck! I should be so out of shape.

Except for a little bit of flab under her biceps (only the right one?), she's a normal woman. Jesus H Christ hailing a cab. What standards do people have to meet? Why do we buy into this shit? Just asking.

A couple things. I still can't upload images to Blogger so you have to go to the link to see the pic. And I didn't watch the awards show and have no idea if Brittney was "out of it", drunk, drugged out of her fucking mind. That's for you to decide.

Via Big Shot Bob in Texas.

We live in a fictional world

Image to be added if Blogger fixes its problems.

This is too good to pass up.

The police force is corrupt and virtually useless. Sectarian militias rule the street. The Iraqi army is still not ready to take over its own security. A drop in sectarian killings in one area of the country is wiped out by rises in another. Most damning of all, there's still no political progress among the Iraqi's themselves.

Does Escape From New York come to mind?

Via Agitprop.

Anyone have a knife? A gun would do.

Image to be added if Blogger fixes its problems.

Just shoot me now.

This is getting very old very fast.

Bloglines is slow. All access to the internets tubes is slow. Access to Blogger is slow.

Now I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so I have no idea what's happening, but I hate waiting for several minutes for this fucking PC to react to my demands. I WANT IT NOW, DAMN IT!!!1!!

I'll do what I can and slog on.

Folks, I'm not fucking kidding. I could go to town and back while a page is loading. This is getting too damn ridiculous. Perhaps the gods are telling me to get the fuck out of this enterprise.

And the worst part for me is THE SON-OF-A-BITCH machine doesn't give me a clue what its doing. It may be trying to load a page or it may not. It may just be teasing me.

Case in point. I found a good image to add to this post. Not great, but pretty good. I click on the "add image" button and...nada, zip, bumpkis, zilch. Nothing whatsoever.

So I changed gears and decided to use Flickr. BAD IDEA! At best Flickr is painfully slow and right now its glacial. What it finally delivered was pics of rock bands. WTF is that?

If I suddenly quit blogging its because I destroyed this fucking machine. Or I took my life.

Frustration much?

Fuck it. I'll post this and get on with my life such as it is.

Arghhh!

I try to be civil, but sometimes its impossible - NSFW

I've done so many fucking searches on "Harry Potter", "broomsticks", "girls"

UPDATE BELOW.

It seems adolescent girls were "getting off" by riding the Harry Potter vibrating broomstick, but no combination of words found me an entry.

Now this is a fucking conspiracy which I buy into. JK Rowling, or her publisher want to squash this story, but it won't die.

A replica of the magical broom from the Harry Potter movies is sweeping teenagers off their feet, putting smiles on the faces of grandmothers and leaving young girls completely legless, or in some cases, flat on their backs with their shaking thighs wrapped around a length of vibrating wood.

UPDATE: Via Utterpants. Hey, I don't choose the blog names here, but I did find a site that had info on this phenomenon.

I had read about this months ago and didn't comment.

Who cares? Some anal parents who think the girls can't get it off with no other "tools"? When will most people realize they weren't the "first and only"? Get real, folks.

OK we go winger here. WTF? Its OK to masturbate with a broomstick? You're sick! Ewww!

We now return to our regular broadcasting.

Snicker, snicker. Muahahaha!

I'm in a competition with Eli

He may not know it, but he's thrown down the gauntlet and I accept.

SPIIDERWEB™ is the number 3 listing on Google® for "oh my ipod" which is much more than it seems.

Isn't everything more than it seems? Just asking.

I guess it makes sense if you can't afford Harry Potter broomstick.

Blogger is fubar. Sorry, they are screwed up

Interesting. Type check finds "mots" to be a perfectly respectable word even though I was going for "most". Arghhh!

To begin again, most of my connections to Uglinesses Bloglines are timing out.

This is just such a fucking strange session. I go to change "Bloglines" which I spelled incorrectly and Blogger offered me "Uglinesses". Now that's a word I'd never use...until now.

Here's the ugly truth I'm living with:

Pinging 999.212.67.999

PING 999.212.67.999 (999.212.67.999) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- 999.212.67.999 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 0 [that's a zero] received, 100% packet loss, time 2000ms

I did a little editing to make the entry shorter, add emphasis, camouflage real addy.

No link because my addy is none of your business and 999.212.67.999 is not real. Or I doubt it is. Of course, you should be able to decipher it if you feel the need.

The Battle for Iraq is About Oil and Democracy, Not Religion!

It's impossible for me to hold these two authors out as experts on the Mid-East. They well may be. But they do offer some perfectly plausible ideas about what is really going on in Iraq. Their words "fit" what is going on.

Via Alternet.

Saudi to take Pakistan ex-PM Sharif back into exile

Now who amongst you had the naïve`t'e to not see this one coming? Pervez Musharraf would welcome a political contender back to Pakistan with open arms?

Are pigs flying now? I hadn't noticed.

Saudi Arabia will allow former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif to return to exile in the kingdom after he was deported from Islamabad within hours of his arrival on Monday, a Saudi source said.

Via Reuters.

US bribe insurgents to fight Al-Qaeda

What? Blackwater can't supply enough mercenaries? What is this world coming to?

AMERICAN forces are paying Sunni insurgents hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to switch sides and help them to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The tactic has boosted the efforts of American forces to restore some order to war-torn provinces around Baghdad in the run-up to a report by General David Petraeus, the US commander, to Congress tomorrow.

And the koinky-dinks just keep piling up. The New Osama tape (includes transcript)? Thompson's candidacy? Remembrance of 9/11?

No, I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories, well, not most, but I do point out Koinky-dinks. This seems like one gigantic dog and pony show to take people's minds off the "Petraeus" report.

Isn't this a perfect convergence of news for some people? Just asking.

Via BlackListedNews.

Chinese chicken chokes after testing the water

OK, you have to accept this was a very limited experiment. I mean one man and one chicken, but it makes one wonder. Further testing will be required. Will keep you informed.

Think a bottle of mineral water might have poisoned you? Then test it on a chicken.

One Chinese family on the southern island province of Hainan had just that idea when one of their number started vomiting blood after drinking a bottle of water, a newspaper said.

They fed the luckless chicken the rest of the water to see what would happen, the Beijing News said, citing a report in a local paper. "The result was the chicken died within a minute," it said, showing a picture of a man holding a plastic bottle squatting over the crumpled body of the bird.

The province's authorities were investigating, it added.

Barely a day goes by without some new scandal over a made-in-China product, be it toys, toothpaste or fish, which has raised safety concerns in major export markets around the world.

In the meantime, chickens (human variety) will panic. This isn't something China needs right now.

Via Reuters.

You get to see what they want you to see

" Nude Descending a Staircase" by Marcel Duchamp

Ran into this story which immediately made me salivate. NO! You know that's not true. I have no more interest in pop culture than I have in the Food Channel.

The "real" headline: Casino Carpet Unrolls on the MTV Awards

Well, I wasn't truthful, the Food Channel's OK and it does make me salivate.

Both Britney Spears and the MTV Video Music Awards were looking to make a comeback as the annual extravaganza prepared to get underway Sunday evening in Sin City....

Nope, the reason I'm posting is because I've never watched MTV for more than a couple minutes. To me music is all about the images it conjures for me. I hate videos.

Can you imagine the following as picture books?

Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451

Hawthorne, Nathaniel: The Scarlet Letter

Kesey, Ken: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Golding, William: Lord of the Flies

Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World

Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina

Note: I wouldn't even see the films of such books. My pictures in my head were all that were necessary and I didn't/don't want to see anyone else's.

I love art, but an image there is the message/story. I accept the artist's concept.

BTW, that painting above is one of my favorites of all time. It used to be posted in my cubicle for many months. Company policy prohibited displaying nudes or anything else which might offend anyone. I knew no one would no I was getting away with something.

MTV pap via Watever - can't load story

Novels via College Bound Reading List

Antiwar leaders stymied, frustrated

There really is nothing new of note here except it just takes on what all of know from a different angle.

A well-known antiwar leader has gone public with the transcript of a private conference call that shows peace activists are exasperated with the Democratic congressional leadership and at a loss for a long-term strategy.

The Aug. 29 call highlights divisions in the Democratic Party that Republicans are gearing up to try to exploit as Congress debates its response to the report on Iraq this week by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

On Monday, the pair begins two days of testimony on Capitol Hill.

Republicans say the call reflects the degree to which war opponents have failed to gain the advantage that many in both parties thought would build over the summer.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine, posted the transcript Friday on the Web site of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, of which he is a co-chair.

The transcript reveals that opponents of the war in Iraq have decided to first try to enlist conservative Democrats, before moving on moderate Republicans. The call shows they are having little success because of fears about the impact on next year’s elections if the party is seen as defeatist.

The call, which Lerner titled “Strategizing with leaders of the Anti-War Movement,” included two sympathetic members of Congress and representatives of groups ranging from Code Pink to the Progressive Democrats of America.

Lerner -- who is based in Berkeley, Calif., and is a leader of what he calls “the religious left” -- told Politico in a phone interview on Sunday that he concluded from the call that the antiwar movement does not have a long-term strategy, even though the war “is going to continue through the end of President Bush’s administration” and perhaps into the term of the next president.

Lerner said he posted the transcript in an effort to persuade war opponents that they need “some fundamentally new thinking.”

“Right now, we could write the story of this Congress as ‘Profiles in Cowardice,’” Lerner said. “There’s a great deal of frustration with the Democrats in the Congress – a sense almost of betrayal. The Democrats don’t have – and even the people in the antiwar movement don’t have – a coherent alternative worldview from which to base a strategy. That’s why they end up debating everything on the same terms that the Republicans do.”

Via Politio.

Calif. carpenter can work in the buff

Well things have sort of settled down around here. Pages are still damn slow to load and sometimes I can go make a sandwich waiting for Bloglines, but let's pull the wrench out of these gears and see if we can get the old machine running.

Posting will be light for a while because, either there's is little out there of any import or its being covered adequately by many other bloggers.

Ah, but they seem to have missed this gem:

A carpenter caught hammering nails and sawing wood in the nude has been found by a judge to be not guilty of indecent exposure.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Julie Conger ruled Thursday that although Percy Honniball of Oakland was naked, he was not acting lewdly or seeking sexual gratification.

Honniball, 51, was arrested last year after he was spotted building cabinets in the buff at a home where he had been hired to work.

If you've ever hit your thumb with a hammer...

Via Boston Globe.