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Food for Thought: What is Complicity?
Reprinted in its entirety for discussion purposes only:
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i14/14a00101.htm
Anthropologists in a War Zone: Scholars Debate Their Role
By DAVID GLENN
Lawrence, Kan.
In 2002, Britt Damon was an Army reservist assigned to guard detainees at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station. At the time, he had eight years of experience as a military police officer, and he was slowly piling up credits toward a bachelor's degree in criminology.
Guantánamo changed Mr. Damon's plans. While most of his fellow guards treated the detainees in a way that he describes as "professional but cold," Mr. Damon, a pensive, slightly built man, often fell into conversation with them. "One of the Afghans would sit down and recite the poetry he had written," he recalls. "We both knew that I couldn't understand its verbal meaning, but you could understand the emotion and the context."
Mr. Damon wanted to comprehend the cultural forces that had helped lead him and his prisoner to this remote place in the Caribbean. Before he left Cuba, he decided to switch his major to anthropology.
Four years later, Mr. Damon was working as a bar bouncer and taking courses at the University of Kansas when he saw an online notice: The military wanted reservists with social-science backgrounds to join a new program known as the Human Terrain System. The program would give brigade commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan detailed information about local customs, kinship structures, and social conflicts. In the military's jargon, the idea is to assist with "cultural preparation of the battlefield." As Mr. Damon sees it, that means providing military leaders with information to help them make better decisions, and, especially, to help them avoid needless violence.
Early this year, Mr. Damon landed in southeast Afghanistan as a member of one of the first experimental Human Terrain Teams. He also landed in the middle of a debate that has roiled his adopted field of anthropology.
Critics of the Human Terrain System say that armed anthropologists in military uniforms cannot possibly be getting voluntary informed consent — a principle at the core of the discipline's code of practice — from their research subjects. They also worry that the program will directly or indirectly help the military select particular neighborhoods or people for attack.
David H. Price, an associate professor of anthropology at Saint Martin's University who is one of the program's most visible critics, says he fears that the new program might someday help the Iraqi or Afghan government conduct immoral scorched-earth counterinsurgency campaigns. (In 1970 several American anthropologists were accused of assisting the government of Thailand with such campaigns.)
Some critics go further, arguing that the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is illegitimate and that the Human Terrain Teams are helping prepare the countries for neocolonial rule, in an echo of the imperial-flavored anthropology of the early 20th century.
At this week's annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, in Washington, a special committee is expected to release a set of ethical guidelines for scholars who work with military and intelligence agencies. The association's executive board has already released a statement formally disapproving of anthropologists' participation in the Human Terrain System, and the association has — at least temporarily — stopped accepting recruitment advertisements for the program.
But despite the intense scrutiny, many elements of the human-terrain effort remain little-understood. How do brigade leaders actually make use of the teams' analyses? How will the data be used over the long term? And what exactly is the social-science component of the program? If the Human Terrain Teams are establishing rapport with local populations and learning about social conflicts, doesn't that simply replicate the traditional work of the army's civil-affairs and intelligence teams?
At a workshop this month at Kansas' Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, three members of Mr. Damon's team joined three social scientists to discuss the human-terrain program's future. Their meeting suggested that the program is still rapidly evolving, and it may be years before the public has a full picture of how the military is attempting to put social-science knowledge to use.
Anthropology on the QT
"Our goal was to look at the culture of the military and at the culture of the Afghans, at how they see themselves," says Mr. Damon, who now works at Fort Leavenworth, 35 miles from the Kansas campus, as a civilian contractor recruiting and training members of the Human Terrain Teams. His employer is BAE Systems, an aerospace company that holds a major contract to support the Human Terrain System. He is also still taking courses at Kansas and expects to complete his bachelor's degree in May.
Mr. Damon and his colleagues have a lot of work ahead of them: By July the Army plans to deploy 22 nine-person teams in Iraq and another four teams in Afghanistan. Only six teams are on the ground today. Each team will have a leader with extensive military experience, two social scientists with at least master's degrees (one anthropologist and one regional specialist), and six lower-level data analysts (some of whom are Iraqi or Afghan citizens hired in part for their language skills).
Of those nine people, the idea is to have a roughly equal split between military personnel and civilian contractors. Almost all of the social scientists recruited so far have been civilians.
Some of the program's social scientists have chosen to keep a low profile. Most notably, the lead anthropologist on Mr. Damon's team has been identified publicly only as "Tracy" — and she did not attend the Kansas workshop.
Others, however, have publicly promoted their work. Marcus B. Griffin, an anthropologist at Christopher Newport University who is serving in Iraq, maintains a blog with near-daily updates on his activities. He has also written an essay for this week's issue of The Chronicle Review.
Liam D. Murphy, an associate professor of anthropology at California State University at Sacramento, has not served on a Human Terrain Team, but he has traveled to Fort Leavenworth three times to train program participants in ethnographic techniques. He says he can understand young scholars' reluctance to publicize their participation because he believes the anthropology association's disapproval will stigmatize people coming up for tenure.
Mr. Murphy says many of the ethical concerns about the program are real and serious, but he believes it is a mistake for scholars to hold the program at arm's length. "As I've learned more about what the Human Terrain System is intended to do, I've become persuaded that it's worth exploring," he says. He adds that he is prepared to act "as a whistle-blower" if he ever detects serious problems.
Dissidents in the Ranks
When his team first arrived in Afghanistan, Mr. Damon says, they spent several weeks on a base near Khost, working alongside local civilian employees who drive trucks, wash laundry, and perform manual labor. "I would just get up in the morning and embed with one of these workers," he says. "I would grab a scythe and go down and cut wheat with them, or work in the apple orchard, or sit in the back of their truck, and just talk with them. This is how we built these relationships."
Among other things, Mr. Damon recalls, he and his colleagues discovered seething resentment about the security measures that the workers faced when they entered and left the base each day. The workers would sometimes receive gifts of chocolate from Americans during the day, only to see them confiscated when they left the base.
"If we don't start looking at how we treat people at the center of these concentric circles of relationships," Mr. Damon says, "how are we going to expect people to trust us as we move farther away from our bases?"
In a variety of ways, Mr. Damon and his teammates clearly view themselves as dissidents within the culture of the military. During the Kansas conference, Maj. Robert Fulton Holbert, an Army reservist who served with Mr. Damon in Afghanistan, said it took three months for their Human Terrain Team to gain the trust of the brigade where they served. The human-terrain concept, Major Holbert said, "is something that the Army should have embraced 15 years ago." It is still much too common, he said, for the Army to move into an area "like a blunderbuss" with no concern for local sensitivities.
Felix Moos, a 78-year-old professor of anthropology at Kansas who has trained several human-terrain participants, passionately supports the program. He has roughly a dozen different ways of saying "A better-educated military will kill fewer people, not more." In conversation, however, Mr. Moos lapses every five minutes or so into severe criticism of the military. He believes the U.S. poppy-eradication program in Afghanistan is idiotic; he says it is insane that the Army hasn't invested more resources in building officers' language skills; he deplores the fact that the human-terrain program is run through private contractors.
Some observers say the human-terrain program is not as distinct from mainstream military culture as its proponents like to suggest. In an essay in the November 26 issue of The Weekly Standard, the journalist Ann Marlowe argued that the news media have given the human-terrain program undue credit for what is actually: an Armywide shift toward better counterinsurgency tactics. Throughout Afghanistan, she wrote, Army units are interacting more effectively with the local population, and they haven't needed fancy anthropological knowledge in order to do so.
A converse point was made earlier this year by one of the program's left-wing critics. Roberto J. González, an associate professor of anthropology at San Jose State University, acknowledged in an essay in Anthropology Today that the Human Terrain System's soft methods "are apparently anathema to many in the Pentagon." But despite those cultural conflicts within the Department of Defense, Mr. González argued, the human-terrain teams should not deceive themselves that their work is actually progressive. Instead, he wrote, they are scholarly imperialists "seeking particular forms of cultural knowledge that might facilitate indirect rule over foreign lands."
Ethnography or Banality?
Mr. Damon and his colleagues insist, however, that their work in Afghanistan has helped to save lives. Major Holbert cites an official estimate that the 82nd Airborne Division, in which his team was embedded in southeast Afghanistan, reduced its "kinetic operations" — that is, operations that require direct military force — by 60 percent after the Human Terrain Team arrived.
Nothing in the team's work, Mr. Damon says, had to do with selecting targets for military action. If the brigade leader requested a line of research that appeared to deal with targeting, he says, the team would refuse to take it, telling the commander to send the request instead to his intelligence division. "What we would do," Mr. Damon says, "is offer advice about the potential second- and third-order effects of a proposed operation in a village."
During the Kansas conference, Major Holbert offered an example. "There was a particular village that was going to be searched," he said. "And the platoon leaders were planning to go in there at about 3 or 4 in the morning. On a Friday morning. … And Britt and I pointed out that that really wasn't a good idea. Searching these homes on a Friday morning before morning prayer. If this village was hovering between red and blue" — that is, between supporting the Taliban and supporting the Kabul government — "this would definitely push it over onto the red side."
The Human Terrain Team persuaded the brigade instead to approach the town's leader in daylight and to explain why the search was necessary. "Humility and respect go a long way," Major Holbert said.
Many of the interventions described by Mr. Damon and his colleagues — don't confiscate chocolate, don't raid homes before dawn on a Friday — seem common-sensical and obvious. Indeed, one frequent criticism of the program, from both conservatives like Ms. Marlowe and leftists like Mr. González, is that its insights are generally banal. What about the program requires someone with a deep knowledge of ethnographic techniques?
In the dull, brick building where the Human Terrain System is headquartered at Fort Leavenworth, across the street from the fort's famous prison barracks, James K. Greer, the program's deputy manager, offers an answer to that question. The Human Terrain Teams, he says, are slowly compiling detailed ethnographic histories of the areas where they operate. In a cumulative, hard-to-quantify way, he says, those ethnographies will eventually help brigade leaders make better decisions.
The Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, Mr. Greer says, "looks absolutely rectangular if you look at it on a map. But if you were to draw a picture of the tribal relationships within Sadr City, it looks very different. You start to see different fault lines. … What we're trying to understand is, Where are the different tribes in Sadr City and how do they interact with the formal government and all the other formal things that we're trying to do — investments in electricity and water and sewage and schools and all the rest of that?"
At the Kansas conference, an official with the Center for Army Lessons Learned offered a different analysis: Some of the Human Terrain Teams' advice about local customs might seem banal, he said, but a culturally insensitive brigade commander is more likely to heed the advice of a credentialed social scientist than that of a 19-year-old civil-affairs soldier who might make the same point.
Getting to 'Yes'
The element of the Human Terrain System that is most worrisome to academic anthropologists — even those who are generally open to advising the military — is the question of informed consent. No formal institutional review board supervises the social-scientific research conducted by the civilian anthropologists in the program. The program's leaders have said that because the work consists of "interview procedures or observation of public behavior," it falls outside the federal statute on human-subjects protection. But several critics have disputed that assertion, and the matter is reportedly being reviewed by the Pentagon's lawyers.
David M. Hann, coordinator of the human-subjects committee at Kansas, writes in an e-mail message to The Chronicle that he believes the program should be reviewed by an independent federal board, perhaps at the National Institutes of Health.
"Allowing the Department of Defense to decide for itself whether its own research plans need review," Mr. Hann writes, "would be a built-in conflict of interest, much like if departments within a university or hospital were allowed to decide the same question themselves, rather than submit their research protocol to their university's IRB to decide that question."
Despite the lack of a review board, Mr. Damon says he obtained written consent from everyone he interviewed, even if it took several conversations to explain the concept of anthropology. "The best way I could get that across," he says, "was to tell them that I'm there to learn about their culture. They're my teacher and I'm their student, and I want to know what they think and how they feel." He says he told his informants that "we are going to be using them in a published study to the military commanders, but that we'll never reveal who we specifically got the information from."
At this week's anthropology conference, much of the debate will concern how the Army uses the data compiled by Human Terrain Teams. That question probably cannot be fully answered for at least another year, as more teams arrive in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the meantime, Kansas' Mr. Moos urges his colleagues to give the program the benefit of the doubt. "To defeat any insurgency," he says, "you have to separate the population from the insurgents. If you win enough of the population, they will help you defeat the insurgency. So the real purpose of all of this is, How do you convince the people to come over to your thinking, or at least to approximate your thinking?" Only social scientists, he says, can give the military the knowledge it needs to complete that task with a minimum of violence.
Many anthropologists, however, are horrified by the thought of manipulating a local culture in the way Mr. Moos proposes, especially when the coercive force of the Army is involved. "Anthropologists on the ground with military operations, whether they're in civilian or military dress, is just over the line," says Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, a professor of anthropology at Rhode Island College and the former chair of the anthropology association's ethics committee. "That's just not what we do. At the very least, call it something else. Call it open-source intelligence. This is not something that we comfortably recognize as anthropology."
For his part, Mr. Damon hopes that he will still be working with the program a decade from now. "I truly feel that this is a necessary part of the military," he says. "If we can understand this sort of information even before a conflict begins, then we've really gotten somewhere."
SURVEYING THE HUMAN TERRAIN
The U.S. Army's Human Terrain System is designed to bring social-science insights to military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here's a look at the program:
Created: 2006
Annual budget: $40-million
Human Terrain Teams
Consist of 9 people:
A team leader with extensive military experience
2 social scientists (1 anthropologist and 1 regional specialist)
6 research analysts
Current deployment of Human Terrain Teams
5 in Iraq, 1 in Afghanistan
Planned full deployment of Human Terrain Teams (by July 2008)
22 in Iraq, 4 in Afghanistan
________________________________________
http://chronicle.com
Section: Research & Publishing
Volume 54, Issue 14, Page A1
I believe America will pay a price beyond our comprehension in the years ahead for such cold, calculated, inhumane, dignity stripping treatment of our fellow human beings, no matter what cause or flag or excuse it is marketed & packaged in for domestic consumption.
Moral Less
Bush to Welcome Gore to White House
Former Political Rivals Meet as Nobel Prize Winners are Honored
Forget the Mideast peace talks. A meeting that may require even greater diplomacy will take place Monday in the Oval Office, when President Bush receives America's Nobel Prize winners — including his one-time rival, Al Gore.
A lot has happened to both men in the seven years since the 2000 election.
The president has faced terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and war; the former vice president left politics to campaign against global warming.
But while Bush saw his popularity plummet, Gore's star has been rising of late — with his Oscar-winning movie "An Inconvenient Truth," and the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change.
So, when they meet in the Oval Office on Monday, will they finally bury the hatchet? Don't bet on it.
"This is going to be a very uncomfortable moment for both of them," says Gore's former campaign manager Donna Brazile. "I think after the president looks at Al Gore and says 'congratulations,' Al Gore will probably depart the room."
more...
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3911269&page=1
It is worrying me and saddening that almost all of the attention, debate, discussion, the energy and the excitement is NOT on the Democratic side of the race but on the Republican side. Paul is energizing the Republican and bring new voters into the systems. Paul is generating new sources of money.
That is what is worrying me, there are so many uninformed Americans, It took friking Republicans to reelect Lieberman as an independant knocking out another democratic vote in the Senate taking away the majority with Senator Johnson out after Brain Surgery.
Lieberman is the republicans puppet after the democratic voters kicked him out on his ass..
That is what pisses me off so much,that such a uninformed nation elects the so called Leader of the free world.
Unbelievably uninformed, misinformed, malformed, deformed...
The Proof is in the Put On
woz,
Sincerely sorry, for your loss. Take care. Peace
Oh..please let there be a hatchet buried!
Woz,
I'm so sorry for your loss and for the suffering your family is going through.
From the Stephanie Miller show:
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Steph read this list this morning on the show. Thanks to Listener Marc in Phoenix for sending this along!
You are a Republican, if you believe..............
1. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals, and Hillary Clinton.
2. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's Daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
3. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
4. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational drug corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
7. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
8. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
9. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMO's and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
10. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
11. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
12. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
13. The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.
14. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
15. Supporting "Executive Privilege" for every Republican ever born, who will be born or who might be born (in perpetuity).
16. What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of national interest, but what Bush did in the '80's is irrelevant.
17. Support for hunters who shoot their friends and blame them for wearing orange vests similar to those worn by the quail.
Kangaroo
My husband just told me Australia's economy is booming and the new Prime Minister speaks fluent Mandarin.
===
nmp I will have five Chinese students sleeping over, this week before they go back to China for the holiday season, they have all stayed with me at some time or other, met and connected at my place and became friends after they arrived from China. They will be coming back to go to University, to school, or college, and they are happy about Rudd getting in, they sure as hell know that he speaks fluent Mandarin.
Full house this week 5 Chinese, one Japanese, and a Swiss German, feels like a friking restraunt, my baby is sure as hell happy though, he sits at the table with them all and waits for his leftovers. They love to tease him, and tell him he is not getting any.
New students coming week after Christmas, Swiss German, and Swiss French darn I feel like I need a holiday already and I havent even started the new year yet.
Contact: Don Swarthout, President, Christians Reviving America's Values (CRAVE), 859-219-1222, 859-619-2811
WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Democrats are looking for a way to destroy the Republican Party and that is why they favor allowing millions of Illegal Aliens into our country.
Don Swarthout, President of Christians Reviving America's Values says, "The idea that we should allow Illegal Aliens into our country is simply an idea to help the Democrats destroy the Republican Party forever."
These Democrats may say they are being compassionate, but the truth is they want to see the continued flow of Illegal Aliens into America because these Illegal Aliens will most likely become Democrats and will therefore vote against Republicans from now until the end of time.
Why don't the Democrats just say this is their true reasoning?
Most elected Democrats are wealthy and yet they say that they are for the rights of the average person. In reality their thinking is out of line with the rest of the American public. For example, the Democrats also say that they favor national health care to be given to everyone instead of the current free enterprise system which has always been at the front of our nation's way of thinking.
As Americans we used to think that if you work hard enough you will make it in America. Why should we take away your freedom to pursue happiness and make people who are willing to work, just give everything to those people who are not willing to work for it?
Swarthout said, "Of course the Republicans have their problems too, but why don't the Democrats just say the reason they favor allowing Illegal Aliens into America is by allowing them to come into our country we will destroy the Republican Party and gain votes for the Democrats?"
Don Swarthout concluded by saying, "This is one of the most obvious ploys ever invented by one of our political parties, yet nobody except me is willing to tell you their real reasons. This ploy by the Democrats will lead to the destruction of the Republican Party for a long time to come in America."
...more at link.
I already left a message. So much for "Christian values" or "American values." And so much for the ten commandments too: Thou shalt not lie and Thou shall love thy neighbor.
That is what is worrying me, there are so many uninformed Americans, It took friking Republicans to reelect Lieberman as an independant knocking out another democratic vote in the Senate taking away the majority with Senator Johnson out after Brain Surgery.
@@@@@@@@@
Yes, but Hillary, with her support of the war, the Patriot Act and the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, her triangulating, her planting questions, her scripting, her big-money and special interest supporters and, frankly, her boring, mealy-mouthed policy statements, many people are desperately looking for an alternative.
I don't blame them. Without Bill, the money and the last name "Clinton" - Hillary would be nowhere....
Lott to Resign by End of Year
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112607Z.shtml
Sen. Trent Lott, of Mississippi, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, plans to resign his seat before the end of the year, Congressional and White House officials said on Monday. It is unclear why Senator Lott is resigning abruptly in the second year of his current term in office.
Among other things, Mr. Damon recalls, he and his colleagues discovered seething resentment about the security measures that the workers faced when they entered and left the base each day. The workers would sometimes receive gifts of chocolate from Americans during the day, only to see them confiscated when they left the base.
"If we don't start looking at how we treat people at the center of these concentric circles of relationships," Mr. Damon says, "how are we going to expect people to trust us as we move farther away from our bases?"
=========
I have found that in all my years of taking in International students, I have never, at any time had any kind of disrepect. I have always felt that if you give them the respect that you think you deserve,the respect and kindness you would wish for your own children were they to visit another Country, then you will get that same respect back in bucket loads from them and their families, which I have, and now have many many friends on all continents of the world community.
When you have a President who has no morals, who has no respect or regard for anyone but himself and his thugs, "YOUR WITH US OR AGAINST US" a President as Monkey say's that cannot even get his tongue around the English Language, a President who had never travelled out of America until he became so called Leader of the Free World, and what a disaster most of those visits have been, what the hell can you expect, A majority of the military that invaded and occupied Afganistan and Iraq are uninformed poor youngsters, looking to get out of their poverty, as uneducated as your own so called President, that is a disaster waiting to happen, When they see their so called President, their Commander and Chief, is so arrogant, with so little respect for the rest of the world, how can we expect them to respect countries and peoples that they are occupying, and supposed to be LIBERATING.
That is the difference with having a President who has respect for the rest of the world, A President, A Leader of the Free World, that the world can respect. Instead of a Thug that the citizens of America feel they, can be happy having a beer with.
The permanent Republican majority:
Part one: How a coterie of Republican heavyweights sent a governor to jail
Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
Part one of a Raw Story Investigates series on the architects and the execution of backroom Republican politics
For most Americans, the very concept of political prisoners is remote and exotic, a practice that is associated with third-world dictatorships but is foreign to the American tradition. The idea that a prominent politician -- a former state governor -- could be tried on charges that many observers consider to be trumped-up, convicted in a trial that involved numerous questionable procedures, and then hauled off to prison in shackles immediately upon sentencing would be almost unbelievable.
But there is such a politician: Don Siegelman, Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003. Starting just a few weeks after he took office, Siegelman was targeted by an investigation launched by his political opponents and escalated from the state to the federal level by Bush Administration appointees in 2001.
Siegelman was ultimately charged with 32 counts of bribery and other crimes in 2005, just as he began to attempt a political comeback. He was convicted the following year on seven of those charges. Last summer, Siegelman was sentenced to seven years in prison and immediately whisked off to a series of out-of-state jails, not even being allowed to remain free on bond while his appeal was under way.
Shortly before the sentencing, however, suspicions expressed by Alabama observers that there was something "fishy" about the case -- as Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine would later put it -- began to reach the national stage. What initially appeared to be merely a whiff of possible political corruption became something stronger, with allegations that Karl Rove and the Bush Justice Department had been operating behind the scenes. And yet, despite these suspicions and the attempts of a few journalists to bring them to greater notice, Siegelman's case remains virtually unknown to most of America.
As a result, RAW STORY Investigates has decided to focus a series of reports, interviews, and investigative pieces over the next several weeks on Siegelman’s case. At the very least, the investigation will illuminate an incestuous pool of corruption in Alabama, with government officials, lobbyists, attorneys, and even judges behaving in ways that breach the public trust.
Part one: Don Siegelman, political prisoner
Governor Don Siegelman was a popular Democratic politician in a largely Republican state and was the only person in Alabama history to hold all of the state's highest posts. He served as Attorney General, Secretary of State, Lieutenant Governor and finally as Governor from 1999 to 2003.
On Election Day in November 2002, when the polls had closed and the votes were being counted, it seemed increasingly apparent that Governor Siegelman had been victorious in his re-election bid against Republican challenger Bob Riley. But then -- just as in the infamous Florida election of 2000 -- something strange happened in the tallying of the votes.
- Click here to see a timeline of the case.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_1125.html
Man I hate to say this, but I find myself almost hoping that the Annapolis "peace summit" ends in failure, as I can't bear the thought of this warmongering disaster of a president/vp/sec of state leaving office with the legacy of a PEACE agreement...
Forgive me friends, I know it's awful to think that way, but something just seems so wrong about it...
Heaven Help Me
monkey, I understand but I also have no clear picture of these incompetents actually being successful at any kind of negotiations. They do not know how to LISTEN and their values are ridiculous.
If they negotiate anything that lasts more than 35 seconds I will be shocked. But, I suspect that the lessons about bullying have not yet been learned, and we will see a disaster.
I hope I am wrong.
Annapolis "peace summit" ends
Don't haunt yourself Monkey, anything Condi and Georgie preside over is bound to end in failure, When you put in a puppet President over the Democratically elected Govt of Palistine, You are sure as hell not going to get peace at any cost.
Abbas Hopes for Peace Before Bush Term Ends
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16006771
Expectations Drop for Annapolis Peace Summit
All Things Considered, November 9, 2007 · President Bush has been promising to encourage Israelis and Palestinians toward a permanent peace settlement. A meeting to set guidelines was scheduled this month in Annapolis, Md., but analysts are lowering expectations about what the meeting can accomplish.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16162009
Listen Now
Georgie rejects violence, Can you believe the wanker? the man responsible for the deaths of 1 million Iraqi citizens untold Afganni Citizens, has the audacity to call on Palistinians to reject violence
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=16162009&m=16161961
I hope yall are wrong too, but I doubt they will meet anything but failure. Just like every other mission of diplomacy, they will fail.
BTW, did I mention, I'M A BLOG HO! Or something like that.
I gave Vivaldi a makeover!
http://christysartblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/vivaldi.html
I have decided to remake in my own style all of the Masterpieces I ever coveted and wanted for myself.
I guess that means when The Revolution comes, I will be at my easel. I am starting to think I am perfectly ok with that.
BTW Monkey,
Good to see you in almost full eek mode. Tell me when and I will send you this Monkey Ball poster.
Bush optimistic ahead of Mideast summit
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush expressed optimism Monday after meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders about reviving the stalled Mideast peace process.
Bush's White House talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas came on the eve of a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, among representatives of more than 40 countries, including a wide array of Arab nations such as Syria and Saudi Arabia.
During a photo session for reporters after talks with Abbas, Bush said the United States can't impose Mideast peace "but can help facilitate it."
more on...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/26/mideast.summit/index.html
Send it anytime.
... and don't let the eek fool ya, I'm still on bedrest... but thanks Christy, ya snapped me outta my funk.
Geaux Funk Yerself
Bush said the United States can't impose Mideast peace "but can help facilitate it."
What a moron.
If we can impose FREEDOM and DOMOCRACY... Why the hell not PEACE georgie..?
Oh yeah. Cause your an idiot MORON!
I knew someone would snap up that 'we don't impose" peace statement!
The Imposeter!
... and that's DUMBACRACY, tank you very little.
We all get a little funky every now and then darlin.
No worries and lots of rest and you will be...just fine.
Did you feel that? That was me, sending you a good vibe!
11 relatives of Iraqi journalist killed
http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/11_relatives_of_Iraqi_journalist_ki_11262007.html
God forgive Us.
Do that again Christy, I'm home alone ;-)
November 26, 2007
Huckabee talks Jesus, not politics
FOUNTAIN INN, South Carolina (CNN) — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee stepped into a familiar role on Sunday morning: that of Baptist minister.
Huckabee, who was a minister before he served two and a half terms as governor as Arkansas, took to the stage for about half an hour at two Baptist churches in South Carolina and told the congregations: "I am here today to talk about Jesus and not to talk about me."
"I always try to remind people that there is a place for politics, but when I come to church, it's to worship," he said at Gateway Baptist Church in Irmo, where he was mistakenly introduced as "Governor Hucklebee."
In Irmo and at First Baptist Church in Fountain Inn, Huckabee weaved jokes and anecdotes from his life in Arkansas into his sermons while also demonstrating a deep familiarity with the New Testament, quoting passages from memory.
"God is still looking for good soldiers, good soldiers for Christ," he told the congregation in Irmo. "Every single person here is a soldier that God needs in his army. He is just waiting on us to say here am I, send me."
"If you've been a pastor as I have and then you run for office, there are some people who are incredibly uncomfortable with all of that," he said, but joked that they were "undecided voters."
In his second sermon of the morning, Huckabee urged the audience into avoid arrogance and selfishness.
"Any time we ever look down on somebody for whatever reason, that's the sin," he said. "What we look down on them for is not nearly as sinful a behavior as our act of looking down, somehow thinking that our standard of behavior was superior to theirs and not understanding that neither our nor their standard of behavior matches up to His, because His is the only behavior that ever really hit it right on the mark.
"The only good thing about any of us is the God in us, not the us," Huckabee said.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/11/26/huckabee-talks-jesus-not-politics/#comments
Bush said the United States can't impose Mideast peace "but can help facilitate it."
What a moron.
I was just reading it at that moment. and thought the same thing, the Wanker
Oh look a politician talking about God again.
We should make it a point, everytime they mention God, we should also mention HELL.
And all the people that are in danger of it.
You know, like politicians who talk about God, yet never seem able to reflect Him any longer than it takes to get elected.
Monkey,
Do you know what the worst part to me about the political isolation of the Deep South has been?
Watching all these yankees trying to effectively counteract the God Guns Gays platform, and getting their a**es handed to them time and time again.
It is frustrating beyond all measure.
NOW YOUR THERE PERMANENTLY. SON OF A BITCH LIAR
White House, Iraq Agree On "Principles" For Permanent US Presence
So it begins. After years of obfuscation and denial on the length of the U.S.'s stay in Iraq, the White House and the Maliki government have released a joint declaration of "principles" for "friendship and cooperation." Apparently President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the declaration during a morning teleconference.
Naturally, the declaration is euphemistic, and doesn't refer explicitly to any U.S. military presence.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004772.php
God
For 1, never presume to know the mind of GOD, and never let your opponant think you will let him pretend as if he knows the mind of GOD either.
And 2, as I said, every time they mention God, it is a safe assumption they must also then believe in HELL. Make sure both subjects are intractable from the other.
Want to talk about God? OK. And HELLFIRE! I insist.
Guns
Never let your opponant compare guns to other, everyday items, like cars, or swimmingpools. Guns were built for one reason only. To put a bullet into something. My car was built for much different things. Purpose and design should rule the debate.
Never let anyone assume they are safer WITH a gun in their hand. For 1, statistically you are most likely the one to be killed by your own gun, and for 2, anytime you find yourself with a gun in your hand, obviously the word 'safe' has been distorted well beyond its' actual meaning.
Gays
This is the part of their platform based on a complete MYTH.
Sure, there are an awful lot of homophobes out there that just loooove to gaybash.
But, again going back to statistics, those gay bashers are OBVIOUSLY less than 20% of the overall total, and a full 70% or more of the actual population feel gays are entitled to civil rights protections and are perfectly ok with their presence in our lives.
Only the stupid people (republicans) do not realize that. Or maybe they do, which means they are then being DELIBERATELY devisive.
But we all know they would never DELIBERATELY divide us.... Man it made me sick just to type that last line.
HeHe. I just cancelled my Time subscription...
Dear Editor,
I am writing to let you know that after years of happily paying for your magazine, immediately following my sending this, I will be canceling my subscription.
You can thank Mr. Joe Klein personally for your loss of my bussiness. However, your inability to just not print the lies of partisians on matters of grave importance, (like FISA), I suspect is your problem, not his. And I no longer wish to deal with your problem with lies..
As a matter of a fact, after reading Joe Kleins lies, unchecked upon your pages, I have decided if I ever see another copy of your magazine in my mailbox, I will take great joy in burning it unopened, so that the lies you tell can be delivered to God Himself with the wayward ashes of what is left of your credibility.
I do hope in the future you will change your ways and once again make yourself relevent, but even then I still doubt I will buy your products. Perhaps if you hired, say, Glenn Greenwald I would maybe consider it, but I doubt you see any use for a good journalist at all these days.
All of my life you have been a fixture and I really thought I would feel only more loss by telling you to go stuff yourselves, but now that I know I will no longer be one of the millions who pay you to lie to me, I must say, I feel quite excellent at your long overdue departure.
Thank you for being the obvious liars you are, it just makes it that much easier to hold you up as an example of lying to all my 5 children, who will also teach their children not to trust you nor even buy your products because of a clear past history of deciet.
You have a wonderful day. Mine is better already.
CS
La.
LOOKS LIKE THE OBAMA FOLKS AND HILLARYITES HAD A RUN-IN IN LAS VEGAS... Hillary did her best at choreography - but politics is messy:
Catching up...
Woz: sorry about your two big losses. To lose two of the most important women in your life is very devastating - and I can't even claim to imagine how bad it must be. We will be there for you in spirit, if it is of any help.
Sparrow: Thanks for sharing that list. Isn't Stephanie Miller something? There are brilliant progressive minds, even in reactionary Southern California.
Kangaroo:
The US, AFAIK, is NOT qualified to play the role of the world's policeman. It may have the firepower, but it certainly doesn't have diplomatic finesse - and that's especially true of the W regime and the voters who chose him.
Christy: Good job on dropping Time. I dropped their garbage years ago, and don't miss it. Unfortunately my sister's getting hooked on the US News and World Report, and its anti-gay, anti-union slant...
Nader Sues Democratic Party
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jSJzOBT1G4nHh_7HFNBZLzNQVo-wD8SJQAP00
& he's being sued by citizens in Pennsylvania
http://www.ballot-access.org/2007/11/26/naders-pennsylvania-challengers-file-response-in-bank-account-case/
I got a look at his lawsuit & I am even named in it, because I was one of 5 who sued him in WA for having a fake nominating convention. What they say in this suit is BS, like it was a conspiracy against him.
He either wants to run again, or is trying to get money, or both. If it weren't for his behavior in the past, people in this country would be less suspicious of third parties.
He hasn't ruled out '08. I knew it.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/30/nader_suing_dnc_over_04_hasnt.html
"unsafe at any age"
Rossi,
I don't know what it is about packages to you, but this is going to sound rediculous. I have your package. It looks like the index card I wrote the names on tried to rip off and somebody put postal tape that says 'Priority' across most of your address. Never made it past customs.
I will rewrap and resend tommorrow. This is getting creepy.
And Woz, I also picked up another package and me too. I am gobsmacked!
Is that really a word?
Anyways I noticed 3 things immediately. The author sent it. The author signed it.
And it is dedicated to sisters.
4th was the fantastic artwork.
May I please share it with everyone?
I already shared it with 3 of my kids who are amazed that the author personally sent it to them. They LOVE IT! Great story. Me too, I love it. Thank you so much.
That is fantastic!
Woz, so sorry for your losses.
Your family is in my prayers.
I have to say Aussies, I like your new PM.
I miss thoughtful and courageous leaders.
New Australian PM pledges quick apology to Aborigines
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j7DnnuKe4aPISyVPCru41yJA12hg
On a lighter note (snark!):
Cheney found to have irregular heartbeat.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21979310/
NMP
Nader lost all credibility when, in 2000, he accepted contributions from the W campaign.
Christy
Ditto on the new Australian leadership.
Howard was a total a-hole - anyone who refuses to apologize for 50 years of forced assimilation, indeed is an a-hole.
In any case, losing Howard is a symbolic blow to the W regime.
Awww. Then we all just kiss, and make up. And we send our kids there so they can kill them forever.
Whos freaking plan was this again? Oh yeah. Dicks.
Iraq’s government, seeking protection against foreign threats and internal coups, will offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq in return for U.S. security guarantees as part of a strategic partnership, two Iraqi officials said Monday.
The proposal, described to The Associated Press by two senior Iraqi officials familiar with the issue, is one of the first indications that the United States and Iraq are beginning to explore what their relationship might look like once the U.S. significantly draws down its troop presence.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Another edition of: Posts that makes Ralphs Head Explode.
When Couric asked Clinton if she'd be disappointed not to be named the nominee, Clinton answered: "Well, it will be me." See above re: confident. Clinton did say that she'd support whomever the nominee was...but clarified that by saying that she hadn't actually considered that possibility
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/26/couric-to-clinton-has-sh_n_74195.html
Wow. She sounds SO confident, it is almost as if she believes she will 'win it' no matter who we actually vote for.
Like she is CERTAIN.
That is not confidence. That is OVERLY confident and even slightly deranged since she is now in 3rd place and trailing repellican nominees in an across the isle match up.
Christy, ROFL!!!
We need to add that as a tag from now on.
But what's making my head explode is the fact that they have just struck to memes with one stone:
1. The Iraq Escalation (surge) was a success.
2. Permanent bases in Iraq from here on.
make that "TWO" memes not "to" (sorry. Forgot to check/edit before posting.
Bush, Gore bond over warming at White House
President's traditional Nobel reception includes 40-minute climate talk
WASHINGTON - Talk about an inconvenient truth.
Al Gore finally won his place in the Oval Office on Monday — right next to George W. Bush.
Forever linked by the closest and craziest presidential race in history, the two men were reunited by, of all things, White House tradition. Gore was among the 2007 Nobel Prize winners who were invited in for a photo and some chatter with the president; Gore got the recognition for his work on global warming.
The two men stood next to other, sharing uncomfortable grins for photographers and reporters, who were quickly ushered in and out.
"Familiar faces," the former vice president said of the media. Bush, still smiling, added nothing.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21981371/
Gee, Bush added nothing. If that's not the understatement of the century, I dont know what is.
Check out the pic...
Of course, Christy. I'm glad you got it. And I'm glad you enjoy it. It's for storytellers everywhere - and that means pretty much everyone. We all tell stories in one way or another.
It was shortlisted by the Australian Children's Book Council in 1994. I haven't written much since then, but I must while I have this window of good health.
And the artist won the Chricton Award for new illustrators for that book. I got to collect the award on her behalf because at that time she was busy giving birth to twins in another city. I've never met her. She was chosen by my editor. And I too, was gobsmacked.
Funny pic...
Gore looks the most comfortable of all of them. Love the article itself though. It seemed somewhat tongue in cheek.
Also, I can't help wondering how many people thought, "That's the real President and that's the one impersonating one."
Good one sparrow... If it weren't for that Nader sellout, Gore would've been elected in 2000 by tamper-proof margins. End of story.
I look forward to seeing it woz and christy. I'm sure given your talents that it's an awesome book.
Also, Woz, great job coding!
Oh. And Christy, I like your Vivaldi. I think you have a magical touch on that time period. Though, you still have to find a way to steal your Girl with the Pearl Earring back from your mom.
Ally,
I don't blame Nadar. If you remember it was Buchanon who got all sort of Jewish votes instead of Gore and Lieberman.
I also can't help but blame the Supremes and I still feel that their acceptance of the 14 ammendment as a reason to stop the vote count was a complete sham.
However given Lieberman's turn to the darkside, I still am shocked that he was the first Jewish VP candidate on a Democratic ticket. Maybe now he's aiming for the Republican ticket. Otherwise I can not explain why he would go on Fox and say that Democrats are lying about Iraq when he knows that he's supporting the biggest liars of all. And his support of those lies is causing death for many.
I just don't like Nader personally. He did good work back in the '70s but his fifteen minutes of fame are long over. & he's afraid of cats and dogs, just as W is afraid of horses. What kind of leader would that be?
Nader's followers here solicited signatures on street corners for weeks and then pretended they'd gathered them all at his "convention" which was sparsely attended. Some "ethics."
Also is it true he was seen getting into a limo with Katherine Harris?
Alot of Republicans certainly wanted him running both times (2000, 2004), to split the vote.
Here are a bunch of reasons Gore "lost" - most of them have to do with cheating by the other side.
http://www.cagreens.org/alameda/city/0803myth/myth.html
In 2000, 200,000 Democrats in Florida voted for Bush, or at least that's how the results came out. Did they really vote like that or was it rigged? In any event, disgraceful. If Gore had won Tennessee, Florida wouldn't have mattered much.
Guess it's water under the bridge, but stagnant & stinky water.
NMP:
I think very little of Ralph Nader, and when I do it is very negative. Oregon was almost 50/50 Gore Bush due to about 5% for Nader. I got audited as a result. Florida had a big Nader vote in 2000 -- utterly swamped the controversy over ballots. I don't hold it too personal -- some of my best friends in Oregon voted Nader, quoting Governor Wallace to the effect that there is not a dime's worth of diffence between the two main parties. But boy did those Nader voters screw up, in my opinion, bless their hearts.
By the way, why pick on Tennessee? If he had won Kentucky, or Virginia, or Missouri, or West Virginia, or North Carolina, or any state of the Confederacy it might have been different, but it wasn't.
For that matter, why not pick on Ohio? I always was a Wolverines fan....
Chuck in Houston
Shaman drumming to heal Cheney's heart:
http://www.healingdick.com/video.html
NMP:
But take heart! If the Aggies can beat UT and if the Hogs can knock off #1 LSU (sorry, Christy), and all on one day, than ANYTHING, on any given Sunday, as the saying goes, is possible.
Chuck in Houston
I put the healing dick video at http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com
I had to - the shaman even appeals to the Spirits of Petroleum!
NMP:
Why is it such a big deal that Gore's home state of Tennessee rejected him once when Bush's home state of Connecticut rejected him twice?
Chuck in Houston
Actualy, Al Gore was born in DC I think, and they can't vote one way or the other.
I take it back. Apparently DC has three electoral votes -- just no senators or representatives. Sorry -- just the whole logic of the electoral system in the US as it applies to life in the 21st century escapes me.
NMP:
By the way, thank you very much for posting the JFK-Pickens Swiftboater letters. I never would have known about it otherwise. I think that is great what JFK is trying to do. I guess it will never make the MSM unless Britney Spears somehow gets involved via DUI or something! (There is a novella in there somewhere, if only I had the muse....)
Chuck in Houston
Or Lindsay Lohan. I mean, she has some talent so more dimensions would be available to the would-be novellest.
"Well, it will be me." See above re: confident. Clinton did say that she'd support whomever the nominee was...but clarified that by saying that she hadn't actually considered that possibility
@@@@@@@@
My head won't explode when Hillary says annoying and impolite and narcissistic things - I have come to expect that from Hill. In some of her very first speeches for president, she kept saying, WHEN I become president..this.... WHEN I become president...that.. (before she is even nominated by the party and the first primary vote has been cast, LOL) And boy does she land on that word "I"... And she never or rarely uses the word "We" It's I , I , I.. I find this shocking and annoying...
What might make my head explode is four or eight miserable years of Hillary, yelling "I" am going to, "I" am president, "I" have decided... "I" have studied this... "I" know what is right...
YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And, by the way, Ralph Nader, JFK, Britney Spears, Linday Lohan, E. E. Evans-Pritchard and the Segmented Nuer, et al, what is complicity? Dang straight question, Karen: Thanks.
Chuck in Houston
Ralpheh:
You have to consider the bright side in these things. I mean, at least she didn't say: "It will be I."
So many people use "I" instead of "me" even when it is the object of a preposition, etc., it is really shocking.
My test is to always try and substitute "him/her" vs. "he/she." If "him/her" sounds right, use "me," else use "I."
By the way, the whole controversy is a linguistic anachronism that comes from a time when English was an inflected language (like German still is). Kind of like the hip-bone in a dolphin.
Chuck in Houston
Whom does that interest, anyway?
The two men stood next to other, sharing uncomfortable grins for photographers and reporters, who were quickly ushered in and out.
"Familiar faces," the former vice president said of the media. Bush, still smiling, added nothing.
@@@@@
I really like Gore... how better things would be if Gore had taken office in 2001.
What is the quote?:
"It hurts too much to laugh and I am too old to cry."
In the same pedantic vein (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=388#I_will_not_put):
The Strand Magazine: "When a memorandum passed round a certain Government department, one young pedant scribbled a postscript drawing attention to the fact that the sentence ended with a preposition, which caused the original writer to circulate another memorandum complaining that the anonymous postscript was 'offensive impertinence, up with which I will not put.'"
Chuck in Houston
So what ever I may ever say against the Brits, I am sure it is unfair and ungracious, as they did give us Monty Python, the Beatles (and the Stones), Churchill (at least his witty "good" twin), "Three Men in a Boat," Common Law, the English Language, etc.
Chuck in Houston
Ralpheh:
"It hurts too much to laugh...."
I think that is one of Lincoln's anecdotes. Or maybe it was just in Gore Vidal's "Lincoln."
Chuck in Houston
Ralpheh:
Also, on Clinton's use of the first-person singular pronoun, it can't be that much worse than old Rumsfeld's evasion of the same, when he constantly went around with "one might suppose that" or "it might be construed" or "we might be better served by considering" etc. instead of saying "I think" or "you think," etc.
Chuck in Houston
Chuck
This is for you.
Reign in those Vocal Chords
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1126/p19s01-hfes.html
about the appalling relaxation of spelling standards simply because "everyone is doing it"
.. on the music topic
I am crazy about Amy Winehouse and I'm so afraid she isn't really going to get into Rehab soon enough because she says no, no, no but she needs to go, go, go. It would kill me if she went the way of Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison, Cobain.
For that matter, Rumsfeld was a gem in one sense: he was about the only person in that administration that acutally came out and said what he meant in precise terms (once you factor out the convoluted evasions of personal pronouns, that is). I never agreed with Rumsfeld on foreign policy, but he is about the only person in the present administration that, to my sensibilities, never offended my intelligence by speaking to me (us) as if I (we) was(were)an idiot (idiots).
Chuck(s) in Houston
On that package from Woz I will post pics asap.
But... has anyone else recieved any non domestic packages lately?
Her package has a big red papertape tag on it that says real big 'ID RECORDED' with a black little ominous eyeball symbol.
Anyone know if that is Aussie or our Homeland Insecurity? I have never seen anything like it before.
I mean, it is kinda wierd looking at it. I suddenly feel like a dirty soviet.
Christy:
If it makes you feel any better, about half the time I travel international (on oil business, by the way) I get a note in my suitcase to the effect that my bags were opened and examined, plus I get the "special treatment" in airports about 20% of the time. I could go one for pages but what's the diff?
Chuck in Houston
PS: Soviets are peoeple too. I guess we can relate to that now at some level. We used to laugh at them for putting up with the sort of invasions of privacy we now heartily embrace.
Though, you still have to find a way to steal your Girl with the Pearl Earring back from your mom.
Hell Yes!!!!She is one of my favorites
NMP:
If we listented to that sort of talk, we never would have discovered nucular power!
Chuck in Houston
pretty graphic, intense antiwar video by Nine Inch Nails
http://romewithtelevision.blogspot.com/
(YouTube link & code will be there too)
Welcome to the US - Now Bend Over & Grab Your Ankles
http://www.docudharma.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2523
especially read the comments - people talking about why they
won't go to the US anymore, even though it's a relative bargain
Look! NIN are completely indie now - unfettered by any record company. That's how they can put out something like that.
forgot the link for music afficionados and culture vultures who lurk at night (or post lyrics & YouTube videos)
http://www.9inchnails.com/
NMP:
A bit OTT, maybe, but I never knew Paris Hilton was in Nine-Inch-Nails! All that time overseas I was wondering what that Paris Hilton thing was all about.
Chuck in Houston; nails trimmed, and clean
Actually Rossi and Sparrow..
YWWPE is still here.
Apparently my mother is having a crisis of 'too much stuff' and reluctantly claims and gives her back every time she comes over.
Sooo... When she is not looking, I was thinking of maybe sending her on a traveling exibit and see how many friends I can get to sign it and then pass it on.
She is actually the third canvas I was sending Rossi and that was sorta kinda the idea anyway.
I just thought it would be fun to pass an object along between all of us, and see how far she can go before someone steals her or we run out of players.
Chuck,
If your oil company ever wants a good Instrumentation Tech who LOOOOVES his damn oil rigs, let me know.
My man is one of the best in the field but I am sick of the people he works for. Not his boss, the company treats their people like crap and new big boss made it worse.
My man can fix anything including toasters, toilets, and barbie doll heads. He's AMAZING.
Oh and all that other stuff he learned in college I am not smart enough to articulate.
I just found the funniest site. Whoever is writing their headlines is having a lot of fun.
http://www.ironictimes.com/
NMP
Winehouse REALLY needs to get into rehab...
Sparrow
It's true that Florida was rigged, with Buchanan getting the Jewish votes. But that's just a county or two...
On the other hand, I believe that New Hampshire and another red state, in addition to Florida, were close enough that had Nader not run, Gore would've soaked up the Nader votes, and won clearly.
But then, this is all in the past, and I don't think it's productive to argue this much longer.
Monkey,
Bush Won't Be Sticking Around Mideast Peace Conference
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/22139.html
Ahmadinejad Offers To Be US Election Observer
He denounces it as the "Great Satan" and frequently dismisses its power, but the overtures of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the US seem to grow ever more extravagant.
Having failed to win a response with an 18-page letter to President George Bush or to a request to visit the