Pensees sur les USA

2009-01-01T00:14:00.000-08:00

2009-01-01T00:11:00.000-08:00

2008-12-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

2008-12-31T23:49:00.000-08:00

Dodge Viper SRT 2008 (not mine)

2008-12-31T23:41:00.000-08:00

Bonne annee 2009

2008-12-31T23:36:00.000-08:00

Angry Iraqi throws shoes at President Bush in Baghdad

2008-12-14T14:47:00.000-08:00

Americans Drive Less Even With Cheap Gas

2008-12-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

Gas prices declined in October, but Americans continued to drive less than ever — 9 billion fewer miles than last October, in fact.
The decline points to a fundamental change in driving habits that began this summer during the gas-price spike but has continued even as prices have fallen. Since November 2007, Americans have driven 100 billion fewer miles compared to the same time span the year before that, which makes this the largest continuous decline in driving ever recorded.
The data, gathered by the Federal Highway Administration, doesn't stop there. Public transportation across the country has seen record increases, including Amtrak, which this fiscal year made the most money it's ever seen in its 37 years of operation. Car accident fatalities are also down 10% so far in 2008.
On the flipside, the Federal Highway Trust Fund continues to come up chronically short on funds because it relies on the gasoline tax. Congress already had to inject $8 billion into it earlier this year to keep important projects operating.
It doesn't take a Harvard economist to figure out that the economic sinkhole we've fallen into is largely responsible for the continued driving decline. Even if rising gas prices started the trend, tightening budgets and layoffs have continued it. Looking to cut expenses, Americans are taking fewer trips and telecommuting for work more frequently.
We're Driving Less Even as Gasoline Prices Drop (USA Today)

World's oldest blogger makes final post

2008-07-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

Olive had posted more than 70 entries on her blog, or as she jokingly labelled it, her "blob", since February last year.
The ardent Sydney Swans AFL fan shared her day-to-day musings and her life's experiences raising three children on her own, living through two world wars and the Depression, her work as a station cook in rural Queensland and as an egg sorter and barmaid in Sydney.
In her final post, dated June 26, an increasingly frail Olive noted she couldn't "shake off that bad cough".
She also: "read a whole swag of email messages and comments from my internet friends today, and I was so pleased to hear from you. Thank you, one and all."
Olive's musing live on at http://www.allaboutolive.com.au and more recently at http://worldsoldestblogger.blogspot.com.
She was born in 1899, and would have turned 109 on October 20.
"She enjoyed the notoriety - it kept her mind fresh," Mr Stone said.
"What kept her going was the memories she had, and being able to recall those memories so strongly."
Olive's funeral will be held at Palmdale Cemetery, on the NSW Central Coast, late this week.oast, late this week.

Bound, tortured, stabbed and burned: 'horrific' mystery of bedsit murders

2008-07-05T00:25:00.000-07:00

French students were promising biochemists · Pathologist found 243 injuries to bodies of pair
Matthew Taylor and Lizzy Davies in Paris
The Guardian,
Friday July 4, 2008
Article history
Two gifted French students found stabbed to death after a fire at a London flat were bound and tortured in what detectives yesterday described as one of the most horrific attacks they had ever seen.
The bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were found in a ground-floor flat in south-east London on Sunday night. They were stabbed more than 200 times in an apparently motiveless attack before the flat was set alight. The pair were promising research students who had been working on a DNA research project at Imperial College, London.
Ferez's sister Hélène, 19, described the moment she was told of his death as "the worst experience of my life."
"Nothing can change what's happened, but I want to know who did this, and why. I will do absolutely anything to find the person or persons who did it," she told the Guardian in a Facebook message yesterday. "He was an exceptional boy who would have done anything for anyone. He was incredibly intelligent, proud and enormously capable. He didn't deserve this and neither did Laurent."
Scotland Yard said the flat had been broken into six days earlier, when a laptop was stolen. It is understood that the thief was disturbed by one of the students. Detective chief inspector Mick Duthie, who is leading the inquiry, said police were investigating the possibility that the theft was linked to the killings. Another theory being examined by the police is that the pair were victims of mistaken identity.
Police said the attack did not appear to be the work of professionals. "I would say it was a frenzied, horrible, horrific attack.
I imagine it would take some considerable amount of time to inflict the nature of the injuries," Duthie said.
Police said there was no evidence of forced entry, and a set of keys may have been used, enabling the attacker to surprise his victims.
In tributes, those in France who knew the men expressed incredulity that two model students with such unblemished records and glittering futures ahead of them should have died in such a seemingly senseless and violent attack. "They were brilliant students, the ones you know will go on to great things," said Claude-Gilles Dussap, director of the Ecole Polytechnique de Clermont Ferrand. "They were well-known and well-liked."
Both men were several weeks into internships at Imperial College that would have finished at the end of this month. The three-month laboratory placements were part of their second year of biochemistry at Clermont Ferrand, one of France's most prestigious scientific institutions.
Dr David Leak, a senior lecturer in the faculty of natural sciences at Imperial, described Ferez as a "polymath" who had accepted an offer to do a chemistry master's course.
Before arriving in Britain this year, both men had entered enthusiastically into the spirit of university life at Clermont Ferrand. Bonomo, from the village of Velaux near Aix-en-Provence, had been the elected student president and was described by friends yesterday as sociable, kind and funny. He had been engaged to marry his long-term girlfriend.
Ferez, too, was a popular face around campus. The talented student, from a tiny village called Prouzel in the north-east of France, was a member of the arts society and had worked during his holidays as a technician at the local hospital. His former headmaster at the Louis Thuillier secondary school in Amiens said he had been "stunned" to hear of his death. "He was a very calm young man, a very good student, who excelled in maths and chemistry. He never got into trouble," said Guy le Blanche.
Laurent's fiancée, Mary Bertez, wrote on his Facebook page: "My love, we were always together, but I was not there with you that night. I think of you constantly with every single second. I had 10 months of happiness with you, happiness I had never known before. Now that you are gone I will try to be the person you always wanted me to be. I will give all the information I can to help the investigation, so that you will be avenged."
At Clermont Ferrand, where classes have ended but exams continue, a support service has been put in place for students who need it, the French minister for higher education, Valérie Pécresse, said.
The pair were killed at Bonomo's bedsit in a quiet cul-de-sac in New Cross, south-east London. Both were bound and stabbed in the head, back, torso and neck. The flat was then doused in petrol and set alight. Detectives said the men were dead before the fire started. A pathologist later documented 243 separate injuries to their badly burned bodies.
Neighbours described hearing several loud bangs before seeing flames coming from the windows of the ground-floor flat. "I went outside to see what was going on and there were other residents banging on the door and shouting to see if anyone was in," said a 32-year-old man who lived above the bedsit. "People were throwing water through the windows to try to put the fire out. Because there was no answer we thought there was no one in."
Another neighbour, Christina Ramirez, 32, from Brazil, said she arrived home five minutes after the fire started. She said she and her Spanish friend and neighbour saw two men banging on the window of the flat prior to a "very strong sound", which she took for an explosion of some kind. Police say one witness reported a white man running away from the scene soon after the blaze broke out.
The men's parents were in London yesterday to identify the bodies before returning to France last night. Duthie said that telling the parents about the details of the "gruesome attack" had been the "hardest thing he had ever done". "The level of violence used on these two victims was excessive - it was horrendous. Everyone working on this case has been deeply shocked by what we have seen."
Stephen Matthews, a professor at Imperial College, said he was mystified as to why Bonomo had been so brutally murdered. "He was likeable, intelligent, hard working. I can't imagine him being involved in anything untoward. I can't see how anything could come to this. His death was absolutely not linked to the research at Imperial."
Matthews said Bonomo had fitted in quickly during the six weeks he had spent in Britain. "He interacted well with other members of the group and we quickly found out he was an accomplished chess player. We played as a group and I don't think he lost very often. I also think he was involved in online tournaments."

Lost in the cyberspace Google's censorship against Uruknet

2008-06-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

June 19, 2008Google must really have a thing against Uruknet. After Google News’ censorship now Uruknet disappears even on Google’s search engine.Google stopped indexing Uruknet the middle of May. After Uruknet wrote (again!) many e-mails to Google (and again! we didn’t receive any reply) Google restarted indexing some (not all!) Uruknet’s article on June 17. However, it seems that these articles have a short life on Google since they keep disappearing immediately after they are indexed. For instance this is a Google’s page saved today, June 19, at 3pm Rome time and this is the same search Google page, the same day at 10 pm Rome time - While the first page at 3pm shows the Uruknet’s article indexed by Google, in the second page’s results the article disappeared and Google left simply the Uruknet’s homepage. Moreover Uruknet’s articles indexed by Google before the middle of May are being disappearing as if someone is manually deleting them. As odd it may seem, it’s as if someone inside Google deleted the indexed article. Google has already stopped indexing Uruknet from Google News, justifying it with lies and preposterous excuses. Now it seems Google is deleting even those Uruknet’s articles that had already been automatically indexed by the search engine. Furthermore Google search engine shows Uruknet’s results at the very last position, if at all. Google’s censorship becomes very clear if one contrasts and compares the search of the word "uruknet" on Google and Yahoo. Searching the word "uruknet" on Google this evening the results were 194,000. On Yahoo the same word shows 1,550,000 results.We don’t ask anymore our readers to write to Google since we lost even our last hopes in their fairness and good faith, but we would be grateful if our readers could post and distribute this article over the Internet; this affair goes far beyond Uruknet and Internet censorship is a real threat and is happening now. Of course we reserve the right to take legal action against Google.

Ben Laden has been found

2008-06-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

BinLaden_ is BinLaden@americas.most.wanted.man.is.still.bin-laden.biz * BinLadenBinLaden_ on #Iraq #Iran @#YouTube @#EeePC #Afghanistan @#Uefa #DC-Spam #DC BinLaden_ using irc.wh.verio.net ooh omnipotence. mm yes gotta get me some of that.BinLaden_ actually using host 212.224.67.35BinLaden_ End of /WHOIS list

Oh I forgot to tell you guys we found this nickname on IRC :P

Living conditions worsen for US children

2008-06-16T00:54:00.001-07:00

By Naomi Spencer16 June 2008
Use this version to print Send this link by email Email the author
For decades, measures of child well-being in the United States—infant mortality rates, the percentage of children whose parents had steady employment, and general health indicators—saw gradual improvements or stable levels for the overall population. Since 2000, however, many aspects of this trend have stalled or reversed course as millions of working class families have fallen into poverty and low-wage jobs, and basic government-funded social programs have eroded.
Data compiled in the annual Kids Count report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) emphasize this fact, noting that now “more children are living in relative poverty in the United States than in any other economically advanced nation.”
Most of the figures in the report are derived from the federal Census Bureau’s 2000-2006 American Community Surveys, Supplementary Surveys, and analysis by the Population Reference Bureau. The AECF also utilizes state-level data, which is more recent, but not consistent across the country. In the years since the bulk of the census data was compiled, the situation has undisputedly worsened for broad sections of the population. Nevertheless, the figures are revealing and worth looking into in some detail.
The AECF noted that between 2000 and 2006, the 10 indicators of child well-being—infant mortality and low-birth-weight rates, child and teen death rates, teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates, and proportions of children living in single-parent, low-income, and unemployed parent households—have overall remained flat; “improvements have stalled.”
“In fact,” the report states, “the child poverty rate has increased by 6 percent, meaning 1 million more children in poverty in 2006 than in 2000.” In 2006, 18 percent, or 13.3 million children, officially lived in poverty.
The 2006 poverty line was $20,444 for a family of two adults and two children. This is an unrealistically low government determination that has the effect of restricting aid eligibility and understating the official poverty estimates. Most advocacy organizations suggest that a more realistic poverty threshold would fall closer to twice the federal poverty line. The definition of “low-income,” which is less than twice the poverty rate, is therefore a frequent measure used for economic surveys, and one that more accurately captures the living conditions for the broad majority of working families.
In 2005, more than 14.8 million children lived in low-income working families, with the highest geographic concentrations in urban areas and in the South, and demographically among black and Hispanic populations.
Indicators varied enormously among the states. According to the AECF, “The rates of the worst states are approximately two to four times those of the best states on every indicator.” New Hampshire, Minnesota and Massachusetts ranked highest overall; Mississippi, Louisiana and New Mexico had the lowest composite index.
In 2006, 24.3 million US children—one in three—were living in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment. In North Dakota, which fared best in the AECF ranking on this measure, 24 percent of children lived in this situation. In Louisiana, 43 percent of kids lived in households where adults did not have steady work; in Mississippi, the rate was 42 percent. Throughout the South and Southwest, virtually all state-level indicators of child well-being were at their worst.
Urban areas throughout the country registered far higher concentrations of poverty than the national average. In Detroit, Michigan, 59 percent of children had no parent at home who had a full-time, year-round job, and 16 percent of children lived in low-income households where no parents worked at all in 2006.
Although Detroit is well known as a city with deep and growing impoverishment, the AECF tabulations indicated that working class families in many other cities throughout the country were confronting economic crisis in similar numbers. In both Atlanta, Georgia, and Memphis, Tennessee, 53 percent of children lived in families in which no parent had full-time, year-round employment; 57 percent of children in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in Cleveland, Ohio, faced the same circumstances.
According to Census Bureau data, upon which the AECF tabulations are based, 64 percent of children in Hartford, Connecticut, lived with parents who did not have full-time employment through the year, but the city was not included in the rankings. Even in the better-ranked cities, Mesa, Arizona, and Virginia Beach, Virginia, one in four children lived in such circumstances.
In virtually every city for which data was provided, the majority of children lived in low-income households falling under the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development definition of “housing burdened,” wherein housing costs consumed more than 30 percent of monthly incomes. Above this level, according to HUD, families are less likely to have enough financial resources left for food, utilities, or other basic needs.
Exorbitant housing costs are a pervasive problem in the US. The District of Columbia registered the lowest proportion of low-income families in this predicament—57 percent. In Miami, Florida, 85 percent of children lived in this situation. The state-by-state data was comparable, with New Jersey ranking highest at 80 percent, and sparsely populated South Dakota ranking lowest at 38 percent. Nationwide, two in three low-income children were in housing-burdened families.
Such figures carry significant social implications. An increasing proportion of the younger generations in the US are growing up in economic straits, in families burdened by low wages, rising living expenses, and debt. For younger workers who have children at home, particularly in former industrial strongholds and manufacturing centers, steady employment is more difficult to secure. The “American dream”—finishing school, landing a good-paying job, buying a home and raising a family—is far from the reality for many working class households.
As the financial situation worsens, health, education and other indices of overall well-being also decline.
Nationwide, the number of low-birth-weight births has increased dramatically. In 2005, more than 338,500 babies were born weighing less than 5.5 pounds—putting them at higher risk for death before the age of 1 and having developmental problems. Some 8.2 percent of all births in 2005 were low birth weight, up 8 percent since 2000. The rate is the highest in 40 years.
Similarly, the infant mortality rate—the measure of infant deaths per 1,000 live births over the year—has not improved since 2000. In 2001-2002, the infant mortality rate increased for the first time in five decades. According to the AECF, in 2005, 28,440 infants died in the US, averaging to 6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births. Mississippi’s infant death rate stood at 11.3 per 1,000 births. The District of Columbia, which was not included in the AECF rankings, had an infant mortality rate of 14.1, and the overall infant mortality rate for African-American babies was 13.7 in 2005. These rates are higher than those of Serbia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, and Bosnia, and nearly 100 other countries.
The rates of low-birth-weight births and infant mortality must be seen in the context of decades’ worth of improvements to prenatal care and medical technology. Behind the worsening health outcomes for children and their mothers is the dismantling of social programs, which began under the Clinton administration and has accelerated under Bush, along with the initiatives of reactionary state governments to gut funding and privatize healthcare for the poor.
At the same time that government assistance has been scaled back and restricted, employers have cut pensions and insurance benefits for hundreds of thousands of workers, and the costs of private insurance and medical care itself have soared to prohibitive levels. In many cases, families that can barely afford housing and food simply go without medical care.
Child and teen death rates have declined for the past several years, which the AECF attributes in part to better medical technology. The report notes that during 2005, nearly 11,400 kids between the ages of 1 and 14 died in the US, averaging 31 per day. In addition, “13,703 adolescents ages 15 to 19 died, and this is the equivalent of the number of passengers on 39 jumbo jets. Virtually all of these deaths were preventable.”
Teen pregnancy rates have also declined over the past several years, to just under 414,600 babies born to teenage girls in 2005. This is still about 1,136 births every day, making the US rate one of the highest among economically developed nations in this category. The AECF notes that “preliminary data for 2006 show the possibility of an increase in the teen birth rate for the first time in a decade.”
The high school dropout rate has also declined, to 7 percent nationally. However, in 2006, the report notes that there were 1.1 million teens between the ages of 16 and 19 who were not in school and had not graduated, and there were 1.4 million in this age group who were neither in school nor working. Reflecting economic stagnation, for the 15 states comprising virtually the entire South and Southwest of the country, 1 in 10 teens were “idle.”
Corresponding to a deterioration in the quality of education, economic opportunities and, in general, social and cultural outlets for youth, the “juvenile corrections systems” have grown larger and more draconian throughout the country. Beginning in the 1990s, many schools began adopting various so-called “zero-tolerance” policies and invasive security practices. Rather than simply working to correct behavior within the school systems, students who violated school policies were instead sent into the court systems. There, because of cuts to mental health and child welfare programs, large numbers of teens with behavioral problems or mental disabilities were shunted into juvenile detention centers.
“Each year now, as many as 200,000 youth under age 18 are tried in adult criminal courts nationwide,” according to an essay accompanying the Kids Count data book. And on any given day in the US, nearly 100,000 young people are confined by court order in prisons, “treatment” centers, or group homes. The AECF notes, “Just 24 percent of youth confined in 2003 were adjudicated for violent felonies, whereas more than 45 percent were guilty only of status offenses; probation violations; misdemeanors; or low-level felonies unrelated to violence, weapons, or drug trafficking.” In 29 states, kids are automatically transferred out of juvenile courts into the adult criminal courts for certain crimes on the reactionary notion of “adult time for adult crime.”
Teens within the adult corrections systems are subjected to horrific abuse. They are far more likely to be sexually assaulted, be beaten, and commit suicide. Their mental health and development are profoundly interrupted by incarceration. According to research from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation cited by the AECF, “Only 12 percent of formerly incarcerated youth had a high school diploma or GED by young adulthood.” And “Only about 30 percent were in either school or a job one year after their release...and they are more likely to be divorced and to bear children outside of marriage.”
Juveniles are also being subjected to long sentences, even for life terms. The AECF comments: “While the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juveniles, it did not ban life sentences without the possibility of parole, a disturbingly popular alternative. Worldwide, 2,388 prisoners are currently serving life sentences for crimes they committed before age 18; all but 7 are imprisoned in the United States.”
See Also:Life expectancy declines for women in Southern US counties: a consequence of widening inequality[24 April 2008]Infant mortality rates rising in US: Southern states hardest hit[3 May 2007]More US children in poverty and poor health[13 August 2005]US child poverty on the rise—statistics mask depth of crisis[1 June 2005]

Ready To Laugh At McCain Family Debt? Not So Fast ...

2008-06-14T01:03:00.000-07:00

Seth Colter Walls
With news of the McCain family's six-figure credit card debt cropping up today, its not too hard to imagine a little light-hearted chuckling among middle class folks getting a look at the spendthrift habits of elites. As The Hill reported this morning, based on disclosure reports released today, Sen. John McCain and his wife Cindy owe at least $100,000 to American Express, with a "dependent child" also holding a card with a balance between $15,000 and $50,000.

But not all credit card debts are created equal. In fact, according to a prior disclosure form filed in May that was provided to The Huffington Post, a significant amount of the McCains' credit card debt is being held by American Express at an interest rate of zero percent -- making their debt a lot less like the costly credit card pitfalls facing many Americans and a lot more like the big sweetheart loans that can get national political figures in hot water. (Sen. Barack Obama's first choice to head up his vice presidential search committee resigned this week after a controversy emerged over a favorable mortgage he received from Countrywide, a key player in the current housing crisis.)

Zero-percent credit card interest rates are not exclusively for the rich or well-connected, of course. But the most common offers of that kind are often capped at a few-thousand dollars and shed their zero percent rate after six to nine months.

According to the May 15, 2008 disclosure form, though, during 2007 Cindy McCain originated an individual debt of between $250,000 and $500,000 with a zero-percent interest AmEx that was still not paid off by the time of the time of that filing.

[Click here to see page 18 from May disclosure form.]

In other McCain family financial news, Megan McCain -- she of McCainBlogette.com -- has announced she'll be producing a children's picture book about her father. While the publisher, Simon & Schuster, will be donating a portion of the money it makes off the title to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a veterans' charity, it appears Megan will not. Perhaps she has a little credit card debt to pay off. But even if that's the case, there's no need to hurry -- the "dependent child" credit card debt listed on McCain's May disclosure form is also being charged at a rate of zero percent.

The problem with computers and Gil Bates

2008-06-11T20:32:00.001-07:00

Impeachment Happening in Congress Right Now!

2008-06-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

I hope it will come true:

David Swanson
June 09, 2008
Congressman Dennis Kucinich is on the floor of the House of Representatives right now introducing 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush.Yes, 35. He'll be reading for a while.Watch C-Span Now!If you don't have cable, go to a bar and tell them to put it on C-Span 1!Or watch at the Video/Audio tab athttp://c-span.orgTake your laptop outside and turn the volume up!
More details coming later tonight!Action in the House coming later this week!Good websites to watch for updates and actions:http://kucinich.ushttp://democrats.comhttp://afterdowningstreet.orgLet Justice roll down like waters in a mighty stream . . .There's going to be at least one article of impeachment that interests you and perhaps even mentions you. Watch for updates.

BBC uncovers lost Iraq billions

2008-06-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

By Jane Corbin BBC News
A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.
For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC's Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources.
A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.
The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.
War profiteering
While George Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted.
To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.
The president's Democrat opponents are keeping up the pressure over war profiteering in Iraq.
Henry Waxman who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said: "The money that's gone into waste, fraud and abuse under these contracts is just so outrageous, its egregious.
"It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history."
In the run-up to the invasion one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth seven billion that was given to Halliburton, a Texan company, which used to be run by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president.
Unusually only Halliburton got to bid - and won.
Missing billions
The search for the missing billions also led the programme to a house in Acton in West London where Hazem Shalaan lived until he was appointed to the new Iraqi government as minister of defence in 2004.

Judge Radhi al Radhi: "I believe these people are criminals."He and his associates siphoned an estimated $1.2 billion out of the ministry.
They bought old military equipment from Poland but claimed for top class weapons.
Meanwhile they diverted money into their own accounts.
Judge Radhi al-Radhi of Iraq's Commission for Public Integrity investigated.
He said: "I believe these people are criminals.
"They failed to rebuild the Ministry of Defence , and as a result the violence and the bloodshed went on and on - the murder of Iraqis and foreigners continues and they bear responsibility."
Mr Shalaan was sentenced to two jail terms but he fled the country.
He said he was innocent and that it was all a plot against him by pro-Iranian MPs in the government.
There is an Interpol arrest out for him but he is on the run - using a private jet to move around the globe.
He stills owns commercial properties in the Marble Arch area of London.
Panorama: Daylight Robbery will be on BBC One at 9pm on Tuesday 10 June 2008.

"Countdown" Beats "O'Reilly Factor" In Ratings Demo For First Time Ever

2008-06-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" beat Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" in the key Adults 25-54 demographic for the first time ever last week.

"Countdown" averaged 477,000 viewers (A25-54) vs. O'Reilly's 472,000 (excluding Tuesday's primary coverage). This marks the first time that MSNBC has beaten Fox News in O'Reilly's 8pm time slot since June 2001.

McCain: Vladimir Putin is the President of Germany?

2008-06-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

Too little, too late...

2008-05-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

By Layla Anwar

We have a popular saying in Iraq and it goes this way "Ba'ad Kharaab Al-Basra"??!!How to translate that? Literally it means "After the destruction of Basra" ?!Kharaab comes from the verb kharraba, which means to destroy something that worked before, to irreparably damage it...Kharban-the adjective, means damaged, rotten, not functional, not working, failed...Simply put, kharraba means to screw up something so badly, rendering it useless...So this proverb is used when someone comes along with either an admission, an apology, or to rectify some wrong after colossal damage has been inflicted...So you tell the person in Iraqi "What's the use, after the destruction of Basra?!"In the same vein, the latest admissions from Mc Lellan ex-press spokesman for the White House and from other media voices like this CNN reporter, who both finally admitted that their reporting on Iraq, was "less than candid". In other words they fucking lied...The CNN reporter added that they were "forced" to report in a particular fashion that was not detrimental to your government's image.Excuse me, but am I supposed to feel better now or what ?For 5 fucking years, no for 18 years, you've been buying the lies and suddenly you admit that it was "less than candid" and am supposed to feel OK with it ?Like what do you expect me to do? Rush and embrace you for your "honesty"? Or maybe you expect me to forget our ruined lives and our filled to the brim graves ?Or maybe being the fucking hypocrites that you are, you expect me to say "well after all, there are some good people left in America. It's not their fault really, they were forced..."Oh, the bullshit! Oh, your bullshit that knows no limits. Oh, you compulsive liars, bad faith, deceitful, dishonest lot !You did the same thing in Vietnam. After over 10 years of murder and mayhem, you took to the streets with your flowers and peace signs and cried about "poor" Vietnam.It took you 10 fucking years. And you only moved your big fat asses after your brave boys came back in body bags and you could not stop the counting.All throughout the 10 years, the pictures of the napalm burned kids did not move you, oh no they did not...you were too busy singing in Woodstock thinking you're so fucking cool...when you were and are nothing but a screwed up bunch of mental retards and morons...And do you think you learned anything ? Nothing. You learned nothing and you will never learn. You only learn the hard way, when you get your asses kicked big time and people start talking your language. This is when you open those rotten ears of yours and listen.The problem with you people and I've experienced over and over, you mistake the words and demeanor of basic human civility for weakness. You know nothing about civility or civilization, you understand only one language - violence. Because that is the only language you are proficient at.And I being a "good Muslim", I follow the saying of our Prophet who said "talk to people in the language they understand".So you come now and tell us that the whole thing was dishonest? "After Kharaab Al-Basra"? Ya awlad al Kalb - sons of dogs. But dogs are too noble to be compared to you. You are less than dogs. Less than animals. Less...much less. You are scum and vermin. God, I fucking hate your hypocrisy ya awlad al sharmoota - you sons of whores.You sons of a thousand whores, will your fucking Mc Lellan or your CNN marry the 3 million widows ? Or feed the 5 million orphans ? Or bring back the 5 million refugees home ? Or heal our cancer patients from your criminal weapons of mass destruction? Or grow a limb and an eye back to the 1000's lost, from your bombs ? Or maybe your admission will revive the 1 million plus, dead ? Or restore our 7'000 years old archaeological sites, homes, buildings, fields, infrastructure, electricity and water ? Or maybe you short lived fake, phony meaculpa will disarm the sectarian pathological turbaned shits who are ruling us now-thanks to you ?I am too angry to finish this post...and there is nothing left to finish...you bastards. I hate your fucking guts all of you.

Smokey says "Yes, we can!"

2008-05-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

For His Treatment of Children in the ‘War on Terror,’ Bush Is a War Criminal

2008-05-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

By Dave Lindorff22/05/08 "Commondreams" -- - Surely nothing that President Bush has done in his two wretched terms of office — not the invasion and destruction of Iraq, not the overturning of the five-centuries-old tradition of habeas corpus, not his authorization and encouragement of torture, not his campaign of domestic spying — nothing, can compare in its ugliness as his approval, as commander in chief, of the imprisoning of over 2500 children.According to the US government’s own figures, that is how many kids 17 years and younger have been held since 2001 as “enemy combatants” — often for over a year, and sometimes for over five years. At least eight of those children, some reportedly as young as 10, were held at Guantanamo. They even had a special camp for them there: Camp Iguana. One of those kids committed suicide at the age of 21, after spending five years in confinement at Guantanamo. (Ironically and tragically, that particular victim of the president’s criminal policy, had been determined by the Pentagon to have been innocent only two weeks before he took his own life, but nobody bothered to tell him he was slated for release and a return home to Afghanistan.)I say Bush’s behavior is criminal because since 1949, under the Geneva Conventions signed and adopted by the US, and incorporated into US law under the Constitution’s supremacy clause, children under the age of 15 are classed as “protected persons,” and even if captured while fighting against US forces are to be considered victims, not POWs. In 2002, the Bush administration signed an updated version of that treaty, raising the “protected person” age to all those “under 18.”Treaties don’t mean much to this president, to the vice president, or to the rest of the administration, but they should mean something to the rest of us.But capturing and imprisoning children isn’t even the worst of this president’s war crimes when it comes to the abuse of the young. Under Bush’s leadership as commander in chief, the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan has been considering any male child in Iraq of age 14 or older to be a potential combatant. They have been treated accordingly — shot by US troops, imprisoned as “enemy combatants,” and subjected to torture.In the 2004 assault by US Marines on the city of Fallujah, things were even worse. Dexter Filkins, a reporter for the New York Times, reported that before that invasion, some 20,000 Marines encircled the doomed city, which the White House had decided to level because it harbored a bunch of insurgents and had angered the American public by capturing, killing and mutilating the bodies of four mercenaries working for US forces. The residents of the 300,000-population city were warned of the coming all-out attack. Women and children and old people were allowed to flee the city and pass through the cordon of troops. But Filkins reported that males determined to be “of combat age,” which in this case was established as 12 and up, were barred from leaving, and sent back into the city to await their fate. Young boys were ripped from their screaming mothers and sent trudging back to the city to face death.In the ensuing slaughter, as the US dumped bombs, napalm, phosphorus, anti-personnel fragmentation weapons and an unimaginable quantity of machine gun and small arms fire on the city, it is clear that many of those young boys died.This was a triple war crime. First of all, it was a case of collective punishment — a practice popular with the Nazis in World War II, and barred by the Geneva Conventions. The international laws of war also guarantees the right of surrender, so those men and boys who tried to leave, even if suspected of being enemy fighters, should have been allowed to surrender and be held as captives until their loyalties could be established. The boys, meanwhile, were “protected persons” who were by law to be treated as victims of war, and protected from harm.Instead they were treated as the enemy, to be destroyed.For these crimes, the president should today be impeached by the Congress and then tried as a war criminal.After watching this Congress cower from its responsibility to defend the Constitution, I have little hope of that happening. But I do harbor the hope that once Bush has left office, some prosecutor in another country — perhaps Spain, or Canada or Germany — will use the doctrine of universal jurisdiction to indict him for war crimes, and, should he leave the country for some lucrative speaking engagement, arrest him, the way former dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested by a Spanish prosecutor on a visit to the UK.For his abuse, imprisonment and killing of children, this president should stand trial for war crimes.Dave Lindorff’s most recent book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net.

Iran, Venezuela launch common bank

2008-05-21T14:36:00.000-07:00

Venezuela has declared that it is establishing a common bank with Iran to finance economic development projects in the two countries. The bank, to be based in Tehran, will have an initial capital base of 1.2 billion dollars, with each nation providing half of the funds, AFP reported on Tuesday. It follows up on a March 2007 agreement the two countries signed. The relations between the two countries has elevated to an unprecedented level during President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's term. Last month Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said unity and cooperation between Tehran and Caracas has gotten the 'US imperialism' riled up. "The two countries' cooperation has turned into a great unity between the Iranian and Venezuelan nations and this annoys the US imperialism," he said.

Global Peace Index: Israel hits rock bottom

2008-05-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

Economist Intelligence Unit ranks Israel 136th out of 140 countries, alongside Afghanistan, Chad
Reuters Published: 05.20.08, 23:38 / Israel News
Iceland is the world's most peaceful nation while Israel ranked 136th out of 140 nations, according to the "Global Peace Index," compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The study ranked the United States 97th out of 140 countries according to how peaceful they were domestically and how they interacted with the outside world.
The United States slipped from 96th last year, but was still ahead of foe Iran which ranked 105th. It, however, lagged Belarus, Cuba, South Korea, Chile, Libya and others which were listed as more peaceful.
Iraq, which the United States invaded in 2003, leading to the toppling of Saddam Hussein, ranked lowest on the index. Afghanistan was also in the bottom five, along with Sudan, Somalia and Israel.
Russia ranked 131st
Commenting on the US ranking, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said to realize a more peaceful and prosperous world, "often times, you have to do difficult things and a lot of times, people don't agree with them. They don't like them."

"A lot of times you fall down in these lists but at the end of the day it is in defense of democracy and the way of life we have enjoyed over the past several decades," he added.
The index looks at 24 indicators of external and internal measures of peace, including UN deployments overseas and levels of violent crime, respect for human rights, the number of soldiers killed overseas and arms sales.
The Group of Eight major economic powers were a mixed bag. Japan ranked fifth, Canada 11th, Germany 14th, Italy 28th, France 36th and Britain 49th. Russia was near the bottom at 131st, the only one in the group below the United States.
The index was launched under the auspices of the Institute for Economics and Peace, a new think tank that looks at the relationship between economics, business and peace.
Supporters of the index urged policymakers to focus more on education, wealth, and well-functioning government and pointed to the role of business in creating more stability.

Alabama sheriffs feed inmates on $1.75 a day

2008-05-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

If ever you go to jail, don't go to jail in AL, unless you want to lose weight on a cheap diet:

By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 20 minutes ago

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Back in the day of chain gangs, Alabama passed a law that gave sheriffs $1.75 a day to feed each prisoner in their jails, and the sheriffs got to pocket anything that was left over. More than 80 years later, most Alabama counties still operate under this system, with the same $1.75-a-day allowance, and some sheriffs are actually making money on top of their salaries.

But exactly how much is something of a mystery because state auditors do not have access to sheriffs' private accounts.
How could anyone turn a profit feeding men and women for an entire day on less than the price of a Coke and a bag of Fritos? Sheriffs practice Depression-style frugality and rely on such things as day-old bread, cut-rate vegetables and cheap inmate labor.
Critics charge that Alabama is, in effect, paying law enforcement to skimp on food and may be rewarding sheriffs for mistreating prisoners.
"It's a bad system, and it ought not be that way," said Buddy Sharpless, executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama.
A prisoner advocate said he constantly hears complaints about jail food.
"Most of it is like powdered food, and the portions are minimal in the county jails," said the Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, who visits Alabama jails to register prisoners to vote.
The few sheriffs who would discuss the arrangement defended it as cost-effective for their counties and disputed any suggestion they are making a lot of money.
"If you've got the most lucrative food account in the state, you're not getting rich," said Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely.
They noted, too, that it's not all gravy for them: The system makes them personally liable for budget shortfalls and, possibly, lawsuits over jail food.
The head of the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts, Ron Jones, said state auditors cannot determine how much some sheriffs are making off the system because the lawmen put the money in personal accounts.
In Morgan County, which includes Decatur, a state audit found that Sheriff Greg Bartlett spent $163,991 feeding inmates and personally received an additional $103,947 for two years ending in May 2005. But Jones said there was no way for auditors to determine how much of the money that went to the sheriff was profit, because sheriffs may be buying food out of their own pockets. Bartlett did not return calls for comment.
When Etowah County Sheriff James Hayes died in October, thousands of dollars in jail food money went to his estate because it was kept in his personal accounts.
His successor, Todd Entrekin, said he and his wife took out a personal loan for $150,000 the day he took office to purchase jail food until his first state payment came through.
"It's the most money I've ever borrowed in my life, even more than for my house," Entrekin said.
According to legislative researchers, the $1.75-a-day-per-inmate system in Alabama dates to 1927, back when sheriffs and other county officeholders in many states were paid fixed fees for services performed and were allowed to keep whatever was left over.
All but 12 of Alabama's 67 county jails remain on the fee system, with the state paying a total of $5 million to 55 sheriffs last year.
National corrections groups said they do not know of any other states with a system like Alabama's, though some individual counties may use a fee system.
The $1.75 fee was fairly generous at the time, with a reasonable profit built into it for the sheriffs. Besides the $1.75, sheriffs get additional state payments of as much as $11.25 a day for the entire jail. But in a jail with hundreds of inmates, that works out to just a few extra pennies per person for food.
By comparison, the government pays schools $2.47 for serving a single free meal under the National School Lunch Program for low-income students.
Cherokee County Sheriff Jeff Shaver said he has figured out how to feed prisoners on $1.75 a day and still turn a little profit, and he doesn't get complaints about the grub.
"These people eat better here than they eat on the street, and they eat three times a day," Shaver said.
He said he is constantly on the lookout for good deals on food, pays two cooks and supplements their work with trusty labor, and wastes nothing, turning today's leftovers tomorrow's soup.
Blakely, the Limestone County sheriff, said he searches for deals on fresh vegetables, eggs and milk. Prisoners get three meals on weekdays, two on weekends and holidays. "They get a lot of beans, but we feed them meat every day," Blakely said.
The menu on a recent day in the Limestone County Jail was two pancakes and syrup, sausage and milk for breakfast; peanut butter sandwiches, chips and Kool-Aid for lunch; and white beans, turnip greens, fried squash, cornbread and sweet tea for dinner.
Blakely and Shaver would not say exactly how much money they make off the jail food system but said it is not a lot. Entrekin said he has not been sheriff long enough to say whether he is turning a profit for himself.
Blakely said prisoners who enter the jail late at night on charges such as drunken driving and make bail early the next day without eating a meal help the bottom line because the state pays for two days of food — $3.50 — without the sheriff having to spend a cent.
Inmate William Howell said state prisons offer more food than Blakely's jail. But he said the food in state prison isn't nearly as good.
"It's not like they go down to the bread store and catch it coming out of the oven, but it's good," Howell said. "We've got it good here."