David Ippolito - Resolution- The Torture Song

"we're talkin bout torture, and anybody with a soul knows that"

If you like it, post it on your blog, or pass it around in an email. Holder must hold BushCo accountable.

Download this song for free at thatguitarman.

Zombie Stripper ahead.

A CalTrans sign on a freeway in my wonderful, but flat-fucking-broke state of California:


The officials at CalTrans thought it was funny the first time..now they just shut off the sign and change it back immediately.

I would find it funny every time..and I bet Randal would too. ;)

My short but sweet summer vacation

There are a bunch of lousy photos I took, I only brought one lens and it was the wrong one, here, on my Flickr page. Nothing good but I do love OB (Ocean Beach, CA) and specifically Newport Ave in OB. I also included a photo of my former boss Yuri, she owns the Sushi shop I worked at for years.

I also took some shots of the west coast's oldest working wooden roller coaster, the Giant Dipper in Mission Beach. I love that roller coaster and miss being able to ride it..the three blown discs prevent me from enjoying it now..damn it.

Lots of good bars in OB and I have spent many a night in all of them. ;) But, not this trip..the sista doesn't cotton to OB..bitch is a yuppie ya know.

The first bar of note is Pacific Shores..aka Pac Shores. Home to old folks during the day..young hipsters at night.

Next is The Sunshine Company, which has a huge palm growing through the middle of the second bar..its fucking huge!!!!

oh, and whilst in Sandy Eggo, I cut off all my long curly locks..I now look like Nurse Jackie, if you are familiar with that show on Showtime. ;) It's too fucking hot to wear my hair 24/7 in a ponytail for six straight months..I seem to be going bald at the temple's with the weight of all that long hair..that is now just a memory.

Hey..it grows back..right?

Ale to The Chief!

I will readily admit I stole the title from Tweety on Hardball this afternoon. The Big O and his new bud's The Professor and the lying sack of batshit Officer Crowley will be sitting down to a couple of brewski's this afternoon.

Crowley is such a liar and for that..I have nothing but contempt for him. The 911 call and the radio transmissions(transcripts at the link) bears out everything that The Professor said and nothing that Crowley said or put into his report.

If The Big O wants to spend his afternoon with an intelligent African-American Professor and a lying sack of shit white cop..it's up to him..but personally I couldn't stomach Crowley for even five-fucking-minutes. From The American Prospect:

The problem is that the police report written by Sgt. James Crowley states that "[Whalen] observed what appeared to be to black males with backpacks on the porch of Ware Street." Except Whalen said no such thing. Furthermore, the tapes are notable for what they don't contain--any audio that indicates Gates was shouting as Crowley claimed in his police report. The tapes do contain audio of Crowley saying Gates was being uncooperative and asking for more backup, reportedly saying "keep the cars coming."

Here's the thing: This is the second discrepancy from the police report, the first being that Gates claims he showed Crowley his Harvard ID and his driver's license, while the report says that he only showed his Harvard ID. The reason I find this odd is that Crowley seems to have believed it was Gates' residence--but how could he be sure if he hadn't seen Gates' Driver's License as he claims? Now, we also know that the claim that it was Whalen who identified Gates and his driver by their race was completely false. The Cambridge Police's explanation, that the report merely represents "a summary" of what happened seems inadequate--how useful could a factually inaccurate summary really be? And what--if anything else--is inaccurate but is asserted as fact in the police report?

Crowley is a racist and tried to cover his ass, plain and simple.

This guy taught classes on how to avoid racial profiling? WTF does that say about the Cambridge Police Department?

Nothing good folks..nothing good.

Going home tomorrow!!!!

I swear to Buddha, I will never again stay anywhere that does not have INTERNET ACCESS!!!

I took a bunch of photos today of Ocean Beach CA...my home for many years. They are uploading to Flickr at the pace of a fucking snail right now.

I will post them tomorrow with commentary. I love and miss OB..as an Obecian (O-Bee-shun), it will always be my home town.

Did anyone miss me? I missed all of you freaks, believe me! ;)

I adore you Rickey Henderson.

Rickey was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this past weekend. Before you non-sports people click off, read a little of the man that always talked in the third person about himself and loves the game so much, he was playing for a funky little non-MLB sanctioned team as recently as two years ago when most players are retired and golfing with friends.

Rickey is baseball's all time base stealer. He grew up on the poor side of Oakland. He was born on Christmas Day in 1958. He played twice for my beloved Padres, but that isn't why I adore Henderson. I love him because he loves the game of baseball as much or more than I do. It's not the money, its the game for Rickey. From the U-T writeup on his wonderful, moving, made-me-cry-like-a-baby, HOF speech:

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – Giving credit where it's overdue and probably unprecedented, Rickey Henderson entered the Hall of Fame by paying tribute to glazed doughnuts and hot chocolate, to 25-cent incentive bonuses and to the donkey Charlie Finley made an Oakland mascot.

And somehow, strangely enough, it all worked.

Baseball's supreme speed demon, the game's “most misunderstood player” in the estimation of former teammate Dave Stewart, consciously slowed his runaway tongue yesterday to deliver a curious, clever and surprisingly crafted induction speech.

No misprint. No kidding. Yes, that Rickey Henderson.

Only a few days after comparing speechmaking to “putting a tie too tight around my neck,” Henderson took his place at the lectern before thousands of spectators and 49 returning Hall of Famers and steadfastly refused to choke.

His free-form 14-minute address recounted how a youth coach had convinced him to get out of bed to play baseball by appearing at his door with doughnuts and hot chocolate; how a high school counselor had bribed him to stick with the sport; and how Reggie Jackson had haughtily withheld his autograph when Henderson was a young fan growing up in Oakland.

Maybe you had to be there to appreciate the timing, but a lot of the people who were there were howling.

His speech made me laugh and it made me cry. Rickey is the kind of person that few take the time to understand. He is an African-American that talks too fast, and like I said..always referred to himself in the third person. People who didn't 'get' Rickey called him egotistical and self-promoting.

Yeah, he was a little self-promoting, but I don't care...he was never really appreciated for what he could do on a baseball field, how patient he was in the batter's box. His deft skill at stealing a base off any pitcher he faced. From the UT article again:

Sometimes accused of selfishness and habitually guilty of self-indulgent showmanship during his playing career, Henderson approached his induction speech with the same care he showed in studying pitchers' pickoff moves. He rehearsed, revised and refined his address during two weeks as a celebrity student in the speech classes of Earl Robinson at Oakland's Laney College.

He was determined to make a statement that would not become garbled by Rickeyspeak. He showed, by words and deeds, how deeply he cares and how profoundly he wants to please.

No ballplayer has been better at irritating opposing teams and their fans. With his stylized snap-catches and his choreographed walk/home run trots, Henderson's conduct seemed calculated to infuriate; so much so that even his teammates advised him to throttle back a bit.

But Henderson always saw himself as a performer, not just an athlete. Excesses aside, he was electric. He was so gifted a running back, Stewart said, that Henderson might have been inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame had he picked that career path.

The dominant dream of Henderson's youth was to play for the Oakland Raiders, but he took heed of his mother's fear of injury and the financial inducements of Mrs. Tommie Wilkerson, a counselor at Oakland Technical High School who was determined that her school have enough players to field a team.

“She would pay me a quarter every time I would get a hit, when I would score or stole a base,” Henderson said. “After my first 10 games, I had 30 hits, 25 runs scored and 33 steals. Not bad money for a kid.”

Later, in a post-induction press conference, Henderson said the payments lasted about two years. Good thing, too. Had Mrs. Wilkerson been obligated to honor the same terms throughout Henderson's major-league career, she would have owed him $1,689 for his 3,055 hits, 2,295 runs scored and 1,406 stolen bases.

“When you think of me,” Rickey Henderson said, “I would like you to remember that kid from the inner city that played the game with all of his heart and never took the game for granted.

“My journey as a player is complete,” he said. “I am now in the class of the greatest players of all time. And at this moment, I am very, very humble.”

And he was humble Sunday, at exactly the right time in his career. Bless you Rickey, you gave me wonderful memories of baseball games past, of afternoons spent watching and waiting for you to steal that base and fluster the shit out of whatever opposing pitcher was on the mound.

I remember vividly hollering with my friends as you came to bat, Ricky Gets On!!!! And seeing you wink and nod at us before you stepped into the batter's box.. knowing full well that you would find a way to get on base and then... steal one.

Rickey played for the Padres at the end of his professional career. No other team would give him a chance to set that all-time steals record.

I am forever grateful to the Padres for that.

Prof. Gates accepts Obama invite to White House

From the Boston Globe:

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. said this evening that he would accept President Obama’s invitation to meet with him and Cambridge Police Sergeant James M. Crowley at the White House.

Gates said in an email to the Globe that he was pleased to talk to the president today and to be asked to meet with Crowley, adding, “I said I would.”

“My entire academic career had been based on improving race relations, not exacerbating them. I am hopeful that my experience will lead to greater sensitivity to issues of racial profiling in the criminal justice system. If so, then this will be a blessing for our society. It is time for all of us to move on, and to assess what we can learn from this experience,” he said.

Obama extended the invitation today in phone calls to the two men as he sought to calm a national debate over racial profiling that reached a fever pitch after news broke of the white officer’s arrest of the black scholar at his home last week.

Hopefully this will be the start of a national conversation about racism. We can hope it will be anyway. The skeptic in me says it won’t do squat..but the forever hopeful side wants this to be a good thing for Amerika.

Obama administration denies UN rights groups access to Gitmo

I would not of believed this if someone had told me about it. I had to read it with my own two eyes. From Jurist:

The US government has turned down requests from two separate UN investigators to visit the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, the Washington Post reported Thursday. UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak and UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin had each requested access to the facility as well as detailed information about the detention center and detainees. Nowak also requested interviews with several high-value detainees, but the requests were denied. US officials have said they are willing to cooperate with UN investigators but are unable to share secret intelligence information. While UN officials concede that the Obama administration is no longer engaging in many of the controversial practices of the Bush administration, Scheinin indicated that he is concerned that other countries are still citing US policies to justify abusive practices. Also Thursday, US Vice President Joe Biden said that Guantanamo will close by January.

Kinda makes me sick..how about you m'dear reader? What do they have to hide? Evidently quite a bit. Same shit just a different administration.

ps..out of town so please bear with me with regard to posting..I have no access to a computer except at night..very late at night.

Federal Judge orders doc's to be unsealed.

This should jack the jaws of a few folks, both in and out of government. From the Jurist link:

Chief judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia Royce Lamberth found Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) committed fraud in its efforts to keep documents related to eavesdropping charges a secret. The judge ruled that the CIA must unseal more than 200 documents relating to the case. Lamberth is also considering charges against 6 other CIA members, including former CIA director George Tenet. The judge wrote:

Although this case has been sealed since its inception to protect sensitive information, it is clear from reading the Court of Appeals 2007 public opinion in this case and seeing the unclassified appendix that was filed on appeal that many of the issues are unclassified. The government acknowledged that indeed, the case could be unsealed, and that much of the information is unclassified. Accordingly, the Court ordered the government to file with the Court unclassified versions of every document in the case.

The lawsuit began in 1994, after former Drug Enforcement Agency agent Richard Horn felt that his was he being spied on by his superiors in Myanmar. Until recently, the CIA had requested the documents remain sealed in order to protect the agents in the field.

You go Judge Lamberth! I hope Tenet gets heartburn worrying about this.

Chuck Todd tells us about Obama's health care plan..

Actually Chuckie gives us his opinion on wtf is going on with regard to healthcare and why. This is from Tweety's show Hardball this afternoon, view it on my video page here.

The militia nutters are back in force.

At least according to Alternet they are:

A couple of months ago, a newly formed militia reared its head in a familiar place -- the Panhandle of Northern Idaho. Sisyphus at 43rd State Blues had a full description:

Sporting a photoshopped image of the Statue of Liberty with the torch replaced by an assault rifle, as well as displaying the flag from the "Republic of Idaho", another newly formed Idaho militia crawls out from the wilderness to register their displeasure with the status quo yet offering no solutions other than vague grade school platitudes and a thinly veiled threat of revolution. As is their wont they invoke the civil war cry of state sovereignty. ...

The General applied to be a sniper with them, and got a positive response. Kewl!

But it's not just northern Idaho.

It's occurring across a broad swath of the Northwest, mostly in rural precincts, as a Missoulian story recently explored:

“It's the old Freemen days,” Anderson said. “That's what we're seeing here again. And it's not just Lincoln County.”

Lincoln County Detective Capt. Jim Sweet agrees that “there's an uprising of anti-government groups that's definitely connected to the election of the Obama administration.”

Law enforcement agencies throughout the multi-state region, Sweet said, are “talking about the patterns. It's obviously bigger than Lincoln County.”

People are afraid of losing gun rights, he said, and they're stockpiling weapons and ammunition, and they want a sheriff who will stand up to federal agents.

“It's a power thing,” Anderson said. “They want the power to buck the fed and federal gun laws.”

Anderson said he traveled recently to Kalispell for an “intelligence meeting” with several federal, state and local jurisdictions - including the FBI, county sheriffs and city police - to discuss “this radical response to Obama's election, and to make sure we all know what's going on.”

Obama never said anything about taking guns from lawful citizens..never! These fucking nutters are just pissed that a black man leads our nation.

Carlos Watson handles the other Buchanan

I saw this exchange Friday morning on MSNBC, and now Crooks and Liars has it in video form..just thought I would share, because Watson does a great job of calling Bay Buchanan on her fuckery. Watch it here on my video page. 

Obama might create a new unit for interrogations

The Wall Street Journal reports this, via Jurist:

The Obama administration may create a special unit of interrogators to handle certain terror suspects, the Wall St. Journal reported Saturday, citing unidentified government officials. In creating the unit, the administration would reduce the role of the Central Intelligence Agency in interrogating suspects as the CIA has faced criticism for its interrogation techniques during the Bush administration. It is not clear which agencies the team would draw members from, but it is expected that members of both the CIA and the FBI would be included . The interrogation team would reportedly not use certain controversial interrogation techniques like waterboarding. A spokesperson for the White House refused to comment on the report.

It can't be a bad thing...right? The WSJ got the exclusive... Wow wee.

Walter Cronkite has died.

His health went downhill rapidly as I stated in June. He was 92. As I said last month, he was a great journalist. He called it as he saw it and I still hear his voice at the end of each newscast..

And that's the way it is....

From the NYT today:

Mr. Cronkite anchored the “CBS Evening News” from 1962 to 1981, at a time when television became the dominant medium of the United States. He figuratively held the hand of the American public during the civil rights movement, the space race, the Vietnam war, and the impeachment of Richard Nixon. During his tenure, network newscasts were expanded to 30 minutes from 15.

“It is impossible to imagine CBS News, journalism or indeed America without Walter Cronkite,” Sean McManus, the president of CBS News, said in a statement. “More than just the best and most trusted anchor in history, he guided America through our crises, tragedies and also our victories and greatest moments. CBS has a great eulogy here.”

When the Chicago democratic convention turned to shit..he said so:

During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Cronkite was anchoring the CBS network coverage as violence and protests occurred outside the convention, as well as scuffles inside the convention hall. When Dan Rather was punched to the floor (on camera) by security personnel, Cronkite commented, "I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, Dan."

Yes they were thugs and yes Cronkite called it as he saw it. We have so few journalist's with his type of honor these days..its very sad. He told me about Kennedy's death and the death of Jack Ruby. He anchored the moonwalk for me as well as the civil rights movement. He was someone that told you the truth and I loved him for that. So few do it now these days with the birth of corporate media.

And it's sad that he has left this earth..Rest in Peace sweet man, I adored you and you educated me like very few others did. I doubt I will see someone that rival's you Mr. Cronkite. I am very sad today..but I hope you are talking up Edward R Murrow as I type this...

His editorial on the Tet Offensive can be watched here.

Pat Buchanan has to go.

Watch his stunning blowup with Rachel Maddow here on my video page and then tell me this old jackass should still be on television representing anyone but the KKK. Rachel invited him on regarding an article he authored on Real Clear Politics about how the GOP should handle Judge Sotomayor.

He also had a dust-up with Pulitzer prize-winning writer Eugene Robinson on Hardball yesterday. Watch that one as well here.

This tired old fuck needs to be put out to pasture..now. Here is my letter to the head of the news department:

Mr. Capus,

I have watched all your political shows for a few years now. I am a devoted viewer and I enjoy the give and take from both sides of the aisle for the most part.

Pat Buchanan has to go. He snapped not once, but twice this week. First on Hardball with Pulitzer prize winning writer and MSNBC contributor Eugene Robinson. Then Thursday night on Rachel Maddow's show.

The man made flat-out racist comments, no ifs, ands or butt's about it. It was actually embarrassing to watch a man of his stature sink that low. If those are his true beliefs, I can no longer tolerate him on my television. He has become increasingly shallow and elitist, not to mention sounding like an original member of the KKK.

Going forward, I will not sit and watch Buchanan scream and holler at anyone. I will change the channel. Whether I go back to the show he is on depends on what I find to watch whilst Mr. Buchanan waxes poetic about how the white folks are getting screwed and how racist Judge Sotomayor is. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but giving Mr. Buchanan a soap box from which he sounds like someone in need of a psychological intervention is down right ridiculous and dangerous. Dangerous in that you will be losing loyal viewers.

Relegating Mr. Buchanan to the Morning Joe show might be an alternative. I never watch Morning Joe as it's thankfully on at 3am here on the left coast.

I would appreciate a response from you sir.

Thank you,
Dusty Taylor

Please feel free to write Mr Capus: steve.capus@nbcuni.com if your tired of the old white man waxing racist on MSNBC too.

Another edition of Feline Friday.

Sweetie, aka Faceplant is coming along nicely in the physical sense. His appetite is good and he is becoming a finicky eater. He still wants nothing to do with the other felines and they don't seem real interested in him either. Sweetie does approve of Sasha however. Below is Sasha and Bobbie a couple of years back. I love the hell out of this picture:


So, Sweetie and Sasha touch noses when Sasha gets on the bed. Sasha loves kitties and actually helped save three newborns from the dog next door last year. She heard them crying as the dog was tossing them up in the air like ragdolls. She wouldn't settle down until I saved all three of them and brought them in the house so she could check them all over and make sure they were fine. Sasha loves when Clyde and Bobbie give her kisses..but..I digress.

Sweetie's coat is growing back in, and his stitches are healing. With our temps in triple digits, the swamp coolers are running 24-7, so I have to cover him up or he gets cold. I tried putting a kitty coat on him, but he was none to happy with it. He seems to prefer being covered with one of my t-shirts..a previously worn t-shirt no less. Friggin weirdo..

Sweetie is also a very very VERY picky feline when it comes to using the cat box. Lil fucker won't go in the box if there is any hint of cat doo-doo in it. I have an entire wall lined with cat boxes at this point and I clean out the damn things every time one of the felines uses it. This is getting old real fast...so I got an automatic, self-cleaning cat box that set my happy ass back one hundred bucks.

This reclamation project is now in the red with Sweetie. And he won't even go near the damn self-cleaning cat box. Only one cat has ventured into the expensive shitter...


Pee Wee. My fearless little Pee Wee. Actually PW isn't little anymore. He is still long and lanky but filling out nicely. He sounds like a herd of cattle when he runs down the long hallway chasing one of his step brothers or sisters at 6am every morning.

Ok, that's it for this week..oh wait..my gratuitous shot of Crazy Patty relaxing in an old mixing bowl:
Have a good weekend folks!

Arlington National Cemetery investigation

From Salon:

Sadly, Arlington's internal problems have materialized on the grounds themselves. Despite nearly 10 years and countless dollars spent on computerizing its operations, the cemetery still relies mostly on paper burial records that in some cases do not match the headstones. "There are numerous examples of discrepancies that exist between burial maps, the physical location of headstones, and the burial records/grave cards," the cemetery admitted in a 2008 report to Congress.

And in a relatively remote area of the cemetery, where 600 service members from Iraq and Afghanistan are laid to rest, personal mementos placed on graves are left out to rot in the rain for days, ruined by workers with power washers, or thrown into a trash bin.

"The aesthetics of the cemetery are deceptive," says Gina Gray, an Army veteran of eight years who served in Iraq and who was the cemetery's public affairs officer in early 2008, before she was fired over a clash with her boss. "To the naked eye, it is a place of sacred beauty and a tribute to our nation's heroes," says Gray, who has been rehired as an Army contractor at Fort Belvoir, in Virginia. "But if you scratch below the surface, you will find that it's really just window dressing. They've put these pretty curtains up to hide the ugliness on the inside."

At the center of the chaos is Higginbotham, Gray's former superior and a focus of the Army investigation. While cemetery Superintendent John Metzler is the titular head at Arlington, Higginbotham runs the show, say current and former employees. A tall and imposing man, Higginbotham has worked at the cemetery since 1965. He started as a security guard and worked his way up to deputy supervisor in 1990. In his current position, he has earned a reputation for running the cemetery with an iron fist. (Higginbotham declined to talk to Salon.)

One of Higginbotham's failures, say employees, has been his inability to rectify disturbing discrepancies between burial records and information on headstones. For years, Arlington has struggled to replace paper-and-pen burial records with a satellite-aided system of tracking grave locations. "My goal is to have all the gravesites available online to the public, so people can look up a grave from home and print out a map that will show exactly where the gravesite is," Higginbotham told Government Computer News in April 2006. Such systems are standard at other cemeteries, like the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio, nearly identical to Arlington in age and size. Yet an effort begun in 2000 to set up a similar system at Arlington remains unrealized.

Salon is doing an in-depth investigation into the problems at Arlington. This is part one. Please check out the article if you are so inclined. For me, this is such a sickening travesty.

Bernie Sanders rips on McCain over healthcare

I love Bernie Sanders.

Day two for Judge Sotomayor.

When we last left our fearless SCOTUS nominee, she was patiently answering the inane questions offered up by the idiot republicans on the judicial committee.

Cornryn is now asking the same damn questions all his asshat cronies asked yesterday. Christ these guys are either deaf or have the IQ of a gnat. How many times will she have to answer the same damn questions from the reichwing nutjobs?

You too can watch and listen to these clueless fucking morons online here. This is the third day but actually only the second day of questioning..aka grilling her.

Below is the new logo for the Rethugs..how ya like it? ;)

There is video of the asshat Kyl grilling the Judge here on my video page. Check it out and then tell me that you aren't wanting a cocktail, regardless of the fact that it is nowhere near happy-fucking-hour!

Margaret Cho is friggin beautiful.

I just watched Cho's latest Showtime special-Margaret Cho-Beautiful. It was great as always. I have loved Cho since I saw her over a decade ago in San Diego on ladies nite at the comedy club in La Jolla.

I made the Ball n' Chain™ watch it. His response half way through the show was this:

BnC- She is crude.

Moi- No she isn't, she tells it like you think about it..don't lie.

BnC- She isn't funny.

Moi-Your fucking psycho dude..she is hilarious and if you can't talk about body parts and sex then you are the one that's fucked up..not her.

BnC- Whatever, I just don't like her comedy style I guess.

Moi- Yeah, that's it..you are a prude and only appreciate comedy from straight folks that saw their best days about two decades ago.

BnC- Fuck you, I do not.

Moi- Fuck me? You can't find anything funny in what Margaret Cho has to say? She lays it out there and pokes fun at everyone..gays, lesbians, straights, bi's...and my favorite..hairy men..omg..that's it..you are a fucking Bear! ( I laugh like a crazy woman in a straight jacket)

BnC- Fuck you. Turn the channel.

Moi-No..I refuse. Btw jackass, I love you so that makes me a Bear Hag! See? No harm no foul..now stfu so I can watch the show.

BnC-give me the fucking remote then.

Moi- No jackass, come take it from me. (wicked smile that only a crazy woman would have)

He went back to his computer..I continued to laugh my old tired ass off. Margaret has lost a shitload of weight and is stunning in her black floor-length dress. She has a new show on ..cough..Lifetime called Drop Dead Diva. It started this week.

I can't wait to see it.

You, m'dear reader need to catch her on Showtime, it is playing this month. The girl can make you laugh your ass off like nobody else..I swear. She tells us we are all beautiful...and guess what..we are. ;)

Watch a short video clip of her Beautiful show here on my video page.

Obama's Surgeon General..fantastic pick!

She rebuilt her clinic at least three times..after hurricanes and a fire. She has spent her entire career taking care of patients without money or access to health insurance. She is one smart female to boot!

I love this woman:

An African-American, Dr. Benjamin is nationally known for establishing a rural health clinic in Bayou La Batre, Ala. — a small, medically underserved shrimping village along the Gulf Coast. Hurricana Katrina destroyed the clinic in 2005, and then when it was rebuilt, the clinic burned down on the eve of re-opening.

In 2002, she became the president of the Alabama Medical Association, making her the first African-American woman to be president of a state medical society in the United States. In September, she was one of 25 recipients of the $500,000 “genius awards,” awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Another voice for comprehensive healthcare..universal healthcare I hope. A good person and a wonderful human being, Dr. Regina Benjamin is. All women should be proud of her nomination and her grit.

Sotomayor deals with the idiots today..

I will be glued to her confirmation hearings all day..so no real blogging will take place. Unless something said by one of the Rethug asshats really ticks me off.

I realize she isn't a progressive. But she seems to be fair and middle-of-the-road..and for me, that is the most important asset because sometimes..even the left is wrong..right? ;)

She has more experience than anyone on SCOTUS. That should tell you everything you need to know about her.

Give em Hell Sonia..with a smile on your face! Oh..and there is a wonderful post by the Angry Black Bitch crossposted over at Sirens Chronicles this morning on this very topic..check it out, it's entitled: Judge Sotomayor confirmation hearing preparedness…

The truth about what we eat- It isn’t what you think it is.

Filmmaker’s Robert Kenner and Michael Pollan are interviewed by CBS News about their new movie: Food, Inc. From the movie website, some facts:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from foodborne illnesses.

Approximately 10 billion animals (chickens, cattle, hogs, ducks, turkeys, lambs and sheep) are raised and killed in the US annually. Nearly all of them are raised on factory farms under inhumane conditions. These industrial farms are also dangerous for their workers, pollute surrounding communities, are unsafe to our food system and contribute significantly to global warming.

Approximately 1 billion people worldwide do not have secure access to food, including 36 million in the US. National and international food and agricultural policies have helped to create the global food crisis but can also help to fix the system.

76 Million Americans are sickened by what they consume. On a grander scale, what would the number be worldwide? It boggles the imagination. Our food doesn’t really contain nutrition. It contains corn, salt and fat. This twisted idea of manufacturing our food isn’t just about Meat Products. Its about our fruits, our veggies and anything else we consume. It’s ALL fucked with people. Watch the interview with the producers of Food, Inc. here on YouTube or here on my video page.

Now, See the movie, educate yourself as to what the corporate farms are doing to us in order to make a buck. You can find a theatre here.

Special Prosecutor? Perhaps...

Several media outlets are reporting this morning that Eric Holder is leaning towards appointing a Special Prosecutor to investigate the Bush Administration's war crimes in relation to torture. The story they are all linking to is this one from Newsweek. An excerpt:

....Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter. Such a decision would roil the country, would likely plunge Washington into a new round of partisan warfare, and could even imperil Obama's domestic priorities, including health care and energy reform. Holder knows all this, and he has been wrestling with the question for months. "I hope that whatever decision I make would not have a negative impact on the president's agenda," he says. "But that can't be a part of my decision."

Upholding the law should be the only thing Holder thinks about when deciding whether to appoint a Prosecutor to look into the torture issue. AP adds this:

Holder is considering whether to appoint a prosecutor and will make a final decision within the next few weeks, a Justice Department official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on a pending matter.

Come on Eric, do the right thing...go after these pompous fuckwits..please!

The Rethugs are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem. Alienating them is no big deal as the bastards have become the Party of No. There is no bipartisanship in DC..so fuck the bastards and go after Bush, Cheney, Yoo, et. al. Especially after this story hit the newswires. Dick Cheney is a liar and a carpetbagging douchenozzle. He relished keeping Congress in the dark..and actually had the CIA lie to them. No one deserves to be brought down like The Big Dick Cheney™. No one.

Secretive religious group = Cult

Rachel Maddow has focused on the C Street bunch for two straight days now. The C Street religious group is known as The Family. Everyone is sworn to secrecy..hence I think of it as a friggin cult.

Part one of the interview is with a gent, Jeff Sharlet, that lived at the C Street church/dorm for a year and then wrote a book about it and it's founder, Doug Coe. From an MSNBC article on Coe and The Family:

In his preaching, Coe repeatedly urges a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. It’s a commitment Coe compares to the blind devotion that Adolph Hitler demanded from his followers -- a rhetorical technique that now is drawing sharp criticism.

"Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler were three men. Think of the immense power these three men had, these nobodies from nowhere,” Coe said.

Later in the sermon, Coe said: "Jesus said, ‘You have to put me before other people. And you have to put me before yourself.' Hitler, that was the demand to be in the Nazi party. You have to put the Nazi party and its objectives ahead of your own life and ahead of other people."

Coe also quoted Jesus and said: “One of the things [Jesus] said is 'If any man comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, brother, sister, his own life, he can't be a disciple.’ So I don't care what other qualifications you have, if you don't do that you can't be a disciple of Christ."

The sermons are little surprise to writer Jeff Sharlet. He lived among Coe's followers six years ago, and came out troubled by their secrecy and rhetoric.

“We were being taught the leadership lessons of Hitler, Lenin and Mao. And I would say, ‘Isn’t there a problem with that?’ And they seemed perplexed by the question. Hitler’s genocide wasn’t really an issue for them. It was the strength that he emulated,” said Sharlet, who is a Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone and is an Associate Research Scholar at the NYU Center for Religion and Media in New York.

Ensign and Sanford were both residents of this C Street church/dorm. hmmm...Watch the videos here on my video page..it will make your skin crawl when you listen to Coe preach about hating your mother, father, sister and brother..


This church/dorm/cult only houses elected officials. They are all about POWER.

Feds rescue over 400 fighting dogs in one day.

It’s the biggest dogfighting raid in the history of law enforcement. It took place over seven states and netted 26 people that will hopefully one day rot in hell for what they have done. From the San Francisco Examiner:

State and federal agents staged raids in several states, charging individuals in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas following a more-than-year-long investigation originally tipped off by the Humane Society of Missouri.

In Missouri, prosecutors said members of a multistate ring routinely denied the dogs medical treatment and “destroyed” injured dogs who were no longer able to fight by shooting them “in the head, throwing them into the river or burning them in a barrel.”

Although the arrests stem from the same investigation, the rings were not “one concentrated, organized conspiracy.” United States attorneys in four districts will try the cases separately.

Kathy Warnick, president of the Humane Society of Missouri called the raid the “largest coordinated rescue in U.S. history.” “This heinous, heinous bloodsport is not going to be tolerated,” she told the New York Daily News.

The Humane Society of Missouri is sheltering more than 300 dogs - believed to be mostly pit bull terriers - seized in Missouri and Illinois raids. The dogs will be housed, cared for and evaluated at an undisclosed emergency shelter in St. Louis.

I just can not wrap my mind around humans that do this. I just can not. They would kill the losing dogs by shooting them and burning the bodies.

Iron Maidenform by Dawn

This is so awesome. It is a work of art that I can relate to and enjoy looking at. Please visit Dawn's blog for more photos of her piece that is going up for auction soon. 

Gonzo gets a job! At a college!

Texas Tech has hired Alberto Gonzales. From TPM Muckraker:

The press release, which says Gonzales will work as both a recruiter and teach a junior-level course on "contemporary issues in the executive branch," makes no mention of Gonzo's involvement in the U.S. attorneys scandal (among other things) or his subsequent resignation. Instead, it ends with, "...and later was appointed Attorney General."

Nice.

Specifically, Gonzales will be responsible for "recruiting and retaining first generation and underrepresented students," and will help plan a leadership training program for minority and first generation students at both Texas Tech and Angelo State University. In addition to his class, he'll also guest lecture for other courses.

"His own upbringing in Houston as part of a migrant family with eight children makes him qualified to tell underrepresented Texas students that college is possible," said Kent Hance, chancellor of Texas Tech. "He will help Texas Tech and ASU prepare our students for success and to be future leaders in the State of Texas and beyond."

Oh sweet Jaysus in a speedo. Gonzo will help prepare students for success? LMFAO!

graphic filched from Kvatch.

Amsterdam considering prostitution's financial problems.

This story is funny, but then...it's not. Women, who's livelihood is prostitution, which is perfectly legal in Amsterdam, shouldn't be discriminated against. But they are.

Banks refuse credit for anyone in the prostitution industry. They even refuse to allow them to open bank accounts. Prostitution is a legal industry in Amsterdam, its know world-wide.

Giving workers access to banking services and products would legitimize the industry and give workers the ability to better their lives and those of their families. They pay income taxes, yet they are not allowed to use banking services.

This double standard is total bullshit. Prostitution is a legal industry so treat it like one.

Rove deposed by congress critters today.

From RawStory:

Judiciary Chairman won’t comment on what was asked, said

Former Bush White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was deposed by lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said in an interview Tuesday.

Rove’s deposition took place over a period of some eight and a half hours, beginning at 10 a.m. and ending around 6:30 p.m, ET — and the lawyers took several breaks, Conyers said.

Conyers wouldn’t say what Rove told investigators or whether Rove would appear before his committee again.

Oh...to have been a fly on that wall today.

Uyghur's still protesting and being killed in China.

From Democracy Now!:

New protests have erupted in China’s western Xinjiang region, two days after at least 156 people were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the country’s worst ethnic violence in decades. On Tuesday, some 200 ethnic Uyghurs–mostly women–took to the streets to protest over the mass arrest of more than 1,400 people following Sunday’s clashes. Later, hundreds of ethnic Han Chinese marched through the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. The two sides blame each other for the outbreak of violence.

The DN link includes an interview with Nury Turkel, a Uyghur American Attorney. He is the co-founder of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and past president of the Uyghur American Association. Here is video of the unrest and a report by Amy Goodman.

WTF? The Guardian is liveblogging MJ's funeral...

This is fuckwitted. Poor Michael...they are draggin' his coffin to the Staples Center. What.A.Fucking.Farce.

This is even better...snort...live coverage online. Yahoo's..thy name is MSM today. View it on my video page. I refuse to give MJ more real estate than he already has.

I can't take anymore!!!

I commandeered the Ball n' Chain's™ tv yesterday afternoon. I got to watch the usual political talk shows, much to the chagrin of the Bn'C, who hates that shit. I saw Lawrence O'Donnell hosting Hardball..yay!

Vizio wants me to ship my broken set to the warehouse in Chino, CA then they will ship a new (or refurbished) one to moi. We can't drive it down..we must ship it. And this article says only 3% of plasma tv's breakdown. Gee, to be in such small company. Who wants to bet the new one will have problems too? UPS sucks and so does Vizio.

Fuckers...fucking fuckers.

I am watching MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan. He isn't too bad and he has a strange roundtable of guests and talking heads, all waxing poetic about Michael fucking Jackson. I am watching this on my broken tv, so it looks like I am watching tv through a friggin screen door...that wiggles.

This whole day is going to be MJ day isn't it? I want some political news damn it! Give me my fix you fucks.

I go in for a cystoscopy today...oh goodie..this one should be fun right? I will now have had a freaking fucking camera in all my orifices after the day is over. I know, TMI. Suck it up and deal..after all, I have to.

Sweetie, aka FacePlant, refuses to come out from under the bed if any of the other felines are in the room.. unless there is food involved. But he is eating like it's a contest and that's a good thing for the poor lil emaciated fur-less kitteh.

Have a good day folks..and pray for moi and that camera thingy going down this afternoon. Also say a prayer for my tv and the new one that will be shipped to me using gawd knows which delivery service.

Monday...and it still smells like sulfur around these parts.

The neighborhood was full of fireworks this weekend..including last night. This didn't sit well with the felines of course.

Sweety, aka Faceplant, still won't come out from under the bed after a really huge kablooey last night about 1am.

Today's news will be full of Obama and the Russians today. Really, did he have to take that trip now? Isn't there more pressing biz at home dude?

Sometimes I think he does this shit as a diversion.

People will be second-guessing Mooselini's latest move..to abandon her job as the Gov of Alaska. There is no way to make this look good for her. No friggin way. The bitch is whacked out..and perhaps she is only listening to Todd, because no self-respecting politco is going to tell her to dump her day job..none.

My tv took a shit last week. It was only 10 months old. Vizio is a raggedy ass bunch of fuckwits and I highly recommend that you DO NOT buy any of their products without an extended warranty.

I will go silently crazy this week without tv. Sick ain't it? I admit I am addicted to the boob tube. Lots of music to be played I guess...

Oh yeah..Mac the Knife kicked the bucket this morning. Oh, how I hated that sumbitch. I hope he is in the seventh level of hell..frying. I know..its wrong to speak ill of the dead..but still Robert McNamara was a Dick Cheneysque type of dirtbag. Even if he did come around to seeing things he did as horrific..Karma is karma dude.

Excuse me???

There are times when society gives me reason to pause and reflect. This is one of those times.

Who would tell a 17-18 year old female that is about 75-100 lbs overweight that she looked good in a tube top?

Is it just me or is that explosion of flesh coming from beneath the tube top in very poor taste and just downright nasty?

I have always said people should be either comfortable or creative. But the scenario above fits neither of those right?

I am still fighting the bulge myself and vain I am not, but for the love of Christ woman...cover that shit up! Whether that is PC I dunno.

I don't know if this is a fashion fau paux or chica really thinks she is sparkling in that attire, or she flat ass doesn't give a shit. Cuz it takes some real stones to wear that garment with that bodytype...in public.

That's all I got, except Serena Williams did it again at Wimbledon. You go woman! Her 3rd Wimbledon title.

Ch..Ch..Changes..

Yes, I did the unthinkable..I changed my template. All the prior comments are gone..zip!

Ah..no big deal right?

Please bear with me as I fix this sucker up..going to move some things to the other pages..so this page will load faster as some folks say it takes fucking forever to load.

Happy Fourth of July!!! Enjoy yourselves but don't drive tanked out of your ever-lovin mind ok? ;)

Palin to resign as governor.

Well, this is a shocker! Like everything else she says..her decision makes no sense to me. From AP:

"Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional Lame Duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose," Palin said in a statement released by her office.

"It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success," she said.

Her popularity has been going downhill in Alaska for a while now. I hope she runs for President..Lets see how many yahoo's will vote for a woman that can't find her ass w/both hands.

Feline Friday!

Gather 'round chil'ren and let mama Dusty tell you a story..

The last week has been spent trying to capture a Persian cat that had taken up residence under our RV. I am not a fan of Persians. They are too hairy for me and their little pushed in faces are fugly.

The temperature has hit triple digits every day over the last 5 days. At night, it got down to 80..oh joy. Now, if you put on a big heavy sweater and sat under that RV for 24 hours you might get an understanding of how this feline was suffering.

He was scared and he smelled bad..real bad.

Twice a day, I would crawl under the RV and bring him food and refill his water dish. The day it hit 110, he wouldn't eat. He could barely lift his head. Now I was scared.

I had developed a bit of a bond with him in the preceding days. He would let me touch him whilst he ate. When I talked to him he would come to me, but I couldn't get him to come out from under the damn RV. Even with wonderful treats like chicken breast, he simply would not venture out from under the vehicle.

Monday, when he wouldn't eat I figured I had to do something to get him in the house. My back was killing me and being an old broad, it wasn't easy getting my big carcass under that fucking vehicle. But I did it anyway.

So, Monday around noon, when it was already 107, I decided to snatch him up. I could tell he hadn't drank anything or eaten anything. His meow was so weak it was tugging at my heart strings.

I begged and pleaded with 'Sweety' to come to me. I laid on that hot dirt for over 20 minutes talking to him and inching forward towards him. Finally I got to him and he didn't move a muscle. His eyes were half open. So I grabbed him by the neck. He didn't even offer resistance.

I got him into the house and he ran under the bed. I was now smelly myself, full of sweat and dirt.

It took a couple of days but he warmed up to me and spent more time on top of the bed than under it. I called our trusty vet, Dr. Anderson, and made an appointment for them to put him under and clip him. His coat was so matted down and he weighed virtually nothing. I have a kitten that weighs more than Sweety. You remember Spanky don't you? Of course you do.

So he went to the vets. They called me around 2pm yesterday and told me what they had to do. They had to shave him completely, his coat was that matted. Then Dr. Clark, Dr. Anderson's wife, told me she didn't want me to be shocked when I came to get him. I said I expected them to shave him down to his skin, I knew how matted he was after being neglected for gawd knows how long.

She then told me about the stitches. I gasped..wtf? She explained that his coat was the worst she had ever seen and it was all the way to his skin in most places. It was viturally impossible for them to shave him all the way to his skin without knicking him, but he would heal and his coat would grow back. She also said he was horribly emaciated and needed to eat kitten food.

The only good news was that he was nuetered and between 4 and 5 years old.

The only original fur left on him was his feet and his face. From his ears to his tail he was naked and hairless. Or, almost hairless..check out this mornings picture:

If you click it, you can see stitches. poor lil guy.

This morning, he purred when I touched him. He snuggled closer to me, purring up a storm. I guess I am the proud owner of a Persian who answers to Sweety.

Unless one of you dear, wonderful readers would like to have him. I will deliver him to you! Come on..you know you want him, right? ;)

Persians are not very active felines and they like nice quiet environs..which our humble abode ain't. All the other felines just walk up and stare at him. He is funny looking with that huge head of fur and that skinny little naked, hairless body.

I love my vet's. They should of charged me $300 bucks for all the work they did, but they only charged me half of that. Dr Anderson and his wife Dr. Clark are good people. I am just glad I had a credit card that could accommodate paying them for their efforts.

Now, which of you wants to adopt this little guy? Remember..free delivery!

Oh, and have a very happy fourth ya'all. ;)

WaPo offers lobbyists access to Obama administration..for a fee.

This is friggin outrageous. The Washington Post is fast becoming yellow journalism, plain and simple. From Politico via TruthOut:

Washington Post Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Katharine Weymouth said today she was cancelling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where, for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper's own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its "health care reporting and editorial staff."

Is this what's known as pay to play? It sure sounds like it. How can you separate your newspaper from the lobbyists when you do something like this?

Where in the blue hell is journalistic integrity in this mess? Seems that the communications director wasn't too keen on this bullshit either:

In his e-mail to the newsroom, labeled "Newsroom Independence," Brauchli wrote: "Colleagues, A flyer was distributed this week offering an 'underwriting opportunity' for a dinner on health care reform, in which the news department had been asked to participate. The language in the flyer and the description of the event preclude our participation.

"We will not participate in events where promises are made that in exchange for money The Post will offer access to newsroom personnel or will refrain from confrontational questioning. Our independence from advertisers or sponsors is inviolable. There is a long tradition of news organizations hosting conferences and events, and we believe The Post, including the newsroom, can do these things in ways that are consistent with our values."

WaPo has been going downhill for quite a while now, with the exception of a very small cadre of investigative journalist's..this just seals it for me. Dana Milbank is a tool and so is Katherine Weymouth. Journalist integrity my fucking ass...A free press? Not at the Washington Post evidently.