Best Headline Ever!

(Click on the graphic for a clearer view.)

Hat tip: lambert @ CorrentWire

Tags: aliens, Roswell

Work Your Brain — 09/02/06

First Some Fun

• Thursday Thirteen #3 — Baggage @ Baggage That Goes With Mine wrote thirteen reasons why the internet is better than real life. This is my favorite.
  

  11. On the internet, you can pop into a forum or a blog and tell a person that their beliefs are dumb, they should be breastfeeding, they should never co-sleep, they should divorce their husband, they should shave their legs, and they should stop wearing mom jeans. In real life, people would punch you in the face.

In Memory Of Katrina

• But you can keep them for the birds and bees — Mac @ PeskyApostrophe wonders about all of that Katrina aid money the U.S. asked for and got from other countries last year. She comes to the same conclusion I did.
  

  I’m appalled at a variety of things when it comes to the Katrina rebuilding effort and FEMA’s role in it all, but this is a whole new level of incompetence. As part of my new job, I am now involved in grant-writing. In a good portion of grants, the grantee expects a report as to how the money was used. While I’m sure these gifts did not come with any reporting requirements, if one of our grantees found out their money had been either wasted or didn’t got to the program for which it was intended that would pretty much guarantee they’d never give money to us again. And you have to wonder if, should another emergency situation arise, these countries would think twice about giving aid money to the U.S. if we’re not going to use it and use it wisely.

• First the Flood, Now the Fight — Spencer S. Hsu @ WashingtonPost.com wrote a special report on the butting of heads between FEMA and state and city officials in the rebuilding of the Gulf States and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. FEMA swears it’s not trying to be difficult but the process seems to be designed to wear down those requesting help until they just give up and either take what little they’ve been given, which isn’t much if anything.
  

  Through hundreds of such disputes large and small, the most costly disaster in U.S. history is fast becoming its most contentious, with appeals and disputes worth nearly a billion dollars bogging down repairs of critical public systems and delaying the return of residents.

  Current and former officials at all levels blame FEMA workers’ inexperience with eligibility rules, weaknesses in U.S. disaster laws and inconsistent treatment by Congress for much of the wrangling. The huge scale of the storm and honest disagreement over whether federal or local taxpayers should pay the tab add to the conflict.

  “Disasters should be difficult to declare. . . . But once you get them, FEMA should not worry about cutting costs,” said Daniel A. Craig, who stepped down in October as head of FEMA’s recovery division and is now consulting for New Orleans. “Public entities are eligible for everything they have lost due to the disaster. It is not up to FEMA to cut corners or makes sure money is saved.”

  Gil H. Jamieson, FEMA’s deputy director for Gulf Coast recovery, agreed that “we’re in this to rebuild the city” and added: “We are not in it to delay for the sake of delay. Are there folks who sometimes hose it up? Absolutely. But I think we’re doing a good job of helping it recover.”

  The disputes come as the costliest part of the recovery begins: restoring water, power, roads, bridges, schools and other public facilities along the Gulf Coast. Agency veterans said the spending will have more impact on the physical rebuilding of the Gulf area than anything else FEMA does over the next decade, possibly eclipsing its role in aiding individual victims of the storm.

  The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, for instance, sustained $446 million in storm losses, said Executive Director Marcia St. Martin. But FEMA has committed just $113 million so far.

  FEMA notes that New Orleans promised U.S. environmental regulators $640 million in repairs before Katrina, and that the antiquated system is too big for the Crescent City’s reduced population.

  “That’s what makes a city — if you don’t have water, sewer and drainage, you don’t have a city,” lamented Robert Jackson, spokesman for the sewer board. “The money so far only scratches the surface of the devastation.

  Hat Tip: Susie @ Suburban Guerrilla

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Thursday Thirteen, Internet, Hurricane Katrina, FEMA, aid money, Gil H. Jamieson, Daniel A. Craig, Gulf Coast recovery, New Orleans, Islamofascism, George W. Bush, Muslims, women in the media, Support the Troops, defense appropriation bill, Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congress, Pentagon, Lower 9th Ward, National Hurricane Canter, 9/11, Max Mayfield, Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah, terrorism, Ann Jones, Taliban, NATO, Christians, American Dream, Martin Niemoller, Germany, Nazis, Rocky Anderson, Utah, Salt Lake Tribune, patriotism, lie, Walter Jones, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Caddam Hussein, Donald Rumsfeld

Recommended Reading - 08/28/06

• Moral relativity and the “war on terrorism” — Kevin @ Preemptive Karma wrote an excellent post about the double standard of the this administration and the expectations of the Right that expect Rep. Cynthia McKinney to apologize to the police officer she had an altercation with earlier this year but accepts the fact that the U.S. has imprisoned and tortured innocent people in Gitmo and elsewhere without apology or explanation and that is just fine.
  

  Apparently in the twisted world of rightwing freaks slapping someone requires an apology but busting out the teeth of a perfectly innocent Lebanese or torturing an innocent Turk, not to mention their imprisonment, is something that those particular victims ought to just suck it up over, be glad that they eventually regained their freedom and to hell with apologizing to them.

• Republicans: Making the world safe for bigots and racists — Jill @ Brilliant at Breakfast writes about recent incidents in the South where black children have been segregated to the back of the school bus and a church has voted not to accept black members and she wonders what has made this sort of thing acceptable as we approach the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, “leaving tens of thousands of black New Orleans residents stranded or dying, while the President of the United States was yukking it up with 2008 Presidential hopeful John McCain over birthday cake.”
  

  You can trot Condoleeza Rice out there till the cows come home, it doesn’t change the fact that when it comes to black Americans who do not serve the Republican party, as far as that party is concerned, they might as well drown.

• Have Some Foil — chicago dyke @ CorrenteWire has a nice piece up about two whistleblowers, who uncovered secret wiretapping in cell phones around the world. They’ve been murdered, of course. Read the rest of this entry »

  Tags: terrorism, Cynthia McKinney, Guantanamo Bay, torture, detainees, rightwingers, Republicans, racism, George W. Bush, Condi Rice, John McCain, Hurricane Katrina, whistleblowers, wiretapping, American Society of Civil Engineers, JonBenet Ramsey, pedophiles, relationships

  1 comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism, Hurricane Katrina, Conspiracy Theories, Natural Disasters, Women's Rights

Don’t Panic: From The Accidental Terrorist To The Accidentally Terrorized

Think back over your life.

What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever did?

I’m sure the memory is still there hanging around in the shadows of your mind, waiting to jump forward to your memory forefront at an extremely inopportune moment. Your cheeks flush at the thought. You stomach flinchs. Maybe you even feel just a little bit queasy just at the mere hint of a flashback.

Maybe it’s something that happened 20 years ago in school and maybe no one but you remembers it. Maybe it’s something that happened last week in front of 15 strangers on a
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: terrorism, iPod, WoW, Muslims, airport security

News Quickies

• Former Iraq POW Jessica Lynch is pregnant.  She and her boyfriend, Wes Robinson, are expecting their first child in January. (CNN.com)
• 43% of Americans believe the United States is now safer from terrorism than it was before September 11, 2001.  25% believe it is less safe.  Over half believe that an act of terrorism will likely happen in the US in the next few weeks, over half believe that the federal government is unprepared for any terrorist attack targeting any U.S. town or city, and over half believe that the federal government is unprepared to deal with the damage from
  Read the rest of this entry »

  Tags: Jessica Lynch, 9/11, terrorism, Iraq, Ryanair, airport security, stupid laws

  comments See also in In the News, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, The Middle East

Recommended Reading - 08/25/06

• ‘Liquid Bombers’ - The Impossible Bomb — A lot of websites have been linking to this explanation as to why the most recent terror plot from the UK could not have worked and why all of the fearmongering and passenger harrassment by the UK and American governments in the airports is unnecessary. I say, read it for yourself and decide for yourself.
• Homeland insecurity 2.0 — Pam @ Pam’s House Blend wrote one of the best reports of what travelling immediately after the latest terrorist plot scare was like that I’ve read.
  

  Again, the PA came on, this time it was for another flight — on Continental — that was boarding. This announcer, I’m not kidding you, went on for about 2-3 minutes warning people about taking on liquids and gels (”liquid” chapstick is a no-no, solid is OK), no coffee or soda will make it on board. Random checks at the gate would be performed. If they find contraband on you, you will be asked to give it up. If you don’t give it up, you’ll not be able to board, he boomed, and you would have to go on a later flight. “Not later today,” he warned, “maybe not even this week…maybe not for a couple of weeks.” OK, at this point, people are laughing, including the two of us. This is ludicrous.

  Our flight is finally called and we board. The plane is about to close up and a couple of late arrivals get on. This time we have a woman taking her sweet time, coming down the aisle with a steaming hot cup of Cinnabon coffee, which she proceeds to balance on an armrest as she casually loads her bag in the overhead bin, blocking the aisle as a couple of people wait behind her.

  Clearly, my friends, US Airways has let on the Cinnabomber.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: liquid bombers, airport security, Continental, U.S. Airways, crime rate, terrorism, morning-after pill, women soldiers, American soldiers, pharmacists, JonBenet Ramsey, Abeer al-Janabi, Jessica Lynch, Jim Bensman, Army Corps of Engineers, FBI, Duarris Perez, Guantanamo Bay, Gitmo, Cuba, Homeland Security, Bosnia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hurricane Katrina, pink food coloring, food industry

1 comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Natural Disasters, The Middle East

Lord Of The Flies: The Airline Version

Last Wednesday, in Malaga, Spain, some of the passengers of Monarch Airlines Airbus A320 succummed to irrational terror and forced Monach Airlines to eject two other passengers from the flight based on their own version of racial profiling, even though they had all at that point passed security checks. The problem with the two passengers was that they were both in their early 20s, appeared to be Middle Eastern, and were speaking in a foreign language which the other passengers assumed was Arabic; the passengers noted that despite the heat of Malaga, the two men were wearing leather
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: hatred, racism, airport security, Monarch Airlines, United Airlines, Peter Mercer, Dr. Ahmed Farooq, TSA, Raed Jarrar, Global Exhange, JFK airport, We Will Not Be Silent

Innocent Man Detained For 5 Years Without Apology From U.S.

There are some Americans who would have you believe that everyone picked up on suspicion of terrorism should forfeit their rights as a human being. Some Americans will tell you that the fact that we are “at war” means that we have the right “to do what we have to do” in order to protect ourselves without apology and without conscience. There are Americans who don’t understand that when we deny other human beings the simple rights that we expect from each other, we stop being human beings ourselves.

The veiled accusations and vehement denials would continue for nearly
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Tags: 9/11, Benemar Benatta, Algeria, detainees, FBI, political assylum, U.S. Immigration

1 comments See also in In the News, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism

What’s Good Enough For The President Isn’t Good Enough For Us Common Citizens

The Boston Globe reports that the technology to detect liquid explosives is already available and, in fact, the White House and the Supreme Court are already using such equipment known as SmartCheck, a low-intensity X-ray scanner made by AS&E that “can spot a bottle of organic compounds in a passenger’s pocket.” That’s pretty impressive actually considering all the people who end up on airplanes with all sorts of things they aren’t supposed to. However,

The TSA has not outfitted airports with the devices, in part, because officials have to prioritize where they spend limited dollars, according
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Tags: George W. Bush, politics, terrorism, Homeland Security, Boston Globe, airport security, AS&E, SmartCheck, TSA

comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism

The Middle East Crisis: The Biggest Loser

So, Monday and Tuesday was filled with news of various world leaders patting each other on the back as to who won in the latest Middle East Crisis, this Israel/Hezbollah Conflict.

“We are today before a strategic, historic victory, without exaggeration,” Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised speech that was met with celebratory gunfire in the Shia suburbs of Beirut.

“We emerged from the battle with our heads high, and our enemy is the one who is defeated.”

In an impassioned address to the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said “the IDF warriors always had the upper hand,” and
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Israel, Lebanon, NPR, Hezbollah, The Monkees, Ehud Olmert, IDF, Hassan Nasrallah, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran, George W. Bush, Syria, Bashir al-Assad, Middle East, politics

comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Books, Music, Movies, & T.V., Geekery, The World, Featured, The Middle East

Recommended Reading — 08/15/06

• Did Cheney Go Too Far? — This Dan Froomkin column to the WashingtonPost.com is excellent reading.; he quotes editorials, articles, and interviews from last Thursday and Friday in an effort to try to answer the question as to whether or not our Vice President may have stepped over the line last Wednesday in appearing to politicize the latest terror alert before it was even public.
  

  By insinuating that the sizeable majority of American voters who oppose the war in Iraq are aiding and abetting the enemy, Vice President Cheney on Wednesday may have crossed the line that separates legitimate political discourse from hysteria.

  Cheney’s comments came in a highly unusual conference call with reporters, part of an extensively orchestrated and largely successful Republican effort to spin the obviously anti-Bush message of Ned Lamont’s victory over presidential enabler Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary.

  In making the case that Lieberman’s defeat was actually an enormous boost for Republicans, the customarily furtive vice president let loose not with compelling argument, but unsupported invective.

  Voters who supported Lamont’s antiwar campaign in the Democratic primary were giving “the Al Qaeda types” exactly what they wanted, Cheney said. And as a result the Democratic Party, he asserted, now stands for a wholesale retreat in the broader campaign against terror.

  Hat tip: AmericaBlog. Read the rest of this entry »

  Tags: none

  1 comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism

Why Buying Drugs Online Could Be Bad For Your Health

I admit that I’m often very frustrated with doctors and the medical process of trying to get a diagnosis. Let’s face it, I’ve had chronic headaches and migraines since I was in elementary school and some sort of chronic stomach/gastric B.S. issue since I was 17 or 18 and something wrong with my back since early college and etc. I’ve been going around and and around with doctors and their ilk for most of my life and I feel sometimes I like know just as much or more than them with all of my own research in books
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Tags: health

Even The Scoobies Could See Through Bush’s Bullying On This Terror Timing Thing

I guess I’m starting to feel like enough time has passed and enough information is starting to come out that I feel I can voice my opinion on this whole “terror in the skies” thing with some confidence.

First of all, I’d like to state that I’m so relieved that my friends and I are all back in the States or back in England where we belong from our wedding-related and Summer International travels. What a nightmare if any of us had been caught up in any of this, particularly those of us with OCD-type issue and those of us
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: terrorism, UK, politics, liquid explosives, Scooby Doo, Project Bojinka, NBC, International flights

Recommended Reading — Terror in the Skies Edition

WTF?

• How can they give the confiscated airport items to the homeless if they don’t know if they’re explosives or not? - John in DC @ AmericaBlog reported on an article that points out that some airports are allowing employees to take home some of the confiscated items from passengers since Thursday. Plus two airports are considering either giving away these potentially explosive items to the homeless or selling them on eBay. There really should be a lawsuit in there. The airports and security should not be profiting from the fear-mongering and discomfort of the passengers — especially since TSA and Homeland Security sprung these new rules on the public with no warning. Read the rest of this entry »

  Tags: Terrorists, explosives, airport security, Homeland Security, TSA, Bush Administration, eBay, Republicans, National Security

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism

This Is Airport Security?

O.K. Really I’ve been trying not to comment on the “Terror in the Sky” thing — this is the name Fox News has given the latest terrorist plot the U.K. foiled as of yesterday. I’ve been waiting for more facts to unfold before jumping to any conclusions or opinions, though I will admit that I have had my moments of cynicism like any self-professed liberal.

However, the obsurdity that this post points out…just couldn’t go by without comment.

O.K. I get that for security reasons the U.S. and the U.K. wants to ban liquids
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: terrorism, National Security, airport security, stupidity

A Fear To Give

Humanitarian Aid Charities collecting for Lebanon have run into difficulties collecting in the United States. It’s not that there’s a lack of desire to give, but it turns out there’s a fear to give…apparently, Americans are a little afraid of what their government might have to say if they donate…because after all the NSA is watching and what if you accidently donate to the wrong charity and your name ends up in a database somewhere listing you as a supporter of terrorists? Remember, if you’re doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

Some people want to get
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Tags: Humanitarian Aid, Lebanon, Arab, charity, spying on Americans, Treasury Department, United Jewish Communities, CAIR, Arab American Institute, NSA, International Islamic Relief Organization, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Task Force on Palestine, State Department

Recommended Reading - 08/08/06

• Preparing for Martial Law - Jill @ Brilliant at Breakfast reports that President Bush is trying to secretly federalize the National Guard, a move that the National Governors Association is trying to put a stop to.  This is the kind of thing a dictator would do, by the way.
• Might as well face it, they’re addicted to porn… - SpinDentist @ The All Spin Zone reports on a poll revelling what I’ve suspected all along — that there are quite a large number of self-identified Christians involving themselves with porn.  This may be why so many rightwingers
  Read the rest of this entry »

  Tags: PBS, NPR, GOP, Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, ABC, Good Morning America, Christians, George W. Bush, National Guard, National Governors Association, EFF

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World

Can We Learn From Vietnam’s Autrocities?

Reading this article, I’m reminded of all of those people who insist that American soldiers never ever commit autrocities and to so much as think such a thing, particularly in a time of war, is akin to treason.  To utter or print the words, to repeat them, to say you witnessed such things — these are the worst kinds of sins, far worse than murdering, torturing and raping innocent civillians, particularly those innocent civillians American soldiers are meant to protect and liberate.

NEW YORK A study of declassified Army documents by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday found that the killings of civilians by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam war were far more numerous than previously known — and went largely unpunished. In total, 320 incidents of abuse by U.S. soldiers are substantiated.

“Abuses were not confined to a few rogue units,” the Times reported. “They were uncovered in every Army division that operated in Vietnam.”

Atrociities by U.S. troops in Iraq are currently gaining wide attention.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Vietnam, American soldiers, Iraq

comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Soap Box, The World, Featured, The Middle East

100+ Iranian Visas Revoked At U.S. Airports Last Week

Aug. 4 - BCN - Members of an Iranian university’s international alumni association are expressing frustration that more than 100 visa holders traveling to the United States to attend the group’s fourth reunion in Santa Clara have had their visas revoked.

Elahe Enssani, a spokeswoman for the Sharif University of Technology Alumni Association conference, which began today at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency, said all 12 of the conference registrants who were arriving at San Francisco International Airport were denied entry and that only 15 of 105 visa applicants who had hoped
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Tags: Iran, Sharif University of Technology Alumni Association

3 comments See also in In the News, The World, The Middle East

Recommended Reading - 08/04/06

• Tin Foil Hats And Tiaras For Everyone! — The (liberal)Girl Next Door talks about the recent poll revealing that 1/3rd of Americans believe that 9/11 was “an inside job” and what that staggering fact could or should mean for our future as a country.
  

  One out of three people think the Bush administration could very well have organized the deaths of 3,000 innocent Americans for the sole purpose of furthering their foreign policy objectives. In other words, a third of this country’s citizens believe that the Bush administration is a terrorist organization. How is it possible that impeachment isn’t even on the table if that many Americans think he’s a killer? Yes, it’s a rhetorical question and we can all say in unison, “it’s possible with the help of a lapdog press.”

• Internet “Conspiracies” — In contrast Red Bull uses the same poll to champion Net Neutrality. Read the rest of this entry »

  Tags: Conspiracy Theories, 9/11, net neutrality, gay hate crimes, Homeland Security, FAS, disaster preparedness, Israel, U.S., Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, Military Families Speak Out

  2 comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Conspiracy Theories, Natural Disasters, The Middle East