The Sirens Chronicles

Bad Karma Plagues Political Figures’ Summer Recesses Edition

Justice Roberts has a seizure:  Roberts slipped & fell on his dock at his summer home in Maine after suffering a seizure of unknown etiology. The youngest, & certainly handsomest, Chief Justice of the U.S. of A has no known history of health problems otherwise (though the Supreme Court has a long history of hiding the Justices’ health & other problems from the public, including drug addiction, psychotic withdrawal episodes & general senility from us) ~ but it is better that way, after all, what can we do about it ~ they enjoy lifetime appointments.  And they do mean lifetime, regardless of anything else, like capacity.

I wish Justice Roberts a full recovery & urge him to watch out for the unexplained things in the future ~ like poverty, low social status, lack of compassion toward women & minorities, & er~ bad karma.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001002.html?nav=hcmodule

Speaking of bad karma, in a surprise turnabout against the favorites in the GOP, the U.S. Department of Justice raided the oldest-continuing serving Senator on suspicions of cozy deals with a corrupt oil services contractor to rehab his home.  Senator Stevens & his progency haven’t been charged with any crime.  But the famed Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere” was pushed through got funded nonetheless.  Stevens’ legacy is preserved.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001521.html

Displaced Neo-Ferocious Japanese Prime Minister Abe Still Refuses to Explain or Apologize for Neanderthal War-Time Behavior to Sex Slaves

I’m no expert on Japanese politics, but I was paying attention when Scary Mr. Abe, whose party who was all about remilitarization of Japan & resuming war-like agressions,   got routed in the last elections.  That news was immediately followed by Mr. Abe’s continuing refusal to acknowledge or apologize for war-time Japan’s habit of keeping captured women as sex slaves. 

Er, “comfort women”seems a lot less scandalous,  & hooks into that favorite fantasy of domineering men everywhere that women actually enjoy being treated like prostitutes & sex objects…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001171.html?tid=informbox

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Tags: culture

This particular post gets tougher and tougher for me to write each week because I can’t wrap my mind around why the concept is so difficult. I can’t understand greed. With all of the major religions tied up in this little hate fest- and all professing to love god and want to keep his commandments - I just have to wonder at why they still covet. Really - isn’t this what all of the wars are started on? Oh sure, there are gallant and sweeping ‘reasons’ given but what it boils down to is we want what you have and we are going to take it. Bottom line. I think that it is mind boggling that in a country with less want than possibly any other country on the planet - that we should covet anything that anyone else has. Much less blow up their families to get it. Think about that for a moment.

tags: iraq war, peace

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Tags: Betmo's Posts, culture, Its about the Oil stupid, Peace Movement, War

pol·i·tic(pol-i-tik)
adj.
1. Using or marked by prudence, expedience, and shrewdness; artful.
2. Using, displaying, or proceeding from policy; judicious: a politic decision.
3. Crafty; cunning.

I grew up in Chicago. I grew up a Democrat with Independent, Liberal overtones in Chicago. I was an activist, and a campaign worker for Democratic Congressman Abner J. Mikva who taught me a lot about what is right, and what is possible. I also grew up in a time when people actually debated issues and discussed, and still went into smoke-filled back-rooms to hammer out a compromise that wasn’t perfect, but often worked.

Just back from a week in Chicago visiting my daughter, and my granddaughter - two evenings, when Ellie Bean was safely in bed, sitter at home, my daughter and I went out touring the city which has changed so much in the six years I’ve lived in Los Angeles. Mayor Richard M. Daley (the Younger) has turned the entire lakefront into a park - it is magnificent. And when I’m back there, away from blogging, safe in thoughts of my granddaughter and her perfect, immediate world, I look at things with a more politic eye.

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Tags: Daily Featured, DivaJoods Posts

Today’s NYT has an article which caught my eye. The title: In opposing Tax Plan, Schumer Breaks with Party. Now, Schumer is a Senator from New York, where most of the hedge private equity funds roost. I realize they are a part of his constituency..but please..they are NOT humans. Sure, humans run them and make money from them…but they are NOT people, and folks that use these types of investments aren’t trying to make ends meet.But Schumer holds a two very important posts that relate to hedge funds and private equity funds, he is on both the Banking and Finance committee’s. In fact..Chuck raked in more than $1 million large for the Democratic Senatorial Committee from these guys.

The NYT article calls him “Pro-business”..I call him a shill for the top 1%. Perhaps that is a little harsh..but you can not call yourself a supporter of the middle class AND a supporter of the hedge and equity funds. Nope, you really can’t do that Chuckie.

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Tags: Dustys Posts

 Ill: Micah Wright/Progaganda Remix, With Permission

http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/PhotoAlbum1.html

We have to give this to Mr. Bush ~ no law, & no tired meme, will he allow to stand in the way of his quest for all-encompassing executive power. In today’s news, courtesy of The Hill, we learn that Bush used his Saturday radio address to try press forward with his overwrought claims that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, established in the aftermath of Nixon’s excesses to prevent an executive who wishes to style himself King from spying, is outdated. It doesn’t address modern technologies like cell phones & e-mails, he says, & we need to update it.

Of course he casts it in patriotic terms:

“‘Every day that Congress puts off these reforms increases the danger to our nation’ Bush said in his weekly radio address. ‘Our intelligence community warns that under the current statute, we are missing a significant amount of foreign intelligence that we should be collecting to protect our country.’

“The administration’s updates to FISA focus heavily on modern technologies not around when the bill was passed almost 30 years ago, such as cellular phones and e-mail. Bush argues that the extended powers his proposal grants are essential to national security.

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Tags: ACLU, action, Daily Featured, Wiretapping Americans

I as I read the paper, watch the news , read these boards the common thread of lies appears to run through much of our world. From our Attorney General ,to our Armed Forces covering up the Tillman case, to the real estate story of Crisp(a local story). The Dakota people’s have a wonderful moral sense ~here is their approach to liars.

In the early days the importance of honor and a persons word was so highly valued that lying was a capitol offence. The deliberate liar is capable of committing any offense. That person hides behind the screen of untruth and double dealing~ in short a coward. The liar ~the destroyer of mutual confidence ~was summarily put to death.

When our ancestors swept across this country much was laid to waste. How much better would this land be today if we had adopted some of the native peoples ways? In short if we had shown compassion ,been honest and straight forward ourselves and practiced compromise? One can just scan today’s paper and ponder these questions.

 We have lost our moral compass, today it is said one must lie ,double deal to get ahead .I wonder where that ahead is located ,for I have no wish to see that far country .Our moral center can be claimed by no one religion ,nor is it any “ism’s” domain .It resides in your heart and mine.

Cross posted at bakersfield.com Liars,Morals,America

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Tags: culture, SageFevers Posts

The federal government has outsourced more and more of its duties. By doing this, they can claim they have lowered their workforce, thus saving us millions of bucks in benefits that would have to be paid to these employees if they were on the federal government payroll, among other things.

What also happens is that oversight, transparency and auditing of the work is lost. The government just writes checks out to companies like Halliburton, CACI, KBR, Blackwater, Wackenhut and a host of other corporations figuring the job is being done correctly and it saves us all lots of money in the long run.

Wrong, carpetbagger breath. The billions paid to companies like I have named above is many times just wasted. Since the federal government no longer has their finger in a specific pie, they also give these companies carte blanche to charge us whatever they want, and workmanship is a dirty little word to these corporations..they just want their check. They create their own work standards without any oversight by the federal government, who is now relegated to just being a “customer”. The contractor can now sub-contract part, if not the entire job, to another contractor with little or no oversight by the federal government or the original company who was given the contract. Where do you think their loyalties lie? The following is a quote from David M. Walker, who as comptroller general of the United States, said this about contractors and their loyalty: “There’s something civil servants have that the private sector doesn’t, and that is the duty of loyalty to the greater good - the duty of loyalty to the collective best interest of all rather than the interest of a few. Companies have duties of loyalty to their shareholders, not to the country.”

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Tags: Dustys Posts

Dahr Jamail writes for Tomdispatch.com. He was in Iraq in January 2004 traveling through villages and cities south of Baghdad while investigating the performance of the Bechtel Corporation in honoring their contractual obligations to restore the water supply in the region. He found in a village outside of Najaf, where both women and children collected water from a hole in the ground…the bottom of it. See…this was a broken pipe at the bottom of this hole. During a daily two-hour period of the day…when the power supply happens to be on…these poor people desperately gather what they can. This is their primary water source for the whole village. It turns out unfortunately that he learned that 8 children had died trying to cross a highway close by…just to get decent water from a local factory. Well…who’s to say that water was even really decent? Is this what our taxes have gone to…to these various so called construction companies to rebuild what was torn down from the ground up? Build schools…help them regain their water and electricity? What have these jokers been doing for over 5 years?

We have statistics from the World Health Organization that says 70% of Iraqis do not have access to clean water and 80% greatly lack decent sanitation. They get their water by any means possible even if it is at the bottom of a dirty wet hole. It may contain a waterborne disease, cause kidney stones, diarrhea, cholera, or nausea. These people over 5 years ago had water and electricity at their disposal. Now…they are killing themselves to get a dirty drink of water. A sovereign nation that had not attacked nor interfered with the United States in any way was summarily taken down brick-by-ancient-brick and reduced its population to horrendous violence, death and the basic amenities to live. To do this to children is the ultimate inhumane behavior…but that is just one of the many dishonorable things our administration shall be known for if I have anything to say about it.

We can go to our kitchen sink and turn on our own fresh cool water with a flick of the wrist. We don’t even have to think about it…we’ve had it all our lives. Imagine for a moment…if that were to change. Imagine living in a very hot climate and because of not having electricity but for a few hours possibly a day…you have no way to cool off. We all know that spells a death knell to the very old of age and babies. The Bush administration isn’t just bombing these people into oblivion…they are killing them off with their basic physical needs as humans. And in a World point of view…that is criminal in my opinion. For those evil-doers that he points his finger at and pounds his podium to make his pointless Bushisms…he himself is guilty of that which he condemns.
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Tags: action, Children's Issues, culture, Daily Featured, Federal Government, International Politics

The Crisis in this administration has reached a level that should be, by using their own Homeland Security gauge..Severe.

Because the Terrorist’s are in the White House and anyone or any Department they control.

Pat Tillmans death might now be murder, The Department of Justice is being led by a Liar who has been contradicted by the head of the FBI and the former second in command at his own DoJ. This drama has reached a lowpoint never seen in the history of our country.

Even Watergate was a walk in the park compared to these Asshats and what they have done to us as a country and the world at large.

Congress has to step up to the plate. They are the only ones that can put a stop to this madness. But we all know that won’t happen. Because of the small margin of a one vote majority in the Senate, nothing can change without the help of the Rethuglicans.

And we ALL know those sumbitches won’t do shit. They will back their leader all the way over the cliff..like lemmings to the sea.

We are watching a slo-motion death march my dear reader and I fear for our country.

Tags: Bush, Pat Tillman, Alberto Gonzales

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Tags: Constitutional Crisis, Contempt of Congress, Dustys Posts, Executive Privilege

Yes, I realize it’ll come as a shock to some to be informed that Demon Princess does indeed have a human mother, & a very good one at that, but there it is. I’m not sure where she went wrong, exactly, but it doesn’t have anything to do with toxic Chinese food or thalidomyde or anything.

I’m just a natural.

And I have to have done something right somewhere along the line to be rewarded with birthday presents like these:

1. Congress finally gets up the cajones to subpoena Karl Rove. Today’s New York Times: “[T]he chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, announced that a subpoena was being issued Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief political adviser, to provide information on the firings last year of nine federal prosecutors. The White House has asserted executive privilege in resisting Congressional demands for testimony by present and former presidential aides.”

2. “Four Senate Democrats called for appointment of Special Counsel to investigate whether Mr. Gonzales perjured himself before Congress.”

3. FBI Director Robert Meuller also testified today that ‘Berto (*gasp*) lied when he told Congress the other day that the relevant spying program was something other than the Terrorist Surveillance Program. “But today’s developments seemed to mark a shift toward suggestions that he actually committed crimes in testifying before Congress.”

Wooo-hoo! Demon is off to celebrate the big day with dinner out, & will leave y’all to peruse the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/washington/26cnd-gonzales.html

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Tags: Constitutional Crisis, Contempt of Congress, Executive Privilege

With Permission: Micah Wright/Propaganda Remix

Update: The psychedelic, kaleidoscopic, ever-changing world of ‘Berto’s DOJ:

Since ‘Berto’s Tuesday testimony, all the news agencies have set about trying to confirm his surprise testimony that the spying program he tripped himself up testifying about once before was, really a program not heretofore disclosed, so, er ~ he wasn’t technically lying to Congress the 1st time.

Everybody finds that, um, he was. At least the Congresspeople he claims were briefed about it say it was the Terrorist Surveillance Program 1st reported by the New York Times that they were briefed upon, not the unnamed “other program” he said he couldn’t talk about.

Still, through a spokesman, ‘Berto, like his boss, stays the course when confronted by evidence of reality. And, we dare speculate, will be able to rely on the boss’s exertion of executive privilege if Congress has the chuztpah to try to get to the bottom of it.

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Tags: Daily Featured, Federal Government, Wiretapping Americans

“In one of his most chilling moves to date against his own citizens, the American War Leader has issued a sweeping order this week outlawing all forms of protest against the Iraq war.”

read article here

white house release- july 17, 2007

tags: domestic terrorism

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Tags: Betmo's Posts, Constitutional Crisis, Executive Privilege

This is the worst nightmare for parents who for whatever reason choose to place their child in a institutional care setting.It is why I choose a life of poverty.It is why a teacher tries to get his students to speak one or two words.The perpatrator has said that he had molested as many as 1/2 of the children he “cared” for in 10 years.

The following  is from an article by ALLISON HOFFMAN  A.P.writer

Sometimes Bleyle stared straight ahead during his sentencing hearing; sometimes he cast his eyes down at a table. Anywhere but at the victims’ relatives, some weeping, others shaking with anger.

“I just want you to know it doesn’t matter what you say or how many years you spend in jail - it’s not going to be enough,” said Lillian Godfrey, whose daughter, now dead, was among those Bleyle abused. “I don’t think you have a soul. You’re just an empty human shell.”

“The acts Mr. Bleyle inflicted on my daughter … disabled, mentally fragile, are a parent’s worst nightmare,” Janice Frost said.

One of Frost’s daughters was under Bleyle’s care from the time she entered the long-term facility as a 10-day-old newborn suffering a brain condition. She was 10 years old when she died in June 2006, three months after federal investigators discovered her image in pornographic photos on Bleyle’s computer.

“During her dying moments, I told her I would see this through,” Frost said outside the courtroom, as she clutched one of her three older daughters.

Bleyle, 56, was arrested in March 2006 after federal agents traced child porn through Internet file-sharing networks to his home computer in suburban Santee. They found tens of thousands of pornographic images, including photographs he took of himself abusing his patients.

Bleyle confessed to investigators who reached him by phone in New York state, where he was visiting relatives, that he had molested as many of his patients as there were snowflakes falling outside his window, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Under an agreement reached in June, Bleyle pleaded guilty to eight counts of forcible lewd acts involving five children. At a hearing in June, he also agreed to plead guilty to four counts of exhibiting minors in pornographic materials, far less than the initial 33 pornography counts.

The plea was modified Wednesday, with prosecutors dropping one pornography count and Bleyle pleading guilty to a single count of posing a child for pornographic purposes.

Bleyle was ordered by Superior Court Judge Kenneth K. So to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence - close to 39 years, by which time Bleyle would be in his mid-90s. He faced up to 165 years had he been convicted of all counts.

Prosecutors said they made a deal in part to spare one of Bleyle’s victims the strain of testifying. The teenage girl said Bleyle inappropriately touched her buttocks while she recovered from a stroke.

“This provides closure for everybody,” Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn said outside the courtroom.

Investigators identified four of the five children Bleyle pleaded guilty to abusing: three girls and a boy who were all younger than 14 when the molestations took place. Two of the children have since died.

Investigators never learned the name of the fifth victim, a 2-year-old girl.

Pandora Johnson’s son was not identified in court documents as a victim, but she and three other parents who believe Bleyle abused their children were allowed to speak at the hearing.

Pandora Johnson said she had asked her son, who cannot speak because of a breathing device in his throat, whether he had been abused.

“He didn’t give his usual yes or no sign. He just looked afraid,” Johnson said. “And when I said, ‘Wayne will never do this to you again,’ he gave me a big smile. That smile broke my heart.”

Bleyle did not address the court except to murmur, “Guilty, your honor,” when asked how he pleaded to the posing charge.

His attorney, Casey Donovan, spoke on his behalf after the families were finished.

“He wishes to apologize to all the victims and their families,” said Donovan, who noted that Bleyle himself had been sexually abused as a boy. “He knows he can never make amends for what he has done.”

Donovan said Bleyle claimed that Johnson’s son was not among those he molested.

Bleyle worked at the well-regarded children’s hospital for 25 years. A month after his arrest, a second hospital employee, tracked through peer-to-peer networks, was charged with molesting a comatose toddler patient.

Christopher Alan Irvin, a 32-year-old nurse at the time, pleaded guilty in September to molesting the toddler and was later sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison.

The arrests prompted the hospital to ban cell phones in patient treatment areas, including rooms, and require doors and curtains around patients be left open most of the time, said hospital spokesman Ben Metcalf.
Child Abuse

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Tags: culture, SageFevers Posts

The subtitle is intriguing in the WaPo article: “Cases Indicate Willingness to Defy GOP Orthodoxy” is it not? The article goes on to list cases ol’ Freddy has taken..like the 14 tons of Cannabis just for an example.

The article also tells us how Freddy supports and aligns himself with various lawyer groups who historically are despised by the Rethugs on The Hill. Its 3 pages long so bring your lunch.

WaPo evidently did their homework for this piece..its a good read check it out in the link above.

Tags: Fred Thompson

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Tags: Dustys Posts, Judiciary

{There are many reviews in Blogland today of the Debate and HOW Everyone did, but I am more interested in writing about the Actual Process, because it needs Finetuning, or finetubing.}

I eagerly watched the Debate with high hopes,giddy anticipation and maybe my expectations were unrealistic. I thought after the LAST Election of 2006, that Bloggers,The Internet, and YouTube, and ALL of us, made a signifigant lasting impact.I even thought that Anderson Cooper hosting a Debate with YouTube Questions was an impressive acknowlegement of this Forum and a return of WE THE PEOPLE being part of the process.

So last night the Debate came on. I had everything ready,Chilled Lemon Creme Mylanta and big tall pepsi with ice, and popcorn. And a pile of flipflops ( they are soft and can be easily heaved at the TV, and have been a great addition for Debates). But mostly I had enthusiasm. This was the Moment in History when Everyone could finally HEAR and See REAL Americans, like me asking REAL Questions. I knew that CNN had been getting alot of YouTube videos sent to them.

I was sure that the Questions coming from Concerned Americans would be about REAL Issues: Iraq,The care of VETS and their families, The Fumbling Economy And Drowning Middle Class, Impeachment, Healthcare,Katrina,Gitmo, Plamegate,Gonzogate, Illegal Spying, Loss of Civil Liberties…etc. I made my little check list of IMPORTANT ISSUES and also sat with my pad to write some notes and keep score of the issues. I felt that the debate would be more satisfying then watching Wolf rant or Tweety fawn and snicker because Anderson Cooper is fairly responsible. Most of the folks I know that YouTube or make videos are fairly sophisticated and eloquent.The show began and right off Anderson stated that 3000 Videos had been recieved, so again my optimism soared.

Instead what I realized quickly that I was about to be sorely disappointed with the CNN process. CNN edited and selected THE Questions, and they “say” they chose 39 out of 3000. The ones that were Poignant and asked questions that needed to be asked for the most part were not on until fairly late in the debate. It took 45 minutes for the Iraq Word even was allowed. I was sitting there thinking I Know that they must be getting ALOT on Iraq and Healthcare and Impeachment. Instead….

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Tags: Daily Featured

The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush’s former legal counselor, Harriet Miers.

Contempt of Congress would be a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and a one-year prison sentence. If the citations win support in the full House, they would be forwarded to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — a Bush appointee (emphasis mine).

And that’s as far as it’s likely to go, the Justice Department said in a letter to the committee late Tuesday.

Contempt of Congress is a federal crime, but a sitting president has the authority to commute the sentence or pardon anyone convicted or accuses of any federal crime.

read the rest here

tags: government corruption, domestic terrorism

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Tags: Betmo's Posts, Constitutional Crisis, Contempt of Congress, Executive Privilege, Judiciary

with all of the recent information coming out in (gasp) the msm- about corruption and executive orders- and faked al quaeda operatives, one would think that holding someone accountable and starting the pullout from iraq would be a no brainer. but no. sadly no. here we are, with the dems doing nothing. even after cindy s. and her crew begged and pleaded- and promptly got arrested. even after poll numbers hit a new high with folks wanting impeachment. even after meeting with the former ‘axis of evil’ folks to hope that they can do what we couldn’t- bring some stability to a country we de-stabilized. we have to work diligently for peace- and it has to become a mindset, because even after the last soldier is home, america will not be at peace. she may be resting in peace- but there are millions of angry people here- and peace is far from our minds.

tags: peace now, iraq war, angry americans

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Tags: Betmo's Posts, Chickenhawks, corruption, Daily Featured, Executive Privilege, Peace, Peace Movement

Chuck was the last man to question Alberto today. He asked direct yes or no questions of the man who heads our country’s Justice Department. He asked about the meetings with the gang of 8. Schumer asked him direct yes or no questions regarding the clandestine meeting with a barely lucid John Ashcroft at the hospital.

Uncle Al side-stepped each and every friggin one of those direct questions. That’s a surprise I know..For those of you that missed this event..Leahy and Specter take swings at Alberto:

[youtube]DWIxG-ww2Ms[/youtube]

Al tried to discredit Comey’s previous testimony before the committee regarding the warrentless spying on Americans.

Simply put, Alberto Gonzales is a Shit-stain on the Department of Justice in these here United States.

Tags: Gang of 8, Alberto Gonzales, Ashcroft, Perjury

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Tags: Constitutional Crisis, Contempt of Congress, Dustys Posts, Executive Privilege, Judiciary, Wiretapping Americans

Lately I have noticed that American culture has embraced the word “Fatwa”. It of course has a negative connotation no matter what group uses it. We, as American’s, use it in a humorous fashion to note something completely ridiculous and outside the normal scope of logic. So lets take a humorous look at the original use of the word. Your obviously not working anyway..so humor me people!

A Fatwa is explained by Wikipedia as: “a considered opinion in Islam made by a mufti, a scholar capable of issuing judgments on Sharia (Islamic law). Usually a fatwa is issued at the request of an individual or a judge to settle a question where fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) is unclear.” I think that’s pretty deep..so lets just call it a Religious Ruling by a guy who probably wears a funny hat or head-covering ok?

This seems simple enough..reminds me of a religious edict, you know like the Pope is wont to do on occasion and something that asshat Pat Robertson does on a semi-regular basis.

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Tags: culture, Dustys Posts, Humor

Again another eclectic evening with Bill Moyers, one that had me laughing while I cried. That is the most effective way to teach harsh subjects ~the ones that would either crush our spirit or we turn away from in horror.

First up is the Yes Men. These gentlemen take the insult ,which is something I decry in the hands of amateurs ,and raise it to the level of art .The link will take you to the whole segment ,it is a terrifying yet hilarious insight on our god, money and those who make it.

The immigration issue, it’s racial overtones have been~ I think discussed is a generous way to describe what has passed over these web pages the last few days.(At bakersfield.com). Here is a window into the life and soul of a second generation American ,son of immigrants, second segment is also found at the link, but there are those who do not click a link. What follows is an example of poetry as a tool to fight the fear of the other.The other is a reflection on war.

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Tags: Daily Featured, SageFevers Posts, War

Touchingly American: In PR & Sales Campaigns We Trust ~ Who Wouldn’t Be Moved?

To borrow a familiar old-school meme from one of the original hotbeds of avaricious American consumer-bot-ism, gag me with a spoon!

The Pentagon, which we trust to direct the expenditure of blood & treasure in the waging of noble & righteous wars on every part of the world which may not agree that resource extraction for our benefit is the most noble & pressing cause ever, apparently commissioned a study by expert marketers in order to obtain advice on how to sell the failed war in Iraq to Iraqis! When I first saw the blurb under the headline, I thought it must be some deliciously snide & snarky editorial commentary, a joke:

“TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: In the advertising world, brand identity is everything. Volvo means safety. Colgate means clean. IPod means cool. But since the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, its “show of force” brand has proved to have limited appeal to Iraqi consumers, according to a recent study commissioned.

But reading further, the price tag alone convinces your Demon that they’re deadly serious.

American taxpayers have footed a $400,000 bill to get advice from Madison Avenue because Bushco still doesn’t understand why the project there is going so dismally & irretrieveably south, & got sparkling drops of murmured wisdom from the marketing gurus like this in return:

“[The study] concluded that the ‘force’ brand, which the United States peddled for the first few years of the occupation, was doomed from the start and lost ground to enemies’ competing brands.

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Tags: Its about the Oil stupid

This is rich. The Former #2 man at the DoJ has a stunning bit of advice for King George. A snippet from the Bloomberg article via RawStory:

Fitzgerald Deserves Top U.S. Law Post, Comey Says (Update3)

By Patricia Hurtado and David Voreacos

July 20 (Bloomberg) - Patrick Fitzgerald won the convictions of four Osama bin Laden associates in May 2001. In March, he got Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Last week, he nailed Conrad Black.

Fitzgerald, 46, isn’t saying what he’ll do next in his career. Friends and colleagues say he probably will remain a prosecutor rather than join a law firm. One colleague says Fitzgerald’s destiny may include the top law-enforcem ent job in the country: U.S. attorney general.

“I think he would make a spectacular attorney general,” said former Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Comey, now general counsel at Bethesda, Maryland-bas ed Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense contractor. “He certainly is one of the very best federal prosecutors in America.”

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Tags: Constitutional Crisis, Contempt of Congress, Dustys Posts, Federal Government, Judiciary

Thank you, Li’l Bush! This just might be the impetus the country needs!

Image Courtesy of The Worried Shrimp

Whoa Nelly! Today’s news (WaPo) is absolutely astounding.

Bush, never famous for his logical precision (he instead thinks with his anti-intellectual &~ as it turns out ~ dyspeptic gut) & has, just maybe, pushed his “privileges” so far that even the most deluded, distracted, & similarly anti-intellectual Americans can’t fail to miss it. Proving what the rest of us have long suspected ~ that, even more so than Nixon, the man is his own worst enemy. With the minor distinction that Nixon’s delusional arrogance was epic, therefore tragic in the Greek sense, in scale, not least because he was aware of it, while George’s is merely buffoonish, because ~ all indications are ~ George is not aware of it in the least.

Somewhat like off-the mark comparisons of Anna Nicole Smith to Marilyn Monroe ~ the former was just a listless imitation of the latter. But I digress.

Your Demon has long thought that Bush’s & the Neocons’ genius, if history will at all be kind enough to remember them in those terms, may well be that they & he, as their willing posterboy & spokescowboy, pushed American constitutional government to its breaking point & thereby inadvertently forced all of the rest of us to rethink the entire project, & I don’t mean law & legal things (boring, & just the tools), but where America’s soul is located in terms of what it means to be America, & how we will treat our own population as well as our position in the world.

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Tags: Constitutional Crisis, Daily Featured, Executive Privilege

The ruling Party, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party maintained control but lost 10 seats in the Parliament. Erdogan is a heavy-duty Muslim. At a rally today he said, per AP:

“We will never make concessions over the values of people, the basic principles of our republic. This is our promise. We will embrace Turkey as a whole without discriminating,” he said at a rally in the capital Ankara.”–Erdogan, a devout Muslim, told supporters in his victory speech that he would preserve pluralistic democracy and work for national unity.

I haven’t formulated thoughts on how this affects the current situation in the Middle East. But I know it will affect it somehow, it’s inevitable. Turkey is a different type of Muslim Democratic structure.

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Tags: Dustys Posts, International Politics

Nothing in the MSM about this, but Wired has it:

The Justice Department’s Inspector General and the FBI are investigating an office that sent fake, emergency letters to telecoms requesting phone records, according to the Inspector General’s office. That office lacked the authority to request the records and did not apply for the subpoenas promised in the letters.

That information largely confirms a a Wired News story from last week, which revealed that top FBI officials told privacy groups that a criminal investigation of the office was underway and that individuals had been granted immunity.

If the investigation looks into possible criminal violations of fraud statutes or a violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, it would mark the first known investigation of government employees for violations of the Patriot Act.

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Tags: Dustys Posts, Federal Government, Wiretapping Americans

No… I’m not talking about some MMRPG, or “Second Life”, I’m talking about in there. You know… in YOUR head. And while we’re at it, let’s talk about your partner’s psycho sexual health, too.

While I was considering the topic for this week’s Venusday Love post, I came across this: Erotic Fantasy Quiz
Where, after answering all of the questions, I got this result:

You’re an ideal match for al fresco loving!
Al fresco

A free spirit like you should not be surprised to be matched to an outdoor venue for the call of the wild. We get the feeling that you’re more tuned into green issues than you may realise, so why not take the hippy hobby of tree hugging a step further by hugging under a tree? Or even in the middle of a field? Ah, we can just imagine the sensations, a sun kissed breeze caressing the areas that are normally confined and covered up. The melodious warbles of the birds in the trees enhancing the bass line beat of your heavy breathing. Not to mention the thorns that stick into your bum, the ants that run up your leg, or the passing pigeon that drops a message of good luck on you. Doing the wild thing outdoors is a bed of roses, beautiful, but with the potential for personal injury and embarrassment. However, we know that you’re not one to be put off by a challenge, so we’re sure that between the two of you, you’ll manage to rise to the occasion.

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Tags: Daily Featured, relationships

We’re sure it wouldn’t be because Iraq has the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world

Hmm, how long have we been in Iraq, again? And why are we there?

It’s taken some time to get an of inkling what could be the real reasons (besides Israel), which, even now, are being kept under wraps, but with this week’s reports by the WaPo on Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force, & the almost-under-the-radar story of Iraqi oil workers protesting the new Iraq oil law (which is one of the benchmarks Bushco says that government must meet before the U.S. will entertain any notions of withdrawing), we start to get a fuller picture, but nobody is really talking about it, & the MSM, for the most part, has let the story slide.

According to the WaPo, in 2001 Cheney started convening the task force, relying heavily on fellow oil men:

“In all, about 300 groups and individuals met with staff members of the energy task force, including a handful who saw Cheney himself, according to the list, which was compiled in the summer of 2001. For six years, those names have been a closely guarded secret, thanks to a fierce legal battle waged by the White House. Some names have leaked out over the years, but most have remained hidden because of a 2004 Supreme Court ruling that agreed that the administration’s internal deliberations ought to be shielded from outside scrutiny.

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Tags: Federal Government, Its about the Oil stupid