Celebrity sightings include…Frank Gaffney and James Guckert, heads together in a serious conversation…
my comment? MWAHAHAHA
the fuckfest with their favorite crisco critter later was pretty good that night i'm sure.
A biology class lesson in Gunnison, Utah involving the dissection of a live dog has outraged some parents and students, according to a report.think that's bad... wait, there's more:
The school's principal, Kirk Anderson, said notifications went to parents explaining the dog was going to be euthanized and that the experiment would be done with the dog's organs still functioning.the APThe teacher is standing by his decision and calls it the ultimate educational experience.
Principal Anderson said he supports the lesson and it will be allowed to continue because the students are learning.
ROME - Italian troops were sent to Iraq to secure oil deals worth 300 billion dollars, and not just for post-war humanitarian purposes, an Italian television report by RAI claimed on Friday.
The 20-minute report, broadcast by RAI News 24, the all-news channel of the Italian state-owned network, is based on interviews and official government documents.
In it, the Silvio Berlusconi administration is accused of picking the Nasiriyah area to safeguard a 1997 deal signed by Italy’s largest energy producer, ENI, and former dictator Saddam Hussein.
A government report compiled months before the war broke out recommends that Italy, in case of conflict, should secure the region of Nasiriyah and the nearby area of Halfaya, south of Baghdad, so as to secure “a deal worth 300 billion dollars”.
Both areas are known for its vast oil fields.
Even as the White House presses China to find a solution to the nuclear issue, Chinese officials say, it has hurled insults at North Korea and given its leaders excuses to stay away from the bargaining table.
"It is true that we do not yet have tangible achievements" in ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Mr. Yang said in an interview. "But a basic reason for the unsuccessful effort lies in the lack of cooperation from the U.S. side."
Mr. Yang said that when President Bush referred to the North Korea leader, Kim Jong Il, as a "tyrant" in late April, Mr. Bush "destroyed the atmosphere" for negotiations, undoing weeks of efforts to persuade North Korea that the United States would bargain in good faith.
A judge's decision to throw out Nebraska's ban on gay marriage was barely an hour old before the cry went up for a national prohibition on same-sex marriage.The decision Thursday to overturn Nebraska's same-sex marriage ban - adopted overwhelmingly by voters in 2000 - was a first in the nation by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon of Omaha said the ban went far beyond gay marriage and deprived gays and lesbians of basic rights, including the right to participate in the political process.
He also said the ban known as Initiative 416 was motivated, in part, by an "irrational fear" of and "animus" toward homosexuals.
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning promised to appeal the ruling, noting that 70 percent of Nebraska voters favored of the ban.
"This is a battle that will be won or lost on appeal, not at the district court level," Bruning said.
A national group that opposes gay marriage said the Nebraska case was a perfect example of why a national ban is needed.
"The democratic voice of the people of Nebraska was muted today by a federal judge," said Matt Daniels, President of the Alliance for Marriage.
ATTRIBUTION
Late last October Dr. W. David Hager, a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist and Bush Administration appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), took to the pulpit as the featured speaker at a morning service. He stood in the campus chapel at Asbury College, a small evangelical Christian school nestled among picturesque horse farms in the small town of Wilmore in Kentucky's bluegrass region. Hager is an Asburian nabob; his elderly father is a past president of the college, and Hager himself currently sits on his alma mater's board of trustees. Even the school's administrative building, Hager Hall, bears the family name....Back at Asbury, Hager cast himself as a victim of religious persecution in his sermon. "You see...there is a war going on in this country," he said gravely. "And I'm not speaking about the war in Iraq. It's a war being waged against Christians, particularly evangelical Christians. It wasn't my scientific record that came under scrutiny [at the FDA]. It was my faith.... By making myself available, God has used me to stand in the breach.... Just as he has used me, he can use you."
Up on the dais, several men seated behind Hager nodded solemnly in agreement. But out in the audience, Linda Carruth Davis--co-author with Hager of Stress and the Woman's Body, and, more saliently, his former wife of thirty-two years--was enraged. "It was the most disgusting thing I've ever heard," she recalled months later, through clenched teeth.
According to Davis, Hager's public moralizing on sexual matters clashed with his deplorable treatment of her during their marriage. Davis alleges that between 1995 and their divorce in 2002, Hager repeatedly sodomized her without her consent. Several sources on and off the record confirmed that she had told them it was the sexual and emotional abuse within their marriage that eventually forced her out. "I probably wouldn't have objected so much, or felt it was so abusive if he had just wanted normal [vaginal] sex all the time," she explained to me. "But it was the painful, invasive, totally nonconsensual nature of the [anal] sex that was so horrible."
HAVANA - As world leaders celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany in Moscow’s Red Square on Monday, Communist Cuba held its own parade and accused the United States of using "fascist" policies to dominate the world.
The president of Cuba’s National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, denounced the world’s only superpower for employing military force unilaterally in an apparent reference to the US invasion of Iraq.
"They practice a fascist military doctrine and proclaim their right to attack anyone when they please, using their powerful military machine, without any justification," he said in a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Germany’s Third Reich.
"The Fourth Reich will be defeated. The 21st century will see the final defeat of fascism," Alarcon said, using the occasion to lay into the United States, Cuba’s longtime foe.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Eighty-nine Democratic members of the U.S. Congress last week sent President George W. Bush a letter asking for explanation of a secret British memo that said "intelligence and facts were being fixed" to support the Iraq war in mid-2002.
The timing of the memo was well before the president brought the issue to Congress for approval.
The Times of London newspaper published the memo -- actually minutes of a high-level meeting on Iraq held July 23, 2002 -- on May 1.
British officials did not dispute the document's authenticity, and Michael Boyce, then Britain's Chief of Defense Staff, told the paper that Britain had not then made a decision to follow the United States to war, but it would have been "irresponsible" not to prepare for the possibility.
cnn
Hey, GOP: This is not a theocracy
I'm disgusted by Republican efforts to dismantle the Constitution by bullying their way through the judicial branch of our government. So long as the courts protect the freedoms of all Americans and maintain the separation of church and state, the right-wing evangelical movement is unable to ram a theocracy down our throats. That's why they want to choose what is constitutional and what isn't.
Why else would Republicans start an ad campaign to push Bush's judicial nominees through when Republicans blocked more than 60 Clinton nominees with the same tactics?They need all the judges they can get to twist the Constitution into the New Testament, which answers to no man. Great, if that's your religion. If it's your government, it's called tyranny.
- Todd Brown, Cleghorn
For millions of American workers, the third leg looks awfully shaky these days. That was underscored Tuesday, when a bankruptcy court allowed United Airlines to renege on its pension promises to 120,000 present and retired employees. It's the biggest pension default in history, and there is concern it will start a cascade of similar defaults in the airline industry and beyond.The turmoil in private pensions should clinch the congressional debate over privatizing Social Security: Don't do it. Don't mess with the one leg of retirement security that is still a sure thing. Don't make Social Security as uncertain as private pensions are.
Among his offenses, Tom Delay:
Newish NYT op-ed columnist John Tierney bemoans the overwhelming coverage of suicide bombings in Iraq and elsewhere:
If a man-bites-dog story is news and dog-bites-man isn't, why are journalists still so interested in man-blows-up-self stories? I'm not advocating official censorship, but there's no reason the news media can't reconsider their own fondness for covering suicide bombings. A little restraint would give the public a more realistic view of the world's dangers.
There were three car bombs in Baghdad yesterday, killing at least six people. The NYT gives the attacks the most attention. That is, it mentions all three—devoting a single sentence to them.
i rest my case.
Overnight, the Army's 814th Multi-Role Bridge Company crawled along back roads toward the Euphrates, where the troops were to construct a pontoon bridge that would allow the Marines to cross. The trucks were forced to use their headlights to allow them to spot land mines along the route.
But the routine safety practice apparently alerted area residents to the convoy's presence. An entire town along the route switched off its lights all at once, a move Marines believe is used to send signals from one river town to the next.
Although politicians in Baghdad aim to coax Sunnis into the political fold, here in Iraq's "wild, wild West," as the region is known, the military option is still paramount. The assault on Ramana is clearly a case in which U.S. forces are going it alone.
Iraqi forces, though growing in capability, are still not ready to mount offensives like the complex operation being launched here. U.S. forces often must transfer troops from one trouble spot to another, movements that insurgents monitor closely. Insurgents often leave areas as U.S. forces move in and filter back once troops withdraw.
The vastness of the region here means U.S. forces cannot maintain a presence in every village, town and city where the insurgents operate.
Residents who might sympathize with the new Iraqi government often choose not to turn in insurgents because they know the U.S. presence in these villages is temporary.
With their reporters presumably stuck in Baghdad, the other papers basically channel military spokesmen accounts. Skepticism does not abound, nor does careful sourcing. "MARINES KILL 100 FIGHTERS IN SANCTUARY NEAR SYRIA," announces the Post. That figure has issues. As you might notice, most of the papers' stories actually cite "as many as" 100 insurgents killed. (Kind of like TP is "as much as" 6ft. tall). Then turn to the LAT, which quotes the commander in the field puzzling over the hundred figure and saying "a couple of dozen" insurgents were probably killed.
THANKS TP!
A. Contractor and Artist have entered into an Actor Loanout Agreement dated as of Jun 6, 2001 (the "Agreement") pursuant to which, inter alia, Artist is rendering acting services in connection with the production of that certain feature length motion picture tentatively entitled "Terminator 3" (the "Picture").
B. A portion of the services of Artist to be provided under the Agreement may be rendered outside the United States.
C. As a material inducement to Artist to enter into the Agreement, and in partial consideration of the performance of services thereunder, Contractor has agreed to reimburse Artist on a fully "grossed up" basis for the payment of any taxes (including, without limitation, income tax, social security tax, payroll taxes and other social charges, the value added tax and any penalties and interest on any of such taxes) to any foreign country or subdivision thereof imposed on Artist by reason of Artist's rendering of services to Contractor in any foreign country under the Agreement (the "Subject Taxes"), all on the terms and subject to the provisions more particularly set forth hereinbelow.
D. The parties' intention in entering into this Tax Reimbursement Agreement is to put Artist in the same economic after-tax position as Artist would have been in had all of Actor's services under the Agreement been performed solely in California through a U.S. "loanout" corporation, and this Tax Reimbursement Agreement shall be interpreted consistent with that intention.
E. The parties' current expectation is that, based on current law and facts, Contractor will not be obligated to make any payments under this Tax Reimbursement Agreement (but such expectation shall have no bearing on the parties= respective rights and obligations under this Tax Reimbursement Agreement).
NOW, THEREFORE, on the basis of the foregoing facts, and in reliance thereon, the parties hereto hereby covenant and agree as follows:
1. Obligation to Reimburse.
(a) Subject to the conditions contained herein, Contractor hereby covenants and agrees to reimburse Artist for an amount (the "Reimbursement Amount") for any calendar year equal to the sum of (i) the amount determined by dividing the difference between the amount determined in Paragraph 1(a)(i) and the amount determined in Paragraph 1(a)(ii), by the number determined in Paragraph 1(a)(iii), plus the amount determined in Paragraph 1(a)(iv):
(i) the sum of the Subject Taxes and the aggregate amount of taxes Artist is required to pay to the United States and any state, city or subdivision thereof, for such year (after taking full advantage of all credits, deductions, offsets and exemptions to which Artist would have been legally entitled under the laws of any of the same); less
(ii) the aggregate amount of taxes which Artist would have been required to pay to the United States and any state, city or subdivision thereof for such year (after taking full advantage of all credits, deductions, offsets and exemptions to which Artist would have been legally entitled) if all of the services by Actor with respect to the Agreement had been performed wholly in California through a domestic "loanout" corporation; divided by
(iii) the excess of one (1) over the actual combined state, city and federal marginal income tax rate of Actor (including the effects of any surtax, plus 1.45% to reflect the hospital insurance portion of FICA) (after taking full advantage of all credits, deductions, offsets and exemptions to which Actor would have been legally entitled) for the year in which the Reimbursement Amount is paid to Artist; plus
(iv) the amount of any professional fees and costs incurred by Artist to obtain foreign tax advice in connection with the Picture, if any.
(b) In computing the Reimbursement Amount, all allowable exemptions, credits, deductions and offsets against the Subject Taxes shall be taken into account and, except as provided to the contrary in Paragraph 4(b), below, Artist shall be deemed to be resident of the United States and the State of California irrespective of Artist's actual residence. The Reimbursement Amount shall not include any amounts solely and directly resulting from actions or omissions on the part of Artist (except to the extent such actions or omissions are undertaken (or not undertaken, as the case may be) consistent with the Tax Reimbursement Agreement, with the Agreement or with the prior written approval of Contractor).
Eleven Iowans were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first four months of 2005, a higher toll than the figure for the entire year in either 2003 or 2004, military records show.
Overall, 29 Iowans have died in the two countries since March 2003, and an estimated 128 Iowa service members have been wounded. The death toll includes nine soldiers from the Iowa Army National Guard, which is the seventh-highest loss among state National Guards in the country, according to the Department of Defense.
des moines register
A Des Moines man reports being sexually abused by a local Catholic priest who is still in a parish ("D.M. Man's Lawsuit Alleges Abuse by Priest," April 28).
In response, the diocese coldly promises to "vigorously defend any claim" the church doesn't find credible. When will church officials finally start responding to victims with compassion instead of combativeness?
-Barbara Dorris,
outreach coordinator, SNAP,
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,
St. Louis, MO.
and
I don't believe there have been any terror alerts since the November election. You don't suppose the alerts prior to the election had anything to do with politics, do you?
-David Leonard,
Adel.
WASHINGTON - Gay men's brains respond differently from those of heterosexual males when exposed to a sexual stimulus, researchers have found. The homosexual men's brains responded more like those of women when the men sniffed a chemical from the male hormone testosterone.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States sought to coax North Korea back to the negotiating table on Monday by saying it viewed the communist nation as sovereign and would hold direct talks as part of six-party nuclear discussions.
... The LAT notices that President Bush had a "youth round-table" in Holland yesterday, during which, in an apparent failure of advance work, the president was actually asked questions. "You made many laws after 9/11," said the first student. "I'm wondering, will there be a time when you drop those laws and when you decrease the measures?" The next second student said the U.S. has been involved in "a lot of wars," and wondered how Americans cope. That was the last query heard by reporters, who were subsequently "ushered from the room." The chat continued, but was not "included in the White House transcript."
Slate
In order to build readers' confidence, an internal committee at The New York Times has recommended taking a variety of steps, including having senior editors write more regularly about the workings of the paper, tracking errors in a systematic way and responding more assertively to the paper's critics.
nytimes
Two months ago, the NYT and LAT led with Egypt's announcement that it would have big-time free and fair elections. At the time, the papers all noted that the proof would be in the details. Two months later the details are here: Egypt's rubber-stamp upper-house of Parliament laid out the actual rules, and as it happens they effectively bar independent candidates . Problem is, that's neither clearly nor prominently conveyed in the itty-bitty wire piece in the NYT, or the longer one in the LAT. So far as TP sees, the Post skips it altogether. The details come courtesy of a blog.
courtesy of today's papers
The NYT fronts a bunch of chemical plants in northern New Jersey, particularly a chlorine plant, that mark "what terrorism experts call the most dangerous two miles in America." According to the Times, the EPA estimates that the chlorine plant has the possibility of being a "lethal threat" for a 14-mile radius, home to 12 million people. (Another study, not cited by the NYT, put the number at just a couple million.) The paper says the chlorine plant is so poorly guarded that a "reporter and photographer drove back and forth for five minutes, snapping photos with a camera the size of a large sidearm, then left without being approached." Federal counter-terrorism funding for Jersey has been cut this year from $99 million to $60 million.
In his April 17 letter ("Even Judges Need Discipline"), David Rader describes the relationship of the Judiciary to the Executive and the Legislative as "a little boy and his mother and his father."
This is erroneous, but perhaps the simile is still apt. The U.S. House of Representatives best fits the description of a misbehaving toddler, throwing temper tantrums when it doesn't get its way.
The public, if not a "parental" court, needs to take this squalling brat on a well-deserved trip to the woodshed.
-L. Lenfred Link,
Maxwell.
Every year the U.S. State Department submits a report on terrorism to Congress. This year the department decided not to include figures in the report.
Why would it do this? Because in 2003 there were a record number of major terror attacks. In 2004 there were three times as many major terror attacks as in 2003.
The president wants you to believe we have the terrorists on the run - we are smoking them out of their holes. During his international war on terror, terrorism has tripled.
Naturally the Bush administration does not want the people to know about their horrible failure. Many people warned that if we went to war against Iraq, and no weapons of mass destruction were found, terrorism would increase.
What happened? We are living in a world that is substantially more dangerous than before.
-Dana Barrer,
Mitchellville.
Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS) has been a big topic up here this week in the Legislature. We debated an amendment to the IPERS bill dealing with funding of the retirement system, through worker and employer contributions. Currently IPERS is in a state of concern. For two reasons: a few slim years on investments in the stock market and people are living longer. We must make changes if we want retirees to receive the benefits they have invested in.
IPERS is a state sponsored retirement system of guaranteed benefits for public employees: state, cities, counties, townships, agencies and school districts are all eligible for these benefits. Many funds on the stock market have seen a decline and IPERS is one of them. Currently there is a shortfall in the fund, as there is a shortfall in many personal retirement accounts invested on Wall Street. History shows us returns on investments go up and down, and it is not anyone’s fault that the economy is currently not doing as well as it once did.
Since IPERS beginning members pay 40% and the employer pays 60% of the invested retirement funds. It is a tremendously generous fund the employee and taxpayers contribute into for personal retirement. But with the growing age of retirees, to keep the fund solvent changes need to be made.
A change to the IPERS system is a difficult decision to make, 160,000 public employees in Iowa are affected. Right now the fund is 88.6% funded, but ten years ago the fund was at 98%. To stay solvent, or fully invested, it needs a return on investment of 7.5% which is a high return rate to achieve every year. To get the retirement system 100% the legislature would need to appropriate $243 million to the fund. I am concerned the fund remains solvent because so many Iowans are depending on IPERS as their full retirement plan. But is it right to ask the employer (all Iowa taxpayers) to pay more because our return on investment is not as good as it used to be?
The proposed change in the contributions would go from a percentage break of 40/60, with the 40 percent being funded by the employee to an even split of 50/50 percent with employee and employer investing the same portion. Unfortunately, the amendment failed and there have been no changes to the IPERS system.
If your retirement fund is weakening due to a slide in the stock market, do you come to the government and ask them to make up the difference?
IPERS is the public employee’s retirement fund, not all Iowa residents are able to contribute or draw from this fund. I think that we, all state employees, should be willing to shoulder more of the responsibility of keeping the fund solvent even if it means paying a little more into it. I feel we should have a 50/50 split, employee invests $50 and the employer invests $50.
In this plan there are absolutely no benefit reductions in the proposed bill for current employees. Not a single employee will have to work a day longer because of this bill. No changes are made to retirement dates for current employees. The bill will only protect the integrity of the IPERS fund. However, if no changes are made to contribution rates, the unfunded liability will grow and in time the benefits will be at risk.
Thank you for taking the time this week to learn more about IPERS. This is an extremely important issue that affects many Iowans, so legislators will continue to work with the IPERS people to find an acceptable solution to the IPERS program whose benefits are at risk.
Anytime you are here, please stop by my office and say hello. Visit my website at www.stewiverson.com to check out pictures of our guests, along with press releases and an archive of my weekly column.
Please contact me if you have any comments on this or any other issue. During the legislative session, you can contact me in my Des Moines office at 515-281-3560. As always, you can reach me in Dows on the weekends at 515-852-3350 or contact me via email at stewart.iverson@legis.state.ia.us .
As Republicans push for privatization of Social Security, Stewart Iverson, Republican leader in the Iowa Senate, is concerned about the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS).
In a letter to constituents, Iverson said he wants to increase the employee contribution toward retirement because the stock-market slide has caused the IPERS fund to be underfunded. Iverson makes the point that the stock market could again fully fund IPERS sometime in the future, but his analysis overall says volumes about privatization of Social Security.
Iverson says "a few slim years on investments in the stock market and people are living longer. We must make changes if we want retirees to receive the benefits they have invested in." Obviously the stock market has not been the answer for IPERS, which has always invested carefully. Iverson indicates his confidence in the stock market by suggesting that Iowa employees must contribute more to the fund because private employers do not contribute more to their funds in down years.
Iverson states: "The bill will only protect the integrity of the IPERS fund. However, if no changes are made to contribution rates, the underfunded liability will grow and in time the benefits will be at risk."
Those are partial quotes, and the letter is on his Web site [www.stewiverson.com], but this is not a ringing endorsement of stock-market based retirement funds. While the Republican Party trumpets privatization of Social Security, one of its well-known Iowa members is concerned that stock that the stock t hold up a fund that previously had been well respected and very solvent.
If a well-regarded group-retirement plan like IPERS cannot remain fully funded by its own contributions and employer contributions, how can we expect individual Social Security funds to provide the security that retirees need?
-Harold Tuchel,
Waterloo.
attribution
RIGA, Latvia, May 7 -- President Bush condemned the Soviet subjugation of Eastern Europe after World War II but acknowledged Saturday that the United States bore some blame for the "division of Europe into armed camps" and vowed never again to trade freedom for stability.
As a result, the likelihood of detecting a hidden weapon or bomb has not significantly changed since the government took over airport screening operations in 2002, according to the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security. Transportation security officials acknowledge that they cannot improve performance without new technology, but they dispute suggestions that no progress has been made.
"We have created a much more formidable deterrent," said Mark O. Hatfield Jr., a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration. "Do we have an absolute barrier? No."
Counting machinery and personnel, aviation screening has cost more than $15 billion since 2001, a price that Representative John L. Mica, Republican of Florida, says has hardly been worthwhile.
from nytimes, an article well worth reading, if you're not a bushite.
"Seriously, folks! How much longer will our country allow its elected (by hook and/or crook) officials, prominent religious and/or social issues leaders, and our national media to lie, inveigle, and obfuscate with impunity? "
--Delilah Boyd
attribution
on edit: God i luv her writing style.
on second edit: YOU REALLY MUST READ HER IF FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN FOR THE SHEER TRUTH OF IT.
I am an independent voter, but a voter all the same, becoming incensed at the appalling lack of enforcement concerning improper kickbacks received by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. People are acting as if this is some kind of partisan witch-hunt, but we are talking about two leisure trips valued at $127,000.
How can anyone spend that kind of money on a golf outing without even asking who was footing the bill? Isn't that equal to the better part of a congressman's yearly salary? How could you grab that much candy without having to make some deal with the devil selling the votes of your constituents to benefit one lobbyist's personal interests?
If that kind of handout is common, then we need the U.S. Department of Justice doing the ethics investigations, not members of Congress.
Delay seems to think the questions are personal, but being an elected official, he should answer to all Americans regardless of political belief. That should be the standard for all elected officials.
The esteemed former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon should be a model. He was known for refusing lobbyist perks so in no way could it be misconstrued that he possibly "sold" his vote to anyone.
-William Arndt,
Remsen.
attribution
A multimillion-dollar ad campaign blames Democrats for the fact that "courtrooms sit empty." In fact, there are now half as many judicial vacancies as when Bush took office. And of the 46 federal judgeships that remain vacant, Bush has named only 16 replacements.
The ad also says cases are being delayed in federal courts for "thousands of Americans." Actually, official statistics show cases typically being decided more quickly now than they were in 1999, when it was Republicans opposing Clinton's judicial nominees.
attribution
First, many educated people seem to be getting their news from Comedy Central. Say what? As any author will tell you, the best TV book shows to be on have long been Don Imus, Charlie Rose, C-Span, Tim Russert on CNBC, "Today," Oprah and selected programs on CNN, Fox and MSNBC. They are all still huge. But what was new for me on this tour was the number of people who also mentioned getting their news from Jon Stewart's truly funny news satire, "The Daily Show." And I am not just talking about college kids. I am talking about grandmas. Just how many people are now getting their only TV news from Comedy Central is not clear to me - but it is a lot, lot more than you think.
