Apr 23 2008
I recently had the opportunity to see “The Devil Came on Horseback” on the National Geographic channel (where it will be shown again Friday at 6 p.m. EDT).
It is the story of a U.S. Marine Captain named Brian Steidle, who takes an ‘oversight’ position in Darfur, armed only with a camera, to monitor a cease-fire between the Muslim north and the Christian south.
Apr 23 2008
The first round was amazing…i always love the regular-season games, and then always pout, once the playoffs start, that they haven’t been playing this hard all year 😉 im such hockey brat!!
Anywho…here’s our first round results…
Eastern Conference
Montreal (1) over Boston in 7
Pittsburgh (2) swept Ottawa
Rangers (5) over NJ in 5.
Philly (6) over Washington in 7
Western Conference
Detroit (1) bested Nashville in 6
San Jose (2) beats Calgary in 7
Dallas (5) beat Anaheim in 6
Colorado (6) over Minnesota in 6
Apr 23 2008
The Morning News is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Iraq PM chides neighbors for lack of support
By Rania El Gamal and Ulf Laessing, Reuters
Tue Apr 22, 4:18 PM ET
| KUWAIT (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki chided neighboring states on Tuesday for failing to bolster ties with Baghdad and write off Iraq’s debts now that Saddam Hussein is gone and Iraq is not a threat to the region.
Maliki, speaking at a meeting in Kuwait of foreign ministers from the region and Western powers, did not name any countries but his remarks appeared aimed at Sunni Arab states that have only low-level ties with his Shi’ite-led government. He said Iraq was now a vastly different country from that under Saddam, who ruled Iraq with an iron fist for decades until he was ousted in 2003 by U.S.-led forces. |
Apr 23 2008
Is there a Universe Day? If not, why not? Write a five-paragraph essay on the topic.
Art Link Star Dance
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Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…
Apr 23 2008
Common Cause released a press release a few days ago (April 15, 2008) showing how the GOP Leadership in the House, at the instigation of the White House, derailed the “Emergency Assistance for Secure elections Act of 2008” which had been under consideration and being honed for a year.
After a year of consideration, the House today unexpectedly failed to pass in a streamlined process a bill that would have authorized funding for states to replace paperless electronic voting machines in time for the presidential election in November.
…snip…
At stake is the Emergency Assistance for Secure elections Act of 2008. The bill had been placed on the House “suspension” calendar, meaning it needed two-thirds support to pass. Democrats and Republicans last week had reached agreement and passage was expected today {4/15/08}.
Then the White House at the eleventh hour issued a statement urging the House to vote against the bill. And, in an unexpected move, Rep Vern Ehlers (R-MI), the ranking memeber of the House Administration Committee, and Rep Roy Blunt (R-MO), the minority whip, also came out against the bill.
Another Repug coup to insure that they can again steal the next election, the 2008 election. I am afraid because if we don’t take this country back soon, there will be no country to take back. It will be like what any aware Germans were up against in 1939.
I am horrified. Stop this madness. Into the Streets. General Strike. Refuse to go along.
I’m mad as Hell and I not going to take this anymore.
Into the Streets for the General Strike on May Day, and stay there. Do not be complicit.
Apr 23 2008
(Iglesia is a serialized novel, published on Tuesdays and Saturdays at midnight ET, you can read all of the episodes by clicking on the tag.)
But when she said “shit,” something clicked inside her. And when a split second later a crumpet hit Abe square in the side of the head….triggering all of his impossible to ignore, highly trained warrior instincts, (since his instincts just perceived an attack, and not the fact that it was by a harmless breakfast pastry) the spell was broken. His instincts forced him to look at Rogers, who was now hefting a rather large rock.
And triggered by a treasured memory of a similar moment at a poignant time in the courtship with her husband, (stubbing her toe on the bed and saying ‘shit’ on their first night together, which had broken the tension between them then too, not the crumpet thing) she had thought of Paul.
Before they could lock gazes again, Rogers hurriedly spoke. “May I inform you that we did not go to the very considerable trouble of bringing you both here across and beyond the bounds of time and space to form a lonely hearts club, but indeed to fight the Forces Of Evil with the future of humanity in the balance? Now that we have eluded the opposition and have a small period of opportunity to address the necessity of briefing you thoroughly, I certainly hope it would not be asking too much for you two to put aside your quaint carnal instincts for a few moments to actually attend to the business at hand?
Apr 23 2008
Tonight’s Party is brought to you by Unitary Moonbat, who came up with this pun:
where tonight we’ll take a last look – a Parthian shot, if you will – at the recent history of Iran.
https://www.docudharma.com/show…
So, in honor of the Unitary Moonbat a little look back at a lesser known singer.
I first heard of Ella Mae Morse when I was getting into Boogie Woogie Piano and listened to some Freddie Slack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E…
by the way, the EMM entry mentions Nick Tosches. Amazing stuff. Highly recommended The fiction book In the Hand of Dante is kinda pedantic, well no, it’s EXTREMELY pedantic, but amazing nonetheless. My favorite is probably Where Dead Voices Gather
http://www.exitwounds.com/Tosc…
A tribute to Ella Mae
http://www.prescottlink.com/mo…
Cow Cow Boogie was her first big hit, but I don’t care for it, so I’m not going to link to it. It may have been named for Cow Cow Davenport http://www.redhotjazz.com/cowc…
who could really bang the ivories, and his Cow Cow Blues has nothing to do with cows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
His other classic is State Street Jive
Also, ya gotta love this:
Davenport learned to play piano and organ in his father’s church from his mother who was the organist and it looked like he was going to follow in the family footsteps until he was expelled from the Alabama Theological Seminary in 1911 for playing Ragtime at a church function.
Back to Ella Mae
I like this one. Can’t really say why, it’s kinda schlocky too. Oh well.
House of Blue Lights w/jive
You may tip Ella Mae, but do not recommend this Pony Party.
There are many excellent Earth Day Essays, along with other great work on the Front Page, read one or two if you haven’t already, then feel free to come back and boogie.
On a side note, I was given the secret Turing Test code, but ya’know, fuck it, who cares.
Apr 23 2008
In Meteor Blades’s post, Denis Hayes explained why nuclear power is no answer to global warming and climate change. Here’s some more…
The nuclear power industry and its astroturf supporters have been attempting to co-opt the discussion about global warming and climate change, and use it to rationalize nuclear’s continued existence. And the industry has powerful friends in Congress. As the New York Times reported, last summer:
A one-sentence provision buried in the Senate’s recently passed energy bill, inserted without debate at the urging of the nuclear power industry, could make builders of new nuclear plants eligible for tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees….
The biggest champion of the loan guarantees is Senator Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy Committee and one of the nuclear industry’s strongest supporters in Congress….
Power companies have tentative plans to put the 28 new reactors at 19 sites around the country. Industry executives insist that banks and Wall Street will not provide the money needed to build new reactors unless the loans are guaranteed in their entirety by the federal government.
Which is curious. Because if the industry has such promise, you would think it wouldn’t need the government to assume the entirety of its financial risks. The problem, however, is that nuclear power still has the same problems it’s always had, which is why Wall Street won’t back it. And part of the reason it’s not worth backing is that the latest excuse for its existence is a sham. As Reuters explained:
Nuclear power would only curb climate change by expanding worldwide at the rate it grew from 1981 to 1990, its busiest decade, and keep up that rate for half a century, a report said on Thursday.
Specifically, that would require adding on average 14 plants each year for the next 50 years, all the while building an average of 7.4 plants to replace those that will be retired, the report by environmental leaders, industry executives and academics said.
If that sounds like an impossibly enormous amount of plants to build, that’s because it is. But the story gets worse.
Apr 22 2008
I drive home from having been with the Earth Mother for any length of time and feel clarity about our artificial environment. The longer I’ve been with her, the more profound the clarity is. I stare straight in the face of “progress” as phone lines, gas stations, and eventually the hazy horizon over the city appears.
I can’t help the feeling of wrongness I feel, though I can see some progress is useful, schools are for example. Still, I can’t help the feeling of wrongness. This isn’t meant to be a judgment of the wrongness of civilization, but by the time I describe this feeling; it probably will be.
Apr 22 2008
Cross-posted from my blog at Campaign for America’s Future.
In my previous entry I laid out the differences between liberals and progressives, movements and political parties. For those of you who haven’t time to read through it, a brief recap: Liberals believe in socio-economic justice, whereas progressives believe the same thing but also in taking it to the next step-using government as a powerful tool with which to achieve it by making Big Business behave. The Progressive Movement, much like movement conservatism, has a definite set of goals, and the Progressive Party is the political force through which we can reach them.
Apr 22 2008
I knew it would come to this one day, because one side was so stubborn and the other side was feeling rejected. Maybe this rift can be filled one day, but right now, there is only pain and hurt. Makes one wonder how it all came down to this.
That’s right, al-Qaida and Iran have irreconcilable differences, they are tearing their Axis of Evil apart.
http://www.breitbart.com/artic…
The increasing enmity toward Iran is a notable change of rhetoric from al-Zawahri, who in the past rarely mentioned the country-apparently in a hopes he would be able to forge some sort of understanding with Tehran based on their common rivalry with the United States. Iran has long sought to distance itself from al-Qaida.
“Al-Zawahri wanted to work with Iran, but he’s deeply disappointed that Iran has not cooperated with al-Qaida,” said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert and author of “Inside al-Qaida: The Global Network of Terror.”
So now, al-Zawahri “wants to appeal to the anti-Shiite, anti-Iran sentiments in the Arab and Muslim world,” said Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.
Al-Zawahri appeared intent on exploiting widespread worry in the Arab world over Iran’s influence, particularly in Iraq, to garner support for al-Qaida. At the same time, he sought to denigrate Iran’s ally Hezbollah, which has gained some popularity even among Sunnis in the region for its fight against Israel.
But in many of his answers, al-Zawahri went out of his way to criticize Iran. He said the Iraqi insurgent umbrella group led by al- Qaida, called the Islamic State of Iraq, is “the primary force opposing the Crusaders (the United States) and challenging Iranian ambitions” in Iraq.
Great, al-Zawahri plays the race card. Way to turn the Arabs against the Persians, asshole. This Jihad was suppose to be about ideas and policies, but here al-Zawahri goes back to the terrorism of old.
“Iran’s aim here is also clear-to cover up its involvement with America in invading the homes of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he added. Iran cooperated with the United States in the 2001 U.S. assault on Afghanistan that toppled al-Qaida’s allies, the Taliban.
This campaign of dirty tricks has to end, you don’t go into Jihad as a people divided. You don’t see Iran bringing up Osama’s playboy youth or compassionate sane cleric.
Iran has never been in bed with America, while it is well know Osama was. Do you see Iran making obscure internet videos about that?
No. Because they are against tearing this party apart.
The rhetoric is a stark change for al-Zawahri, who in the past did not seek to exploit Shiite-Sunni tensions. When the former head of al- Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was waging a campaign of suicide bombings against Shiites in Iraq, al-Zawahri sent messages telling him to stop, fearing it would hurt al-Qaida’s image.
This just goes to show al-Zawahri will stop at nothing to win this thing. He will flipflop, he will lie and he will ruin other members of the Axis of Evil for his own entitlement.
This was suppose to be a different Jihad, a Jihad about ideas. About policy. A Jihad where fanatical Muslim could walk hand in hand with other fanatical Muslims, regardless of sects, setting off each other’s suicide belts, showing the world what a terrorist party united can do.
al-Zawahri has ruined that hope, which is why he is the real Great Satan.
