American Populist

Romania Anyone?

2008-01-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

US Near Bottom of Global Privacy Index

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press Writer

Because God Forgives

2005-08-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

But he doesn't help you get the rock hard abs needed for seriously repugnant sociopathy...

Serial killer worked out to prepare for slayings
Wed Aug 17, 4:49 PM ET
WICHITA, Kansas (Reuters) - Confessed Kansas serial killer Dennis Rader worked out to build up his strength because he found killing people physically hard, law enforcement agents told his sentencing hearing on Wednesday.

The 60-year-old Rader, who called himself BTK, for "bind, torture and kill," showed little emotion on the first day of the hearing.

But relatives of those he killed sobbed and hung their heads as they listened to how Rader stalked and slowly killed his victims, largely for sexual gratification, in a 17-year murder spree.

The testimony included photos of many of the bodies.

The agents told the courtroom that shortly after his arrest last February Rader confessed to 10 murders, telling them that in one killing Rader used toys to try to distract three small children as he bound and strangled their mother.

In another he pulled a chair next to a bed so he could relax while 9-year-old boy suffocated in the plastic bag Rader wrapped around his head. And in yet another, he took his victim to a church at night where he photographed her in various sexually explicit ways.

Rader had told law enforcement agents that he found killing people was harder work than he had expected so, as he continued killing, he worked out to improve his strength.

His first victims were four members of the Otero family, whom he killed in their Wichita-area home in 1974. Rader said he went after the Oteros because he was attracted to the Hispanic features of 11-year-old Josephine.

He killed her parents and younger brother while Josephine wept and called for her mother. Then he led the girl to the basement, telling her she would soon join her family in heaven, Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Larry Thomas testified.

Rader removed some of the girl's clothes, groped her and hung her from a sewer pipe, masturbating alongside her body as she died, according to Thomas.

Throughout the testimony, the bespectacled, balding Rader was largely expressionless, absently scratching his forehead or resting his chin on his palm.

Victims' relatives were expected to testify during the sentencing hearing, which could last three days, according to Sedgwick County District Court officials.

Rader could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. He will not be executed because Kansas did not reinstate the death penalty until after his crimes, which occurred between 1974 and 1991 and spread a wave of terror through the Wichita area.

Rader was a one-time Boy Scout leader and before his arrest earlier this year was lay president of the congregation at Wichita's Christ Lutheran Church where he was a regular Sunday worshiper.

Brake Pads

2005-07-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't found a shop willing to upgrade my truck brakes to the level they ought to be upgraded I've decided to do it myself.

General instructions as well as parts

Documentary

2005-07-10T03:47:00.000-07:00

I need to film a documentary about the quest to save El Morro Village. I think it should open with compelling footage of families playing, ordinary people living, and then cut to bulldozers, environmental catastrophes, and beauraucratic misconduct. Eventually, I would really like to get interviews with legislators explaining why they wish to gamble 17 million taxpayer dollars on a scheme that only has the potential to double revenues, and also has the potential to put them in the hole by 20 million dolars before 2010.

Sundance, SXSW, Cannes all the way baby!

How Bad Has It Gotten?

2005-06-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

So bad that one time Uncle Tom whipping boy Clarence Thomas is actually one of the only guys I still agree with on the Supreme Court. That is Scary with a capital "S".

Maybe someday I'll think of John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld and the new architect of torture as the "good guys" because they weren't overt fascists.

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.

---
Court: Patients May Not Use Pot Legally By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
39 minutes ago
---
WASHINGTON - People who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, overriding medical marijuana statutes in 10 states.

The court's 6-3 decision was filled with sympathy for two seriously ill California women who brought the case, but the majority agreed that federal agents may arrest even sick people who use the drug as well as the people who grow pot for them.

Justice John Paul Stevens, an 85-year-old cancer survivor, said the court was not passing judgment on the potential medical benefits of marijuana, and he noted "the troubling facts" in the case. However, he said the Constitution allows federal regulation of homegrown marijuana as interstate commerce.

The Bush administration has taken a hard stand against state medical marijuana laws, but it was unclear how it would respond to the new prosecutorial power. Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki would not say whether prosecutors would pursue cases against individual users.

In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the court's "overreaching stifles an express choice by some states, concerned for the lives and liberties of their people, to regulate medical marijuana differently."

The women who brought the case expressed defiance.

"I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. I don't really have a choice but to, because if I stop using cannabis, I would die," said Angel Raich of Oakland, Calif., who suffers from ailments including scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain. She says she smokes marijuana every few hours.

Diane Monson, an accountant who lives near Oroville, Calif., has degenerative spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants. "I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested," she said.

The ruling does not strike down California's law, or similar ones in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. However, it may hurt efforts to pass laws in other states because the federal government's prosecution authority trumps states' wishes.

John Walters, director of national drug control policy, defended the government's ban. "Science and research have not determined that smoking marijuana is safe or effective," he said.

California's law, passed by voters in 1996, allows people to grow, smoke or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation. Monson and Raich contend that traditional medicines do not provide the relief that marijuana does.

California has been the battleground state for medical marijuana. In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled in a California case that the federal government could prosecute distributors despite their claim that the activity was protected by medical necessity.

Two years later the justices rejected a Bush administration appeal that sought power to punish doctors for recommending the drug to sick patients. That case, too, was from California.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Monday that "people shouldn't panic ... there aren't going to be many changes."

Local and state officers handle nearly all marijuana prosecutions and must still follow any state laws that protect patients.

"I think it would look bad if the federal government focused its prosecution authority on a sick person," said Daniel Abrahamson, with the Drug Policy Alliance. "Individual patients growing for their own purposes have not been the targets of the federal authorities. We hope that it stays that way."

The government has arrested more than 60 people in medical marijuana raids since September 2001, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Congress could be the next stop for the debate.

While there are other legal options for patients, Stevens wrote, "perhaps even more important than these legal avenues is the democratic process, in which the voices of voters allied with these (California women) may one day be heard in the halls of Congress."

Still, even supporters say it is unlikely Congress would pass a law allowing physicians to prescribe marijuana.

O'Connor was joined in her dissent by two other states' rights advocates: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas. While conservatives may not necessarily support medical marijuana, they have pushed to broaden states' rights in recent years.

O'Connor, who like Rehnquist has had cancer, said she would have opposed California's medical marijuana law if she were a voter or a legislator. But she said the court was overreaching to endorse "making it a federal crime to grow small amounts of marijuana in one's own home for one's own medicinal use."

Thomas said the ruling was so broad "the federal government may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives and potluck suppers throughout the 50 states."

The case was hatched when Monson's backyard crop of six marijuana plants was seized by federal agents in 2002. She and Raich sued then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking for a court order letting them smoke, grow or obtain marijuana without fear of arrest, home raids or other intrusion by federal authorities.

They claimed protection under the Constitution, which says Congress may pass laws regulating a state's economic activity so long as it involves "interstate commerce" that crosses state borders.

The case is Gonzales v. Raich, 03-1454.

Coincidences

2005-05-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

I keep reading about people being killed in or near holy cities in Iraq. Then the articles go on to explain how difficult it is to attain peace in such a divided region, and it got me thinking. Isn't it weird how Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus were all from the same neighborhood?

Why aren't there more Greek gods that are still worshipped?

Is it racist that there are no black holy figures that I have heard of, or is it a study in rational thought?

Heil Pontiff!

2005-04-20T00:55:00.000-07:00

Member Hitler's Youth, Anti-Aircraft Personnel Nazi Army, Deserter Nazi Army, Head of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (that's the branch in charge of Inquisitions for those of you keeping score), God's Rotweiler, once denied being "the Grand Inquisitor". . .Is this simply a list of things I hope never to be on my resume?

No, it represents the qualifications to be Pope.

Is there anything to like about this guy?

Well, perhaps he will bring a new age of reason by pointing out the folly of it all. Nah, too logical.

Is it really time to take a step backwards when you are just reconciling mistakes from 350 years ago?

Fun Facts:
The last execution by the Spanish Inquisition was of schoolmaster, Cayetano Ripoll, July 26, 1826. His trial lasted nearly two years. He was accused of being a deist.

de·ism (dē'ĭz'əm, dā'-) n.- The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.

discordianism n. - the veneration of Eris (a.k.a. Discordia) -- the goddess of chaos, discord and confusion.

Galileo Galilei died under house arrest in the fledgling Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Galileo's achievements include: demonstrating that the velocities of falling bodies are not proportional to their weights; showing that the path of a projectile is a parabola; building the first astronomical telescope; coming up with the ideas behind Newton's laws of motion; and confirming the Copernican theory of the solar system. He was denounced for heretical views by the church in Rome, tried by the Inquisition, and forced to renounce his belief that the planets revolved around the sun.

The Vatican officially recognized the validity of Galileo's work in 1993.

Come Again?

2005-04-20T00:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I saw a monster sized SUV with a "Powered by Jesus" bumper sticker and a Disney license plate frame. I wondered whether the driver was aware that Walt's cryogenically preserved corpse has the better shot at resurrection.

Baseball Towns

2005-04-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

I'd always wondered how a town becomes a baseball town, or a football town. For Los Angeles it wasn't a matter of choice. Football left town, hockey closed down, the Lakers imploded like a supernova and the baseball teams happened to get pretty good. It is either become a baseball fan, or do something truly god awful like rooting for SC.

Now I understand.

Death, Death, and Oranges

2005-04-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

That and some nifty culinary tips about oranges were in the news today. I did not realize that zest should only come from the very top skin of the orange. No wonder my zest was always too zesty.

Ding Dong

2005-04-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

The pope is dead. You have to wonder how he feels if a lifetime of chastity really wasn't required to get into heaven. Worse yet, St. Peter is probably an old Jewish guy angry as hell about this Christianity thing taking the direction it has. Poor Pope.

What the Fuck Does It Require?

2005-04-03T01:34:00.000-08:00

Hillary Clinton is talking up the Conservative Agenda:

Destroying the Party to Save It

Senator Hillary Clinton keeps moving to the Right.

Clinton made news a few months ago when she urged pro-choice people to find common ground with anti-choice people in the abortion struggle--even though the anti-choice side has been rejecting the common ground of contraception for decades, and now rejects emergency contraception as well.

Clinton's latest attempt to prove she's a Republican is her call for a system rating sex and violence in video games, TV, and other entertainment for children. Three weeks ago she joined two of the most viciously anti-child, anti-education, and anti-sexuality senators (Brownback, R-KS and Santorum, R-PA) in calling for the government to study the impact of media on childhood development.

Two years ago, we quoted Santorum as saying that the Constitution does not grant a right to privacy (#39). On the eve of the historic Lawrence decision, he said that if the Supreme Court acknowledges a right to gay sex in the home, "then you have the right to bigamy, incest, adultery...man on child, man on dog, or whatever."

Brownback, of course, recently convened Congressional hearings about "porn addiction"--which somehow didn't include any sex therapists, or anyone challenging the concept itself. Just last week he convened hearings on regulating the porn industry without inviting any representatives of the $9 billion industry.

According to The New York Times, Clinton is increasingly referring to faith and prayer in her speeches. Along with other 2008 Democratic presidential contenders such as Joe Biden and John Edwards, she's stressing the importance of national security over education and health care--even though a March Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that 53% of Americans think the Iraq war is not worth fighting, and 57% disagree with President Bush's handling of it.

Clinton apparently believes that it's more important to get elected than to stand for something. She seems to be willing to destroy the Democratic Party in order to save it. We think it's a poor strategy: if voters want a Republican, they'll go get a sincere one, not a fake one.

--End Quote

Fuck all the people who try to cowtow to people that believe in toppling sovereign nations simply because they won't toe the line.

This is America. We are about freedom, not oppression. Fight for your rights!

Madness

2005-03-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

If your team isn't in the Tourney at least you can make some money.

Bet the 12 seeds baby!

Hopefully my man got there to lay the wood on Wisconsin-Milwaukee knocking off the Crimson Tide. It's the Cheese.

Fucking for Chastity

2005-03-16T14:30:00.000-08:00

In the Headlines today:

Paul Wolfowitz is going to head the World Bank, the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge is open for oil drilling, and Scott Peterson's death sentence is still going to get more ink. Someone slip some hashish or LSD into the food at Wal-Mart. Please shake this nation by the shoulders.

I watched a Pentecostal preacher on TV last night talk about how he wanted to be more holy. He could start by withdrawing troops. Fighting for peace is like fucking for chastity.

You Know What I Hate?

2005-03-05T02:28:00.000-08:00

I hate it when I get a good head of steam about something so important to me then forget completely what I hate in the first place. That's what I hate.

I had a perfectly good reason to be mad here, and I just can't remember what it is.

I hate that.

More than anything I fear that Gonzo journalism may fade into the rearview now that S. has seen the bats. Stream of consciousness will never die, but Gonzo was so much more. It epitomized a way of life that is being killed day by day.

George is right about the future, but it is Orwell, not W. who is right. An endless cycle of bloody conflicts against nations our people can't find on a map. Huge wall size TV's with constant entertainment piped into our ears via our personal entertainment gadget seemed plenty fantastic in 1948, but 21 years past 1984 it is the reality. That sure casts that old Mac Super Bowl spot in an interesting light now doesn't it?

Who among you would take a carful of narcotics to Vegas with the intent of looting the looters?

That mark would follow you for the rest of your life because to forgive is Christian, and we're a Christian nation, but we love to persecute. We were founded by people too fucking pious and hypocritical for their own countrymen to stand. Isn't this the logical conclusion?

What's The Point?

2005-02-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

A friend forwarded me a copy of The Washington Post article from February 24, 2005 that details how the Department of Defense is trying to get the Department of State out of the way in inserting personnel into foreign countries. The Pentagon doesn't want to have to ask permission of or notify the ambassador in a country before inserting Special Forces. It makes me wonder why we even have a State Department anymore.

Shouldn't all of our foreign relations be handled by strictly military personnel for at least the next four years?

It seems like it would save a lot of money if we just shut down all our embassies, and the entire State department took a four year vacation. It wouldn't be enough money to not operate at a defecit, but I guess that is asking a bit much.

S.

2005-02-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

The following is from my friend Alok Kumar. It says what I thought much more eloquently than I did.
On the Death of S.

Life is ugly and poorly dressed
Hunter S. is laid to rest
amongst the twilight did he fly
a sparkle of chemicals in his eyes
today marks a solemn turn
the death of freedom and peace burns
today a gift has gone away
an idol lost generation betrayed

why did you put a bullet in your head
why did you vanquish a movement led
by heroes and thinkers who gave us hope
that we too could drink, drop, and dope
who can say why acid freak, vagabond of woody creak
put a pistol to his head and from this world abruptly fled

we will have your books and your life
to think of during times of strife
but somehow I will always know
sometimes your mind you have to blow
for those of you who feel deprived
at least Keith Richards is still alive

Biding Time

2005-02-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

I read the other day about a defense attorney who has been jailed along with her paralegal staff for aiding terrorists. All she did was allow her client to communicate with the outside world. In America that is Free Speech. We were not founded on any other one principle besides Free Speech.

The argument used was that this man speaking would cause lives to be lost. There are countless phrases that have been uttered over the last few years that have met that criteria and as much as I dislike and disagree with those statements I would never condone banning the individuals from saying them. Take for example, "Bring 'em on", "We're gonna smoke 'em outta their holes", "Saddam possesses weapons of mass destruction". All of these have now cost over 1,000 American lives and some uncounted and probably attrocious number of Iraqi lives, but we can't censor W.

Can he censor me?

With an Attorney General who condones torture, more conservative Supreme Court justices on their way, and a culture where "Americans should watch what they say" I suppose that I am just biding time until my ultimate stay in Abu Ghraib. Maybe I'll make Guananamo Bay. It is closer, and the weather should be stellar.

I've always wanted to see Cuba.

Outsourced Torture

2005-02-10T21:19:00.000-08:00

When we abridge the rights of Americans to free speech, the terrorists win.

The following story is appaling in that this attorney was prosecuted, and because she had to sign any agreement to abridge her clients first ammendment rights at all. If Bush wants to get cruel and unusual then extradite prisoners like this to prisons in North Korea, Zimbabwe, or Sudan. Don't trash my country and my laws.

If we can outsource high paying American jobs for less overseas, then we should be able to outsource our torture too. China has a billion people and almost no respect for human life. They would be great at taking over the torture and Constitutional violations that we don't want to sully our reputation by doing in house.

This is going to be a long four years...

N.Y. Lawyer Convicted of Aiding Terrorists
By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York lawyer aided terrorism by helping a client send messages to militant followers, a federal jury found on Thursday in a case critics said stemmed from Bush administration efforts to discourage the defense of accused terrorists.

Lynne Stewart, 65, long a defender of the poor and unpopular, was convicted of helping her imprisoned client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, to contact followers in Egypt with messages that could have ended a cease-fire there and ignited violence.

Abdel-Rahman was found guilty in 1995 of conspiring to attack U.S. targets, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was serving a life term when the crimes charged against Stewart occurred.

Stewart was convicted of all five counts against her, including two terrorism charges that combined carry a maximum 15-year prison term. All five counts combined carry a maximum term of 30 years, but it is unlikely she will be sentenced to such a lengthy term.

The complex trial lasted more than seven months. The Manhattan federal jurors deliberated 13 days.

"I committed no crime. I know what I did was right," Stewart said, adding that she would appeal. She remains free until her sentencing, tentatively set for July 15.

"I was a poster girl for John Ashcroft (news - web sites) and his Patriot Act," she told reporters after the verdict, referring to the former U.S. attorney general.

Prosecutors said Stewart enabled Abdel-Rahman to communicate with the Islamic Group, which they said is a terrorist group that had Abdel-Rahman as its spiritual leader.

Stewart maintains she was just zealously representing her client and her defense team argued she was a victim of a Bush administration effort to discourage lawyers from defending those accused of terrorism.

Stewart began to cry outside the courthouse while speaking after the verdict and was comforted by her husband as supporters chanted, "Hands Off Lynne Stewart."

WAKE-UP CALL

"I hope this case will be a wake-up call to all citizens of this country," Stewart said. "You can't lock up the lawyers. You can't tell lawyers how to do their job."

In addition to the terrorism counts, she was convicted of three charges related to lying to the government by breaking a pledge to prevent her client from communicating with followers.

"I'd like to think I would do it again," she said. "It's the way a lawyer is supposed to behave."

Stewart's co-defendants Ahmed Sattar, a postal worker who acted as a paralegal for Abdel-Rahman, and Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic translator, were also convicted. Sattar, charged with the conspiracy to kill people outside the United States, could be sentenced to life in prison.

The case attracted attention from U.S. lawyers, some of whom believed Stewart was the target of vindictive prosecutors who wanted to punish her for her leftist beliefs and others who said she willingly broke the law.

"It's unbelievable," said Ivan Fisher, a New York defense lawyer. He said she was "absolutely" a target of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies.

Jeff Fogel, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said, "There are some (lawyers) who will be scared and won't take these cases, but there are others who might be even more zealous to demonstrate that we won't be cowed."

Others, such as Northwestern University law professor Steven Lubet, said Stewart broke the law: "This case had nothing to do with zealous advocacy and everything to do with obeying the law."

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the convictions "send a clear, unmistakable message that this department will pursue both those who carry out acts of terrorism and those who assist them with their murderous goals."

During the trial, prosecutors said Stewart signed and then broke a deal with the U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) to prevent Abdel-Rahman from sending messages that could cause violence.

Evidence included a call Stewart made in 2000 to a Reuters correspondent in Egypt in which she read a statement issued by the cleric saying he had withdrawn his support for the Islamic Group's cease-fire in Egypt. The group had observed the cease-fire since a 1997 attack on tourists in Luxor.

The Secret Police

2005-02-02T01:08:00.000-08:00

I've heard rumblings that Rummy now has his own unsupervised branch of special ops. I figure things like this have existed for a long time, but an official acknowledgement would be original. I guess that I would feel better about it at any time in history except maybe the Civil War, or McCarthyism.

For a long time I would have agreed with that both parties represented equally valid viewpoints, even if they differed significantly from my own, What scares me are: violations of the Geneva convention and basic human decency being committed in the name of the US, unprovoked invasions that endanger our citizenry and national financial wellbeing, and telling me that a god I don't believe in will help us win a war against an enemy we haven't effectively attacked in two invasions (note: the terrorists are mobile enough to leave when they hear the planes coming, the citizens get fucked. If you don't believe me, then tell me who would be the first one out of your town in a war, you with the job, family and mortgage, or the kinda crazy guy who hangs out on the streetcorner yelling at strangers about Jesus?).

Personally, I think all the Ammendments are important, but the 2nd needs some tweaking. Everyone should bear arms except religious fanatics. I don't care if you are a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist whether your name is Osama, Sharon, or W. If you believe that you can kill in the name of your god, then you ought to be kept away from firearms and sharp objects.

And please force this administration into more transparency, not less.

In tough times dissidence is patriotism.

Accordion Players

2005-01-28T17:18:00.000-08:00

Is the demand for accordion players really greater than the demand for strippers?

I mean twice as great as the demand for strippers?

At least he wasn't a bassoonist.

Stripper Wins Damages After Tiger Attack
--
Fri Jan 28, 3:13 PM ET
Oddly Enough - Reuters

TORONTO (Reuters) - A stripper mauled by a tiger in an Ontario safari park has won C$800,000 ($650,000) in damages because her scars meant she could no longer work, Canadian media said on Friday.

Jennifer-Anne Cowles was driving through the park nearly nine years ago with her then boyfriend when a tiger jumped into their car and tried to drag them away. The two insisted their windows had been shut when the tiger charged, although the park had challenged that.

The judge accepted the couple's testimony that the power windows had been inadvertently lowered when one of the big cats bumped against the car, frightening them.

In a ruling delivered on Thursday and reported in a number of Canadian newspapers, Justice Jean MacFarland said she could only imagine the "stark terror experienced by these young people during this horrendous event."

She awarded Cowles over C$800,000 in damages, almost half of it to compensate for income she would have made as a stripper.

Her musician boyfriend, David Balac, won C$1.7 million, because his injuries left him unable to work as an accordion player.

African Lion Safari, near Hamilton, Ontario, west of Toronto, said it is reviewing the ruling, but it insisted the park was safe.

"Hundreds of millions of people drive through safari style parks worldwide every decade and there are very few incidents causing injury," it said in a statement. "It is one of the safest activities you can do with your family."

Things Could Always Be Worse

2005-01-25T18:55:00.000-08:00

You could be living in an occupied nation:

http://abutamam.blogspot.com/

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

No water and no food if you don't vote. That sounds like freedom and liberty to me. Scorched earth liberation?

Wow. I wish I could be there.

By the way, the tone of the article on Fallujah and the Resistance's victory through retreat proves to me once again that these people are fucking nuts, and there is no cure. Bring our boys home today.

Do not, repeat do not spend 80 billion more dollars trying to stabilize Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and wherever else W is trying to send money. Please bring my Army home. We'll need them to defend us sooner than later at this rate.

Four More Years

2005-01-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

I watched the election happen, understood that Bush had inexplicably won again, and even come to grips with the fact that roughly half of Americans really did vote for him, but somehow the fact that he is being sworn in instead of impeached at this point still comes as a great shock to me. War crimes, torture, out of control debt and spending, invading sovereign nations, taking money from criminal organizations, no bid contracts to rebuild the nation you destroyed.

Isn't this the kind of record that incites revolution?

I guess that was once upon a time. Who do you know that voted for Bush?

There have to be some people. Can they explain why?

The Holy See

2005-01-17T15:52:00.000-08:00

Now they did it. They have The Holy See looking at them. That is nearly as bad as the Great Eye.

Iraqi Archbishop Seized, Vatican Demands Release
By Maher al-Thanoon and Philip Pullella

MOSUL/VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Iraqi Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped at gunpoint on Monday and the Vatican (news - web sites) demanded his quick release and deplored what it branded an act of terrorism.

Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, was believed to be the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to be abducted in Iraq (news - web sites), where churches have been the target of a bombing campaign that has rattled the tiny Christian minority.

"We have received news of the kidnapping of the ... Archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa," Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told Reuters.

"The Holy See deplores this act of terrorism in the firmest manner and demands that the worthy pastor is swiftly freed unharmed to continue to carry out his ministry."

Casmoussa was kidnapped by gunmen in two cars in the northern al-Majmoua al-Thaqafiya district of Iraq's third largest city soon after 5 p.m. (0900 EST), a local Christian official said.

The archbishop was on his way to visit some families from his congregation when the attack took place, he added, but was not clear whether the motive was political, sectarian or financial, in a country where kidnapping for ransom is common.

Most of Iraq's Christians, who make up some three percent of the 25 million population, belong to the early Assyrian and Chaldean churches.

While Christians had little political power under Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), they were free to worship and did not feel threatened by sectarian violence.

But Iraq's 650,000 or so Christians have been trickling out of their ancient homeland since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 as insurgents step up attacks against both Muslim and Christian holy places in an apparent bid to inflame sectarian tension.

On Aug. 1 five churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul were bombed in coordinated attacks that killed 12 people. Five Baghdad churches were bombed on the Oct. 16 start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Eight were killed in two church bombings on Nov. 8.

Midnight Mass was canceled last Christmas, as several cities were under curfew and Iraq's Christian religious leaders feared renewed attacks.

Last month the Vatican's foreign minister warned that anti-Christian feeling was spreading in Iraq and other Muslim countries because of the war on terrorism.

Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's second-ranking diplomat, said anti-Christian feeling existed where political strategies of Western countries were believed to be driven by Christianity.

Washington justified invading Iraq by saying Saddam had developed weapons of mass destruction and claiming there were links between Baghdad and al Qaeda. No such weapons have been found nor hard evidence of pre-war al Qaeda links.

Pope John Paul (news - web sites) strongly opposed the invasion.

Casmoussa is a member of the Syrian Catholic church.

There are two Syrian Catholic dioceses in Iraq -- one in Baghdad and the other in Mosul.

According to the Vatican yearbook, Casmoussa was born in the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh.

Great Knobs

2005-01-11T18:46:00.000-08:00

I want one of these USB knobs for my computer from Griffin Technology. They look cool and seem like they would make life really simple if you programmed them right.