Monday, July 31, 2006

Wall to Wall Coverage Please?

Will this receive some fifty different above the fold articles in the NYTimes like Abu Grhaib?

The prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay during the war on terror have attacked their military guards hundreds of times, turning broken toilet parts, utensils, radios and even a bloody lizard tail into makeshift weapons.

Pentagon incident reports reviewed by The Associated Press show Military Police guards are routinely head-butted, spat upon and doused by "cocktails" of feces, urine, vomit and sperm collected in meal cups by the prisoners.

They've been repeatedly grabbed, punched or assaulted by prisoners who reach through the small "bean holes" used to deliver food and blankets through cell doors, the reports say. Serious assaults requiring medical attention, however, are rare, the reports indicate.

The detainee "reached under the face mask of an IRF (Initial Reaction Force) team member's helmet and scratched his face, attempting to gouge his eyes," states a May 27, 2005, report on an effort to remove a recalcitrant prisoner from his cell.

"The IRF team member received scratches to his face and eye socket area," the report said.

Will this show up on MichaelMoore.com or Huffington Post? NEVER.

Hagel Appeasement Alert

Look, I support Hagel making this statement. It's good to know where everyone stands!

A leading Republican senator said President Bush should call for an immediate Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire. “The sickening slaughter on both sides must stop,” Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said Monday on the Senate floor.Hagel said the U.S.-Israel link is special, but said that the link should not come at the expense of relationships with the Arab and Muslim worlds. Hagel is a possible contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.

Not anymore he ain't!

Vets in Congress

I just did a count of the vets in the 108th congress (last year I think) because I ran into the "republicans are all chicken hawks" meme again.

Vets in House: 72 Republicans - 49 Democrats (that was higher than I expected; good for them)

Vets in the Senate: 18 Republicans - 17 Democrats - 1 Independent (jumping Jim Jeffords)

Racist Epithets thrown at Condi

No, this isn't the latest DNC ad (but it comes close):



While U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been in the Middle East meeting regional alongside Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, media outlets controlled by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party the past few days have been using racist rhetoric in their reports, referring to the American representative as the "black woman," "raven," "colored dark skinned black lady" and "black spinster."

According to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch, the PA daily Al Hayat detailed Wednesday's Ramallah protests in which Rice was described as a "raven" who "brings only destruction."

Al Hayat featured pictures of ralliers brandishing anti-Rice placards, some reading, "Murderer Rice go to Hell" and "Get out." One placard had Rice drinking the blood of dead babies and stating, "I need more blood."

I know, I know. The Palestinians have been reading Huffington Post and the Democratic Underground again for their talking points.

But I think it's ironic coming from a bunch of "sand niggers" - er, Arabs...

Horror strikes Kent Village

I live in Landover, MD, in a community called Kent Village; it is a quintessential "transition" neighborhood with part slums with huge new community developments. Many people like living here because it is within walking distance of the Orange Line (main DC subway) and the rent is still reasonable. My two bedroom townhouse with fenced in yard is about 1000 a month rent (which is exceptionally cheap in the DC area).

But this weekend, we were reminded that there is still an unsafe element in the area:

Woman Set Afire in Landover

A Prince George's County landscaper doused his girlfriend with gasoline and set her on fire yesterday, police said, in an attack that eerily resembled a crime that horrified the region last fall.

While she was still ablaze, the woman, 39, ran several blocks to her home in Landover, burst through the door and told family members to call 911.

She suffered second- and third-degree burns to her upper body and was in critical but stable condition at a hospital. Police said they expect that she will survive. Anthony Willoughby, 40, was in police custody shortly after the incident, police said. He was charged with first- and second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault and malicious burning and was being held without bond.

Police would not release the woman's name last night because they were still notifying other family members. Relatives and a neighbor interviewed provided conflicting information on her identity.

The woman had a restraining order against Willoughby, according to police, but a family member said the couple had made up. Late Friday night after work, she went to visit him at his home in the 2100 block of Ohio Avenue, police said. They got into an argument that was loud enough for neighbors to hear, police said. It is unclear what they argued about.

Judging from the address and map WaPo provided yesterday, she had to have run past our courtyard. The worst part about this incident is that it's the second time in a year this has happened. Here's a CNN transcript about the attack on Yvette Cade last year:


LIN (voice-over): It was exactly what Yvette Cade feared. Her family says her husband, Roger Hardgrave, had physically abused her and continued to harass her.

She got this court order barring him from contacting her. He took her to court to challenge it. And Cade's family says the actions of the judge who heard the case were unconscionable.

In this audio from the proceeding, Cade speaks to Judge Richard Palumbo.

YVETTE CADE, WIFE: He's still contacting me. Um. He's intimidating my daughter. And um, he's vandalizing other people's properties. I want an immediate and absolute divorce.

JUDGE PALUMBO: Well, I'd like to be six-foot-five, but that's not what we do here. You have to go to divorce court for that.

LIN: Palumbo said he would reject Hardgrave's request to lift the restraining order. But he granted it. Nearly a month later, Hardgrave found his ex-wife working at a T-Mobile store. He doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. Now he's charged with attempted murder.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Gibson Arrested for DUI and Bashes Jews - Soon to blog for Huffington Post

Wow. The bloggers at Huff Puff must have had multiple orgasms with Gibson's "truth to power" tirade:

Mel Gibson "blurted out a barrage of anti-Semitic remarks" -- "fucking Jews" and "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" and asking the arresting deputy "Are you a Jew?" -- during his DUI arrest early Friday morning.

He forgot to mention the "neo-cons" and Republicans, but he's drunk so he couldn't get all the words out. Anti-semitism is typical of Bush Haters. Gibson is no exception. He stated that his upcoming Apacalypto was a statement against the Bush administration's fear-mongering.

Cynthia McKinney will be convening a press conference to praise Gibson's political strength.

I'll let you know when his first post is up on Huff Puff.

Eminent Domain Use Run Amok

When the authors of the U.S. Constitution gave the government the ability to acquire land through the use of eminent domain, it probably never occurred to them that eminent domain would be used to promote sports.

Yet, that is exactly what is happening in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the home of Oklahoma State University. 

Recently, the Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents gave the university permission to use eminent domain to acquire a piece of property that the university wants to use as part of a large sports complex called an athletic village.

According to an AP story (Link), the athletic village is to feature "a new baseball stadium, upgraded facilities for track, tennis and soccer and an indoor practice facility for football, baseball and other sports."

As it turns out, promoting athletics over academics isn't new to the university. 

Back when I was a student there, the university's library was rated as being one of the worst university libraries in the nation. 

So, what was at the top of the university's priority list? 

Was it improving the university's library? 

No.

What had priority over library improvement was the installation of lights at the university's football stadium so that the university's football team could play games at night.

I am so glad that I left that university before graduating.

---

Meanwhile, the mayor of Jenks, Oklahoma still believes that his city can use eminent domain to seize land owned by the city of Tulsa that is within the Tulsa city limit.

The mayor wants that land for a proposed toll bridge that is to be used to connect Jenks with Tulsa.

The problem with the proposed toll bridge is that the people who want the bridge also want the bridge to connect to a particular residential street owned by the city of Tulsa.

Well, the Tulsans living on that particular street are opposed to their street being used by Jenks motorists, because the street cannot handle the proposed additional traffic. 

Members of Tulsa's City Council are also opposed to the use that particular street for the same reason.

It would be better for Tulsa for the proposed bridge to connect to another Tulsa street that is capable of handling more traffic.

Does the mayor of Jenks care?

No.

It would cost more money to connect to the more-suitable Tulsa street.

So, Jenks' mayor would rather do the less-expensive thing than do the right thing.

What a typical politician!

Of course, he would fit in well with members of Congress.

---

Cross-posted at Dodo World.

Carnival of Leftist Corruption - International Edition

The Democrats LOVE leftist, anti-semitic, Bush-hater and dictator Hugo Chavez.

There's Jesse Jackson: Democrat, leftist.



Here's Democrat, leftist, media hero, Cindy Sheehan (get along home).



Then there's our dodged bullet, John Kerry and William Delehunt (who brokered a deal with him for welfare oil for MA's poor).



Don't forget Harry "Bush is the world's biggest terrorist" Belafonte, leftist Democrat.



Newsweek, to its credit, has a piece on the growing corruption in the Chavez government and (luckily for the US) the growing public dissatisfaction with his government:

The Velázquez affair is just one symptom of the cancer eating away at Chávez's so-called Bolivarian Revolution. The Venezuelan leader, who turns 52 later this month, swept to power in the 1998 presidential election on an anti-graft platform. But in the intervening years, the soaring price of oil has flooded government coffers with petrodollars and fanned the same endemic corruption that thoroughly discredited Venezuela's two major political parties in the 1990s. As part of his commitment to end poverty within 20 years, Chávez has lavished government largesse on a plethora of welfare programs mostly devoid of parliamentary oversight or any other supervision. Not surprisingly, vast sums of money have stuck to the wrong hands, and most polls show that corruption now ranks among the top three concerns of ordinary citizens. "Only 18 percent of voters think the government is resolving the issue," notes Caracas pollster Alfredo Keller.

The problem has captured Chávez's attention. Mindful of the parallels that critics can draw to the kleptocracy that preceded his ascent, Chávez has OK'd a few high-profile investigations led by a congressional audit commission. He personally has not set the most inspiring of examples; several family members occupy choice government posts. But the corruption issue has nonetheless become a source of mounting frustration for him, judging from a recent presidential outburst. "I swear that in cases like these," fumed Chávez in January, "if I could have people shot I would." Pro-government legislators share the concern. "If the government doesn't put a stop to corruption," warns congressional audit-commission vice president Eustoquio Contreras, "corruption will put a stop to the government."

Trust me, he is going to start shooting people. He is trying to change the constitution so he can be president for life. If that fails or if he is voted out of office - the guise of being for the "little people" will wash away. That won't stop the left in this country from loving him. They will just claim the neocons in Venezuela tried to steal the election.

Silly Week at Dodo World

In order to provide the blogosphere with comic relief from all of the serious stuff, Dodo World will be featuring a week of silliness.

Each day from July 30th to August 5th, Dodo World will feature a silly photo gleaned from the Internet.


Here are the titles for the upcoming silliness:

Sunday: Cat-holicism
Monday: The gender of a computer mouse is . . .
Tuesday: Why Men Can't Use The Women's Room
Wednesday: Flipper Meets Elsie
Thursday: While Rednecks Sleep
Friday: Microsoft Word for Women
Saturday: Beer Troubleshooting

Of course, Dodo World will still be offering free Krabby Patties to all visitors.


[Sorry, Plankton. The Krabby Patty offer is for humans only.]

If you have a silly photo or image to share with the blogosphere (a clean one, that is), then feel free to submit it to the Dodo.

Posted by Dodo David on 07/29 at 05:42 PM in Blogging
(0) Trackbacks • Permalink • Email • Print