-
-
The other half of Michael Phelps Genes revealed
Everyone has seen the mother and sisters of the worlds best Olympic medal winner...but has anyone seen his dad?
-
Booty girl, a pistol and some guy
ass, guns and humor. The new hollywood.
-
Crisis in the Caucasus. What Were They Smoking in the White House?
by Eric Margolis
The Bush administration appears to have pulled off its latest military fiasco in the Caucasus. What was supposed to have been a swift and painless takeover of rebellious South Ossetia by America’s favorite new ally, Georgia, has turned into a disaster that left Georgia battered, Russia enraged, and NATO badly demoralized. Not bad for two days work.
Equally important, Russia’s Vladimir Putin swiftly and decisively checkmated the Bush administration’s clumsy attempt last week to expand US influence into the Caucasus, and made the Americans and their Georgian satraps look like fools.
We are not facing a return to the Cold War – yet. But the current US-Russian crisis over Georgia, a tiny nation of only 4.6 million, and its linkage to a US anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe, is deeply worrying and increasingly dangerous.
On 7 August, Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, ordered his US and Israeli-advised and equipped army to invade the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has been struggling for independence from Georgia since 1992. Most of its people were Russian citizens who wanted union with Russian North Ossetia.
If not directly behind Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia, Washington had to have been at least fully aware of Saakashvili’s plans. The Georgian Army was trained and equipped by US and Israeli military advisors stationed with its troops down to battalion level. CIA and Israel’s Mossad operated important intelligence stations in Tbilisi and coordinated plans with the Saakashvili, whose political opponents have long accused him of being very close to CIA and the Pentagon.
Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia was launched while the world was absorbed by the Beijing Olympics, and Prime Minister Putin was in the Chinese capital. The attack was clearly planned to be a lightening strike that would occupy all of South Ossetia and then Abkhazia before Moscow could react, presenting the Kremlin with a fait accompli.
Who in Bush’s or Cheney’s office approved this stupid adventure? Why did the very smart Israelis get sucked into this imbroglio?
Saakashvili’s stealth "coup de main" quickly turned into a disaster. Russia’s 58th Army responded by routing Georgian forces and delivering a humiliating strategic and psychological blow to the Bush administration. Saakashvili fell right into Moscow’s trap.
Georgia and Russia have been feuding since 1992 over two Georgian ethnic enclaves, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whose people differ in ethnicity and language from Georgians and who wanted to rejoin Russia.
The young, US-educated Saakashvili became Georgia’s president in 2003 after an uprising, believed organized by CIA and financed by US money, overthrew the former leader, Eduard Shevardnadze. I came to know and respect Shevardnadze in Moscow when he was Mikhail Gorbachev’s principal ally and architect of Soviet reform.
Had the able, clever Shevardnadze still been in power, this misadventure would never have happened.
Saakashvili quickly became the golden boy of US rightwing neoconservatives and their Israeli allies, who held him a model of how to turn former Russian-dominated states into "democratic" US allies. Georgian critics claim Saakashvili kept power by intimidation, bribery, and vote rigging. The youthful Georgian leader, his head swelled by promises of US support and NATO membership, launched a war of words against Moscow.
Amazingly, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a supposed Russian expert, even publicly assured Saakashvili that the US would "fight" for Georgia. Washington’s latest fiasco falls squarely into her lap.
* * * * *
Read the whole article at link. by Eric Margolis ... more -
Russian maestro: Georgian attack is Ossetia's 9/11
Russia's most famous conductor, Valery Gergiev, said on Thursday Georgia's assault on South Ossetia was comparable to the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Gergiev, an ethnic Ossetian, drew the parallel after seeing the bombed and burnt out houses of Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital which was shelled by Georgian forces earlier this month.
Feted as one of the world's top conductors, Gergiev -- who grew up in the neighboring Russian region of North Ossetia -- visited the devastated Jewish Quarter of Tskhinvali before conducting a special concert on the town's central square.
"When the U.S. lost three and a half thousand people on September 11th, Russia became the first country to express its support," said Gergiev, referring to the al Qaeda attacks in 2001 which in fact killed nearly 3,000.
"For South Ossetia to lose 1,500 or 2,000 people today is a terrible tragedy but no one knows about it," he said. "To shoot at kids, at children from a tank, it's a shame and the world should know about this shame."
Gergiev looked shocked as he was shown around the ruins of houses reduced to mangled rubble.
Russian forces repelled the invasion and then pushed further into Georgia, provoking an storm of international criticism. Washington said Moscow's actions had evoked Cold War memories of the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe.
But South Ossetia and Russia say Georgian troops went on the rampage during their attack and accuse Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of genocide against the Ossetians, who are ethnically distinct from Georgians.
Currently director of the Mariinsky Theatre in Russia's northern city of St Petersburg, Gergiev was born in Moscow but spent his childhood in North Ossetia.
* * * * *
Whole article at link. Russia's most famous conductor, Valery Gergiev, said on Thursday Georgia's assault on South Ossetia was comparable to the Se... more -
Britney Spears lost 12 lbs in 30 days?? umm...
i've got two words for that....
-
Buchanan Under Fire
ANP: Congressman Vern Buchanan's campaign is under fire as former employees accuse him of corruption.
American News Project: Congressman Vern Buchanan, of the 13th district in Florida, is facing increasing trouble in his reelection campaign. A first-term congressman and a long-time autodealer, Buchanan is being sued by a remarkable number of former employees and customers at the very height of the campaign season. So far, seven separate legal complaints have been filed against Buchanan, accusing him of flouting campaign finance laws, defrauding banks and customers, and even smuggling undocumented immigrants into the country to work on his beachfront house. ANP traveled to Florida to investigate the story. ANP: Congressman Vern Buchanan's campaign is under fire as former employees accuse him of corruption. ... more -
Full spectrum dominance
Pepe Escobar: Welcome to the New Cold War.
Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil is the roving correspondent for Asia Times and an analyst for The Real News Network. He's been a foreign correspondent since 1985, based in London, Milan, Los Angeles, Paris, Singapore, and Bangkok. Since the late 1990s, he has specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central Asia, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has made frequent visits to Iran and is the author of Globalistan and also Red Zone Blues: A Snapshot of Baghdad During the Surge both published by Nimble Books in 2007. Pepe Escobar: Welcome to the New Cold War. ... more -
Headlines for August 21, 2008
Today's Headlines
* Report: 79 Million Have Trouble Paying Medical Bills
* FBI Agents May Get More Power to Probe Anyone
* 40 Die in Bomb Blasts at Pakistani Arms Factory
* Iraq and US Negotiators Complete Draft Security Agreement
* Poll Shows McCain Takes 5-Point Lead Over Obama
* Obama Ad Criticizes McCain Ties to Abramoff Colleague
* McCain on Reinstituting a Military Draft: “I Don’t Disagree”
* Libby Questioned Over Forged CIA Iraq Letter
* Report: NATO Friendly Fire Killed French Troops in Afghanistan
* Court Rules Passengers Can Challenge Inclusion on No-Fly List
* Peruvian Indigenous Groups End Protests After Land Law Thrown Out
* Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, 58, Dies Today's Headlines * Report: 79 Million Have Trouble Paying Medical Bills ... more -
NYC agrees to pay 52 antiwar protesters $2 million
The City of New York has agreed to pay $2 million to a group of fifty-two protesters who were swept up in a mass arrest during a peaceful antiwar protest outside the headquarters of the Carlyle Group in 2003. We speak with the lead plaintiff in the case, Sarah Kunstle The City of New York has agreed to pay $2 million to a group of fifty-two protesters who were swept up in a mass arrest during a peace... more
-
Tensions High as NATO Suspends Formal Contacts with Russia Over Georgia Conflict
Tensions are high between the United States and Russia over the ongoing conflict in Georgia. On Wednesday, soon after NATO foreign ministers decided to cut formal ties with Russia until it withdrew all its troops from Georgia, President Bush vowed to continue to support Georgia. We speak with William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. Tensions are high between the United States and Russia over the ongoing conflict in Georgia. On Wednesday, soon after NATO foreign min... more
-
Texas Death Row Prisoner Faces Execution Tonight for Murder He Didn’t Commit
A thirty-five-year-old man on death row in Texas faces execution tonight for a murder he didn’t commit. Jeff Wood is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6:00 p.m., unless Governor Rick Perry grants him clemency. Wood was an accomplice in a 1996 convenience store robbery. He was sitting in a truck outside when the clerk was shot and killed. The man who pulled the trigger was executed six years ago, but Wood was given a death sentence for the same crime under the Texas law of parties. We go to the prison where Jeff Wood is awaiting death to speak with his wife, mother and father outside. We also speak with Liliana Segura of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty A thirty-five-year-old man on death row in Texas faces execution tonight for a murder he didn’t commit. Jeff Wood is scheduled to die ... more
-
Bush Impeachment: The Cover-up
[Pointblank: Elections 2008]
On July 31, 2008 report by F.A.I.R. shows even the most token coverage of the impeachment hearings as receiving no respect.
“CNN's Election Center program devoted a July 25 report to mocking a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee investigating White House abuses of power. ‘Believe it or not, there was a congressional hearing today about impeaching the president,’ scoffed host Campbell Brown, who added: ‘It was all stagecraft, though.’ Brown went on to introduce the report by CNN correspondent Erica Hill by saying, ‘Tell us about this piece of Kabuki theater, Erica.’’
According to the FAIR report, Brown is married to Dan Senor; a former deputy press secretary for Bush.
The word Kabuki derives from the verb Kabuku; “to lean” or “to be out of the ordinary” as in avant-garde or bizarre theater. Attributing the word to the Kucinich hearings is a shot at his lack of coverage and political support during his own candidacy.
Hill explained: "The Democratic leadership made it clear impeachment is not on the table at this hearing today for two reasons. Not only is there not enough time left in President Bush's term, but also they know any real impeachment hearings at this point could cause a major backlash."
This goes deeper than partisan issues, when any firm bombards their colleges and clients with corruption, there will be those who’ll find ways to defend it. What the Bush Administration has done is inspire or give license to all the difficult personalities within various sectors of government and secular industry from civil rights divisions to law enforcement, to oil, real estate etc., to play fast and loose with the public’s rights, liberties and privileges just by their watching him.
Former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during Richard Nixon’s impeachment proceedings, is the author of HR 23 which is the article to remove Bush for a similar crime as Nixon; wiretapping. I say forget the time issue and why let all that writing go to waste? Democrats.com said a couple years ago that Conyers took impeachment off the table because he was afraid “Fox News” would attack him permanently and at that time he needed 218 votes. I wondered then if he and Nancy Pelosi thought this was going to be easy.
FAIR’s report continued: “The report closed with Hill assuring voters that George W. Bush was not threatened by any of this: ‘As for the president today, clearly, not too worried about this hearing. He was in Peoria, Illinois. As you can see here, kissing babies, smiling, taking pictures.’” Sadly Bush can afford to relax; the efforts to remove him have obviously been sporadic.
Here’s Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of “The Nation” on interviewing speaker Nancy Pelosi. “When I interviewed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about her new book, Know Your Power, I asked her the question all of us have been asking for two years: how could she take impeachment ‘off the table’? Her answer: she wants Democrats to control the House… and in order to stop the wealthiest 1% from ‘sucking the money out of the middle class’ and creating a ‘caste system.’”
According to democrats.com: “Many progressives disagree with Speaker Pelosi because they believe holding this administration accountable for its staggering abuse of power is essential for preserving our Constitution. They also believe the American people would reward those who defend the Constitution.”
Since I take it personally when the Right wing is trying to push George W. as one of the all-time great presidents, this in itself should be enough incentive to oust him. Bush needs impeachment on his permanent record; a record his Daddy can't expunge.
Like I said, the impeachment movement needs players; not acclimated zombies who went from disregarding to being co-opted by indoctrination or over-exposure to corruption.
Black Star News columnist Chris Stevenson can be reached at pointblankdta@yahoo.com [Pointblank: Elections 2008] ... more -
Cross in the sand: John McCain caught lying in church?
John McCain won major points on Saturday for his story about a North Vietnamese prison guard drawing a cross in the dirt, but the tale has bloggers crying foul. Apparently the details of the story have changed over the years, and lately they bear more than a passing resemblance to the memories of the late Russian novelist and gulag survivor Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
McCain has written about his POW experience at length, and yet, this story about the the guard putting the cross in the sand is a recent phenomenon. When did he start telling this story? I wonder if it ever happened. It is starting to sound like it's like Hillary's landing under sniper fire story: a complete fantasy.
McCain's "Cross in the sand" lie
Was I the only one who was disgusted with McCain's little POW story in which he recounted how one of his guards painted a cross in the sand and "for a moment, it was just two christians worshipping"?
It's a nice little treat, which possibly drove quite a few to tears, McCain included (at least he looked like he was teary eyed). But looking at it more realistically, McCain once again used a public forum to distort his POW experience.
To my understanding, the "Cross in the sand" story doesn't didn't happen at the Hanoi Hilton. It is fictional, a copycat from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's book "The Gulag Archipelago". McCain often stated that he admired Solzhenitsyn, so it's a strong possibility that he has read the book.
An eerily similary story from Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags:
"Along with other prisoners, he worked in the fields day after day, in rain and sun, during summer and winter. His life appeared to be nothing more than backbreaking labor and slow starvation. The intense suffering reduced him to a state of despair.
On one particular day, the hopelessness of his situation became too much for him. He saw no reason to continue his struggle, no reason to keep on living. His life made no difference in the world. So he gave up.
Leaving his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude bench and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to other prisoners.
As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.
As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.
Solzhenitsyn slowly rose to his feet, picked up his shovel, and went back to work. Outwardly, nothing had changed. Inside, he had received hope."
[From Luke Veronis, "The Sign of the Cross"; Communion, issue 8, Pascha 1997.] John McCain won major points on Saturday for his story about a North Vietnamese prison guard drawing a cross in the dirt, but the tale... more -
The Big "O" - Obama's unofficial salute
Apparently this is an unofficial salute from a Los Angeles based design company. Nonetheless an interesting article on the youth and their support and the controversies they create.
"I do find it troubling that we are inventing specific salutes for people who are seeking the highest office in our land. The danger is that people will feel loyalty to the man and not to the office, or the people whom he is supposed to serve... the citizenry. The danger is that people will feel that the person can do whatever he wants, despite any Constitutional shackles that are supposed to be in place."
It seems weird and a little creepy to me that the "Obama youth" want a salute to man who has yet to do anything in office. I'm not saying he's a dictator or anything. Its just seems cult like to me. Also i cant help but think it looks like your making an asshole. Or as many people online say "Goatse". What is a "goatse" you ask? Look it up if you dare. ( warning- NASTY) Apparently this is an unofficial salute from a Los Angeles based design company. Nonetheless an interesting article on the youth and t... more -
Annual Japanese Military Exercises at Mt. Fuji - 2008
Photos from August 21, 2008.
-
Concepts: KDDI's Concept Cellphone is Half Transformer, Half Musical Box
"The KDDI AU Design Project bunch over in Japan have stumped up with this latest concept phone for music cellphones of the future. And it blends two things we like a Giz: funky cellphone tech and Transformers. In fact Box To Play is less "robot in disguise," and more "hi-fi in disguise" because when it's a phone, it's a normal phone—keypad, camera and such—but when it transforms it's its own speaker system with a graphical visualizer around its faces. Neat, and exactly the sort of innovative design I'd like to see in future phones." "The KDDI AU Design Project bunch over in Japan have stumped up with this latest concept phone for music cellphones of the future... more
-
The Human Cause of Animal Extinction
"In middle school classrooms, the gist of the Ice Age is often explained as, "It got really cold and all the animals became extinct.” Recently, however, scientists have been taking a closer look at where and when human behavior affected the extinction of species, instead of climate change.
Recent findings in Tasmania prove that certain ancient species, like the giant kangaroo and marsupial rhino and leopard, were still inhabiting the island when humans first arrived, leading the research team to conclude that the animals' extinction was due to human hunting, not the Ice Age. " "In middle school classrooms, the gist of the Ice Age is often explained as, "It got really cold and all the animals became ... more -
Virus-powered battery
"MIT scientists have engineering the first viral assembly line workers .
Researchers have developed a new technique wherein a key component of a microscopic battery is assembled by viruses, allowing for the cheap and simple construction of very small power sources.
Batteries are composed of four key components, an anode and cathode that form the positive and negative poles, an electrolyte that transfers the electric charge between them, and a separator to keep the anode and cathode apart. In the MIT experiment, two polymer layers that would serve as the electrolyte and the separator were lain on top of a four micrometer wide post. The genetically engineered viruses were then encouraged to grow on top of those layers, where they would attract a metal, in this case cobalt oxide, which would serve as the anode. The researchers still have not engineered a virus to make the cathode, but that is clearly the next step..." "MIT scientists have engineering the first viral assembly line workers . ... more
-
related topics
Random
Contributors (12,625)
Random
