This is one of the most interesting Anti-Islam posts I have ever seen. I happen to disagree with about 80% of it, as I know Muslims who would be and ARE outraged at some of the fringe elements in their religion. Nevertheless, agree or disagree, this video is certainly thought provoking...

In the last two weeks, two important events have occurred that are linked to the future of investment, and expecially the Call Center Industry in Costa Rica.

• The Legislature announced that there would be a nationwide referendum on the TLC, as CAFTA is called here in Costa Rica.
• The Entire Country went dark for three hours last week when one of ICE's (The Costa Rican Telephone and Electrical Monopoly), Electrical Stations blew up. This in turn exposed major problems with the Costa Rican Electrical Grid.
• The Country has been forced into three hour a day forced rolling blackouts for the last week.

The Referendum was a sign of failure on the part of Oscar Arias, the Costa Rican President to get the TLC through the legislature. Massive street demonstrations, led by the ICE Union and other Unionist were giving the legislators cold feet, and TLC opponents renewed hopes for defeating the treaty.

The Massive Power failure and fiasco that has followed has now put ICE on the defensive, and caused many who supported them and their anti Free Market Stance, to rethink their feelings. You dont realize how badly a monopoly sucks until it fails spectacularly. The arrogance that followed the failure:

1. Demanding a Rate Hike of an average of 23% to make up for poor planning (And some speculate, to fund additional raises for ICE employees).
2. When failing to get the rate hike approved, using it to hold the entire country hostage with rolling blackouts...

Were more reason to erode ICE support among the population.
I have written a number of articles on the Call Center business, including one that will appear next month in Central America Today. With the exception of bold visionaries like Rogelio Douglas, whose Admire Americas has opened the first call center on the English Rich Caribean Coast of Costa Rica, Call Centers in the Central Valley, are all competing for the same stagnant pool of English Speaking Talent. Add to this complexities in doing business, extremely high taxes for those who dont qualify for Free Zone status, and the ICE Monopoly, and you have a very volatile market for Call Centers, one that is being challenged by new Call Center Clusters in Guatemala, where I helped to found a new center last year, El Salvador, Panama and Honduras, where I am helping to develop what promises to be one of the most sophisticated Contact Centers in the Region for the Karims Group.

If the TLC fails, Costa Rica will be left with an aging monopoly that once led the region in every statistic that counts, but which is now finding itself behind in technology, (ICE just approved GPRS Internet, and has NO prepaid Cellular Service), availability of services, (New GSM Phone Lines will not be available until August of this year), innovation, and redundancy.... The Country will also be the only one in the REGION without competition in the Telephony Marketplace, or for that matter, any part of the public sector.

Costa Rica has failed miserably to take advantage of the lead they had when I established the first call center in Central America in 1994. While other countries have invested in Infrastructure, opened up their telecommunications markets and focused on developing strong English Language Bases of Employees. Costa Rica has arrogantly held on to a reputation that they no longer deserve. Visit any other capital in the region, and you will feel the progressive Energy. In Guatemala, millions are being invested into creating Call Center friendly parks and infrastructure. In Honduras, companies like Karims are working closely with the Honduran Government to define a new industry.

CAFTA is an important key to the future of Costa Rica. Without it, Costa Rica may see itself losing more and more of its key technology businesses, to other, more aggressive and progressive neighbors.

In the Utopia Group, we are looking at the REGION as our opportunity, Costa Rica just does not seem as promising as it once was.

Crossposted to my Business Blog

To my many friends in Salt Lake City, who were some of the kindest people I have ever met...

There is something REALLY wrong with the Mormon Church.

After reading this book, by one of the former wives of Brigham Young, and then going online and doing a lot of research... I am convinced that at BEST, these poor people are in REAL trouble.

Their church was founded by a scoundrel and womanizer, who apparently created the whole polygamy thing, just so he could build himself a Harem, and his work was carried on with Gusto by Brigham Young himself who had 50 wives and 57 children...

Young was perhaps the most famous polygamist of the early church. Young married some 50 women and had 57 known children. In 1856 he built the Lion House to accommodate his sizable family. This remains a Salt Lake City landmark, together with the Beehive House, another Brigham Young Family home. A contemporary of Young wrote: "It was amusing to walk by Brigham Young's big house, a long rambling building with innumerable doors. Each wife has an establishment of her own, consisting of parlor, bedroom, and a front door, the key of which she keeps in her pocket".

And now, the Mormons are posthumously baptizing Holocaust victims AND Nazis? Man I can't WAIT till the next time a couple of the little cherub faces missionaries come to my door. I am going to ROCK their world...

When I lived in Salt Lake City briefly in 1993, I made friends with several Mormons, some of them notable, and even attended church with them. One of my best friends, a successful businessman in Northern California, was a Mormon Missionary. For several years I have had a high opinion of Mormonism, but lately that impression has been turned.

Knowledge brings to light a lot of things... I think anyone considering a conversion to Mormonism needs to arm themselves with it...

I mean, after winning this honor, all the others seem so trivial!

You need further convincing that the Web is the new Forum? It is the communal hearth arround which all of us gather. Web 2.0 is not just a catch phrase any more. The sale of You Tube to Google, the Rise of Google itself... The phenomenon of My Space... It's a new world, and indeed a new story:

But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.

And we are so ready for it. We're ready to balance our diet of predigested news with raw feeds from Baghdad and Boston and Beijing. You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos—those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms—than you could from 1,000 hours of network television.

And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software.

Some of us are pioneers in this new world... Our friends ragged on us about our blogging, and for our personal web pages... Those same friends now quietly create their own blogs, or sign up for my space.

We have built massive repositories of information, created virtual worlds and communities, sold billions of dollars in merchandise, created candidates and helped win elections. We have faced down major media operations, and raised millions to help victims of natural disasters.

Netcitizenship has become a common ground, bringing citizens of the world closer together.

But it has also spawned some bad...

Terrorist use the internet to communicate and dispense propaganda.

Scammers from Nigeria, other parts of Africa and Europe, farm tens of thousands of emails a day, to send their ridiculous scam emails, and attempt identity theft through phishing attacks.

Hate Groups use the internet to spread their message of hate.

Scammers of every ilk use the internet as their virtual office...

It's not perfect, but perhaps that is why Time is so RIGHT. The Internet IS the new world, it is a place where all of us can participate Rich and Poor, and where access to a connected computer is all it takes to be heard. A friend of mine and fellow blogger, used to run his popular blog from Library computers... He was homeless and did not own a computer, so he logged on at his local library and contributed to the debate. He inspired me... With all the wants and needs a person in his position must have had... Having a voice in the debate was a priority. It is HIS picture that should grace the cover of time, because despite the contributions of hotchick@xxx.com, and her lingerie shows from her bedroom... It is people like my friend who has led this revolution...

So thank you Time Magazine, for acknowledging us. I have taken the liberty of preparing my cover... After all, all of us would not fit!

At his recent graduation party....

Is he a chip off the old block, or what? BAD BOY Jean!

Just make you PROUD to be an American?

The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.

The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release -- even to the detainees' own attorneys -- "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage." Terrorists could use the information to train in counter-interrogation techniques and foil government efforts to elicit information about their methods and plots, according to government documents submitted to U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton on Oct. 26.

The battle over legal rights for terrorism suspects detained for years in CIA prisons centers on Majid Khan, a 26-year-old former Catonsville resident who was one of 14 high-value detainees transferred in September from the "black" sites to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents many detainees at Guantanamo, is seeking emergency access to him.

The government, in trying to block lawyers' access to the 14 detainees, effectively asserts that the detainees' experiences are a secret that should never be shared with the public.

Because Khan "was detained by CIA in this program, he may have come into possession of information, including locations of detention, conditions of detention, and alternative interrogation techniques that is classified at the TOP SECRET//SCI level," an affidavit from CIA Information Review Officer Marilyn A. Dorn states, using the acronym for "sensitive compartmented information."

But we don't torture people, right?

From ABC News:

Halloween came early at movie theaters as "Saw III" sliced up the competition with a $34.3 million debut, the best opening yet for the gory horror franchise. Lionsgate's "Saw III" easily took over as No. 1 at the box office, bumping off Disney's dueling-magicians saga "The Prestige," which slipped to third place with $9.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. "The Prestige" raised its 10-day total to $28.8 million.

No wonder BDSM chatrooms are so popular on the internet. For those of you who do not know about the SAW franchise, they are some sick, sadistic movies. And obviously some popular ones. The movies feature torture, gore and sadism that is just over the top! Anyway, what does that say about an America suppossedly obsessed with morality?

This song always chokes me up...

I was watching a few videos tonight when I came accross this one, which along with Tupac's "Dear Mama," are two of the most beautiful hip hop songs ever recorded. This one got me to thinking about the people I have lost in my life, two brothers, my sister, mom and dad.

I miss all of you...

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Veteran funk rocker Prince and his second wife are ending their marriage, People magazine reported Wednesday.

The celebrity magazine cited Prince's lawyer, Alan Eidsness, as saying a sealed divorce action was filed on May 24 at Hennepin County District Court in the Prince's home state of Minnesota.

The 48-year-old singer (born Prince Rogers Nelson) and 29-year-old Manuela Testolini were married in a Jehovah's Witness ceremony in Hawaii on December 31, 2001.

The man goes through more fine women than anyone I have ever seen!

It's about time this happened... Of course it's a Liberal Conspiracy to aid terrorist and weaken the Presidency, or somethin' like that!

With both Congress and the media unwilling or unable to challenge President Bush’s unprecendented accumulation of power, we should be grateful that the American Bar Association has had the courage to step into the breach.

A bipartisan task force appointed by ABA President David Greco took on the issue of the so-called signing statements Pres. Bush issues after he signs bills into law. In many of the over 800 statements issued by the president — a number that dwarfs the 600 or so such statements issued by all of his predecessors in the past 217 years, combined — the president has indicated that he intended to break the very the laws he just signed.

The ABA task force ruled that this countermanding of laws passed by Congress is unconstitutional.

With the media focused on the Israeli-Hezbollah war and the Iraqi Civil War, the ABA findings have gotten very little attention.

Bottom line... Time to put a stop to the using the Constitution as a doormat...

But does this...

NEW YORK Jul 13, 2006 (AP) - Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, whose relationship was spawned on a film set, will again work together this time on a movie based on the life of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan.

Jolie will star as Pearl's wife, Mariane Pearl, in an adaptation of her book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl," it was announced Thursday. Pitt will produce the film, directed by Michael Winterbottom.

The movie will be based on Mariane Pearl's account of her husband's abduction in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002, while researching a story on Islamic militancy. Months later, his beheaded body was found in a shallow grave in a compound on the
outskirts of Karachi.


I mean if memory serves me right, Pearl's wife was of mixed origin including black. If you look at the picture to the right, I think Halle Berry would have been a much better choice for this role.

I mean sorry... I respect Angelina's work, including her acting, but this just does not even come close to being credible to me. Seems to me that this could have been a groundbreaking role for some African American Actress.

What are your thoughts...

Iraq is accelerating toward civil war
"Over the weekend and on Monday, July 10, Baghdad witnessed the most savage outbreak of revenge killings to date. Shiite militiamen, who witnesses claimed were members of Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army, set up checkpoints in the city's al-Jihad neighborhood, inspected ID cards and killed 42 people they identified as being Sunnis. They also broke into homes and killed their inhabitants. Corpses were found in the street with drill holes and pierced by nails and bolts. These attacks, which took place after sunrise, were clearly acts of revenge for two earlier car bombings near Shiite mosques. In turn, the checkpoint killings spurred two more huge Sunni car bomb attacks in the Sadr-dominated neighborhood of Talbiyeh, killing 25 and wounding 41."

Israel is in full scale War Mode in Lebanon...

While North Korea gives the, "middle finger salute," to everyone.

And it's not looking too good in Afghanistan either, with the Taliban increasing their attacks and harassing the government there. It's pretty clear at this point to anyone but the most partisan of Bush supporters, that the world is pretty FUBARED, and the "Leaders of the Free World," have NOT A CLUE as to what to do, other than make speeches.

And the question on everyone's mind these days.... WHERE THE HELL IS CONDI?

Just blows the hell out of Right Wing denials eh? But of course, Paul from Wizbang (One of the frequent denialist), knows more than these scientist. Or at least thinks he does.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's top climate scientists are giving "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy.

The former vice president's movie - replete with the prospect of a flooded New York City, an inundated Florida, more and nastier hurricanes, worsening droughts, retreating glaciers and disappearing ice sheets - mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered questions from The Associated Press.

The AP contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and phone for their opinion. Among those contacted were vocal skeptics of climate change theory. Most scientists had not seen the movie, which is in limited release, or read the book.

But those who have seen it had the same general impression: Gore conveyed the science correctly; the world is getting hotter and it is a manmade catastrophe-in-the-making caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Others discussing:
Big Lizards, Firedoglake, Fausta's blog, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Flopping Aces, The Anchoress, Hang Right Politics and Sister Toldjah

I was just reading about Britney Spears going to Nambia to have her next baby. As if anyone but Tabloid buying morons care. Anyway, this was about the only time Ms. Spears impressed me...

You remember that Britney right... The Sexy one...
Not the buble gum chewing idiot the Tabloids have come to love... You know the one I mean...

The poster child for sterilization....

First on my list is FOOD!

I envy my buddy Tony Pierce, who lives in Los Angeles, and ENJOYS it. The man gets to eat at Johnny's Pastrami and Pinks Hot Dogs whenever he damned well pleases, and get's to hang out with celebrities and shit.

Now, when I lived in Los Angeles, I was a prince of the city. I drove a Ford Expedition, partied all night, lived La Vida Loca, and still made money...

And there is no DOUBT that if I lived in Los Angeles today, I would be living the Entourage lifestyle with my favorite nephew.

The Grub in Costa Rica is not bad mind you. As you can see from this plate I am eating, the eatin' can be good. But damn I miss my Pastrami sandwiches, burgers and dogs.

You can find a good hamburger here at the Hotel Del Rey, See my Single Man's Guide to Costa Rica for details on that one, but finding a decent Pastrami sandwich is impossible, as is a good hot dog.

I have considered more than once, opening an American fast food joint here. Not a McDonalds or one of those franchise places, but something like your good old fashioned LA Taco Stand. A place where you can load up on greasy American style burritos, burgers (swamped with chili), hot dogs and hell yeah steamed Pastrami on a hard roll with jalapeno peppers and pickles on the side.

Damn I am getting hungry just thinking about it!

Says the Right... right up until the moment that the flood waters arrive...

Hat Tip Erin

Looks like "Turd Blossom," is about to do the "Perp Walk."

Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources.

Details of Rove's discussions with the president and Bolten have spread through the corridors of the White House where low-level staffers and senior officials were trying to determine how the indictment would impact an administration that has been mired in a number of high-profile political scandals for nearly a year, said a half-dozen White House aides and two senior officials who work at the Republican National Committee.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources confirmed Rove's indictment is imminent. These individuals requested anonymity saying they were not authorized to speak publicly about Rove's situation. A spokesman in the White House press office said they would not comment on "wildly speculative rumors."

Isn't that just grand? Of course the man will still likely run the Republican election strategy later this year. We can only hope, from behind bars...

This is a must watch. You have to give the guy credit for having the cajones to appear.

Requires Internet Explorer

"Is it too late for a return to sanity, to the rule of law, to the quaint notion of respecting the laws of a nation where you wish to live?"

Jay Tea
Wizbang

The comment above is extracted from a well written post on today's "Day without immigrants," protest. I happen to agree with most of his post. But the line above caught my eye. It seems a bit ironic that Conservative preach obeying the law, while this is happening.

These people scare the shit out of me... And this is Bush's Base!

I sure do! I used to think she was sexy on the X-Files. Well, I am not sure if I like this new look.

She looks more like an Amateur Porn Star, than the Gillian I used to love... But hey, looks like she has been busy working, so someone likes the look.

or doesn't it seem strange that every time Bush's poll numbers go south, there are warnings of terrorist activity?

And by the way, shouldn't the conservative bloggers who are blogging about this, and risking warning terrorist that we are on to them, be labled traitors for exposing national security sensitive information? Heheh.. Just wondering....

I have seen a ton of stories about "concerned" students ratting out their teachers for, "teaching" Liberalism, even one group in California offering to PAY students to tape professors. Ever watch the movie, Swing Kids? Should be required viewing for the conservatives who get bent out of shape on the Hitler analogies. The whole reporting on the activities of others is just too much of a parallel to pass up...
The funny thing though is that anyone who questions the administration is ANTI AMERICAN, WTF?

You know what I think defines Anti Americanism? It is the low tolerance some Conservatives have for such fundamental American ideals as Freedom of Speech and the Right to Dissent. Something the "SLEEPERS," would seemingly GLADLY sacrifice, if it means giving a pass to "the idiot in chief".

Well this explains why Bush is going against his own Party on the Port issue. Starts to make a little more sense now, doesn't it?

From The Moderate Voice:

The Dubai company that's at the center of the controversy swirling around management of several American ports has hired former Majority Leader Bob Dole as its lobbyist to address the bipartisan uproar over the deal, CNN's Andrea Koppel reports:

The 1996 Republican presidential candidate was "engaged" by Dubai Ports World shortly after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle began expressing their strong opposition to the deal, said Mike Galloway, an aide to the retired senator.

I have a feeling the failed Presidential candidate is going to find this issue a bit of a harder sell, than cures for male impotence. Although it is probably just as embarrassing.

And as usual the President says "screw you, I will do whatever I want to do"!
But wait! He smells trouble... And now is claiming that he did not KNOW about the deal! Oh yeah, he does not read anything more complicated than, "My Pet Goat," or watch the news.

Well, I think our buddy Jack Cafferty said it all yesterday:

"Wolf, this may be the straw that finally breaks the camel's back, this deal to sell control of six US ports to a company controlled by the United Arab Emirates. There are now actually Senators and Congressmen and Governors and Mayors telling the White House "you're not gonna do this." And it's about time. No one has said "no" to this administration on anything that matters in a very long time. Well this matters. It matters a lot. If this deal is allowed to go through, we deserve whatever we get."

"A country with ties to terrorists will have a presence at six critical doorways to our country. And if anyone thinks that the terrorists, in time, won't figure out how to exploit that, then we're all done. Nothing's happened yet, mind you, but if our elected representatives don't do everything in their power to stop this thing, each of us should vow to work tirelessly to see that they are removed from public office. We're at a crossroads - which way will we choose?
Here's the question: What should be done to stop a deal that would allow an Arab company to run US Ports?"

The Moderate Voice has a big round up of voices on the issue.

My opinion? Quite Simple... This is another example of hypocrisy and stupidity on the part of this administration.

The General poses some interesting questions:

Dear Sen. Specter,

Deputy Leader Cheney is in trouble for shooting an old man with a shotgun. Questions are being raised because his excuses don't fit the facts of the case. As the inventor of the Warren Commission's Magic Bullet Theory, you're the only person who can help him build a scenario where his excuses make sense.

The police report says that Whittington was 30 yards away when Dick shot him. It also notes that the elderly gentleman was hit in the face, chest and neck. Agents of the Ministry of Truth characterize the shooting as a "peppering." Taken all together, these things would suggest that the shot was fairly well dispersed.

Unfortunately, a more detailed look at the facts reveals something else. Our Deputy Leader was using 28 gauge shotgun shells loaded with 3/4 oz of #7-1/2 shot. That particular load carries approximately 262 BBs. The doctor caring for the wounded man said that he removed about 200 BBs. That means about 4/5ths of the shot in the load struck the man in an area no larger than about 18 inches in diameter.

That seems like an awfully tight pattern at 30 yards. It can only be explained by the existence of a magic BB that would ride herd on the other BBs, keeping them as bunched up as possible.

Of course we should not be focused on those things at all.. Nothing to see here, right? I mean Cheney says it was an accident, the other members of the Republican hunting party say it was an accident... We should just forget about all this pesky logic stuff... Right?

He pointed me to these pictures of the new Lara Croft. The girl is pretty, but Angelina gets my vote every day of the week.

And the Plot thickens...

It's been three days now and Dick Cheney has not publicly apologized for shooting a 78 year old man in the face. With the President's approval ratings at 39 when the incident happened, even Chris Matthews noted that at this rate Bush will be in the 20s by next week.

Scott McClellan was cracking jokes about the shooting this morning and didn't mention to the press that he knew the old man had suffered a heart attack. Now he doesn't want to talk about it any more. The sherrif's office has acknowledged that they weren't allowed to talk to Cheney for 15 hours after the accident, but now ranch owner Katharine Armstrong has told MSNBC that people in the party were drinking (though the comment was later scrubbed from the website).

Hmmm, if Cheney was drunk, this ads a whole layer of complexity to the issue... There certainly is no logical reason why law enforcement was not allowed to talk to the VP for 15 hours, although I am sure our Republican friends will come up with one. But the real story remains one of "who is above the law..." Does anyone reading this doubt for one moment, that if you or I had been in the same situation, we would not have been subjected to an immediate interview by the local police?

And Bill Maher absolutely LEVELS Cheney and the Administration on everything from the shooting, to Iraq. This has NOT been a good week for Tricky Dick II.

This administration may just escape all the dirt they have done for the last six years, but the historical record is certainly there, and it is pretty brutal... Any logical person MUST ask, how much more can come out about these guys, before Americans overcome their paranoia about terrorism and face the fact that we have sold our soul for a false sense of security?

From Balloon Juice:

Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, and other senior Democrats released a new Government Accountability Office report finding that the Bush Administration spent more than $1.6 billion in public relations and media contracts in a two and a half year span.

"The extent of the Bush Administration's propaganda effort is unprecedented and disturbing," said Rep. Miller. "The fact is that after all the spin, the American people are stuck with high prescription drug prices, high gas prices, and high college costs. This report raises serious questions about this Administration's priorities for the country and I would hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would agree that changes need to be made to reign in the President's propaganda machine."

Now let's pause for a moment for the outrage to kick in... You know, the outrage that conservatives are suppossed to feel at the thought of fiscal irresponsibility? Yeah that one...

But then again, some of us have wondered for a while about the OTHERS, Armstrong Williams mentioned when he got busted... One of those things that make ya go hmmmmm...

So tell me boys and girls, how many of you big Rightie Blogs are getting juice from Roveco? Hmmmmm?

Almost 2 Billion Bucks... Add to that the orgy of wasted spending in the aftermath of Katrina, and the Billions "misplaced," in Iraq, and it should be enough for Conservatives to tar and feather the Bushies...

But then we know that the "love," has been spread around, so it keeps the mob instinct under control....

I Want To See David Brooks' Psychoanalytic Data

of why Tiger Woods Golf game is not exactly up to par. Hehe....

Because an apology, they wont be getting. Not with commentary like this on the Right.

No word as to when Righties will condemn extremist behavior on the Far Right. Hehe...

From Dean:

Who's really raking in the dough on mega oil conglomerates like Exxon? Here's a breakdown.

Turns out mostly it's held by pension and retirement funds. Wodows, orphans, and 401(k) account holders like me. Well, whaddya know?

The contention.... That most of the profits are going to widows, orphans, pension funds and the like... Eh... OKAY....
I guess with Oil prices being what they are, they need it dont they?

And if you need more convincing, read this... Bush Defends Exxon.

This is why you are paying so much for a gallon of gas... Makes that addiction analogy pretty accurate hey... Hey Pusher man!

I didn't mean it... You know, politics and all... hehe...

WASHINGTON - One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the greatest oil supplies are.

The president's State of the Union reference to Mideast oil made headlines nationwide Wednesday because of his assertion that "America is addicted to oil" and his call to "break this addiction."

Bush vowed to fund research into better batteries for hybrid vehicles and more production of the alternative fuel ethanol, setting a lofty goal of replacing "more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025."

He pledged to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

Not exactly, though, it turns out.

"This was purely an example," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.

He said the broad goal was to displace foreign oil imports, from anywhere, with domestic alternatives. He acknowledged that oil is a freely traded commodity bought and sold globally by private firms. Consequently, it would be very difficult to reduce imports from any single region, especially the most oil-rich region on Earth.

Asked why the president used the words "the Middle East" when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands." The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him in trouble.

With all the BS that comes from the Right about supporting our Military, why dont more Right Wing Bloggers blog about stuff like this. This makes me so angry I am absolutely livid!

It was one of the thousands of roadside bombs in Iraq that paralyzed Staff Sgt. Eugene Simpson.

"My first instinct was to jump farther back into the Humvee, you know, for protection," Simpson said. "But in doing that, I opened my back up to all the scrap metal and debris, which hit my spine and severed my spine, paralyzing me."

He was soon on a plane home.

Fast-working, skilled Army doctors saved his life, as they have so many.

Slow, bumbling Army bureaucrats would make his life miserable, as they have so many.

"And the military basically is, like, they turn their back on you, you kind of feel that you've just been used," Simpson said.

No Pay for Four Months

It started with a phone call from his wife, home with their four children. She didn't have enough money to pay the bills.

"And she was like, well, we haven't been paid," Simpson said. "And you know, instantly I was like, I don't know what to do. You know, I'm still in the hospital. I can't actually get up and go around and talk to these different people."

And until "Nightline" inquired at the Pentagon, Simpson said he could not find out what happened.

"Every day is something different," he said. "Well, this person isn't in. I'll have them call you back, give it a couple days. Couple days go by, I call back, well I got somebody else for you to talk to. And days lead to weeks, and weeks lead to months."

It turns out the Army had mistakenly continued to pay Simpson a combat duty bonus while he was in the hospital.

He had been overpaid thousands of dollars, and the Army wanted the money back.

"By law, he's not entitled to the money," said Col. Richard Shrank, "so he must pay it back."

Shrank said although that is the law, soldiers can apply for debt forgiveness if they believe the debt is a mistake. So far, more than 800 soldiers have done so. More than 600 of those requests have been granted, amounting to more than $600,000.

So, the Army said it withheld the paralyzed soldier's pay until it got back the amount he owed -- with no advance notice, Simpson said.

"Four months," he said. "I didn't get paid for four months."

An Ongoing Problem

Simpson is not the only one. A study commissioned by the First Infantry Division estimated that eight out of 10 of its wounded soldiers from Iraq have gone through the same or a similar ordeal.

Capt. Michael Hurst, now out of the Army, conducted the study.

"You have to understand that these soldiers are suffering from incredible injuries, some of them have lost limbs, some of them may never walk again," Hurst said. "And in the midst of that struggle, to then get a paycheck for nothing really hurts morale."

And the Army can play tough to get its money back.

In the case of Sgt. Ryan Kelly, who lost his leg in Iraq, he had just finished going through rehabilitation when the Army sent a letter threatening to ruin his credit and call in debt collectors.

He had been overpaid by $2,200 while in the hospital, but, like most, never realized it.

It took Kelly almost a year to cut through the red tape and get the debt forgiven.

"Soldiers receive a paycheck and reasonably think that this is their accurate pay for the month," Hurst said. "And being in the situation they're in, having just been injured and in some cases spouses have to quit jobs in order to spend time at Walter Reed, many of these families are really hurting for funds. So a lot of that money gets spent right away."

'Failed Test'

The Government Accountability Office described the Army as having failed the test of taking care of its wounded from Iraq.

The report concluded that the soldiers fighting to defend the nation have paid the price for that failure.

Shrank disagreed, however. "No, I would not agree that we have failed the test, because we are making the fixes to bring it up to standard," he told "Nightline."

Shrank took over as commander of the United States Army Finance Command last summer to help fix the problem, a problem the GAO said had been ignored until the soldiers went public.

I dont even care about politics in this issue, because frankly Democrats are as guilty as Republicans for letting this kind of thing happen. We are talking about young men and women who TRULY sacrificed for this country. Who gave legs, arms, eyes... And the paper pushers at the Pentagon threaten to RUIN THEIR CREDIT, what the hell! I am going to look tonight to see how many Right Wingers report on this. Because it is time to put up or shut the hell up. Sitting at home typing long odes to patriotism and praise of the MEN and Women who are fighting this war, while ignoring their pain and suffering is BS. So yeah I am calling you out Dean, Jeff, Jay, all of you who support the war, and the TROOPS. Its time to really support them and demand that this BS end!

I mean it boggles the mind....

New low: Just when you think you’ve seen the bottom of the Bush team's depravity and corruption or is it just monumental cluelessness? - they manage to come up with something new that is positively jawdropping. Hillman serves as chief of the department's public integrity section. Must be that special Republican "integrity" that allows you to take a cushy job in return for pulling the investigation off the White House.

Yesterday President Bush nominated Noel Hillman, the lead prosecutor in the Abramoff case, to a lifetime judicial appointment.

Just to make it even more perfect, Hillman serves as chief of the department's public integrity section. Must be that special Republican integrity "integrity" that allows you to take a cushy job in return for pulling the investigation off the White House.

Yup! No appearance of impropriety here. Just move along folks, move along.

And then you wait... Wait to see how the apologist will excuse this one. Oh I can hear it now.... "The President has the right to make anyone he feels qualified, a judge." Duhhhh... Yeah he does, but ya ever take time to wonder with ALL the qualified folks out there, why THIS guy? You know what is funny, is that I have spent the last 25 years of my life managing people, and I am a pretty good judge of human behavior. Without mentioning any names... They know who they are... I can even see some of my Conservative friends are smelling the stench.

Do they respond by admitting they were wrong and demanding accountability... Oh no, that would require a drop in level of arrogance that most of these people would find just too damned costly. It would also force them to see that their little fantasy is coming apart, and they are directly responsible for this crap. So what do they do, they spin, they IGNORE, as I am sure many will do with this story, or they excuse.

And frankly, I am convinced that THEY dont even believe the excuses any more. When the boss farts in the middle of a meeting, no one wants to be the one to call him on it. Imagine how you would feel if he jumped up on the conference table and pissed on the company bi laws...

First there's the Democrats took Abramoff money too meme... You know, the one that idiot from the Washington post got called on... Now it looks like it's gaining a foothold in some of the most unlikeky places... hehe... And of course the people spouting it dont even bother to verify...

And then there is THIS... Yeah, you got to give it to them... Sounds like the plot to conspiracy theory or something. But of course, there is a "logical explanation," to all of this. I am just going to sit back and wait for Jay Tea or Boyd to come and tell us about it... Or gee, maybe it will be on Wizbang tomorrow. Rob... you got some 'splainin' to do!

You obviously did not read this.

Or have you read what EVERY Lefty in the blogsphere had to say about Belafonte?

And personally, while I am not a big Michael Moore fan, Daou is 100% right on when he says:

And last I checked, Michael Moore didn't massacre thousands of innocent Americans. (The indispensable Crooks and Liars has the clip) And here's John Kerry's blistering statement on the Hardball scandal and Bin Laden's reappearance:

"You'd think the only focus tonight would be on destroying Osama Bin Laden, not comparing him to an American who opposes the war whether you like him or not. You want a real debate that America needs? Here goes: If the administration had done the job right in Tora Bora we might not be having discussions on Hardball about a new Bin Laden tape. How dare Scott McClellan tell America that this Administration puts terrorists out of business when had they put Osama Bin Laden out of business in Afghanistan when our troops wanted to, we wouldn't have to hear this barbarian's voice on tape. That's what we should be talking about in America." -- John Kerry

Michael may be a lot of things, but a murdering terrorist he is not. I can see how in your view anyone with such strong beliefs against the war and against this administration is an EVIL person, but I'm with Daou! Unless you know something none of the rest of America does, Michael Moore did not deserve that... And I am beginning to believe Matthews may be sharing the same crack pipe with Belafonte.

And while I am not sure of the value of "insta-blogs," based on one subject, if the Right could do it with RatherWatch, perhaps this guy has the right idea. Maybe it is time some of us played, "Hardball," with Chris.... hmmmm...

How a piece of GOP propaganda with a bunch of Democratic soundbites is suppossed to be the smoking gun and conclussive proof... in proving that the Administration did not lie to get us into Iraq?

All it proves is what everyone who can read and has a television, already knew. The Democratic Leadership, swallowed the same line of bull that was fed to the rest of us. Rob buddy, you might want to find a more objective source for your grand revelations in the future.

This has got to be the sickest music video I have seen in a long while.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 12 - A stampede at the annual pilgrimage in Mecca killed 345 people today, the Interior Ministry said, the deadliest such event since 1990. The Saudi Red Crescent Society said that as many as 1,000 had been injured.

This has happened before:

In the worst stampede, which took place in 1990, 1,400 were killed at the site; in 2004, 245 people were crushed to death in a similar incident.

Kind of makes one wonder, why with all the money the Saudis make on the Haj, they don't do more to protect these people?

THIS is a great idea.

A while back I read this piece on John Cole's Site. It was pretty much repeated on a number of conservative sites, including Wizbang and Other Conservative Blogs...

Well, this story from Slate, actually puts a disturbing spin on the subject.

Three months ago, I wrote that the war in Iraq was wrecking the U.S. Army, and since then the evidence has only mounted, steeply. Faced with repeated failures to meet its recruitment targets, the Army has had to lower its standards dramatically. First it relaxed restrictions against high-school drop-outs. Then it started letting in more applicants who score in the lowest third on the armed forces aptitude test, a group, known as Category IV recruits, who have been kept to exceedingly small numbers, as a matter of firm policy, for the past 20 years. (There is also a Category V—those who score in the lowest 10^th percentile. They have always been ineligible for service in the armed forces and, presumably, always will be.)

The bad news is twofold. First, the number of Category IV recruits is starting to skyrocket. Second, a new study compellingly demonstrates that, in all realms of military activity, intelligence does matter. Smarter soldiers and units perform their tasks better; dumber ones do theirs worse.

It has long been claimed that the lowest economic and social classes become the cannon fodder in war. This report would seem to validate that claim.

Eh, I am not sure HOW I feel about