See here for the details of the latest. But the bottom line is that Jetbox is the worst service organization I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

To put it simply, you would do better in buying an economy ticket and flying to Miami to purchase most goods, than using these people to forward your mail...

I have reviewed the Costa Rican tax codes, and know of several occasions where I have been significantly overcharged when making purchases online and using Jetbox to deliver them from Miami. DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE.

More than $80 to deliver an item with a value of $299, a full 27% of the value.... That was generous. I have paid more than 100% on some items... And when you protest, you will get the excuse.... "It was the import duties, sorry, nothing we can do..."

At Christmas I paid over $300 for some books and a half dozen Xbox games...

I would love to see how much of this actually DOES go to the tax man, because this is either rampant overcharging, or simple incompetence...

Hi Jeff

This is a nice and informative little ad for what the 700p can do. But It would be great if you could spend a little blog time addressing some of the issues raised by bloggers from the previous blog, otherwise people are going to think this is just a promo dupe site and stay away.

Thanks!

On April 11th, Palm launched their "official" blog And all of us Palm Addicts breathed a collective sigh of hope. Hope that Palm was FINALY going to take a proactive roll in dealing with customer issues... No SUCH LUCK

For the most part this blog is about Palm Doing what they do best... Shoving a bunch of Marketing crap down your throat, all the while smiling as they ignore customer complaints! Not once in this HUGE comment thread, do the Palm people bother to respond.

I love my Palms, could not do without them, but I am not some driveling Nerd with a pocket protector and Palm Rules tattooed on my arm. Living in Central America, I pay MUCH more than my colleagues in America or Europe do for my tech gear. I also have to deal with the MAGNIFICENT incompetence and stupidity of the local phone company. So I bleed just a BIT more than my fellow Palm Aficionados when it comes to supporting the platform.

I think Palm is due for a fall pretty soon. There are only so may slaps in the face that most of us are going to take.

The Lifedrive, that resets as often as it works.
The Treo 650 with 24 Megabytes of memory
The 700P.... Well read above.
The 680 (My newest toy) No wifi, VGA Camera, horrendous battery life

Need I go on?

No, they dont get it. They have rode the franchise into the ground. And the signs are pointing to even the most loyal fans getting fed up...

Hey Palm Bloggers, time to answer your comments...

You will regret it.

In October of 2005, I was in Guatemala working on a Project, when my wife had DirecTV installed in our home in Heredia. It was a huge mistake.

Any time it rains hard (something that happens frequently in Costa Rica), the signal is lost, sometimes for hours. There are no Network Channels (to speak of), from the U.S., which I rely on to keep me in touch with what's going on there. All irritants, considering I paid almost $70 a month for service. All of this I knew going into the contract.

When we canceled the contract in December, we were promised a full refund of our deposit, as soon as they picked up the equipment. They picked it up on December 14th, and charged us for the entire month of December. Since that time we have been in a weekly battle with them to return the $85 they owe us for the deposit. Every week we call, and every week the answer is "next week." Yesterday, my wife called for the third time, and was informed that the paperwork for our refund had never even been submitted, despite the fact that she had confirmed it a month ago, and we had to FAX the disconnect order.

Today I spoke with Andres Chaverry, who apologized and AGAIN promised the money for NEXT week. We have had DirecTV for over a year. Not once have we been late on payments. We have paid on more than one occasion for movies we did not order, we have constantly been bumped around by their horrible customer service, and my wife was tricked into signing a Year Long contract when we first signed up.... To be honest, we would have gotten rid of their service a long time ago if not for that.

My advice to anyone considering subscription TV in Costa Rica, DO NOT get DirecTV. They have the worst service in the country, this coming from someone who KNOWS service! And if you do get their service, don't expect them to honor their contractual obligation to return your money at the end of the Contract!

DO NOT ORDER SERVICE from DirectTV Costa Rica!

But what the f&*k ever...

I dont know ONE singe progressive blogger who is mourning the death of Saddam Hussien. Not one. The man was a cold hearted killer, with balls the size of Watermellons who went to his grave without a tinge of remorse, or apparently fear, which was every WIngnuts fantasy, that the man would break down crying or something... Well he didn't, which I am sure pissed off Bush to no end. I mean how sweet can revenge be when the guy you are revenging on is more fucking heroic than you... It also also probably backfired on a lot of the wingnuts who saw this as a propaganda opportunity... It was, for the Jihadist, who will promptly canonize a psychopath, and write songs and poems about how in the face of death, Saddam taunted his captors....

Apparently, Hussien went to his grave thinking he was right, and arguing with his executioners, hell even making fun of them. Like I said, BALLS LIKE WATERMELLONS... An image the Iraqi Security officials tried unsuccessfully to deny and twist. Whatever...

He's dead, May God have mercy on his soul. Now, where are the people who actually attacked America? 3000 dead service men and women, a destroyed country, Gazillions of dollars down the toilette, and these pathetic idiots want to fantasize that some of us are mourning Saddam's death? Tell me it has not come to that.

Eh guys, where the hell is Ossama? You want to talk about bleeding heart Liberals? I tell you what, you heroes go find him, and I will volunteer to pull the switch... Until then, I realize you need something to gloat about. Even going so far as to post the Saddam Snuff video.... I can understand, I really can. It's been a tough couple of months for ya. But lets try to maintain SOME semblance of reality.... 'Kay?

What can we expect, after all... THIS

The Left has tried very hard to deny that truth. The mainstream media revels in showing video of bombings and reporting kidnappings, never noting the stability and economic growth in many parts of Iraq. Kevin McCullough has written a compelling article to show that Iraq is, by any reasonable standard, a clear success. The notion that Iraq is becoming a foothold for democratic republicanism is terrifying for the Left. Enough so that they will denounce even its possibility, much less the growing evidence for it.

is the reality of some on the Right.

What Pensito does not care about...

1. The new James Bond film

2. Tom Cruise's wedding

3. Britney Spears' divorce

Agreed... Let me add to the list...

4. What the Hell Henry Kissenger thinks.

5. Who the hell won in Redneck Racing.

6. Who the hell the secret santa is, he aint never dropped any loot on me.

7. What the hell O.J. has to say....

8. About a bunch of MORONS standing in line and spending small fortunes to buy a freaking video game. In three months it will be half price, there will be more games and NO lines.

9. About which stupid, unoriginal movie took the box office this weekend.

10. WHO Paul McCartney's ex is doing, was doing or will do.

11. About the latest conservative talking point, or who gives more money to causes....Liberals or Conservatives.

I just received this from one of my fraternity brothers this morning... Well worth passing on! Thanks Greg for sharing.

A friend came to my dorm room just to chat while her laundry was drying. As we were chatting, two young freshman came by. One of the boys wanted to "talk" to my friend (as in date). She asked him how old they were, and both of the boys replied 18. My friend and I both laughed hysterically because we are both 22 years old. After my friend left the young men were still hanging around and he wanted to know how he could gain the interest of her. The first thing I told him to do was to pull up his pants. He asked why, then said he like saggin' his pants. I told him to come over to my computer and spell the word saggin'. Then I told him to write the word saggin' backwards. S-A-G-G-I-N N-I-G-G-A-S I told him the origin of that look was from prison. Men in prison wore their pants low when they were spoken for. The other reason their pants looked like that was because they were not allowed to have belts because prisoners were likely to try to commit suicide. We as young black people have to be the ones to effect change. We are dying. The media has made a mockery of the Black American. Even our brothers and sisters from Africa don't take us seriously. Something as simple as pulling up your pants and standing with your head high could make the biggest difference in the world's perception of us. It is time to do right by ourselves. We need to love and embrace each other. No one is going to do for us. It all comes down to perception. What people perceive, is what is reality to them. We have to change not only the media's perception of us, but we need to change the perception of ourselves. Remember all eyes are on you Black Man. All eyes are on you Black Woman. All eyes are on you Black Child. People are waiting for us to mess up. We have let not only the media, but the government and the world taint the pure essence of us. They have stripped our culture down to the point where we only believe we can become rappers and sports athletes. We are so much more. To all my black men, Its time to stand up. There are billions of Black Women who want to do nothing more than worship the ground that you walk on. We are so in love with your potential. We want to have your back, we want to love, support and cherish every ounce of your being. But with that you have to show that you are willing to be the head of our households. You have to prove yourselves worthy of our submission. We need you to be hard working...Not a hustler. We need you to seek higher education, to seek spirituality. We need you to stand! And trust us, we will have your back. We know that it gets hard, we know you get weary. Trust and believe that there is nothing that a Black Woman and a Black Man can't handle with God on their sides. To all my Black Women: It is also time for us to stand up. It is time for us to stop using our bodies as our primary form of communication. It is time to be that virtuous woman that Proverbs spoke of. We can not sit by the way side, while our men our dying by the masses. We are the epitome of Black Love. It starts within us. We need to speak with conviction to let not only our Black Men know, but the world know that we are the Mother's of this world. We are so powerful. We are so beautiful. We need to love and embrace every blessing God has given us physically emotionally and spiritually. For all My Black Children: We need to love them. We need to teach them. We need to stand up for them. We need to protect them. We need to show them that there is no "get rich quick." We need to tell them that they WILL die trying if the submit to a life of crime and deceit. We need to teach our children to that no one will love them the way we can. And being a basket ball player or a rapper is not reality, its not realistic and a small percentage of people ever make it that far. We need to teach our children that we can be better than the rappers and athletes. We can be the owners of these sports teams, we can be the CEO's of our fortune 500 companies. We need to believe in literacy. I am almost certain if we were to look back to the 1930's and 40's, the literacy rates for Black American Children are probably still the same.

Continues to support these people... To my Sisters and Brothers in the Rightsphere, how can you sit still for this shit?

I want to call on every DECENT American to look at this... To understand the absolute scummyness of these people. Failing to do that, I ask... And you know who you are? HOW, Why... How can you look at yourself in the mirror and know, this is the party you support.

Perhaps one of the most beautiful and talented singer/actresses to never achieve mega-fame status. Now the next time you are watching one of the blonde bobble head idiots that pass for superstars today, think of Irene Cara...

And remember....

And then ask yourself... Why did a woman this talented and beautiful and with this kind of recognition, not go on to become a superstar... I think you know why.

To all Noble men of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. An effort is being made to reactive the Virtual Sigma web portal. All it requires is a $30 donation to the Virtual Sigma Fund. Please review theattached file, for details.

Let's help promote the ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship and Service, that our Fraternity was founded on!

CIA Contractor loses her job

Christine Axsmith, a software contractor for the CIA, considered her blog a success within the select circle of people who could actually access it.

Only people with top-secret security clearances could read her musings, which were posted on Intelink, the intelligence community's classified intranet. Writing as Covert Communications, CC for short, she opined in her online journal on such national security conundrums as stagflation, the war of ideas in the Middle East and -- in her most popular post -- bad food in the CIA cafeteria.

But the hundreds of blog readers who responded to her irreverent entries with titles such as "Morale Equals Food" won't be joining her ever again.

On July 13, after she posted her views on torture and the Geneva Conventions, her blog was taken down and her security badge was revoked. On Monday, Axsmith was terminated by her employer, BAE Systems, which was helping the CIA test software.

As a traveler in the classified blogosphere, Axsmith was not alone. Hundreds of blog posts appear on Intelink. The CIA says blogs and other electronic tools are used by people working on the same issue to exchange information and ideas.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to comment on Axsmith's case but said the policy on blogs is that "postings should relate directly to the official business of the author and readers of the site, and that managers should be informed of online projects that use government resources. CIA expects contractors to do the work they are paid to do."

A BAE Systems spokesman declined to comment.

Axsmith, 42, said in an interview this week that she thinks of herself as the Erma Bombeck of the intel world, a "generalist" writing about lunch meat one day, the war on terrorism the next. She said she first posted her classified blog in May and no one said a thing. When she asked, managers even agreed to give her the statistics on how many people were entering the site. Her column on food pulled in 890 readers, and people sent her reviews from other intelligence agency canteens.

The day of the last post, Axsmith said, after reading a newspaper report that the CIA would join the rest of the U.S. government in according Geneva Conventions rights to prisoners, she posted her views on the subject.

It started, she said, something like this: "Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong."

And it continued, she added, with something like this: "CC had the sad occasion to read interrogation transcripts in an assignment that should not be made public. And, let's just say, European lives were not saved." (That was a jab at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to Europe late last year when she defended U.S. policy on secret detentions and interrogations.) A self-described "opinionated loudmouth with a knack for writing a catchy headline," Axsmith also wrote how it was important to "empower grunts and paper pushers" because, she explained in the interview, "I'm a big believer in educating people at the bottom, and that's how you strengthen an infrastructure."

Okay, so the Left is going to say she lost her job because she had an opinion contrary to the powers that be. The Right will say she lost her job because she violated proceedures, used government tools for personal endeavors, etc. etc.

The truth is probably somewhere in between, or a combination of both. My take? If she posted innapropriate material and violated some rule of the company, she should be toast. If she didn't, and it is just a hack job based on her politics, then it is nothing more than a sign of continuing efforts on the part of the administration to silence critics. Either way, it is not clear enough for me which case applies. I am however pleased that the article on her firing is helping to expose the continuing practice of torture in our name.

Its campaign has killed at least 312 people in Lebanon, the vast majority civilians, and displaced half a million. Thirty-two Israeli troops and civilians have been killed.

I agree with Israel's right to defend itself, but where does defending itself stop and punishing innocents begin?

After numerous complaints the assholes who were stealing my content have had their site suspended.

Hello:

This IP has been suspended until our customer removes the infringing site.

Abuse Administrator
Sago Networks

All I can say is, "it's about time."

I still have to wonder...

If the alleged victim in the Duke Rape Case was a promiscuous white Coed, and the accused were black players from the Football or Basketball team... Would conservatives be so eager to dismiss the charges as false? What happened to "lets have a trial?" If these boys are innocent, then we need to rely on the justice system to demonstrate it.

Instead, this case has been all about, "Ho's, and innocent boys having their lives ruined." If this girl lied, then she ought to be prosecuted. It's as simple as that. But the DA has decided to go ahead with prosecution, and a Grand Jury has found reason to proceed with one. All of these news stories about inconsistencies will mean nothing when the case goes to trial.

I for one am sick of this girl being dragged through the mud because of her profession or her past. What about the Gay bashing Lacrosse player. I never hear about that incident on Conservative blogs. If anything, that at least implies a propensity towards violence and discrimination on the part of the player. What does not seem to be in much dispute, is that racial slurs and insults were used during the party, a dehumanizing tactic often used by those inflicting violence on those who they see as, "lesser," than them.

I don't know what happened that night. I do know that there will likely be a trial, and we will ALL have a better idea at that time of how strong the evidence is. There is a possibility that the case may be full of holes, and eventually dismissed. If it is, great! But it seems to me that BOTH parties deserve their day in court.

This is a chilling article about the complicity of the Media in failing to challenge the Bush Administration. It's a long piece, read the whole thing.

It's not fair to suggest the MSM alone convinced Americans to send some sons and daughter to fight. But the press went out of its way to tell a pleasing, administration-friendly tale about the pending war. In truth, Bush never could have ordered the invasion of Iraq -- never could have sold the idea at home -- if it weren't for the help he received from the MSM, and particularly the stamp of approval he received from so-called liberal media institutions such as the Washington Post, which in February of 2003 alone, editorialized in favor of war nine times. (Between September 2002 and February 2003, the paper editorialized twenty-six times in favor of the war.) The Post had plenty of company from the liberal East Coast media cabal, with high-profile columnists and editors -- the newfound liberal hawks -- at the New Yorker, Newsweek, Time, the New York Times, the New Republic and elsewhere all signing on for a war of preemption. By the time the invasion began, the de facto position among the Beltway chattering class was clearly one that backed Bush and favored war. Years later the New York Times Magazine wrote that most "journalists in Washington found it almost inconceivable, even during the period before a fiercely contested midterm election [in 2002], that the intelligence used to justify the war might simply be invented." Hollywood peace activists could conceive it, but serious Beltway journalists could not? That's hard to believe. More likely journalists could conceive it but, understanding the MSM unspoken guidelines -- both social and political -- were too timid to express it at the time of war.

To oppose the invasion vocally was to be outside the media mainstream and to invite scorn. Like some nervous Democratic members of Congress right before the war, MSM journalists and pundits seemed to scramble for political cover so as to not subject themselves to conservative catcalls. One year later, a pro-war writer for Slate conceded he was "embarrassed" by his support for the ill-fated invasion but he insisted, "you've got to take risks." But supporting the war posed no professional risk. The only MSM risks taken at the time of the invasion were by pundits who staked out an unambiguous position in opposing the war. Bush's rationale for war -- Saddam Hussein, sitting on a swelling stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, posing a grave and imminent threat to America -- turned out to be untrue. And for that, the press must shoulder some blame. Because the MSM not only failed to ask pressing questions, or raise serious doubts about the White House's controversial WMD assertion, but in some high-profile instances, such as with Judith Miller's reporting for the New York Times, the MSM were responsible for spreading the White House deceptions about Saddam's alleged stockpile; they were guilty of "incestuous amplification," as former Florida senator Senator Bob Graham called it. Being meek and timid and dictating administration spin amidst a wartime culture is one thing. But to be actively engaged in the spin, to give it a louder and more hysterical voice, is something else all together. In fact, the compliant press repeated almost every administration claim about the threat posed to America by Saddam. The fact that virtually every one of those claims turned out to be false only added to the media's malpractice.

And when not playing up the threat of WMDs in 2002 and 2003, the press was busy playing down the significance of peace activists and war doubters, as the MSM instead handed over the press platform at times exclusively to pro-war drum beaters and government talking heads. The White House could not have asked for more. Of course, by March 2003, the White House had already become accustomed to having a compliant press diligently detail each and every one of the administration's War on Terror warnings, warnings that played to Bush's political strength by casting him as a wartime leader and warnings that almost always fell into the less-than-meets-the-eye category. The often overblown MSM reporting on terror threats, fed directly from the White House, segued right into the overblown reporting on Saddam's deadly arsenal, also fed directly from the White House. The latter would not have been possible without the former. The press's timid War on Terror coverage foreshadowed its timid WMD coverage.

As Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler later wrote, the MSM's performance in 2002 and 2003 -- its inability and refusal to demand sharp answers to difficult questions about prewar intelligence -- likely represented their most crucial newsroom failing in nearly half a century. "How did a country on the leading edge of the information age get this so wrong and express so little skepticism and challenge?" asked Getler. "How did an entire system of government and a free press set out on a search for something and fail to notice, or even warn us in a timely or prominent way, that it wasn't or might not be there?" The single-word answer is, timidity.

Looking back, bigfoot journalists conceded they failed to do their jobs during the run-up to war. ABC's Ted Koppel admitted, "If anything, what we've been criticized for, and probably more justifiably, is that we were too timid before the war." Dan Rather agreed: "We did not do our job of pressing and asking enough questions often enough." They weren't the only ones disappointed. A majority of Americans thought the news media could have done a better job informing the public about Iraq and the stakes involved in going to war, according to an August 2005 survey conducted by the McCormick Tribune Foundation in Chicago.

While some journalists admitted their mistakes, most refused to admit it was political pressure from the right and a fear of being labeled unpatriotic that fueled the timidity. Instead, journalists offered up head-scratching explanations for their timorous prewar performance. PBS's Jim Lehrer suggested journalists just weren't smart enough to have foreseen all the troubles that would plague Iraq following the invasion. Appearing on MSNBC's "Hardball," Lehrer was asked by host Matthews about the press's wartime performance. Matthews noted, "During [the] course of the war, there was a lot of snap-to-it coverage. We' re at war. We have to root for the country to some extent. You' re not supposed to be too aggressively critical of a country at combat, especially when it's your own." Matthews asked Lehrer if he thought the press had failed to provide "critical analysis" in the months before the war.

Lehrer: I do. The word "occupation," keep in mind, Chris, was never mentioned in the run-up to the war. It was "liberation." So as a consequence, those of us in journalism never even looked at the issue of occupation.

Yeah they failed and failed miserably. They also failed in challenging the Swift Boat Liars. They failed to REALLY investigate Bush's Vietnam War service record. They failed to report agressively on the Plame outting. They have failed time and time again. How anyone on the Right can call the media, "Liberal," is beyond my capacity to comprehend. With a few notable exceptions, they HAVE been lapdogs, lacking in courage and persistence, and failing to live up to the traditions of their predecessors.

That a Gay Hooker could infiltrate the White House Press Corps, and get away with months of propaganda, and then to have the issue almost ignored by the mainstream press, after he was outted, is simply a disgrace. That Michael Moore, certainly a clown at times, and NOT a journalist, could bring more to the story than the high paid professionals of the major networks and newspapers, is too a disgrace. But perhaps the story of Moore goes a ways towards explaining it. Michael Moore may have missed the boat on some of the things he reported in F-911, but he at least had the courage to report it... Moore has been crucified for his efforts. But then again, there is little the current administration and its Right Wing Blog enablers wont do, to shut up an oppossing voice.

On March 2, 2006, Gregory was jokingly accused of being drunk by Don Imus when he called in to the Imus in the Morning show from India (while traveling with President George W. Bush). The story was then picked up by the Drudge Report, which reported Gregory really was drunk, and the O'Reilly Factor, where commentator Juan Williams said "We don't know if he was drunk, but it sure came across that way." The next day Imus brought Gregory back on the show to clarify that it was just a joke that he played on many of his guests and that Gregory was not really drunk.

I saw the "drunk" accussation on a LOT of Right Wing blogs... how many retractions did you see?

Yawn... What's new about Bush Administration hypocrisy?

President Bush declared last week that the national anthem should be sung in English not Spanish, but he evidently never told his own government or campaign organizations.

The State Department posts four Spanish versions of "The Star-Spangled Banner" on its Web site, and accounts from the 2000 election suggest that the song was at times performed in Spanish at Bush campaign events. Critics even turned up one reference to Bush himself singing the anthem in Spanish on the trail, but there was no confirmation.

The furor over a newly released Spanish version of the anthem has underscored once again the power of symbols in American politics. At a time when the immigration debate in Washington has divided Republicans on Capitol Hill, drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets and triggered a nationwide boycott, all sides are scrutinizing the words and records of the president and other politicians for signs of inconsistency.

Bush waded into the matter last week after British producer Adam Kidron issued " Nuestro Himno ." Responding to a reporter, Bush said: "I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English. And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."

I still get tweaked just thinking about Gloria Trevi singing the National Anthem, in any language. The fact that the "Bushies" allowed it to be sung in Spanish, while pandering to the hispanic vote should not come as a surprise to anyone!

The man who cracked about Clinton's overnight visitors to the Lincoln bedroom, and promised to return honor to the White House, has done anything but. In fact, if lying to the American Public, pissing on the constitution, and selling out to special interest, is their idea of bringing honor back to the White House, I would hate to see what "dishonor" is. Clinton had oral sex in the White House, the Bush Administration has given the American people a golden shower.

Any person who has squandered gifts of God, like this miserable excuse for a human being, ought to be put out of their misery. Houston disgusts me. She was arguably one of the most beautiful and talented women on the planet,

and she threw it all away...

Woke up this morning to about 50 spam emails. Interesting that most spam these days seems to come via China, Brazil and the old Eastern Bloc Countries. I always use Spamcop to report this stuff, but considering I get the same damned emails every day, just using a differen't ISP, I have to wonder about the effectivness of reporting.
But you know what.... It's not the spammers that piss me off so much. It is the idiots that buy the products they are spamming me with, because if no one was buying the Viagra and other crap, Spam simply would not exist.

Being in agreement with Priestap on anything, but this pisses me off.

Do these morons even know what an upside down American Flag means?
Okay, time for a reality check...
Screw the Mexican Flag! YOU LOST, the last time you actually won, it resulted in you getting your ass handed to you, and losing half your national land mass. This aint MEXICO, you have no inherent right to cross our border illegally, pimp the system and recieve services on the backs of people who were born in the U.S. or achieved citizenship legally. Your Nationalistic Pride would be better displayed in Mexico City than the streets of Los Angeles.

As a progressive, I believe in supporting the cause of those who are en la lucha, but insulting my country is not going to fly. Where the hell does all this arrogance come from? Maybe from YOUR President, Vincente Fox... Who seems to feel that America has an obligation to act as his economic safety vent, and to provide him relief for his failed economic policies.

It isn't about racism either. I am medio-Latino. I love the culture, and live in the heart of it. But I also obey the law in the country I live in, the country that accepted me... as long as I followed thier sometimes ridiculous process for residency.

Do I feel the pain of Latinos who leave family, and roots behind to go north? Yeah I do. I once dated a woman from El Salvador who was an illegal. She worked like a slave as a maid to rich white woman, so she could feed her children back in El Salvador. She was grateful to the United States for giving her the opportunity. She would have NEVER insulted the United States or taken for granted the things it gave her, despite the difficulty of her life, and the unjustness of her employment conditions. I often argued with her about illegal immigration. While I understood her point of view, I never agreed with it. Just because it is difficult to do something legaly, does not excuse doing it illegally, no matter how noble or necessary the purpose.

I see the people in the streets protesting and I admire them for their unity and their struggle, even in dissagreeing with the purpose of it. What I don't like is the disrespect for our country, a disrespect which reeks of irony. If you hate the United States so much, go back to where you came from. But the Mexican Flag takes the cake. The protestors obviously feel it represents pride. To me it represents disgrace... a country that never recovered from wars long lost. It represents a country that has suffered from corruption so bad over the last 200 years that despite great resources, it cant take care of its own. It represents a humiliation... One that says, I cant make it in my country, so I am going to come to yours, make it here, but insist on my right to nationalism... My answer, pass a bill... Any bill, and then ENFORCE it!

AMERICAblog is outraged that the Pentagon is trying to censor cartoonist. Michelle is outraged at the cartoon itself, so is John. Where do I fall... This time I have to agree with the folks on the right. The Cartoon sucks, crosses the line and is just plain tacky.

Who keeps sending me this:

Vljagra - $3.3
Lecvitra - $3.3
Cimalis - $3.7
Imiltrex - $16.4
Flozmax - $2.2
Ultoram - $0.78
Viloxx - $4.75
Amobien - $2.2
Valizum - $0.97
Xaznax - $1.09
Somga - $3
Merqidia - $2.2


visit our website


Best regards,
Online Pharmaceuticals

Everyday, and whom I report faithfully to Spamcop, EVERY DAY... Get a freaking CLUE PAL, I am not going to order any of your shit! IF, I wanted Viagra, and that is a HUGE IF... I can get it over the counter here for about two bucks a tab, the REAL thing, no questions asked, no shipping charges, no taxes and no snickers from the tax man when I go to get it out of customs. So do yourself and ME a big favor and stop sending me this shit.

AND for you MORONS in China, Korea and Brazil who don't understand that open relays ALLOWS scumbags like these to keep pumping this crap through your network, pimping your bandwidth and irritating the living shit out of me, FIX your problems, because one day the other ISP's are going to wake up, blacklist your domains for good and your legitimate clients wont be able to send as much as an e-card!

PARIS (AP) — The director of the Tour de France said it was a "proven scientific fact" that Lance Armstrong had a performance-boosting drug in his body during his 1999 Tour win, saying the seven-time champion owed fans an explanation about the new doping allegations.

Via USA Today

It's called Sour Grapes. He kicked your ass year after year, and you have been trying to explain it year after year. Get over it. He won.

From Crooks and Liars:

Michael Scheuer ended his interview on Hardball last night with these words.

Full transcript

O'DONNELL: "And, finally, the president has made the case that winning the war in Iraq is central to winning the war on terror and making sure that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda cannot take harm the United States. Is that true, if we win there, will that help?"

SCHEUER: "No, ma'am. The war in Iraq has broken the back of our counterterrorism effort. I'm not an expert on the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, but the invasion of Iraq has made sure this war will last decades ahead and it has transferred bin Laden and al Qaeda from being man and an organization into being a philosophy and a movement. We've really made sure that the war against us is going to be a long and very bloody one. Iraq was an absolutely disastrous decision."

Read the whole thing, and watch the video. Of course our Brothers on the Right will just say that this is Left Wing Propaganda, Treason and Harmful to the moral of our troops.

Well let me tell you something. It just might be, because my moral is harmed every time I see another body count from Iraq. My moral is harmed every time I hear about the number of dead Iraqis. My moral is harmed every time I hear about another incidence of terrorism in Iraq. Hell my moral is harmed by knowing that Iraq has become not only a rallying point for global terrorism, but also a training ground that is 100 times more effective than Afghanistan. You see in Afghanistan, the terrorist did not get a chance to practice on the best of our technology and people. In Afghanistan they did not get a laboratory on U.S. Tactics. In Afghanistan they simply LOST...

From Billmon:

President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of -- nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time. The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening to clear brush, visit with family and friends, and tend to some outside-the-Beltway politics. By historical standards, it is the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years.

The August getaway is Bush's 49th trip to his cherished ranch since taking office and Tuesday was the 319th day that Bush has spent, entirely or partially, in Crawford -- roughly 20 percent of his presidency to date.

Washington Post
Vacationing Bush Poised to Set a Record
August 3, 2005

The U.S. ranks below 10 other countries in paid vacation
days for workers. In the U.S., the average worker gets 16 paid vacation
days a year, compared to 30 days in Portugal and Spain; 25 days in
Austria, Finland, Sweden and France; and 20 days in Belgium, the
Netherlands and Switzerland. European countries guarantee workers paid
vacation days by law.

Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-VT
Working Families in the Global Economyp>

Staggers the mind doesn't it. Tens of thousands of Americans out of work.... Stop Loss orders keeping soldiers in Iraq for obscene periods of time, other Americans afraid to take a vacation for fear that they will lose their job, and its all Barbecues and pony rides in Crawford. Makes you sick doesn't it?

I read this quote on Dean's World tonight:

The Left. Hopeless. Shameful. History will record that the U.S. could have saved tremendous loss of life and treasure had we liberated Iraqi with more troops and a proper "after-victory" plan. But the chronicles will also show that America could have saved time, money and--most especially, lives--had the Left contributed its valuable resources to the liberation effort as well. Imagine if feminists, labor leaders, environmentalists, civil rights activists, artists and the media had joined in the struggle instead of sitting on the sidelines--or worse, assisting the fascists? Imagine if the clarion cry of freedom and democracy had arisen from a unified progressive front consisting of conservatives and liberals? Just as we've learned how much succor the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong took from the anti-war protesters of the 1960s, we will someday learn how the parochial, small-minded, narrow-souled opposition to the establishment of democracy in Iraq stiffen the fascist backbone of the "insurgency." But of course, the Michael Moores, Robert Fisks, George Galloways, Ted Kennedys and innumerable Hollywood celebrities and academics of this world will not care--they will always find reporters, voters, fans and tenure committees willing to dull the sting of conscience.

Written by some right-wing death beast? No. By the late Steve Vincent.

Dean goes on to agree with the quote. Well, perhaps I am showing my ignorance, but I have no idea who Steve Vincent was. I will take some time tomorrow to read his blog. But I want to offer a strong opposing point of view.

I don't think Leftist have done ENOUGH in opposing the war. Yes you read that right, and if you have read ISOU before, you are probably not surprised.

Many of us opposed this war BEFORE the Downing Street Memos. We had different reasons. Mine is sitting in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan right now. I felt, and still feel that we should have focused our ire and our energies on punishing those responsible for 9/11, and bringing ALL of the perpetrators to justice.

No, we allowed ourselves to be deceived, and to be swept up in the "War on Terror," which has become a disjointed quagmire. Iraq is a mess, more of a mess than it was under it's former dictator, and even the CIA says it has become a breeding ground for 21st Century Terrorism. All the jingoism in the world does not change the fact that there was no plan and is no plan, at least no consistent one.

Iraq has become a meat grinder for our troops and the Iraqi people, and it will probably have to get to the point where it is proven that there have been more killed during the occupation, than during the Hussein Regime, before anyone on the Right is willing to admit it.

I am not a moonbat, and stupid/dramatic protest do not make an impact on middle America. What we needed was for our elected representatives to stand up, show some spine and demand accountability in the decision to go into Iraq. What we needed and still need is for Progressives to speak out logically, sanely and without rhetoric on the true impact of this war, on the American People, The American Economy and the Iraqi people.

That we did not contribute to a war that we did not believe in is not the sad thing, that we did not contribute to stopping it, and have not suitably contributed to exposing it for what it is, is...

Considering Today's Piece on Ohio, I thought I would dig up some of my old archived discussions on the subject. This piece from October 24, 2004, just before the election. More to come.

Stealing the Election 2004 Edition
Update IV: This is one of the fairest responses yet to my Rant... So much so that I want to highlight it as trully progressive thinking.

And thanks to Oliver Willis for giving this some attention.

Also a big thanks to Digby of Hullabalooo.

If Republicans think they can intimidate Black Voters in this year's election, they will soon find it is NOT going to fly. For my conservative friends who tried to pooh pooh dissenfranchisement of black voters in Florida in 2000, or spin it with claims that soldiers voting by absentee ballot were also dissenfranchised, whatever. It is NOT going to happen this time folks. This kind of bullshit will not stand.

Where the Hell is Malcom X or the Black Panther Party

when you need them. Someone needs to gaurantee that people will be able
to vote without being subjected to some stormtrooper who wants to
interogate you becuase they THINK you are going to vote Democratic.

The Bullshit is starting to stink up the whole country now. What is happening in Ohio is an outrage. But this time it wont be allowed to stand. A lot has happened in four years, and part of what happened is US, the troops in the trenches who will not allow this to be covered over.

I am going to make it my mission the next days up until the election to fight this bullshit at every turn, and to mobilize as many progressive bloggers as I can to the cause as well.

So I am throwing out a challenge to progressives everywhere, and to those on the right who care about our constitution, and not just their guy winning. It is time we cleaned up the dirt, and go back to being Americans again, people who pledge every day to defend the ideals of our republic.

Read On...