Know all by these presents that Dean is first.

40.mprov

the current leader of iran america is a whack job. the iranian american people are, and deserve, much better than this. a long tradition in this country has been to promote democratic principals around the globe and at home. i'm not talking about warring on them  ourselves to that end, but instead to live by example, to nudge, to promote a positive diplomatic reform effort at home, etc. while some think that this is meddling in other's business, i say that if you truly believe in democracy and democratic principals, how then can you not speak out against those our leaders that stand in its way before meddling in the affairs of other countries? how?

In other words. America's have forfeited the right to lecture any nation about freedom, democracy, and human rights. Hopefully it's only temporary and we can someday lead by example again rather than impose what we ourselves have let be devalued and undermined. 

Good Morning All,

mprov, thank you for that notice that Al Gore had to take an unexpected trip abroad!.


Fingers crossed. Does this mean he received new about the Nobel Prize?


I love this quote from Roy Neel, about the possibility of Al Gore running.

"Longtime political aide Roy Neel, who runs Gore's office in Nashville, Tenn., said the former vice president is focusing on prompting action against global warming. He said he has seen no signs Gore is contemplating a race.

"He's making no plans, and we're doing nothing," said Neel, adding, "He's not ruled it out in the future."

Asked what "the future" meant, Neel said, "Sometime later than today."


Good luck Al.

bbl ... coffee time

******


The Draft Al Gore Petition jumped from 137 K late yesterday, to 154 K this morning!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/algor...

**********

Repost from lastnight thread thanks to mprov

Dear Mark,

I just got a call from Vice President Al Gore. He told me that he needs to travel abroad tomorrow for an exciting and urgent mission that could result in a major breakthrough in the fight against global warming.

Unfortunately, this means that we must postpone our Thursday, October 11th event with him until Friday, November 9th. I wanted to be sure to email you tonight in case you were planning on attending.

While I am really disappointed that we won't see Al Gore until next month, I am thrilled that he is continuing to provide critical leadership to address one of the most pressing issues of our time. You should know that only the most urgent global warming mission has called him out of the country.

I look forward to seeing you on November 9th so we can all hear first-hand about Al Gore's latest exciting initiatives. We will be back in touch in the coming days with more details about the rescheduled event.

Thank you so much for your continued friendship and support!

Barbara Boxer

*was going to be:

Tickets for this Thursday night's rally in San Francisco with Senator Barbara Boxer, Vice President Al Gore, and the incredible musicians Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne are going fast. As one of Barbara's strongest grassroots supporters, we want you to be a part of it, too.


********


My hopes to you Mr. Gore for a much deserved Nobel Peace Prize

But hey, I'm not Armenian American, so what do I care.

Bush is right.

drive-by

Gore/Boxer

and yes former; sitka got that one right

BREAKING NEWS: Marines propose leaving Iraq and moving to Afghanistan.

Good morning all!!!

I hope Al Gore wins the Nobel. I am even more hopeful that he will indeed run this time around. What better platform to promote saving our planet than as POTUS?

Fingers crossed.

yes, phil and former......and I will repost the video of Jimmy Carter on Iran with Harry Smith.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/...

needs I E

why do you make me sign in everyday dfa ?

Infowars.net | October 10 , 2007
Steve Watson

In a series of interviews to promote his new book, Revolution of Hope , former Mexican leader Vicente Fox has trumpeted rampant globalization and has declared anyone who opposes such "harmonization" and diminishment of sovereignty "racist" and "xenophobic".

Over the course of a week Fox has called for a North American Union, a single North American currency and a complete overhaul of the U.S. immigration policy to allow more Mexicans to legally enter the country.

To the wild cheers of the Daily Show audience Fox called for U.S. immigration reform stating "It's my impression that fear is guiding public opinion here and xenophobia. They are thinning the space because Congress has not decided yet, it is a hundred year old issue, immigration, and I think they can come up with a very wise solution to immigration because it's a win-win situation, everybody will be better off."

(Article Continues Below)

When asked if he supported globalization through NAFTA, Fox responded:

"Yes, absolutely, NAFTA has been good, as a matter of fact we should have a new vision, go further, integrating and working together to build a better future for both.

"That happened with Spain and with the European Union with them joining the union and having access to those huge cohesive bonds, they were able to overcome poverty and today Spain, or Ireland or Greece or Portugal are all very successful nations, what you need is a little bit of solidarity."

Stewart then went on to ask "Would you like to see a North American Union with the U.S. Mexico, and Canada, you want Canada in there?"

To which Fox responded "Yes long term, yes."

DRAFT GORE . COM placed a FULL PAGE ad in the New York Times yesterday as an open letter to Al Gore and why we neeed him to seek the Presidency. It was great.

I'll save from posting, but you'll need to click on this link to see the pdf of the ad.

http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Dr...

Annilow--expect that Rush's problem with the "fairness doctrine" was that it demanded equal time.  "Equality" I've decided is the big bugaboo.  After all, wasn't that what the communists tried to do, make everybody equal?  That they failed is a source of great consolation to our conservatives.  The last thing they want is equality.  It's getting nearer to equality that they resent in same-sex marriage--yet another effort to erase "natural" distinctions.

For some reason, these people aren't content with the knowledge that each and every human is unique and distinct from every other.  They have to be part of a uniform group that's different from and better than every other. 

The British government decided that it would be a good idea to send copies of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to all schools, with then Environment Secretary (now Foreign Secretary) David Miliband declaring that “the debate over science is over.” Well, it may be, but not in the way Gore portrays it. A truck driver and school governor, Stuart Dimmock, took the government to court, alleging that the film portrays “partisan political views,” the promotion of which is illegal in schools under the Education Act 1996.

The judge has decided that this is indeed the case and that the Government’s guidance notes that accompanied the film exacerbated the problem. For the film to be shown in schools, therefore, several facts would have to be drawn to students’ attention:

In order for the film to be shown, the Government must first amend their Guidance Notes to Teachers to make clear that 1.) The Film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument. 2.) If teachers present the Film without making this plain they may be in breach of section 406 of the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination. 3.) Eleven inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children.

The inaccuracies are:

* The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government’s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct.
* The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years.
* The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that it was “not possible” to attribute one-off events to global warming.
* The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that this was not the case.
* The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm.
* The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant’s evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility.
* The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim.
* The film suggests that the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia.
* The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting, the evidence was that it is in fact increasing.
* The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration.
* The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.

This is a far better result than refusing to allow the film to be shown at all. It requires that students be told by teachers that Al Gore is factually inaccurate, misleading and - in one case - making things up. These inconvenient truths for the former Vice President have been covered up or obscured by the hype surrounding his film. Students will now realize that there are significant shortcomings and inaccuracies in the way the global warming scare has been presented to them. This is a victory for honest debate, a victory for science and a victory for education.

The comprehensive guide to Gore's innacuracies is, of course, Marlo Lewis' "Al Gore's Science Fiction."

11.  The problem is probably with your browser.  If it doesn't accept all cookies, including from the third party tracker, DFA won't recognize you computer when you return.

Check you preferences.  Make sure they are set to "accept all cookies."  Then log into BFA.  When you're done for the day, close your browser, saving the preferences.  The next time you open your browser, check preferences and select discard cookies when browser is closed (if that's what you want).  It should only affect new cookies that come in from sites you visit. 

14.

...

"global warming scare"

...

+++ 

Al Gore has done more to advance the work of scientists than George Bush and his global warming deniers have done to tear down the work of scientists.

No film, no book, no speech, no written statement (including blogged ones) are entirely accurate, a perfect encapsulation of the truth.

But Gore has done more to advance the science, the environment and the peace of the world than most other inhabitants, including Bush, you, I or a judge and a school governor in Britian.

I hope Al wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

14.  It is good for students to learn that science is a matter of forming hypotheses which are then tested to disprove them.  The only certainty is in the negative, e.g. "hot" is "not cold"

There are no scientific proofs.  There are mathematical proofs, but these are totally artificial--as is our alphabet, something the human mind has invented. 

17.  There is no truth.  How can there be in a state of constant change?

It seems like deniers (of global warming, of the Turkish genocide of the Armenians, etc.) always like to insert themselves into discussions.

I've never seen 14.'s handle on this blog before. 

Some people complain that there's no new blood here.  LOL

Walk the Talk?

Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."

ON DEADLINE: Your thoughts?

Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.

For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)

Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.

Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.

But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.

Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.

Maybe our very existence isn't threatened.

Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.

Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either.

Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.

The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives.

Peter Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy.

23. 

Might at least a first time greeting be in order from the newbie ? LOL

LOL

S Jackson...is that you?????


Well, see now you went over board to show that you just like to post propaganda....you post upthread is known lies put out by Exxon/Mobil sponsored Political Orgs and untrue.


Mr. Gore's remodeled home a 100 yr old, completely remodeled received TOP LEED Environmental rating for the Green home.

GOP Lawyer Ties Rove to Siegelman Case
By Susan Crabtree, The Hill

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) on Wednesday released an interview with GOP lawyer Dana Jill Simpson implicating former White House adviser Karl Rove in the prosecution and conviction of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) on corruption charges.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=nod...

LOL...is it new or old disguised? :)

Well, it's two weeks to my wife and I's trip to Sierra Leone.  As tourists (visiting her relatives but staying in a hotel, eating at restaurants, having tailors fit and create African gowns for us, etc.), we'll be doing our part, after 15 years away, to contribute to the fledgling but hopefully post-war rebounding tourism industry there:

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2007-10-10T233049Z_01_L02884684_RTRUKOC_0_UK-LEONE-TOURISM.xml

By Katrina Manson

BOBOH, Sierra Leone (Reuters) - Boboh village used to do a roaring trade in the "Pa Gbana" cocktail, a mix of fermented local grasses, coconut and lime favoured by tourists to wash down freshly-cooked lobster.

Nowadays there is little demand for the drink, named after the village's oldest resident: the only foreigners on Boboh's pristine beaches, south of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown, are development workers taking time out.

The former British colony's 1991-2002 civil war, which killed 50,000 people and horrified the world with images of Kalashnikov-toting child soldiers high on drugs, destroyed what was once a lucrative tourism industry.

In the heyday of the 1980s more than 30,000 people visited every year, many of them arriving by helicopter and checking into exclusive beachside hotels.

Since the war, the numbers have dwindled to almost zero. Resorts were vandalized by rebels, foreign investors fled and unemployment spiralled.

But hopes are rising that tourists could return again after this year's largely peaceful presidential election, the first since United Nations peacekeepers left after the war and won by an opposition candidate promising to fight corruption.

"The biggest challenge that Sierra Leone faces is tackling the negative perceptions that have been caused by years of war," said Bimbola Carrol, a Sierra Leonean keen to leave London and move back home to run his own travel business.

"I love telling everyone how beautiful and misunderstood Sierra Leone is," said Carrol, who created a tourism website, Visit Sierra Leone.

The site had more than 2 million visits in August, a promising sign for a country where 70 percent of people live below the poverty line.

"If managed properly, the benefits of tourism can feed directly into local communities and help alleviate poverty," Carrol said.

POST-ELECTION OPTIMISM

Five years have passed since the end of the war but the West African country still receives fewer than 4,000 tourists a year.

The Western Peninsula's 40 km (25 miles) of unspoiled beaches south of the hot, hilly capital Freetown stand empty.

...

President Ernest Bai Koroma has vowed to shift the small economy's emphasis from mining to agriculture and tourism.

His party manifesto promised a focus on nature and heritage tourism, partly to encourage African-Americans to retrace their roots and visit 18th century slave-trading sites in the country.

...

EXOTIC DESTINATION

Home to rare birds and threatened species such as the pygmy hippopotamus, Diana monkey and chimpanzees, Sierra Leone hopes its rainforests and tiny exotic islands will attract ecotourists and sports fishermen.

...

Interesting interview in my email this morning

The Real Blackwater Scandal: Build a Frontier, You Get Cowboys, Part II

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-cusac...

Klein: You hear people complain about how Hezbollah is a "state-within-a-state" in Lebanon -- what about Blackwater in the USA? And that's just one company of hundreds, and a relatively small player compared to Lockheed and GE and Booz Allen. But once again, we can't keep being surprised by this shadow world -- it is an inevitable consequence of Rumsfeld's vision of an outsourced and contracted-out state. A right-wing journal in the U.S. called Blackwater "al Qaeda for the good guys" and it's a striking analogy. ....creating a market for alternative security forces, whether Hezbollah, Blackwater, the Mahdi Army or the gang down the street in New Orleans.

*rd, have a great trip.

And btw, to point out the blatant lies, in example, "But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences."


Al Gore pays much higher rates for 100 percent Energy from all renewable sources.

30.

thanks, I sure hope to

(and I'm plugging, shamelessly, obviously, for anyone else who wants to tourist to there too: http://www.visitsierraleone.org/ )

Gore to learn whether he'll win Nobel Peace Prize

Norwegian lawmaker said he nominated Al Gore for Nobel Peace Prize
Gore film, TV show garnered Oscar and Emmy awards
Draftgore.com appeals to Gore to run for president in New York Times ad


By Paul Steinhauser
CNN Washington Bureau




WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Will Al Gore add a Nobel Peace Prize to his Oscar and Emmy honors?

...

In the United States, Gore is very much a wanted man.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/11/g...

LOL....yes he is. :)

Might at least a first time greeting be in order from for the newbie ?

33. LOL, I dunno, so many places are being added to my list, and I haven't gone anywhere of late to cross any off-so that list is REALLY GROWING.

Our friends from Tunisia have really been educating us on the entire region's history and culture, but more specifically on Tunisia that sounds great...beautiful and a liberals and naturalists hedonism.

BREAKING NEWS: Marines propose leaving Iraq and moving to Afghanistan.

BREAKING NEWS: Dean's been right all along.

Wait a minute. That's not news. 

29.  Yes, that's how the world community refers to them--cowboys.  I rather think they're highwaymen.

you know, rd, I've mentioned it before, but current tv, I don't know if you get or go on line to them, but they really have many good pieces on Sierra Leone.

______________________

34.LOL Sitka, good one.

Oy vey Sitka, you make my sides hurt.

*rd

Find out if there are any ships going there from here.  Could be a cruise ship or a freighter. Even though I am prone to sea-sickness, that's the only way I'll travel across the ocean.  I understand that there are Polish freighters going from the Carolinas to Europe.  When all this mess is settled, that's one of the things I want to do.  Africa has always been a desired destination.

35.

Well, if you do decide to go, there's no direct flights.

So as far as I know (which is from the East coast), it's not direct flights.  You travel from America (ie. Boston or New York say) to either London or Paris, and then another airline from there to Freetown.

Expect to pay around $ 2000 per person roundtrip in total.  Hotels are not cheap either (this will change if the tourism industry builds up and there's more competition).

The plunging US $ doesn't help either. 

Thanks for the advice about current tv.

40.

The ship would take too long unfortunately, so flying is the option we choose.

(However, we did send via ship a 55-gallon oil barrel drum full of canned food stuffs, shoes, clothing, etc. at the end of last month that should arrive 5 weeks later in Freetown in early Nov when we are there.  The contents of the drum we will give out to relatives.)

BREAKING NEWS: Dean's been right all along.

___________________________________________________________________________

Umm, yes and no..........as far as afghanistan goes, if the marined had trouble with the iraqis, the afghans will really give em hell then...................

 The advantage with sending a typical steel drum versus a cardboard one ?

The metal one can be reused as a way to store water for drinking, cooking, etc.

Aids and the Polio Vaccine
Edward Hooper finds new evidence

There is a lot of information that WHO and CDC officials have not shared with the public about what forcing worldwide use of a live oral polio for 40 years has done. The Sabin live polio vaccine - which is the public health community's main claim to fame and fortune in the 20th century - may not only have unleashed the most feared autoimmune disorder to plague man in two centuries...

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n07/hoop01_.htm...

Even if Gore changes his mind and decides to join the fray, the clock's ticking on any run for the White House. "He certainly would shake up the race if he changed his mind and jumped in, but with the Iowa caucuses less than three months away, his window of opportunity to make a serious run for the democratic has probably closed," said CNN political editor Mark Preston.

Without conventional wisdom the corporate media would have none at all. Gore doesn't need to compete for the Iowa or Nevada caucuses. He's already won them once and possibly would again without lifting finger. But even if he didn't get the most turnout there, by not competing, any decent finish would be a win going into the real election in NH.

Umm, yes and no..........as far as afghanistan goes, if the marined had trouble with the iraqis, the afghans will really give em hell then...................

Yes and no is right. 

I say get out Afghanistan and the entire ME too. But the Marines having finally come around to understanding what Dean said years ago.

When it comes to being right, or at least righter than most, Nostradamus has nothing on Dean. 

DiCaprio, Clooney to star in movie about Howard Dean





Staff and Agencies

Thursday October 11, 2007

Guardian Unlimited

Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney are to star in a film loosely based on the rise and fall of presidential hopeful Howard Dean. The Warner Bros production will be based on a stage-play written by Beau Willimon, a former assistant on the Dean campaign.



Entitled Farragut North, after a Washington Metro station in the heart of the lobbyist district, the film sounds like darker version of Joe Roth's Primary Colours. It tells the tale of a youthful communications guru working for a principled but unorthodox politician who finds himself undone by a slick and corrupt Washington establishment. Currently in rehearsal, Willimon's stage-play is set to open on Broadway in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. Mike Nichols is directing.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2188505,00.html 

DiCaprio, Clooney to star in movie about Howard Dean

The legend keeps growing. A few more years and people will be saying, "Maybe we misjudged that Dean fella. Is he still available?"

49.

Sitka
Thu, 10/11/07
11:32 am

...A few more years and people will be saying, "Maybe we misjudged that Dean fella. Is he still available?"
----------

...lol, hopefully, by that time people will realize that he was/is right...and accordingly they should handle the matter by themselves.

I really don't believe the movie should be about the *rise and fall of Howard Dean*. I guess that just means the fall of the campaign. But Howard is having the last laugh since he was and still is right about so many issues before us today. Clooney and DiCaprio get it IMO.

But the Marines having finally come around to understanding what Dean said years ago.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Well, if thats true then its a start.........the Marines should also be required to read ALL US foreign policy since 1945................then theyll really be confused about just what the hel they are supposed to be defending............

Good luck to Arizona.........Im pulling for Colorado........anybody but Boston or Cleveland

51.

George Clooney has impressed me for sometime now (an ER graduate that has shown much promise and accomplishment).

Kudos to him for starring in the upcoming movie about Howard, about pushing the issue of comdemning the genocide in Darfur and about him backing Obama for President.

mary, I guess they are talking only the presidential campaign, vs ....2.0  :)

I wrote to Clooney last year thanking him for his voice on Darfur.



...that I had my letter posted, (then) 2 years prior ...even in the Cincinnati Enquirer, about the horrible situation.

(I'm sure he knew what that meant considering he grew up in the area and his father quit his longtime radio show to run for Congress in 04, and after decades, they trashed him like he was the devil)

I really don't believe the movie should be about the *rise and fall of Howard Dean*.

That's what makes it a compelling story going back to the ancient Greeks.

Jimmy Carter is on Thom Hartmann discussing an attack on Iran would be a bigger disaster than even IRAQ!

Turkey criticizes panel's resolution on genocide

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Turkey swiftly condemned a US House panel's approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, accusing the lawmakers Thursday of distorting history.

Has Congress ever gotten around to condemning genocide against Native Americans? 

If so, I can't find it. 

Jimmy Carter is on Thom Hartmann discussing an attack on Iran would be a bigger disaster than even IRAQ!

He was on Blitzer yesterday and took no prisoners -- asked if he thinks Bush uses torture and violates the Charter of Human Rights and Geneva Convention, he said "I know it."

"The Sinking Dollar!"

Look at that graph below. That’s a bull market in action.  It just can no longer be held back.  I’ve watched gold shifting back and forth and there is clearly resistance above 700. Yes, there below is my baby. Struggling now to top out at 750 an ounce. Go for it little one.

"Inflation is completely out of control and the Fed, hiding behind phony government numbers that purport otherwise, has the green light to add additional fuel to inflation’s fire. It’s the ultimate irony that the lower the official preferred measures of inflation are (core CPI or the core Personal Consumption Expenditure Index,) the worse inflation actually gets."

http://www.kitco.com/ind/vaughn/oct112007.html

OMG, the petition site just jumped over 1000 sig's in less than an hour.

Oh my, from the site, "I mistakingly voted for W the 1st time. Shame on me, i let your PMRC quest blind me. I voted for kerry last election, but want the opportunity to right my wrong from 2000. Been a stubborn Republican my whole life. I started listening with my heart, and realize your right about Global Warming and so many other issues. I no longer have party, i'm just a conservative...but a conservative who is ready to vote for YOU!"

The cute factor at the fair
Young farm animals have pet potential — for a short time.

By Farin Montañez / The Fresno Bee 10/08/07 23:00:00

"Aww, how cute!" is the reaction of many people as they pass newborns at the Big Fresno Fair.

But it's not the human babies they're cooing over.

The cutest newborns are found in the Foster Farms Dairy Animal Birthing Center. ...full article and lots of photos:
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/15939...


----

Bidders' strategy of subtlety
Buyers at the Fresno fair's livestock auction move coyly so others don't decide to pursue their quarry.

By Diana Marcum / The Fresno Bee10/10/07 00:00:00

The auctioneer knows exactly what's going on, raising the price of a heifer by $100 a shot with a roll of words that sounds pretty much like, "Hey-batter-batter-batter-hey."

Eddie Vivenzi, the 71-year-old ringman, is also clued in. He's running around answering each raised brow, each half nod and discreet brushing of the nose with a "HA!" that marks a bid.

But the question at hand for the urban dweller getting a glimpse of a dairy livestock auction at The Big Fresno Fair is:

What just happened? Did that guy just bid?

The one who moved neither head nor hand. The one sitting right there, not 2 feet away. His eyes did seem to, well, flash, but it was fleeting, barely perceptible....full article and auction photos: http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/16039...

# 34    Is that a donkey ? Welcome !  (lol)

Join Thousands Of Homeowners and Real Estate Professionals That Say The St. Joseph Statue Tradition Really Works!:http://stjosephstatue.com/

Saint's alive
Sellers are turning to religion in struggling real estate market.

With a slow real estate market, more and more home sellers are turning to St. Joseph to help them sell their homes."


That's right, Joseph, husband of Mary and earthly father of Jesus.

Legend has it that if home sellers bury a statue of St. Joseph in their yard, their homes will sell quickly.

San Joaquin Religious Goods in Fresno sells about three statues a day for this purpose. You can even buy a kit; those are on back order at the store. There's a book about the saint as a real estate agent and one online seller of St. Joseph kits has a "St. Joseph Believer's home listings" page on his Web site.

For Rachel Engle, a real estate agent with London Properties in Fresno, her use of St. Joseph started as a joke.

She was trying to sell her parents' house last summer after they moved to Florida. They had lowered the price four times and after seven months it still hadn't sold.

Engle's fiancé bought a St. Joseph kit from eBay.

"It was kind of a funny thing," she said. "It was like, 'OK, let's try it.' "

So one night when they were at the house watering roses, they said a prayer and buried St. Joseph in the backyard next to a fountain -- with a healthy dose of skepticism.

"Right after we did that we actually found a buyer and it sold," said Engle. "We really don't believe it. It's just kind of funny that it's a coincidence."

Whether St. Joseph is really helping out the faithful or the practice is just a superstition isn't clear.

Phil Cates of Modesto, who founded StJosephStatue.com in 1990, sells home-selling kits for $9.95 and $13.95. A pamphlet instructs sellers to bury Joseph upside down near the "for sale" sign. When the house sells, they are supposed to dig Joseph up and put him in a place of honor in the new home.

Condominium owners and others without yards are instructed to use a flower pot.

The Internet, of course, is full of recommendations and stories, including burying Joseph upside down because he'll work extra hard to get out. Some say St. Joseph is sometimes depicted as bald because he's been buried that way so many times.

Others recommend he be buried on his back, facing the house or away from the house.

Snopes.com, the Web site for urban legends and rumors, tells of one person who pointed the saint away from the house. The house across the street sold and it didn't even have a "for sale" sign up.

Nonetheless, Cates says his business is booming. ...full article: http://www.fresnobee.com/305/story/15157...

Jim Dean blogging at Open Left.

http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1833

I'm Jewish, Susan, and I've been trying to sell my house for some time.  I don't want to be disrespectful, but it seems like burying a saint upside down is kind of..mean.

Can't I just go straight for St. John McCain?  Or how about St. Cheny?

Can't I just go straight for St. John McCain?  Or how about St. Cheny?

They'll be buried with their head up their ass. 

Low-tech Learning
Fresno City College loses power when cat gets into electrical substation.

By Doug Hoagland / The Fresno Bee

A cat prowling in an electrical substation at Fresno City College on Tuesday afternoon caused a power outage that led college officials to evacuate the campus because they couldn't ensure student safety during the blackout....

...Two disabled students in wheelchairs were stuck on second floors in two buildings, and because elevators weren't working, the students had to be carried downstairs by personnel from the Fresno Fire Department, college officials said. ...full story and photo: http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/16040...

"The Sinking Dollar!"

"Its decline to a nine-year low is impacting everything from the price of goods at Wal-Mart to the vigor of Europe's economy." "The sinking US dollar in recent weeks has raised what is suddenly a top concern from Washington to Berlin and Beijing…" Footnote

And all around us the dollar continues to weaken and the economy fights for survival.

"…the downside could be significant. America, the world's leading importer of goods, is now buying them at higher prices. And if the dollar's dive makes foreign investors wary, US interest rates may have to rise to attract buyers of federal debt”. “More broadly, it's a shock to the global economy." Footnote

But what is the main news today? The dollar continues to sink and to lose credibility.

"Sunday in Germany, officials from the Group of 20 industrial and major developing countries called for the United States to cut its federal deficit, which is seen as a key factor in the dollar's fall."....

"While the shift isn't entirely new, it has accelerated since President Bush's reelection. Some observers say the timing reflects concern that Mr. Bush - with his emphasis on tax cuts - won't be able to rein in record budget deficits." "How far could the dollar fall? Some see another 20 percent as possible…"

http://www.kitco.com/ind/vaughn/oct11200...

Just want to say HI and have to go back to work. thanks rdorgan and Monica for insights into Rush/Fairness Doctrine and Turks and genocide. This is a great thread.

HQ -- first time in forever, if I click on a link and back up to the blog it breaks the thread and you have to refresh -- in other words -- our borg has a new quirk! I think it's safe to say we have a new? troll too.

TTFN to quote Paine.

PS rdorgan - have a wonderful trip - please take animal pictures - the San Jose zoo has or used to have a pygmy hippo. She was cute but I felt sorry for her in her little enclosure. She did have a nice pool and was well fed and kept clean.

OK Bye.

I saw an article (reference above about implicating Rove in something in Alabama, there was an article last couple of days he has engaged some super duper white collar defense attorney -- wonder if there's a connection.

71. and also the one about HIV and the polio vaccine -- very thought provoking.

BYE

Family files lawsuit over lost fetus
Community Regional Medical Center accused of wrongfully disposing of a stillborn.

By Tracy Correa / The Fresno Bee1

The family of an Avenal woman, who died nearly three months after her 23-week-old fetus was surgically removed, has filed a lawsuit against Community Regional Medical Center alleging the hospital wrongfully disposed of the stillborn.

According to the lawsuit, the Contreras family, including Maria Contreras, the woman who died, were told by hospital employees that the fetus would be preserved. Instead, the hospital disposed of the fetus without consent, denying the family the opportunity to bury Maria and the developing baby together. ...full story: http://www.fresnobee.com/business/story/...

---

Lawsuit pushes appeals process
Visalian sues state high court over way it uses previous opinions.

By Michael Doyle / Bee Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- An errant paintball partially blinded Joshua Hild. It also opened his eyes to how courts work.
Hild won $704,633 in a civil lawsuit, only to lose the award in an appellate court.

Now, in a potentially groundbreaking federal lawsuit, the former resident of tiny Big Creek is challenging how judicial opinions are used while he gets a crash course in the law.

"I've learned that it's not always just," Hild said Tuesday.

The 19-year-old -- who now lives in Visalia and works in an Applebee's there -- is suing the California Supreme Court to reverse its practice of largely ignoring unpublished court opinions. In California, these opinions disposing of routine cases can't be cited as precedent. They also become difficult to appeal. ...full article: http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/16038...

I would guess that some Marines HAVE to go to Afghanistan because...

Authorities on Tuesday shut down the Afghan-run security companies Wathan and Caps and 82 illegal weapons were found during the two raids ..http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21246718/

Yes - they're in Afghanistan, too -- cowboy mercenaries from many countries - Columbia, South Africa.  NOT all Americans and...not all very nice people.

Suit filed today against Blackwater by Iraqi's.

These 'security people' aren't trained like our soldiers - in regard to Geneva Convention or human rights..    I don't think they even have background checks.  They're under stress, too - like our troops and - with NO over-site.  Makes you wonder if all the private armies got together --- they could be the LARGEST ARMY IN THE WORLD. WARNING!

Are There Too Many Dollar Bears?

...In actuality, officially benign inflation statistics (which are coming at a time when actual inflation is getting worse) give the Fed further cover to create even more inflation. So the dollar is not weak because inflation is under control as the consensus believes, but because the opposite is true. Inflation is completely out of control and the Fed, hiding behind phony government numbers that purport otherwise, has the green light to add additional fuel to inflation’s fire. It’s the ultimate irony that the lower the official preferred measures of inflation are (core CPI or the core Personal Consumption Expenditure Index,) the worse inflation actually gets...

http://www.kitco.com/ind/Schiff/oct05200...

new thread

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/22541...

45.

Even if Gore changes his mind and decides to join the fray, the clock's ticking on any run for the White House. "He certainly would shake up the race if he changed his mind and jumped in, but with the Iowa caucuses less than three months away, his window of opportunity to make a serious run for the democratic has probably closed," said CNN political editor Mark Preston.

That'e a pundit's position. A good candidate whose name is famous worldwide does not need to be in a "window of opportunity" to run in Iowa and win.

What he would need is to be get on the ballot for each state he would intend to run in before it's deadline.

Run, Al, run