Monday, July 31, 2006

Ailing Castro gives power to brother

Castro said he would also temporarily relinquish his duties as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba to Raul, who turned 75 in June and who has been taking on a more public profile in recent weeks....more
Lebanon oil spill crisis

The Lebanese government has appealed for help to clean up a huge oil spill along its coastline created after Israel bombed a power plant....more

I Think The Folk's At The Ministry of Tourism Are Out Of A Job?

LEBANON: An environmental disaster looms

This Look's Like A Job For Halliburton.When all this fighting is over, just think of all the big fat contracts Halliburton can get for reconstructing a ruined Lebanon


Too Late for Empire
Jonathan Schell
Anyone who wants to write about the constitutional crisis unfolding in the United States today faces a peculiar problem at the outset.....more

Lieberman's shameless race baiting flyer (and a few words)

Here's the racist flyer from team Joementum that everyone is dying to see. Read it and puke....more



Assad tells Syrian army to get ready

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told the Syrian military to raise its readiness, pledging not to abandon support for Lebanese resistance against Israel....more
A tragic reminder of the slave trade

The Senegalese seem to really like Americans, which may seem odd these days, as ninety percent of them are Moslems.....more

Mayor envisions no-car downtown

A bus system, called circulators, would take residents between home and work and a night on the town by 2010.....more

Sunday, July 30, 2006


Israeli attack draws outrage

Western and Arab leaders have condemned Israel's attack on a village in south Lebanon. Close to 550 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's 19-day-old war on Lebanon....more

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Timeless Cartoon
Republicans afraid to say they are…Republicans
Nasrallah: Israel wants cease-fire, U.S. opposed

In a televised speech Saturday evening, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah vowed rocket strikes on towns in central Israel....more

Israel is serving its American master

How can the American people accept their elected President (?) George W. Bush's rejection of a ceasefire?
Judge to Bucs: No more fan patdowns

The team's security policy of patdown searches for fans at home games is unconstitutional, a federal judge rules. "A generalized fear of terrorism should not diminish the fundamental Fourth Amendment protection envisioned by our Founding Fathers.....more

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Gone with the wind

Since hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans almost a year ago, the population has halved. Amid the debris and regret, Gary Younge finds a city losing its soul.....more
Graham CRACKer Crust Bust
Who knew “New York-style cheesecake” meant “with a side of crack”?

When The Bitch heard that employees of three prominent CocoWalk eateries had been busted for running informal pharmacological operations, she got on the case; the touristy shopping zone may not contain a Nordstrom, but, hey, it's within trotting distance.....more

Friday, July 28, 2006

Denmark is the happiest country in the world

Danes came out top in the survey that measured health, wealth, education, sense of identity and the aesthetic quality of the landscape. The United States was 23rd, Germany came in at number 35, and Britain ranked 41st....more
Chicago Approves Living Wage Over Objections of Mayor, Wal Mart
The Chicago City Council has approved a measure requiring large retailers to pay employees a living wage – making Chicago the largest city with such a rule....more
"You know Ann Coulter? She was on CNBC today and she said 'Bill Clinton is gay.' Please, just because she's the only woman on the planet he wouldn't have sex with doesn't make him gay.".......Jay Leno
Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah

At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight....more

Al-Qaida's called Thursday for Muslims to unite in a holy war against Israel'

Can Democrats Take Back the U.S. House? Is Florida a Battleground?

Given the shift in the electorate, the shockwaves could reach far from Washington DC, through Tallahassee, to cities and counties across Florida......more
Among the nation's dirtiest

Progress Energy's power plant in Crystal River has four coal units - and once again, it makes a national list of polluters.....more
Beltway planned to skirt Tampa
The toll road would run from the northern part of Manatee County, through eastern Hillsborough, west across southern Pasco County and into northern Pinellas....more

"Our emphasis needs to be on mass transit, not additional beltways and expressways," Mayor Pam Iorio

Thursday, July 27, 2006


Harris Demands Dean Apologize For Comparison To Stalin

TAMPA, Fla. -- U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' Senate campaign demanded an apology Thursday from Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, who during a Florida stop this week likened her to former Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin....more
Israel’s Barrier to Peace

Editor’s note: The former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times and author of the bestseller “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” examines the way Israel’s security wall has ripped a mortal gash in the lives of Palestinians living in its shadow, and argues that there can be no hope for peace in the Middle East as long as America continues to aid Israel in its dehumanizing practices....more
Howard Dean compares Katherine Harris to Stalin

West Palm Beach -- Democrat leader Howard Dean called the Iraqi prime minister an "anti-Semite" during an address before party loyalists on Wednesday. The Democratic National Committee chairman also called Republican Senate candidate Katherine Harris a "crook" and compared her to Stalin....more

Blood in Beirut: $75.05 a Barrel

The failure to stop the bloodletting in the Middle East, Exxon’s record second-quarter profits and Iran’s nuclear cat-and-mouse game have something in common — it’s the oil....more

Americans 'too fat for x-rays'

Some scans are unable to penetrate the excess fat
Increasing numbers of Americans are becoming too fat to fit into X-ray machines, US researchers report
.....more

Narcotics for Sale at Drug Clinics

Doctors at some drug treatment clinics in Turkmenistan are selling illegal narcotics instead of treating their patients....more

President Bush Sues Dixie Chicks over Hail to the Chief

Acting on information gained from cell phone surveillance, President Bush filed suit in a Washington, D.C., court yesterday to stop the Dixie Chicks from using "Hail to the Chief" to herald their arrival on stage during their present concert tour....more

South African site helps HIV sufferers find love on line

South African Ben Sassman, founder of the Internet web site "The Positive Connection," seen here 10 July 2006 in Johannesburg....more

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Why Is the US in Iraq?
David Corn

Bush has led the United States into a rough thicket in Iraq. It has taken him months--perhaps years--to acknowledge the troubles there....more


About the other day...here


Peres to Lebanese: It's us or Hezbollah

Vice Premier Shimon Peres yesterday called on the citizens of Lebanon to get Hezbollah to disarm. "We are distressed to see how time and again your green country turns into burned black patches and heaps of ruins,".....more


Ancient Psalms Found Preserved in Irish Bog

Some people call it the Irish equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls....more
Medea Benjamin Arrested For Disrupting Iraqi Prime Minister’s Congressional Address

"Iraqis want the troops to leave, bring them home now! Listen to the Iraqis!" Benjamin repeated the statement several times before she was forcefully lifted from her seat, handcuffed, and escorted out by Capitol police.....more


Meet: Suzanne Swift!
Spc. Swift, facing a redeployment to Iraq while serving under the command of the same individuals now under investigation for rape and sexual harassment, chose to go absent without leave rather than subjugate herself to the horrors she experienced during her first tour of duty....more
Despite 'The Incident' in 2003, Dixie Chicks still going strong
The album was a smash, selling 1,373,000 copies so far. There were a few problems on the road, some country fans didn't jam every venue (as the Chicks conservative TV and radio foes gleefully reported) but they remain a hot, creative music force....more

Dixie Chicks : The Accidents & Accusations Tour
Thu, Oct 5, 2006 07:30 PM



LA gangsters launch music careers

Auditions have been held in some of the toughest gang neighbourhoods in Los Angeles to try to find the next generation of rap stars.....more



Germany to open Holocaust archive

A German archive containing millions of files on Nazi warcrimes, including details on how the Holocaust was carried out, is to be opened to researchers for the first time....more

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Coastal Drilling's High Cost
Tyson Slocum is director of Public Citizen’s energy program.
Opening environmentally sensitive areas to oil and natural gas drilling won’t ease energy prices or reduce oil imports and should be rejected by the Senate when it votes this week.
With the November elections looming, congressional leaders are desperately seeking ways to convince the public that they are working to lower gas prices for consumers and improve national security by reducing energy imports, but this isn’t the way to do it....more
Spazeboy and Jane Speak Out



Hands Off Connecticut
Here we go again … There is a grass-roots movement picking up steam in the nutmeg state, but the old guard is rushing in to maintain the status quo. Bill Clinton is rushing to Connecticut to save Joseph Lieberman for the party insiders who don't want to lose their power in the party....more

Lieberman Camp Responds To Charges They Barred Lamont Supporter From Event


Howard Dean
In Tampa

Mirta's Coffeehouse & Gallery
119 S. Hyde Park Ave.Tampa
Wednesday, July 26th 6:30pm

Veep Veep
The conventional wisdom that there's a predictable political divide between the two dailies – Trib = Republican, Times = Democrat – isn't always borne out by the evidence. But you had to be struck by the placement of stories today about the visit to Tampa of Vice President Cheney....more





Bombings Hit Children Hardest
About 55 percent of all casualties at the Beirut Government University Hospital are children of 15 years of age or less, hospital records show....more




Fox News chairman Ailes calls Olbermann `over the line'
Fox News Channel chairman and CEO Roger Ailes responded to Keith Olbermann's latest critical volley against Bill O'Reilly on Monday, saying the MSNBC host's behavior "is over the line."....more






Man gets 25 years for Ybor City death brawl
Michael Pyne was sentenced 25 years Monday for stabbing a man to death in Ybor City last June.....more

Monday, July 24, 2006







Lebanon and Israel: The war from where I stand

I was in Beirut only five weeks - or a lifetime ago, as things are measured in the Middle East. I fell in love with a once beautiful city that was ever so slowly recreating itself out of the rubble of a long and bloody civil war and previous Palestinian and Israeli battles in its streets....more

Pakistan 'building reactor for 50 nukes'
Pakistan is reported to be building a nuclear reactor that could produce enough plutonium for up to 50 nuclear weapons a year....more
Democrats lash Bush for losing Mideast control
Leading Democrats have attacked US President George W Bush for losing control of the Middle East by neglecting specific regional powers and sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on only a brief crisis trip.....more

Sunday, July 23, 2006




Morales rekindles revolutionary spirit

Summoning President Evo Morales at dawn to the great hall of the presidential palace, two poncho-clad Indian shamans pour alcohol on coca leaves, candies and a dried llama fetus, and set them on fire....more
Dixie Chicks - Shut Up & Listen





W.Va mill town suffers slow death
Mary Tice drove along Main Street, barely seeing the worn storefronts, the seedy strip clubs, the flashy video poker bars promising better luck....more
What to Read While the Cradle of Civilization Burns
The Middle East is both the birthplace of civilization and, as the globe's largest repository of fossil fuels, the mother's milk of the modern industrialized world....more
Afghanistan close to anarchy
The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan yesterday described the situation in the country as "close to anarchy" with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption....more



Weekend notes: It's not World War 3
This blog is a collection of things that I wrote in the past 48 hours....more
Republicans Reject Ralph Reed's Hypocrisy
For those who still claim that the Jack Abramoff scandal will not "play" politically, the Republican voters of Georgia beg to differ.....more
No, this is not 'our war'
We are not "all Israelis." Some of us still think of ourselves as Americans, first, last and always.
And, no, this is not "our war." It's your war.....more
Republican politics as sideshow
Six weeks ago the Senate rejected a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Last week the House did the same by a vote of 236 to 187. Now that this little partisan sideshow is behind them, maybe Republican congressional leaders will decide to get down to serious business....more

Friday, July 21, 2006



Wouldn't it be ironic...
...if on this coming Monday, former President Bill Clinton pulls a "Joe Biden" and somehow "misses his train to Connecticut"?.....more
The Hippies Behind the Youth Movement
During the 2004 election, the Dean campaign was credited with using the Internet in new ways, reaching out to voters many assumed were college youth, otherwise disconnected from politics....more
Chaos in Cyprus
Lebanese and foreigners have had a difficult time leaving Lebanon since the beginning of Israel's military offensive against Hezbollah. Many of the ships being used for the evacuation effort are badly equipped and horribly overcrowded. But those able to escape face further problems once they reach nearby Cyprus....more
1982 versus 2006
Many people see no difference between Israel's 1982 Lebanon War and the present war. For example, some Arabs are astounded that the Israeli public is supporting its government and its military moves. Thus the major differences between the two wars must be pointed out: namely, differences in background, objective and modus operandi.....more
'Lebanon crisis an international conspiracy'
The Israeli-Hezbollah conflict threatens to drag Syria, Iran and the US into a regional war....more
Dot-com ambitions live on in (Tampa) Bay area
Millions of people view videos at YouTube every day. Frank Principe believes he can build on the thousands who visit PitBullTV to make a mark as an Internet TV network.....more

Thursday, July 20, 2006

U.S. President avoids media after G8 summit
U.S. President George W. Bush was the only G8 leader who refused to talk to the press after the St. Petersburg summit.....more
Bush and African Americans
Given the disaster he ignored in New Orleans? He could rush to DC on a midnight flight to sign the "let's meddle in the Schiavo family's affairs" bill, but couldn't be bothered to cut his six-week vacation short when Katrina hit....more
PULL UP A CHAIR
Pinellas Democrats look for a leader.

When I last checked in with the local Democratic Party organizations (an oxymoron, I know), it was the Hillsborough executive committee that was torn with strife. Today, that divisiveness could be headed to a new home, at the Pinellas Democratic Party....more
Lebanon In Crisis; Bush, Most Democrats In Denial
A little more than a week of Israeli bombing and American neglect has created a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. In a country that just months ago was being written up in travel magazines as one of the world's next great tourist destinations....more
The Spirit of War
At the start of the Iraq war, the British columnist George Monbiot wrote, "They (the American and British governments) have unlocked the spirit of war, and it could be unwilling to return to its casket until it has traversed the world."....more

Monday, July 17, 2006

Bush "Will Be Given More Power to Eavesdrop" in Bill
The dispute over the Bush administration's secret eavesdropping of US citizens has reignited after it emerged the White House had brokered a deal with Congress that critics say gives it even greater flexibility to monitor phone calls electronically.....more



Strip club king goes to church
Hillsborough commission candidate and nonbeliever Joe Redner takes the pulpit....more

Sunday, July 16, 2006

IN THE PARTY OF GOD
Are terrorists in Lebanon preparing for a larger war?....more
Adolf Hitler
ORIGINAL Watercolor Artworks, For Sale....more
Family Guy Osama Bin Laden

Smart Girls Need Smart Porn
Sometimes I wonder how I would feel about pornography if I hadn't seen so much of it.....more
Study Finds Worst Performance in Conservative Christian Schools
The Federal Education Department reported Friday that, in reading and math, children attending public schools generally do as well as or better than comparable children in private schools. The exception was in eighth-grade reading, where the private-school children did better.....more
A U.S view: The summer vacation solution
I had a Canadian moment and an American moment within 24 hours of each other while on holiday this week....more
Senator Ted Stevens "Flintstonian" understanding of the Internet.
Murdoch taking MySpace down the tubes

When Alaska Senator Ted Stevens rambled nonsensically about the tubes our information goes through on the Internets we knew there was cause for concern....more
The Last of the "Sewer Socialists"

(Frank) Zeidler, an old-school American socialist who served three terms as the mayor of Milwaukee from 1948 to 1960, and who died last Friday at age 93, never got very far as a presidential candidate.....more