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

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

The Positive Connection

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

The Republican War

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

St Pete Times Forum, Tampa, FL

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

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

Phyllis Busansky

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

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

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

www.shutupandlisten.net

A girls' night out in Detroit

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

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

Lebanon Conflict Watched for War Crimes

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

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

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

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

Democrats need a new playbook

Democrats have failed to connect with swing voters not because they don't loudly wear their religion or stand for the wrong things. By and large, Americans support the Democratic side of issues ranging from increasing the minimum wage to universal health care and even legal abortion.....more

"We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly".....President Putin

Watch It Here, The World Laughing At Us

Inside Lebanon
For a newspaper from a city under air attack in a country subject to a military blockade, Lebanon's Daily Star is keeping remarkably positive in the face of the Israeli assault.....more

Five basic reasons that the enormous Roman Empire was destroyed:
1. The dramatic increase of divorce undermined the institution of the family.
2. The imposition of higher taxes undermined the economic stability and vitality of the Empire. Taxes were raised to pay for deficit government spending, to pay for food for all in society and to pay for government-sponsored activities of diversion, such as circuses and sports. Interestingly, as the time of the final collapse drew closer, greater emphasis was placed on sports, to divert the attention of the public from the distressing news of massive trouble within the Empire.
3. The drive for personal pleasure had become very intense, even to the point of obsession. Gibbons noted that, at the very end, sports had become more exciting and brutal.
4. People lost their faith, both religiously and in their government. Paganism gave way to Christianity and the efficient Roman Government gave way to chaos and disintegration.
5. Hidden conspirators were working within the government to secretly destroy it. They worked quietly, invisibly and deceitfully; during the entire time they were secretly dismantling the government of the Roman Empire, they publicly proclaimed their unswerving support of it.

Recognize any of the above 5 points occurring in Western societies today?

Homeless Take Fashion World by Storm

It Grow, Let It Grow, Let It Grow It’s 2006, and yet another style has emerged as the latest trend for fashionable men that may have you thinking twice before your next visit to SuperCuts. .....more

'We're going to open war'
"You wanted open war. We are going to open war," Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told Hezbollah television....more

U.S. Christian organizations back Lebanon operation
Jewish and pro-Israel Christian groups in both Israel and the United States voiced a chorus of support for the Israel Defense Forces' actions yesterday, the second day of fighting on the northern border....more

"This was certainly an unprovoked attack and Israel has every right to go in and pound them," said Ray Sanders, executive director of Christian Friends of Israel. "

Blood on the streets

In Lebanon, the death toll from three days of air strikes and shelling rose to 65, most of them civilians.....more

US prepares to evacuate nationals from Lebanon

Italy began evacuating its nationals from Lebanon Saturday while the United States, France and the Netherlands prepared to do the same as Israeli planes pounded the country....more

The Hawks All Around Got What They Wanted. May Their God Have Mercy On Them All. As For These U.S. Christian Organizations, Stogie Recommends VIONEX Antimicrobial Soap. It Is Very Good At Getting Blood Off Your Hands.

Atheism

Man in Coma for 19 Years Asks to Go Back to Sleep

In what members of the medical community are calling an unprecedented development, a man who recently awoke from a 19-year coma has asked doctors to put him back to sleep.
At a press conference in Jacksonville, Fla., today, the man, Jason Deloit, 43, told reporters that at first he was excited to be conscious again, “But then I turned on the TV.”....more

Grass Roots Granny Takes on Senior House Republican in Florida Congressional Race

Anybody who is concerned about their individual freedoms needs to sound an alarm. I've been watching our Constitution crumble since 2000, and in January of 2006, after watching more of the President's rhetoric about terrorism and the war in Iraq, I felt compelled to run....more

Samm Simpson For Congress

Fleeing China, Landing in Guantanamo

In 2000, five men left their homes in northern China to escape the prospect of torture and imprisonment. They dreamed of a future in the United States. Caught up in America's war on terror along the way, they instead ended up in Guantanamo. It's been six years since they last saw their families.....more

Lest we forget: Patio 29
Today Chile declared the Patio 29 Cemetary a national monument. This is where many victims of the dictatorship were buried in unmarked graves during the 70s and 80s. Between 1973 and 1990 3,000 Chileans were killed or assassinated and 28,000 --excuse me, that number bears repeating-- twenty-eight thousand people were tortured!......more

Wes Clark Writes a Thank-You Note
I am a proud member of the Democratic Party, and I believe it is our party’s responsibility to support the will of the Democratic primary voters in Connecticut. I personally look forward to supporting the candidate CT voters elect as the Democratic nominee. Though, as an aside, I must say I find it ironic that Senator Lieberman is now planning a potential run as an independent after he continually questioned my loyalty to the Democratic Party during the 2004 presidential primary....more

PRINCES' FURY AT DYING DIANA PHOTO
Sickening crash picture is published for first time

A SICK photo of dying Princess Diana has sparked outrage after it appeared in two magazines. Her two sons, Princes William and Harry, were today said to be "deeply saddened" by the publication....more

Chi editor Umberto Brindani shamelessly bragged: "I published it for a very simple reason - it's never been seen before."

The Work Continues