To everyone who has
defended this country, via arms or support: Thank you. This is
not enough, but until we have adults running the country it will have
to do.
The fraud
perpetrated in the Pat
Tillman case -- just like the similar fraud perpetrated in the
Jessica Lynch case -- was not unusual. But its high-profile victim
ensured that a critically important lesson was illustrated: namely,
just how deceitful the propaganda is when the military issues
politically self-serving claims which a complicit media then
dutifully and uncritically recites ("Pat Tillman heroically killed by
enemy fire" -- "Jessica Lynch battles the Enemy to the end and is
rescued from her Iraqi torture chamber" -- "the U.S. military is
vanquishing al Qaeda and making Iraq safe for freedom").
After refusing to support the Webb
amendment giving the troops a decent interval between
deployments, the blocking the defense authorization bill, President
Bush and the Republicans are now wailing
that the Democrats are refusing to give the military a pay
raise.
This is the same pay raise that was part of
the defense authorization bill they just blocked and the same pay
raise the president himself threatened to veto just two months ago.
It was reported at
the time that the Bush administration "'strongly opposes' both
the 3.5 percent raise for 2008 and the follow-on increases, calling
extra pay increases 'unnecessary.'"
Sen. Harry Reid,
D-Nev., responded to Bush's hypocritical taunts today with this:
Democrats
and a majority of Americans believe that supporting the troops means
rebuilding our overburdened military and redeploying our troops from
an Iraqi civil war. It is the height of hypocrisy for a President
whose Administration has sent our brave men and women into combat
without the proper equipment, recuperation time, training or strategy
for success to lecture Congress about supporting the
troops.
If our military's wellbeing were truly a
priority for this President, as he indicated this morning, why has
his Administration for the past several months opposed military pay
raises as too costly and blocked everything we have done to support
the troops? I hope, but highly doubt, that President Bush will one
day realize that supporting our troops is more than a slogan or a
photo op.
Bush Lying About War Casualties, Refuses To Honor All
Those Who Died In Wars He Started
Here comes another dirty little secret about the
Bushites' disastrous Iraq war: Many more American troops have died
there than they have admitted. These troops aren't part of the Army
or other official military units. They are part of the hidden
"contract army" that Bush has quietly sent to war. While there are
about 150,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq, there are more than
120,000 other men and women serving alongside the military, but
drawing their paychecks through such Pentagon contractors as
Halliburton, Blackwater, DynCorp, and Custer
Battles.
Bush's corporate army not only provides
support services -- including doing laundry, serving meals and
delivering water - but it also is engaged in such direct military
functions as interrogating prisoners, training the Iraq army,
guarding the Green Zone, protecting military convoys, analyzing
intelligence, and providing paramilitary
security.
These are hired hands, not soldiers, and
mostly they lack the training, discipline, and equipment of the
regular forces -- yet they're thrown into the same deadly
environment, getting shot, bombed, maimed, and killed. Yet, the
Bushites don't even keep count of them. A spokesman coldly says:
"There is no requirement for the U.S. government to track these
numbers."
Excuse me, but they're not numbers. They are
people. And the Labor Department, which receives workers compensation
claims, has quietly recorded that at least 917 of these people have
died in Bush's war. Another 12,000 have been wounded in battle or
injured on the job. That's about one-third more causalities than the
Bushites have told us about -- a hidden toll of this awful war, and
another measure of its deceit and immorality.
The death toll for private contractors in the U.S.
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has topped 1,000, a stark reminder of
the risks run by civilians working with the military in roles
previously held by soldiers.
A further 13,000
contractors have been wounded in the two separate wars led by the
United States against enemies who share fundamentalist Islamic
beliefs and the hit-and-run tactics that drain conventional
armies.
The casualty toll is based on figures the U.S.
Department of Labor provided to Reuters in response to a request
under the Freedom of Information Act and on locally gathered
data.
The department said it had recorded 990 deaths -
917 in Iraq and 73 in Afghanistan - by the end of March. Since then,
according to incident logs tallied by Reuters in Baghdad and Kabul,
at least 16 contractors have died in Iraq and two in
Afghanistan.
Sphincter
Conservatives sneeringly smear anyone who disagrees with them on
Iraq, saying that we want to "cut and run". In fact, the exact
opposite is the case. Those of us who want an intelligent war that
uses our military to its maximum capabilities should point to these
right wing cowards as "Sitting Duck" fools. They'd rather have a
soldier die than have the guts to admit they were wrong. As it is,
they send our troops into battle with insufficient protection and their
incompetence has created enemies where none existed before. The
Enemy's New Tools in Iraq, Time, June 14, 2007:
Saif Abdallah says his inventions have helped kill or
maim scores, possibly hundreds, of Americans. For more than four
years, he has been developing remote-control devices that Sunni
insurgents use to detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the
roadside bombs that are the No. 1 killer of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
The only time he ever felt a pang of regret was in the spring of
2006, when he heard that the Pentagon, in a bid to fight the growing
IED menace, had roped in a team of scientists from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Abdallah, an electronics engineer by
training, once dreamed of studying for a Ph.D. there. "I thought to
myself, If my life had gone differently, who knows? I might have been
on that team," he says, his eyes widening as he imagines that now
impossible scenario. Then he shrugs. "God decided I should be on the
other side."
Roger Ebert: ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES (Rated R; 4 stars)
How did one of the most magical films of the 2005 festival season become one of the hardest films to see of 2007? John Turturro's "Romance & Cigarettes" is the real thing, a film that breaks out of Hollywood jail with audacious originality, startling sexuality, heartfelt emotions, and an anarchic liberty. The actors toss their heads and run their mouths like prisoners let loose to race free.
Kate Williams: My So-Called Life (popmatters.com)
Unrequited love, the all consuming crush, the exasperated horror of hormonal changes, the tedium of school, trouble with parents, the emergence of individual identity . . . the adolescent struggle and all of its attendant rites, rituals, and humiliations are ever present in the storytelling of My So-Called Life.
Bill Zehme: Cameron Diaz Loves You (esquire.com; from 3/1/2002)
As for me, when I get to thinking about her, like I'm doing right now, I think about the first thing she ever said to me, which was: "I've gotta pee soooooooo bad!" She said that, by the way, in a loud whisper, and her crystalline eyes bulged, and then she ran to the john with her little blue flip-flops clip-clopping like thunder hooves, but only after shaking my hand and telling me her name, even though I knew her name, but she isn't presumptuous about that sort of thing.
Illustration by Janet Wilson from "In Flanders Fields"
The classic 1915 verses by Canadian John McCrae:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
What was the first television sitcom in which the theme song was sung by stars of the show?
A: Green Acres
B: Laverne & Shirley
C: The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
D: The Monkees Source
Baron Dave ("Tell me, Mr. Jones, what do you look for in a woman?"
"Well... that depends on what I've lost." -- Davy Jones, The Monkees,
"Monkees A La Mode") was first with:
Dobie Gillis' theme song was a jazzy doo-wop of female singers
(presumably representing his Many Loves). Laverne & Shirley started
in 1976, The Monkees started in 1966 and that makes the winner...
Green Acres, from 1965. (I have an odd version with only Eddie
Albert singing.)
Note: The winner was nearly I Love Lucy, but they decided to go with
just the instrumental. Desi Arnaz wrote the song, which has good
lyrics, and would have sung as well as played.
MechaDave was second writing:
The Monkees didn't sing "their" music on the show, they were actors, not musicians.
Laverne and Shirley? No. That lousy show had a typical theme song, sung by others.
Dobie Gillis? I can't remember the theme song.
The correct answer is A: Green Acres
Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor sang the theme song, and that series predated both the Monkees and Laverne and Shirley.
joe b was third, but wrong, with:
I`m pretty sure it was the Monkees.
heydee was also correct, and right to the point with:
D: Daisy Moses
Buzzcook also got it right with:
Green Acres beats out the Monkeys by a rhinestone. Well, singing is a bit
charitable.
Gray and overcast, with a little rain this morning.
Tonight, Monday:
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'How I Met Your Mother', followed by a FRESH'Big Bang Theory', then a FRESH'2½ Men', followed by a FRESH'Rules Of Engagement', then a FRESH'CSI: The 2nd One'.
On a STRIKE-related RERUNDave (from 11/1/07) are Stupid Pet Tricks, Dr. Phil McGraw, and Ryan Adams.
On a STRIKE-related RERUNCraig (from 10/17/07) are Ian McKellen and Jena Malone.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Chuck', followed by a FRESH'Heroes', then a FRESH'Journeyman'.
On a STRIKE-related RERUNLeno (from 11/17/03) are Britney Spears and Jim Belushi.
On a STRIKE-related RERUNConan (from 8/3/07) are Jackie Chan, Simon Pegg, and Just Jack.
On a STRIKE-related RERUNCarson Daly is TBA.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Dancing With The Stars', followed by a FRESH'Samantha Who?', then a FRESH'The Bachelor'.
On a STRIKE-related RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 10/10/07) are America Ferrera, Tony Hawk, and Datarock.
The CW offers a FRESH'Everybody Hates Chris', followed by a FRESH'Aliens In America', then a FRESH'Girlfriends', followed by a FRESH'The Game'.
Faux has a FRESH'Prison Break', followed by a FRESH'K-Ville'.
MY has 'Breaking The Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed 3', followed by a FRESH'Celebrity Expose'.
A&E has 'CSI: The 2nd One', 'Intervention', another 'Intervention', and 'The First 48'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Great Raid', followed by the movie 'The Dirty Dozen', then the movie 'Heartbreak Ridge'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] Cash in the Attic - Episode 6;
[1:00 PM] Cash in the Attic - Episode 5;
[2:00 PM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 12 Newark;
[2:30 PM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 13 Ardingly;
[3:00 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 6;
[3:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 7;
[4:00 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 4;
[4:30 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 5;
[5:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 4 La Riveria;
[6:00 PM] My Family - Ep 10 Dentist To The Stars;
[6:30 PM] My Family - Ep 11 A Wife Less Ordinary;
[7:00 PM] BBC World News America;
[8:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 6;
[9:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 5;
[10:00 PM] BBC World News America;
[11:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 6;
[12:00 AM] Top Gear - Episode 5;
[1:00 AM] Absolutely Fabulous - Ep.2 Fish Farm;
[1:40 AM] The World Stands Up - Episode 11;
[2:00 AM] The Weakest Link - Episode 1;
[3:00 AM] Hollyoaks - Episode 51;
[3:30 AM] Changing Rooms - Ep. 16 Camberwell;
[4:00 AM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 10 Shepton Mallet;
[4:30 AM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 11 Detling;
[5:00 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 37 Fanning;
[5:30 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 38 Jones;
[6:00 AM] BBC World News. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Project Runway', 'Real Housewives', and the movie 'The Breakfast Club'.
Comedy Central has 'Scrubs', another 'Scrubs', an old 'Jon Stewart', an old 'Colbert Report', 'Chappelle's Show', 'South Park', 'Scrubs', and another 'Scrubs'.
On a STRIKE-related RERUNJon Stewart is Sen. John McCain.
On a STRIKE-related RERUNColbert Report is Bill O'Reilly.
FX has the movie 'Fever Pitch', followed by the movie 'Spider-Man 2'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Environmental Tech II', 'Gangland', and 'Cities Of The Underworld'.
IFC -
[06:50 AM] Seven And a Match;
[08:35 AM] Bright Young Things;
[10:30 AM] The Glass Shield;
[12:30 PM] Seven And a Match;
[02:15 PM] Bright Young Things;
[04:05 PM] Media Lab Results;
[04:15 PM] The Glass Shield;
[06:15 PM] City of God;
[08:30 PM] IFC News Special: Darkon;
[09:00 PM] Darkon;
[10:45 PM] Employee of the Month;
[12:30 AM] The Henry Rollins Show #309: Don Cheadle/Rufus Wainwright;
[01:00 AM] Darkon;
[02:45 AM] IFC News Special: Darkon;
[03:15 AM] Employee of the Month;
[05:00 AM] Bright Young Things. (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[05:30 AM] Still Breathing;
[07:30 AM] Chain;
[09:15 AM] In Short: Ireland;
[09:45 AM] Tickets;
[11:45 AM] Georgi and the Butterflies;
[12:45 PM] Imagine...The Beatles in Love;
[01:45 PM] Jeff Tweedy: Sunken Treasure Live in the Pacific Northwest;
[03:30 PM] Seamless;
[05:00 PM] The American Ruling Class;
[06:30 PM] The Ground Truth;
[08:00 PM] Return to the Border;
[09:00 PM] State of Fear;
[10:45 PM] Motodrom;
[11:00 PM] Mike Myers + Deepak Chopra;
[12:00 AM] The Kooks, Wynton Marsalis & Muse;
[01:00 AM] Girls Town;
[02:30 AM] Joe Gould's Secret;
[04:30 AM] Tickets. (ALL TIMES EST)
Actor Dustin Hoffman and wife Lisa attend the world premiere of 'Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium' at the DGA Theatre, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007 in New York.
Photo by Evan Agostini
If it weren't for her mother, Alicia Keys might have a radically different image. Keys, who has a new album titled "As I Am," says that when she was trying to choose a professional name she went through a dictionary and stopped on the word "wild."
She tells Newsweek in the magazine's Nov. 19 issue that she asked her mother how Alicia Wild sounded to her.
"She said "It sounds like you're a stripper,'" Keys said.
Jazz musician Ornette Coleman (R) of the U.S. plays his saxophone in front of drum player Denardo Coleman during a concert in Madrid, November 11, 2007
Photo by Andrea Comas
Australian scientists studying humpback whales sounds say they have begun to decode the whale's mysterious communication system, identifying male pick-up lines and motherly warnings.
Wops, thwops, grumbles and squeaks are part of the extensive whale repertoire recorded by scientists from the University of Queensland working on the Humpback Whale Acoustic Research Collaboration (HARC) project.
Recording whale sounds over a three-year period, scientists discovered at least 34 different types of whale calls, with data published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
The researchers studied migrating east humpback whales, as they traveled up and down Australia's east coast, and recorded 660 sounds from 61 different groups.
They are photos Ansel Adams never intended anyone to see - tiny proofs taken with a handheld camera of a landscape that lacks the grandeur captured in his portraits of the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite National Park.
But thanks to some connections and a quirk of inheritance law, and over the objections of the trust that controls use of Adams' work, the few dozen 5-inch-square proofs are now on display at a small museum not far from the inland waterway where Adams shot the pictures in 1940.
The proofs - taken with a Zeiss Super Ikonta BX handheld camera, instead of a larger view camera mounted on a tripod that Adams typically used - were shot as Adams and a friend, David McAlpin Hunter, traveled the Intracoastal Waterway in November 1940 from Virginia to Georgia.
The exhibit of 50 photos, about 30 of which are credited to Adams, runs through Dec. 2 at the Museum of the Albemarle. "Ansel Adams in the East: Cruising the Inland Waterway in 1940" was also exhibited earlier this year at the Fitchburg Art Museum in Massachusetts. This is its final stop.
Jack Johnson, addicted to attention and craving a colourful legacy, loved to chronicle his rise from a restless Texas teen to the world's first black heavyweight boxing champion.
Now, nearly a century after his most famous bout - the 1910 defeat of "Great White Hope" Jim Jeffries - and decades after his death, Johnson has more tales to tell.
His largely unknown 1911 musings to a French sports magazine, including candid observations on racism likely never intended for American readers, have been translated to English in their entirety for the first time. The result, "My Life & Battles," is a 127-page book by and about the man considered by many to be one of history's most important athletes.
Canadian singer Celine Dion gargles a tune during Thomas Gottschalk's TV show 'Wetten, dass..?' (Bet it..?) in the eastern German city of Leipzig November 10, 2007. Photo taken November 10, 2007.
Photo by Eckehard Schulz/Pool
Gilberto Gil, who revolutionized Brazilian music in the 1960s as a founder of the Tropicalism movement, will resign his post as culture minister next year after tests revealed a potentially career-threatening polyp on his vocal cords, local media said Saturday.
The Grammy-winning artist plans to abandon his cabinet position and routine speeches to treat the polyp, which is growing where a callus was removed years ago, the daily Folha de S. Paulo reported.
Gil and his longtime friend Caetano Veloso are credited with inventing the Tropicalism movement, a blend of rock and bossa nova music.
Tropicalism eventually influenced such musicians as David Byrne, Paul Simon and Beck, but the political content of its lyrics offended the nation's 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Both Gil and Veloso were jailed in 1968 and lived in exile in London from 1969 to 1972.
The monasteries of Myanmar used to teem with saffron-robed Buddhist monks, revered as spiritual guides and moral authorities in a country in the grip of a repressive military regime.
Then the junta turned its troops on the monks, beating them in the streets for leading pro-democracy protests. They also raided their monasteries, leaving bloodstains on the floors, chasing anyone who had participated in the rallies.
The junta has not disclosed how many monks were put behind bars since the upheaval of Sept. 26-27. In its last tally, on Nov. 6, the regime said nearly 3,000 people had been released, leaving 91 still in custody. But diplomats and dissidents say the figures are a fraction of reality and an unknown number of monks have been detained since then.
The picture that emerges, after scores of interviews with monks, abbots and other people in Myanmar, is that monasteries around the country have been depleted - particularly in the biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, where protests were staged.
German TV presenter Thomas Gottschalk stands behind a look-alike garden gnome during his popular TV show 'Wetten, dass..?' (Bet it..?) in the eastern German city of Leipzig November 10, 2007. Photo taken November 10, 2007.
Photo by Eckehard Schulz
Eight months ago, James Gandolfini drove his white SUV out of the parking lot of Satriale's for the last time, as HBO wrapped up the final season of "The Sopranos."
Now, the building has followed the same fate as the popular show. It's gone.
Last month, owner Manny Costeira demolished the structure, home to a fictional pork store where TV mobster Tony Soprano and his Jersey crew hung out on the acclaimed mob drama. On TV, a life-sized pig sat atop the building.
Nine condo units will replace former storefront. The project is called "The Soprano," and prices range from $325,000 to $385,000. Construction is expected to start in the spring and would be finished in about a year.
Sim Jae-duck has made his political career as South Korea's Mr. Toilet by beautifying public restrooms. Now he's got a home befitting his title: a toilet-shaped domicile complete with the latest in lavatory luxury.
Sim is building the two-story house set to be finished Sunday to commemorate the inaugural meeting later this month of the World Toilet Association. The group, supported by the South Korean government, aims no less than to launch a "toilet revolution," by getting people to open their bathroom doors for the sake of improving worldwide hygiene.
Representatives from 60 countries will gather in Seoul to spur the creation of national toilet associations of their own and spread the word about hygiene. Organizers argue the issue deserves greater attention and cite U.N. figures that some 2.5 billion people live without proper sanitation or water supplies.
Peabo Bryson's manager and the owner of a South Carolina sound company say South Carolina State University failed to pay them for performances during the school's homecoming last month.
The Grammy-winning singer and R&B group Silk performed on Oct. 27. Bryson's manager, Jeff Alston of Bronx, N.Y.-based Rebel Soul Records, said the singer is owed $16,000. Madison Meadows of Greenville-based Audio Mass said the school still owes him $3,900.
But Edwin Givens, the university's special assistant for legal and government affairs, said the school paid a promoter and his company for the concert.
The school will work with the singer's management to ensure he is compensated, but is "in no way liable for payment due to Mr. Bryson," Givens wrote.
The Roman Catholic priest accused of stalking talk show host Conan O'Brien was admitted to a hospital for evaluation Saturday after briefly going missing.
The Rev. David Ajemian was reported missing by his father at about 3:15 p.m. after he had not been seen for nearly three hours, police said in a statement. Police were told that Ajemian's "mental health may be of concern."
He returned to his parents' home in Boston at about 7 p.m. and voluntarily went to a hospital, police said.
A highly decorated Remington Model 1872 inscribed with the name Doroteo Arango, the given name of Pancho Villa, is seen in Fredericksburg, Texas, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007. The gun is one of two weapons owned by Villa that will be up for auction beginning Saturday in Fredericksburg.
Photo by John Schmid
As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information.
Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that defends online free speech, privacy and intellectual property rights, said Kerr's argument ignores both privacy laws and American history.
"Anonymity has been important since the Federalist Papers were written under pseudonyms," Opsahl said. "The government has tremendous power: the police power, the ability to arrest, to detain, to take away rights. Tying together that someone has spoken out on an issue with their identity is a far more dangerous thing if it is the government that is trying to tie it together."
Jerry Seinfeld turned more honey into money as his animated comedy "Bee Movie" buzzed to the top of the box office in its second weekend.
The DreamWorks-Paramount flick, which had debuted at No. 2 behind Universal's "American Gangster" the previous weekend, packed in family crowds to pull in $26 million, raising its total to $72.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Bee Movie," $26 million.
2. "American Gangster," $24.3 million.
3. "Fred Claus," $19.2 million.
4. "Lions for Lambs," $6.7 million.
5. "Dan in Real Life," $5.9 million.
6. "Saw IV," $5 million.
7. "The Game Plan," $2.4 million.
8. "P2," $2.2 million.
9. "30 Days of Night," $2.1 million.
10. "Martian Child," $1.75 million.
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Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
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