I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
– E. B. White
As Facebook continues its explosive growth here’s one question troubling me. Are my friends for real?
This week I received this intriguing message from a man who moves in London’s new media circles.
He wrote: “I met somebody the other day who told me that online networking was so important, and he didn’t have the time, he was paying somebody to be him online. To blog, network, post etc . £1,000 a month too.
“Apparently it’s a new occupation which he reckons already numbers hundreds of people, paid to be other people!”
I rang the sender of the message – a real-world friend as well as a Facebook contact – and he gave me more details.
“This guy is a busy entrepreneur and he says that wherever he goes, people marvel at the energy he still manages to put into blogging and networking – and he then tells them it is all being done by a guy he pays to do it.”
.
In the last 3 years, the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain hired 22,500 in the medical profession of foreign origin, including 1,000 from Middle-East countries like Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. There is no background check with security in mind, this will surely change.
Of the eight people arrested in connection with the attempted car bombings, six are believed to be either doctors or medical students. The NHS has traditionally depended on overseas doctors to help keep the health service running.
Australian media have identified a man held in Brisbane as Dr Mohammed Haneef, 27, who formerly worked in Cheshire. He was detained while trying to board a plane to India. A second doctor is also being interviewed in Australia.
I wondered about that. How nice for all the legitimate doctors who will now be treated even more like terrorists because of their country of origin.</snark>
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected a proposal by Oscar-winning movie director Oliver Stone to make a film about him because Stone is part of the “Great Satan” cultural establishment, a semiofficial news agency reported.
“I sent a negative answer by Ahmadinejad to Oliver Stone,” the Fars agency quoted Mehdi Kalhor, media adviser to the president, as saying Sunday. “It is right that this person is considered part of the opposition in the U.S., but opposition in the U.S. is a part of the Great Satan.”
I don’t that I’d quite put Stone in a class with Cheney…
that I checked out the Libby coverage this morning, and it makes me want to spit. What a steaming pile…
I don’t think I’ve seen Joe Wilson this angry. And the spineless gutless media, suggesting that this is some sort of moral political victory for the Republican party…what planet are they living on? The guy was sentenced according to federal guidelines. When mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines amount to cruel and unusual punishment for young first-time drug offenders, yu don’t see anyone stepping in to grant them any sort of clemency. They just shrug and say that’s the law.
I hate this administration with a passion. It’s long past time for some politicians with spines to impeach them and throw the lot of them in jail. And to the members of the GOP who work so hard to activly enable this behavior, I hope you get what you deserve in this lifetime, even though I doubt there’s enough crap that could come your way to serve as a karmic kick in the pants.
Keith Olbermann promised a Special Comment tonight. He named Bush the “Worst Person in the World” last night… He had Ambassador Wilson on, and Wilson used the phrase “corrupt to the core” to refer to this Administration and its leader several times.
I can just imagine what Larry Johnson is feeling right now…
The one piece of evidence in this saga necessary to close the blow holes out there (and lead to a mass frog-march) will not likely appear in our lifetime: the CIA damage assessment. Invisible as the CIA request to DOJ, the Ashcroft recusal, the Comey ascension, and the Fitz appointment leading to the conviction.
The incessant rain that’s poured down on Oslo the past several weeks has broken all kinds of records. Small comfort to residents longing for summery weather.
June in the Oslo metropolitan area proved to be a month of contrasts, though. It started out with pouring rain on the 1st, followed by a heat wave that also broke some temperature records.
Then the rain returned, and it’s pretty much been wet ever since. And unseasonably cool.
Now they’re saying 1883, after 230.9 millimeters were registered at the weather station at Bjørnholt, just west up in the hills from the valley on Oslo’s urban fringe called Maridalen.
The amount of precipitation “is more than double as much as we usually get, or 250 percent above normal,” said Knut Iden, section leader for climate information at the state meteorological institute.
I’m sorry it’s been so rainy. Have you had any nice weather days since you’ve been there?
I remember one year, it rained every day during our beach week. It would clear up for a few hours in the late afternoon (just long enough to run to the beach before dinner) and then start raining again. What a bummer that was.
Three of 9 days with some sun…
But we’re coping well (so far) – catching up on a lot of reading. Almost done now with a 600-page brick on Potemkin by Simon Sebag Montefiore.
Read Montefiore’s biography of Stalin last winter – impressive research in both cases.
Border Patrol agents found the body of a 26-year-old Mexican woman Monday afternoon about 60 miles southwest of Tucson on the Tohono O’odham Reservation, the 16th body of an illegal border crosser found in the past 18 days.
…Senate Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has reintroduced legislation to rein in President Bush’s ability to use the tactic.
Specter, who has long been a critic of Bush’s use of signing statements, quietly introduced his Presidential Signing Statements Act of 2007 on Friday.
“The president cannot use a signing statement to rewrite the words of a statute nor can he use a signing statement to selectively nullify those provisions he does not like,” Specter said in a floor statement.
Must really be a slow newsweek for the BBC
The guy has more money than sense.
.
In the last 3 years, the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain hired 22,500 in the medical profession of foreign origin, including 1,000 from Middle-East countries like Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. There is no background check with security in mind, this will surely change.
Of the eight people arrested in connection with the attempted car bombings, six are believed to be either doctors or medical students. The NHS has traditionally depended on overseas doctors to help keep the health service running.
Australian media have identified a man held in Brisbane as Dr Mohammed Haneef, 27, who formerly worked in Cheshire. He was detained while trying to board a plane to India. A second doctor is also being interviewed in Australia.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."I wondered about that. How nice for all the legitimate doctors who will now be treated even more like terrorists because of their country of origin.</snark>
part of the Great Satan: AP/MSNBC
I don’t that I’d quite put Stone in a class with Cheney…
that I checked out the Libby coverage this morning, and it makes me want to spit. What a steaming pile…
I don’t think I’ve seen Joe Wilson this angry. And the spineless gutless media, suggesting that this is some sort of moral political victory for the Republican party…what planet are they living on? The guy was sentenced according to federal guidelines. When mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines amount to cruel and unusual punishment for young first-time drug offenders, yu don’t see anyone stepping in to grant them any sort of clemency. They just shrug and say that’s the law.
I hate this administration with a passion. It’s long past time for some politicians with spines to impeach them and throw the lot of them in jail. And to the members of the GOP who work so hard to activly enable this behavior, I hope you get what you deserve in this lifetime, even though I doubt there’s enough crap that could come your way to serve as a karmic kick in the pants.
</rant>
here.
ps- why is he the only one with enough guts to call this what it is: obstruction of justice from the highest office in the US?
Keith Olbermann promised a Special Comment tonight. He named Bush the “Worst Person in the World” last night… He had Ambassador Wilson on, and Wilson used the phrase “corrupt to the core” to refer to this Administration and its leader several times.
I can just imagine what Larry Johnson is feeling right now…
The one piece of evidence in this saga necessary to close the blow holes out there (and lead to a mass frog-march) will not likely appear in our lifetime: the CIA damage assessment. Invisible as the CIA request to DOJ, the Ashcroft recusal, the Comey ascension, and the Fitz appointment leading to the conviction.
Must be Amerika.
Hola, all!
The only news of significance at the moment:
Rainiest June since 1883
July continues in the same vein…
I’m sorry it’s been so rainy. Have you had any nice weather days since you’ve been there?
I remember one year, it rained every day during our beach week. It would clear up for a few hours in the late afternoon (just long enough to run to the beach before dinner) and then start raining again. What a bummer that was.
Three of 9 days with some sun…
But we’re coping well (so far) – catching up on a lot of reading. Almost done now with a 600-page brick on Potemkin by Simon Sebag Montefiore.
Read Montefiore’s biography of Stalin last winter – impressive research in both cases.
Lumps in the throat…
And the summer heat just beginning…the new trail of tears.
Argentine President Kirchner said he was npt going to run in the next presidential election.
Instead, his wife, Cristina Kirchner will be the candidate.
It seems we will have a feamle President once again. :0)
Arlen’s bloviating again:
the WH woodshed’s getting quite a workout lately…wonder how long it’ll take karl & ko. to change his mind this time.
lTMF’sA