Monday News Bucket

20 Comments

1. 

   Second Nature on August 31, 2009 at 7:23 am

   Oops, my bad, I didn’t mean to suggest I was PRESSURED into raising the terror level, hehe, I mean, um….

   Now, Ridge says he did not mean to suggest he was pressured to raise the threat level, and he is not accusing anyone of trying to boost Bush in the polls. “I was never pressured,” Ridge said.

   • 

     Errol on August 31, 2009 at 12:49 pm

     speaking of threat levels, wonder who got to him

   • 

     Oscar In Dallas on August 31, 2009 at 3:23 pm

     A bucket of water, a cattle prod, and bad intentions are enough to motivate many people to reconsider their intentions…

2. 

   AndiF on August 31, 2009 at 7:25 am

   Full story from Bitch Magazine here complete with some great videos of her music.

   American singer, songwriter, and producer Ellie Greenwich died yesterday of a heart attack. Greenwich was best known for writing and co-writing such girl group classics as “Be My Baby” (The Ronettes), “Da Doo Ron Ron” (The Crystals), “Leader of the Pack” (The Shangri-Las), “River Deep, Mountain High” (Ike & Tina Turner), and many others. Greenwich and Jeff Barry, her former husband and writing partner, had 17 singles in the pop charts of 1964.

3. 

   Dongi 2 on August 31, 2009 at 8:27 am

   Even when republican leaders tell the truth they feel guilty about it!

   • 

     sjct on August 31, 2009 at 8:37 am

     You mean, especially when they tell the truth they are guilty. 😉

     • 

       Dongi 2 on August 31, 2009 at 10:23 am

       Heh/heh, sjct, you hit harder than I do.  Yeah, I agree with your description of the republicans as inchoative and instinctive liars. Why are they so addicted to deception and so averse to the truth?

4. 

   hz on August 31, 2009 at 10:22 am

   Man, if Jefferson thought the papers were bad in his day, I can’t imagine what he’d make of the current state of things–setting aside the rest of the MSM for the moment.  

5. 

   rba on August 31, 2009 at 10:32 am

   Vesselin Mitev/NYLJ:  Christian Groups Found to Lack Standing to Challenge Plan B Pill Decision:

   Five months after ordering the Food and Drug Administration to allow the marketing of the emergency contraceptive Plan B to 17-year-olds without a prescription, a Brooklyn federal judge has refused to allow three Christian lobbying groups who oppose abortion to challenge the ruling.

   Guess they’ll move along to ‘Plan C’.

6. 

   Man Eegee on August 31, 2009 at 11:59 am

   The U.S. government admitted in April that it had wrongly deported an N.C. native, but newly released documents show that federal investigators ignored FBI records and other evidence showing that the man was a United States citizen.

   At the time of Mark Lyttle’s deportation, immigration officials had criminal record checks that said he was a U.S. citizen. They had his Social Security number and the names of his parents. They had Lyttle’s own sworn statement that he had been born in Rowan County.

   None of this stopped them from leaving Lyttle, a mentally ill American who speaks no Spanish, alone and penniless in Mexico, where he has no ties. – linkage

   • 

     sjct on August 31, 2009 at 12:31 pm

     So. I’m storing this info away in case I need serious health care. Do you think the ICE will believe I’m an illegal Brit if I just say so? I can fake a British accent quite well…

     This story is sooooo fucked up!

     • 

       Errol on August 31, 2009 at 12:58 pm

       precisely; I actually am a citizen of a surfing beach in Australia.

       • 

         Errol on August 31, 2009 at 12:58 pm

         n/t

   • 

     Errol on August 31, 2009 at 5:24 pm

     such a sad (and messed up) story; and that they sent him to Honduras. Lots of prejudice in Mexico vs. central americans travelling to usa via mexico; there’s a good documentary on this entitled De Nadie.

7. 

   Man Eegee on August 31, 2009 at 12:06 pm

   Can’t make this shit up…

   DENVER – A federal warning to beware of campers in national forests who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and play Spanish music because they could be armed marijuana growers is racial profiling, an advocate for Hispanic rights said Friday.

   The warnings were issued Wednesday by the U.S. Forest Service, which is investigating how much marijuana is being illegally cultivated in Colorado’s national forests following the recent discovery of more than 14,000 plants in Pike National Forest. – linkage

   • 

     americanforliberty on August 31, 2009 at 12:11 pm

     And the All-America past-time, a high powered rifle, and Chipper Jones. I don’t know what to make of this…

     http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2009/08/chipper-jones-knows-how-to-field-illegal-aliens.html

   • 

     Errol on August 31, 2009 at 12:51 pm

     tecate? what about modelo?

8. 

   americanforliberty on August 31, 2009 at 12:09 pm

   Is the recession really over, yet. Jobs are still being loss..

   http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1411878.html

9. 

   DaveW on August 31, 2009 at 12:51 pm

   For some not-politics bad news, we learn that Disney will buy Marvel Comics for $4 billion. Sad, bland, end for a feisty, imaginative outfit.

10. 

    dada on August 31, 2009 at 4:33 pm

    change you can believe in?

    seems not, at least when it comes to extraordinary  renditions:

    Obama fails to restore America’s moral voice

    Back in April, the U.S. government snatched Raymond Azar out of Afghanistan.

    His waist, wrists and ankles were shackled, he was stripped naked and photographed, made to wear headphones, blindfolded, hooded and stuffed into an executive jet and flown to the United States….
    …

    So maybe you wonder what his offenses were. Did he have a hand in some horrific act of sectarian violence in Afghanistan? Was he part of a terror cell plotting to attack some American landmark?

    Actually, Azar’s crime was that he padded invoices and paid kickbacks.

    According to published reports, Raymond Azar is a Lebanese man who worked for a Lebanese construction company with a multi-million-dollar Pentagon contract to do reconstruction work in Afghanistan. Recently, Azar pleaded guilty to paying an Army Corps of Engineers officer in exchange for the officer’s approval of the inflated bills. He faces as much as five years behind bars.

    Serious stuff, to be sure. But serious enough for hoods, blindfolds and shackles? Color me skeptical….

    skeptical, indeed. meet the new boss, same as…