Odds & Ends
1. From Yahoo news:
Randy Dotinga
MONDAY, Nov. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The next time you walk by a group of teenagers surrounded by tobacco smoke, don't assume they're puffing away on Marlboros or Virginia Slims.
A new report finds that adolescents --including girls -- are turning to cigars in increasing numbers.
Why would any teen want to take that risk? Because fashions have changed, said Cristine Delnevo, an associate professor of public health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and co-author of a report in the December 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Because of celebrity-backed advertisements, "the cigar industry (has) successfully marketed their products to adult women and adolescents of both sexes," she said.
Well, I’d like to know what Sigmund Freud thinks about all this; and what it means, if anything, about the chances of Bill Clinton running for a third term.
* * * *
2. Michael Isikoff says the government has Americans under surveillance.
“Agents placed the commune under surveillance and developed a political profile of the residents, discovering the owner of the house and his father "have posted statements on websites opposing the use of fossil fuels," one doc reads. Another says the owner had ties to a local chapter of Food Not Bombs, an "anarcho-vegan food distribution group." Among activities flagged in bureau docs: the father of the owner had conducted a "one man' daily protest" outside a Toyota office, was interviewed for an article called "Dude, Where's my Electric Car!?" and posted info on a Web site announcing "Stop Norway Whaling!" Critics say such info has been increasingly collected by agents since the then Attorney General John Ashcroft relaxed FBI guidelines in 2002.
Yep, if we don’t keep an eye on “anarcho-vegan food distributors,” women are liable to start sassing their husbands, thus contributing to the growing trend toward dog and donkey marriages (with men – not with each other [i.e. dogs and donkeys don’t normally find one another attractive {it’s conservative Republican office-holders and right-wing whackos that find the sensuality of dogs and donkeys to be both attractive and threatening}]).
* * * *
3. Walter Pincus of the Washington Post said, Sunday, November 27, 2005:
Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity - Fears of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers
The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.
The moves have taken place on several fronts. The White House is considering expanding the power of a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which was created three years ago. The proposal, made by a presidential commission, would transform CIFA from an office that coordinates Pentagon security efforts -- including protecting military facilities from attack -- to one that also has authority to investigate crimes within the United States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage or even economic espionage.
The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.
Hey!! This sounds REALLY cool!!! Yeah!! I mean, I really want to get those lying, underhanded, un-American treasonous bastards!! The only trouble is that the ones who will undoubtedly be in charge of identifying those lying, underhanded, un-American treasonous bastards and "deeming" them to be related to foreign intelligence will be the very lying, underhanded, un-American treasonous bastards we need to eliminate.
* * * *
4. Citizens for Legitimate Government on 27 November 2005 reported:
Abuse worse than under Hussein, says Iraqi leader -
Allawi in damning indictment of new regime 27 Nov 2005 Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Hussein's government. 'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.' ...'We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated,' Allawi added. 'A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations...'
Hey! If we are working to do this in the USA (see above), what do we care about Iraq? It’s “democracy” damnit! We control the elections; so, we control who gets tortured (but we Don’t torture! We just "urge" with extreme prejudice – and we KNOW who hates America [ in Iraq AND here at home!!] - yessirdedoodydoo we do!).
"The truth is I broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my office," the 63-year-old Republican said at a news conference. "I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions, most importantly, the trust of my friends and family."
He could get up to 10 years in prison at sentencing Feb. 27 on federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud, and tax evasion.
Investigators said Cunningham, a member of a House Appropriations subcommittee that controls defense dollars, secured contracts worth tens of millions of dollars for those who paid him off. Prosecutors did not identify the defense contractors.
Cunningham was charged in a case that grew out of an investigation into the sale of his home to a defense contractor at an inflated price.
The congressman had already announced in July — after the investigation became public — that he would not seek re-election next year. But until he entered his plea, he had insisted he had done nothing wrong.
High Tragedy, a distraction from Homeland Security, and just one more indictment of our activist courts!!
Randy Dotinga
MONDAY, Nov. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The next time you walk by a group of teenagers surrounded by tobacco smoke, don't assume they're puffing away on Marlboros or Virginia Slims.
A new report finds that adolescents --including girls -- are turning to cigars in increasing numbers.
Why would any teen want to take that risk? Because fashions have changed, said Cristine Delnevo, an associate professor of public health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and co-author of a report in the December 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Because of celebrity-backed advertisements, "the cigar industry (has) successfully marketed their products to adult women and adolescents of both sexes," she said.
Well, I’d like to know what Sigmund Freud thinks about all this; and what it means, if anything, about the chances of Bill Clinton running for a third term.
* * * *
2. Michael Isikoff says the government has Americans under surveillance.
“Agents placed the commune under surveillance and developed a political profile of the residents, discovering the owner of the house and his father "have posted statements on websites opposing the use of fossil fuels," one doc reads. Another says the owner had ties to a local chapter of Food Not Bombs, an "anarcho-vegan food distribution group." Among activities flagged in bureau docs: the father of the owner had conducted a "one man' daily protest" outside a Toyota office, was interviewed for an article called "Dude, Where's my Electric Car!?" and posted info on a Web site announcing "Stop Norway Whaling!" Critics say such info has been increasingly collected by agents since the then Attorney General John Ashcroft relaxed FBI guidelines in 2002.
Yep, if we don’t keep an eye on “anarcho-vegan food distributors,” women are liable to start sassing their husbands, thus contributing to the growing trend toward dog and donkey marriages (with men – not with each other [i.e. dogs and donkeys don’t normally find one another attractive {it’s conservative Republican office-holders and right-wing whackos that find the sensuality of dogs and donkeys to be both attractive and threatening}]).
* * * *
3. Walter Pincus of the Washington Post said, Sunday, November 27, 2005:
Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity - Fears of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers
The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.
The moves have taken place on several fronts. The White House is considering expanding the power of a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which was created three years ago. The proposal, made by a presidential commission, would transform CIFA from an office that coordinates Pentagon security efforts -- including protecting military facilities from attack -- to one that also has authority to investigate crimes within the United States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage or even economic espionage.
The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.
Hey!! This sounds REALLY cool!!! Yeah!! I mean, I really want to get those lying, underhanded, un-American treasonous bastards!! The only trouble is that the ones who will undoubtedly be in charge of identifying those lying, underhanded, un-American treasonous bastards and "deeming" them to be related to foreign intelligence will be the very lying, underhanded, un-American treasonous bastards we need to eliminate.
* * * *
4. Citizens for Legitimate Government on 27 November 2005 reported:
Abuse worse than under Hussein, says Iraqi leader -
Allawi in damning indictment of new regime 27 Nov 2005 Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Hussein's government. 'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.' ...'We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated,' Allawi added. 'A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations...'
Hey! If we are working to do this in the USA (see above), what do we care about Iraq? It’s “democracy” damnit! We control the elections; so, we control who gets tortured (but we Don’t torture! We just "urge" with extreme prejudice – and we KNOW who hates America [ in Iraq AND here at home!!] - yessirdedoodydoo we do!).
5. Calif. Congressman Admits Taking Bribes
By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer Mon Nov 28, 4:39 PM
"The truth is I broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my office," the 63-year-old Republican said at a news conference. "I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions, most importantly, the trust of my friends and family."
He could get up to 10 years in prison at sentencing Feb. 27 on federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud, and tax evasion.
Investigators said Cunningham, a member of a House Appropriations subcommittee that controls defense dollars, secured contracts worth tens of millions of dollars for those who paid him off. Prosecutors did not identify the defense contractors.
Cunningham was charged in a case that grew out of an investigation into the sale of his home to a defense contractor at an inflated price.
The congressman had already announced in July — after the investigation became public — that he would not seek re-election next year. But until he entered his plea, he had insisted he had done nothing wrong.
High Tragedy, a distraction from Homeland Security, and just one more indictment of our activist courts!!
* * * *
Well, I like this Odds & Ends thing!! We’ll have to have more!!
Peace!
- Uke Man
1 Comments:
Hi Tom,
Thanks for all the work you do on your blog. It certainly has a variety of genre and thoughts. Sondra
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