Your soul or your money?

Shaul Youdkevitch, head of the Kabbalah Center in Israel, was arrested on charges that he defreauded a dying woman out of $$$...

Yes, this is the same group Madonna belongs to...

Stay Naked.

Ban Religion.

Oh Yes...Did I mention I love Maureen Dowd? Well I do:)She's got a new article out in the Times about the battle of the sexes...

Let's go to the beach! or maybe not...

A chilling story here from mcall.com on the Armys 'dumping' program for WMDs...ended by congressional order in 1972. Wrap your arms around these numbers, "The Army now admits in reports never before released that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard gas agent into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels."

Ummm...that's really really bad...it doesn't get better.

''The perception at the time was the ocean is vast, it would absorb it,'' said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Kentucky, a grass-roots citizen group. ''Certainly, it is insane in retrospect they would do it.''

"Although it seems unlikely the weapons will begin to wash up on shore, last year's discovery that a mustard gas-filled artillery shell was dumped off the coast of New Jersey was ominous for several reasons.

It was the first ocean-dumped chemical weapon to make its way to shore in the United States.

It was pulled up with clams in relatively shallow water only 20 miles off the coast of Atlantic City. The Army had no idea chemical weapons were dumped in the area.

Most alarming: It was found intact in a residential driveway in Delaware.

It had survived being dredged up and put through a crusher to create cheap clamshell driveway fill sold throughout the Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware and Maryland."

*sigh*

Stay Naked...just don't go swimming...

Rove not indicted?

What the? How can you get Libby and no Rove? I know, I know...the investigation is 'not over' but still...

I feel a little like my hero Charlie Brown...

Stay Naked.

Okay, my real hero is Calvin:)

Which One is Which ?

One of these men has been indicted by a United States Grand Jury on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements. The charges followed a two-year investigation. President Bush says he is "innocent until proven guilty". His crimes involve the leaking of the name of a CIA officer's name which may have done incalculable damage to our fight against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The other man is a United States citizen who has been in a U.S. jail for 1273 days (more than three years) without any charges or any trial of any kind. That's because President Bush says he is an "enemy combatant". His crimes may be imaginary, illusory or nonexistent. In any event, they have not harmed the United States at all.
Can you tell which is which ?

NATO of the East...?

What is the SCO?

It's the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?

Sounds innocuous enough. What does it mean?

It means that Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have formed a NATO-like organization that has expressed an interest in war games and blunting American influence in Central Asia...Toss in 'observer' states India, Iran and Pakistan and you might get a clearer picture of the threat to US interests in the region...

Is this a bad thing? The 'Zoo' reserves judgement but thinks any development that serves to provide some balance to any one states unilaterist tendencies is a good thing...

Until they invade Connecticut that is:)

Stay Naked.

Dick and Nuclear Bombs...

What do you get when you cross a dick with a non-existant nuclear threat?

All bark and no bang.

I know. Bad joke.

Check out this very fine article off of Salon.com about the above information...

Stay Naked.

Goodbye Rosa...

"No"

And the Civil Rights movement had it's catalyst. A simple 'No' from a woman who decided to stop living in fear and start living in grace. All we can control is ourselves. That is a lesson my father taught me. "All you can do it to put yourself out there with as much integrity...as much honesty as possible. What other people do with that is beyond your control."
People were hung from trees for smaller acts of defiance. Burned alive. Even today, the strains of virulent, institutional racism result in a man being chained to the back of a pick-up truck and dragged to his death...in the face of this very real fear Rosa Parks said, "No."

Courage such as hers is rare. It reminds you that there is a right and a wrong and sometimes the wrong has all of the power...the police, the courts, the government...it's just 'the way things are'.

"No"

or maybe she was just tired and didn't feel like explaining herself:)

Stay Naked.

The Dark Heart of the Matter

UPI is reporting that Plame leak investigator Patrick Fitzgerald has moved beyond the petty details of the leak itself and on to larger questions such as, who forged the document that alleged the Niger-Saddam connection in the first place ?
The Italians have apparently turned over the full, and unpublished, results of their Parliamentary inquiry to Fitzgerald and he has made other inquiries. You will recall it was Italian intelligence agencies that initally produced the bogus letter.
This line of questions threatens, of course, to carry us into Bush Admin involvement in falsifying the case for war. Be still my foolish heart.
Our Google search shows nobody carrying this except Truthout and . . . of course . . . us.

I feel like a kid at Christmas...speaking of Christ...

Here's a Wapo article on the impending Fitzgerald news conference. They're handicapping and coming out in favor of indictments for Rove and Libby. Republican blond ambition tour chief Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson was reduced to the perjury is a 'techincality' defense. An interesting gambit to be sure...looks like the Republicans are fresh out of 'talking points'.
Gut check time at the White House as Bush is reported to be angry and bitter these days. Here's a telling quote "This is not some manager at McDonald's chewing out the help," said a source with close ties to the White House when told about these outbursts. "This is the President of the United States, and it's not a pleasant sight."

Is this source suggesting that were George Bush not the President of the United States that he would be a manager at a McDonalds? I'll let you be the judge of that.

And in, "Holy shit this is the most amazing news I've ever...actually, I should have seen this coming" column...famed vampire and soft-core S&M writer Anne Rice is 'out' as in 'born-again'...I can't wait for Pops to chime in on this one as my dear father is also a 'born-again'...

Stay Very Naked today...:)

Time to go Internacional...

And find out what the rest of the world thinks about us 'Mericans. We stop at my favorite source for international news...Watching America.

Here we find a truly bizarre story in the French paper 'Le Figaro'. It's a spirited defence of the Bush Administrations foreign policy...careful, it might make you vote republican in '06:)

And a great piece here on the American health care system our of Der Nederlands...here's a taste:

"Het signaal aan de werknemers is overduidelijk: of ze nemen genoegen met die verschraling, of ze hebben straks helemaal niets."

I know...there's something vaguely impenetrable there:)

Stay Naked.

And then I got high...

Okay stoners, prepare for the latest marijuana distribution system (see pic). Confused? Well put down the bong and focus.....still confused? Well you're stoned, what can I expect?
The silver spray bottle you see here is the brainchild of Dr. William Notcutt. It contains a new medicine called "Sativex", produced by GW pharmaceuticals. From the Mojo article, "Sativex can be precisely metered—a single one-tenth milliliter spray contains 2.7 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), pot’s main psychoactive chemical; 2.5 milligrams of cannabidiol, which doctors think reduces anxiety and muscle tension; and all of pot’s active ingredients known as cannabinoids—so that it can be accurately studied. "
So you get pot in a bottle...which seems like a great idea but is of concern to the Zoo...treated like a medicine, the Zoo is in awe of marijuanas medicinal properties...smoked compulsively, it robs the user of his senses, his motivation and can lead to much harder things...

The Zoo hopes this development will help tens of thousands of people, while we also hope we won't see kids chugging this stuff like it's the first glass of water they've had after being lost in the desert for a week...

Stay Naked.

Patrick Fitzgerald lauches website...Rove and Libby flinch:)

Plamegate prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has launched a website found here. You can find naked pics of Cheney and Rove stacked like cordwood, Libby is seen posing, thumbs-up, smoke dangling from his lips...lovely...

If I were you, and I'm not, I'd keep an eye on this site...

Where'd I find this? A great article by the WaPo...by Dan Froomkin.

Conservatives making documentary critical of...Ann Coutler?

Rove in handcuffs, Libby tossing salad, Bushs reality finally matching his blinking, bumbling incompetence, DeLay mugshots, Frist being Fristed, Abramoff going down in flames...but this...this is too sweet...Ann Coutler, the blond-haired lunachick darling of the hungry for blood red staters is the subject of a blistering documentary put together by...CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES!?!?...What the hell? Apparently they came to the same conclusion the rest of the world has...Ann is a duplicitious, mean-spirited mercenary...I can't wait to check this out.

Stay Naked.

Check out the conservative website: Coutler Watch

How crazy is Ann?

"When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors."

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

New Hero: Col. Lawrence Wilkerson...

Who is Colonel Lawrence Wilerkson and why is he the Zoos new hero. He was the Chief of Staff for Colin Powell until this January. He spoke recently to the New America Foundation and his speech was, to say the least...incendiary. Here is a full transcript.
Prepare to be rocked. Col. Wilkerson, whose public comments have cost him his relationship with Powell offers up a scathing indictment on the way the White House is run and the implications of that management style...

"What I saw was a cabal between the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense and [inaudible] on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made."

This guy was Powell guy for SIXTEEN years! He knows what he's talking about.

Kudos to the Financial Times for carrying this piece.

Stay Naked.

Say Goodbye to Cindy?

Watch me Swallow Bushs Bullshit!
Cindy Sheehan publically rebuked Hilary Clinton for her unswerving support for the Iraq War...which is, as the Zoo sees it, a very good thing indeed. It's nauseating watching the endless line of Democrats, supposedly the OPPOSITION party...silently toe the line on Iraq...good for Cindy. Shame on the Dems...

Stay Naked.

Give Peace a Chance and What Happens ?

Well, according to the invaluable Christian Science Monitor . . . peace.
A three year study shows a steady decline in conflict and casualties resulting from conflict. A forty per cent decline since 1989. Deaths per conflict down from 37,000 in 1950 to 600 in 2002. Credit efforts by the U.N. and other international agencies and the growth of democracy.
So why do we feel like things are getting worse ? If you guessed the MSM's penchant for reporting the worst aand ignoring positive trends, you'd be on the money.

The Right stands up to the Right...Right on!

Howard Kurtz has an interesting piece on David Frum, the former speechwriter for Bush, and his fierce opposition to the Harriet Miers nomination...
Too bad the brain-dead Dems can't capitalize on a fantastically wounded President...if you think Hilary is the answer then you're gravely mistaken...I've seen enough of the Clintons and their hubris, we need fresh air...
You think the Republicans came up with this politics of destruction on their own? They are lifting their plays directly from the Clinton-era playbook...triangualtion, kill the messenger, lie...then lie some more, military adventures to mask personal malfeasance...and on and on...

Great site here called 'Operation Truth'...by soldiers and for soldiers...

When is a Dick just a Dick?

Looks like Dick Cheney is getting some special attention from my man Patrick Fitzgerald. As we discussed on the Zoo this Saturday (for those of you who missed it)...you're going to start hearing more about Cheney and WHIG (White House Iraq Group). Check out the 'inside scoop' on Bloomberg
...tick tock...:)

Also, from the 'Not Shocking at all' Folder. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal is reporting that christian conservatives, including James Dobson, have been assured that Harriet Miers will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade

Below is an except from the Fund article referenced above:

Then an unidentified voice asked the two men, "Based on your personal knowledge of her, if she had the opportunity, do you believe she would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade?"

"Absolutely," said Judge Kinkeade.

"I agree with that," said Justice Hecht. "I concur."

Stay Naked.

Go Cowboys.

Valerie Flame???

This can't be it. Judy Millers 'reporting' on herself is a joke. The New York Times, in one callow moment, decided on irrelevancy. Historians will look back at this point in time and declare, 'That is the Day the Music died'...astonishing does not begin to describe the reaction to the twin towers of Babel...this is a collective kick in the nuts to the entire Times org...
There's really nothing more to say.

Go WaPo.

Stay Naked.

Cheney and Gonzalez OPPOSED Miers?

Hm. This is not good. And it's not getting better...According to John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, both Vice President Dick Cheney AND Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez opposed the Miers nomination...Who's laying odds at this point? 5-1?

Stay Naked.

You didn't hear about AN ENTIRE CITY IN RUSSIA BEING LOCKED DOWN?

Big surprise there. Dozens of people are reported dead in the city of Nalchik, which is the capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria province (which happens to sit directly to the west of war-ravaged Chechnya) The Kavkaz Center website is reporting that "detachment of Chechen linked Kabradino-Balkaria Jamaat, called Yarmuk, had entered Nalchik. The use of the word Jamaat indicates that it is made up of radical Islamic fighters" (Quoted from the BBC Story)

Down goes Libby...Rove to follow...

I am quivering in anticipation of the end of October and Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgeralds indictments on half the presidents cabinet...Cheney, Rove, Libby, McClellan...Hell, Cooper, Miller, Novak...the whole bunch...it's like a rolling orgasm:)

Stay Naked.

Al Jazeera to Launch English Channel...

And in what can only be described as a coup, Al Jazeera announced the signing of veteran BBC interviewer David Frost.
What does this mean for you and I? Not much other than a potential alternative voice in the media world...with office in London, Kuala Lumpur and headquarters in Doha, Qatar, we could be seeing the rise of a new, influential news org. not based out of NYC...apologies to the BBC:)

Stay Naked.

A Gold Mine

Am I the last to know about Perrspectives ? One of those sites for which I am eternally grateful. Incredible riches of compiled data on Plamegate, DeLaygate, Fristgate and much, much more. Take it with my blessing ! Enjoy ! Enjoy !

You think you know....but do you 'Yomango'?

'Yomango' is a subversive clothing line moving around the planet. 'Yomango' literally means, "I steal"...check out their website at Yomango.net (Yes Virginia, it's in Spanish but click the link).

Before you think I'm too cool, I found out about them at my favorite subversive website...Adbusters...check out the interview;)

Stay Naked.

Permanezca Desnudo.

Poor Mary Mapes...

Talk about someone unclear on the concept. Shitty reporting followed by a shitty attempt at covering you own ass does not a memoir make...unless your name is Mapes. Quote from Mapes new book, "Truth and Duty" as reported on Editor & Publisher, "To these people, there was no such thing as unbiased mainstream reporting, certainly not when it came to criticism of the president, no matter how tepid. To them, there was Fox News and everything else -- and everything else was liberal and unfair." By 'these people' I assume she means anyone who disagreed with her horrific reporting....suck it up Mary. You f'd up bigtime and your hubris brought down Dan Rather (his own hubris also)...say you're sorry, say you messed up and move on...blaming other because they had the temerity to point out your weak-ass reporting is...well...weak-ass...

Link to final Rathergate report.

An unfair pic? Sure but so funny:)

Stay Naked.

Good news...tears...

I don't know if you watch ESPN but they had a story on recently about a 10-year old boy dying of a brain tumor. His name was Montana Mazurkiewicz. He was a huge Notre Dame Football fan. His parents contected Notre Dame when they were informed Montana didn't have long to live and requested that a player be sent to visit him on his deathbed.
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis came to visit. After spending a few hours with Montana Charlie asked him is he could do anything for him. Montana asked is he could call the first play of the next game...Weis hesitated ut said yes ans asked him if he wanted a pass or a run. Montana replied, "A pass to the right". He died several days later a a few days before the game.
On Notre Dames first possession, the found themselves on their own 1 yard line. You NEVER pass on 1st down on your own one. Brady Quinn, the Notre Dame quarterback asked, "What are we going to do?" as he knew the promise Coach Weis had made to the dying child. Coach Weis replied, "We have no choice, we're throwing it to the right." and proceeded to call a very dangerous play...with the entire team faking left, QB Brady Quinn spun to his right and found Tight End Anthony Fasano...who caught the ball cleanly, turned upfield and leaped clean over a defender for a 13 yard gain...
It's hard for me to type this as I think of that child and his family...there is so much beauty in this world and I constantly forget that fact.

Thank you Montana.
Thank you Coach Weis.

Thank you to Benjamin Webber, the ESPN producer responsible for the segment.

Stay Naked.

God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan."

Just when you thought you'd heard it all...

Check this story out of the BBC and do NOT miss the documentary...

George Bush Unplugged, allegedly talking to Palestinian leaders, Circa June, 2003:

"I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

Ya think he's MORE sane now?

Stay Naked.

Who is British Petroleum?

This is off of the official BP wesbite:

Our business is run on the principles of strong corporate governance, a clear system of delegating accountability and a set of values and policies that guide our behaviour.

Man, that hits me right in the chest as do all of those flowery BP ads extolling their virtues. I've been reading a lot about their CEO and how he plans to face global-warming head on.

This is their 'Health and Safety' credo:
Health and safety: to ensure that there are no accidents, no harm to people and that no one is subject to unnecessary risk while working for the group.

And here is the truth as reported in the Houston Chronicle, not exactly a bastion of liberalism...
Highlights are:
-"In a typical year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issues only one or two violations of workplace safety laws that are categorized as "egregious" nationwide. BP received 296 egregious violations."
-BP is categorized by the Occupational and Safety Health Association (OSHA) as an "indifferent employer"
-15 workers died in the March 23rd blast that resulted in these fines. 170 were injured.

Stay Naked.

What's a 'BinLaden' and why is he on strike?

Harriet Miers: No Mr. President, he's not on strike, he wishes to strike the United States. That's what that docu...piece of paper in your hands says.

Bush: Is it time for lunch? I'm hungry.

Turns out Harriet Myers may have actually been the person who handed Bush the incendiary document titled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" on August 6th, 2001. Sweet, delicious, terrible irony...
-----------------------------------------
Fox News Flash: We're a bunch of lying bastards who make stuff up.

Who said that?
A former Fox staffer.

What a shock.

Stay Naked.

Fourth Quarter -Time for Rule Change

The LA Times reports, barely, that Iraq's Shiite dominated parliament has voted to change the rules for the vote on the draft constitution set for Oct. 15. Instead of two-thirds of those voting no in three provinces being sufficient to defeat the draft, the new rules requires two thirds of registered voters. The Sunnis, who had been busily registering voters to vote against, understandably smell a rat.
But for the blogosphere, notably leftiblogspot.com,, this story would be lying dead in the bottom paragraphs of lengthy stories. Props to lefti.

Money Laundering? Rigged elections?

My man Tom DeLay (R. Tx) has been indicted on money-laundering charges! It's christmas time in Washington!...

On a predictably sadder note, election officials in Afganistan report significant evidence of voter fraud, perhaps this is why you're not seeing much press about this 'victory for democracy' or maybe they had the Choicepoint people over there:) I heard Katherine Harris garnered 12% of the vote...

On a final note, need some 'stress relief', try torture! The Daily Herald has a chilly article that quotes american servicemen who allegedly took part in some abuses, “Some days we would just get bored so we would have everyone sit in a corner and then make them get in a pyramid. We did that for amusement.”

Stay Naked.

Who would have thunk it?

I'd actually be praising George 'Boy Wonder' Stephanopoulos (who, I should add, ought to send 25% of anything he makes to James Carville...at least 25%)...anyway, according to transcripts of ABCs "This Week" as reported on Think Progress, Georgie-boy said the following, "Definitely a political problem but I wonder, George Will, do you think it’s a manageable one for the White House especially if we don’t know whether Fitzgerald is going to write a report or have indictments but if he is able to show as a source close to this told me this week, that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actually involved in some of these discussions."
I haven't wished for something to be true this hard since I heard Jennifer Aniston was leaving that guy...the idea that Bush & Cheney are DIRECTLY tied to the Plame Affair? Sweet Jesus it sends me in paroxysms of ecstasy...

Sidenote: Stephanopoulos is still a punk-ass bitch in the Zoos estimation for his flagrant "Watch me push Clinton under bus" Act.

Speaking of Fouls...I hate the New York Times Select as I now have to pay to read Frank Rich...bastards.

Great article here by Jonathan Alter over at MSNBC on the lunatic known as 'The Hammer" (Tom DeLay)..

Stay Naked.

Thanks to Woodburydems.com for the great image...

Here we go...Home stretch...Does Rove get frog-marched?

20 Questions (or so) with the grey old lady (NY Times) otherwise known as the Judi Miller Apologist Club....I think the article does a pretty good job of bringing you up to speed on Plame-Bolton-WMD-Chalabi-Cheney-Libby Gate...

Stay Naked.