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No Drama Queen Bullshit Unlike some bloggers, who feel oppressed by the act of writing and need to dramatically quit every few months, the simple fact is that we're moving our blog to a new domain, http://www.thenewsblog.net . Why? Because the new blogger works better. The old site will be frozen in place as of 5:30 PM January 21, 2007. No more posts or comments will be responded to on this site, except for the previous one. www.thenewsblog.net is now up and running and is the News Blog's new home.

The Doors - The End - live The current News Blog is shutting down effective immidiately. The following post will explain why

REUTERS/Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud (IRAQ) Disguises Used in Attack on Troops Gunmen Infiltrated Secured Iraqi Site, Killing 5 Americans By Ernesto Londoño Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 22, 2007; Page A01 BAGHDAD, Jan. 21 -- The armored sport-utility vehicles whisked into a government compound in the city of Karbala with speed and urgency, the way most Americans and foreign dignitaries travel along Iraq's treacherous roads these days. Iraqi guards at checkpoints waved them through Saturday afternoon because the men wore what appeared to be legitimate U.S. military uniforms and badges, and drove cars commonly used by foreigners, the provincial governor said. Once inside, however, the men unleashed one of the deadliest and most brazen attacks on U.S. forces in a secure area. Five American service members were killed in a hail of grenades and gunfire in a breach of security that Iraqi officials called unprecedented. The attack, which lasted roughly 20 minutes,...

I'd rather take advice from a cat before I would take if from Frank Luntz Frank Luntz I am not in the habit of offering partisan linguistic advice to Democrats. But in the genuine spirit of bipartisanship - seriously - I thought this is the perfect time to convey a simple point to the still-euphoric faces of Democrat activists ... Don't twist the knife. Let's briefly sketch the political landscape in America today. Republicans are still reeling quite deservedly from the political thumping they took in the November election. The polls, pretty bad then, have gotten even worse. One-by-one, key Republicans on the Hill are parting ways with the President over the 'surge' and his 'new strategy' in Iraq. And to top it all off, a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken immediately after the President's speech showed that a mere 40% of Americans believe the war is worth fighting, up just four points from before the speech. An emerging new majority has spoken, and it ...

Jesse Jane plans cosmetic surgery to hide imperfections newly visible. In Raw World of Sex Movies, High Definition Could Be a View Too Real Digital Playground By MATT RICHTEL Published: January 22, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 21 — The XXX industry has gotten too graphic, even for its own tastes. Stormy Daniels says she isn’t sure “why anyone would want to see their porn” in high definition because it makes the picture so crisp and clear. Pornography has long helped drive the adoption of new technology, from the printing press to the videocassette. Now pornographic movie studios are staying ahead of the curve by releasing high-definition DVDs. They have discovered that the technology is sometimes not so sexy. The high-definition format is accentuating imperfections in the actors — from a little extra cellulite on a leg to wrinkles around the eyes. Hollywood is dealing with similar problems, but they are more pronounced for pornographers, who rely on close-ups and who, because of their quic...

Limbaugh: Classless Players Look Like Bloods and Crips Posted Jan 20th 2007 8:22PM by Michael David Smith In 2003, Rush Limbaugh resigned from ESPN after creating a controversy with his comments that Donovan McNabb got too much credit because, he said, " The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.'' Limbaugh no longer works as an NFL commentator, but his latest comments about football are sure to get more scrutiny. Limbaugh's web site includes the following two statements that he made on his Friday show: "There is a cultural problem in the NFL that has resulted in a total lack of class on the part of professional players. I love the game of football, but after every sack players are acting like they've won the Super Bowl; they're prancing around with these idiotic dances." and "Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said i...

Cracking Down on Mixtape CDs By JEFF LEEDS Published: January 22, 2007 Not long before Christmas, Jeff Baker, the chief of police of Morrow, Ga., a small town just south of Atlanta, and one of his officers were walking through a local shopping mall when they happened to pass a kiosk hawking rap music CDs. One in particular caught their attention. The CD was “Tha Streets Iz Watchin,” with songs performed by the rapper Young Jeezy and, as Chief Baker recalled, it did not carry the name or address of the owner of the music copyrights, as Georgia law requires. Rather than arrest the kiosk vendor immediately, Chief Baker said, “We’d rather go after the source of the material. And at that point we had no idea what the source was.” Any rap music aficionado would; the creator of the album is DJ Drama, whose real name is Tyree Simmons, arguably the nation’s most prominent producer of mixtapes, the name given to popular but largely unlicensed CDs stocked with yet-to-be released rap hits and free...

Kristol On War Critics: ‘It’s So Irresponsible That They Can’t Be Quiet For Six Or Nine Months’ This morning on Fox News, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol said that opponents of escalation in Congress are “leap-frogging each other in the degrees of irresponsibility they’re willing to advocate.” Kristol said, “It’s just unbelievable. … It’s so irresponsible that they can’t be quiet for six or nine months,” adding, “You really wonder, do they want it to work or not? I really wonder that.” NPR’s Juan Williams told Kristol his analysis was “totally ahistorical,” and pointed out that yesterday was the deadliest day for U.S forces in Iraq in two years. “There’s something going on here you might pay attention to as opposed to just the politics of, ‘If you don’t support this president, you don’t really want us to win.’” Watch it: Digg It! Full transcript: KRISTOL: They’re playing — they’re leap-frogging each other in the degrees of irresponsibility they’re willing to advocate. And I r...

Taking Middle Schoolers Out of the Middle By ELISSA GOOTMAN Published: January 22, 2007 When John Smith, a swaggering sixth grader at one of New York City’s growing collection of kindergarten- through eighth-grade schools, feels lost, he heads downstairs to the colorful classroom of his former third-grade teacher, Randi Silverman, for what she calls a “Silverman hug.” “When I get mad I go to her,” John, 11, said amid the lunchtime buzz in the cafeteria of his school, Public School 105, on the Rockaway peninsula in Queens. “When I feel frustrated I’ll go to her. When I feel like I can’t do it no more I go to her, and she tells me I have to do it.” Miles away at Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, a 6th- through 12th-grade school, teachers keep the sixth graders looking forward, toward college. One recent morning, a class peppered a guidance counselor, Michael Lloyd, with queries, from “Where is Harvard?” to “What does Ph.D. stand for?” The two schools, in disparate corners of the nat...

They hate gay pengiuns too Faith & Reason: Ruth Kelly, her hard-line church and a devout PM wrestling with his conscience Catholic-run adoption agencies should retain the right to ban gay couples, say Tony Blair and Ruth Kelly. Most other cabinet members are horrified at the thought - and the scene is set for a political holy war. Francis Elliott reports Published: 21 January 2007 She is a devout Catholic and member of the Opus Dei sect. His leanings to Rome have been rewarded with audiences in front of successive Popes. So, when Tony Blair and Ruth Kelly team up to deny gay couples equal access to church-run adoption agencies, as we reveal today, it is little wonder that their opponents believe it is the "Catholic tendency" at work. "We are descending into a spiral of immorality," said Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Catholic church in Scotland, when that country brought its laws into line with those of the rest of the UK to allow local authorities t...

Warren Zevon - Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?

Public Enemy - Welcome to the Terrordome (Live) Atrios, stop with the shitty videos. Please. You Tube has music which doesn't suck

High-Def Disconnect For $1,399 and Endless Add-Ons He Got 12 Channels By Howard Bryant Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, January 21, 2007; Page F01 B ack in August, my needs were simple. As one of the reporters covering the Redskins for The Post, I needed a television and a way to record games so I could analyze what turned out to be a five-win season. A $119 combination 13-inch TV with a VCR would have solved the problem. Instead, I ended up taking the high-definition plunge, spending $1,399 for a far-bigger and fancier television set than I originally had in mind. As I left the store with my new HDTV, my confidence was boosted by approving nods from people in the parking lot. Most new HDTVs have inputs for both types of high-definition cables, but not all video sources - cable or satellite boxes, upconverting DVD players or high-def video game consoles - use the same connections. Both types of cables can sell from $10 to $100, with minimal difference in quality. (Ignore composit...

Angel Franco/The New York Times Yes, the Ill Will Can Be Subtle. Then, One Day, It Isn’t. By DAN BARRY Published: January 21, 2007 GREENWOOD, La. Bullets shattered the peace in the home of Ernest Lampkins, mayor of Greenwood, La. Who did it remains unknown. To Mr. Lampkins, the motive is clear. Midnight in a handsome one-story house on Waterwood Drive. Hours after Ernest and Shirley Lampkins say goodnight to their teenage daughter, Brett, and to the first Sunday of the new year, a Sunday of churchgoing and turkey and chili and some of those sweet frozen grapes that Ernest likes so much. Two bullets pay a call. They explode through the living room window. They tear through the soft-yellow curtains that Shirley ordered from a catalog. They rocket past the Easter basket containing family snapshots, past Brett’s bedroom door, past Ernest’s antique upright piano, past the framed portrait of father, mother and daughter in serene pose. One bullet strikes a golden candelabrum and splits: half ...

Another Bag of Krauthammers Last Friday, in his Washington Post op-ed "A Plausible Plan B," neoconservative pundit Charles Krauthammer was more openly skeptical of the surge option. If we were allied with an Iraqi government that, however weak, was truly national -- cross-confessional and dedicated to fighting a two-front war against Baathist insurgents and Shiite militias -- a surge of American troops, together with a change of counterinsurgency strategy, would have a good chance of succeeding. Unfortunately, the Iraqi political process has given us Nouri al-Maliki and his Shiite coalition. Krauthammer is confident that the U.S. troops will acquit themselves admirably (as am I), but that the surge effort "will fail, however, because the Maliki government will undermine it." Krauthammer proposes an alternative "Plan B" in which we tell Maliki: Let us down, and we dismantle the Green Zone, leave Baghdad and let you jfend for yourself; we keep the airport a...

Clinton Says ‘I’m In to Win’ 2008 Race By PATRICK HEALY Published: January 20, 2007 “I’m in,” she says in a statement on her new campaign Web site. “And I’m in to win.” Mrs. Clinton, 59, called for “bold but practical changes” in foreign, domestic, and national security policy and said that she would focus on finding “a right end” to the Iraq war, expanding health insurance, pursuing greater energy independence and strengthening Social Security and Medicare. In her statement, Mrs. Clinton also squarely confronted an issue that concerns many Democrats: Whether she can, in fact, win the presidency. Some voters still associate her most with the controversies of the Clinton administration, and Republicans have long attacked and caricatured her, and plan to brand her as indecisive on Iraq. “I have never been afraid to stand up for what I believe in or to face down the Republican machine,” Mrs. Clinton said on the Web site. “After nearly $70 million spent against my campaigns in New York ...

Tom Lasseter/MCT Iraqi Army soldiers from the Kurdish-dominated units in northern Iraq at a base outside of Mosul, Iraq, December 2005. The Kurdish flag, and not the Iraqi flag, flies at the gate. Kurdish Iraqi soldiers are deserting to avoid the conflict in Baghdad By Leila Fadel and Yaseen Taha McClatchy Newspapers SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - As the Iraqi government attempts to secure a capital city ravaged by conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslim Arabs, its decision to bring a third party into the mix may cause more problems than peace. Kurdish soldiers from northern Iraq, who are mostly Sunnis but not Arabs, are deserting the army to avoid the civil war in Baghdad, a conflict they consider someone else's problem. The Iraqi army brigades being sent to the capital are filled with former members of a Kurdish militia, the peshmerga, and most of the soldiers remain loyal to the militia. Much as Shiite militias have infiltrated the Iraqi security forces across Arab Iraq, the peshmerga...

Iraq Security Contractor Countersues By MIKE BAKER The Associated Press Friday, January 19, 2007; 9:42 PM RALEIGH, N.C. -- Private security contractor Blackwater USA is seeking $10 million from the attorney representing the estates of four employees killed and mutilated in Iraq, arguing their families breached the security guards' contracts by suing the company for wrongful death. Blackwater also has asked a federal court to move the dispute into arbitration, having failed so far in its ongoing efforts to have the lawsuit dismissed. Arbitration is necessary "in order to safeguard both (Blackwater's) own confidential information as well as sensitive information implicating the interest of the United States at war," attorneys for Blackwater Security Consulting, a unit of Moyock-based Blackwater USA, wrote in a petition filed December 20. Dan Callahan, a California-based attorney representing the families, called the claim "appalling." "This is a shock-an...

Exploding pigs and volleys of gunfire as Le Pen opens HQ in virtual world Violent clashes have erupted in an online world over the arrival of Le Pen's national front Oliver Burkeman in Porcupine Saturday January 20, 2007 The Guardian The streets of Porcupine were tranquil yesterday; a handful of locals strolled through its shopping malls, the sun was shining, and a light breeze blew in from over the hills. There were few hints of the fact that, only days before, the neighbourhood had been the scene of violent clashes between rightwing extremists and anti-Nazi protesters - running battles involving gunfire and bombs that might easily have cost lives were it not for the fact that Porcupine does not, in most commonly accepted senses of the term, exist. A lesson you quickly learn upon entering the online virtual world of Second Life, however, is that non-existence is less of an impediment than might be supposed. It hasn't stopped the development of a fully-featured alternative uni...

Jade Goody is interviewed by Davina McCall following her eviction from the Celebrity Big Brother house. Photograph: Timothy Anderson/Channel 4/PA Jade evicted as poll reveals public anger with Channel 4 Karen McVeigh and Jeevan Vasagar Saturday January 20, 2007 The Guardian Jade Goody was evicted from the Celebrity Big Brother house last night in a vote which could be seen as a public stand against racial intolerance. An overwhelming majority - 82% - of viewers voted against her. In a post-eviction interview, Goody said she was "embarrassed and disgusted" by her own behaviour. The 25-year-old from Bermondsey, south-east London, was up for eviction against Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood actor and the alleged victim of racist abuse from several housemates, especially Goody. Before her departure was announced, an unprecedented 40,000 complaints were made to broadcast regulator Ofcom and the public were urged to "vote for tolerance" by a number of politicians including the ...

Anti-spanking: Jordan Riak, a retired teacher who calls his 25-year campaign against corporal punishment and spanking his "life work." (Kevin Kerr / For the Times) A spanking ban: are we gonna get it? Parents say lawmaker's plan to outlaw hitting children under 4 smacks of the nanny state. By Nancy Vogel, Times Staff Writer January 20, 2007 SACRAMENTO — Assemblywoman Sally Lieber hit a nerve when she mused publicly this week about making it illegal for parents to strike children younger than 4. The Bay Area Democrat hasn't introduced a bill yet, but critical calls and e-mails — including some personal attacks — have flooded her offices since her local newspaper wrote about her intention. Unbowed, Lieber said she would introduce a bill next week to make California the first state to make the hitting of a toddler or baby a crime. Language was still being drafted, but Lieber was considering making a violation a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a y...

Draft Law Keeps Central Control Over Oil in Iraq By JAMES GLANZ Published: January 20, 2007 BAGHDAD, Jan. 19 — After months of tense bargaining, a cabinet-level committee has produced a draft law governing Iraq’s vast oil fields that would distribute all revenues through the federal government and grant Baghdad wide powers in exploration, development and awarding major international contracts. The draft, described Friday by several members of the committee, could still change and must be approved by the Iraqi cabinet and Parliament before it becomes law. Negotiations have veered off track in the past, and members of the political and sectarian groups with interest in the law could still object as they read it more closely. But if approved in anything close to its present form, the law would appear to settle a longstanding debate over whether the oil industry and its revenues should be overseen by the central government or the regions dominated by Kurds in the north and Shiite Arabs in...

Main aide of Muqtada al-Sadr arrested By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 19, 6:33 PM ET BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces swooped into a mosque complex in east Baghdad on Friday and detained a top aide to radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the latest in a series of operations aimed at eviscerating the leadership of the Mahdi Army militia. The raid drew immediate criticism from the Iraqi government, which complained it had not been consulted. An aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who owes his job as Iraqi leader to al-Sadr's backing, said the operation was not part of a coming joint U.S.-Iraq security drive. Under the plan, to which President Bush has committed an additional 21,500 American troops, U.S. commanders have been promised a freer hand against both Sunni insurgents and Shiite militiamen. "There was no coordination with the Iraqi political leadership and this arrest was not part of the new security plan," Sadiq al-Rikabi, the al-Mal...

First Twin Jenna Shops a Book Jenna Bush and the First Lady You can soon add the title of author to first daughter Jenna Bush's résumé. Whispers learns that the 25-year-old blond twin of Barbara Bush is shopping a book proposal to major publishers in New York City. We're told that the project is vague and that she's initially only gauging publishers' interest. The White House wouldn't comment, but others say it will be a young-adult book based on the former grade school teacher's experiences with charity causes in Latin America. It ought to sell: She's represented by super lawyer-agent Robert Barnett, who squired her around publishing offices in the Big Apple earlier this month. The profits will go to charity. Do people realize how disliked Jenna Bush is? How many people think her ass belongs in Iraq? Who cares if she writes a book?

The Clash - I Fought The Law

the jam - that's entertainment

Elvis Costello -

Clash Fridays Part 1 Someone mentioned this on an earlier thread

The Carpetbagger Report has this up Top Bush administration officials seem to revel in historical analogies, particularly when it comes to the war in Iraq. At different times, the Bush gang has referenced Korea , the Revolutionary War , WWI , and the Civil War . By mid-2005, the president had settled on World War II as a personal favorite. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is especially fond of pointing to history to justify White House decisions. When pressed a few months ago about the failures of the administration’s policies in the Middle East, Rice told reporters, “ I’m a student of history , so perhaps I have a little more patience with enormous change in the international system. It’s a big shifting of tectonic plates, and I don’t expect it to happen in a few days or even in a year.” Apparently, Rice’s detractors just don’t know enough about history to make sound judgments. We should leave it all to Dr. Rice. With this in mind, the Wall Street Journal noted tod...

Diary of a goof-off: No work, no pay A Des Moines woman details her idling on the job on her employer's computer. By CLARK KAUFFMAN REGISTER STAFF WRITER January 19, 2007 A Des Moines hotel worker has been fired for using her employer's computer to keep a massive, detailed journal cataloging her efforts to avoid work. State records indicate that Emmalee Bauer, 25, of Elkhart was hired by the Sheraton hotel company in February 2005. During most of 2006, she worked at the company's Army Post Road location as a sales coordinator. At one point during her employment, Bauer was allegedly instructed to refrain from using company time to work on her personal, handwritten journal. Rather than stop writing at all, Bauer allegedly began using her work computer to keep the journal up to date. "I am going to be typing all my thoughts instead of writing all day," wrote Bauer, according to portions of the journal that were entered into evidence at a recent state hearing dealing ...

A Runaway Situation in Seattle 9-Year-Old Gets Past Airport Security and Flies to Texas By Blaine Harden Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 19, 2007; Page A03 SEATTLE, Jan. 18 -- Weighing in at 80 pounds and standing 4 feet 9 inches tall, Semaj Booker has established himself as a regional heavyweight in the pre-adolescent sport of sneaking out of the house. He could be the most persistent, most creative and most publicized 9-year-old runaway in the history of the Pacific Northwest. As his mother says, he really hates it here. Semaj can drive a stolen car 90 mph while leading a police chase, as he demonstrated Sunday. The chase ended only after he blew the engine on a 1986 Acura swiped from a neighbor who had left the car unlocked and running. The boy then refused to get out of the car, which he had crashed into a tree. Police had to break a car window, grab him and take him back to his mother's apartment in Lakewood, a gritty working-class suburb near Tacoma. This was hi...

Doug Mills/The New York Times Taking Power, Sharing Cereal SOME of the most powerful Democrats in America are split over a most incendiary household issue: rodents. “I once had to pick up a mouse by the tail that Durbin refused to pick up,” complained Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, referring to his roommate Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois. This characterization is not fair to Mr. Durbin, interjected another tenant in the Capitol Hill row house, Representative Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts. For starters, it overlooks Mr. Durbin’s gift for killing rats. “He will kill them with his bare hands,” Mr. Delahunt marveled. “Oh, will you stop with the rats,” said the annoyed fourth roommate, Representative George Miller of California. He owns the house and is sensitive to any suggestion that he harbors pestilence. It’s dicey enough that he harbors politicians. Think MTV’s “Real World” with a slovenly cast of Democratic power brokers. While Washington may have more than its share ...

Giuliani and Kerik Giuliani and Broken Windows by HarveyMilk [Subscribe] Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 06:50:01 PM PST In an ongoing series, I want to post diaries that piss off those who cling to the "conventional wisdom" of this site. Not just for the sake of pissing people off (that's an added bonus), but to get us to think. I support the "Broken Windows" theory of law enforcement, and I support how Giuliani carried it out. It was necessary. It was effective. I don't care if a Republican did it. New York is the better for it, and the whole country would be, too. So there. On a national level, we Democrats were in the opposition forever. But, opposition is one thing. All you have to do is cry foul and profess a love of America. We're good at that. But now, we have power. And all signs point to us having even more power in 2008. So, the time for righteous rants is over. Let's get to policy. That's were you can get into some trouble! I live in ...

Andrea Parhamovich in an undated photograph. Ms. Parhamovich was killed Wednesday in the ambush of a convoy in Baghdad. Ambush Kills an American Teaching Democracy to Iraqis By DAMIEN CAVE Published: January 19, 2007 BAGHDAD, Jan. 18 — An American woman killed here on Wednesday when gunmen fired on her convoy of vehicles was ambushed just minutes after leaving the headquarters of a prominent Sunni Arab political party, where she had been teaching a class on democracy, party members said Thursday They said the woman — Andrea Parhamovich, 28, of Perry, Ohio — left the party’s fortified compound in western Baghdad around 4 p.m., heading east to her group’s offices outside the Green Zone, when she and her armed guards came under attack from all sides. Les Campbell, Middle East and North Africa director for the National Democratic Institute, which hired Ms. Parhamovich about three months ago, said that during the fierce firefight, guards tried to escape, fought back, then called for reinfo...