Report: Muslim World Largely Anti-American
From the AP: NEW YORK - Anti-American feelings are widespread in the Muslim world and extend to U.S. consumer brands, according to a report released Wednesday. It suggested the U.S. burnish its image with a change in tone and by publicizing aid programs.

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Holy crap, really? I'm shocked - SHOCKED!

Whom Does This Benefit?
From the blog of Norman Mailer
Intelligence 101A

I'm beginning to see why one would want to write a blog. At present, I have a few thoughts I can certainly not prove, but the gaffe over the Michael Isikoff story in Newsweek concerning the Koran and the toilet is redolent with bad odor. Who, indeed, was Isikoff's supposedly reliable Pentagon source? One's counter-espionage hackles rise. If you want to discredit a Dan Rather or a Newsweek crew, just feed them false information from a hitherto reliable source. You learn that in Intelligence 101A.

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And still no one is talking about the Smoking Gun lying out on grassy knoll. Liberal media my ass. If we had a liberal media every newspaper in the country would be screaming about the British Memo that is now weeks old and getting older. It's like the world has gone crazy and no one cares that our politicians are 1.) lying to us and 2.) not doing a very good job at covering their tracks.

Vacation From What?
NEW YORK - Britney Spears is enjoying her pregnancy. Spears, who announced her pregnancy last month, said she and husband Kevin Federline "ate at some amazing restaurants in Scottsdale" during a "peaceful and relaxing" two-week vacation in Arizona.

"Eating for two is so much fun; I get to eat lots and lots!" the 23-year-old singer says in a posting on her Web site.

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Vacation? Vacation from WHAT? Britney Spears has spent the last few months smoking, drinking, swimming, eating and getting pregnant. What exactly were you vacationing from? Being hot?

Speaking of which, remember when Christina was the skanky one? Back in the day nothing she did surprised us and now she's classed up her act and is even engaged to someone legitimate. That's right, I said it. K-Fed? Is a joke.

Afraid. Very afraid.
I’ve heard some words thrown out lately that I thought I’d share. First, though, let me note that I didn’t hear them in our mainstream media. No, these words were spoken on Air America Radio, possibly the only organization out there telling the truth.

Fascism: A philosophy or system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator, and often a policy of belligerent nationalism.

Oligarchy: A system of government in which political power is exercised by a small group of people, usually self-selected.

Do these concepts sound familiar? If they don’t, they should.

Belligerent nationalism certainly fits the profile of a few power-mongers in Washington. And by writing the above I am aware that my own patriotism may at some point be called into question. The fact that questionable patriotism is something people worry about indicates the level of our problem.

Black voters were purged from the rolls in Florida, 2000. I’d call that self-selected, especially since Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush had a hand in the whole fiasco.

I guess it’s just a matter of time before we see exactly which of these oppressive dictatorships will come to pass in the U.S. The national I.D. program should certainly be a start in keeping track of our “undesirables”. Certainly no one would abuse this power of having all our information in one giant database. It’s not like anything like that has ever happened here before. Like during WWII for example when we used the Census data to get the addresses for every Japanese-American living in the U.S. so that we could put them in internment camps.

I’m really worried that no one seems to be paying any attention. The British memo came out a week ago and no one’s talking about it. This document proves – PROVES – that the Bush Administration decided to go to war and THEN created the evidence to support their decision. But no one knows, because the headlines are all about Michael Jackson and the Runaway Bride and Bush’s trip to Russia and the fucking Kentucky Derby and Paris Hilton’s next reality show and who’ll star with her.

Are Democrats Causing Delays in Court?
According to FactCheck.org:

Contrary to a pro-Bush TV ad, Republicans share the blame for "empty courtrooms," and delays are shorter now than they were before Bush.

Summary

A multimillion-dollar ad campaign blames Democrats for the fact that "courtrooms sit empty." In fact, there are now half as many judicial vacancies as when Bush took office. And of the 46 federal judgeships that remain vacant, Bush has named only 16 replacements.

The ad also says cases are being delayed in federal courts for "thousands of Americans." Actually, official statistics show cases typically being decided more quickly now than they were in 1999, when it was Republicans opposing Clinton's judicial nominees.

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So suck on that, all you 'Pubs who want the world to believe that we Dems are ruining the justice system. That's right, I said said suck on it!

Liberal Media? I don't think so.
If there’s one thing that frustrates me to the point of distraction, it’s the claim that we have a ‘liberal’ media in this country. Two events have recently occurred that not only illustrate how false this notion of liberalism in the news is, but also show the idiocy of America.

First event: This past Sunday, May 1, 2005, the Times of London printed a memo that proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Bush and Blair planned a regime change in Iraq and then created facts to fit this policy. The memo, written by Downing Street aide Matthew Rycroft, quotes Sir Richard Dearlove, head of MI6 and Britain's chief intelligence officer as saying, "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".

My proof that the liberal media doesn’t exist? My Google search for “British Memo + Iraq + London Times” turned up nothing but some blog entries and British headlines. I couldn’t find a single U.S. newspaper offering information on this memo. Yet any search for the Runaway Bride was met with scores of articles and op/ed pieces.

Second event: The 13-year-old girl in Florida who was almost forced by the state to continue with her unwanted pregnancy. Her wish was to get an abortion; a judge in Florida first tried to block it, but later had to agree that it was in her best interest to go ahead with the abortion.

Once again, seeing the headline in an April 30, 2005 email from the BBC, I couldn’t find the story in a single U.S. paper. On the other hand, if I wanted any piece of information on the Michael Jackson trial, I would be hard pressed to chose exactly which article best fit my interest.

Are we really that stupid, America?

Sanity? In Texas?!
Judge throws out Abu Ghraib guilty plea

FORT HOOD, Texas - A military judge Wednesday threw out Pfc. Lynndie England’s guilty plea to prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, saying that he was not convinced that she knew that her actions were wrong at the time.

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This just boggles my mind. How is it that we are past the one year anniversary of this horrific discovery and the only people who've been held responsible are the peons dumb enough to have followed the orders they were given?

Let's hope this judge starts a trend so that we can finally find out who England reported to and who that person reported to and up the chain of command until we get to the person who said the whole fiasco was okay.

Dopey reservists from West Virginia don't think up shit like this on their own. It took imagination and creativity the likes of which haven't been seen (possibly) since the Spanish Inquisition.

Fla. Court Refuses to Hear Limbaugh Appeal
By JILL BARTON, Associated Press Writer
Thu Apr 28, 5:49 PM ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday declined to consider an appeal from commentator Rush Limbaugh claiming his privacy was violated when his medical records were seized for an investigation of whether he illegally purchased painkillers.

Prosecutors seized the records after learning that Limbaugh had received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors over six months, at a pharmacy near his oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach.

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Dear Rush,

The first step is admitting you have a problem. Can't you please let Jesus help you admit that there might be something wrong? Come on, let the Light come into your heart, you big druggie.

Slow Economy, Big Profits
Ever notice how Exxon stations are always a good seven to ten cents higher than others? I have. And I think I just found out why:

At last night’s prime time press conference, Bush announced that, "There will be no price gouging at gas pumps in America."

According to the Associated Press, “he spoke on the same day the world's largest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., announced that its profit for the first three months of the year had risen 44 percent to $7.86 billion from the corresponding quarter a year ago.”

Forty-four percent! This in an economy that according to the New York Times is “expanding at its slowest pace in two years”.

It’s a load off my mind that at least the big corps can still make a buck.

Poor Russia
Putin calls collapse of Soviet rule a tragedy
President laments breakup of empire
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
BY MIKE ECKEL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin lamented the demise of the Soviet Union in some of his strongest language to date, saying in a nationally televised speech before parliament yesterday that it was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."

[Perhaps for the Soviet Union?for the rest of the world, especially Eastern Europe, it was a pretty good deal]

In his annual address to lawmakers, top government officials and political leaders, Putin also sought to reassure skittish investors about Russia's investment climate -- just two days before a ruling in the tax evasion and fraud trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

His statements on the collapse of the Soviet Union and its effects on Russians, at home and abroad, come as the country is awash in nostalgia just two weeks before the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe -- a conflict Russians call the "Great Patriotic War."

[Ha! Any student of WWII history knows that Stalin was in league with Hitler. They entered into the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact and Hitler was using Soviet land to practice with Nazi troops and equipment. When Hitler invaded Russia in 1941 Stalin went to bed for three days. He couldn?t believe he?d been tricked so badly. Did you hear me, Mr. Putin? The Great Patriotic War was only great and patriotic because your ally, HITLER, double-crossed Stalin and FORCED you into war.]

Putin, who served as a colonel in the KGB, has resurrected some Communist symbols during his presidency, bringing back the music of the old Soviet anthem and the Soviet-style red banner as the military's flag.

[Putin was a colonel in the KGB? I'm shocked!]

In the 50-minute address at the Kremlin, Putin avoided mentioning the need to work more closely with other former Soviet republics -- in contrast to previous addresses -- and he made passing reference to the treatment of Russian-speaking minorities in former Soviet republics.

[Wait. Hold on a second while my tears flow like a river into the ocean. Those poor Russian-speaking minorities in former Soviet republics. The indignity of it all. I can?t understand why a formerly captive people would want to treat their former captors badly?what is the matter with the world?!]

Click the link to read the rest of the article. Shame on the Associated Press for not telling the whole story. Giving Putin a forum to cry about the Soviet Union?s former glory is nauseating at best.