New York Times Articles
Both Fiction and Non Fiction

HAHA

I just played against the Bears online. Raiders win 20-14, but I could have won bigger. I just didn't want the punk disconnecting. 4 passes to Moss for 147 yards and a TD.

you like-a th' high speed service, eh??

Cable might have been better, but I can live with this. The "ping" is acceptable for Madden, but I have to shop rooms a little because some servers must be further away than others. Overall it's great, and now without having to use AOL I can switch back and forth between games and online. Before the stupid program static kept messing things up.

I can't tell the difference between cable and DSL. I have never downloaded files with DSL so I might be able to tell then. Other than that it is still a million times better than dialup.

You have two phone lines?

I'm playing poker talking to you guys too.

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

Percy Bysshe Shelley

I disagree. Loyalty to Bush above everything is a character flaw.

'Guardian of human rights' shows its true colour
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-10 05:57



Editor's note:

China's Information Office of State Council released a white paper on the human rights record of the United States in 2005 yesterday. The following is a full text of the paper.

On March 8, the US Department of State, posing once again as "the world's judge of human rights," released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2005. As in previous years, the US State Department pointed the finger at human rights situations in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but kept silent on the serious violations of human rights in the United States. To help people realize the true features of this self-styled "guardian of human rights," it is necessary to probe into the human rights abuses in the United States in 2005.

I. On Life and Security of Person

For a long time, the life and personal security of people of the United States have not been under efficient protection. American society is characterized with rampant violent crimes. Across the country each year, 50,000 suicides and homicides are committed (Va.Violent Deaths Are Mostly Suicides, The Washington Post, October 12, 2005).

The US Justice Department reported on September 25, 2005 that there were 5,182,670 violent crimes in the United States in 2004.

II. On Infringements upon Human Rights by Law Enforcement and Judicial Organs

There exist serious infringements upon personal rights and freedom by law enforcement and judicial organs in the United States.



According to a report of the US National Broadcasting Company on December 13, 2005, the US Defence Department had been secretly collecting information about US citizens opposing the Iraq war and secretly monitoring all meetings for peace and against the war. <.> The volume of collected information is stunning (The Fog of False Choices, The New York Times, Editorial, December 20, 2005). Police abuse is also very common in the United States. <.> There exist obvious injustice and frequent rights infringements in the judiciary system.<.> The United States proclaims to be a "paradise of freedom," yet the total number and ratio of its people behind bars both rank the first in the world. <...> From 2003 to 2004, the number of prisoners grew at a rate of 900 each week. In the first half of 2004, the number of newly incarcerated in the 50 states grew 2.3 per cent over the same period of the previous year to 48,000.

<....>
Sexual infringement is quite common in prisons. According to a report released by the US Department of Justice in June 2005, an estimated 8,210 allegations of sexual violence were reported by correctional authorities, of which almost 42 per cent involved staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct.

III On Political Rights and Freedom

The United States has always boasted itself as the "model of democracy" and hawked its mode of democracy to the rest of the world. In fact, American "democracy" is always one for the wealthy and a "game for the rich."

The democratic elections in the United States, to a great extent, are driven by money. <...> Decisions of the US Congress and the Administration are deeply influenced by money. <...> In 2004, US$2.1 billion was spent on lobbying the federal government and the Congress. <....> Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark said it is an offence to democracy to describe the United States as a democracy.

The United States flaunts its press freedom but scandals about the US Government blocking and manipulating information came out continually. <....>

IV On Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The United States is the richest in the world, but its poverty rate is also the highest among the developed countries. In the United States, problems such as poverty, hunger and homelessness are quite serious, and the economic, social and cultural rights of working people are not guaranteed.

A study of eight advanced countries by London School of Economics in 2005 found that the United States had the worst social inequality, Reuters reported on April 25, 2005. The poverty rate of the United States is the highest in the developed world and more than twice as high as in most other industrialized countries (Newsweek, The Other America, September 19, 2005). In recent years the fortunes of the rich have continued to rise in the United States. <...> The New York Times reported on November 22, 2005 that in 2004 3.9 million families had members who were undernourished.

Homelessness is a serious problem. <....> The Los Angeles Times reported on June 16, 2005 that Los Angeles County has become "the homeless capital of America," with the average number of vagabonds or people in shelters hitting 90,000 a day, including 35,000 people chronically homeless.

The rights of American labour are not guaranteed. <...> Per capita medical expenses in the United States are higher than in any other countries, however, the crisis of health insurance for workers is quite prominent. <...> . New York City alone had nearly 2 million residents without health insurance, with two thirds of them on payrolls. Each year 18,000 Americans die due to lack of medical treatment.

A survey released by Kaiser Family Foundation in September 2005 found that only 60 per cent of employers offered health insurance coverage, down from 69 per cent five years earlier.

V. On Racial Discrimination

The United States is a multi-ethnic nation of immigrants, with minority ethnic groups accounting for more than one-fourth of its population. But racial discrimination has long been a chronic malady of American society.

<....>

Racial discrimination in US justice and law enforcement is serious. William J. Bennett, former US Secretary of Education, once said that the only way to lower the crime rate in America was for all African Amreican women to have abortion.

<....>

Violent crimes against ethnic minorities have been increasing in America. According to a FBI report issued in October 2005, of the 9,528 victims of hate crimes in 2004, 53.8 per cent were victims of racial prejudice, and 67.9 per cent were blacks. Among the hate crime offenders, 60.6 per cent were whites. According to statistics, African Americans are 20 times more likely than whites to be a victim of hate crimes. In Los Angeles, 56 per cent of hate crimes were targeted at African Americans.

VI. On Rights of Women and Children

The United States does not have a good record in safeguarding the rights of women and children.

Women in the United States do not share equal rights and opportunities with men in politics. A research by the Inter-Parliamentary Union showed the United States ranked 61st in terms of women's representation in national legislature or parliaments out of over 180 directly electing countries, down from the 58th in December 2003.

<...>

In terms of the child poverty index, the United States ranked next to the last among 22 developed nations in the world. Statistics released by US Census Bureau on August 30, 2005 showed children accounted for nearly one third of the 37 million poverty population in the country. And 1.35 million US children had experienced homelessness.

<....>

At present, the number of child offenders serving life without parole sentences in the United States is three times of those 15 years ago. Child offenders often experienced abuse in prisons, and staff-on-inmate sexual assaults at correctional institutions for juveniles were almost 10 times more than in jails for adult offenders. The United States is one of the few countries that sentence child offenders to death. To date, six states in America still have no minimum age for death sentence.

In 2004, a total of 63 juveniles aged 17 or under were sentenced to death. At present, there are around 3,500 prisoners on death row in the United States, with 72 of them sentenced for crimes they committed before they turned 18.

VII. On the United States?Violation of Human Rights in Other Countries

Pursuing unilateralism on the international arena, the US government grossly violates the sovereignty and human rights of other countries in contempt of universally-recognized international norms. The US government frequently commits wanton slaughters of innocents in its war efforts and military operations in other countries.

<....>

In 2005, news of prisoner abuse by the US forces again hit headlines, following their 2004 prisoner abuse scandal that stunned the world. To extract information, the US forces in Iraq employed various kinds of torture in their interrogations. They abused the Iraqi detainees systematically, including sleep deprivation, tying them to the wall, hitting them with baseball bats, denying their access to water and food, forcing them to listen to extremely loud music in completely dark places for days running, unleashing dogs to bite them for amusement and even scaring them by putting them in the same cage with lions (reports from The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Washington Weekly and other news media).

A report by The Human Rights Watch in September 2005 said that US soldiers regarded prisoner abuse as "amusement?and a way "to relieve stress.

<...>

After the September 11 attacks, the United States wantonly apprehended terrorism suspects worldwide, flaunting the banner of "anti-terrorism.

<....>

In 2005, the scandal of the "secret prisons" set up overseas by the US Government was revealed, causing an international uproar. The New York Times carried an article titled Secrets and Shame on November 3, 2005, criticizing the overseas secret prison network concealed by the CIA.

<....>

According to The Washington Post, after the September 11 attacks, the CIA set up covert prisons, only known to a handful of officials in the White House, Justice Department and the Congress.

To obtain intelligence from the captives, the CIA employed various kinds of torture.

<.....>

The facts listed above show a poor human rights record of the United States, which forms not only a sharp contrast with its image of a self-claimed "advocate of human rights" but also disaccord with its level of economic and social development and international status. The US Government ought to first clean up its own record of human rights before qualifying itself to comment on human rights situations in other countries, let alone arrogantly telling them what to do.

<....>

We urge the US Government to look squarely at its own human rights problems, reflect what it has done in the human rights field and take concrete measures to improve its own human rights status. The US government should stop provoking international confrontation on the issue of human rights, and make a fresh start to contribute more to international human rights co-operation and to the healthy development of international human rights cause.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2...tent_530473.htm

I posted this just as an FYI...there are billions of people outside our border that are reading this. If you read the full text at the link, there is a whole bunch of documentation, using various sources...mostly those provided by the USA.

Ex-White House official arrested for thefts
Domestic policy adviser who resigned in January accused in return scam

Updated: 10:05 p.m. ET March 10, 2006

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - A former domestic policy adviser to President Bush has been charged with theft for allegedly receiving phony refunds at department stores.

Claude Alexander Allen, 45, was arrested Thursday by Montgomery County police for allegedly returning more than $5,000 worth of merchandise he did not buy, according to county and federal authorities.

Allen was the No. 2 official in the Health and Human Services Department when Bush nominated him in April 2003 to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. Bush nominated him to the court again a year later, but Allen never received a Senate vote.

During his confirmation hearing, Allen was questioned about his use of the word "queer" when he was a press aide to Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., in 1984. Allen said he didn't intend it as a slur against gay people.

In early 2005, Bush hired Allen as a domestic policy adviser. He resigned abruptly on Feb. 9, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Calls to Allen's home in Gaithersburg, a Washington suburb, were not returned. The White House also did not return calls seeking comment.

Allen has been under investigation since at least January for the alleged thefts on 25 different occasions at Target and Hecht's stores, a police spokesman, Lt. Eric Burnett, said. Police reviewed his credit card records to track his purchase.

Police believe Allen would buy items, take them to his car, then return to the store with his receipt. He would select the same items, then take them to the store return desk and show the receipt from the first purchase. Using that method, he would receive credit for the second items on his credit cards, Burnett said.

Allen was allegedly seen Jan. 2 at a Target in Gaithersburg taking items off the shelf that he then took the return desk. He had a receipt for the merchandise, was given a refund and left.

The items he allegedly received fraudulent refunds for include clothing, a Bose theater system and stereo equipment. Some purchases were as little as $2.50.

Allen was released on his own recognizance by a Montgomery District Court judge.

Before joining the Bush administration, Allen was Virginia Health and Human Resources secretary.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11770707/

Crooks, Liars, and Thieves.

When it's a democrat it's "Oh my god!!! Can you believe the crooks and villians!!???"

Crooks, Liars, and Thieves.

Press Gaggle with Scott McClellan
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Andrews Air Force Base, MD

11:09 A.M. EDT

MR. McCLELLAN: All right, let me give you an update on the President's morning. The President did participate in a video conference with federal officials. And let me tell you who all was on the video conference call. The President was on the video conference, obviously, here from Crawford. Joining him from Crawford were Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Deputy National Security Advisor J.D. Crouch, and Secretary Card was on the video conference from Maine. He is returning back to D.C. today, as well. The Vice President was on from Wyoming. Back in Washington, at the White House, you had Secretary Chertoff and Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson. You also had Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend, Claude Allen, who is overseeing the White House Task Force, Dan Bartlett, and other staff was on, as well, back in Washington. And then in the region, you had Mike Brown, Under Secretary Mike Brown, participating in the video conference.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20050831-2.html

I'm sure Bush is Hacker Bart's very special "bud" as he enjoys bending over for the guy.

There are the "change the world" because "we're smarter than everyone" types that the Clinton White House seemed to be filled with... and now the Bush WH employs the crowd wearing the "my daddy knew someone who donated a lot of money and all I got was this stupid crucial appointment." T-shirts.

Conservative does NOT equal Republican.... especially today.

The Republican Party's sense of "morality" is no shining city on a hill - but it moves slowly in terms of changing historical markers. In that, it is "conservative".

The biggest bait and switch scam job in history.

Well, at least since the '30s; when socialists stole the term "liberal".

I believe I yield your points, davis, although perhaps not as strongly held as you.

Yet I still believe that Dem's are a "worse" worse. I believe that changing moral standards should be "evolutionary", not "revolutionary".

And I believe that Dem's approach to social welfare is a much more European style form of socialism that I believe is worse for the country.

Although, the Repub's seem to be trying very hard to convince me that my marginal preference for their failures is misplaced.

I like Michael Steele for Maryland Senator. He's the type of Republican that I can support wholeheartedly. I don't know of a Democrat I can say that about. So, as it stands now... it's 1 vs. 0 for party representatives I fully support! A close race to be sure!

Bush Approval Falls to 33%
Dubai Ports Fallout

Released: March 15, 2006

Summary of Findings

In the aftermath of the Dubai ports deal, President Bush's approval rating has hit a new low and his image for honesty and effectiveness has been damaged. Yet the public uncharacteristically has good things to say about the role that Congress played in this high-profile Washington controversy.

Bush's overall approval measure stands at 33%, the lowest rating of his presidency. Bush's job performance mark is now about the same as the ratings for Democratic and Republican congressional leaders (34% and 32%, respectively), which showed no improvement in spite of public approval of the congressional response to the ports deal.

The president's ratings for handling of several specific issues, particularly terrorism, have also declined sharply. Just 42% now approve of Bush's job in handling terrorist threats, an 11-point drop since February. In January 2005, as Bush was starting his second term, 62% approved of his handling of terrorist threats.

Bush's personal image also has weakened noticeably, which is reflected in people's one-word descriptions of the president. Honesty had been the single trait most closely associated with Bush, but in the current survey "incompetent" is the descriptor used most frequently.



Bush: Personal Impressions

The public's personal impressions of Bush's trustworthiness, effectiveness and leadership have all declined sharply since last fall. In this regard, a significantly higher percentage of Americans believe that Bush is "out of touch" with what is going on with the government than said that about former President Reagan during his second term, in August 1987.



Fully 56% say that about Bush now, compared with 47% who expressed that view of Reagan nearly 20 years ago. At that time, Reagan's image had been tarnished by the Iran-contra affair, though his approval rating was much higher than Bush's is currently (50% in September 1987 vs. 33% today).

In a Word...Incompetent

President Bush's declining image also is reflected in the single-word descriptions people use to describe their impression of the president. Three years ago, positive one-word descriptions of Bush far outnumbered negative ones. Over the past two years, the positive-negative balance has been roughly equal. But the one-word characterizations have turned decidedly negative since last July.



Currently, 48% use a negative word to describe Bush compared with just 28% who use a positive term, and 10% who use neutral language.

The changing impressions of the president can best be viewed by tracking over time how often words come up in these top-of-the-mind associations. Until now, the most frequently offered word to describe the president was "honest," but this comes up far less often today than in the past. Other positive traits such as "integrity" are also cited less, and virtually no respondent used superlatives such as "excellent" or "great" ­ terms that came up fairly often in previous surveys.

The single word most frequently associated with George W. Bush today is "incompetent,"and close behind are two other increasingly mentioned descriptors: "idiot" and "liar."

All three are mentioned far more often today than a year ago.



http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=271

The single word most frequently associated with George W. Bush today is "incompetent,"and close behind are two other increasingly mentioned descriptors: "idiot" and "liar."