Antonio Iglesias Pons

As regular readers will know I did a great deal of research a few years back on a fringe subject known as The Gemstone File. I have put some of the information I came across on two sites that the interested reader can find under Research Projects at right.

Among other subjects The Gemstone File contain information about the JFK assassination, information which the author of the Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File, one Stephanie Caruana, said came from a personal contact of Bruce Roberts, author of the Gemstone File. This contact she said was a CIA-connected Cuban by the name of Antonio Iglesias, whose sister married Roberts' brother. I have been able to verify the existence of this individual, if not his connection to Bruce Roberts. His full name is Antonio Iglesias Pons. A CIA document that I obtained from the National Archives describes him as a "former employee" of the Central Intelligence Agency.

I recently came across an article on the internet that mentions him. I will quote it in full.

The night that terrorism planted death in Holguin's coastal town of Boca de Sama

By Alexis Rojas

The night was hot, light breeze and calm sea. People sleeping. It seemed that the night was going to be as common as so many others in this quite corner of Holguin's coast, but it was not like that.

That night of October 12, 1971 came carrying death with her. The sequels of that criminal action are yet fresh in many people, in the mulilated foot of Nancy Pavon, in the bullet still lodged in the body of Jesus Igarza, in Angela's scars, and in the eight indelible marks left in the legs of El Chino Escalante.

And in the tombs already cold, but never forgotten, where are kept the loved bodies of Lidio Rivaflecha Galan, in Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba city, and of Ramon Siams Portelles, in Banes graveyard.

Both Rivaflecha and Siams lost their lives that sad night.

But the call for justice is still present in the voice of Josefa Portelles, mother to Ramon, who was only 24 then and left behind a six-month-old girl who could no longer be kissed by her father.

But also in Lidio's wife, Juana Vargas: "… just horrible, I thought I'd also die of so much suffering, however, I had to push very hard to raise four children that never more had their father around…"

And in the never silenced voices of Boca de Sama dwellers that have assumed Fidel's words when the Crime of Barbados: "When an energetic and forcefull people cry, injustice trembles."

THAT NIGHT

For sergeant Carlos Escalante Gomez (El Chino), the sea is life itself.

The big sea is joined to the story of his life and the source of his living as well. He believes he cannot breathe without the sea scent.

In that time, 35 years ago, Carlos Escalante commanded the small Guard Coast garrison, in Boca de Sama, at the entrance of the homonymous bay, near Guardalavaca beach.

In his house closed to the sea, we talked of that day when terrorism seized this part of Cuba.

It was a dark night. A pirate boat approached the coast; a smaller vessel left the mother boat and came closer to the coast. The terrorist command was on board a speedboat.

Escalante was returning to the town accompanied by Lidio Rivaflecha Galan, lieutenant from Cuba's Ministry of Interior (MININT) and the officer from the State Security there, some hours ago he had met some collaborators from nearby Guayacanes village, and was informed on the presence of some strange elements around.

It was not ten yet. Before leaving, Escalante ordered Julio Ricardo -professor from the local Militia School- to lead the checkpoint. At about eight o'clock, Julio was informed that a funny noise was coming by the bay entrance.

Then Ricardo decided to send Rafael Tejeda Toledo with four other men with a RPD 44 machine gun, to head towards the fire position in the windward end of the bay, near a lighthouse.

Militiamen Ramon Siams Portelles and Esteban Batista were on duty in Boca de Sama small dock. When Escalante and Rivaflecha arrived they met these men right in their post, just then militiaman Romilio Zaldivar arrived and reported he had heard noises in the town's old store and seen lanterns flashing.

Still unaware of the threat ahead, Escalante and Lidio went on walking.

Siams and Batista were posted on sentry duty there. But already next to the town's store, Siams joined them and asked them to be involved; therefore, Escalante gave him back his weapon and took Lidio's revolver.

They went on walking meanwhile the 16 very poor houses from the coastal town were sleeping. The small power generator was not working at that late hour. Complete darkness.

Then silence was broken… The Cuban coast guard men approached the place. "Halt!," they cried, just then the artful firing began.

A machine gun blast hurt Escalante in both legs, as long as two mercenaries shoot at Lidio and Siams, killing them to death. The night was filled with pain and blood.

The mercenaries fled because they didn't want to jeopardize their lives, but before reembarking they left behind a box full of incendiary bombs (May be they wanted to burn the town) and even a boat anchor.

Among the mercenaries engaged in the terrorist attack were the noted Miami mafiosi Antonio Iglesias Pons, CIA agent and head of the command and Santiago Alvarez Fernandez-Magrina who has admitted, without even blushing, he is a closed friend to also noted murderer Luis Posada Carriles.

From a mother boat there came the machine-gun attack over the town of fishermen and peseants. Their houses became the target of cruelty. Cuban coast guard men fired back. The pirates aided by darkness fled North, where some eight miles away the mother boat was waiting for them...

Antonio Iglesias also figured in a year 2000 assassination attempt on Castro in Panama.

Antonio Iglesias Pons, known as "Tony". Age: 65. Height: 169 centimeters. Normal build. White skin, light-colored eyes, gray hair with pronounced balding. Cuban, resident in the United States. Has U.S. citizenship.

Ongoing links with Luis Posada Carriles. He has been used as a messenger to deliver the money to be used in the organization of the assassination plot against Cuban President Fidel Castro. He participated in the acquisition of weapons.

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Civil War in Iraq

Residents trapped in the capital's most fiercely contested districts braced Sunday for a new wave of bloodshed when a 24-hour curfew ends Monday. Reached by telephone, they all offered the same grim assessment: civil war has begun.

Nir Rosen: Anatomy of a Civil War

Iraq 'worse than Vietnam'

Accept defeat by Taliban, Pakistan tells Nato

Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri, has said in private briefings to foreign ministers of some Nato member states that the Taliban are winning the war in Afghanistan and Nato is bound to fail. He has advised against sending more troops.

Western ministers have been stunned. "Kasuri is basically asking Nato to surrender and to negotiate with the Taliban," said one Western official who met the minister recently.

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From Crime of the Century by Michael L. Kurtz:

The press conference lasted only a few minutes during which Oswald repeated his earlier denial of an involvement in the assassination. When the conference was over, a policeman led Oswald into an elevator. A magazine photographer rode with them and talked with Oswald, who vehemently denied shooting Kennedy and asserted he was a "patsy," taking the blame for others. Just before he entered his cell, Oswald told the photographer that the truth about the assassination "conspiracy" would be revealed at his trial.

Kurtz's source was his own interview with the photographer Gerald R. Herald.

Does anyone doubt that Oswald was killed to prevent just this from happening? Columnist Jack Anderson wrote in his book Peace, War, and Politics (p. 117):

Rosselli indicated that the mob set up Oswald to take the rap. Then once the blame was placed on him, he had to be eliminated.

And (same page):

Washington cop Joe Shimon told me it was Trafficante who called on the mob's chits with Ruby and ordered him to kill Oswald.

Joe Shimon was well-connected with both the Mob and the CIA.

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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.

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The view in Washington is that Al-Maliki’s usefulness has ended, and a political coup is now underway to oust him and reorganize his regime along lines more amenable to a revival of America’s old bias toward Sunni Arabs.

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And Is MY Face Red!!!!

I don't usually pass on stories or 'facts' that I get by email until I verify them by going to Snopes or other sources. That is why I am totally embarrassed by my last post: Red pointed out that none of the 'cases' sited in the post were true. I hadn't bothered to look them up before passing them along--sorry everyone! So, to make up for my last post, I will offer the winners of the 2005 Stella Awards--THE REAL ONES! They are just as ridiculous and outrageous as the made-up ones. Enjoy and get mad. :

The TRUE Stella Awards -- 2005 Winners
by Randy Cassingham
Issued 31 January 2006

Unlike the FAKE cases that have been highly circulated online for the
last several years (see http://www.StellaAwards.com/bogus.html for
details), the following cases have been researched from public sources
and are confirmed TRUE by the ONLY legitimate source for the Stella
Awards: www.StellaAwards.com . To confirm this copy is legitimate, see
http://www.StellaAwards.com/2005.html

-v-

2005 Runners-Up and Winner:

#7: Bob Dougherty. A prankster smeared glue on the toilet seat at the
Home Depot store in Louisville, Colo., causing Dougherty to stick to
it when he sat down. "This is not Home Depot's fault," he proclaimed,
yet the store graciously offered him $2,000 anyway. Dougherty
complained that offer is "insulting" and filed suit demanding $3
million.

#6: Barbara Connors of Medfield, Mass. Connors was riding in a car driven
by her 70-year-old(!) son-in-law when they crashed into the
Connecticut River, and Connors sank with the car. Rescue divers
arrived within minutes and got her out alive, but Connors suffered
brain damage from her near-drowning. Sue the driver? Sure, we guess
that's reasonable. But she also sued the brave rescue workers who
risked their lives to save hers.

#5: Michelle Knepper of Vancouver, Wash. Knepper picked a doctor out of
the phone book to do her liposuction, and went ahead with the
procedure even though the doctor was only a dermatologist, not a
plastic surgeon. After having complications, she complained she never
would have chosen that doctor had she known he wasn't Board Certified
in the procedure. (She relied on the phonebook listing over asking the
doctor, or looking for a certificate on his wall?!) So she sued ...the
phone company! She won $1.2 million PLUS $375,000 for her husband for
"loss of spousal services and companionship."

#4: Rhonda Nichols. She says a wild bird "attacked" her outside a home
improvement store in Fairview Heights, Ill., causing head injuries.
That's right: OUTSIDE the store. Yet Nichols still held the Lowe's
store responsible for "allowing" wild birds to fly around free in the
air. She never reported the incident to the store, but still sued for
"at least" $100,000 in damages. In January 2006, the case was thrown
out of court.

#3: Barnard Lorence of Stuart, Fla. Lorence managed to overdraw his own
bank account. When the bank charged him a service fee for the
overdraft, he filed suit over his "stress and pain" and loss of sleep
over the fee. A few hundred thousand bucks, he says, will only amount
to a "slap on the wrist", whereas the $2 million he's suing for is
more like being "paddled". Kinky!

#2: Wanita "Renea" Young of Durango, Colo. Two neighborhood teens baked
cookies for their neighbors as an anonymous gesture of good will, but
Young got scared when she heard them on her front porch. They
apologized, in writing, but Young sued them anyway for causing her
distress, demanding $3,000. When she won(!!) $900, she crowed about it
in the newspaper and on national TV. Now, she's shocked (shocked!)
that everyone in town hates her for her spite, and is afraid she may
have to move. But hey: she won.

AND THE WINNER of the 2005 Stella Award: Christopher Roller of
Burnsville, Minn. Roller is mystified by professional magicians, so he
sued David Blaine and David Copperfield to demand they reveal their
secrets to him -- or else pay him 10 percent of their lifelong
earnings, which he figures amounts to $50 million for Copperfield and
$2 million for Blaine. The basis for his suit: Roller claims that the
magicians defy the laws of physics, and thus must be using "godly
powers" -- and since ROLLER is god (according to him), they're
"somehow" stealing that power from him.

TO CONFIRM THE VALIDITY OF THESE CASES, get more information on the True Stella Awards, or sign up for a free e-mail subscription to new cases
as they are issued, see http://www.StellaAwards.com/2005.html

Copyright 2006 www.StellaAwards.com . This message may be forwarded as
long as it remains complete and unaltered.

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Brzezinski on Iran:

Brzezinski also questioned the Bush administration's policy on Iran, calling it ``self-defeating.'' Asked whether the U.S. should have to accept the reality of the Iranians obtaining nuclear weapons, he said, ``I'm not entirely convinced they are really seeking them.''

The Iranian leadership is ``seeking a comprehensive nuclear program'' that would put the country in a position to produce nuclear weapons, Brzezinski said.

``Japan can produce nuclear weapons very quickly, but they haven't done it, and I think that's where Iran wants to end up,'' he said.

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Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, thinks that we should get out of Iraq.

Except when the survival of the nation is at stake, all military missions must be judged according to a cost-benefit calculation. Iraq has never come close to being a war for America's survival. It was an elective war -- a war of choice, and a bad choice at that. How much are Americans willing to pay in blood, treasure and toil to try to prevail in Iraq?

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Some People Shouldn't Reproduce

NOTICE: None of these stories are true. To read my apology, explanation, and retraction, see the post on 26 November 2006. Here is the link.

To read my reply to the commentator 'never forward a chain letter,' you will find the post here.

Here is my original post:


Not only should these 'winners' not be allowed to reproduce, the lawyers and juries should be sterilized, also. I give to you, the "Stella Awards":



Time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella Awards." The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.

Here are this year's winners:

5th Place (tie):
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

5th Place (tie):
19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

5th Place (tie):
Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed, to the tune of $500,000.

4th Place:
Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3rd Place:
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500. She slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

2ndPlace:
Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

1st Place:
This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs.Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.

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Black Friday

I still am among the living--despite my lack of posts. We managed to eat ourselves into oblivion the last few days and it just continues: leftovers again tonight! Instead of the traditional Thursday meal, I cooked on Wednesday. It was so nice to be all done with the cooking and clean-up before everyone else had even STARTED to cook! I got to relax and do nothing yesterday as K relaxed and watched football--surprisingly, not a much different day than any others we have around here. :)

Today, as everyone knows, is Black Friday--the busiest shopping day of the year. The last time I went out shopping on Black Friday was five years ago. Youngest daughter and I figured we would give it a go and wound up shopping our little hearts out. She really got into the spirit of the day--she ran, sprinted, and elbowed others out of her way in pursuit of the almighty gifts we were hunting down. We had an absolute great time that day. That was only the second time I have faced the early-morning crowds and it just probably is my last. I checked out the ads this year and didn't really find much of anything I was interested it. I couldn't justify standing in a line at 4:30am just to get something I didn't really need and wasn't going to give as a gift. Oh, well, I guess I'm not all that much of a bargain hunter. Besides, five years ago was the last time I gave gifts to The Family--why give gifts to people who you don't see and don't talk to, right?

Speaking of gifts, I pretty much am sure what we're giving this year--and it isn't all that hard to figure out as we have a VERY short list. We only give to our children, grandchildren, goddaughter, and a couple of close friends--makes for an easy shopping experience! Anyway, we are giving money and books to the grandchildren, money and something little to the girls, and will save the special shopping for our friends. The grandkids don't need any more toys--and there isn't anything they want really badly--and the girls can always use the money, so we figured we would keep it easy and simple this year. And that's fine by me. I can actually do most, if not all, of my shopping online--which is ALSO fine with me! However, we WILL be doing a couple of road trips--a day run to Milwaukee and an over-nighter to Appleton. I can't stay away from Barnes & Noble at Christmastime!

During the month of May 2007, The Lion King will be playing at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton--AND WE GOT TICKETS! Our friends, her sister and husband, and we will be there watching the spectacle that is The Lion King the end of May--I can't wait. Youngest daughter saw the play in Toronto a few years back and STILL can't stop talking about how amazing it was. This should be a lot of fun--shopping AND a play all in the same trip! Who could ask for anything more!

Not much to report on the health front with K or me. My dr took me off of the blood pressure meds that were causing me to be sick--thank goodness--and I see him on Monday to discuss where we go from here. K is still going through testing in anticipation of his appointments on the 11th of December--he sees the internist at 8:00am and the nephrologist at 9:15--so I'm hoping we will then have some solid answers about his health. I'm not too worried--he says he is feeling very well and better than he did when all of this started.

I am feeling my old 'scrinchiness'*coming over me. I should really begin the Christmas decorating and I just don't feel like it. I probably WON'T, but I sure feel like not doing a damn bit of decorating at all this year--it just doesn't seem worth it. We'll see if I can get myself out of this funk--yeah, right--and get it together. I really haven't felt THIS 'scrinchy' in several years--I have to try and figure out WHY and then, maybe, I can work my way out of it.

Tomorrow night a very good friend of mine is taking me out for dinner in celebration of my birthday--even though my birthday isn't for a few more days. It is kind of a tradition between us--we take the other out every year for a birthday dinner. It will be nice to eat something besides turkey, already.

Tonight AND tomorrow night I get to watch the Wings play--they played on Wednesday night and lost, again. I won't even discuss Wednesday's game--let's just say they screwed themselves out of a win and leave it at that. I hope they can pull themselves together tonight and play like they were playing a week ago! Only time will tell.


*Scrinchy: a cross between Scrooge and the Grinch.

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PARIS FLAMMONDE's monumental three-volume 1500 page work "The Assassination of America" is now available pre-publication for $125. His earlier work "The Kennedy Conspiracy," a pre-trial account of the Garrison investigation is one of the best early works.

Special Pre-Publication Offer:

How you can get "The Assassination of America" before its publication.

Paris Flammonde is offering a special pre-publication price on the 3-Volume set, comprised of over 1500 pages with more than 400 photographs, a collection to which some of the best known JFK Assassination researchers and scientists have contributed.

"The Assassination of America 3 Volume Set" will retail for over $400.00 but. through this exclusive pre-publication offer, readers may purchase the 3 volumes for $125.00 plus shipping. Qualified JFK Assassination researchers, historians and organizations may apply for a special "Scholar's Pricing" of $100.00 per set by contacting:

Paris Flammonde"Tarot" RR 6, Box 6199Stroudsburg, PA 18360-8537

Email: wildplum@epix.net

I look forward to reading and reviewing this work at the earliest opportunity. Thanks to Professor Hex for calling this to my attention.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

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Originally posted at The X Spot. Written to conspiracy researcher Mae Brussell.

December 24, 1976

Remember always--

The charges against my late son are false.

Sincerely

Marguerite Oswald

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November 22, 1963

It is difficult to believe that there was a time in our nation's history when liberals were regularly accused of treason. Today they stop at character assassination.

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Ok, Global Orgasm Day (Dec 22) is fast approaching and I don't have a date. You: must be female and live within driving distance of San Jose, California. We can meet before December 22 if you like. Age: 27 to 40. Older if really hot, younger if really slutty. It's about time I get something from this blog.

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Sixties radical Tom Hayden has a most interesting article over at The Huffington Post, based he says on "credible Iraqi sources in London and Amman."

According to credible Iraqi sources in London and Amman, a secret story of America's diplomatic exit strategy from Iraq is rapidly unfolding. The key events include:First, James Baker told one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers that Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister, would be released from detention by the end of this year, in hope that he will negotiate with the US on behalf of the Baath Party leadership.

The discussion recently took place in Amman, according to the Iraqi paper al-Quds al-Arabi. Second, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice personally appealed to the Gulf Cooperation Council in October to serve as intermediaries between the US and armed Sunni resistance groups [not including al Qaeda], communicating a US willingness to negotiate with them at any time or place. Speaking in early October, Rice joked that if then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "heard me now, he would wage a war on me fiercer and hotter than he waged on Iraq," according to an Arab diplomat privy to the closed session.

There is a lot more. Negotiating for the best terms for our withdrawal from Iraq is probably a good thing, although we are certainly not negotiating from a position of strength. Hayden also says:

Bush security adviser Stephen Hadley carried a six-point message for Iraqi officials on his recent trip to Baghdad:

* include Iraqi resistance and opposition leaders in any initiative towards national reconciliation;

* general amnesty for the armed resistance fighters;

* dissolve the Iraqi commission charged with banning the Baath Party;

* start the disbanding of militias and death squads;

* cancel any federalism proposal to divide Iraq into three regions, and combine central authority for the central government with greater self-rule for local governors;

* distribute oil revenues in a fair manner to all Iraqis, including the Sunnis whose regions lack the resource.

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Robert Scheer interviews the inimitable Gore Vidal:

There are a few crazies who want to cheer the flag and this yappy little terrier as though he were a real president. Well, he’s not a real president. He’s a thing, a chimera who was put together by the Supreme Court, first time around, and reelected by, uh, Diebold, Sequoia and some other interested parties.

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As the Bush administration considers sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq (a really dumb idea that will not work) Piglipstick draws our attention to this excerpt from this book.

Meanwhile the Iraqi people don't want us there.

74% of Shiites and 91% of Sunnis in Iraq want us to leave within a year. The number of Shiites making this call in Baghdad, where the U.S. may send more troops to bring order, is even higher (80%) In contrast, earlier this year, 57% of this same group backed an "open-ended" U.S. stay.

By a wide margin, both groups believe U.S. forces are provoking more violence than they're preventing -- and that day-to-day security would improve if we left. Support for attacks on U.S. forces now commands majority support among both Shiites and Sunnis.

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Did the CIA Kill Bobby Kennedy?

Update: I watched the clip last night. It runs about 12 minutes and is very good. The photos are fairly clear and several people who knew the CIA agents in question identify them. Persuasive if not conclusive.

Update: Watch the BBC program here. (I haven't seen it yet.)

Shane O'Sullivan put together a documentary that will be aired tonight on the BBC that argues that three senior CIA figures were involved in the assassination of Robert Kennedy. His case seems to be based on photographic comparisons of the three men with people photographed in the crowd near the time of the assassination. This sort of comparison has often been done in the JFK assassination, and I must say I am a bit skeptical. With enough blurry crowd shots it seems to me that you can find a possible match for just about anyone.

One of the figures that the film maker feels was involved was David Morales.

Morales was a legendary figure in CIA covert operations. According to close associate Tom Clines, if you saw Morales walking down the street in a Latin American capital, you knew a coup was about to happen. When the subject of the Kennedys came up in a late-night session with friends in 1973, Morales launched into a tirade that finished: "I was in Dallas when we got the son of a bitch and I was in Los Angeles when we got the little bastard." From this line grew my odyssey into the spook world of the 60s and the secrets behind the death of Bobby Kennedy.

Emphasis added.

Update: Shane O'Sullivan's website: www.rfkmustdie.com/

Update: Lisa Pease's opinion: I do believe the CIA killed Robert Kennedy. I don't believe those are the guys who did it though.

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US Government Documents Show 160 Saudis Flew from the US Between September 11 and September 15, 2001

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released US Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) agency documents obtained under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) detailing the departure of 160 subjects of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, “including but not limited to members of the House of Saud and/or members of the Bin Laden family,” between September 11, 2001 and September 15, 2001. The documents are available on the Judicial Watch Internet site by clicking here (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

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Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB spy struggling for life after being poisoned with thallium, had earlier accused Putin of being a pedophile.

Alexander Litvinenko wrote a sensational and unsubstantiated article earlier this year accusing Putin of having had sex with underage boys.

The bizarre story appeared on a website linked to the president’s foes in the breakaway region of Chechnya.

A cached copy of his story in Enlish can be found here.

After graduating from the Andropov Institute, which prepares officers for the KGB intelligence service, Putin was not accepted into the foreign intelligence. Instead, he was sent to a junior position in KGB Leningrad Directorate. This was a very unusual twist for a career of an Andropov Institute's graduate with fluent German. Why did that happen with Putin?

Because, shortly before his graduation, his bosses learned that Putin was a pedophile. So say some people who knew Putin as a student at the Institute.The Institute officials feared to report this to their own superiors, which would cause an unpleasant investigation. They decided it was easier just to avoid sending Putin abroad under some pretext. Such a solution is not unusual for the secret services.

Many years later, when Putin became the FSB director and was preparing for presidency, he began to seek and destroy any compromising materials collected against him by the secret services over earlier years. It was not difficult, provided he himself was the FSB director. Among other things, Putin found videotapes in the FSB Internal Security Directorate, which showed him making sex with some underage boys.

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ABC News asks the question: Has O.J. Gone Too Far This Time?

This time? You mean, as opposed to the time he butchered two people, one of them the mother of his children, and got away with it?

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Our Fearless Leader

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The Cult of Death

Swamp Church directs us to an unusual permutation of Catholicism; the veneration of La Santa Muerte, "Saint Death" by a group called the “Traditional Catholic Church Mex-USA” or the “Mexico-US Tridentine Catholic Church”. According to one news article that Swamp Church links to:

In Mexico City, in the tough Tepito neighborhood, where poverty, corruption and violence are daily realities, there is a beloved "saint" who understands and forgives the frailties of all human flesh. Her domain is a labyrinth of grimy streets lined with auto body shops and humble mom-and-pop stores. From her perch behind a glassencased altar adorned with candles, decayed flowers and shot glasses of tequila, she watches scruffy curs pick through garbage while a constant stream of pilgrims lays offerings at her feet.

To Roman Catholic Church officials, the skeletal woman in the long, flowing robes is an evil figure, a grisly embodiment of satanic purposes. But to the desperately poor and overlooked residents of Tepito she is a popfolk idol and often a last, best hope for answering unanswered prayers.

She is La Santa Muerte, "Saint Death," or as others call her, "La Santisima Muerte," "Sacred Death." Her petitioners are prostitutes, drug dealers and murderers, as well as multitudes of ordinary housewives, taxi drivers and street vendors hoping to cure a sick child or pay the rent or simply make it through another day without getting robbed or kidnapped or shot.

One site goes so far as to label this group The Death Cult of the Drug Lords

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Seymour Hersh has a new article in the New Yorker revealing that the neoconservatives are still pushing for an attack on Iran, but that their efforts are being hampered by a CIA report on Iran's nuclear program.

The Administration’s planning for a military attack on Iran was made far more complicated earlier this fall by a highly classified draft assessment by the C.I.A. challenging the White House’s assumptions about how close Iran might be to building a nuclear bomb. The C.I.A. found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear-weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency.


The C.I.A. assessment warned the White House that it would be a mistake to conclude that the failure to find a secret nuclear-weapons program in Iran merely meant that the Iranians had done a good job of hiding it.

However:

A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the C.I.A. analysis, and told me that the White House had been hostile to it. The White House’s dismissal of the C.I.A. findings on Iran is widely known in the intelligence community. Cheney and his aides discounted the assessment, the former senior intelligence official said.

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It's hard to believe that Pavel Datsyuk is not even a year older than me.

That's got to be one of the best jobs to have though. Doing what your good at, and doing what you like to do.

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Al Gore:

Whatever happened to the concept of accountability for catastrophic failure? This administration has been by far the most incompetent, inept, and with more moral cowardice, and obsequiousness to their wealthy contributors, and obliviousness to the public interest of any administration in modern history, and probably in the entire history of the country!

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Bush Cites Lessons for Iraq in Vietnam

The lesson Bush has apparently learned from Vietnam, as he meets under a statue of Ho Chi Minh for cordial discussions with Vietnamese leaders, is that we should have stayed the course.

McCain Calls for Common Sense in GOP

Like that will happen.

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Julia Corker Update:

Looking at my site statistics today I see that I got visits from Yale University and the House of Representatives--both from google searches for "Julia Corker." That's Julia on the right.

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Gay Swans and their Cute Babies

Homosexual Animals Out of the Closet

Homosexual behavior between human females

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Voodoo Practitioner Curses Bush

A renowned black magic practitioner performed a voodoo ritual Thursday to jinx President George W. Bush and his entourage while he was on a brief visit to Indonesia.

Ki Gendeng Pamungkas slit the throat of a goat, a small snake and stabbed a black crow in the chest, stirred their blood with spice and broccoli before drank the "potion" and smeared some on his face.

Sure, putting a voodoo curse on Bush sounds like a good idea. But let's say that it works, and Bush swells up until his entrails burst out--then Dick Cheney becomes President.

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In The Guardian:

US plans last big push in Iraq

President George Bush has told senior advisers that the US and its allies must make "a last big push" to win the war in Iraq and that instead of beginning a troop withdrawal next year, he may increase US forces by up to 20,000 soldiers, according to sources familiar with the administration's internal deliberations.

Mr Bush's refusal to give ground, coming in the teeth of growing calls in the US and Britain for a radical rethink or a swift exit, is having a decisive impact on the policy review being conducted by the Iraq Study Group chaired by Bush family loyalist James Baker, the sources said.

OK, and what's the plan after that doesn't work? To be fair, more troops is only part of a four point plan, according to The Guardian. The other 3 points probably will not work either, but may be worth attempting. According to the story in The Guardian:

"You've got to remember, whatever the Democrats say, it's Bush still calling the shots. He believes it's a matter of political will. That's what [Henry] Kissinger told him. And he's going to stick with it," a former senior administration official said. "He [Bush] is in a state of denial about Iraq. Nobody else is any more. But he is. But he knows he's got less than a year, maybe six months, to make it work. If it fails, I expect the withdrawal process to begin next fall."

Meanwhile, the top US General in Middle East, General John Abizaid, says Troop adjustments won't solve Iraq

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Julia Corker Update: more photos, no lesbian kissing

Matthew Craig, Commercial Appeal:

Republican Senate candidate Bob Corker and his daughters Julia and Emily head back to their campaign bus after attending service at the First Baptist Church in Sevierville Sunday morning

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"Iraq Is Not Winnable"

So says Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and you don't get more Establishment than that.

Haass: We've reached a point in Iraq where we've got to get real. And this is not going to be a near-term success for American foreign policy. The Iraq situation is not winnable in any meaningful sense of the word "winnable." So what we need to do now is look for a way to limit the losses and costs, try to advance on other fronts in the region and try to limit the fallout of Iraq. That's what you have to do sometimes when you're a global power.

Mr. Haas also has an article in Foreign Affairs which argues:

The age of U.S. dominance in the Middle East has ended and a new era in the modern history of the region has begun. It will be shaped by new actors and new forces competing for influence, and to master it, Washington will have to rely more on diplomacy than on military might.

Meanwhile conservative commentator Ben Stein says Iraq Better Off With Saddam

Stein, a former speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford and a frequent contributor to the "CBS Sunday Morning News,” went on to castigate the Bush administration for its invasion of Iraq: "I’ve never seen a foreign policy mistake quite this bad. [Bush] just made a terrible mistake.

"We were better off with Saddam Hussein running Iraq. It breaks my heart, but it’s true.”

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Things ARE Getting Better

Just a few updates:

--The guy just came to pick up the snow blower. Now we just have to wait for him to get around to checking everything out and fixing what needs to be fixed. All this could take a week or so. Hopefully, we won't have any storms so that the damn thing will actually be NEEDED before we get it back! I guess K will just have to take care of the thing earlier next year--after all, it isn't as if we are SURPRISED that we get snow every year. I don't know why this is one of those things that gets put off till the last minute--kind of like Christmas shopping.

--K had his appointment with the nephrologist on Monday. The guy said--what we kind of were thinking ourselves--that the kidney-thing was probably due to the fact that K was sick at the time of the blood work. That being said, he still wanted to do more tests just to be sure--after all, it HAS been 8 years since K has been to see the doc, so there is no way of knowing how long his blood pressure has been high. And high blood pressure can cause kidney damage--something I didn't know. Anyway, K had an ultrasound of his kidneys this morning and will see the nephrologist in about a month--that is, as long as the ultrasound doesn't show anything major going on. So, again, it is a wait-and-see sort of thing. I'm not as upset about the waiting anymore--I figure if there was something the drs were REALLY concerned about--something that would be considered life-or-death--they would be hauling K into the office IMMEDIATELY!

--The dr took me off of the blood pressure med because of the side-effects I was having--THANK GOODNESS! I am feeling MUCH better since going off and I hope he won't put me on anything else--or, if he has to, I want to go back on what I was on a year ago. I REALLY don't think I need anything, as my numbers have been okay, except for the spikes--small AND large--I get during times of stress. I've been doing quite well for the last week without anything.

--The oldest daughter decided to bring home a 10-week-old puppy last Friday. Into a house with: two adults, five kids, one half-time kid, and a full-grown dog. The puppy only visited for the weekend, because she was told by her husband--in NO uncertain terms--that she WOULD bring the puppy back on Monday. She is royally pissed. I agree with her husband: they didn't need to have anything else brought into their lives at this point!

--The youngest daughter and her husband have decided to keep the kitten she took in to foster. They now have two dogs--60 pounds each--two full-grown cats, and the kitten. All I can hope is that she doesn't become pregnant any time soon--there would no place for them to put a baby!

--STILL haven't figured out what is going on for Thanksgiving. All I know is that we WILL be here in town for the day and that I will cook. I just don't know if I will be cooking on Wednesday or Thursday--and I don't know if K will be working or not. He hasn't decided if he wants to take the vacation day or carry it over till next year. Doesn't matter to me either way.

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Rudy Giuliani--finally, a straight Republican

There is no way Rudy Giuliani gets the Republican nomination--he is too liberal for that party and will lose on the issues of guns, gays and god. Also he has been photographed (and videotaped) wearing women's clothing. McCaine wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit.

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“V” Meets The Secret Service

On Monday, November 6, 2006, “V” visited security check points at the White House, the main Treasury, IRS and Justice Department Buildings and the Capitol. “V’s” purpose was to deliver the People’s Petitions for Redress of Grievances relating to the Government’s violations of the war powers, tax, privacy and money clauses of the Constitution, and to inform key Government officials that at least 100 more “Vs” would be at their doorstep on November 14th expecting a response to the Petitions.

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RNC Experiments With Heterosexual Chairman From Wonkette.

This is great news for social conservatives tired of worshiping a political party completely run by the homosexuals. Martinez is as anti-gay as they get without actually being gay. He does employ all kinds of gay staffers, but that’s pretty much the only way you have staffers at all.

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It occurs to me that I never ran the other Julia Corker Facebook photo, so here it is. Julia is the one in the back, dryhumping the girl in her underwear. Julia--work with me; get arrested, pose for Playboy, come out--something.

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Why Impeachment is a Bad Idea

Democratic leaders say that impeachment is off the table, and I think that is a good thing. It's not that Bush is not arguably guilty of several impeachable offenses, and it's not like the Republicans don't have it coming, but impeachment would be divisive and the Senate would almost certainly fail to convict. And, of course, at the end of the day if Bush were removed from office we would be left with President Dick Cheney. So, let's just forget impeachment and work for a Democratic President in 08. OK, that's settled then.

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In a move that has been puzzling intelligence agencies, al Qaeda has been withdrawing well-trained Arab fighters from the mountains and battlefields of Afghanistan. In detailed interviews with Arab diplomats, intelligence sources and Pakistani and western officials, Arab members have been leaving Afghanistan for the past six months while handing over its militant activities in Afghanistan to that country's resurgent Taliban movement.

This can't be good.

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Senator Joe Biden is Running for President in 08:

Senator Joseph Biden, perhaps the biggest weenie in the Senate, is planning to run for President yet again. His candidacy is, of course, doomed from the start. Meanwhile Senator Russ Feingold, who has been on my short list of desirable candidates, is not going to run. Senator Feingold told his supporters in a letter:

Yet, while I've certainly enjoyed the repeated comments or buttons saying, "Run Russ Run", or "Russ in '08", I often felt that if a piece of Wisconsin swiss cheese had taken the same positions I've taken, it would have elicited the same standing ovations. This is because the hunger for progressive change we feel is obviously not about me but about the desire for a genuinely different Democratic Party that is ready to begin to reverse the 25 years of growing extremism we have endured.

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Snowblowers, Escondido, Innocent Man, AND Hockey

--K has waited for the last two days for the snow blower to be picked up for servicing. It is still sitting outside and we have YET to hear from the guy as to why he hasn't been here. I don't understand why some people in business can't even do the barest minimum of customer service--such as calling and saying they are sorry, but something came up! We might not be happy that the service wasn't being provided in the timely matter we wanted, but at least we would know that they still wanted our business! K is STILL waiting for a guy to come and give us an estimate for a new driveway--FIVE YEARS AFTER THE FACT! I don't think he is coming.

--On Tuesday the new CD by Eric Clapton and JJ Cale came out and I LOVE it! (But, as I have said before, I would love listening to EC sing the damn phone book!) It is called The Road to Escondido and it is a bit hard to explain--it's a nice blend of blues, jazz, country, rock. Cale wrote 11 of the songs and they both sing and play--along with a roster of some great musicians. Nice music.

--I'm reading the new book by John Grisham, An Innocent Man. This is his first non-fiction book and it is really good--has the tendency to read like a novel. I hope it continues to be as good--I'm not quite halfway through. But like my love for anything EC does, I love Grisham's writing and will read anything he does.

--On Wednesday, the fall 'season' of Lost ended with a cliffhanger--DUH! The show will take a break until February when it will have 16 more episodes. I'm not too sure if this whole idea is a good thing. I'm really rather disappointed in the season so far. I think the show is being dragged out way too much and I'm getting too impatient to sit through the same storyline over and over and over again. Let's get some things going and then I will be more enthused about coming back to the show in February! But then, something may come on that interests me more and I may NOT be back watching the show. Hmmm.

--Speaking of shows that have been disappointing lately, I have to add Gilmore Girls in the mix. If the show doesn't get any better pretty darn soon, I may have to stop watching. And if I stop watching in the middle of the season, you can bet I WON'T be buying the DVD when it comes out! I keep hoping that the ones in charge know what they are doing and that things will work out in the end. Just have to wait and see.

--The Red Wings player that got hurt the other night, Jason Williams, WAS knocked unconscious for a moment or two when he hit the ice. He suffered a concussion and received 30 stitches. What a way to make a living!

--And finally, the Wings won again last night--their eighth straight win! They are doing quite well--something I didn't think was going to happen by the way the season started. One of the reasons they are doing so well is that they are leading the NHL with allowing the fewest shots--after all, if the opposing team can't shoot at the goal, they can't score. :)

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JFK Speech on Secrecy and Freedom of the Press

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Julia Corker and family

Tag words: girls kissing, lesbianism, republican gay sex

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Extraordinary Rendition:

"Here, they told me, the flies don't even come. When I asked for the toilet, they told me to go in my cell. There was an incredible stench. I remained there for six and a half months, at Amn El Dawla. The cell was without air, cockroaches and rats crawled over me. When the guard entered, I had to be on my knees or he would jolt me with an electric cattle prod."

"At the beginning, the guards stripped me nude and give me shocks with their cattle prods. One grabbed my private parts and mashed them when I would not talk. They stretched me over an iron gate, kicked me, attached electric wires to me and threw cold water over me."

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Owie!

Last night while watching the Red Wings play--they won their seventh straight game!--I saw something that I had never seen in all the years I have been following hockey. In the second period, one of the Wings' players, Jason Williams, was coming around the back of the Oilers' net, trying to score. He was watching one of the Oilers and didn't see another one coming at him. The player he didn't see, came in and hit him in the face with his shoulder--it was a legal check--and Williams went flying through the air and landed on his face onto the ice. And he just laid there on the ice, not moving. Then, of course, all hell broke loose as doctors, trainers, medics, etc, went to see how badly he was injured. There was quite a bit of blood on the ice, but all that could be seen were the people surrounding him. It was quite scary and tense for several minutes. After the stretcher was brought out, the camera managed to show him moving his left foot--at least this proved he wasn't paralyzed and was conscious. An ambulance was brought right up to the ice and they took him off with the stretcher. As they were moving toward the ambulance, he waved to the crowd, indicating that he wasn't as bad as it looked. He was brought to a hospital for some tests and stitches and he will be fine. He is expected to miss a couple of games before returning to play.

As I said, I am so surprised that this is the first time I have seen anything so frightening while watching a game. I started watching hockey before the rule changes--back when a 'good' hockey game included at least one fight...WITH blood. The game today is so much less aggressive--but, then, the whole incident had absolutely nothing to do with a fight or any wrong-doing on anyone's part. Even though I don't in any way believe that athletes are worth the enormous salaries they get, I guess there just is no amount of money that is worth the kind of injury this player could have sustained in last night's game. Jason Williams is only 26 years old.

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Eric Lomax was tortured by the Japanese.

Waterboarding was the only torture he blocked out.

"He directed the full flow of the now-gushing pipe onto my nostrils and mouth.… Water poured down my windpipe and throat and filled my lungs and stomach. The torrent was unimaginably choking. This is the sensation of drowning, on dry land, on a hot dry afternoon. Your humanity bursts from within you as you gag and choke. I tried very hard to will unconsciousness but no relief came."

The beating and the interrogation continued. "I had nothing to say: I was beyond invention. So they turned on the tap again, and again there was that nausea of rising water from inside my bodily cavity."

Eric Lomax met his torturer five decades later.

Nagase remembered Lomax, too. "They poured water into his mouth. I saw his stomach swelling up. I almost lost my presence of mind. With the prisoner screaming and crying 'Mother! Mother!' I muttered to myself, 'Mother, do you know what is happening to your son now?' I still cannot stop shuddering every time I recall that horrible scene."

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Global Orgasm Day: Countdown to Synchronized Global Orgasm

It's December 22 "at the time of your choosing." Doesn't that mess up the synchronization thing? I'm a little unclear as to how this is supposed to work but count me in. Also, currently accepting applications.

To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy a Synchronized Global Orgasm. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, so the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW!

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Corruption in Florida

A poster named "west" at the Rigorous Intuition forum linked to this story.

TAMPA - Ralph Mervine, executive director of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority, resigned Wednesday after a Tampa Tribune investigation found he is listed as the owner of a gay pornographic film production company.

Before joining the authority, Mervine worked around the world, serving as a senior project engineer for the Arabian American Oil Co. in Saudi Arabia from 1977 to 1980.

Mervine spent several years as a vice president for Brown and Root in Houston and a safety products company, Sure-Step of Tampa. In 1989, he went to work for the Florida Department of Transportation as director of operations for District 1, in Bartow.

Mervine left his job with DOT in 2001.

So, this fellow is linked to a Halliburton susidiary, Brown and Root, and the Department of Transportation, which is featured in the Clint Curtis story. The Republicans like the gay sex, don't they?

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The CIA, ever mindful of the need to justify its “mission,” had conclusive evidence by the mid-1980s of the deepening crisis of infrastructure within the Soviet Union. The CIA, as its deputy director Robert Gates acknowledged under congressional questioning in 1992, had decided to keep that evidence from President Reagan and his top advisors and instead continued to grossly exaggerate Soviet military and technological capabilities in its annual “Soviet Military Power” report right up to 1990.

Thanks to Mike at Born at the Crest of the Empire

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Are YOU the Anti-Christ? Find out now at this site. Based on the"agonizingly precise science of numerology." I'm not--but check out the results for "George Walker Bush."

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Oh, and by the way, fuck you Karl Rove.

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I knew I could count on Pamela over at Atlas Shrugs to go stark raving mad over the election results. I'd still do her though.

Looking in the rearview mirror. That's what the Republicans should be doing going forward. They squandered their historic majority and they were punished. But let's not kid ourselves. The American people have been clubbed to death like baby seals by a drive by, jihad loving media and it took its toll. Years and years of lies and propaganda had its effect.

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Julia Corker Update: Julia's father wins his Senate race. That's Julia on the right. And no, on second thought, I'm not going to run that photo again.

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Thought It Would Happen Sooner

Yes, I know, I'm jumping on the bandwagon with every other gossip rag and news source, but I just HAD to announce the news: Britney has filed papers to divorce K-Fed! Oh, what a tragedy!

As if everyone didn't see this coming from the first time the news reported on them. I REALLY feel so sorry for the children. Those two pieces of white-trash were made for each other--too bad they reproduced. Oh, well, it will be interesting to see what produces more headlines--Britney and K-Fed or the election! (Now all we have to do is wait for the inevitable break-up of Brangelina.)

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Top Republican strategists concede House probably lost

Go Democrats! Vote! Remember, not only is the future of the Republic at stake in this election, but also I have $20 riding on the Democrats taking the House.

Meanwhile: FBI investigating GOP voter intimidation in Virginia

Raw Story today links to a Greg Palast article "HOW THEY STOLE THE MID-TERM ELECTION " but the link is dead. Greg Palast's website is also down. I'm trying not to get paranoid about this. You can read the article HERE or HERE.

GOP warns about the evil exit polls.

GOP fraudulent "robo-calls" in Nebraska are actually using the Dem candidate's voice!

Tim Daly from Clarendon got a call saying that if he votes Tuesday, he will be arrested.

GOP distributing false sample ballots in Maryland

Sec. of Virginia State Board of Elections Finds Widespread Incidents of Voter Suppression

Update: Men With Guns Harass Latino Voters

Evil GOP bastards!

from Hines Site

Senate exit polls:

Virginia: Webb (D) 52, Allen 47
Ohio: Brown (D) 57, DeWine 43
Rhode Island: Whitehouse (D) 53, Chafee 46
Pennsylvania: Casey 57 (D), Santorum 42
Missouri: McCaskill (D) 50, Talent 48
Montana: Tester (D) 53, Burns 46
Maryland: Cardin (D) 53, Steele 46
New Jersey: Menendez (D) 52, Kean 45

If trend holds, Democrats will take control of the US Senate

I'll believe it when it's official.

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From Wonkette:

The list of straight male Republicans currently stands at:
Don Sherwood
John Sweeney

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On Sunday, I spoke with a former senior Bush administration official who has publicly predicted the Republicans will retain a one- or two-seat majority in the House and keep control of the Senate. But his manner indicated he didn't believe it. "This is what I have to say," he told me. "This is my public position." I asked what his private view was. He rolled his eyes.

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The Dems counter with:

From Juanita's via Dependable Renegade Go Democrats!

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Do the Republican Think Black People are Stupid?

There are reports out of Nashville that African Americans are getting phone calls telling them if they voted for Harold Ford Jr. in the August primary, they don't need to vote for him again now.

A poster at Democratic Underground linked to this story. Step 1: vote the bastards out of office. Step 2: put them in prison. Sound like a plan?

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Have they NO shame? That's a rhetorical question. I would love to have been in the room when they came up with this one. "Make the hand darker than the girl but not so dark that we can't deny it's a black man if challenged." What is the message here? Vote Republican or your wife or daughter will be raped by a black man?

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Unless there are levels of theft and fraud that would truly mean the end of American democracy, a Democratic House seems as close to a sure thing as we ever get in American politics three days before an election. - Boston Globe columnist Robert Kuttner

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Essential Reading on JFK Assassination

One of the best Kennedy assassination researchers, Larry Hancock, has a new book out Someone Would Have Talked available now at his website, and soon to be available at Amazon and other outlets. I have not seen the new edition yet, but I did read an earlier version, and feel confident in highly recommending this book.

What’s New in the Hardcover Edition:

Three years of additional research have been devoted to exploring the leads and directions developed in the first edition. This research has provided additional detail on a number of incidents. These range from the pre-assassination visit by Lee Oswald and others to Dallas resident Sylvia Odio, through new details of word in the underworld about an attack on JFK, to further confirmation on remarks by a Cuban pilot at Red Bird Airport in Dallas - immediately prior to November 22, 1963. Beyond that entirely new incidents have become known, including an international wire intercept of discussions about a conspiracy and disclosures to the ARRB about gossip heard after the fact from former CIA employees. Ten new appendices and hundreds of pages of related exhibits are provided to document this new information. In addition, the book incorporates the newest research published by a number of respected JFK researchers in 2005.

Larry has also put a number of documents supporting the book on his website.

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Military Times editor accused of 'treason'

The wingnuts at WorldNetDaily have responded to the editorial in four military newspapers calling for firing Donald Rumsfeld.

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Republican Election Fraud has already begun:

The Republicans appear to have a nationwide program of making fake phone calls appearing to be from local Democratic candidates in order to harass people in their homes. The result? The persona harassed by repeated calls from the supposed Dem candidate (apparently they keep calling you over and over again all night long) no longer wants to vote for the Dem candidate who is harassing them at home. Of course, the public doesn't know that it's really the Republican party pretending to be a Democrat.

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Thanks

Thanks to all for the well-wishes and concern. I know all will turn out right and not be as serious as I worry it will be. I will keep everyone informed as to what is going on. Have a good week!

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Jill Sobule - I Kissed A Girl

For Julia Corker

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Position: Center
Shoots: Left
Height: 5'11''
Age: 28
Date Of Birth: 7-20-1978
Born in Sverdlovsk, Russia

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"It’s the worst political environment for Republican candidates since Watergate,” said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster working in many of the top races this year.

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Scott Ritter on Iran:

Some 180 miles south of Tehran lies the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. Tucked away on the side of the road, surrounded by a makeshift berm and numerous antiaircraft artillery emplacements, the facility has the outward appearance of something dark and ominous. But the secrets concerning what lies within are well-known to the world as a result of inspections carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency. What the inspectors say is crystal clear: There is no evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Furthermore, the enrichment program is plagued with technical problems that prevent any rapid progress. There is no imminent nuclear weapons threat from Iran, which hasn't mastered the technologies and methodologies of enrichment needed to sustain a nuclear energy program, let alone a nuclear weapons effort.

How is it that we are on the brink of war with Iran when there is no clear evidence that they are seeking nuclear weapons, and are years away from such a capability in any event. Scott Ritter's opinion:

The path that the United States is currently embarked on regarding Iran is a path that will lead to war. (Indeed, there are numerous unconfirmed reports that the United States has already begun covert military operations inside Iran, including overflights by pilotless drones and recruitment and training of MEK, Kurdish and Azeri guerrillas.) Such a course of action would make even the historic blunder of the Iraq invasion pale by comparison.

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Pavel Datsyuk holding the stanly cup

This Russian Olympian,
In the duration of 70 games, Pavel Datsyuk had 11 goals and 24 assists his rookie year. Not to mention only 4 penalty minutes.
Not bad. I think he may be still a little shy to simply take the shot. Instead he seems to look for the perfect pass. Whatever he's doing, it's good. Who am I to say he isn't doing his job. He'll get into the swing of things. I'm sure of it.
To date his career in goals are 81, and his assists are at 160. Penalty minutes so far not as impressive as his first year but 77 altogether.

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The Long, Boring Story

Here is what has been happening around here, in chronological order:

--A week ago Thursday, K went to the walk-in clinic to be checked out because of his cough.

--He was told he had a viral-thing that is going around and it will go away on its own.

--He ALSO was told his blood pressure was VERY high and needed to see a primary care physician ASAP. He hasn't seen his PCP--who is also MY PCP--in eight years. The physician's assistant gave him a prescription for BP meds.

--Friday at 7:30am I called the dr's office to set up an appointment for him--NOT because he couldn't do it himself, but because I was awake! :) They said the dr would be given the notes and reports from the walk-in clinic and decide from there what is to be done.

--At 9:00am the PA called from the walk-in clinic to say the lab results showed some possible kidney problem and he needed to be seen right away by a PCP. He said he would call the dr's office and get them moving along.

--At 2:30pm, a half hour before the dr's office closes for the weekend, the PA called to say that K needed to come in and sign papers so that his reports could be sent to the dr's office.

--Not realizing that the dr's office closed early on Friday, K didn't go to sign the papers until 3:30--not that it would have made any difference if he went any earlier, I believe.

--Through the weekend, I monitored his BP and the meds were helping--his pressure was elevated but not at the terribly high levels they had been. His pulse rate came down, also.

--HOWEVER, MY pressures went up--higher than they had ever been--because of the stress.

--I went for my physical on Monday and the second the nurse saw me, she began explaining what was going on. The dr wanted K to see a nephrologist first to see what was going on with his kidneys and THEN he would see K and do a complete physical to rule out any other problems. She told me to make the appointments on the way out and she would tell them at the appointment desk that I would do so.

--My physical went about the way I expected: I'm fairly healthy despite the chronic problems I have--blood pressure, thyroid, weight issues. I got the same old, same old 'diet and exercise' routine, which I was expecting. I will be having more lab work in two weeks to look at my thyroid and make sure my anemia is fine. Of course, he went crazy when he saw my BP--and I let him know it was because of the stress I was under because of K's health. I needed him to know that I wasn't happy over the lack of progress in getting appointments for him. (I don't believe the dr had a clue that there weren't appointments in place.) He prescribed a BP med--an ACE-inhibitor. A year ago I went off--with his okay--of the beta-blocker I had been on for years, and I had been doing VERY well until this stress-induced problem. He wanted me to try this 'new' (for me) drug.

--To make sure things get even MORE screwed up, when the nurse came in to give me my flu shot, she told me the nephrologist in the office who is actually taking new patients wouldn't be able to see K for two weeks, so she would talk to the dr and see if he could move things along, so I didn't need to make appointments--they would call me.

--The nurse called me at 5:30--the office staff had already left--and said the dr said to get the earliest appointments possible: he would see K first and get started on the lab work, etc, that the nephrologist would need. The scheduler would call me the next day as the computers were off for the night.

--Tuesday at 9:00am, the scheduler called and told K--he answered the phone--that his appointments were this: nephrologist on November 13 and PCP on December 7. EXCUSE ME! THIS is getting him in to see someone ASAP!!!!

--Tuesday afternoon I called and spoke to the nurse and asked WHAT WERE WE TO DO NOW! She said she would get back to me after talking to the dr.

--After 15 minutes--they are getting back to me sooner--she said the dr wanted K to keep the scheduled appointments and to have his BP checked in the office before he came in to see the nephrologist. I guess they figured he wasn't dying by looking over his numbers that I gave them. And, yes, the meds seem to be doing their job very well--his BP is in perfectly acceptable levels. Okay, so that is taken care of--NOT to my satisfaction, but what can I do?

--Then, of course, on Wednesday night, I begin to feel as if I have a stomach bug. This continued through Thursday. I slept for most of the day--except for the trips to the bathroom. Couldn't eat much because of the stomach pains and I was completely exhausted.

--Friday I put my game-face--or mother-face--on and pulled myself up by my bootstraps and willed myself to do the laundry and cleaning that needed doing. As a mother, I learned early on that I could only wallow in an illness for only so long. I got through Friday with a lot of help from Pepto-Bismol tablets! :) I was pretty sure I had gotten over the worst of the stomach bug.

--Woke up today and guess what? I'm STILL feeling just as lousy! So, I figured I better investigate. I now am pretty sure I DON'T have a bug, but what I am experiencing is side-effects of the BP meds. Oh happy day. Now I have to call the dr's office on Monday morning and see if he will change my prescription--I just hope he won't tell me that these are symptoms that will pass in time and that I just need to hang in there! I think the office will be installing caller-ID just so they can screen for MY phone calls.

So there is the long story made even longer. Boring, I know.

Now, as for what is going on in the dr's office: I don't think it is my PCP's fault. Several years back, he and his partners sold their practice to the local hospital, so they are now employees of the practice. Granted, they are very high level employees, but I don't think they have nearly as much say-so in how the practice is run as some people would think. (I mentioned something to my dr about the office not faxing a prescription for me--against office policy--and he was shocked that that was the case!) So, I really believe he has very little say-so in the scheduling of appointments. My guess is that the office personnel want to leave AT 5:00pm and not a minute later--they probably don't get over-time pay. I came to this conclusion the last time I tried to pay my co-pay on the way out of the office: it was 5:15pm, the receptionist was sitting at the desk with her coat on, and she told me to forget paying, that they would bill me. I have let them bill me ever since. SOOOOOO, I guess appointments are never made that could possibly go beyond 5:00pm.

The other problem we have here is this: we have only two internal medicine practices in town. If you leave one practice and are not happy with the other one, you are left with the Family Care doctors--who happen to be residents that leave the area after their two year rotations! Not exactly good for someone--like me--who takes a long time to get used to a new doctor! So until something VERY HORRIBLE goes on with our dr, I guess we will keep on keeping on. It just isn't good for my stress level!

I worry about K's health, of course, but NOT because he has had problems in the past! My worry comes from the fact that he is no longer 25 (or 30 or 35...) and he has a family history--mother and father--of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, early heart attack, and heart-related problems. I know he doesn't want to face these facts, but I am not going to let him ignore the facts any longer. However, he IS feeling very well, so I am trying not to worry too much.

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