The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is warm :

September 24, 2007
Saint Ignatius, Montana
Photographer states :: First snow on the Missions

I mentioned what I believe to be factual, in that, Earth has already tried to 'recap' itself and that will continue until the capacity of the Arctic Ocean to cool Earth is so blunted it's no longer is realistic to believe it will occur; at least with the high levels of CO2 existing.

This is St. Ignatius Mountain in Montana. I noted last week the drastic change in temperature in the northern latitudes of the USA and especially Montana. The low was 41 F at 12:30 PM EST.

These are the current conditions for St. Ignatius (click here):

Conditions :: Clear Sky

Temperature :: 52 °F [11 °C]

Feels Like :: 52 °F / 11 °C

Wind :: 0 mph (no wind chill)

Dew Point :: 39 °F / 4 °C

Humidity :: 62%

Pressure :: 30.21 inches

Visibility :: 10 miles

The coldest temperature is expected to reach to 34 F tonight under clear skies.

This is a link that shows the "means/averages" for temperatures at this mountain since 1971 (click here).

The mean maximum for September is 78.8 F. The lowest 'mean/average' temperature occurred in 1971 at 37.8 F. However the lowest 'mean/average' overall is 42.6 F. For the daytime temperatures to be ONLY 52 F with no wind and the night time temperature expected to be 39 F there has to be a significant cooling occurring and this is only the second full day of Autumn.

I don't lie. I don't speculate. I study circumstances and come to conclusions. It is my strong opinion, Earth's dynamics are so disaffected by Human Induced Global Warming that it can no longer correct a runaway troposphere by itself. The USA has to adjust it's production of carbon dioxide to before 1990 levels and soon.

The link to the title is to the visual satellite of Alaska. There is a 'chronic' heat transfer vortex there now. Has been for sometime, actually. In days previous to October 4, 2002 when this phenomena first showed up, the troposphere was absent of such Vortexes. They would manifest rarely as part of The Arctic Oscilation (click here). The same phenomena in the North Atlantic is called The North Atlantic Oscillation (click here).

Elevation :: 33 ft / 10 m

Temperature :: 52 °F / 11 °C

Conditions :: Overcast

Humidity :: 82%

Dew Point :: 46 °F / 8 °C

Wind :: 7 mph / 11 km/h / 3.1 m/s from the SSE

Pressure :: 29.63 in / 1003 hPa (Rising)

Visibility :: 3.0 miles / 4.8 kilometers

UV :: 1 out of 16

Clouds :: Overcast 1600 ft / 487 m
(Above Ground Level)

Columbia University has performed a great act of diplomacy by bringing the Iranian President to a forum.

Columbia University campus in New York City. They could have shied away from the controversy. They could have said, "We are part of the trauma that still exists in this city," but they didn't and they acted most admirably to open dialogue between the USA and Iran.

It is obvious the Iranian President feels as ease addressing students and university students at that, which perhaps allows greater openness to the American public than a formal address at the United Nations.

I think all the controversy is exceptionally good for both nations. For many reasons. The first obviously is the intense focus by the media in covering the Iranian President. The NYTimes has access to the address on the net and what could be better?

There are other reasons this openness is beneficial. I do believe much of what is being witnessed over the past several days both in Iran and the USA is a well orchestrated PR campaign to benefit elections in Iran. I think it's important in analyzing the events of Iran's president, at home, in NYC at Columbia and at the UN for sincerity and fact.

I found what he stated about his country being a victim of terrorism more than interesting. He is correct. The people the USA, as a nation, are assisting now in An Albar an element feared by Iranians and can easily be viewed as enemies of Iran. The people being armed in Iraq can be viewed by Iran as allies of the USA and feared for their potential to cause another conflict. It was the very Sunnis that are in An Albar that conducted the Iran-Iraq war. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is correct in his statements, in that, the manner in which the USA is progressing with it's increase in arms to the Iraqi Sunnis of An Albar is viewed as a hostile act by the Shi'ites of Iran. I have stated that over and over again and now it comes directly from the source.

I am not surprised, the Shi'ites of Iraq are attempting to secure their government away from the Sunnis and I am not surprised the Iraqi Constitution is calling for Provincial governments. The dynamics in Iraq will not uphold a central authority. There is much needed diplomacy between Iran and the USA in order to settle any misunderstandings between ALL parties with reassurances there won't be problems in the future that would result in war with the Sunnis.

I have repeatedly stated, this is a regional issue which has to be settled by the region. This is NOT a matter of applying USA priorities and policies. It is a far greater issue and the 'idea' that Iran is marginalized in it's aspirations to nuclear armament is more than appropriate, but, in stating that there needs to be reassurances there will be no further expansion of the Iraq War. Quite the contrary. If the USA wants Iran to 'back off' any assistance of the Shia in Iraq, that needs to be negotiated and not resolved with threats to war on Iranian soil.

I am convinced more than ever, much of what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad states about Israel and the Holocaust is nothing but playing to his politicial base. If anyone should understand that, it would be Bush and Conti Rice. You know, the Axis of Evil mess ! Was any moral American actually impressed by Bush's speech at the border with North Korea when he intentionally enflamed the 'reason for war' with North Korea, Iraq and Iran? I wasn't impressed. I thought Bush the most stupid President I ever heard speak to an International audience.

We don't belong in Iraq !

Hassan Jabir, a victim in the Baghdad shooting, rested in an Iraqi hospital yesterday surrounded by his family. (Hadi Mizban/Associated Press)

We never did !

Oppose the draft !

Troops home now !

One third of Iraq's populous is in poverty. Millions are refugees. Estimated another million dead.

SEN. BIDEN: [Secretary Rice] indicated that direct negotiations with Syria and Iran would be -- her words were, quote "puts us in a role of supplicant," end of quote, it would be, quote "extortion;" end of quote, not diplomacy. You've spoken to this. Can you tell me why there are those-- and because these are very bright and respected people -- why they would view it as extortion and/or us being a supplicant?

Iraq: High-Level Meeting Aims To Expand UN Iraq Presence

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks to reporters as Afghan President Hamid Karzai looks on, after a high-level meeting on Afghanistan.
Photo Credit: By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press Photo

...'Positive And Encouraging' (click on title to link)
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon described the gathering as "very positive" and "encouraging." "There was a strong Iraqi support for an enhanced UN role within the framework of the new mandate in Security Council Resolution 1770. Broad areas for our future work in Iraq were outlined," Ban said. The resolution, adopted in August, extended for one year the UN assistance mission in Iraq, and urged broader cooperation between the Iraqi authorities and UN bodies. In particular, the measure called on the UN to advise, support, and assist with Iraqi political dialogue and national reconciliation. Prime Minister al-Maliki shared the UN secretary-general's positive assessment of the meeting....

Someone has to take the sovereignty of these countries seriously. Lord knows Bush and Cheney don't. They simply break down the world into exploitable resources including those that are human and make plans in the map room while Rove spins the spin and hands it off to FOX.

...and...for...WHAT ? Generals without a clue?

Give...me...a...break !

This is the joke of all jokes. All this has been transpiring in Iraq. Baghdad. And no USA General had a clue?

Dear God, they actually believe I was born yesterday !

The Bush/Cheney Executive Branch is a complete disgrace.

Army Command Sgt. Maj. Angel Febles, Joint Task Force Guantanamo command sergeant major, passes the task force colors to Army Maj. Gen. Jay Hood, outgoing commander, during the Joint Task Force Guantanamo change of command ceremony at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, March 31. Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris took command of the task force. Photo by Sgt. Sara Wood, USA (Click photo for screen-resolution image)

...the american people have their security compromised by diverting a war against al Qaeda to Iraq...Iraq is a war for oil...unjustifiable...there is Gitmo...Abu Ghraib...the complete destruction of Religious Iraqi infrastructure while a self-righteous Christian 'Guns for Hire' group found complete impunity in their activities...Osama bin Laden is still laughing about the events of September 11th...the USA has entered into insoluable debt with it's national debt ceiling chronically raised year after year after year...while taxes cut to the point of deprivation of revitalizing the American infrastructure...innumerable retired Generals...no bid contracts...exploitation of the USA treasury by every contractor involved in the Bush/Cheney oil war...PTSD...concussion wounds...over 36,000 American troops severely maimed and wounded...nearly 4000 dead...inadequate armor...humvees that are vitually worthless...the longest deployed and most dangerously deployed National Guard units...and...issues like:

US used white phosphorus in Iraq (click here)

US troops used white phosphorus as a weapon in last year's offensive in the Iraqi city of Falluja, the US has said.
"It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC - though not against civilians, he said.
The US had earlier said the substance - which can cause burning of the flesh - had been used only for illumination.
BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood says having to retract its denial is a public relations disaster for the US.
Col Venable denied that white phosphorous constituted a banned chemical weapon....

Do you think privately owned helicopters could transport weapons for mercenaries? Definately a possiblity. Wonder where they took them?

Sold them to? Couldn't be Blackwater is supplying both sides of this war? Nah, couldn't be. I mean all munitions are accounted for after all, or are they? No. Not all of them. Hm.



A Blackwater helicopter flies over Baghdad in April 2004. (click here) The growing presence of private security companies is stirring up questions over objectives, coordination and accountability. Contractors are generally immune from Iraqi law for acts performed in carrying out their contracts. PATRICK BAZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES



Blackwater slams claims of exporting arms to Iraq (click at title to entry, thank you)
Under-fire security contractor Blackwater USA has denied media reports it was involved in illegally shipping automatic weapons equipment to Iraq. A newspaper in North Carolina has reported US federal officials are investigating claims made by two former employees who pleaded guilty to weapons charges. The men are said to be cooperating with investigators as part of a plea bargain. A Blackwater spokesman said the allegations were "baseless" and that the company had "no knowledge of any employee improperly exporting weapons,"The claims put more pressure on the security firm whose staff were accused by the Iraqi government of killing 11 people in Baghdad this week. The shooting happened while the contractors were escorting a US embassy convoy through Baghdad. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has suggested the Embassy stop using Blackwater.

...some of the most ego driven, testosterone freaks in the world found a place to hide. Baghdad, Iraq. What a playground that is. My, my, my.

Removing Blackwater from Iraq's security equation opens the door to other contractors -- though filling the void left by Blackwater could come at a much higher price. The suspension also could result in more attacks against security contractors by insurgents aiming to increase tensions, further destabilize the security environment in Baghdad and complicate the political process.

Does anyone actually think this is a good idea? I know for a fact, the Iraqis don't think it is....and about that Iranian involvement 'thing.' Does anyone believe that Iran is actually ready to 'step in' at a moment's notice if the USA leaves? Ah, yeah.

Does anyone think Iran will have the trouble the USA has? Ah, no.

Does anyone actually believe there is a 'real reason' for confronting Iran given the fact the USA has never had control over the circumstances in Baghdad and Iraq AND Iran is using whatever means available to prevent a war at it's borders?

NO, the USA has absolutely no viable reason to invade Iran. NONE ! The nuclear issue is a separate issue completely and is more akin to a North Korean problem than an Iraq problem, but the Republicans will use every reason in the world to try to convince the American public Iran is the problem when in fact this illegal war has ALWAYS been the problem.

Example below:

Baghdad security guard by day, insurgent by night (click here)
3 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AFP) — By day Ahmed works for an Iraqi security company. By night the stocky 30-year-old fights the "American occupier" in his Baghdad neighbourhood.
Ahmed admits he is a member of what the US military terms "Special Groups" -- secret Shiite cells it says wage acts of "terrorism" in Iraq with the financial and military backing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards units.
"Our mission," Ahmed tells AFP during a discreet interview in a Baghdad hotel car park: "Kill the Americans, as many Americans as possible."
He says he is proud to have been chosen, along with other fighters from his district of Bayaa, to do a one-month course on explosives and guerrilla tactics.
"I still don't know where I'll be sent. This will be communicated to me at the last minute," he says while fidgeting nervously with a string of black prayer beads.
"The best go to Lebanon, to be trained by Hezbollah, or to Iran, in camps controlled by the Quds Force," the covert operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards.
"Others go to camps in the (mainly Shiite) south of Iraq," where they are trained by Iraqi, Lebanese and Iranian instructors.
According to Ahmed, whose claims could not be independently verified, most members of the Special Groups are drawn from Iraq's main Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army of radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"Our chiefs are in regular contact with the leadership" of the Mahdi Army but "each acts independently," he says.
The US military has identified the Special Groups, which they say are fighting a proxy war for Iran, as a long-term threat. Tehran continually denies it is training or funding militants to fight in Iraq.
Son of a Shiite father and a Sunni mother, Ahmed says he is himself "not very religious."...

These boys certainly seem to enjoy their work. Right?

It would seem even the members of the USA Coalition have their issues with the activities of the Bush/Cheney private militia.


Blackwater clue to kidnap of five Britons in Baghdad (click here)


A NEW theory to explain why five Britons were kidnapped in an audacious terrorist operation at the ministry of finance in Baghdad at the end of May emerged yesterday.
As the hostages spent their 117th day in captivity, Matthew Degn, a former American policy adviser to the Iraqi government, said he thought they had been seized in revenge for the fatal shooting of an interior ministry driver by guards of the US private security company Blackwater a few days earlier.
It was Blackwater’s shooting of at least 11 civilians in a Baghdad square last Sunday that prompted an open row between the Iraqi government and Washington days before Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, meets President George W Bush this week.
Degn, who advised the interior ministry, believes the mistaken killing of its driver triggered the kidnapping of the Britons. Their nationality was irrelevant, he thinks: what mattered to the kidnappers was that they were part of the American-led coalition and were easy targets....

Now super impose this reality over the fact Blackwater has been assassinating people in Iraq at will with impunity.

The scene in Fallujah was unforgettable: four Americans shot, their bodies defiled, two of them hung from a bridge. They weren't soldiers, but private guards working for a North Carolina company. Their fate sparked outrage and left many questions. This is their story.

The article, which has it's link at title of entry, would seek to make this phenomena a global issue. I don't recall hearing of the tradition of hanging people on bridges a global issue. I guess it's the mutilation part the Charlotte News and Observer was plugging into. Well, we know that terrorist networks do mutilate/blow up/kill people, but, this isn't a terrorist network. These are people of Baghdad. Iraq. And while they aren't a terrorist network, they sure ain't happy, now are they?

...Working for Blackwater
The four men had been brought together in Iraq to work for Blackwater USA, based in Moyock, in North Carolina's northeast corner. The company, and others like it, made money by doing work the military once handled on its own.
Blackwater had several jobs for the U.S. government in Iraq, including a $21 million contract to protect L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian who ran the country until June 28.
The company's owner -- a 35-year-old former Navy SEAL named Erik Prince -- had strong connections. His father, Edgar, owner of an auto parts manufacturer that sold for $1.35 billion, had donated tens of millions of dollars to conservative Christian organizations. Erik Prince interned in Congress and for the first President Bush, campaigned for presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan and gave heavily to conservative candidates.
Zovko, Batalona, Teague and Helvenston had signed short-term contracts with Prince's company, earning about $600 a day. They knew little about Prince, but they knew that the company was run mainly by former SEALs, people like them in many ways, men highly trained in military operations.
Helvenston, 38, of Oceanside, Calif., had been not just a SEAL but an instructor, teaching underwater techniques and advanced parachuting -- SEAL stands for the attack routes of sea, air and land. He had parlayed his 12 years with the commando unit into acting and consulting on Hollywood movies, selling a line of fitness videos and working as a fitness trainer and climbing guide....

Blackwater in Iraq - Kindly click on for link to 'video link'

The gunman in the video, at the above link, is noted to be wearing ear plugs. How nice for him...and if he would say, "Hey look, I'm doing the work the citizens of the USA should be doing !" I would reply, "Please don't bother, it's the "W"rong "W"ar for the "W"rong reason for any moral American.


Private Contractors Die in Iraqi Helicopter Attack (click here)

All Things Considered, January 24, 2007 · On Tuesday in Iraq, five Americans working for the private security contractor Blackwater USA died when their helicopter crashed. The contractors were escorting a convoy heading away from the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.
Melissa Block talks with Deborah Avant, a professor at George Washington University and author of The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security, about how many contractors are currently working in Iraq and what sort of services they provide.

Witness tells of carnage in Baghdad shooting (Does anyone actually believe this is the first incident? Do you?)

A convoy of an unidentified private security company drives through Baghdad. An Iraqi traffic policeman told how Blackwater security guards caused carnage when they opened fire on civilians in Baghdad, as a senior officer probing the shooting insisted it was unprovoked.


Blackwater was given complete immunity to any prosecution. These contractors have been in Iraq since the initial invasion. And the USA miltiary has the audacity to state the 'real ' problem for ethnic cleansing lies with Iraqis. Really? How would anyone know? Blackwater are mercenaries. They fight for money and plenty of it. With complete immunity from any "W"rong doing one has to wonder, whom is killing whom over there and why? Why an al Qaeda in Iraq at all and how much of what the private contractors are doing is the cause of any insurgency?

And one has to ask themselves with so many Iraqis 'standing down' in Baghdad, whom among those in Iraq sincerely wants the USA there. Rice and Malaki can't stand to look at each other yet alone dialogue diplomatically. Today, the French Ambassador showed that the EU wants to 'be involved' in Iraq. I think it's about time any other country, including the neighors of Iraq, get involved other than the USA.





Witness tells of carnage in Baghdad shooting
7 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AFP) — An Iraqi traffic policeman told Sunday how Blackwater security guards caused carnage when they opened fire on civilians in Baghdad, as a senior officer probing the shooting insisted it was unprovoked.
One week after the gunbattle that killed 10 civilians and enraged Iraq's government, police and interior ministry officials were still gathering witness accounts and hunting video footage perhaps taken by amateurs on mobile phones.
Blackwater insists the US convoy it was escorting came under attack by insurgents before its guards opened fire but the Iraqi government was incensed by the incident and said it would revoke the security company's licence.
Traffic officer Ali Khalaf, who was on duty on Sunday last week in Al-Yarmukh, in the mainly Sunni Mansour area of west Baghdad, told AFP he had witnessed the entire incident.
"The American convoy arrived... and as usual I stopped the traffic to allow them to pass," Khalaf said.
As they often do, guards from the US firm -- the largest private security operators in Iraq -- hurled water bottles at cars to stop traffic as they drove through.
"Then without reason, they opened fire. Four shots, in the air, aiming just above the cars," Khalaf said.
"But one of the bullets struck a man in his car. I went to his aid but he was already dead, his body was slumped on the dashboard.
"His wife was then killed before my eyes by a bullet that hit her in the head."
Khalaf said he ran to take shelter inside his little hut as the gunfire continued.
The car with the dead couple "continued to move, with its doors open and the bodies inside -- like a phantom vehicle."
"The Americans fired at everything that moved, with a machine gun and even with a grenade launcher. There was panic. Everyone tried to flee. Vehicles tried to make U-turns to escape."
According to Khalaf, people then left their cars and tried to flee for cover, some being struck down as they ran. A car was hit by two grenades and burst into fire, engulfing its occupants in flames.
"There were dead bodies and wounded people everywhere, the road was full of blood. A bus was also hit and several of its occupants were wounded," said the traffic officer.
Two small black helicopters that always accompany Blackwater on security missions swooped down and sprayed the scene with machine gun fire, Khalaf added.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi and US governments announced they had set up a joint commission to investigate the shootings as well as to examine the broader question of rules governing foreign security companies operating in Iraq.
Despite opposition from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Blackwater, which escorts US embassy personnel, was back on the streets of Baghdad on Friday after being grounded for four days.
According to a senior policeman involved in the investigations, other witnesses are equally adamant that Blackwater opened fire without provocation.
"The Americans say that the convoy first came under small arms fire. That is totally false," the officer told AFP, asking not to be named because he is not entitled to speak to the media.
"None of the witnesses we have interviewed speak of an attack," he said.
"There is at least one video, shot by police using a digital camera just moments after the shooting, which shows the victims," said the police officer. "This video is in our hands and we are examining it."
He did not rule out the possible existence of other videos taken at the moment of the shooting, including with mobile phones, given the number of people present at the time.
"The Blackwater guards opened fire on motorists without reason, they were never a target of a single shot or any attack," the officer said.

Baghdad mostly under U.S. control

A US soldier patrols a street in Baghdad, July 2007. Insurgents have killed an American soldier in Baghdad with armour-piercing explosives of the sort the US military has previously linked with Iran.



Since the March 2003 invasion, at least 3,796 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq.

US Soldier Killed in Baghdad (click here)
BAGHDAD, Sept 23--A US soldier has been killed in Baghdad with armor-piercing explosives, the US military said.The military said the soldier died Saturday when the so-called explosively-formed penetrator (EFP) was detonated as his patrol passed.The latest death brought the military's losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,796, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

US soldier killed in Baghdad (click here)
11 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Insurgents have killed an American soldier in Baghdad with armour-piercing explosives of the sort the US military has previously linked with Iran.
The military said the soldier died on Saturday when the so-called explosively-formed penetrator (EFP) was detonated as his patrol passed.
The military has repeatedly charged that Iraqi extremists are receiving the EFPs, which are fist-sized bombs that can cut through heavy armour, from the Quds Force, the covert operations arm of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
Iran has consistently denied the accusation.
The latest death brought the military's losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,796, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.




By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
IRAQI SUPPORT: The portion of Baghdad where Iraqi security forces are in control with minimal help from the American military has grown only slightly in recent months, to just over 8 percent.


VIOLENCE DOWN: That occurred despite an overall decline in insurgent violence in Baghdad, a U.S. commander said Friday.


SUSTAINABLE SECURITY: A key issue is whether the U.S.-trained Iraqi forces will be able to hold the line.


Baghdad mostly under U.S. control







Baghdad mostly under U.S. control







Baghdad mostly under U.S. control







Baghdad mostly under U.S. control







Baghdad mostly under U.S. control







Baghdad mostly under U.S. control







Baghdad mostly under U.S. control





...etc., etc., etc.

The recent testimony by General Petraeus is being used as a political propaganda tool for the Republicans.

To begin, General Petraeus is not new to Baghdad or Iraq. He has been around since the beginning of this illegal war for oil. In this picture he is with Paul Bremer, the first 'suit' to attempt to control the chaos of anarchy with no post invasion plan except those that secured the oil fields of course.


If you click on the link above it will take to the 'place' Petraeus was before being REDEPLOYED to Iraq. He was teaching American soldiers at Leavenworth. Below is one of his classes.


When Petraeus came back to 'report' regarding Iraq, the Republicans mounted a campaign against the American people and the media is all about 'striking up the band' for Bush with less than two years to complete in office.



There has been a lot of 'fuss' over 527 ads regarding the General. Don't know why, it would seem as though there actually is more hype to the reports than anyone wants to admit, so I intend to sort through some of the realities now being lost in the media as the focus falls OFF Iraq, Baghdad and the withdrawal of USA troops and ONTO the 'quality' of citizen and legislator that finds themselves ANY BUT Republican.


To note that General Petraeus was 'in it' from the beginning is to realize the degree to which his reporting is tainted. He was never at the top of the heap to file reports to Washington before now, and it must be somewhat of a vindication to finally be 'the man' and come to DC with reports of accomplishments never before achieved. Quite a coupe if you will. You almost get the feeling that here is the man with all the answers for Iraq and no one ever listened.



I find THAT reality; very, very odd. General Petraeus, the silent general. Never listened to, never influential before now. Sounds more like Washington Neocon politics than reality, won't you say? Well, let's do a run down on the 'reality' none of the American people are familiar with but is the reality of the Iraq people.

It's Sunday Night

"Baghdad" by Offspring

In your plane in the blue sky
You roam around
Worlds that echo in your mind
Make your heart beat faster

'This is no Vietnam
We will win in Iraq'

The president said, 'Let it ride'
Islam be damned
Make your last stand
In Baghdad

Warrior, the time bomb's about to go
What will you feel
Will you even wonder
If the man that's in your sights
Ever kissed his girlfriend good-bye
The Captain said, 'Kill or die'
Islam be damned
Make your last stand
In Baghdad

Great satan, our flags are burning
Now America has found its young men In the sand
Where their casualty Is just another number
In Iraq

The president said, 'Let it ride'
You will be damned
Make your last stand
In Baghdad
In Baghdad
In Baghdad

More than 200 child porn web-sites shut down in Russian Internet

Just a mention. There is a change in the 'culture' noted in the Russian newspapers since the new Prime Minister came to town.



A real effort to build 'a society.' (click here) Quality of life issues for Russia. The St. Petersburg influence. European, if you will. Socialites. It's a new taste of freedom and prestige for this communist nation. I find it interesting. Vladimir Putin has enjoyed far more social contact with the Russian people than any other Russian President in history in my opinion. I find it all the more interesting that with the emergence of the new Prime Minister, an intimate friend of Putin, there is more 'jazz' in Russian society than before. I would say the ladies and gentlemen like to enjoy themselves. At least that is the feeling they want the Russian people to come to understand and relish. If one values a city in which they live and it's a matter of prestige then the society, and this is just my opinion, is more likely to 'like' it's government and vanquish corruption. Just a different view according to where I sit. The tensions between The West and Russia don't seem to be deescalating but Russia is not backing down on it's commitment to cooperate with the IAEA and the limits placed on Iranian nuclear opportunities.



14:01 21/09/2007
London fashion week show: Model behaviour. Video (click here)
Models at London fashion week show off the latest designs at the Aquascutum show but not entirely without a hitch. At the Aquascutum show, one model seemed to be having difficulty walking in some high-heeled shoes with laces around the ankle - twice. After the second mishap she didn't appear in the final walk through. (27 sec./1.06Mb, shows: 204)



Russian tycoon Usmanov buys Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya collection (click here)

Morning Papers - It's Origins

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

In order for Richard Paey to receive justice, Jeb Bush had to be replaced.

Florida Department of Corrections photo of Richard Paey


Disabled Man Pardoned After Serving 4 Years On Drug Charge
POSTED: 8:09 am EDT September 21, 2007
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A disabled former attorney returned home Thursday after four years in prison, arriving hours after Gov. Charlie Crist and the rest of the state clemency board pardoned his drug trafficking charges. It ended a case that gained national attention as an example of outrageous mandatory minimum drug sentences.
Richard Paey, 48, had a broad smile as he exited the vehicle driven by prison officials to his Hudson home in Pasco County.
"In the immortal words of Dorothy...there's no place like home," Paey said, pausing in mid-sentence to kiss his wife Linda....

Richard Paey Granted Full Pardon (click on for Kathy's Place)

...Now I also want to say that when Jeb Bush was still Gov. of Fla. he was approached and refused, to do anything for this man. He had stated that a drug charge was a drug charge and he wasn't getting involved. When his daughter was arrested for drug fraud, did she get a mandatory 25 year prison sentence and a $500,000.00 fine? Did she have an MVA, a botched back surgery and have MS and was the drugs she was using, selling, stealing or whatever, actually prescription drugs that were only used for her own chronic pains? I hope when this next Presidential election is over, and we get GW Bush out of office, that we never elect another Bush to any Office ever again. One thing is for certain, there will never be another one to get my vote. Lord, I voted for GW in 2004. Here is what happened to Jeb Bush's daughter in the state of fla. when she was arrested, not once, but twice, on drug charges..

Noelle is the daughter of Florida governor Jeb Bush and his wife, Columba, and the niece of U.S. president George W. Bush. She has two brothers: George P. and John Jr. (known as Jebby). Noelle made news headlines on 29 January 2002 when she was arrested by Tallahassee police and charged with prescription fraud after she tried to buy the sedative Xanax at a local pharmacy. The case received extra attention because it echoed the 2001 arrests of Noelle Bush's cousins, Jenna & Barbara Bush, for underage drinking. In February 2002 Noelle Bush entered an Orlando drug treatment center. In July of 2002 she was jailed temporarily after she was found in possession of prescription pills, a violation of her court-ordered treatment plan. In September 2002 she was back in the news after police visited the drug treatment center and found Bush in possession of cocaine. She was sentenced 17 October 2002 to ten days in jail for violating the terms of her court-ordered drug treatment program.

I am truly happy for this man and his family. I only wonder where he is now going to find a doctor willing to treat his pain? He was being given far more pain medication in prison, that what he was in possession of during the time of his arrest. I hope this is something someone is helping him figure out.

TALLAHASSEE — Richard Paey is a chronic pain patient in year three of a 25-year mandatory-minimum sentence for trafficking in drugs — his own pain medication.
But his freedom is just hours away.
Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet voted unanimously to grant Paey a full pardon Thursday morning for his 2004 conviction on drug trafficking and possession charges....

Op-Ed Columnist
A Taste of His Own Medicine (click here)
By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: May 6, 2006
Now that Rush Limbaugh has managed to keep himself out of prison, the punishment he once advocated for drug abusers, let me suggest a new cause for him: speaking out for people who can handle their OxyContin.
Like Limbaugh, Richard Paey suffers from back pain, which in his case is so severe that he's confined to a wheelchair. Also like Limbaugh, he was accused of illegally obtaining large quantities of painkillers. Although there was no evidence that either man sold drugs illegally, the authorities in Florida zealously pursued each of them for years.
Unlike Limbaugh, Paey went to prison. Now 47 years old, he's serving the third year of a 25-year term. His wife told me that when he heard how Limbaugh settled his case last week — by agreeing to pay $30,000 and submit to drug tests — Paey offered a simple explanation: "The wealthy and influential go to rehab, while the poor and powerless go to prison."
He has a point, although I don't think that's the crucial distinction between the cases. Paey stood up for his belief that patients in pain should be able to get the medicine they need. Limbaugh so far hasn't stood up for any consistent principle except his right to stay out of jail.
He has portrayed himself as the victim of a politically opportunistic prosecutor determined to bag a high-profile trophy, which is probably true. But that's standard operating procedure in the drug war supported by Limbaugh and his fellow conservatives.
Drug agents and prosecutors are desperate for headlines because they have so little else to show for their work. The drug war costs $35 billion per year and has yet to demonstrate any clear long-term benefits — precisely the kind of government boondoggle that conservatives like Limbaugh ought to view skeptically.
Yet conservatives go on giving more money and more power to the drug cops. When critics complained about threats to civil liberties in the Patriot Act, President Bush defended it by noting that the government was already using some of these powers against drug dealers. Why worry about snooping on foreign terrorists when we've already been doing it to Americans?
Limbaugh objected when prosecutors, unable to come up with enough evidence against him, demanded to be allowed to go through his medical records in the hope of finding something.
He managed to stop them in court, but other defendants can't afford long legal battles to protect their privacy.
Drug agents and prosecutors go on fishing expeditions to seize doctors' records and force pharmacists to divulge what they're selling to whom. With the help of new federal funds, states are compiling databases of the prescriptions being filled at pharmacies. Once their trolling finds something they deem suspicious, the authorities can threaten doctors, pharmacists and patients with financially crippling investigations and long jail sentences unless they cooperate by testifying against others or copping a plea.
Paey was the rare patient who refused to turn on his doctor or plead guilty to a problem he didn't have. He insisted that he'd been taking large quantities of painkillers because he needed them. He wanted to protect his own right to keep taking them, and others' rights as well.
"They say I was stubborn," he told me last year. "I consider it a matter of principle."
Limbaugh got off partly because he could afford the legal bills (which he says ran into millions of dollars) and partly because he cooperated with prosecutors. He confessed to being an addict, went into rehab and swore to remain clean.
Perhaps he really was one of the small minority of pain patients who hurt themselves by compulsively using drugs like OxyContin for emotional, not physical, relief. But most pain patients can become physically dependent on large doses of opioids without being what doctors consider an addict. They take the drugs not to escape reality, but to function normally.
Even if Limbaugh believes that drugs like OxyContin are a menace to himself, he ought to recognize that most patients are in Richard Paey's category. Their problem isn't abusing painkillers, but finding doctors to prescribe enough of them. And that gets harder every year because of the drug war promoted by conservatives like Limbaugh.
It has been said that a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested. I wouldn't wish such a conversion on Limbaugh. But a two-year investigation by drug prosecutors should be enough to turn a conservative into a libertarian.