More Warrantless Tapping on The Way

President George W. Bush's demand for immunity for telephone companies that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program won a test vote on Monday in the Democratic-led U.S. Senate.

The AWD writes: JEEZUS FUQQIN' H. CHRIST. The path to the end of freedom as we knew it is being clear cut like an Amazonian rainforest. I weep for the future.

Newest WTF

Great cartoon. Google 'em to see more!

I get hooded Friday. Whee hee! Most important-ly, I am having a BigAzzParty on Saturday. This is gonna be so awesome..... If you know me IRL and haven't gotten an invite, drop me an email and I'll send you directions. I CAN HAZ *UR* MILK.

A Prayer

Um. Ahem.

Dear Lord Gawd Baby Jesus.....

Please please don't let Huckabee be the next Idiot In Chief of Amerika.

Sinceriously,

~The AngryWoofDog

California Testers Find Flaws in Voting Machines

The following article was unashamedly lifted from Slashdot.org this morning:

quanticle writes

"According to Ars Technica, California testers have discovered severe flaws in the ES&S voting machines. The paper seals were easily bypassed, and the lock could be picked with a "common office implement". After cracking the physical security of the device, the testers found it simple to reconfigure the BIOS to boot off external media. After booting a version of Linux, they found that critical system files were stored in plain text. They also found that the election management system that initializes the voting machines used unencrypted protocols to transmit the initialization data to the voting machines, allowing for a man-in-the-middle attack. Altogether, it is a troubling report for a company already in hot water for selling uncertified equipment to counties."

Also, if this topic interests you, please check out:

Hacking Democracy

That's all for now, kids!

Shyt, IDK

Well, it looks like my Sun Java upgrade to my 'nix box worked like a charm. This is a good thing.

It also looks like the AWD will be graduating in a couple of weeks. Goddess, if I can just get through the last essay. I have to finish it tonight. It's not like it's too much to bear, but I'm just tired..... I did receive my hood in the mail today, so that is a good thing. Looks like all I have to do is finish the paper and then show up for the ceremony.

I'm looking for new work and new places to go. I'm thinking West Coast for awhile. We will just have to see how things work out.....

Something to think about.....

You have probably seen the commercials for Divided We Fail. Well, I went to the website and checked it out. Nationalized or socialized medicine for all Americans is something that I can definitely get behind. I want to learn more about it, and encourage the gentle blogreader to do the same.

dividedwefail.org

I wish that everyone would understand that we will all need medical help at some point in our lives..... Everyone on the planet will get sick, and everyone will get older. Taking care of ourselves in this way should be a priority for our nation. Of, by, and for the people. Why would you not want everyone to be able to access healthcare?

Done and Dunner

Shweeet...... I have taken my thesis exam. I have drank copious amounts of chilled and cool bevvys. I have paid my fees and ordered regalia. The only thing left to do is to exchange this small mortar-board-head-thingie for something that will actually fit me.

Oh yeah. And create 2 more essays.

Then, watch out!

WTF???

The fucking bastards will do anything to get elected. Please post any (in)appropriate captions as comments.....

Happiness

Today, I am very happy. Why? Well, I got to play music with some of my best friends on the planet last night. We sang three-part harmonies, and I got to play drums, djeridu, bass, and guitar. We played their songs, my songs, and a couple of covers. (Shhhh..... don't tell the RIAA or they'll want 85 million fucking euros.)

Doing this makes me happy. Happier than anything. Well, almost..... <>

So, blogging for the sake of blogging, this weekend, I'll be working on another essay. Hope to get it good and knocked the fuq out. Master's degree, here I come..... 3 class essays and the thesis exam are all that's left.

Um, Autumn Weather WTF R U?

Whoo hoo..... I got me some spa treatment on this past weekend. Camping outside with good friends, a massage, and a soak in a warm mineral water hot tub. Nothing could be better! Well, we could do that for a couple of weeks..... My only complaint is that the time there is too short.

Oh yeah, there was something about three explosive noises. Haven't heard thru the grapevine what all of that was about, but I'm sure it will make national news, if it hasn't already. I'm in too good of a mood to spoil it with pollytix today!

<>

More Werds

Have made new friends in L.A.
Will be travelling to Souf Amerika next year.
Four continents, soon.
Trans on two.
Whoo hoo!
Go me.


Class is just about
fuqqin' boring tonight......

Alan Greenspan says Iraq invasion motivated by oil

(This article should be of interest..... By the way, the oil we are dying for is killing our planet. Have a happy day.)

By Jeannine Aversa
September 17, 2007 06:40am

FORMER Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, in his new book, says the US went to war in Iraq motivated largely by oil.

Mr Greenspan said: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."

His book also criticises US President George W. Bush for not responsibly handling the nation's spending and racking up big budget deficits.

A self-described "libertarian Republican," Mr Greenspan takes his own party to task for forsaking conservative principles that favour small government.

"My biggest frustration remained the president's unwillingness to wield his veto against out-of-control spending," Mr Greenspan wrote.

Mr Bush took office in 2001, the last time the Government produced a budget surplus.

Every year after that, the Government has been in the red. In 2004, the deficit swelled to a record $US413 billion ($A493.75 billion).

"The Republicans in Congress lost their way," Mr Greenspan wrote. "They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose."

In 2006, voters put Democrats in charge of Congress for the first time in a dozen years.

Mr Greenspan's memoir, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, is scheduled for release today. The book is a recollection of his life and his time as Fed chief.

Mr Greenspan, 81, ran the Fed for 18 1/2 years and was the second-longest serving chief. He served under four presidents, starting with his initial nomination by former President Ronald Reagan.

He says he began to write the book on February 1, 2006, the day his successor - Ben Bernanke -- took over.

The ex-Fed chief writes that he laments the loss of fiscal discipline.

"Deficits don't matter," to my chagrin, became part of Republicans' rhetoric."

Mr Greenspan long has argued that persistent budget deficits pose a danger to the economy over the long run.

Large projected surpluses were the basis for Mr Bush's $US1.35 trillion ($A1.61 trillion), 10-year tax cut approved in the summer of 2001.

Budget experts projected the Government would run a whopping $US5.6 trillion ($A6.69 trillion) worth of surpluses over the subsequent decade after the cuts.

Those surpluses, the basis for Mr Bush's campaign promises of a tax cut, never materialised.

Ahhhhh......

Legalish Remindery Thingie

Sometimes copyrighted material is quoted or used on this blog, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am blogging with such available material in my efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.

I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.

If anyone wishes to use copyrighted material from this site, or another, for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.


If you ever found something on this blog a bit informative and valuable, I strongly encourage you to visit the originating Web site and register an account, if necessary, to view all of their articles on the Web. Let us support quality journalism!

My 150th Post

Today, I am settling down with a cup of Nescafe from Cyprus, listening to my instructor speak. This is my 150th blog post :) Pretty cool...... I am celebrating being completely sober for 3 days. It is a nice feeling.

Tomorrow, I have eye surgery on both of my eyes in an attempt to keep me from eventually going blind. Wish me luck, 'cause wot would you have to get angry about if I wasn't able to post some juicy shtuff???

Take it sleazy, kids. You know your law-makers and law-enforcers sure are.

~AWD

This Day Bringths

For the mosth part, the day has brung me
A few thingsth.
Lack of sleepth, sore teeths. Another sthuffy nose.
And a heavy head controlling jittery handths.

Beerths would fixth it, if the Newsthfilter made it.
If I could just bastheline..... Mark a bench.
Maybe live the moment on someone elseth's list.
Alasth.....

I musth depart, coughdrop and everything;
But it'sth okaaay, cause I wander and she wondersth,
Stapleths, hue & ball.

I present a newscast from 1982.....

It appears that the good $enator Craig has been a cocksucking fag since the last century..... He would be a lot better off if he would just embrace his queerdom. So would we.

One WoofDog's Struggle to keep $enator Vitter's indiscretional hypocrisy alive in context of $enator Craig's indiscretions

By Shailagh Murray

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; Page A03

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologized last night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case.

The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included on phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates dating from before he ran for the Senate in 2004.

The service's proprietor, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 51, faces federal charges of racketeering for allegedly running a prostitution ring out of homes and hotel rooms in the Washington area. Authorities say the business netted more than $2 million over 13 years beginning in 1993. Palfrey contends that her escort service was a legitimate business.

"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter, 46, said in a statement, which his spokesman, Joel DiGrado, confirmed to the Associated Press.

"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," Vitter continued. "Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."

Neither Palfrey nor her attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, could be reached for comment last night. Sibley told the Associated Press that his client posted the phone records of her escort service on the Internet yesterday, four days after a federal judge lifted a restraining order preventing their publication. The records were included in a series of files on a Web site devoted to Palfrey's legal defense fund.

"I'm stunned that someone would be apologizing for this already," Sibley said.

Vitter is in his first Senate term after serving six years in the House. During his Senate campaign, Vitter was accused by a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee of carrying on a lengthy affair with a prostitute in New Orleans's French Quarter.

In a radio interview, Vitter then called the allegation "absolutely and completely untrue" and dismissed it as "just crass Louisiana politics."

Vitter was the first senator to endorse former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani for president and serves as the campaign's Southern regional chairman. A reliable conservative vote in the Senate, Vitter was among a small group of GOP lawmakers who sought to block an immigration overhaul from advancing last month.

Vitter and his wife, Wendy, a former prosecutor, have four children. On his Senate Web site, Vitter says he is committed to "advancing mainstream conservative principles" and notes that he and his wife are lectors at their hometown church.

Vitter attended Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He won a convincing victory in 2004, defeating two Democrats with a slim majority of the vote, to succeed John Breaux (D).

Palfrey, 51, titillated national media this spring by threatening to auction her list of clients' phone numbers to the highest bidder. She said she needed the money to pay legal expenses, but in May U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered Palfrey to keep the records to herself.

That move came after Palfrey and Sibley had turned over a sizable portion of the 10,000 phone records to ABC News. One client contacted by ABC reporters was Randall L. Tobias, a deputy secretary of state, who said he used Palfrey's escort service for massages, not for sex.

A day later, on April 27, Tobias resigned from the State Department, reigniting the media firestorm over Palfrey's records. That was seemingly snuffed out by Kessler's temporary restraining order two weeks later, but Kessler vacated her order on Thursday, clearing the way for Palfrey to post the records online.

Pamela Martin and Associates hired college-educated women in their 20s, sending them to male clients in the Washington area who, according to authorities, paid $275 to $300 per sexual encounter. Palfrey said that, so far as she knew, her employees and clients engaged in legal sex play, such as erotic role-playing.

The AWD writes:
Fucking hypocrites. It's just not fair how Republican politicians, in the course of legislating morality for the rest of the country, get to be gay, use drugs and screw whores, while the rest of us have our lives taken away if we so much as even *think* about doing these things. If we peasants said to a judge that we've spoken to God, our wives and our marriage/drug counselors about the situation, and that we have no further comment, do you really think that our debt to society would be forgiven just like that? Think again..... You'd most likely lose your children, your home, your job, your spouse. Folks, these people live in a different social echelon where they are exempt from law. Wake up! $enator Craig (the dude trying to pick up other dudes in an airport bathroom) will most likely apologise to his wife and church and claim that it is a personal issue that we have no business knowing about. What the fuck! He is legislating morality for us that says queer folks can't marry other queer folks. Yer Goddamn right it's all of our business.

Konkgresshunnal Hickkupssssssssss.....

I just signed a petition calling on my Representative to reject the Bush Administration's sweeping claims of executive privilege and to take whatever steps are necessary to enforce these subpoenas, including supporting a resolution holding Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten in contempt.

Our President and Vice President keep trying to reshape the Constitution and declare themselves above the law. Congress must stand up for itself and protect our constitutional checks and balances!

One of the next steps Congress can take is to vote to hold Miers and Bolten in contempt. President Bush is trying to block Congressional oversight with blanket claims of executive privilege. The president has even ordered the Department of Justice not to enforce charges of Contempt of Congress. But Congress needs to fight this fight and send the president a message that its authority will not be ignored.

Click here to sign the petition: http://www.pfaw.org/go/ContemptOfCongress

OMG

Just Sum Werds & Stuff

Just getting ready for the last semester of graduate school to commence, trusting that I will complete my thesis/exit exams with enough chutzpah to become a Master of Science. There are other things going on, too..... I just find it hard to put 'em on this page.

A happy note, I & some of my grrlfriends have been recording mine & our musics into digital formats. I hope to put a tune up on MySpace very soon called "Emotional Reactor." I will post the links here.

Corporations control us. And for what means? Dollars, kids, dollars...... I just saw a movie that I don't know the name of. But the Black Box Voting watchdog group was involved. Veeery eye opening. Hacking the vote is easier than ever, leaving nary a trace. That's the way the lottery is going, too, since balls aren't tossed around. Computers are good and evil, just like the people who have created them.

Anyway, I digress. Please check out the Black Box Voting website by clicking the above link.

Alert! Alert!

Websense, an Internet filtering program, has just
expanded their control of information in the U.S. by not allowing blogs and social networking at hundreds of public libraries, colleges and universities across the country.

Saudi Arabia, Yemen and China have also used Websense to prevent "blogging" and social
networking in their countries. We can not get to any blog on blogspot.com from our college without
triggering our filters.

This move comes at a time when upcoming election are a hot topic on these blogs. If
you are not familiar with Websense, Wikipedia has an excellent entry.


The AWD writes: It's a fucking shame that our civil liberties are diminishing at an accelerated rate. Who knew that the Internet would have created it's own demise? Well, you probably cannot read this anyway, especially if you are at a public library. Dog help us if we cannot have freedom of thought and expression of thought. It's not just Amerika that is suffering. Where is peace? Where is compassion? How will we ever "progress" if we keep getting medieval???

More on the Chief Justice’s Seizure

Update, 11:32 AM Katie Zezima of The Times’s Boston bureau just filed this report from Rockport, Maine:

ROCKPORT, Me., July 31 – Chief Justice John Roberts was released from a hospital here late Tuesday morning after being kept overnight as a “precaution” following a seizure, hospital officials said.

Mr. Roberts, clad in a navy sportcoat, blue shirt and khaki pants, walked out of Penobscot Bay Medical Center around 11:20 a.m. Looking jovial, Mr. Roberts exited the hospital’s ambulance entrance, waved to a crowd of waiting media and stepped into a waiting red Ford Expedition. The car, trailed by a beige Crown Victoria, quickly pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

Hospital officials did not release any additional information on Mr. Roberts, who doctors said suffered a benign idiopathic seizure.

The AWD writes: There is only one possible explaination for the dishonourable justice's seizure..... God hates John Roberts.

Been Outta Town

Yep, the Ol' AngryWoofDog has been kicking it California style..... Which happened to suit me very well, y'see? Lost another friend..... I drummed like a madwoman for his soul this past weekend. He was a very talented artist. His thoughts on science fiction and fantasy were far beyond the borders of Eastern Tennessee. Cancer is the thing that got him. I am hating cancer right now.

In fact, another friend of mine is having one of her breasts removed today, in an effort to stave off the inevitable.

What can ya do?

Anger Management

So. With Shrub's popularity dropping off faster than a Chippendale dancer with STDs, it seems like people are starting to see the light. The light that shows on the bodies of hundreds of thousands of wardead in 1raq as well as thew thousands of our own beloved daughters and sons that have returned in boxes and mangled bodies.

Yes, freedom isn't free, but it's not our goddamn freedom that we're fighting for. We're already free. Free to discharge the poor directly into Skid Row. Free to purchase bigger vehicles that fuel the warmachine. Free to think that Pari$ Hilton's fate actually is tied into our own. Free to shop at WalMart and fund anti-human Commun1st Ch1na. Free to try to get medical care that is affordable~ hey, you don't want your doctor to drive a fucking Ford, for christ's sake.

The shit is fucked up. Add to that, that there are a lot of people that I love that are dead and dying right fucking now. Yet another funeral Saturday to attend. These are the things that keep the ol' AngryWoofDog on edge. Gotta find some cool mountain water to wash myself in, find some purpose or meaning to all of the changes. Guess that there doesn't really have to be one, though.....

Pawsing and Learning to Live Again

Not much going on today..... It was a birthday lunch for one of my co-workers here at DaS WerkPlace. Went to PF Chang's~ decent food, horrible price. Someone at my table ordered wonton-covered deep fried chocolate sticks that are dipped in peanut butter caramel sauce and then rolled in toffee. That has got to be the most fattening dessert on the planet.

Speaking of planets, looks like we are looming ever-closer to destroying this one. Last time I checked, we weren't quite colonising outside of our precious atmosphere. I am speaking about the looming problems with Mama Russia, 1ran, Iraq, and the environment in general.

Okie, gotta go help someone with Chinese visa stuff. Whoo, this post is full of red flags today.

Ciao.

My Honey Bunny Bear

I am filled with a heap of sadness this morning as I prepare to make The Call to our veterinarian to have my dog, Bunny, euthanised at home..... This is a difficult day for me. I've never had to do this before.....

On my grandparents' farm, animals were not "pets". They stayed outside and ate table scraps. Life for them was hard and fast, and we never got to really know any dogs outside of Charlie, the beagle. He was with us for 5 or 6 years until another dog killed him.

Anyway, if you read these words today, please take a moment to send out some good, loving thoughts to my poor old baby's shattered body..... The past few days & nights have been very hard for her; I can't even imagine the pain that must come with disfigured shoulders and spine. She can't breathe or walk well anymore and I'm just trying to do the right thing. I'd always hoped that she would pass away peacefully in her sleep and that I wouldn't have to do this.

Thanks,

-AWD

Spam of the Day

Senior com

Our base was attacked by a giant socialist weasel.

In fact, precisely who it's for is something of a mystery, but let's just leave this with a hearty recommendation that you avoid this mess completely. View other Access database templates. well, it was King Arthur. Stranger still, the next again morning she wakes up and he's dead again, and so on, and on, and on.

If any attempt is made to show this film to you run away as if your very life depended on it. Frankly, of late I've started to hate mediocrity far more vehemently than conventionally terrible films, so for the egregious crime of boring me to tears Babel is sentenced accordingly.
Meanwhile Jennifer Connelly may be criminally underused as a prying investigative reporter, but one suspects she's there simply to keep her profile up. Waking up one morning to the knock of her local Sheriff, Linda learns that Jim died the previous day in a nasty car accident.

Basically, some savage Mayan warriors in need of human sacrifices to appease their god ransack the village of a peaceful neighbouring tribe, butchering, raping and taking captive it's inhabitants. Rather than spill the beans, Babs uses this as leverage to work her way further into Sheba's confidence. " Normalization is often brushed aside as a luxury that only academics have time for. Now, if his greatest weapon was, say, an orbiting optical platform or some sort of crocodile launcher that launched hungry crocodiles at his enemies, then we'd be in business.

I want my two hours back. It's the usual Glassian three-note, one-instrument water torture that's deeply, deeply unpleasant to suffer through. He of the perpetually linked to every comic book adaptation ever rumoured and appearing in none! I can see why he was so popular in Cats. Fear is the mind-killer. The Hills Have Eyes II review at theOneliner.

For the most part the answer is, surprisingly, yes.

Ludicrously over-long and tedious in the extreme, the only unarguable positive points in Babel are Brad Pitt's restrained turn and Cate Blanchett getting shot, which we always like to encourage. Night at the Museum review at theOneliner. In fact, it was actually quite pleasing that Bowen isn't even portrayed as a token sex object, her entwinement with Archer largely implied rather than billboarded across our retinas. Now, if his greatest weapon was, say, an orbiting optical platform or some sort of crocodile launcher that launched hungry crocodiles at his enemies, then we'd be in business. This has to be the least strugglesome superhero movie yet created, with Jack Skellington breezing past his demonic obstacles barely batting a non-present eyelid. Of course that would be far too boring a movie in this day and age, so Swagger duly finds himself double-crossed and framed for the attempt.

Blood Diamond review at theOneliner. Basically, some savage Mayan warriors in need of human sacrifices to appease their god ransack the village of a peaceful neighbouring tribe, butchering, raping and taking captive it's inhabitants. It overpowers the acting utterly in places; it's the equivalent of someone crashing through a wall in a tank when their compadre is trying to sneak in through the back window.

Lindola

Sorrow, loss, my friend
Gone above on seven wind
Heart chest thumping, die


I lost a Soul Sister last week..... The strange dreams did attack my thoughts in the night, but I had no idea the screams were hers..... I mourn. I howl. I am Sad.

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES HISTORIC HATE CRIMES BILL

Act Would Strengthen Ability of Law Enforcement to Investigate, Prosecute Hate
Crimes

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives today voted to pass the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, H.R. 1592, in a vote of 237 to 180. The proposed legislation, which has the endorsement of 230 law enforcement, civil rights, civic and religious organizations and the support of 73 percent of the American people, was introduced in March by Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., along with more than 100 other members of Congress. The Senate will soon consider an identical companion bill called the Matthew Shepard Act.

"This is a historic day that moves all Americans closer to safety from the scourge of hate violence," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Today, legislators sided with the 73 percent of the American people who support the expansion of hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

"The Human Rights Campaign thanks Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer and the entire House leadership, whose dedication made this vote a success. We also commend the bipartisan coalition of leaders who co-sponsored and supported the bill for so long, including Representatives Baldwin, Bono, Frank, Nadler, Ros-Lehtinen and Shays," added Solmonese.

"I am personally grateful to the United States House for recognizing the grave reality of hate crimes in America," said Judy Shepard, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Each year, thousands of Americans are violently attacked just because they are black, female, Christian or gay. According to the FBI, 25 Americans each day are victims of hate crimes - that means approximately one hate crime is committed every hour. One in six hate crimes are motivated by the victim's sexual orientation.

Specifically, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act would strengthen the ability of federal, state and local governments to investigate and prosecute hate crimes based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity.

It would strengthen state and local efforts by enabling the Justice Department to assist in the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. The bill will also provide grants to help state and local governments meet the extraordinary expenses involved in hate crime cases.

At the federal level, the LLEHCPA would eliminate the outdated intent requirement in current law that prevents the Justice Department from working with state and local officials in the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. It would allow the federal government to step in when needed, but only after the department has certified that a federal prosecution is necessary.

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act would strengthen the ability of law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute hate crimes by:

Protecting All Americans. Under the current federal law, enacted nearly 40 years ago, the government has the authority to help investigate and prosecute bias-motivated attacks based on race, color, national origin and religion and because the victim was attempting to exercise a federally protected right. For example, authorities became involved in a Salt Lake City case where James Herrick set fire to a Pakistani restaurant on Sept. 13, 2001. Herrick was sentenced to 51 months' incarceration on Jan. 7, 2002, after pleading guilty to violating 18 U.S.C. § 245.

However, under current law, the federal government is not able to help in cases where women, gay, transgender or disabled Americans are victims of bias-motivated crimes for who they are. For example, in Texas, in July 2005, four men brutally assaulted a gay man. While punching and kicking him, whipping him with a vacuum chord and assaulting him with daggers, the offenders told the victim that they attacked him because he was gay. Two of the men were sentenced to six years in prison under a plea bargain that dropped the charges that could have sent them to prison for life. Under this bill, federal authorities would have had the jurisdiction to prosecute the crime or could have provided local authorities resources that might have assisted them in pursuing a longer sentence.

Equipping Local Law Enforcement. The act would provide crucial federal resources to state and local agencies and equip local law enforcement officers with the tools they need to investigate and prosecute crimes. While most states recognize the problem of hate violence, and many have enacted laws to help combat this serious issue, federal government recognition of the problem is crucial to its solution. Too many local jurisdictions lack the full resources necessary to prosecute hate crimes. For example, when Matthew Shepard was murdered in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998, the investigation and prosecution of the case cost the community of 28,000 residents about $150,000, forcing the sheriff's department to lay off five deputies in order to save money.

Ensuring Equal Application of the Law. The act would allow federal authorities to become involved if local authorities are unwilling or unable to act. In the hate crime on which the film Boys Don't Cry was based, 21-year-old Brandon Teena was raped and later killed by two friends after they discovered he was biologically female. After the rape and assault, Teena reported the crime to the police, but Richardson County Sheriff Richard Laux, who referred to Teena as "it," did not allow his deputies to arrest the two men responsible. Five days later, those two men shot and stabbed Teena to death in front of two witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine, who were then also murdered. JoAnn Brandon, Teena's mother, filed a civil suit against Laux, claiming that he was negligent in failing to arrest the men immediately after the rape. The court found that the county was at least partially responsible for Teena's death and characterized Laux's behavior as "extreme and outrageous." Had this federal hate crime law been in effect, federal authorities could have investigated and prosecuted the offenders when the local authorities refused to do so.

A wide coalition of national organizations has called for the passage of the LLEHCPA legislation. Some of those supporting this legislation include: the National Sheriffs Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, 26 state attorneys general and the National District Attorneys Association.

The AWD writes: I can't believe they (our gooberment) did something useful..... Thank Dog! It's about fuckin' time..... BTW, I have no idea where this info originated- it was sent to me in an email. You know I always give credit where credit is due. If you know the origin, please post a comment. Photo of Brandon Teena is courtesy of popmatters.com

BTW

OMFG, ROTFL..... AFAIK, it's NMP M8. I'm OTW & BBL.

Fuck. I am actually done for the semester. Holy fuck.

Thursday Hilarity~~ I can see light @ the tunnel's end.....

"My land guy says I'm out of IRQs. Can I buy some more of those?"

User: "Is sausage bad for printers?"

Me: Hello, Tech Support.
Caller: Hello yes, I received this update from you for my new PC, but it cannot read any of the floppy disks you sent me.
Me: Hmm. Can you please explain what's happening?
Caller: OK, I opened the box and read the instructions telling me to put in disk 1 and run setup.
Me: Good; next?
Caller: So I got the disks out the box and put the first disk into the drive after removing the protective cover.
Me: Protective cover? Do you mean the little white sleeve that the disk comes in?
Caller: No the big black cover that the disk comes in. Is it supposed to be that hard to get the disk out?

The inevitable attack on science

From:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/17/the-inevitable-attack-on-science/

By: Steve on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 5:20 PM - PDT

In 1999, as the nation was still coming to grips with the tragedy at Columbine High School, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) took to the floor to identify what he saw as the real culprit: science classes. “Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup,” DeLay said. Young people learn modern biology, DeLay said, which in turn makes them feel insignificant, which in turn leads to violence.

This was, of course, one of the more loathsome comments made by one of Congress's more despicable people, but after yesterday’s shootings at Virginia Tech, it was only a matter of time before someone who shares DeLay’s worldview stepped up to assess yesterday’s tragedy the same way.

Enter Ken Ham, a leading creationist activist, who leads an outfit called Answers in Genesis.

“We live in an era when public high schools and colleges have all but banned God from science classes. In these classrooms, students are taught that the whole universe, including plants and animals — and humans — arose by natural processes. Naturalism (in essence, atheism) has become the religion of the day and has become the foundation of the education system (and Western culture as a whole). The more such a philosophy permeates the culture, the more we would expect to see a sense of purposelessness and hopelessness that pervades people’s thinking. In fact, the more a culture allows the killing of the unborn, the more we will see people treating life in general as ‘cheap.’”

Ham, it’s worth noting, wrote this yesterday. He couldn’t even wait 24 hours before connecting the massacre and biology classes.

The AngryWoofDog Writes: Yes, it's such a shame that this is the government that lifted the assault rifle ban yet still wants to moralise abortion. Amerika's priorities get more fucked up every fucking day.

Requiem

When the last living thing

has died on account of us,

how poetical it would be

if Earth could say,

in a voice floating up

perhaps

from the floor

of the Grand Canyon,

"It is done."

People did not like it here.

-K.Vonnegut (RIP,M8)

FDA Regulators Using Legal Trickery to Kill Alternative Procedures and Products

The FDA is using legal maneuvering to end your access to natural health products (like vitamins, minerals and herbs) and natural health therapies of all sorts. Again. This time, their ploy is to declare the therapies are "Medicine" so any non-physician who uses them will be practicing medicine without a license. Since these practices are "Medicine", any products used would be untested drugs and therefore forbidden.

Your Comments are Vitally Important

Public, professional and industry comments are being accepted on the FDA proposal to "capture" alternative procedures and products as "medicine" and then make them illegal. The history of these repressive attacks by the FDA makes it clear that public outcry, IN HUGE NUMBERS, is the only effective tool that natural health supporters have to change this disastrous outcome. Comments will be accepted until April 30. By contacting everyone you can reach to ask for their participation in this comment campaign, we can kill this assault on personal health freedom.

Please send the link (http://tinyurl.com/2u7ghc) to this page to everyone you can reach with a brief explanation of the issues. Urge everyone in your personal and professional circles of influence to protect their health freedom -- their personal right to make their own health choices.

It is important to take a moment to email the manufacturers of the health care products you take an ask them to alert their suppliers and customer base to protect their businesses. Your natural health care providers need to alert their patients and colleagues, too.

Thanks for your activism!

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org

This is the kind of computer I was talking about in my previous post. I think it wants to eat my soul.

Backup Chuck

So, this has been the 2 weeks of hardware failures. *Sigh* Makes me really want to dedicate my life to computers forever..... No, not really. I'm just one cup short of a whole pot today. And it seems like all of the hardware around me is dying. Well, not all of it. Just 2 of it. You finger it out.

Our show went well Saturday night, playing at a nice brewpub. Our sound was off though..... It's a wonky area where we had to set up and we had to wait for paying customers to get up and leave. Other than a really persnicky contract, that we followed to the letter, things were smooth. I enjoyed playing, although my body was completely exhausted yesterday.

Makes me really feel for those folks on the road- who don't get the chance to sleep in their own bed and must play night after night, with no spooning/cuddling of their favourite human while being a slug on a couch (or a Palladin in Hillsbrad).

Yesh, just a note of blithey. Blimey. Something. I needwant anudder cup o' javalifejumpjuice.

Ciao.

I have no background info on the above picture- All I can tell U is that I snagged it from the comments page from my old pal Lisa's MySpace. I could not resist putting it up here.

Random Ramblings

I'm feeling the urge to travel again. EastNoxVagueAss isn't a bad place to live, as long as you can get out of it every once in awhile. July will bring me some relief, as I am taking a 3 week trip to ride my new (to me) motorcycle from here to the Pacific Ocean and back.

Sometimes I just need to get away. From daily life pressures that most of us experience. Thank goddess that I have the freedom of time and $$$ to do just that. (Had a small blowup w/ some in my band regarding this..... another post for another day, if ever.)

Well, there's not much to say today. I could rant and rave about how the Whyte Hou$e lets people use external email communications in order to get around the archiving stuff. And I coul roll on about how the top officials have lied about their use of email or how that CMC could help them actually *do* their jobs. But I'm not going to. Not even gonna examine the words I heard come from Dub-E's mouth last week on NPR: "We welcome a free press. Most of the time." (Wording may not be exact- sue me.)

I will however let you know that I had a strange dream. One where I was sitting at a long table with a lot of my friends, one of which was Michelle Pfeiffer. I had said something about wealthy people not being smart and we began an argument. It was a civil argument. Not sure why she was in my head, other than the (apparently successful) adverts for a Batman movie several years ago.

Take is sleazy, if you can grab it at all.

Reinstate Hank Williams to the Grand Ol' Opry

This petition calls for the reinstatement of Opry legend, and country music star, Hank Williams. Fifty years have passed since the tragic and untimely death of country music's greatest performer, who made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry on June 11th, 1949. A few years later, in 1952, Hiram Hank Williams was asked to leave the Opry -- with the intention that he would sober up and make a return to the stage that he loved so much. Before he could make that return, he passed on, in the back seat of a car on the way to an Ohio show. It's now 2007, and Hank Williams has yet to be reinstated to the Opry.

Hank Williams has been one of the most influential artists to ever record; changing the face of music, and the way that we view country music. Since his passing in 1953, he has posthumously achieved numerous rewards and achievements. In 1961, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and a few years later, he was added to the Country Music Hall of Fame Walkway of Stars. In 1973, he was the recipient of the Pioneer Award by the Academy of Country Music. He received a Grammy for 'Your Cheatin' Heart' in 1983, and was then inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. That same year he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Life Magazine even ranked Hank Williams #1 on the 'Most Important People in Country Music' list. Within his short years with us on earth, he had 11 #1 singles, including 'Lovesick Blues,' 'Kaw-Liga,' as well as 25 other Top 10 Singles.

We, the undersigned, feel that it is past due for Hank Williams' reinstatement to the Grand Ole Opry. Hank Williams was one of the most influential people to ever record or write music, and his untimely death made it impossible for his to 'redeem' himself in the Opry's eyes, but after 50 years we feel that his legacy has more than made up for any objections that the Opry may have had about his personal life. His lyrics and music helped create everything traditional country music became.

If you'd like to sign the petition, please visit the Reinstate Hank Williams Petition.

He's a legend. Let's make it right.

New Tyre Friday

Whoo hoo! A new tyre with my name on it has arrived at my local-ish Kawasaki dealership. I'm very excited to be able to get my new bike on the road and ready for daily riding. That has been the best thing this week. That, and I finally get to hang out with my Janefriend for a couple of hours tonight.....

I'm also really happy with the Daily Kitten. It makes me happy to see a cute fuzzy moggie every once in awhile. With that being said, this country is still going down the crapper.

Bus$h wants to monitor every picture that is downloaded or uploaded to the web. Do yoiu realise that the planet generated over 161 exabytes of informational data last year? Wot the fuck do they think they'll actually do with all of that information???

Anyway, I'm off work for the day and will catch y'all on the flipside of another planetary revolution.....

T. West Band Stuff

So, I've got a couple of new drums on the way. I've never played a cajon, but I've sure as hell heard them. The djembe is a step up from my fireside skin, and should suit me, professionally for some time.

Ah.... Speaking of professionally, the AWD has apparently been promoted to a professional musician. I'm not quite sure when it happened, exactly, but one day yer just sitting there, and the next, people are giving you $$$.

Works for me. Not complaining. In fact, this makes yer ol' pal AWD quite happy, and little bit less angry. So does hitting the local postage stamp lotto for $60 last Tuesday.....

March is almost here.....

So, this here is my new mo'sicle. It's a 6-speed, shaft driven, in-line four touring machine. I LOVE IT. So should you.

Kawasaki Concours

I GOT A NEW BIKE!!!!

I can't find any good pictures combining model and year online, so I'm gonna have to take pictures of it to put up here. Let's just say that as far as reasonably priced touring machines go, this one fit both my wallet and my ego. \/\/007!

So, since I got a bike, it looks like the trip to the Pacific Ocean is ON for July!!!

An Irvine cop ejaculates on a motorist but escapes criminal liability

So, this is one story that really caught my eye yesterday. It is reprinted in it's entirety, but I did not write any of the words- all credits have been given where credits are due. And if you see this guy, be sure to ejaculate on him.....

By R. SCOTT MOXLEY

Thursday, February 8, 2007 - 3:00 pm

No one disputes that an on-duty Irvine police officer got an erection and ejaculated on a motorist during an early-morning traffic stop in Laguna Beach. The female driver reported it, DNA testing confirmed it and officer David Alex Park finally admitted it.

When the case went to trial, however, defense attorney Al Stokke argued that Park wasn’t responsible for making sticky all over the woman’s sweater. He insisted that she made the married patrolman make the mess—after all, she was on her way home from work as a dancer at Captain Cream Cabaret.

“She got what she wanted,” said Stokke. “She’s an overtly sexual person.”

A jury of one woman and 11 men—many white and in their 50s or 60s—agreed with Stokke. On Feb. 2, after a half-day of deliberations, they found Park not guilty of three felony charges that he’d used his badge to win sexual favors during the December 2004 traffic stop.

Park, 31, was red-faced and unable to control his twitching foot in the moments before the verdict was announced; if convicted, he would have faced prison. When he was found not guilty, he briefly embraced Stokke. In the public seating section, tears flowed from his gray-haired mother’s face. His father, a mechanic, closed his eyes and threw his head back. Outside the courtroom, surrounded by his family, a smiling Park said he felt vindicated.

Veteran sex crimes prosecutor Shaddi Kamiabipour—who’d called Park “a predator” during the nine-day trial—said she was disappointed with the verdicts. She also dismissed Stokke’s contention that the Orange County District Attorney’s office had overcharged the case. At stake, Kamiabipour said, was the principle that no one—not even a horny cop who’d once won honors for community service—is above the law.

“Park didn’t pick a housewife or a 17-year-old girl,” Kamiabipour said in her closing argument. “He picked a stripper. He picked the perfect victim.”



* * *


In the wee hours of Dec. 15, 2004, Lucy (only her first name was used during the trial) finished her final shift at Captain Cream in Lake Forest, not far from the Irvine Spectrum. Management had let her go after an incident involving a female customer in a bathroom stall. According to court records, there had been a small amount of cocaine, kissing and breast fondling.

Meanwhile, Park was on patrol in the southwest portion of Irvine. Prosecutors believe he was craving a sexual rendezvous, and so he watched for Lucy’s white BMW to leave the strip club parking lot, then tailed her, waiting for an excuse for a stop. Park insisted he’d been cruising on the 405 north and coincidentally saw Lucy’s vehicle weave and speed.

Kamiabipour, the prosecutor, shook her head in disbelief. She knew the facts—that the officer had waited at least eight or nine minutes before stopping the stripper on a secluded section of a highway that was out of his jurisdiction.

“He was stalking her,” she said.

Four months earlier, Park had stopped Lucy under similar circumstances. That time, he’d ignored a plastic drug baggie he’d found in her car and her suspended license. But the stop wasn’t a waste of time. After friendly chit-chat, the officer had scored Lucy’s phone number. Telephone records show that Park called the stripper the next morning. She told him she was too busy to meet.

On the witness stand, Park explained that he’d called Lucy out of concern for a citizen’s safety. He also shrugged his shoulders when Kamiabipour slowly listed the first names of nine Captain Cream female employees—Annette, Denise, Rashele, Marlia, Brandi, Andrea, Deborah, Laura and Shannon—whose license plates he’d run through the DMV computer in the weeks prior to his sexual encounter with Lucy. (Another coincidence, according to Stokke.) Jurors also learned that Irvine Police Sgt. Michael Hallinan had previously warned Park as they left work to stay away from the strippers.

Park, who works in construction nowadays, conceded that he’d been given the warning but claimed that he had no clue it was Lucy in the vehicle or that she had an invalid driver’s license, even as he approached her car window.

Kamiabipour believed she’d caught the 6-foot-3 cop in a lie. Records show he ran the bosomy, 5-foot, 110-pound dancer’s license plate before the stop, did not call for backup despite the potential for an arrest and failed to tell his supervisor or dispatch that he was leaving Irvine. Several Irvine officers testified that Park’s behavior that night was odd.

“[Park’s] testimony was just incredible,” said Kamiabipour. Irvine city officials must have doubted his story, too. After an exhaustive police internal affairs investigation, they felt it was prudent to give Lucy $400,000 to make her civil lawsuit go away—for fear a jury might give her much more.

In a secretly-recorded phone call to Laguna Beach police shortly after the incident, Lucy recalled that she’d told Park she had no license. Park began “rubbing himself up against me,” she said. “Then, he said, ‘What are we going to do here, Lucy?’”

Park unzipped his pants, took his penis out and got an erection, she explained. “Basically, the officer made me give [him] a freaking hand job and he let me go. I’m so freaked out about it.”

(Lucy also told police, prosecutors and the jury that Park had also fingered her vagina and fondled her breasts before he ejaculated on her.)

“I was confused,” she told the Laguna Beach dispatcher. “He called me afterwards. I’m scared, you know . . . What’s an Irvine cop doing hanging out at a strip club in Lake Forest?”

Telephone records prove that Park made a 19-minute call to Lucy shortly after their encounter. The officer—who told the woman he was “Joe Stephens,” an Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputy who had died months earlier—said it was a friendly call to make sure she’d arrived home safely. The stripper said he told her to keep her mouth shut.

And then Kamiabipour introduced the bombshell evidence from a high-ranking Irvine police officer: on the night Park tailed Lucy out of the city, the global positioning system in his patrol car had been disconnected without authorization.

“I checked and [the GPS] was not working,” said Lt. Henry Boggs.

An unexplainable coincidence, Park’s defense countered.



* * *


For all his boneheaded mistakes, Park madea sharp decision picking his legal counsel. Stokke (and John Barnett, Paul Myer and Jennifer Keller) is among the elite of the local defense bar. His fine suits and mastery of courtroom procedures compliment the folksy, grandfatherly style he uses to charm juries. And there was this unspoken advantage over the prosecution: longtime courthouse observers have no memory of an Orange County jury convicting a police officer of a felony.

It wasn’t a surprise that Stokke put the woman and her part-time occupation on trial. In his opening argument, he made it The Good Cop versus The Slutty Stripper. He pointed out that she’d once had a violent fight with a boyfriend in San Diego. He mocked her inability to keep a driver’s license. He accused her of purposefully “weakening” Park so that he became “a man,” not a cop during the traffic stop. He called her a liar angling for easy lawsuit cash. He called her a whore without saying the word.

“You dance around a pole, don’t you?” Stokke asked.

Superior Court Judge William Evans ruled the question irrelevant.

Stokke saw he was scoring points with the jury.

“Do you place a pole between your legs and go up and down?” he asked.

“No,” said Lucy before the judge interrupted.

“You do the dancing to get men to do what you what them to do,” said Stokke. “And the same thing happened out there on that highway [in Laguna Beach]. You wanted [Park] to take some sex!”

Lucy said, “No sir,” the sex wasn’t consensual. Stokke—usually a mellow fellow with a nasally, monotone voice—gripped his fists, stood upright, clenched his jaws and then thundered, “You had a buzz on [that night], didn’t you?”

As if watching a volley in tennis, the heads of the male-dominated jury spun from Stokke back to Lucy, who sat in the witness box. She said no, but it was hopeless. Jurors stared at her without a hint of sympathy.

In his closing argument, Stokke pounced. He called Lucy one of those “girls who have learned the art of the tease, getting what they want . . . they’ve learned to separate men from their money.”

Kamiabipour wasn’t amused. “Dancer or not, sexually promiscuous nor not, she had the right not to consent,” she told jurors. “[Park] doesn’t get a freebie just because of who she is . . . He used her like an object.”

rscottmoxley@ocweekly.com

Do ya really wanna lobby me? Do ya really wanna make me cry?

Deep fried jezuss..... I think I'll go to the International Heart On and march in a poorade tonight. Why don'cha come with me?

Pfizer, Halliburton Grab Democrats as Hearings Loom (Update2)

By Jonathan D. Salant

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Pharmaceutical companies and Iraq war contractors, both heavy Republican contributors, are among the companies scrambling to hire lobbyists with Democratic ties as they prepare for congressional investigative hearings next week.

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, has hired the Glover Park Group, whose partners include Joe Lockhart, a former spokesman for President Bill Clinton, and Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Roche Holding AG picked as its lobbyist William Clyburn, cousin of the House's third-ranking Democrat, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.

The increased hiring coincides with the Democratic congressional sweep that has sent shudders through corporate boardrooms.

``No general counsel or CEO wants to have to explain to his board why the company's name is appearing on the front page of a news article in a scandal,'' said Nick Allard, a partner in the law and lobbying firm of Patton Boggs LLP, which just landed military contractor Halliburton Co. as a client. ``Firms and industry groups that have not yet been represented are talking to firms all over town.''

Representative Henry Waxman, 67, the California Democrat who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, plans to hold hearings beginning Feb. 6 on Iraq contractors. The committee has asked executives from Halliburton to testify.

``We're the main committee in the House of Representatives to look at matters that deserve scrutiny,'' Waxman said in an interview today. ``Nothing deserves scrutiny more than whether taxpayers' dollars are being used appropriately.''

The Cheney Connection

Halliburton, a Houston-based oilfield services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, gave 92 percent of its political-action committee contributions to Republicans for the 2006 campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington research group.

The company's new firm, Patton Boggs, counts Democratic lobbyist Thomas Boggs among its name partners. KBR Inc., a Halliburton unit, hired the law and lobbying firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, whose partners include Democratic former House Speaker Thomas Foley.

``Halliburton retains firms with deep experience in the industry, on Capitol Hill and in the administration to help us navigate the policy arena,'' Melissa Norcross, a spokeswoman for Halliburton and KBR, said in an e-mailed comment.

Particularly Valuable

Lobbyists with Washington experience are considered particularly valuable when chief executive officers face nationally televised hearings. Waxman presided over one of the most famous on April 14, 1994, when seven tobacco- industry CEOs testified that they didn't add nicotine to their cigarettes.

Public hearings raise the stakes for corporations, said Mark Paoletta, a lawyer who helped run investigations for the House Energy and Commerce Committee when Republicans were in control. ``The company has a much larger risk with respect to its reputation'' than in civil litigation that can be resolved away from the public glare, he said.

Some Republican lobbyists are also benefiting from the increased congressional attention. Paoletta and another Energy and Commerce lawyer, Andrew Snowdon, just joined the Washington office of lobbying and law firm Dickstein Shapiro LLP.

Republican Firm

Mark Corallo and Barbara Comstock, two former Justice Department officials who have formed their own lobbying firm in Alexandria, Virginia, are talking to representatives of oil and drug companies. One of their current clients, Blackwater USA of Moyock, North Carolina, is scheduled to testify next week before Waxman's committee, Corallo said. The panel is probing possible waste and fraud in Iraq war contracts.

``When we realized that the political winds were blowing the other way, we understood there would be a market,'' said Corallo. Industries that ``escaped oversight'' for more than a decade ``are going to find themselves in the congressional crosshairs,'' he said.

The pharmaceutical industry, which the Center for Responsive Politics says gave 68 percent of its 2006 campaign gifts to Republicans, may be the biggest target for investigators. The House voted Jan. 12 to require the Medicare program, which provides health care for the elderly and disabled, to negotiate prices with drug companies; five congressional committees plan hearings into industry practices, including the generic-drug approval process and drug safety.

Number of Assignments

Paul Fitzhenry, a spokesman for New York-based Pfizer, and Glover Park partner Joel Johnson, a former Clinton administration and Senate Democratic staff member, said the group has handled a number of assignments for the drugmaker for about two years.

This year marks the first time Glover Park has registered as the company's lobbyists, congressional filings show. Johnson said the firm registered `` when it became evident that the inside role was to require outside contacts'' on legislative matters. Lockhart and Wolfson, the Glover Park partners, aren't listed on congressional forms as the firm's lobbyists for Pfizer.

William Clyburn didn't return phone calls seeking comment. Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland, had no immediate comment when asked about the investigations.

Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company, hired two firms in the last two months, congressional filings show. ``It certainly is a different political landscape,'' Amgen spokeswoman Kelley Davenport said.

Duberstein Group

Amgen's new lobbyists include the Duberstein Group, led by Kenneth Duberstein, former chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan, and Michael Berman, a veteran Democratic political operative. The company also hired Lent, Scrivner & Roth LLC, whose partners include former Republican Representative Norman Lent of New York and Alan Roth, staff director of the House Energy and Commerce Committee when it was previously under Democratic control.

Another Washington law firm, Venable LLP, brought in Raymond Shepherd III, a Republican who is former chief counsel to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigations subcommittee, to run its new congressional-investigation group. Birch Bayh, a former Democratic senator from Indiana, is a partner at the firm.

Venable's new clients include London-based drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC, maker of Crestor, the fastest-growing cholesterol medicine.

``In the era of instant news, even the threat of a congressional investigation can impact a company's brand, reputation, and, just as importantly, its bottom line,'' said Gloria Dittus, head of Dittus Communications, a Washington-based public-affairs firm.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net

Well, fuck.....

Sure alotta stuff has been going on in the world lately. It seems that the Bu$h administration is waking up a little bit, and it's a good thing. For me, personally, things have been going fantastic- catching up with old friends, making plans for crazy worldtrips this year, eating great food, and playing phenomenal music in a new band.

We will actually be on the radio later this month- I may post links and shit. Cool thing is, I've learned how to play harmonica, in addition to the other instruments I play. Sometimes it freaks me out though.... I've never had the first piano lesson, yet, I can sit down and play it. Same with guitar. Now, I'd had voice and music training as a child, and of course, I practice. But something musical is an everpresent, sleepkilling companion. Only one soulgnawin' sensation can supercede it.

I don't care if I ever make any more money playing music. I'm just glad that all of the melodies and rhythms can finally claw their way out of my heart and head.

Coming Back Around

I've been in a deep state of grief over losing one of my puttemsfriends, Icky. And she's not the only one to pass last year..... TreeBear, Lisa, and BamBam's mum..... They all died too early, IMHO. TreeBear had a stroke and died in his sleep, alone. Lisa overdosed and died alone. BamBam's mum slipped into a coma and died in a hospital. I swear, after watching my grandmother die, I can't imagine not being in a home environment, surrounded by people I love, when I meet Death again. (And BTW, Icky died in our arms- we were with her to the painful end.....)

So, there really hasn't been a lot of whatever in me wee blog of late. Hells, it's just an outlet for me anyway.... I'm not trying to be a
Wonkette or anything like that. I'm just sharing my outrage at how things seem to be.....

So posting for the first time this year. Still healing. Still looking for meaning in a place that so often doesn't seem to have any. Still trying to figure out what life will bring toward us in the near future. I'm hoping it's a Harley Davidson motorcycle.