Everything you do WILL Give you Cancer.

Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking:'Brain expert warns of huge rise in tumours and calls on industry to take immediate steps to reduce radiation
Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.

It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people to minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called for exposures to be reduced.

Noting that malignant brain tumours represent "a life-ending diagnosis", Khurana adds: "We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation." He fears that "unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps", the incidence of malignant brain tumours and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to intervene medically.

"It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking," says Professor Khurana, who told the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.

Late last week, the Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana's study as "a selective discussion of scientific literature by one individual". It believes he "does not present a balanced analysis" of the published science, and "reaches opposite conclusions to the WHO and more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews".

Obama had greater role on liberal survey

from Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.

Should minors should be required to get parental consent — or at least notify their parents — before having abortion.
The first version of Obama’s questionnaire responds with a simple “No.”
The amended version, though, answers less stridently: “Depends on how young — possibly for extremely young teens, i.e., 12- or 13-year-olds.”

By 2004, “I would oppose any legislation that does not include a bypass provision for minors who have been victims of, or have reason to fear, physical or sexual abuse,” he wrote.

whether Obama supports capital punishment and state legislation to “ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns?”
He responded simply “No” and “Yes,” respectively, to those questions on both questionnaires.

But a fact sheet provided by his campaign flatly denies Obama ever held those views, asserting he “consistently supported the death penalty for certain crimes but backed a moratorium until problems were fixed.”
On guns, the fact sheet says he “has consistently supported common-sense gun control, as well as the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”

That “was a long time ago,” she said. “And anybody who hasn’t refined their ideas over that period of time ... is not anybody I’m interested in,” she said. Dobry asserted Obama’s views have evolved mostly at the margins and that he’s still the same person she met in the 1990s.
“He always was right from the start very, very clear on where he was coming from on most issues,” she said, “and he certainly wasn’t letting anybody else decide that for him.”

My favorite place to be on Easter. Or any day, really...

Melee breaks out at Good Time Emporium with 200 people jumping in the fray
Somerville - Just after 7 p.m. Easter, Somerville police responded to reports of “an out of control melee” at the Good Time Emporium on Sturtevant Street, according to reports. Police said as many as 200 people had begun rioting inside the amusement center and sports bar, and several of them were armed with baseball bats and knives.

One responding officer, James McNally, said in his report he arrived to find tables and chairs flying in every direction, and fights breaking out in all corners of the building. McNally said police tried several times to evacuate the building.
“We were running around trying to break up each new altercation that erupted,” McNally wrote in his report of the incident.

Somerville Officer James Slattery: “I made my way into the crowd, and there was a lot of pushing and shoving. I requested every available unit to be sent to assist.” Somerville Housing Authority police, State Police and Tufts University cops all came to assist.

During the chaos, McNally said a woman approached him and told him someone had threatened her with a knife. The woman identified 17-year-old Regina Hunter, of 119 Highland Ave., Randolph, as the one who had waived a knife at her earlier in the brawl.

Hunter attempted to leave, McNally’s report states, but she was stopped by a Good Time Employee and a state trooper. Officers, who finally had to pepper spray her in order to cuff her. The found a 6-7-inch pocket knife in her coat during a subsequent search.

“We were being verbally threatened, harassed and physically intimidated,” McNally wrote in his report. “[We] had to resort to swinging our expandable batons around to keep the crowd from physically coming at us.”

Reade Armstrong, 18, of 37 Sycamore St., Roslindale, also had to be pepper-sprayed in order for police to subdue him. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, as was 17-year-old Kwmaine Davis, of 94 Crawford St., Dorchester.

I can Kick, I can KICK!

Nuked Newborn?

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) -- Jurors who rejected a young father's claim that he was insane when he burned his infant daughter in a microwave must now decide his punishment.

Prosecutors are asking that Joshua Mauldin be sentenced to life in prison for stuffing his daughter Ana in a microwave and turning it on for 10 to 20 seconds.

Galveston County Prosecutor Xochitl Vandiver asked jurors to give Mauldin a life sentence because Mauldin had given his daughter a life sentence as well -- one of physical and emotional scars. CHEEESSSSYYYYY

Mauldin at first told police his daughter had been severely sunburned, later changing his story and saying he had accidentally spilled hot water on her while making coffee.

Ana suffered second- and third-degree burns to her left ear, cheek, hand and shoulder and required two skin grafts after being in the microwave. Part of her left ear had to be amputated.
"She will always for the rest of her life be reminded just by looking in a mirror," Vandiver said.

Prosecutors said Mauldin was angry that he was in a loveless marriage and took it out on his daughter. Just before putting her in the microwave, Mauldin had punched the baby and put her in the hotel-room safe and refrigerator.

They also said Mauldin had a history of violence and of lying about being mentally ill to get out of trouble.
Class Act.

awwwww I HATE SQUIRRELS

see more crazy cat pics

Dr Pepper issues challenge to Guns N' Roses

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Many have tried, but so far nobody has been able to pry the decade-in-the-works Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" from the hands of lone remaining original member Axl Rose.

Now, Dr Pepper thinks it's up to the challenge. The soft drink company says it will give a free can of Dr Pepper to "everyone in America" (excluding ex-Guns members Slash and Buckethead) if "Chinese Democracy" arrives anytime during the calendar year 2008.

Rose responded on his band's web site (http://www.gunsnroses.com) that the band was "surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper." But the offer did not prompt him to rose to the challenge.

"Chinese Democracy" was most recently scheduled for release in March 2007, but promptly vanished from the schedule without a new date being set. Rose said at the time that all the recording had been completed, but there were some "scheduling difficulties."

It will be the first album of fresh Guns N' Roses material since the 1991 sets "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II." Rose has reportedly burned through $13 million in recording expenses for "Chinese Democracy," and also burned his bridges with the bandmates who helped him turn Guns into one of the biggest rock groups in the world by the early 1990s.

No Endorsement; Bloomberg Plays It Down The Middle

CBS-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Barack Obama stood side-by-side once again Thursday, nearly four months after their mystery breakfast outing at a Manhattan diner. This time, Obama was in town to deliver what was billed as a major speech on the economy, while many believed Bloomberg was poised to deliver his endorsement.

With all eyes on the mayor as he walked onto the stage at The Cooper Union, Bloomerg introduced the Illinois senator, and while there was plenty of speculation of the endorsement, instead he played it down the middle.

"I'm glad that Sen. Obama has chosen come to our city to speak out on the economy. There will be plenty of opinions on what he has to say, this is New York, after all. And I'm not sure that all of us will agree with every idea, myself included," he said. "But it is critical we know where each candidate stands as we make perhaps the most important decision of our lives next November."

Obama was equally cordial, joking about treating Bloomberg to breakfast a few months ago during his last visit to the big apple.

"The reason I bought breakfast is because I expect payback for something more expensive. I'm no dummy," Obama joked. "The mayor was a cheap date that morning. There are some good steakhouses here in New York."

Interesting. I wonder if that is a real possiblility? I'm gonna go ahead and say....YES.

Duck-beheader sentenced for duck-beheading

A man who ripped the head off a live duck in a Minnesota hotel has been sentenced to the workhouse and community service.

Scott D. Clark apologized in court Wednesday and says he takes full responsibility for his actions. He pleaded guilty in January to felony animal cruelty.

He was at the Embassy Suites in St. Paul in September when he cornered a duck from the hotel's lobby pool and ripped its head off.

A one-way ticket to disaster: IHT reflects on Celebrity.

Two words that describe ample situations of 2007: Train Wreck.

From Spears to Lohan to Hilton, from bipolar attacks to coke binges to, well...jail.
Each celebutante had her own spiral downward - and oh, did they spiral.

If your taste in just desserts ran more esoteric, the displays of personal collapse available on the Internet were downright Dada-esque: you could watch the former television action hero David Hasselhoff splayed across the floor of his hotel room while eating a hamburger; see Vanessa Hudgens, the squeaky-clean star of "High School Musical 2," posing in the nude; or hear Alec Baldwin haranguing his 11-year-old daughter in a profane voice mail message that could have come straight out of "Glengarry Glen Ross."
Does this seem exessive? Have we gone too far in our adoration of these "stars"?
Or was it just that this year, gossip coverage has become so widespread — you could hardly pick up a magazine or newspaper, turn on a television or read a blog without encountering another tale of a celebrity who'd gone off the rails — that it made routine bad behavior seem even worse? Think of CNN, MSNBC, Fox in the wake of the Anna Nicole death...WALL TO WALL COVERAGE. Not for the war, not for the finance crisis, but for Anna Nicole. Is it because we care? Or do they force us to be unable to turn a blind eye?

All of these scandals were so appalling, Lisanti (of defamer.com) said, that they "fed this insatiable hunger to find out more and more and more, which pushed more outlets to keep revealing more details about these people."

Where larger media companies once considered gossip Web sites too untrustworthy to follow their lead on breaking stories, these same organizations began relying on the Web sites and blogs as if they were articles from The Associated Press. "When we broke a story," said Harvey Levin, the managing editor of TMZ.com, "it used to be we'd get a call from CNN and they'd say, 'Who are your sources?' Two days later they'd realize we were right. And like Pavlov's dog, you train them."

On the downside, it is unlikely that the audiences for these newly created outlets remain faithful to any of them for long. "Viewers and readers who like sensationalism are not necessarily loyal," said Tony Potts, a host of the television shows "Access Hollywood" and "Celebrity Exposé." "The titillating aspect of a story will always be superseded by something else, and they just want the next quick fix."

And who can forget semi-celebs like Larry Craig, Michael Vick, and Andrew "Don't Taze me" Meyer? Imus, The VTech shooter...all got absurdly bright spolights for generally unnewsworthy things (don't get me wrong, the VTech shootings Were ABSOLUTELY newsworthy...but Cho's plays were not. His short stories were not. That was a limelight on a character much less than worthy of the fame.)

"We live in a society where there are virtually no repercussions," said Min of Us Weekly. The repeat offenders who most often populate our gossip, she said, know full well they can "get arrested one day, walk a red carpet the next, and still have as many photographers shouting their names and wanting their pictures."

As Min recalled, it was hardly a year ago that she and her staff were assembling an astonishing story about Britney Spears. "We reported that she took her older son to a cosmetic dentist, to see if she could get his teeth whitened," Min said. "Which at that point seemed incredibly shocking. That seems very quaint and simple now."

The Beast Lives?

Clear Channel Says Deal May Not Close

NEW YORK (AP) -- Clear Channel Communications Inc. said the private equity firms trying to buy the company may not be able to close the deal on time because their banks will not provide financing, according to a Friday regulatory filing.

The warning comes a day after a Texas judge issued a restraining order effectively preventing the banks from backing out of their commitment to finance the $19.5 billion deal, which was slated to close by Monday.

The private equity firms, led by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee LLC, met with the radio station operator Thursday. They indicated they were "ready, willing and able to consummate the merger and that each of the sponsors was prepared to fund their respective equity commitments," according to a Clear Channel filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But the firms told the radio station operator "they would not be able to consummate the merger at that time due to the failure of the banks to provide the required financing."

The banks include Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank AG and Wachovia Corp.
Clear Channel said it cannot provide an expected closing date and "cautions the markets that a closing may not occur."

Plea to China to keep Olympics TV live

The International Olympic Committee has asked China to promise not to delay transmissions of the Beijing games, after France raised concerns about Chinese television’s censoring of Tibet protests at the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece this week.

French TV executives have asked the European Broadcasting Union to extract guarantees from Beijing that transmissions will be live and uninterrupted even if protests take place.

But the fact that the matter is being raised again with Beijing underlines the IOC’s nervousness about relations with Chinese authorities and the difficulty of quelling European concerns.

The French stance on events in Tibet took a fresh turn on Thursday. Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, said he would consult European Union leaders on a possible boycott of the opening ceremony.

“At the time of the Olympics, I will be in the presidency of the European Union, so I have to sound out and consult my fellow members to see whether or not we should boycott,” he said.

Broadcasts of the torch ceremony were suspended after a disruption by media rights protesters based in France. That led to calls for a French boycott of coverage of the games if transmissions were censored.

International rights-holders will receive radio and TV feeds from Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, a joint venture between the Beijing organising committee and Olympic Broadcasting Services, a subsidiary of the IOC.

Manolo Romero, OBS chief executive, has been in Beijing for talks with the committee. “No doubt they will be asking for clarification on things such as the broadcasting of the torch ceremony and about delays in transmission,” the IOC said.

Scalia Criticizes News Media

WASHINGTON (AP) - Justice Antonin Scalia took the news media to task Thursday for some recent coverage of the Supreme Court.
At a conference of attorneys in Washington, Scalia said news organizations often fail to focus on the text of the laws the court interprets, citing accounts of last month's 8-1 decision that made it harder for consumers to sue makers of federally approved medical devices.

He singled out for criticism a New York Times editorial on the case headlined "No Recourse for the Injured."

The media often make it appear as though the court is reaching policy judgments on its own rather than basing its decisions on the text of the law at issue in a case, Scalia said.

In some instances, said Scalia, the news media leave the impression that no ruling based on the text of a law "is even possible."

Scalia spoke to a friendly and enthusiastic audience from the Food and Drug Law Institute, an organization of attorneys from industry and government specializing in food and drug regulatory law.

Planet PR gets offended, trashes the Veep.

In an interview with 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl, Gore discussed the fact that some prominent leaders do not believe Global Warming is Manmade.
"You're talking about Dick Cheney. I think that those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view, they’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat,” says Gore. "That demeans them a little bit, but it's not that far off," he tells Stahl.

Gore’s campaign to make the world more aware of man’s role in global warming won him the Nobel Peace Prize last year. He donated the $750,000 prize money to The Alliance for Climate Protection, the non-profit he started to help him on his quest. He and his wife, Tipper, tell Stahl they not only matched the Nobel money with their own, but they are also donating to the organization the significant profits from his book and Oscar-winning documentary film about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth." The funds will help The Alliance for Climate Protection execute a new $300 million ad campaign on global warming set to start next week.

Some of the ads will feature unlikely alliances to drive home the message that people of all stripes are concerned about global warming. These include the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Pat Robertson, Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks, and Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich. Do any of these seem UNLIKELY to you? B/c they are pretty dead on as far as I'm concerned. Maybe no so much Robertson, but the rest I'm ok with.

Nu-cool attacked by TSA.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.
"I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin said at a news conference. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way."

Hamlin, 37, said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.

The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.

Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The women then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewelry, Hamlin said.
Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked whether she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was out, she said.

She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring.
"Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her," said Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred, reading from a letter she sent Thursday to the director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties.

Hamlin said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring.

"After nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing, and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove," Allred said in the letter.

Hamlin filed a complaint, but the TSA's customer service manager at the Lubbock airport concluded the screening was handled properly, Allred said.
Allred said she might consider legal action if the TSA does not apologize.

This is gross. First, no one wants to think of their mom with tit rings. But really, really? Why should she have to take them out? It's just sad how far we'll go to pretetnd that our flights are safe. These are NOT the things we should be focusing on. AT ALL.

Rice hits U.S. 'birth defect'

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national "birth defect" that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country's very founding.

"Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding."

As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that."
"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today," she said.

Race has become an issue in this year's presidential campaign, which prompted a much-discussed speech last week by Sen. Barack Obama, one of the two remaining contenders for the Democratic nomination.

Miss Rice declined to comment on the campaign, saying only that it was "important" that Mr. Obama "gave it for a whole host of reasons."

But she spoke forcefully on the subject, citing personal and family experience to illustrate "a paradox and contradiction in this country," which "we still haven't resolved."

On the one hand, she said, race in the U.S. "continues to have effects" on public discussions and "the deepest thoughts that people hold." On the other, "enormous progress" has been made, which allowed her to become the nation's chief diplomat.

sticky note quote of the day.

although we have the illusion of receiving high-resolution images from our eyes, what the optic nerve actually sends to the brain is just outlines and clues about points of interest in our visual field. We then essentially hallucinate the world from cortical memories that interpret a series of extremely low-resolution movies that arrive in parallel channels.

Man's 'crack cocaine' was made of peanuts, police say

A Charleston man was arrested for allegedly possessing imitation crack cocaine made of peanuts, police said.

A Charleston patrolman was patrolling the 200 block of Daniel Boone Drive Tuesday night about 9 p.m. when an intoxicated male was spotted, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha Magistrate Court.

The man was identified as James Lynn Lacy, 33, of Washington Street West.

Lacy had slurred speech and admitted he had been drinking beer and that he was "f----- up," the complaint said.

He was placed under arrest and then searched.

Lacy was found to have in his possession two bags of imitation crack cocaine, the complaint said.

The suspected drug did not test positive for cocaine base and Lacy said the bags contained half grams of peanuts, the complaint said.

The peanuts were also cut into chunks to make it appear more like crack, the complaint said.

Lacy is charged with public intoxication and creation and possession of an imitation controlled substance.
sucks. to buy fake crack, and then get arrested for it.

Kate Moss Dances on Jim Morrison’s Grave

Little Miss I love ya but....really?

Kate Moss was cautioned by police for dancing on the grave of Doors frontman
Jim Morrison.

The supermodel and her rocker lover Jamie Hince visited the music legend's
resting place and decided to pay homage to him by belting out his 1967 track
"Alabama Song."

However, security guards - who had allowed the couple to visit the shrine
after it closed - were not impressed and told them to calm down.

Earlier this week, it was revealed Kate had been banned from performing with
Jamie's band. [the kills]

The British beauty - who regularly duetted with ex-lover Pete Doherty - has
joined Jamie on his current tour and begged the guitarist to let her go on
stage.
However, his bandmate Alison Mosshart is adamant it won't happen.

A source said: "Alison has told Kate to keep her boundaries and keep away
from the microphone. Alison and Jamie have worked for years to make a name
for themselves and have only recently had the success she thinks they
deserve.

Newsweek is rocking it right now!

Shifa al-Qudsi, recently finished serving a six-year sentence in an Israeli prison for planning to carry out a suicide bombing. Back in 2002 the Palestinian had been fitted with an explosive belt by Fatah's Al Aqsa military brigade but was arrested shortly before carrying out her deadly mission. Since then al-Qudsi, now 30, has undergone a radical change of heart and today insists that a solution can be achieved only through dialogue. NEWSWEEK's Joanna Chen met with al-Qudsi at her family home in the West Bank town of Tulkarem and heard why violence isn't an option and life is worth living after all. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What made you want to blow yourself and other people up six years ago?
I was motivated by all the suffering that was going on around me, and at the time it seemed the right thing to do. Palestinians were getting killed inside their own homes, farmers were unable to work on their own lands, innocent children were being oppressed. All of this created an atmosphere of violence.

What did those years in prison do to you?
It was very difficult for me. I sat there for a long time and came to the conclusion there must be an alternative to this path of death and violence. We have to find a better way to reach our objective.

Was there a certain moment when you realized that blowing people up might not be the right way?
I had the chance to read a lot while I was in jail. I read about Mahatma Gandhi and how he obtained his objective of peace without raising a weapon or throwing a stone. I tried to think of a way to do the same in my own country. I think words can express better the suffering of Palestinian prisoners and the wish for peace between two peoples. I don't need to blast my body to bits and kill other people. Today I believe that words are more powerful than weapons.

Even between enemies?
The reality has already been imposed on us. We can't start talking about getting back historical Palestine, and I'm resigned to the fact that there are two nations who can live on this land. There should be peace and quiet not just for the Israelis but for the Palestinians.

What would you say to people who still think that attacks are the way to go?
Many people before me carried out suicide attacks and others will continue to do so if the situation doesn't improve. However, I tell them now: enough. We have created a lot of problems and a lot of destruction on both sides, and the time has come for us to engage in dialogue.

Would you say that to your brother, who's serving 18 years in an Israeli jail for an attempted suicide bombing?
My youngest brother is in jail because he was caught inside Israel wearing a suicide belt. He was only 15 and a half. I consider this blackmail and exploitation of my brother. He was too young to have been able to make this decision on his own, and so I consider what happened to him a crime from our own side. He should never have been exploited this way. When I decided to blow myself up I was convinced this was right and I was old enough to make my own decision, but not my brother.

Your daughter was just seven when you were sent to prison. How did you explain your willingness for her to grow up without a mother?
We've talked about it a lot. She blamed me for leaving her, although I tried to explain to her that I had bigger issues to deal with. I don't want to say that I regret my former mission, but at the same time I know I should have thought of my daughter more and should have made her [my] priority. What will make an impact is not a suicide belt that I strap to myself but education. A bomb only creates casualties and more violence. If I can equip my daughter with education, that will make a change.

What do you tell your daughter today about Israelis?
The most important message for my daughter is that Israelis are not all carriers of weapons and not all of them want to kill Palestinians. There is a big sector that wants peace.

What are your plans for the future?
The day after I came out of prison I went to register [at] university. I feel like there's no time to waste, and my objective is to study and to be able to give my daughter and other children a better future through education.

Do you think that's going to be possible?
I say it in three languages: yes, ken and aywa. I want to talk, to tell people that I did time in an Israeli jail and learned Hebrew and communicated with a lot of Israelis. I want to continue this communication and also to carry the voice of 11,000 Palestinian prisoners to the world.

Do you think your change of heart reflects a change in the Palestinian people?
I think my position reflects the desire of the Palestinian people for peace. People are tired. They want to live. And they really want peace but are struggling in order to make the world understand.

If you could speak to the Palestinian and Israeli leadership, what would you say?
My message to both is peace. We need to engage in real dialogue. Everybody needs to come down from the tree and to enter into a solid, realistic negotiation. This is the only way.

we are a nation of fat asses. for real.

You can add Easter to the list of holidays on which Americans are willing to abandon their low-sugar and low-carb diets. In fact, spending on Easter candy increased 5.6 percent between 2006 and 2007. Easter typically ranks as the holiday with the second-highest spending on candy, right behind Halloween. NOT all treats are equal when it comes to nutrition. Here's where eight of the most popular Easter candies land on the calorie scale. They range from a demure 130 to a whopping 1,050 calories.

1. Peeps. A few of these fluffy, sugar-filled treats can add up quickly. Go through a row of four bunnies and you're at 130 calories. Peeps are fat-free but do weigh in heavy on the carb count--each little rabbit has 8 grams of sugar alone, adding up to 32 grams in a serving of four.

2. Jelly Beans. These can be your worst foe or your best friend in the Easter basket, depending on how many you eat. Each individual bean is pretty low in calorie count, with usually around 5 or 6 calories, but munching through a handful or worse, an entire bagful, of Jelly Bellys adds up quickly. The recommended 35-bean serving comes in at 140 calories from 37 grams of sugar.

3. Cadbury Chocolate Eggs. These eggs may look tiny, but their calorie count is anything but. A handful of 12 eggs comes with 190 calories and 8 grams of fat. You might want to skip over these high-cal eggs if you come across them on the hunt.

4. Cadbury Creme Egg. It's possibly the quintessential Easter treat, but most people won't be surprised to find out that the creamy egg packs in the calories. The 1.2-ounce egg comes with 150 calories, 5 grams of fat and 25 grams of carbs.

5. Reese's Peanut Butter Egg. This egg slightly edges out its creme-filled rival in the unhealthy Easter-egg competition. All three varieties of the Reese's egg--milk chocolate, fudge and white chocolate--have a calorie count of 180. The fat content weighs in around 10 grams, double that of the Cadbury Creme Egg, with the white-chocolate egg the worst, at 11 grams. (a reg. reese's has half these #s, thus it's sub-par taste when compared with the delightful eggs.)

6. Lindt Chocolate Carrots. In a sea of eggs and bunnies, chocolate carrots are one of the more unusual Easter candy options--Lindt only started offering them seven years ago. Sadly, they have little nutritional value in common with their vegetable counterparts: a box of four carrot-shaped chocolates has 210 calories.

7. Hershey's Hollow Milk Chocolate Egg. This might come as the biggest surprise: one hollow Hershey's egg (4.65 ounces) has more than three times as many calories as the Cadbury Creme Egg. The shell alone has 570 calories. Start munching on the four Hershey's kisses included inside and you're up to a whooping 660 calories and 41 grams of fat. This may be one of the few Easter offerings that makes a Reese's Peanut Butter Egg look like health food.

8. Large Chocolate Bunny. Not surprisingly, the bunny reigns as king when it comes to Easter calories. But the calorie count may still raise a few eyebrows: the average seven-ounce rabbit clocks an impressive 1,050 calories. Smaller bunnies are better--rabbits of the one-ounce variety only rack up 140 calories.

also, the history of rock and roll in PEEPS!

Asylum's Renaming Insults Advocates

WESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- It's an intriguing and provocative name that translates to Web hits, phone calls and tour tickets: the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.

To some, the title acknowledges history by readopting one of the many names previously held by the long-vacant, 19th century mental institution known most recently as Weston Hospital.

But others say the new owners of the massive Gothic Revival hospital have gone too far, disparaging the suffering of former patients and reopening wounds with planned events like "Psyco Path" dirt bike races on the grounds.

They say words like "lunatic" and "retarded" have gone the way of "colored" and "Negro" - and should never be resurrected.

"It's like turning back the clock to a time we don't want to go back to," said Ann McDaniel, executive director of the Statewide Independent Living Council, one of several mental health advocacy groups to object. "I think they could still do what they want to do without being offensive."

Scott Miller, director of Mountain State Direct Action Center, said one former patient burst into tears after seeing the name on a sign.
"It's not just that I'm a liberal and I think it's not a good idea; it's seeing people physically hurt," he said. "That's about all I needed to know."

Rebecca Jordan, whose family owns the 307-acre complex, sees things differently.
"This part of history is vital, and you cannot bury what you don't like," she said. "Should we take down the Holocaust museum? Should we completely deny all that happened because it's not favorable? Because it might hurt a few feelings?"

The daily tours that began last week - which cost $10 to $30, depending on duration - focus on issues such as the evolution of mental health care, the Civil War, the Great Depression, even architecture.

"Not one person who has gone through this place and taken the tour has said that one thing was offensive," Jordan said. "It's not a freak show."

Poll: Divisive Dem Contest Could Boost McCain

(CNSNews.com) -The lengthy Democratic primary contest bodes well for Republican chances of holding the White House, a new poll suggests.

As Democratic Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York slug it out for the nomination, many of their supporters -- at least in Pennsylvania, site of the next major primary -- aren't committed to the party's ticket in November, according to a Franklin & Marshall College Poll.

Among Obama supporters, 20 percent said they would vote for Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee, if Clinton beats their candidate for the nomination. Among Clinton supporters, 19 percent said they would support McCain in November if Obama is the Democratic nominee. (See poll)

The significant number of potential defectors underscores how divisive the Democratic primary has been.

Survey finds Chinese names can reflect social themes

BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Average citizens are reflecting current themes in their newborns' names, a recent survey of Chinese names finds.

For example, 23 people surnamed He gave their children the name Xie: together, the characters mean "harmony." Another 144 people with various surnames gave children the name He Xie separately as a given name. A given name in China can be one or more characters.

The statistics were quoted from the Ministry of Public Security (MOPS) by China News Service on Monday, which said that 70 percent of the 144 names were given after the concept of "building a harmonious society" was put forward.

The hot issues during the annual sessions of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) and the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have also become popular with ordinary Chinese when giving names.

The survey showed that 2,133 names include the phrase "She Bao"(social security), while another 2,041 mention "Jiao Yu" (education), 411 "Min Yi"(public opinion) and 147 "Ze Ren" (responsibility).

Also, 6,623 Chinese have a name that includes the phrase "Min Zhu"(democracy).

Another 3,500 people bear the names of "Ao Yun" (Olympics) and 1,917 Chinese have names using "Fu Wa" (the Olympics mascot), according to the statistics.

Couple spark 999 alert over piece of bread

A couple who went to feed ducks sparked a six-hour underwater search after reports a baby had been thrown into the canal - only for a fire crew to find it was bread.
Police were called to the canal in Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester after nearby mill workers reported a bag had been thrown into the water, prompting fears it contained a baby.

The workers, from medical equipment company MediProp, called 999 after they spotted a man park his car by the edge of the water, get out and throw the carrier bag in.

The specialist search ended when fire crews recovered the bag from the canal bed and found it contained bread, which Sajid Muhammad and his wife had taken to feed the ducks, but accidentally dropped.

Mr Muhammad, 33, of Ashton-under-Lyne, said: "We often do it because it's better than throwing the bread away.

"We got a shock when the police turned up because it was such an awful thing to think about."

A police spokesman said: "It was a misunderstanding, but the member of the public who reported it did the right thing."

MediProp's Jonathan Carter said: "We didn't say anything to suggest a baby had been thrown into the canal. One of my staff saw something chucked, and because of the circumstances thought it was suspicious.
"The police were alerted and suddenly there were people everywhere."

Stick em where the sun don't shine.

A MUM-OF-THREE was caught twice over the drink-drive limit while she had two young children in the back of her car.
And when Jennifer Lowery, 38, was nabbed by police she hid her car keys in an intimate place in a bid to convince police she had not been driving.

But a strip search at a police station exposed her lie and yesterday she admitted drink driving – the second time she has been caught over the limit.
Lowery had two children in the car with her when she drove on January 12, Peterlee magistrates heard.

Police were alerted to the fact she had been drinking prior to getting behind the wheel following a tip-off from her step-daughter, though she had parked the car up when officers approahed her near her home in Stafford Place, Peterlee.

Although she was in the vicinity of her Peugeot car when she was confronted by police, she claimed she had not been behind the wheel.

Prosecutor Debra Jones said: "Officers approached her and asked whether she had driven the vehicle. She disputed that, but was intoxicated.
"When asked to provide a road side test she became verbally abusive, using foul language."
The court heard Lowery was warned that she would be arrested if she continued to swear in front of two young children.

"She was asked to produce the keys and disputes she had driven the vehicle and was searched," added Mrs Jones.
She said this was followed by an "intimate search", which she also called a "strip search".

Mrs Jones said that although Lowery maintained she had not been driving, she admitted she had hidden the keys because a friend had told her you could not be charged without the keys.

Attorney: Spitzer escort was 17 in 'Wild' videos

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A lawyer for the call girl linked to former New York Gov. Eliot Sptizer said the woman was only 17 when filmed for "Girls Gone Wild" videos in 2003.
The Internet video release of "Girls Gone Wild" footage featuring Ashley Dupre has been delayed.

"Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis also rescinded a $1 million offer to Dupre, now 22, for a new video after the company on Tuesday discovered it had footage of Dupre in its archives. [7 tapes worth.]

In an e-mail to one of Francis' publicists -- forwarded by Buchwald to the AP -- the attorney said he was "informed by Ashley that the video was in fact taken when she was underage (that is 17)."
Buchwald added in the e-mail that Francis was aware of Dupre's age during the filming.

Francis said he bought Dupre a Greyhound bus ticket back home to North Carolina in 2003. Dupre returned home after she spent a week on the "Girls Gone Wild" bus in Miami and filmed seven full-length tapes, which included nudity, after signing legal papers, the company said.

"It was because she was underage that he sent her home on a Greyhound bus back to North Carolina. It would be outrageous at the very least to play the video of an underage female on the Internet," Buchwald said in the e-mail.

Francis said all nude images of Dupre were taken in public places and contain no sexual contact. ( :*( )

"It's kind of like finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch," Francis told the AP -- before he saw the e-mail from Dupre's attorney.

Nashuan questions McCain’s eligibility

CONCORD – Weeks after a similar case was filed in California, a Nashua man has asked the federal court to rule that Sen. John McCain can’t be president because he was born out of bounds.

Fred Hollander, of 56 Dorchester Way, filed suit against the Arizona senator and the Republican National Committee, arguing he and other Republican voters would be “disenfranchised” if McCain becomes the party’s nominee for president.

Hollander could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. His suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, asks a judge to order McCain to withdraw, and the GOP to nominate someone else.

A lawyer in Riverside, Calif., filed a similar suit in California’s Central District U.S. District Court on March 6, court records show. That case asks only for a “declaratory judgment” on whether McCain would be eligible to serve as president if elected.

Notice of Hollander’s suit was mailed out Monday to McCain and the Republican National Committee, court records show.
At issue is Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States, which states that “No person except a natural born Citizen . . . shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

That provision is what prevents naturalized citizens – California Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger, for example – from being eligible to become president. Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, persons born in the United States, on the other hand, are deemed citizens, even if their parents are illegal immigrants.

McCain was born Aug. 29, 1936, at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station, a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal Zone. His parents both were U.S. citizens; his father was a U.S. Naval officer.

The Panama Canal Zone was not U.S. territory, however, and Hollander argues McCain is therefore technically a naturalized citizen and “unequivocally ineligible” to serve as president.
If that is the case, Hollander argues, any votes cast for McCain effectively don’t count.

“While the plaintiff respects Senator John McCain’s lifetime of service to our country, it is nonetheless irrelevant to this issue now before this Court,” Hollander’s suit states. “Plaintiff also concedes the unfortunate irony that a person born outside of the United States, because his father was serving our country as a member of the U.S. Navy, should be found ineligible for the Office of President. However, should an exception be made for persons born to parents serving in our armed forces, we would start down a dangerous and slippery slope.”

“The United States Constitution does not make any such exceptions . . . and it is fair to assume that the lack of exceptions was intentional and by sound reason,” he wrote.
“It’s nonsense . . . .The idea that he would not be eligible for the presidency of the United States is certainly not something our founding fathers envisioned, and is an affront to the men and women serving our country abroad,” campaign spokesperson Cheryl Benton said.

“This issue was raised in 2000 and deemed ridiculous.”
New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen declined to comment on the merits of Hollander’s arguments, but said, “We appreciate Mr. Hollander reminding voters that Senator McCain’s family has been in service to this nation since literally the day John McCain was born.”

The “natural born” question has surfaced before, but has never been decided definitively by U.S. courts. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican nominee for President, was born in Arizona three years before it became a state, but lost the general election to Lyndon Johnson.

George Romney, father of former McCain rival Mitt Romney, ran for President in 1968, despite having been born in Mexico, but Richard Nixon got the party’s nomination.

Oh Happy Day

Marsha wrote on your Wall:

"I saw Jay Severin on the news with Big Mouth Imus. Thought of you. Glad you are not part of their world.

Love"

Thanks Mom, ME TOO! :)

Texas Woman Sues American Airlines After Flight Turns X-Rated

Harris County, Texas, native Centava Dozier, 21, filed a $200,000 lawsuit Monday against American Airlines, alleging that a passenger masturbated in the seat next to her and then ejaculated on her hair.

Dozier was on her way to visit family and friends in L.A., MyFOXHouston reports.

The suit claims Dozier was sitting in an empty row when the plane took off, and then fell asleep. When she woke up, she says she found a substance in her hair and a man masturbating in the seat next to her.

Dozier claims that when she asked the flight attendants for help, and requested the man be removed and taken back to his assigned seat, the staff did nothing.

American Airlines officials maintain that appropriate action was taken and the man was arrested when the plane landed.

How a German wartime flying ace discovered he shot down his hero

A German fighter ace has just learned that one of his 28 wartime 'kills' was his favourite author.

Messerschmidt pilot Horst Rippert, 88, said he would have held his fire if he had known the man flying the Lightning fighter was renowned French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

The fliers clashed in the skies over southern France in July 1944.
"He was below me," said Rippert. "I saw his markings, manoeuvred myself behind him and shot him down.

"If I had known it was Saint-Exupery, I would never have shot him down. I loved his books.

"I knew he was a French pilot, but he was probably my favourite author at the time."

Rippert gunned down 28 Allied planes during the war and found out about Saint-Exupery only from a historian who is writing the author's biography.

"I am shocked and sorry," the ex-Luftwaffe pilot said yesterday. "Who knows what other great books he would have gone on to write?"

fuck this day. calming mantra.

Om
vande gurunam caranaravinde
sandarshita svatma sukha va bodhe
nih sreyase jangalika yamane
samsara halahala mohasahantyai

abahu purushakaram
shankacakrasi dharinam
sahasra shirasam svetam
pranamami Patanjalim
Om

English:
I pray to the lotus feet
of the supreme Guru
who teaches the good knowledge,
showing the way
to knowing the selfawakening great happiness;
who is the doctor of the jungle,
able to remove the poison
of the ignorance of conditioned existence.

To Patanjali, an incarnation of Adisesa,
white in color with 1000 radiant heads
(in his form as the divine serpent, Ananta),
human in torm below the shoulders
holding a sword
(discrimination),
a wheel of fire
(discus of light, representing infinite time),
and a conch
(divine sound)
- to him, I prostrate.

School clears kids in contraband candy caper

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) -- School officials have decided to go light on an eighth-grader caught with contraband candy in New Haven, Connecticut.

Michael Sheridan originally was suspended and loss his class vice president post after buying a bag of candy.

Michael Sheridan, an eighth-grade honors student who was suspended for a day, barred from attending an honors dinner and stripped of his title as class vice president after he was caught with a bag of Skittles candy in school will get his student council post back, school officials said.

Superintendent Reginald Mayo said in a statement late Wednesday that he and principal Eleanor Turner met with student Michael's parents and that Turner decided to clear the boy's record and restore him to his student council post.

Michael was disciplined after he was caught buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate. The classmate's suspension also will be expunged, school officials said. The New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a districtwide school wellness policy, school spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo said.

"I am sorry this has happened," Turner said in a statement. "My hope is that we can get back to the normal school routine, especially since we are in the middle of taking the Connecticut mastery test."

Turner said she should have reinforced in writing the verbal warnings against candy transactions.

Michael had said that he didn't realize his candy purchase was against the rules, but he did notice that the student selling the Skittles on February 26 was being secretive.

'Fight club' busted at Fairview High School

A group of Fairview High School students is suspected of organizing an after-school "fight club" that involved at least 12 students and as many as 60 spectators.

Boulder police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said Thursday that 10 Fairview students, all boys, have been ticketed on suspicion of public brawling. Police think they were part of a club of friends that regularly met near the South Boulder Recreation Center for public "street fighting."

"Apparently, they were gathering in the field after school hours ... where they were engaging in fights," Huntley said. "They see this as sort of a recreational, spectator-type sport where they just wanted to go out and fight."

Huntley said police started receiving calls about the fights in February but were never able to catch anyone in the act -- until a female Fairview teacher broke up one of the fights March 6, which resulted in two teens being ticketed.

"First and foremost, we're concerned about injuries to kids," Huntley said. "This was not supervised wrestling or boxing. ... This was basically street-fighting for fun."

All of the boys allegedly connected to the club range in age from 15 to 17, Huntley said. Their names are being withheld because they are minors, she said.
Boulder Valley School District spokesman Briggs Gamblin said school officials are working with police to investigate the club, which he said violates district policies against fighting even though the brawls took place off school property.

"The administrators are working to figure out who's involved and how to stop it," Gamblin said. "The feeling is there's several others they need to find."

Fairview Principal Donald Stensrud said he has taken some disciplinary actions against the students who have been cited, but he did not disclose details because of confidentiality rules. He said suspensions are a possibility.
"It's a blood sport," Stensrud said. "It is so antithetical to what we want our young men and women to do, and what we teach them to do."

The two Fairview students ticketed for the March 6 fight have Boulder Municipal Court appearances scheduled Tuesday. The other eight cited so far are due to appear in court March 25.
The citations carry a fine of up to $1,000 and a maximum of 90 days in jail.
The spectators did not break any laws by watching the fights, according to police.

OMG! I JUST DID THE GOVERNOR!

The high-priced hooker at the center of Gov. Spitzer's sex scandal trysted with him several times before he was caught on a wiretap - but it was only during their last encounter that she realized the real identity of her john, sources said yesterday.

"Oh, my God! Do you know who this guy is?" a shocked Ashley Alexandra Dupre asked her bosses at the Emperors Club VIP escort service, a source said.
The comment came after her $4,300 meeting with Spitzer at a Washington hotel on Feb. 13.

The 22-year-old call girl had several dates with the governor over the past year, the sources said, but always knew him as "George Fox" - the name of one of Spitzer's close friends that he used to hide his identity.

But just before Dupre - whom Spitzer knew as "Kristen" - had her startling revelation, federal authorities caught the governor on tape giving them enough evidence to take down the sex ring, paving the way for his embarrassing resignation.

Meanwhile, as the Democratic governor prepared to slink out of office on Monday with his tail between his legs, sordid details of Dupre's decline into prostitution emerged.
Sources say Dupre got involved with the Emperors Club as early as 2006 after responding to an ad from the agency seeking girls to "party" with deep-pocketed men.
After meeting with her, the escort service's operators liked what they saw. She took to the job quickly.

"Like all of them, she wanted to hang out with guys with money," a source said.
After moving to New York to pursue a music career in 2004, Dupre worked as a cocktail waitress, hostess and bartender at New York hot spots like Viscaya, Pink Elephant and Retox. She partied with club promoters and bragged about hobnobbing with hip-hoppers like Sean "Diddy" Combs.

"Nobody knew she was a prostitute," the club source said. "Everyone assumes it goes on, but you never know which girls are involved. Now it makes sense where her Cartier watch, her Louis Vuitton bathing suit and her trips to St.-Tropez came from."

Dupre continued her pursuit of a music career and in early 2007 had a photographer friend shoot glamour photos of her to use in her portfolio.

Born Ashley Youmans, Dupre grew up in Seaside Heights and Wall Township by the Jersey Shore. She also mentioned being abused while growing up, saying it forced her to run away - a claim one family friend called ridiculous.

"She crashed up [her stepdad's] Porsche and wanted another one, and he wouldn't give it to her, so she left," said the friend, who asked her name not be printed.

Bullets Fly On I-4 During Gun Battle Between Moving Cars

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A motorist driving on Interstate 4 was shot in the abdomen early Friday during a gun battle between moving cars on the busy roadway.

Orlando police said a fight apparently broke out between several men outside of a downtown Orlando nightclub Friday.
The participants in the fight left the downtown area in two vehicles and began to travel eastbound on I-4, police said.

A shootout ensued between the vehicles near Parr and Lee Road, Local 6's Tiffany Tift reported.

Officers said the driver of a white Cadillac was shot in the abdomen during the shooting.
Someone else inside the car jumped into victim's seat and was able to drive the victim to a Florida Hospital in Altamonte Springs.

The man, who was not identified, is expected to survive, officials told Local 6.

GOV'S HOOKER CAN BARE ALL - for free!

When she details her romp to the panel - which could slam Spitzer with a slew of criminal charges - pretty young escort Ashley Alexandra Dupre is expected to hold nothing back, because she is almost certain to be granted immunity against prosecution for her own sex crimes.

"I have no reason to believe she is going to be charged," Dupre's high-powered criminal-defense lawyer, Don Buchwald, said yesterday.

Spitzer faces the possibility of being indicted not only for violating the Mann Act - which prohibits sending women across state lines for "immoral" purposes - but also for money laundering because he paid the pimps who ran the club.

Details emerged of how Dupre was granted a court-appointed lawyer - despite the fact that her hourly rate at least equals that of a private attorney.
Dupre, 22, was hired out by Emperors at the sky-high hourly rate and lives in a studio apartment in a doorman building in the Flatiron District that rents for nearly $4,000 per month.

But on Monday, she filed a financial affidavit in Manhattan federal court seeking a free lawyer - and it was granted.
Mary Mulligan, the private lawyer who was on call that day, was ruled ineligible because she is already representing Tanya Hollander, another Emperors Club defendant.

Gates Predicts Big Technological Leaps

WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Thursday he expects the next decade to bring even greater technological leaps than the past 10 years.

In a speech to the Northern Virginia Technology Council, Gates speculated that some of the most important advances will come in the ways people interact with computers: speech-recognition technology, tablets that will recognize handwriting and touch-screen surfaces that will integrate a wide variety of information.

"I don't see anything that will stop the rapid advance," Gates said, noting that technological change driven by academia and corporate researchers continued even after the Internet stock bubble burst in 2000.

Gates also said the coming years will bring rapid changes in media as television increasingly becomes a targeted medium, where viewers can select niche content for news, sports and entertainment.
"TV will be based on the Internet; it will be an utterly different thing," he said.

Gates' speech came after he testified to Congress on Wednesday advocating greater investment in math and science education and more relaxed immigration rules that would allow foreigners who obtain college degrees in the United States to work here after graduation.
Current policy, he said, forces many bright, capable students to return to their native countries after the U.S. has invested in their education.

Gates said Thursday he was optimistic that policy makers would make the right decisions about investing in technology and human capital, though he acknowledged that such investments don't pay off immediately.

"Historically the United States has done a fantastic job of making the right investments," he said. "I think other countries, having seen that, are starting to duplicate those elements."

Moonves: 'American Idol' a 'monster'

With CBS close to losing the total viewers race for the first time in five years, CEO Leslie Moonves called Fox's ratings hit "American Idol" a "monster" and urged somebody to "kill that show."

"While we're in repeats, 'American Idol' continues to be a monster," Moonves said Thursday at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit in New York City. "It's a phenomenon. If somebody would kill that show, I'd really appreciate it. But it's a national phenomenon, and it continues to do extremely well. It's tough to compete with it."

Fox has won the past three broadcast seasons among the adults 18-49 demographic and is expected to win this season as well. CBS has many crime procedurals popular with older audiences and has won among total viewers the past six seasons.

But after the writers strike gutted networks that rely heavily on scripted programming, Fox's reality-driven slate with such shows as "Idol" and "The Moment of Truth" has outpaced competitors this season by a wider margin than ever. A couple weeks ago, Fox surpassed CBS among total viewers. Fox currently averages about 11.5 million to CBS' 10.6, ABC's 9.4, NBC's 8.5 and the CW's 2.6.

Even with CBS' scripted programming retuning to the air in the coming weeks, Fox's first-place position is expected to hold through the conclusion of the May sweep.

Moonves acknowledged CBS wasn't going to be able to overtake its rival.
"Yeah, we'll finish No. 2," he said.

GROSS. our national culture = trash.

Right now, feds might be looking into your finances: Banks tip off government to possible money laundering, fraud

WASHINGTON — Each year, federal agents peek at the financial transactions of millions of Americans — without their knowledge.

As concerns about fraud and terrorist financing grow, an increasing number of suspicious deposits, withdrawals and money transfers are being reported by banks and others to the federal government. Banks and credit unions as well as currency dealers and stores that cash checks reported a record 17.6 million transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 2006, according to a report from the network, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department.

"I don't think Americans understand that their financial transactions are being reported and routinely examined," said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Teams of agents from the FBI, IRS, Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies regularly review newly filed financial reports and launch investigations. Federal and local authorities search the database to find information about people that can help ongoing probes. Treasury Department analysts study the reports to detect trends in fraud and issue reports alerting financial institutions.

"The government has access to untold volumes of records and can draw all sorts of conclusions about us, and many are going to be wrong," Steinhardt said.

Bankers disagree. "For the typical bank customer, this means very little because there's nothing they're doing that's likely to be viewed as out of the ordinary," said Richard Riese, head of regulatory compliance for the American Bankers Association.
The reporting system dates to the early 1970s when federal agents sought to pinpoint drug dealers by looking for people making large cash deposits.

Far more controversial are secret "suspicious activity reports" filed by financial institutions and reviewed by teams of agents spread around the country. The investigation of Spitzer began when a bank spotted potentially suspicious transfers from several accounts and filed reports with the IRS, according to a federal official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official did not want his name used because he's not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

The number of suspicious activity reports soared from 413,000 in 2003 to 1 million in 2006, according to the enforcement network.

Obama vs. Clinton: They Meet Again

ABC News' Ed O'Keefe Reports: The dueling Democrats contending for the party's crown will debate again.
Taking the stage for the 21st and possibly 22nd time, Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., could debate at least twice more before the critical Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday, April 22.

Both candidates have accepted an ABC News debate in Philadelphia and Obama has accepted a similar invitation from CBS News to debate at a location to be determined in North Carolina.
The CBS News debate would be their first debate of the 2008 campaign season.

ABC News hosted two debates in January -- only two days after the Iowa caucuses and three days before the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary.
In partnership with Facebook and New Hampshire affiliate WMUR, ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson moderated back-to-back Republican and Democratic debates, at that time featuring six GOP contenders and four Dems including Obama, Clinton, former senator John Edwards, D-N.C., and Governor Bill Richardson, D-N.M.

seriously, one of you needs to back the f-off. It's getting ridiculous! (im talkin to you, little guy, i dont care if youre winning and all, i just like you less)

a few hours later...JPMorgan, New York Fed Agree to Fund Bear Stearns

March 14 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the New York Federal Reserve agreed to provide funding to Bear Stearns Cos. as the securities firm said its cash position has ``significantly deteriorated.''

The New York Fed will ``provide non-recourse, back-to- back'' financing for up to 28 days, JPMorgan said in a statement today. Bear Stearns fell $2.67, or 4.7 percent, to $54.33 at 9:37 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares are down almost 40 percent this year.

``Bear Stearns has been the subject of a multitude of market rumors regarding our liquidity,'' Chief Executive Officer Alan Schwartz said today in a separate statement. ``We have tried to confront and dispel these rumors and parse fact from fiction. Nevertheless, amidst this market chatter, our liquidity position in the last 24 hours had significantly deteriorated.''

Bear Stearns had denied this week that it faced a cash shortage, saying the company's ``liquidity cushion'' is sufficient to weather the credit-market contraction.

Despite the Federal Reserve's efforts Wall Street fears a big US bank is in trouble

Global stock markets may have cheered the US Federal Reserve yesterday, but on Wall Street the Fed's unprecedented move to pump $280 billion (£140 billion) into global markets was seen as a sure sign that at least one financial institution was struggling to survive.

The name on most people's lips was Bear Stearns. Although the Fed billed the co-ordinated rescue as a way of improving liquidity across financial markets, economists and analysts said that the decision appeared to be driven by an urgent need to stave off the collapse of an American bank.

“The only reason the Fed would do this is if they knew one or more of their primary dealers actually wasn't flush with cash and needed funds in a hurry,” Simon Maughan, an analyst with MF Global in London, said.

Mr Maughan said that the most likely victim was Bear Stearns, the first bank to run into trouble in the sub-prime crisis and the one that, among all wholesale and investment banks, is most reliant upon the use of mortgage securities for raising funds in the money markets.
“The average financial institution was up 7.5 per cent yesterday after the Fed's actions, but Bear Stearns rose just 1 per cent on massive trading volume,” Mr Maughan said. “The market is telling you it's Bear Stearns.”

Chris Whalen, of the financial consultancy Institutional Risk Analytics in New York, said: “The Fed move is confirmation that at least one of the banks is in trouble. A huge part of the banks' inventories are illiquid. If a broker-dealer is illiquid, it dies.”

Bankers say that mortgage lenders, such as Paragon, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, could also be teetering on the brink soon if they cannot raise enough money in the markets to continue to lend to customers. All the banks have denied that they are facing a cash crunch and each has said that its liquidity position is strong. Nonetheless, the speculation continues to mount. Alan Schwartz, the Bear Stearns chief executive, reiterated that stance yesterday after Punk Ziegel analysts gave warning that the bank could be forced to seek a merger partner.

Yet banking sources said yesterday that a collapse seemed inevitable. One senior banker in London said: “Someone will go under in this crisis, that's for sure. The question is whether they stay under or get rescued. Let's see whether this latest round of stabilisation helps, but if it doesn't, it's difficult to see what Plan B is. The Fed can't just keep on printing money.”

She said that the Fed's moves amounted to window-dressing. “All the signs of stress that were there before are still here,” she said.

Hansen: Centenarian celebrates with women, wings

John Persinger turned 100 Wednesday and did what few new centenarians do.
He celebrated at Hooters, the politically incorrect restaurant chain known for hot wings served by young women in hot pants.

Persinger is a widower, so his wife didn't mind. Truth is, Vi wouldn't have minded anyway.
"We opened the place in 1993," he says in a low, sandpaper rumble. "We went for the shrimp and chicken wings."
And they became regulars. They'd been married almost 72 years when Vi died at 89.

Persinger doesn't exactly fit the Hooters demographic, but so what? You don't hit the 100 mark by paying strict attention to convention.
He's different from most of the 40,000 centenarians in the United States. All but 6,000 are women.

"I don't know how I did it," he says. "Good living, I guess. A lot of good food. Steaks, fried potatoes. I sip a little Royal Crown now and then."
Don't get the wrong idea. He means Crown Royal.

Persinger tells me it's hard to beat his onion rings, chili, pancakes, meatballs and, of course, his famous fried mush.
"Fry till it gets brown," he says, "add syrup and butter. Oh, it's really good."
I'll wait for meatball day. At 120 pounds, Persinger doesn't weigh much more than a plate of meatballs.

He was sturdier in his prime, during World War II when he watched a Japanese kamikaze pilot carry out a suicide mission.
"I was the oldest sailor on the USS Nashville," he says. "They called me 'Pops.' "

On Dec. 13, 1944, the ship was a few miles from the Philippines when a single-engine fighter came crashing down, two bombs strapped to the wings.
The plane hit, the bombs exploded. Flames and bodies were everywhere.
"He came right over the trees and hit us behind the stacks," says Persinger, who escaped injury. "Killed 133 sailors and wounded 197. But he didn't sink us."

Not everybody thinks Hooters was such a perfect party location. Some, apparently, would have preferred Chuck E. Cheese's.
"One guy at the church said, 'Didn't you hear the message this morning about looking at girls and everything?' I told him I was going to Hooters to eat chicken wings."

It's the truth, but maybe not the whole truth. Persinger has been known to ask the women if they'd like a 100-year-old kiss.
Talking about it, the 100-year-old man lets out a 100-year-old laugh, which seems like a decent consolation prize.
for pic

Guns and fists as "snow rage" erupts

QUEBEC CITY, Quebec (Reuters) - Although Canada is one of the snowiest countries in the world, a series of violent "snow rage" incidents reveal that even the locals have their limits.

Recent Canadian winters have been mild but this one looks set to break all-time records for snow. One storm last weekend dumped 23 inches on the capital Ottawa and 19 inches on Quebec City, which has already received 210 inches this year.
Quebec City police said they had been called to a dozen violent disputes about snow from one property ending up on someone else's. The drifts outside some houses are 12 feet and higher.

Last Sunday, a man in an upscale Quebec City neighborhood became so upset a woman from a snow removal service was putting snow on his yard that he shouted at her and then took a shovel and hit the window of the vehicle she was driving.

"The woman apologized and returned to work ... a bit later the man opened his garage door and emerged with a shotgun, pointed it at the ground and looked at her in a threatening way," said police spokeswoman Catherine Viel.

Police arrested the man, who will be charged with negligent use of a firearm, and seized a total of 13 weapons from his home. Viel said snow-related fights were unusually common.
"It's happened particularly often this year ... you have to be used to snow if you live in Quebec but it's been a bit extreme this year. People are fed up," she said.

Support for war effort highest since 2006 REALLY? rEaLlY?

American public support for the military effort in Iraq has reached a high point unseen since the summer of 2006, a development that promises to reshape the political landscape.

According to late February polling conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 53 percent of Americans — a slim majority — now believe “the U.S. will ultimately succeed in achieving its goals” in Iraq. That figure is up from 42 percent in September 2007.

The percentage of those who believe the war in Iraq is going “very well” or “fairly well” is also up, from 30 percent in February 2007 to 48 percent today.

The situation in Iraq remains fluid, of course. A surge in violence or in troop deaths could lead to rapid fluctuations in public opinion. But as the war nears its fifth year, the steady upturn in the public mood stands to alter the dynamics of races up and down the ballot.

Support for war effort highest since 2006 REALLY? rEaLlY?

American public support for the military effort in Iraq has reached a high point unseen since the summer of 2006, a development that promises to reshape the political landscape.

According to late February polling conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 53 percent of Americans — a slim majority — now believe “the U.S. will ultimately succeed in achieving its goals” in Iraq. That figure is up from 42 percent in September 2007.

The percentage of those who believe the war in Iraq is going “very well” or “fairly well” is also up, from 30 percent in February 2007 to 48 percent today.

The situation in Iraq remains fluid, of course. A surge in violence or in troop deaths could lead to rapid fluctuations in public opinion. But as the war nears its fifth year, the steady upturn in the public mood stands to alter the dynamics of races up and down the ballot.

Happy Birthday, Chuck "Jesus" Norris!

The Globe compiled some legends about the guy.
here are my faves:

*Chuck Norris can hit you so hard that he can actually alter your DNA.
*Scientists have estimated that the energy given off during the Big Bang is roughly equal to 1CNRhK (Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick).
*When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
Another legend is that Chuck Norris sleeps with a night light. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.
*When Chuck Norris sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms and includes only a picture of himself, crouched and ready to attack. Chuck Norris has not had to pay taxes ever.
*Chuck Norris does not sleep.
He waits.
*If you spell "Chuck Norris" while playing Scrabble - you win. Forever.
*Chuck Norris once bet NASA he could survive reentry without a spacesuit. On July 19, 1999, a naked Chuck Norris reentered the earth's atmosphere, streaking over 14 states and reaching a temperature of 3,000 degrees.
An embarrassed NASA publicly claimed it was a meteor, and still owes him a beer.

for the rest...

best of craigslist > omaha > to the guy doing my wife

Originally Posted: Thu, 21 Feb 13:43 CST
to the guy doing my wife
Date: 2008-02-21, 1:43PM CST

To the guy doing my wife. You know who you are. Yes I know. No I am not angry, I would just ask a few things of you. After all you are giving it to my wife.

1.Please stop leaving the seat up, I keep getting blamed and it is starting to get old.
2.You may be giving me a chance to go fishing more often but please stop drinking all my beer. It is fine if you have a couple while you visit(god knows
I drink plenty before I find her attractive), but please leave me a few as I have to be there longer than you.
3.If you do drink the last one buy more or leave money on the counter I will pick some up.
4.Please replace the toilet paper when you use it all. For some reason my 5 year old son belives if its not there he does not have to wipe. We keep it under the sink, unless you can recomend a better spot?

5.After doing my wife please use something disposable to wipe off with. The basket of clothes on the right is mine and the clothes are clean as my wife does not do my washing, Irun out of time rushing to work. Last week my sweatshirt was crusty(thanks).
6.Please do not tell my children that you are their uncle, they are young not
mentaly challenged.
7.Please stop turning the heat up, You pay nothing and MUD is putting it in my ass, my wife may like it but I think it hurts.
8.When she asks "do these pants make me look fat", say no. You may think giving a different answer will make her think twice about eating a gallon of ice cream a day but all you are doing is giving her a reason to go buy more pants that she will look just as fat in.

9.Stop eating the baked goods. The brownies you ate were from my mom for my birthday. My wife has not cooked anything that good for years and if she does she will not share.
10.Try shifting your weight when you sit on my chair. The recliner that I rarely have time for (soccer games and practice, basketball camp for the kids takes much of my time and I try to help with school work too)has a grove in it that forces me to roll to the left.

Lastly I would like thank you for taking her to lunch on Valentines Day. She was not as hungry as usual and only orded one meal.I may be able to use the money I saved to take the children to a movie. I hope you can help me with these items, it may become ackward if I have to confront her. If you can do this for me I will give you a heads up on when I will be gone and for how long so that you don't feel rushed.

P.S. I am going to take the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge on the 3rd of April for four days, I have abottle of vodka above the fridge if you find yourself low on beer.

Thanks This was not writen by anyone named Jack S.

Fun animal trivia

The province of Alberta in Canada has been completely free of rats since 1905.
The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.
An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
A group of ravens is called a murder.
more...

Olympics clean-up Chinese style: Inside Beijing's shocking death camp for cats

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.

The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.

Cat owners, terrified by the disease warning, are dumping their pets in the streets to be picked up by special collection teams.

China's leaders are convinced that animals pose a serious urban health risk and may have contributed to the outbreak of SARS - a deadly respiratory virus - in 2003.

Other measures being taken to better Beijing for hte Olympics:
*Polluting factories in and around the city are being ordered to shut down or relocate during the Games - no smog here!
*Drivers are allowed out on to the roads only three times a week.
*Fares on the underground network have been cut six-fold to keep people off buses
*Hobos are being moved to out-of-town camps. Or given money to go elsewhere.
*Taxi drivers given lessons in how to greet passengers politely in English
*Courtesy Campaign: teach grumpy citizens how to smile + be pleasant to foreigners.

Inside the death camp:
"When we went inside, we saw about 70 cats being kept in cages stacked one on top of the other in two tiny rooms.

"Disease spreads quickly among them and they die slowly in agony and distress. The government won't even do the cats the kindness of giving them lethal injections when they become sick. They just wait for them to die.

"It is the abandoned pets that suffer the most and die the soonest. They relied so much on their owners that they can't cope with the new environment.

"Most refuse to eat or drink and get sick more quickly than the feral cats."
The killing of the six stray cats at the kindergarten - where staff at a Beijing cigarette factory leave their children - is the most striking illustration of the city-wide fear of cats.

A teacher at the nursery said: "We did it out of love for the children. We were worried the cats might harm them. These six cats had been hanging around the kindergarten looking for food.

"So three male teachers put out plates of tuna in cages for bait, trapped the cats and then beat them to death with sticks.

"We were very worried the children might try to stroke them and that the cats might scratch them or pass on diseases. We had to get rid of the cats and this was the only way to do it."

The Religious Right makes some sense.

NEW YORK (AP) -- In a major shift, a group of Southern Baptist leaders said their denomination has been "too timid" on environmental issues and has a biblical duty to stop global warming.

The declaration, signed by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention among others and released Monday, shows a growing urgency about climate change even within groups that once dismissed claims of an overheating planet as a liberal ruse. The conservative denomination has 16.3 million members and is the largest Protestant group in the U.S.

The leaders said that current evidence of global warming is "substantial," and that the threat is too grave to wait for perfect knowledge about whether, or how much, people contribute to the trend.

"We believe our current denominational resolutions and engagement with these issues have often been too timid," according to the statement. "Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed. We can do better."

No one speaks on behalf of all Southern Baptists, who leave decision-making to local churches. Yet, the signatories represent some of the top figures in the convention.

Among them are the denomination's president, the Rev. Frank Page of South Carolina; two former presidents, the Rev. James Merritt of Georgia and the Rev. Jack Graham of Texas; and the Rev. Ronnie Floyd of Arkansas, who helped conservatives solidify control of the denomination in the 1970s and 1980s.
James Dobson is cospicuously ABSENT from the list.


The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, backed by James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship ministries, among others, said that while conservation is important, some environmental concerns "are without foundation or greatly exaggerated." Last year, Dobson and other Christian conservatives unsuccessfully pressured the National Association of Evangelicals to silence Cizik on the issue.

The last Southern Baptist statement on global warming came at the denomination's 2007 annual meeting, which approved a statement questioning the belief that humans are largely to blame for climate change and warning that increased regulation of greenhouse gases will hurt the poor.

Recycle or go to Hell, warns Vatican

Failing to recycle plastic bags could find you spending eternity in Hell, the Vatican said after drawing up a list of seven deadly sins for our times.

The seven, which include polluting the environment, were announced by Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, a close ally of the Pope and the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the Roman Curia's main court.

The "sins of yesteryear" - sloth, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and pride - have a "rather individualistic dimension", he told the Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper.

The new seven deadly, or mortal, sins are designed to make worshippers realise that their vices have an effect on others as well.

"The sins of today have a social resonance as well as an individual one," said Mgr Girotti. "In effect, it is more important than ever to pay attention to your sins."

Mgr Girotti said genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty, becoming obscenely wealthy and taking drugs were all mortal sins.

'Modern-day Moses' faces jail for swindling churchgoers out of £3.2million

A "modern-day Moses" who fleeced churchgoers out of more than £3.2million faces jail today.

Lindani Mangena, 24, preyed on more than 1,000 worshippers in Seventh Day Adventist congregations across London to feed his appetite for fine living.
Mangena posed as a City trader to convince them to invest in a bogus spread-betting formula.

Southwark Crown Court heard that, along with two accomplices, he promised profits of up to 3,000 per cent in six months.
Many victims, including widows and pensioners, were forced to remortgage their homes.


Much of their money was spent on property, cars and holidays. One hotel stay in Dubai cost £55,815.

Building surveyor-Desmond Vincent, who lost £70,000, told the court: "We thought Lindani Mangena was like a modern-day Moses. I thought the Lord had blessed him. Now he couldn't sell me chewing gum."

Lucy Acquah, a council worker, told how she was swindled out of £76,000 after remortgaging her home.

Mangena, 24, of Maidstone Avenue, Romford, was found guilty of fraudulent trading, money laundering and carrying on an unauthorised investment business.

Dean Hinkson, 29 of Bensham Lane, West Croydon, and Curtis Powell, 31, of Hythe Road, Thornton Heath, were convicted of communicating an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity.

Goodbye, Goodbye my love.

NEW YORK (AP) - The bow tie is out at MNSBC. David Gregory is replacing Tucker Carlson as host of a one-hour show each evening.

The news network is making a handful of changes to respond to heavy political interest. Gregory's new show is called "Race for the White" and will be on each weekday at 6 p.m. starting next Monday.

Carlson has been at MSNBC for nearly three years.

MSNBC also says that Andrea Mitchell will anchor an hour each afternoon. Keith Olbermann's popular "Countdown" program will rerun every night at 10.

worst quote of the day.

You know how hard I work….my job is who I am. Jason, Gilmore Girls.

I NEVER WANT TO BE THIS

Demz estrogenz you be drinkin. No wonder we got so many gayz!

A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs -- and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen -- in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies -- which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public -- have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

• Officials in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds.
• Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
• Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
• A sex hormone was detected in the drinking water of San Francisco, California. DEM GAYS. THEY IZ OUT THERE CONTAMINATIN DU WATER SUPPLIEZ!
• The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.

Contamination is not confined to the United States. More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams throughout the world. Studies have detected pharmaceuticals in waters throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe -- even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea.

Perhaps it's because Americans have been taking drugs -- and flushing them unmetabolized or unused -- in growing amounts. Over the past five years, the number of U.S. drug prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion, while nonprescription drug purchases held steady around 3.3 billion, according to IMS Health and The Nielsen Co.

Spitzer is a slut.

(CNN) -- New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is under investigation for allegedly meeting with a prostitute in a Washington hotel. He has admitted involvement in a prostitution ring, The New York Times reports.

One of the sources said Spitzer is identified in a criminal complaint as "Client-9," and that Spitzer's alleged involvement was caught on a federal wiretap. Man, for someone known for his crackdown on all things illegal and unethical, this has gotta sting a little bit.
And why is it that the most outspoken critics of a way of action is often the most deeply involved in the offense? What is it about these crooked politicians?

Prosecutors say the ring provided prostitutes costing as much as $3,100 an hour. The criminal complaint did not name any customers, but authorities did intercept text messages, e-mails and telephone calls. I surely hope that was some quality sex, because that sure as HELL is some quality money.

"I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, to whom I promised better," he said.
"I am disappointed that I failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself," he said.

Look forward to a resignation later today.

Hillary and Bill push idea of Clinton, Obama ticket x3.

Talk about chutzpah! For the third time in a week, the Clintons are pushing the idea of a presidential ticket of Hillary and Barack Obama.

After Hillary twice gave a thumbs up to the idea, Bubba chimed in, saying the duo would be "unstoppable" in the general election. It's the dream team that makes Democratic hearts flutter and brains turn to mush.
It's a dream team all right, as in dream on.

It's a fantasy because, in the Clintons' pitch, naturally, she is on top of the ticket and Obama is her No. 2. That's rich of her, considering that Obama leads in both the delegate race and the popular vote. Forget those pesky voters - Hillary has declared herself the winner!

Cutting him down. It's the same attack she has been using all along, though now it's presented as a compliment. And a generous one, too, because the offer implies she will take him under her wing for eight years…How sweet.

Note that Obama hasn't returned the favor, brushing off joint-ticket talk as premature. Smart man. The only way he should agree to her being his No. 2 is with one condition - he gets to hire a food taster.

Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal.
The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site.

Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted.
If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for each offense after that.

Representative Couch says he filed the bill in hopes of cutting down on online bullying. He says that has especially been a problem in his Eastern Kentucky district.
This is absurd. It’s like ending letters to the editor. I can’t believe the flagrant violation of first amendment rights, and I only hope that people will see through this and the bill will fail….miserably.

Mobile phone that wants to make you fit - by Lilly Peel

“Speed up to the energy zone. You have completed half your workout.” This is not my personal trainer – this is my mobile phone.

When I say mobile phone, I don’t mean the voice of a friend calling me up to jeer at my misery. This is my actual phone.

Part of me finds it hard to take seriously but I am jogging along the South Bank in London on a crisp, sunny Sunday afternoon, out of breath and red in the face, being barked at to speed up by my phone. This is miCoach, the phone that wants to make me fit. Or, as I now think of it, the phone that wants to humiliate me.

In the race to think of the next must-have accessory for your mobile, Samsung and adidas have added a virtual personal trainer to the usual list of MP3 player, games and camera.

Billed as a “total coaching system”, it monitors your heart rate, keeps track of how far you are running and how many calories you burn while you pound the streets. To add insult to injury it also quips “motivational” comments on your progress in a gratingly cheerful American accent. “Warm it up. OK, let’s go.”

For someone of my deep level of unfitness, miCoach is not a gadget I ever thought I’d hold in my hand, let alone strap on my arm and take running.

But as I fix the heart monitor around the top of my ribcage, strap the mobile holder to my upper arm and slip the “foot pod” pedometer on my running shoes and select a suitably upbeat music track, it could be just what I need to launch my new fitness regime.

But first the phone needs to assess my fitness. This involves running “as fast as you can” for a mile. I can’t run very fast. Then I have to walk for a minute. The time it takes my wildly beating heart to return to normal reveals my fitness.

Being naturally quite slim, I can usually get away with hiding the true level of my unfitness. But I can’t hide from this machine. I finish the run and it gives its verdict: “Beginner.” However, I’m reassured. At least my phone sees me for who I am rather than sets me impossible goals.

With the knowledge of my age and weight, it will set me a personal training plan, depending on the goals I want to achieve. After each run I download the results and it can assess my progress. I opt for the first option – the rather humiliating “learn to run”. It sets me 56 workouts. I really am bad.

But I’m ready to go. My first session involves a mixture of running and walking. Despite my first impression that the whole idea is nothing more than gimmickry, I’m beginning to think there might be something in it. Let’s face it, most of us can’t afford a real personal trainer but we still need a plan to work to. And this could be the next best thing.
I finish the run. “Nice work,” it says.

Boulder trustee: Keep your cats inside

BOULDER (AP) - A Boulder official wants to push an ordinance that would require cat owners to keep their pets inside so they don't kill birds and other animals.

Boulder Open Space Board of Trustees member Bruce Bland says domestic cats that are allowed to wander outdoors are responsible for the suffering of many small mammals and birds. Bland's idea has caught the attention of some Boulder City Council members who say they're interested in exploring it.

The city of Aurora already has an ordinance that asks owners to keep their cats within their property's boundaries. But officials there say the point of the ordinance is not to protect birds but to ensure the safety of the cats.