Sumo Merriment

After Downing Street is a Coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups, which launched on May 26, 2005, a campaign to urge the U.S. Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq. war. The campaign focuses on evidence that recently emerged in a British memo containing minutes of a secret July 2002 metting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

The name is a reference to the Downing Street Memo, a British memo recently make public in the London Times, which contained the minutes of their meeting.

After Downing Street reports: In response to the release of the memo, "John Bonifaz, a Boston attorney specializing in constitutional litigation, sent a memo to Congressman John Conyers of Michigan, the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, urging him to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry directing the House Judiciary Committee to launch a formal investigation into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House to impeach President Bush. Bonifaz's memo, made available today at www.AfterDowningStreet.org, begins: "The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq. If true, such conduct constitutes a High Crime under Article 11, Section 4 of the United States Constitution."

Congressman Conyers is now seeking 100,00 signatures to sign a letter on the Downing Street Inquiry. Information available at Raw Story and dKos.

Sign the letter here. Write to your Congress people here.

Another important piece of information that has been overlooked in this story, as reported in a recent Salon article by Juan Cole, is that Tony Blair had to convince George Bush to go after al-Qaida in Afghanistan, and Bush would only do so in exchange for Britain's support of the Iraq invasion:

"Astonishingly, the Bush administration almost took the United States to war against Iraq in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. We know about this episode from the public account of Sir Christopher Meyer, then the U.K. ambassador in Washington. Meyer reported that in the two weeks after Sept. 11, the Bush national security team argued back and forth over whether to attack Iraq or Afghanistan. It appears from his account that Bush was leaning toward the Iraq option.

Meyer spoke again about the matter to Vanity Fair for its May 2004 report, "The Path to War." Soon after Sept. 11, Meyer went to a dinner at the White House, "attended also by Colin Powell, [and] Condi Rice," where "Bush made clear that he was determined to topple Saddam. 'Rumors were already flying that Bush would use 9/11 as a pretext to attack Iraq,' Meyers remembers." When British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Washington on Sept.20, 2001, he was alarmed. If Blair had consulted M16 about the relative merits of the Afghanistan and Iraq options, we can only imagine what well-informed British intelligence officers in Pakistan were cabling London about the dangers of leaving bin Laden and al-Qaida in place while plunging into a potential quagmire in Iraq. Fears that London was a major al-Qaida target would have underlined the risks to the United Kingdom of an "Iraq first" policy in Washington.

Meyer told Vanity Fair, "Blair came with a very strong message -- don't get distracted; the priorities were al-Qaida, Afghanistan, the Taliban." He must have been terrified that the Bush administration would abandon London to al-Qaida while pursuing the great white whale of Iraq. But he managed to help persuade Bush. Meyer reports, Bush said, "I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq." Meyer also said, in spring 2004, that it was clear "that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn't be to discuss smarter sanctions." In short, Meyer strongly implies that Blair persuaded Bush to make war on al-Qaida in Afghanistan first by promising him British support for a later Iraq campaign.

I encourage you to include that finding out if this underreported outrage is true is an important part of the inquiry for which After Downing Street is fighting. That President Bush's entire presidency has relied on his ostensibly unique ability to "keep America safe," even though he had to be cajoled into going after the party tryly responsible for 9/11, is not only an outrage, but a national disgrace.

Thank you very much to Shakespeares Sister for organizing this and giving the rest of us the information to provide in order to get the word out. If anyone reading this is interested in becoming part of this alliance for the "truth"...please use the links on this post to further your knowledge on these timely subjects and see what you can do to help. There is no time to waste...their are lives at stake.

Posted by sumo at 1:12 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Marie Cocco...Newsday.com

There is nothing so liberating as a resignation.

Ann Wright is now free to say what few dare: That no young military reservist could possibly have concocted the strategy of interrogating Muslim men by using religious humiliation and tactics of sexual degradation worthy of the Marquis de Sade.

"It came from the minds of some of the senior interrogators who are very well-versed in Arab cultrues," Wright told me. "Those types of things would be very well discussed."

She has no proof, nor does anyone. We are officially told that the abuse of detainees in American custody - who were stripped naked and beaten, forced to simulate sexual acts, their beards shaved, leered at by women interrogators who rubbed their breasts against them, or smeared them with fake menstrual blood, or grabbed and sometimes kicked their genitals - is the handiwork of a few rogues who are duly punished when caught. To accept this as true we must also believe that these average kids from average American towns are experts on Islam, so well-versed in its strictures about sex that they dreamed up these methods all by themselves.

This makes no sense to Ann Wright.

She was among the first U.S. dipolmats to arrive in Kabul at that hopeful time in late 2001 when the United States re-opened its embassy in Afghanistan. Wright had joined the diplomatic corps after nearly three decades in the Army and reserves, where she'd reached the rank of colonel.

She served in those unglamorous places where the United States is not necessarily loved but is necessary nonetheless: Uzbekista, Kyrgystan, Grenada, Nicaragua and Somalia. She won the State Department's award for heroism in 1997 for her actions during the evacuation of 2,500 people from the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Wright served Democratic and Republican administrations through wars hot and cold, through natural disasters and international crises. The in March 2003, while serving as deputy mission chief in Mongolia, she resigned in protest of the Bush administration's Iraq policy. Now Wright speaks for herself.

At Arlington National Cemetary last week she addressed a conference of military women. Her talk was supposed to be about how it could come to pass that so many women figure so prominently in the military-prison abuse scandals. But it turned into a deeper lamentation about our new failure to connect the dots - the dots that could lead us to understand how and why the United States committed grave human rights violations.

Being a former military woman herself, Wright knows a things or two about giving orders, and about following them. "Either many supervisors did not supervise those in their chain of command or they condoned the abuse in the first place." she says.

Wright has what she calls "curious question." Questions like, what happened to the additional photos of the scandalous behavior at Abu Ghraib, some of which the Pentagon showed to members of Congress a year ago? If we could see these pictures, would the face of the scandal still be female - or would men star more equally? An Army spokesman says the photos are being withheld under privacy laws, but a lawsuit over their release is pending.

Wright's stint in Afghanistan coincided with the establishment of a detainment system for those swept up in the war on terror. "We knew the military had set up prisons throughout Afghanistan," Wright says. State Department officials were assured "everything's OK." Still, they were denied access to the jails, she says.

Everything was most assuredly not OK. The Bagram detention center would become the site of two murders in 2002 when guards tortured prisoners to death. Former detainees who passed through holding centers in Afghanistan on their way to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have said that Afghanistan is where they were first subjected to physical and mental abuse.

Wright says official investigations that stop low on the chain of command don't ask the right questions or provide full answers. How do we ever get them? "You don't. You don't," she replies. "It's people on the inside who have to spill the beans."

The future holds that answer for the American people...we'll just have to wait and see...as usual...

Posted by sumo at 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Go to Shakespeares
Sister and read her post Culture of Life-Bush Style. Be sure to click on revelations...that will take you to Digby's blog and some interesting pictures of children. It is associated with the release of the Downing Street Memo, that Tony Blair only agreed to support the Iraq war in exchange for Bush supporting the Afghanistan invasion.

Make sure you go to the comments and read...they are organizing a mass post to draw attention to the media. Check it out and perhaps participate.

Posted by sumo at 2:44 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

George Bush bored Brittany Fish to tears Wednesday, prompting the leader of the free world to apologize to the little girl for being so dull.

Brittany, who is now 7, was abducted from her scooter in Syracuse a year ago and found alive a day later in DeWitt. She was in Washington to meet the president in honor of National Missing Children's Day. About 30 people were invited to meet the president, including Brittany and her Mom.

Apparently Bush launched into a rather long-winded speech about the significance of the Oval Office. Brittany got antsy, complained she was bored, then started to cry. Brittany's stepfather, James DeMore said his wife told him the whole story. "I don't think she's old enough to realize who she was meeting."

After the meeting, Bush called Brittany over to him for a one-on-one chat. "He apologized for being so boring and gave her a presidential pin," he said. DeMore said he wished more than one parent was allowed to attend the ceremony. "I'm really the Bush supporter of the house," he said. "Patty's a Democrat."

I think this is the first time I have actually felt sorry for him. Oh!...who am I kidding?!!!
sumo

Posted by sumo at 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

The Music Tag Thing
Tagged by
* blue2go

I started out early in life with only classical music...because that was the only music I played on the Oboe and Piano. I progressed to (loving opera)...and there are some really great musicals. I've seen some staged operas and musicals in my day. And rock bands when I worked in a theater in the round as a teenager. I discovered rock-in-roll later. Country music...get thee behind me. (sorry to offend)

Total volume of music files on my computer? None...zip...nada...nothing! I buy music.
The last CD I bought was? Tom Waits...Beautiful Maladies
Song playing right now? 16 shells from a thirty-ought- six...Tom Waits

I plugged 16 shells from a thirty-ought- six
and the Black Crow snuck through a hole in the sky
so I spent all my buttons on an old pack mule
and I made me a ladder from a pawn shop marimba
and I leaned it up against a dandelion tree

And I filled me a sachel full of old pig corm
and I beat me a billy from an old French horn
and kicked that mule to the top of the tree
and I blew me a hole 'bout the size of a kickdrum
and I cut me a switch from a long branch elbow

I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin'
Black Crow 16 shells from a thrity-ought- six
whittle you into kindlin'
Black Crow 16 shells from a thirty-ought- six

Well I slept in the holler of a dry creek bed
and I tore out the buckets from a red Corvette
tore out the buckets from a red Corvette

Lionel and Dave and the Butcher made three
you got to meet me by the knuckles of the skinnybone tree
with the strings of a Washburn stretched like a clothes line
you know me and that mule scrambled right through the hole

Now I hold him prisoner in a Washburn jail
that strapped on the back of my old kick mule
strapped it on the back of my old kick mule
I bang on the strings just to drive him crazy
I strum it loud just to rattle his cage
strum it loud just to rattle his cage

I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin'
Black Crow 16 shells from a thirty-ought- six
whittle you into kindlin'
Black Crow 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six

Five songs I listen to a lot (or mean something to me)...
1- Can't Find My Way Home... by Blind Faith
2- Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi..."Carmena Burana"...by Carl Orff
3- La mamma morta...sung by Maria Callas...by Giordano
4- Tom Traubert's Blues...by Tom Waits
5- Retrovertigo...by Mr. Bungle

I could go on forever...but I answered what was given to me.
I'll tag Magicfingers...I know she has done one like this...and she can just do it again! And...
Cornelius...because gosh darnit!...he's a Canadian and needs something to do besides photography! Although he is a mighty fine photographer...and a wellspring of information about crabs.

And...I got this off of JRH's blog recently...thought I'd give it a whirl...here goes...

1- If you could kill any celebrity by beating them with a book you own, which celebrity and book would it be?
Anne Coulter...I'd kill her with Al Franken's book...LIES AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM! A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right...I would so love to hit her...hard...with it...over and over and over! Heh!

2- When you have sex (!)...is there a certain TV show you like to sync the sex up with (?) so that as you finish, the show begins? Uh...no! I like to think that I'm more entertaining in the sack than to worry about the tube being on or off...thank you very much! Yikes!

3- Is there a blog out there that you absolutely hate but are sort of afraid to say something on your own blog for fear that they'll read it and come and kill you? Uh...no!

4- Finish this sentence...okay here goes...
the piano has been drinking
cause the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler
cream puff casper milk toast
and the owner is a mental midget
with I.Q. of a fencepost
cause the piano has been drinking
and you can't find your waitress
with a geiger counter
and she hates you and your friends
and you just can't get served without her
and the box office is drooling
and the bar stools are on fire
and the newspapers were fooling
and the ashtrays have retired
and the piano has been drinking

Posted by sumo at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Because I got a hold on another pastrami sandwich...

I know I should be ashamed!

Posted by sumo at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

I know...I know...but I'm busy working on my music tag...okay?!!!!
So...sit back and enjoy some George...or...not!

Posted by sumo at 2:19 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Earth Died Screaming...(Tom Waits)
Rudy's on the midway
and Jacob's in the hole
the monkey's on the ladder
the devil shovels coal
with crows as big as airplanes
the lion has three heads
and someone will eat the skin that he sheds

and the earth died screaming
the earth died screaming
while I lay dreaming of you
the earth died screaming
while I lay dreaming of you

well hell doesn't want you
and heaven is full
bring me some water
put it in this skull
I walk between the raindrops
wait in bug house square
and the army ants
they leave nothin' but the bones

and the earth died screaming
while I lay dreaming of you
the earth died screaming
while I lay dreaming of you

There was thunder there was lightning
then the stars went out and the moon fell from the sky
it rained mackeral it rained trout
and the great day of wrath has come and here's mud in your big red eye
the poker's in the fire and the locusts take the sky

and the earth died screaming
while I lay dreaming of you
the earth died screaming
while I lay dreaming of you

Posted by sumo at 1:52 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

And...take THAT Pentagon!

Posted by sumo at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Sumo here:
Somebody stop me before I make a fool of myself!
I almost hate to be me...yet I still do it!

Posted by sumo at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Two old ladies were waiting for a bus and one of them was smoking a cigarette. It started to rain, so the old lady reached into her purse, took out a condom, cut off the tip and slipped it over her cigarette and continued to smoke.

Her friend saw this and said, "Hey that's a good idea! But, what is that thing you put over your cigarette?"

The other old lady said, "It's a condom."

"A condom? Where do you get those?"

The lady with the cigarette told her friend that you could purchase condoms at the pharmacy. When the two old ladies arrived downtown, the old lady with all the questions went into the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist if he sold condoms. The pharmacist said yes, but looked a little surprised that this old woman was interested in condom, so he asked her, "What size do you want?"

The old lady thought for a minute and said, "One that will fit a Camel."
sumo

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Posted by sumo at 1:26 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

sumo

Posted by sumo at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

I just couldn't resist this...before going to hell of course!

Posted by sumo at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Well...here's an O'mage to Star Wars via Geezer and his Maja that I thought you'd enjoy. The next installment from George Lucas will be "Porn Wars"...and it is a star maker for the actors. Go to Geezer's site and check out Spud Boy. Spud Boy and my Spongebob may get engaged.

Posted by sumo at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

This is how I look and feel about the lies and deceptions our government perpetuates on the American people (foreign countries too obviously) expecting us to take their word for everything being just swell...business as usual. We all know that the business as usual is to go out and act rashly (because it is for the good of the country) without regard for those of us that live within the boundaries of these United States. How about the boundaries of the Constitution? Who is protecting that little piece of wisdom that was once held sacred and made with blood?

What has happened to America's humanity...or did we ever possess it? I think the toileting of the Qur'an did happen...and I think that the powers that be (that shouldn't be) are squashing it (like they do everything else) and do they're best work when they can turn the maligning situation into something wonderful for themselves...and people just eat this crap up and ask for more lies. In other words...America likes to bend over and grab her ankles for the sake of the Bush Machine and Company.

When will people rise up and say we are smarter than you and we aren't going to tolerate this Schadenfreude anymore! I think they sit in their little councils and clap their hands with glee for the one they just pulled over on people. I can just see Condi Rice now throwing back her head with that wide mouthed big grin and giving Bush her little giggle while they lock eyes for that ever special moment that only they can share. "Yes sir...big boy...you did it again...do you know that you are my favorite cowboy? You can wear your chaps anytime Georgie...oh...and don't forget the big cowboy hat...you know how I love the big hat! But remember...don't muss up my hair...I have a meeting with the leaders of the (cough) free world...and I must look my best."

I don't believe in hell...but if there is one...I am going there...because I know once and for all I can give my opinions to all these jokers...because that's right where they are going to be...burning in eternity having to listen to my mouth run on and on and on.

Posted by sumo at 2:50 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Look how far we have come as a nation in 228 years thanks to our Administration and what appears to be the spew that sometimes comes forth from not only our journalists but from other regions of the world. Is there no one out there in the "positions that be" that have any integrity or common sense to not trigger that which will potentially kill us all?

So now Newsweek wants to backtrack on the Qur'an report. The magazine says a source for its story about the desecration of the holy book at Guantanamo Bay is now unsure where he read the allegations. Well, how convenient is that? The magazine acknowledged Sunday that there were errors in a story reporting that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Qur'an while attempting to extract intelligence from Muslim prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. This report led to a series of violent anti-American protests and at least 14 deaths in Afghanistan. And that probably won't be the last we hear from the protesters either.

Newsweek said its source for the story backed away from an assertion that investigators had concluded that military personnel had flushed a Qur'an down a toilet. Newsweek apologized and expressed regret about the violence that followed the story. Here comes the big but...But the magazine defended its reporting and said it was continuing to investigate allegations that U.S. personnel had desecrated the Muslim holy book.

Reports of guards disrespecting the Qur'an to unnerve suspects have long circulated among lawyers for detainees at the Guantanamo facility. Confirmation of the tactic appeared to come in the May 9 item in the magazine's Periscope column, which reported that investigators at the facility had "confirmed some infractions alledged in internal FBI e-mails" that surfaced late last year.

Word of the report spread quickly. Protests erupted in Afghanistan, where at least 14 people were killed and more than 100 injured, as well as in neighboring Pakistan and other parts of the Muslim world. Of course the United States was called upon to immediately investigate the report and hold accountable anyone found to have been involved. The 22-nation Arab League called for an apology from Washington if the allegations were confirmed. Wait until you hear this...Pentagon investigators of course have found no credible allegations involving the Qur'an desecration. Why am I not surprised by this tid-bit?

Michael Isikoff, one of the two authors of the original report, contacted his source, which the magazine identified as a "longtime reliable source, a senior U.S. government official." The source told Isikoff that, while he clearly recalled reading investigative reports about mishandling the Qur'an, "including a toilet incident," he "could no longer be sure that these concerns had surfaced in the SouthCom report." This guy will have to shake hands with the 5th amendment I imagine.

This of course does nothing to alleviate the concerns that the Muslim community may have. "Unfortunately relations are so bad at this point that the perception will linger, no matter what the truth of the matter is...and many people won't believe it. They'll think the magazine was pressured into doing a retraction," said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

I wonder how much time we have left on this earth now. I also wonder how we'll like Kingdom come once we are blown there. Oh...we might be saved if N. Korea doesn't in fact test their nuclear bomb that Bush threatened them with consequences if they do...and what will those consequences be I might add?

Posted by sumo at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Guess what happened at the Taco Bell this evening!???
I was in Los Angeles all Sunday (sweating...it was hot)...so we drove home in the late afternoon, and it was hot here too damn it. So...Kitchen Gadget Guy (husband) said let's just go to the Taco Bell and get it over with so we don't miss the last episode of "Survivor"...

So he orders and we get the number 179 for our food...and they took they're retarded time too. We finally get our 179 called...so we're eating it. 2 minutes later the 179 is called again. He didn't know what was up...so he went to the counter. They handed him more food...so he came back to the table with it rather stunned. I shrugged my shoulders and put my face in the trough again.

We really didn't think much about it...and then it dawned on us that the tray of food was an order for someone else that undoubtedly was still waiting. It was a creepy feeling...but it was their mistake. They gave us to 2 super-tacos and a thing that's called Mexi-melt. So we got a few extra dollars worth of food because of some idiots that don't pay attention to their jobs because they are too busy yakking about their personal lives.

Point being this...How wrong was it that we took the food? It would have been alot of red tape on their end trying to figure out to whom it belonged since it had our number on the order. I don't ever take something that doesn't belong to me...but in this instance I just didn't care. Am I bad? What would you have done? If it had been the wrong change I most definitely would not have taken it...I would have immediately corrected them and returned it. I returned a large diamond ring to a girl that had left it on a bathroom counter where we worked. She never said thank you either for getting her engagement ring back...the moron! Sometimes I just really dislike people. Bleh! San Marino and Pasadena rocked though!...even if it was hot that is.
sumo

Posted by sumo at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Schlafly:
And I think it's pretty obvious that the paranoid, hysterical liberals who failed to destroy George Bush last year have selected Tom DeLay as their target this year.

Somehow these morons seem to forget the rocks they looked under to find the dumbest stuff in the solar system to try and get the Clintons. And we all know who is paying the tab for that bit of luncacy right? How I would love to get Ken Starr in a room with a rubber hose and wear his ass out. We liberals are new to this crap...she'll have to cut us some slack for being hysterical...we haven't honed it well enough like the conservatives have to a fine science.

Yeah...we liberals should be ashamed that we are going after Tom DeLay for being a good guy and all. We just aren't happy unless we are upsetting the conservative apple-cart. What is wrong with us...we shouldn't be going after upstanding people like that. We need to simmer down now! Tom...you just go ahead and do your thing...we are "behind" you all the way!

And...the conservatives don't need us to try and destroy "the shrub man"...he's doing well enough on his own steam. I guess she didn't hear about Bush and how he likes to play "horsey"!

Posted by sumo at 12:26 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

1. You lose arguments with inanimate objects.
2. You have to hold on to the lawn to keep from falling off the earth.
3. Your job starts to interfere with your drinking.
4. Your doctor finds traces of blood in you alcohol stream.
5. The back of your head keeps getting hit by the toilet seat.
6. You sincerely believe alcohol is the elusive 5th food group.
7. 24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case COINCIDENCE?!?!?
8. Two hands and just one mouth now THAT'S a drinking problem.
9. Every woman you see has an exact twin.
10. You fall off the floor.
11. Hey, 5 beers have just as many calories as a burger, screw dinner!
12. Your idea of cutting back is less salt.
13. Every night you're beginning to find your neighbors cat more and more attractive.
14. I'm not drunk you're just sober!!
15. Roseanne looks good.
16. You don't recognise your wife unless seen from the bottom of a glass.
17. That damned pink elephant followed me home again.
18. You have a reserved parking space at the liquor store.
19. You've fallen and can't get up.
20. The shrubbery's drunk too, from frequent watering.

Posted by sumo at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Found this link on Shakespeares Sister...please pass it on...it may be helpful to someone you love. Must read...

Posted by sumo at 1:15 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Go here for the top 10 list.

Posted by sumo at 2:50 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

A couple had been married for many years, and their son had gotten old enough to date. One day the boy brought a girl over to dinner. The mother was thrilled with her son's choice and couldn't wait for the wedding. However, the father was upset and, eventually, the boy asked, " Dad, why don't you seem happy with her? Mom likes her a lot."

The father explained, "No son, there's nothing wrong with the girl. It's just that I cheated on your mother a long time ago, and the girl you've been dating is my daughter by that woman."

So the boy dumped her and found himself another girl. Again, he brought her home to the mother's delight, but the father again told him this girl was actually his half-sister. The boy lost his temper and told his mother what his father had said.

Furious, the mother shouted, "Don't listen to him, sweetheart! He isn't even your father!"
sumo

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Posted by sumo at 1:19 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

For those of you that are Mother's or are about to become one...I salute you!

Now I'll tell you what my EVIL twin did on Saturday. She had lunch with a friend called Magicfingers. The said friend had a fabulous gourmet turkey sandwich. My EVIL twin I am sorry to report had a "bigass" hot pastrami sandwich (a heart stopper) and had the swiss changed to provolone...since the EVIL twin really hates swiss cheese. Apparently the girl that took the order rolled her eyes more than once. The two friends get their food when all of a sudden Magicfingers gets a phone call from another state. It's her daughter that has gone to visit a relative and just letting her know that she arrived just fine. So my EVIL twin starts garbling on her sandwich like she hadn't eaten in years. PAUSE: The Oompa Loompa's are taking out the bloated blueberry girl now...okay it's over. So they keep her on the phone for a while...she's embarrassed and says sorry...My EVIL twin didn't even notice to come up from her sandwich gorging...but if she had she would have been okay with it. So now...the conversation is over and Magicfingers is able to start on her fabulous gourmet turkey sandwich. My EVIL twin was already finished and looking for more. They then moved onto a novelty store that just happened to be next door...you know one of those mall thingies that runs for blocks. My EVIL twin was deeeelighted because she found buttons that made fun of George bush. One had his face on it...you know the one with "the" grin. The best part was what it said of course. Or are you way ahead of me here and already know ? "Like a rock...but dumber"! There were many more fine examples of someone's brilliant humor to laugh at. The problem here was that my EVIL twin laughed so hard at this stuff that I think they nearly called the cops in to settle her down. But she got away first and the only purchase she made was a little button that read "WELL...LA-DE-FUCKING-DA! Now that's what I call a fun lunch with a friend...and she thought it would only be a sandwich day.

Posted by sumo at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

This little gem is hella hilarious. It's about a hair find in the freezer. Go to citricritic and enjoy the hell out of yourself....These Things Happen...5-2-05

Posted by sumo at 3:24 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

I found this on John Howard's blog today and it intrigued me...so I thought it would be fun to pass along...out of curiosity of course. The premise is this...you have a blog that gets traffic, yet people aren't leaving comments. Whether it is out of shyness or whatever reason it may be...you..."the lurker" are encouraged to give a shout out to the blog that you visit.

It's okay to let the blogger know you visit, even if it is occasional. Be a proud Lurker...embrace your Lurkiness and don't be shy. Lurkers are loved too. Take a chance and be counted. Say "Howdy Pardner"...wow!...maybe George Bush will drop in and say hello...stranger things have happened! Yes...stranger things my friends. You might even want to ask questions...like: why Spongebob? or...why are you so damn snarky about the (gulp) conservatives? Just a little push to get you started. I'm up to it...really. So introduce yourself and sleep better tonight!

FLASH! I just saw Tom Waits as Renfield in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" doing his big scene with Winona Ryder...he so rocks. Yes...I blog and watch TV too...sometimes! Oops...Gary Oldman just killed Tom Waits! Ouch!

Posted by sumo at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Spokane's anti-gay Mayor, former State Senator...yep, you guessed it. Found this on americablog. So here's another family values Republican...one with a strong anti-gay record: Spokane Mayor Jim West...the hypocrisy that just keeps going...and going...and going...
This guy needs to stop and smell the coffee and embrace his gayness
and hopefully be happy!

Posted by sumo at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

DeLay's "Salute": A Wave Goodbye? washingtonpost. com

Tom DeLay's friends are planning a tribute in his honor. GIANT (choke)! You know you're in trouble in Washington when this happens.

"The difference between a tribute and a eulogy is that during a tribute there is actually one person who believes every word," says Tom Daschle, who was the subject of his own tribute on Match 1 -- four months after he was voted out of office. He is awaiting another tribute next month, this one hosted by civil rights groups.

If form holds, the salute to DeLay, which is scheduled for May 12 at the Capital Hilton, will feature a series of speeches testifying to his greatness and scores of hushed table conversations about whether the Texas Republican will survive as House majority leader and, more important, who might succeed him if he doesn't.

"Tom DeLay has been a stalwart champion of conservative principles in the Congress," reads an invitation to the salute, which is sponsored by the American Conservative Union Foundation. Well THAT tells the left something I should think! Tickets cost $250, $2000 per table or $10,000 to be a member of the host committee. "This is a testimonial banquet, not a fundraising event," the invite says, adding that all proceeds will go to toward defraying the costs of the dinner. Are they kidding?

The invitation includes no mention of DeLay's mounting ethics problems involving his fundraising, his overseas travel and ties to lobbyists, and the indictment of three political aides in Texas on charges of illegally raising money from corporations.

"We appreciate his strong leadership and we think he is the key to the president's agenda," says the Free Congress Foundation's Paul Weyrich, one of the host committee members for the DeLay dinner. Let's remember not to ever vote for this guy knowing that he is insane to spend $10,000 this way!

Many politicians are subjected to a tribute during their careers. They are honored, many times when they are at the pinnacle of their powers, or just before they (voluntarily) leave office.

But tributes can also be a mark of peril. "Tribute dinners are how politicians sit shiva for their dead,"says Marshall Wittman, of the Democratic Leadership Conference, referring to the Jewish ritual of mourning. Newt Gingrich, for example, was the subject of a "Salute to Newt" luncheon in 1997, a time when he was under intense criticism from a group of conservative House Republicans (including Tom DeLay) for working too closely with the Clinton administration. Back biters!

In most cases, damaged politicians are saluted after their fate has been determined. There was, for instance, another "Salute to Newt" shortly after Gingrich was ousted as speaker of the House in 1999. Speaker Jim Wright was widely saluted a decade earlier upon leaving office in disgrace.

Former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey underwent a serial procession of tributes before he left office in November, after announcing that he is gay and had an extramarital affair with a man. "This was a farewell dinner number 42," one New Jersey Democratic official said.

Former California governor Gray Davis was treated to a glowing thank-you send-off at the state's Democratic convention in January 2004 -- just three months after he became the second governor in U.S. history to be recalled from office.

Friends of John Tower honored the Texas Republican at the Jefferson Hotel in 1989, shortly after his friends in the Senate scuttled his nomination to be secretary of defense.

"Every once in a while you'll even get a tribute for someone people genuinely like and care about," says Jerry Raffshoon, a White House communications director in the Carter administration. "I only attend them for people I like and care about," he says. "Or a few dinners that I can't get out of."

The organizers of the DeLay event say that they are acting purely out of respect, support and admiration for the embattled majority leader. EMBATTLED? Ya think so?

Posted by sumo at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Jack summoned JKU to do this...so the torch has been passed to me...so ya better stand back you vipers!

(You get to answer any five of these and then add your own occupations)

If I could be a scientist

If I could be a farmer

If I could be a musician

If I could be a doctor

If I could be a painter

If I could be a gardener

If I could be a missionary

If I could be a chef

If I could be an architect

If I could be a linguist

If I could be a librarian

If I could be an athlete

If I could be a lawyer

If I could be an innkeeper

If I could be a professor

If I could be a writer

If I could be a llama-rider (by Ogre)

If I could be a bonnie pirate (by Teach)

If I could be a servicemember (by Jeremy)

If I could be a business owner (by Blue 944)

If I could be an actor (by Blue 944)

If I could be an agent (by KelBel)

If I could be a video game designer (KelBel)

If I could be a comic book artist (by Stoli)

If I could be a hooker (by Pollo Loco)

If I could be a crack addict (by Elizabeth)

If I could be a prn star (by Elizabeth)

If I could be a mime (by Garrison)

If I could be a domestic engineer (by Rick)

If I could be a chimney sweep (by Laine)

If I could be a masseuse (by Laine)

If I could be a taxe driver (by Brian)

If I could be a priest (by Brian)

If I could be the Sherrif of Nottingham (Karen)

If I could be a dancer (Karen)

If I could be Santa Claus (Karen)

If I could be on reality TV (Dawn)

If I could be a magician (Dawn)

If I could be a rich man

If I could be perfect

If I could be a comedian

If I could be invisible

If I could be heiroglyphical (by sumo)

Sumo sez...
If I could be a musician...I'd be Tom Waits and play the oboe, what a combo! No, wait! I play the oboe!

If I could be a painter...I'd be Vinnie Van Gogh with both ears mind you, and some Francisco Goya, Picasso, Frieda Kahlo, Toulouse Lautrec, and Andrew Wyeth thrown in for character.

If I could be a professor...it would naturally have to be English literature...and they'd better not leave out Will the Bard...he's a good drinking companion.

If I could be a writer...I'd write best sellers of course...can there be historical best sellers?

If I could be a business owner...I'd own a posh book store with lots of "old books" that people would drool to own but I won't let them touch them because they are mine...all mine.

The sumo will pass this on and tag...blue2go (you know you want to)...crabbie (come on now)...SQMojo (heh)

Posted by sumo at 2:59 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

The question on MSNBC today was..."Would the American Idol scandal keep you from watching the show?".........Of course it won't! I don't watch it anyway!..................Gah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by sumo at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

Go to this post and read it (of course)...it's not long...but thoughtful. It offers a few links in addition.

sumo

Posted by sumo at 1:37 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top

greenleft.org
While nearly 100,00 Iraqis and 1600 US troops have dies as a result of the Iraq war and tens of thousands have been severely wounded, the war has proven to be extremely lucrative for the Houston-based oil services company Halliburton and the San Francisco-based construction company Bechtel. These are the two largest private contractors to the US occupation forces in Iraq.

Iraq war and "reconstruction" contracts helped Halliburton to turn a profit in the first quarter of this year, after the company suffered a loss of US $65 million in the first quarter of last year after paying out $4.2 billion in asbestos lawsuit settlements.

Until 2000, Halliburton was headed by US Vice-President Dick Cheney. On April 15, Cheney released his 2004 tax return. It showed that he received $194,852 in deferred payments from Halliburton, only slightly less than the $203,000 he earned as vice-president.

On April 21, Halliburton reported a net profit of $365 million. This is a dramatic turnaround from last year's first quarter loss. Nearly a third of Halliburton's revenue -- about $1.5 billion --now comes from Iraq-related work, principally through it Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) engineering and construction unit.

KBR personnel were in Iraq within 72 hours of the US-led invasion on March 20, 2003, and KBR is the biggest contractor to the US military in Iraq, handling most support services from mail delivery to providing food for troops.

KBR was paid more than $3.6 billion by the US government for Iraq-related work in 2003 and $5.4 billion for such work in 2004. However, the company is being probed by several US government departments over whether it overcharged for services.

The April 12 Washington Post reported that "Pentagon auditors have questioned $212.3 million -- about 13 percent -- of $1.69 billion that Halliburton Co. subsidiary charged the government over the past few years, mostly for importing fuel to Iraq under a no-bid contract...

'There also have been questions about KBR's performance under a separate giant logistics contract to provide troops in the Middle East with food, shelter and other supplies. Auditors found $1.8 billion in 'unsupported costs' in $10.5 billion in billings from that contract, which KBR won by competitive bid."

The April 12 New York Times revealed that a new report from the US State Department accused KBR of serious cost overruns and "poor performance" in its $1.2 billion contract to repair Iraq's southern oilfields.

Even more damaging to the company's credibility, on April 22 Inter Press Service reported that Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the US House of Representatives subcommittee on government reform, said that Pentagon audits showing additional overcharges totalling $212 million had been concealed by US officials from the UN's International Advisory and Monitoring Board, set up to monitor the occupation authority's expenditure of Iraqi oil revenues.

"The evidence suggests that the US used Iraqi oil proceeds to overpay Halliburton and then sought to hide the evidence of these overcharges from the international auditors", Waxman wrote in a letter to sub-coommittee chairperson Christopher Shays.

Halliburton claims it has performed well under difficult circunstances in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and that cost disputes "are part of the normal contracting process." But former Halliburton employees have alledged intentional and systemic scamming.

One formerHalliburton employee, Mike West, told NBC News last July 26 that he was paid $82,000 a year to be a foreman in Iraq, but never had any workers to supervise. "They said just log 12 hours a day and walk around and look busy", he said.

Another former Halliburton employee, Marie de Young, who audited accounts for KBR, told NBC News there was no effort to hold down costs because all costs were pased on directly to the Pentagon.

A former US Army chaplain, de Young produced documents detailing scamming even on routine services: $50,000 a month for soft drinks, at $45 a case; $1 million a month to clean clothes -- or $100 for each seven-kilogram bag of laundry. "It's just a gravy train", she said.

On March 29, the second-largest contractor in Iraq, Bechtel, reported record revenue of $17.4 billion in 2004. It was the company's second year in a row of record-setting revenue, topping its 2003 take by 6.4%.

The company did not provide a profit figure. Nor did it disclose the amount of revenue brought in by its work in Iraq, where it has been awarded over $1 billion in contracts to repair water, sewage and electrical plants. However, according to the March 29 San Francisco Chronicle, Stewart Scharf, a Standard and Poor's equity analyst who covers large construction companies, estimated that government services, including the company's work in Iraq, brought in the biggest share -- 35% -- of Bechtel's revenue.

The Chronicle added that Bechtel's "civil infrastructure work -- which includes Boston's troubled Big Dig -- accounted for 29% of revenue in 2004. That $14.6 billion project, which Bechtel manages with another firm, has been plagued by cost overruns and leaks discovered in the highway tunnels running beneath Boston's downtown."

Bechtel is not only being criticised for shoddy work in Boston. The April 10 Los Angeles Times reported that at least 40 water, sewage and electrical plants refurbished by Bechtel are no longer working properly. This includes all 19 of the elctrical plants that have had US-financed repair work.

The LA Times reported that it had obtained an "internal memo by coalition officials" stating that throughout Iraq removated plants "deteriorate quickly to an alarminig state of disrepair and inoperability". One US official involved in reconstruction projects estimated that "hundreds of millions" had been squandered.

According to the LA Times report, Bechtel has turned over 20 water treatment plants and 24 sewage treatment plants to the Iraqis for operation. None is runing properly." As a result, the paper added, "school children have to step over rancid brown puddles on their way to classrooms. Families swim in, fish from and get their drinking water from the polluted Tigris and Euphrated rivers, leading to high rateds of child mortality and water-borne illnesses. People jury-rig pumps in their homes to increase water flow -- poisoning the water further by sucking sewage through cracks in the lines."

Posted by sumo at 2:20 AM | Permalink | Comments Return to Top