Mood:  silly

Howard Dean Explains Why He Won’t Debate RNC Chair Ken Mehlman on TV

By Noel Sheppard

This one is too good, folks, and requires all drinking vessels to be placed at safe distances from computer terminals (hat tip to Drudge). For many months, DNC Chairman Howard Dean has been refusing to do joint interviews with RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman. Instead, he has insisted that when the two are on the same show, they be questioned separately.

This morning, he was asked why on MSNBC. Frankly, his answer was hysterical (video here): “The spectacle of the debate overwhelms the desire to get messages out, and talk about policy and serious issues.” He then stated, with a straight face no less:

A lot of what happens on television is what I call infotainment, and I don’t think that’s a particularly good thing. Interviews like this give us a chance to talk about our message. Debates with Ken simply inflame things, and it looks like a gladiatorial (stammer, stammer) contest.

Well, Howard, I guess we shouldn’t have candidates debate each other either. Let’s just allow folks to say whatever they want about their opponents without ever having to face them. Sound good?

Of course, in reality, the networks shouldn’t allow Dean to dictate such terms. If he’s not interested in being interviewed along with the RNC chairman, they ought to decline him the opportunity. After all, this would certainly be the ultimatum given to any Republican who tried to get away with this nonsense.

News Busters ** Howard Dean Explains Why He Won’t Debate RNC Chair Ken Mehlman on TV
Noel Sheppard's blog | login or register to post comments
Categories: 2006 Congressional | Howard Dean

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 2:06 PM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 24 October 2006 2:12 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  spacey

Tesco condemned for selling pole dancing toy

Tesco has been forced to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was accused of "destroying children's innocence".

The Tesco Direct site advertises the kit with the words, "Unleash the sex kitten inside...simply extend the Peekaboo pole inside the tube, slip on the sexy tunes and away you go!

"Soon you'll be flaunting it to the world and earning a fortune in Peekaboo Dance Dollars".

The £49.97 kit comprises a chrome pole extendible to 8ft 6ins, a 'sexy dance garter' and a DVD demonstrating suggestive dance moves.

The kit, condemned as 'extremely dangerous' by family campaigners yesterday, was discovered by mother of two Karen Gallimore who was searching for Christmas gifts for her two daughters, Laura 10, and Sarah, 11.

Mrs Gallimore, 33, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, said yesterday: "I'm no prude, but any children can go on there and see it. It's just not on."

Dr Adrian Rogers, of family campaigning group Family Focus said yesterday that the kit would "destroy children's lives".

He said: "Tesco is Britain's number one chain, this is extremely dangerous. It is an open invitation to turn the youngest children on to sexual behaviour.

"This will be sold to four, five and six-year olds. This is a most dangerous toy that will contribute towards destroying children's innocence."

He added: "Children are being encouraged to dance round a pole which is interpreted in the adult world as a phallic symbol.

"It ought to be stopped, it really requires the intervention of members of Parliament. This should only be available to the most depraved people who want to corrupt their children."

Tesco today agreed to remove the product from the Toy section of the site, but said it will remain on sale as a Fitness Accessory, despite the fact that the product description invites users to "unleash the sex kitten inside".

Also on sale on the Tesco website is a strip poker game, "Peekaboo Poker" which is illustrated by a picture of a reclining woman in underwear.

The card game is is described as a game that "risks the risque and brings a whole lot of naughtiness to the table.

"Played with a unique pack of Peekaboo Boy and Girl playing cards, the aim of the game is to win as many Peekaboo chips as possible and turn them into outrageously naughty fun."

The pole dance kit is the latest item to fuel allegations that major retailers increasingly sell products which "sexualize" young children such as T-shirts with suggestive messages.

In recent years Asda was forced to remove from sale pink and black lace lingerie, including a push-up bra to girls as young as nine.

Next had to remove t-shirts on sale for girls as young as six with the slogan "so many boys, so little time."

And BHS and others came under fire for selling padded bras embellished with a "Little Miss Naughty" logo and t-shirts with a Playboy-style bunny that said "I love boys...They are stupid."

Tesco last night denied the pole dancing kit was sexually oriented and said it was clearly marked for "adult use".

A spokesman added: "Pole dancing is an increasing exorcise craze. This item is for people who want to improve their fitness and have fun at the same time."

View all Reader comments
UK Daily Mail ~ Colin Fernandez ** Tesco condemned for selling pole dancing toy

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 1:15 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  silly

This Blog ~ Pic on File ** Pumpkin Killa  HAPPY HALLOWEEN !  

This Blog ~ Pic on File ** Erect Nipples  

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 11:01 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 24 October 2006 1:44 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  chatty

Message to Bin Laden: Al Qaida has begun 'to behave strangely'

An Iraqi Jihadist leader last week called on Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden to "disown" the Al Qaida group in Iraq because of its practice of killing Muslim leaders and teachers.

"The organization in Iraq has deviated in the full sense of the word from your principles," Abu Usamah al Iraqi stated in a message posted on a Jihadist website. "It completely ignored your words and the words of the Mujaheed Shaykh Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, may God protect over him, and Shaykh Abu-Muhammad al-Maqdisi."

After it aligned with Al Qaida, the group functioned well but then "the organization suddenly, and in a weird manner, began to behave strangely," the posting stated. Abu Ayoub Al Masri, is head of the Al Qaida network in Iraq.

The statement went on to complain that Al Qaida in Iraq terrorists were blowing up houses, schools, hospitals and electric generators.

The group also seized funds from public service personnel and terrorized worshippers in mosques, "killing scores of imams and preachers."

The statement also said Jihadists remain silent on the actions.

"You either disown the organization's branch in Iraq while we, your sons, will not fall short from leading the war and jihad in Iraq or you would remain silent," the posting said. "If this would be the case, then don't expect us to remain on good terms with them or to remain silent because the money and blood of Muslims in Iraq is the responsibility of every Mujaheed. We shall make them our harvest and we shall humiliate their noble ones. You hold the keys to the lock of sedition. You either close it or open it. We are people endued with great might. The Mujaheed tribes -- we don't say the collaborating tribes -- support us, waiting ..."

World Tribune.com ** Message to Bin Laden: Al Qaida has begun 'to behave strangely'

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  d'oh

U.S. among top 3 destinations for sex traffickers in $8B trade

California, N.Y., Texas and Vegas are favored areas

SAN FRANCISCO -- Many of San Francisco's Asian massage parlors -- long an established part of the city's sexually permissive culture — have degenerated into something much more sinister: international sex-slave shops.

Once limited to infamous locales such as Bombay and Bangkok, sex trafficking is now an $8 billion international business, with San Francisco among its largest commercial centers.

San Francisco's liberal attitude toward sex, the city's history of arresting prostitutes instead of pimps, and its large immigrant population have made it one of the top American cities for international sex traffickers to do business undetected, according to Donna Hughes, a national expert on sex trafficking at the University of Rhode Island.

"It makes me sick to my stomach," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. "Girls are being forced to come to this country, their families back home are threatened, and they are being raped repeatedly, over and over."

Because sex trafficking is so far underground, the number of victims in the United States and worldwide is not known, and the reported statistics vary wildly.

Promised model, hostess jobs
The most often cited numbers come from the U.S. State Department, which estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked for forced labor and sex worldwide each year -- and that 80 percent are women and girls. Most trafficked females, the department says, are exploited in commercial sex outlets.

Relying on research from the CIA, the State Department estimates there are 14,500 to 17,500 human-trafficking victims brought into the United States each year -- but does not quantify how many of those are sex victims. Some advocacy groups place the number of U.S. victims much higher, while others criticize the government for overstating the problem.

"The number will always be an estimate, because trafficking victims don't stand in line and raise their hands to be counted, but it's the best estimate we have," said John Miller, director of the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The CIA won't divulge its research methods, but based its figures on 1,500 sources, including law-enforcement data, government data, academic research, international reports and newspaper stories.

Women trafficked for the sex industry are predominantly from Southeast Asia, the former Soviet Union and South America -- lured to the United States by promises of lucrative jobs as models or hostesses, only to be sold to brothels, strip clubs and outcall services and extorted into working off thousands of dollars in surprise travel debts to their new "owners."

Federal investigators say that even those who come to the United States with the idea of working as high-society call girls cannot imagine the captivity and the degrading workload they face.

"Human trafficking is a multibillion-dollar business. In terms of profits, it's on a path to overtake drug and arms trafficking," said Barry Tang, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement attaché with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in South Korea. "There's a highly organized logistical network between Korea and the United States with recruiters, brokers, intermediaries, taxi drivers and madams."

Female traffickers recruit in bars
The United States is among the top three destination countries for sex traffickers, along with Japan and Australia. Once in the United States, traffickers most often set up shop in California, New York, Texas and Las Vegas.

It's an underground world, but in more than 100 interviews with federal agents, experts and sex-trafficking victims in California and South Korea, a picture emerges about how international traffickers buy and sell women between Asia and the West Coast.

Overseas, the trafficker is usually a woman. She recruits from clubs, bars, colleges, pool halls and restaurants, said Deputy Special Agent Mark F. Wollman, who oversees San Francisco for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Recruiters fill the want ads in papers and the Internet, targeting vulnerable young women with fake job offers for waitresses, models and hostesses in the U.S.

Traffickers fly the women to Canada or Mexico, and walk or drive them into California. In Canada, they slip through Indian reservations off-limits to the U.S. Border Patrol, often at night, and sometimes along snow-packed trails.

Every move monitored
Sex slaves who work in massage parlors and bars are often locked in their place of business by double security doors, monitored by surveillance cameras and only let outside under the guard of crooked taxi drivers who ferry them to their next sex appointment.

Women report being beaten, raped and starved by their keepers.

Sex-trafficking rings are often run by criminal organizations that aren't afraid to use violence to protect the billions they generate.

Arizona Daily Star ~ San Francisco Chronicle - Meridith May ** U.S. among top 3 destinations for sex traffickers in $8B trade

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 24 October 2006 8:03 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  chatty

House Defense chair asks Pentagon to remove embedded CNN reporters

SAN DIEGO -- The chair of the House Armed Services Committee asked the Pentagon today to remove CNN reporters embedded with US combat units.

The network televised portions of a video on Wednesday showing insurgent snipers targeting US military personnel.

Executives said the tape came to the network unexpectedly through contact with an insurgent leader.

Representative Duncan Hunter wrote in his letter that, quote, "CNN has now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film featuring the killing of an American soldier."

San Diego-area Republicans Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray also signed the letter.

CNN executives defended their decision to air the footage, saying its news value outweighed other concerns.

KESQ - ABC News Channel 3 ~ Associated Press ** House Defense chair asks Pentagon to remove embedded CNN reporters

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 2:30 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  sharp

Supreme Court upholds Arizona's photo ID law for elections

Arizona voters will have to present identification at the polls on Nov. 7 after all.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that Arizona can go ahead with requiring voters to present a photo ID, starting with next month's general election, as part of the Proposition 200 that voters passed in 2004. The ruling overturns an Oct. 5 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which put the voter ID rules on hold this election cycle.

The Supreme Court on Friday did not decide whether the new voter ID rules are constitutional. That decision is still pending in federal district court.

Instead, the court decided that the 9th Circuit made a procedural error by granting an injunction to put the new rules on hold without waiting for the district court to explain its reasons for not granting an injunction.

"The facts in these cases are hotly contested and 'no bright line separates permissible election-related regulation from unconstitutional infringements,' " the Justices wrote. "Given the imminence of the election and the inadequate time to resolve the factual disputes, our action today shall of necessity allow the election to proceed without an injunction suspending the voter identification rules."

The new voter ID rules were passed, in part, to keep illegal immigrants and other non-citizens from voting. Opponents have argued that legal voters, especially the poor and the elderly, might also be disenfranchised because of the rules.

In order to cast a ballot at the polls, voters must show a photo ID with current street address or two forms of identification, such as a utility bill or car registration, with name and street address.

Reach the reporter at amanda.crawford@arizonarepublic.com
The Arizona Republic ~ Amanda Crawford ** Supreme Court upholds Arizona's photo ID law for elections

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 8:55 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  party time!

Full Image: The United Arab Emirates' Minister of Energy Mohammad Bin Dhaen Al Hamli (C) before the opening of the Consultative Meeting of the OPEC Conference in Doha, October 19, 2006.

Oil falls to new '06 lows on doubts about OPEC cut

NEW YORK -- Oil on Friday fell more than 2 percent to a 2006 low below $57 a barrel on speculation that OPEC members would not follow through on plans to make deep production cuts to stem a three-month price slide.

U.S. crude <CLc1> for November delivery settled $1.68 lower at $56.82 a barrel, the lowest this year after trading as low as $56.55 in intraday activity. U.S. oil prices have dropped from July records of $78.40 a barrel on healthy inventories.

London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell $1.19 to $59.68 a barrel.

OPEC ministers agreed early on Friday to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), 200,000 bpd more than expected. But some analysts expressed doubts about whether the cartel will reach the targeted reductions.

"This cut should result in about a half million barrels per day of production actually getting taken out of the market," said Jim Ritterbusch, president at Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois.

Some OPEC ministers said a further cut of 500,000 bpd could follow when the cartel next meets in Nigeria in December. They said they were concerned about high fuel stocks in consumer countries, particularly in the United States, and a projected drop in demand for OPEC oil in 2007 as competitors bring more supplies online.

The producer group, which supplies about a third of the world's crude, said in a statement after an emergency meeting in Doha that oversupply had destabilized the oil market.

The cut was its deepest since January 2002 and is equal to about 4.3 percent of September supply.

"It was a surprise. It shows the determination of OPEC," said Tetsu Emori, chief strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures Ltd. in Tokyo. "They obviously wanted to send a message to the market."

SAUDI BACKING
"This is not the end of the road because we have another meeting coming up," Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi told Reuters.

Naimi said that Saudi Arabia fully backed the OPEC cut and had already notified customers of lower supply. The world's top exporter will shoulder around 32 percent of the cut, amounting to 380,000 bpd.

Ministers' failure to speak with one voice before the hastily arranged talks had deepened oil's losses of around 25 percent from a mid-July peak of $78.40 a barrel.

To sidestep the issue of quotas and market share that analysts said had begun to cost the cartel credibility, OPEC published only a list of individual cutbacks but left formal quotas unchanged.

OPEC's cut also signaled that it would defend a price of about $60 a barrel, high enough to justify its investment in future production capacity but low enough to allow economic growth and deter a flood of alternative fuels.

"The drop in prices that has already occurred has had a remarkably positive influence on consumer attitudes and spending in the U.S," said Adam Sieminksi of Deutsche Bank.

"The shopping season is coming up and it's going to be a lot better with oil at $60 than at $80."

The producer curbs will begin to bite just as the northern hemisphere heads into winter, when oil demand surges.

Private weather forecaster AccuWeather said this week that the U.S. East Coast should be chillier than normal this year.

Additional reporting by Jonathan Leff in Singapore, Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo, and Simon Webb in London. --- Reuters ~ Matthew Robinson ** Oil falls to new '06 lows on doubts about OPEC cut

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 5:12 PM EDT

Updated: Friday, 20 October 2006 5:20 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  d'oh

House Intel Chair suspends staff member

WASHINGTON - House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra has suspended a Democratic staff member because of concerns he may have leaked a high-level intelligence assessment to The New York Times last month.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press Thursday night, Rep. Ray LaHood (news, bio, voting record), R-Ill., a committee member, said that an unidentified staffer requested the document from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before the Sept. 23 story about its conclusions.

The staffer received the National Intelligence Estimate on global terror trends on Sept. 21.

"I have no credible information to say any classified information was leaked from the committee's minority staff, but the implications of such would be dramatic," LaHood wrote Hoekstra, R-Mich., late last month. "This may, in fact, be only coincidence, and simply 'look bad.' But coincidence, in this town, is rare."

A spokesman to Hoekstra, Jamal Ware, confirmed that a committee staff member was suspended this week. He said the staff member is being denied access to classified information pending the outcome of a review.

"Chairman Hoekstra considers security highly important, and the coincidence certainly merits a review," he said.

An aide to California Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), the committee's top Democrat, did not have an immediate comment Thursday night.

The New York Times did not immediately answer a telephone message seeking comment.

Yahoo News ~ Associated Press - Katherine Shrader ** House Intel Chair suspends staff member

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 3:00 AM EDT

Updated: Friday, 20 October 2006 3:06 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  caffeinated

Liberals Form Political Mutual Fund

Religious groups have been doing it for years to keep from investing in "sin" industries. Now, political liberals can invest in mutual funds that ban investments in firearm makers, liquor companies and Republican causes.

The Blue Fund, launched on Tuesday, pledges only to invest in companies that make campaign contributions to Democrats. Similar to so-called socially responsible investments, the new investment firm adds a political component to offset what is calls a lopsided relationship between the GOP and mutual fund managers.

"We're working to create the first opportunity for progressives to invest with both a social and political conscience," said Daniel de Faro Adamson, CEO of Blue Investment Management.

About 75 companies listed in the S&P 500 qualify for the fund, such as Apple, Google and Starbucks. According to the Blue Fund, companies that have donated heavily to Democrats have outperformed their "red" counterparts, or those who support the GOP.

"When people invest in mutual funds today, even if they think they are being apolitical, they are being political," said Adamson, who co-founded Blue Investment Management with former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joseph Andrews.

Adamson said 80 percent of mutual fund companies' net contributions benefit the GOP.

"So we're offering people a chance to recognize the ways in which their investments are already political and ensure they are aligned with their values," he said.

The fund scores each of the investments based on stances including diversity, human rights and employee relations.

"This investment philosophy is a first-step - a first chess move among many, I hope - to create a political infrastructure that works for progressives... We wanted to make something available for institutions, for people who wanted to vote with their dollars," Adamson said.

News Max.com ~ Associated Press ** Liberals Form Political Mutual Fund

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 4:27 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink