Dr. Richard Carmona, the first US surgeon general appointed by GWB, told a House of Representatives panel that he was muzzled by the White House. 

Well I'll be damned!  The Bush Administration?  No WAY!

Dr. Carmona said:

"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried,"...

He said that he was kept from talking about the science involved with issues such as stem-cell research and contraceptives.  He apparently also had misgivings about the Administration's "abstinence only" total B.S. approach to sex education (which has been proven not to be effective). 

Just listening to CBC and they are covering the charges that Black has been found guilty of... Some were too hard to prove and hes been found "not guilty"

A jury acquitted Black, 62, of nine charges including wire fraud and a racketeering scheme to swindle shareholders out of millions of dollars. But the findings are expected to lead to prison time for the British Lord, who showed no visible reaction to the verdict this morning. Black faces a maximum of 35 years in prison for the offenses the jury convicted him of, plus a maximum penalty of $1 million. A federal jury in Chicago also found Black's three co-defendants guilty of three counts of mail fraud each. They are former Hollinger International vice presidents John Boultbee, 64, of Vancouver, Peter Y. Atkinson, 60, of Toronto, and attorney Mark Kipnis, 59, of Chicago. They face up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000.

Black convicted of fraud, obstruction

While listening to the news today, and looking at Kos, I have come across many reports about Bush's latest news conference, this one on the state of Iraq and the benchmark report.

The CBC headline is the one that made me laugh out loud however.

Bush finds optimism in mixed U.S. report on Iraq

 Out of 18 political and security goals, the 23-page U.S. report found that Baghdad was making "unsatisfactory" progress on eight objectives. But it also said Baghdad's progress towards meeting eight other benchmarks was "satisfactory." The remaining two goals yielded mixed results.

What were the actual benchmarks?

The BBC has this handy dandy graphic posted. It looks like a report card, like the ones a school will give out for kindergartners. No letter grades, just satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

This one is not about eating paste or being able to say the alphabet.

YEEEEE HAW! Ok, it's been so friggin hot here, my brain is fried.
Maybe that should be sautéed?
Anyway, just a couple snippets that caught my eye:

HALIFAX - A fight over the location of a wind farm in Nova Scotia has attracted a famous Canadian snowbird. Singer Anne Murray is angry over a proposed wind farm development near her cottage along the scenic Northumberland Strait. "They are imposing structures and not the sort of thing one would wants to see from a golf course," Murray wrote Tuesday in a commentary published in a Halifax newspaper. The renowned singer of such recordings as Snowbird, Both Sides Now and There Goes My Everything said the development would spoil Nova Scotia's Gulf Shore area and detract from the Northumberland Links Golf Course where Murray enjoys playing.

 Murray says Nova Scotia wind farm hits wrong note in cottage country

I'm not sure how much noise these things make, but the word NIMBY still comes to mind.

Wow, the war in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan must be going just swell, because things for women have gotten so much better!

From CTV.ca:

 A growing number of Afghan women are attempting to escape a life of abuse by setting themselves on fire, a study by a human rights group has found.

This is not a new story, though I'm glad to see some MSM coverage here.  They even mention that a proposal for a women's shelter in Kandahar was made to the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction team, but "...it was reluctant to act because there was no operating plan." 

So Canada and NATO are doing what there, exactly?  Because things for women in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as it is formally named these days, have gone from bad to worse.  Whatever we're doing, IT AIN'T WORKING.

Please read this article by Christina Lamb:

Gordie says we are not a real country…..

Gordie, the drunken neocon is now trying to sell his shitty trade agreement with Alberta to the rest of the country. He says: we won’t be a “real country” until we can move goods and services from province to province.

What he really means is that he wants us to allow business and corporate interests to take over the country, and to take away our right to make our own decisions for our own communities. The feds are also eyeing TILMA with their usual avarice and greed, with a plan to “harmonize” with the US. Harmonize is just another way to say we adopt US policies.

Im not sure if its the same drummer, they have bad luck, one of them choked on vomit...someone elses vomit....

EVERY BASS PLAYER IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!!

Anyone watch the Live Earth concerts today? Anyone stand out in your mind?

I liked seeing Duran Duran and Genesis...

I was totally unimpressed with the Pussycat Dolls and a few other of the acts.....Is that just a sign of old age?

Did you know that recent studies have shown that up to 90% of Egyptian women have been "circumsized"?  That's a nice way of saying their clitoris has been removed. As the proud owner of one, the mere thought of having it cut off of me with a piece of glass, or even in a nice clean doctor's office with sterile equipment, fills me with gut-churning dread. What gets me even more freaked out is that some women in cultures that practice this mutilation (and yes, it is a mutilation)totally buy into it. From a BBC comment thread:

"I come form a community that glorifies and carries out this archaic and barbaric practice. What annoys me as a fighter of FGM is the way our girls in my community glorify this culture, saying that if you do not undertake it you are not a woman enough. This thing should be banned for it is a major cause of many deaths among our young ladies. "

So.  They cut off your clitoris.  And make you believe it's necessary.  I think I'm going to be sick.  

This has been a huge story in Canada for the last couple days. The RCMP pepper sprayed a crowd during a traffic altercation. It all happened on the Native band land, no one had any weapons, there was no alcohol involved, and in the crowd were a lot of kids and two babies.

Fourteen people -- six of them children -- were hospitalized, with Kayden the youngest casualty, after a procession of 20 vehicles from the Sechelt Nation on the Sunshine Coast celebrating the victory of two teams in a youth soccer tourney erupted into a pepper-spray battle with police at about 6 p.m. Monday.

Sechelt band wants answers after RCMP uses pepper spray

The officer who decided to "intervene" here was unaware of a 40 year tradition. That tradition is a procession after a soccer tournament. In pick ups, with horns, and lots of yelling, on the Sechelt Native reserve.

Just outside of Johnson City
On a dark and twisting road
In a Kenworth 18-wheeler
With a heavy, shifting load
He was pushing through to Binghamton
Though the hour was getting late
Pfizers finest on a mission
To the pharmacies upstate
He was on a holy mission
There were men who couldnt wait
(for his thirty thousand pounds of Viagra)

four bitchin babes-Viagra in the water

I see these stories that appear all the time, and then just as quickly they disappear.

Prozac, viagra, antibiotics and Hair and personal care products.....they are all showing up in the water, the same water we drink, the same water that we use to produce food.....

Happy Canada DAY!

Canadians! Celebrating the way Canadians should!

To A Creative Revolution In the next little while we hope to be adding some fancy doo-dads.

Fiddling about....nothing to see here, move along....move along

Im your wicked uncle ernie
Im your wicked uncle ernie
Im glad you wont see or hear me
Im glad you wont see or hear me