Below are excerpts from a recent speech by Al Gore. I would urge you to go read it, especially for the section where he covers exactly how the CIA and FBI had specific information that they could have used to detect and prevent two of the 9-11 hijackers, and thus foiled the whole tragedy.
The Freeway blogger… runs around downtown L.A. placing signs on the overpasses. We had our own little version of that here in Indianapolis at one time, when they were building Conseco Field House… a graffiti artist painted the words “big waste of taxpaper money” with an arrow pointing to Conseco on the northbound overpass on Delaware street. Soon after, the city painted it over. And soon after that, our freeway blogger posted the message “roadblocks are unconstitutional” which got photographed by a local outfit that makes magnets of local retro signage and landmarks. And that’s how our local freeway blogger ended up on a magnet on my refrigerator.
I like the L.A. freeway blogger’s idea of signage much better… cheap and easy to make, effective, but not permanent or damaging to the overpass like spraypaint graffiti is.
Hey Lori, you totally have to see this!
Well, that’s quite cool. I wonder if the greeks would consider having the old greek gods as a religion in their country. I’d sign up as a worshiper of Pallas Athena.
You can read the actual alleged details here in the Toronto Star and also more here in Scotsman.com news. I remember reading some allegations like this years ago, but they didn’t specify Charles as being the royal involved, they just said “an immediate member of the royal family” and I just guessed that was probably Edward, since there were rumors of him being gay circulating for a long time.
Basically, the rumors say that former valet George Smith walked in on a sexual escapade occuring between Charles and another servant, who is, possibly, a guy named Michael Fawcett, according to the Guardian. And that Smith also claimed to have been raped by that same servant at another time. He made the claim to Diana, who taped the claim and asked that Charles fire the servant, which never happened. Diana kept the tape, but it disappeared at some point, and Diana’s butler, Paul Burrell, thinks the tape was stolen by Diana’s sister. Diana apparently believed someone was trying to kill her, and said so in a letter to Paul Burrell at the same time she entrusted him with some items for “safekeeping” before she died.
Last year, someone decided to charge Paul Burrell with theft of the items, and suddenly, when it looked like the whole mess was going to court where it would all come out in the open, the queen remember that Diana had mentioned giving the items to Paul Burrell, thus clearing him of the theft charge.
Then Burrell decided to publish his book, where he mentions the letters from Diana about fearing for her life, and suddenly, all these allegations are popping up again. So Michael Fawcett sought an injunction to keep the details out of the news, and Charles issued a denial that he never did what no one would allow anyone to print that he did.
What seems weird to me… is that I’ve never pegged Charles as being gay. When I heard the rumors of both the alleged rape and the sex incident with a “member of the royal family” I figured Smith was a disgruntled former employee making it all up to get back at the royal family.
The details of the stolen tape, the letters from Diana fearing for her life, and this weird “gag order” denial of something that, frankly, isn’t all that damned scandalous, is odd.
Via the Washington Post, here’s something you should be seeing more prominently discussed in the news:
The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers.
The decision — one that Democrats and scholars said is highly unusual — was announced in an e-mail sent Wednesday to the staff of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. House committee Democrats had just asked for information about how much the White House spent making and installing the “Mission Accomplished” banner for President Bush’s May 1 speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The director of the White House Office of Administration, Timothy A. Campen, sent an e-mail titled “congressional questions” to majority and minority staff on the House and Senate Appropriations panels. Expressing “the need to add a bit of structure to the Q&A process,” he wrote: “Given the increase in the number and types of requests we are beginning to receive from the House and Senate, and in deference to the various committee chairmen and our desire to better coordinate these requests, I am asking that all requests for information and materials be coordinated through the committee chairmen and be put in writing from the committee.”
*snip*
“It’s saying we’re not going to allow the opposition party to ask questions about the way we use tax money,” said R. Scott Lilly, Democratic staff director for the House committee. “As far as I know, this is without modern precedent.”
I don’t know if you’ve read ever read much of The Economist, but it’s not a liberal magazine. To say the least. Which makes this article on the Bush economy really interesting reading to me.
More sober analysts are also worried. In their most recent poll, members of the National Association of Business Economists described the federal deficit as the biggest problem facing America’s economy. A bipartisan coalition of three economic think-tanks–the Committee for Economic Development, the Concord Coalition and the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities–recently declared that, without a change in course, the next decade might be the “most fiscally irresponsible” in the country’s history.”
After receiving top secret clearance, Flat Stanley was shown a report by White House Chief of Staff Andy Card.
Later, Flat Stanley told us that the report contained proof that the 2000 election was fixed, that Bush knew about 9/11 before it happened and let it happen so he could invade Iraq, that Bush helped Enron manipulate the California energy crisis that unseated Gray Davis, and that Bush knew there were no weapons of mass destruction, but invaded anyway to help ensure his buddies at Halliburton could get lucrative government contracts at the expense of the lives of U.S. soldiers.
A few days later Flat Stanley was discovered in the wastebasket beneath a White House paper shredder, cut to ribbons.
Wil took an eastbound trip from California to Vegas along old Route 66, and during the trip he overlapped with some of the route of my 1998 road trip with Laurie and Twyla to help them move out to Arizona. He has several photos that are the same as mine… the largest cross in the western hemisphere, the leaning water tower, the giant cowboy, and several photos in Shamrock, Texas, including one of a beautiful 50’s cafe. This is his photo, and here’s mine:
U Drop Inn Cafe, Shamrock, Texas
UPDATE: In the summer of 2007, I took a long roadtrip on Route 66.
You might be aware that CBS caved to pressure from the right-wing and decided to cancel airing of the mini-series on the Reagans. In part, the controversy stems from the mini-series portrayal of Reagan’s handing (or more accurately, non-handling) of the AIDS crisis, which hit hard during his administration. The mini-series gets it pretty close to accurate, and that makes Reagan look really bad — appropriately so, because he was bad. And the right-wing can’t stand that their Saint Reagan might look bad, so they put the screws to the network.
So network television is controlled by the Republican party. And that scares the living shit out of me.