The bodies of four opposition activists have been found near the Zimbabwe capital, after being abducted, the Movement for Democratic Change says.
An MDC spokesman accused supporters of President Robert Mugabe of being behind the deaths, ahead of next week's poll.
The body of Harare's recently elected opposition mayor's wife has also reportedly been found, badly burnt.
Tanzania, current chair of the African Union, says there is every sign the election will not be free and fair.
Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said he and his counterparts from Angola and Swaziland would be appealing to their own presidents to take urgent action "so that they do something urgently so that we can save Zimbabwe".
I have to admit - I am enjoying the Twitter Battle of House Members: http://tinyurl.com/3lou5y
She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.via PMI. You'll notice that the article is from the Daily Mail, a British tabloid. You'll also notice that this won't be mentioned in the American press once this election season, I'll put money on it.
But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries. [...]
But [diminutive crazy person] Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.
‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said.
‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’
In 1967, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley told President Lyndon Johnson that he needed to remove the 500,000 U.S. troops then involved in Vietnam’s civil war. When Johnson responded by asking how he could do that, Daley replied, “Put them on a [expletive deleted] plane and bring them home.”Aside from offering that great nugget, Korb makes a great case for withdrawal from Iraq and completely shuts down the usual three arguments against it, that "it cannot be done quickly; the situation will go to hell in a hand-basket when we leave; and our military commanders will oppose it."
But this year’s Republican primary was a contest to see which candidate could out-Bush the other, and that is the contest John McCain won. The Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans that once bothered Senator McCain’s conscience are now his only economic policy. The Bush health care plan that only helps those who are already healthy and wealthy is now John McCain’s answer to the 47 million Americans without insurance and the millions more who can’t pay their medical bills. The Bush Iraq policy that asks everything of our troops and nothing of Iraqi politicians is John McCain’s policy too, and so is the fear of tough and aggressive diplomacy that has left this country more isolated and less secure than at any time in recent history. The lobbyists who ruled George Bush’s Washington are now running John McCain’s campaign, and they actually had the nerve to say that the American people won’t care about this.
Here's a country that really could use our military assistance to uphold their democracy, to have violence-free elections and get back on track."We know there are 18 snipers, and the military intelligence directorate is in charge of this," MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti told reporters in Nairobi.
"Mugabe's military intelligence has compiled a list of 36 to 40 people to be assassinated. Top of the list are our leader Morgan Tsvangirai, myself and our spokesman Nelson Chamisa," Mr Biti said.
The US ambassador to Zimbabwe has warned that post-election violence makes a fair second round run-off vote impossible.
Opposition and human rights groups have said hundreds of opposition supporters have been beaten up and at least 30 killed since the first round on 29 March.
But given his own position on Hamas, McCain is the last politician who should be attacking Obama. I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"I know it's not right to make fun of him for bein' old. And it's not truthful either, the guy lies like a rug.
McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."
Kathryn Weller is ahead in the at-large seat of the Montclair NJ town council election by 41 votes, with only the provisional ballots left to be counted ... I was her campaign manager in 2004. Tonight her slate cleaned up including the guy who ran for mayor, Jerry Fried, the head of Bike Montclair, the biggest cycling advocacy organization in New Jersey ...They were the most progressive slate running in the most progressive town in New Jersey ...They ran on a green platform including a plan to install solar panels on all schools and government buildings, wind turbines on our windy mountaintop, a bike friendlier town and, maybe most importantly, in this economically and racially diverse town where only the rich are surviving as of late, rent control. They were thoroughly out matched as far as funding. They silk-screened their own t-shirts and handed out their own literature and they won the election, getting more votes than 2 heavily financed and politically connected slates.
Sometimes the good guys actually win. Oh, and Kathryn is having a baby in less than 2 weeks.
It's really been enlightening for me to watch Obama's share of the white vote change state by state. It's really obliterated this idea that all white people everywhere think the same about blacks. It's even obliterated the only slightly more nuanced idea that white voters in the South are somehow more racist than white voters in the North. What does it mean that Ohio and Wisconsin whites voted so differently? What do we take from the idea that Obama lost the white vote in Pennsylvania but won it Virginia?Well, quite a bit as my super-intelligent commenters have pointed out. It seems that it isn't even a matter of poor whites versus rich whites, or educated whites versus non-educated whites, although all of that factors in. We've seen that the percentage of black folks doesn't really make a difference either. There is something beautiful in this, because you see a complexity in the great monolith that is often simply labeled White America. It's a complexity that, as a black person, I often miss. Even the one simple fact buried inside is beautiful--the biggest predictor of the white vote seems to be age. The point? The racists aren't the future. We are.
"Having been a candidate, it's awfully difficult when you're going 180 miles an hour in one direction and you have a rough night, as ... Senator Clinton did last Tuesday night, to expect to within 48 hours or 72 hours to reverse field, to stop everything and go in a different direction is asking way too much in my view. Give her a chance to breathe, to settle down, to recognize what's going on here. She'll make the right choice"
During the morning press conference at Liberty Science Center in Newark, NJ, the senator was flanked by Sen. Joe Lieberman and former NJ Gov. Tom Kean, Lieberman was quick to jump to McCain's defense.Somebody got lost in the Touch Tunnel. And possibly groped.
'I just want to report that this morning I personally checked John McCain;'s bearings," said the 2000 Dem veep nom. "He has not lost any of them. They are all in really great shape."
Hey Billy -- I'm xxxx, I write and maintain xxxxx [excellent indie music blog]. I'm really glad to hear that you're into the listing and I've tossed you into next week's edition. I tend to have rather esoteric tastes that stack the decks against "rock bands" a bit, but I actually was familiar with some of your stuff and it seems a good inclusion for sure. Cheers,
When Trent Reznor got his Just Blaze on last year to produce the Saul Williams slam-opera The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, he sent it out into the world through a just-blazed distribution path, biting Radiohead's weeks-old pay-what-you want idea. Then, when not enough people paid actual money for the thing, he bitchily blogged about it.WTF, Mr. Tom Breihan? You are an imbecile and a cunt. I can't seem to find a permalink to Trent's post, "saul follow up and facts," but I remember it being a rather intelligent discussion of whether or not the experiment worked out and he shared his sales figures -- something no one ever does. It was a big deal, and there wasn't anything bitchy about it! There just wasn't.
get a shitty, poorly written "review" of GHOSTS by an asshole who probably didn't listen to the record on Pitchfork: CHECK
If you pull down a six- or seven-figure salary working in a cushy media job, and especially if you spend time in a makeup chair before putting on your gossipy news “show”, you forfeit the right to speak for the “working class”, or anybody who has a real job, ever again. If your made-up face on your catty chat show is beamed down to normal people from far-out satellites, you are basically a Mick Ronson riff away from being Ziggy Stardust, and should probably work on coming to grips with that, rather than imagining that you are somehow the authentic proletariat. You’re a freaky moonage rich person in spaced-out freaky daydreamland, man. Deal with it.
Ghosts I-IV is available in multiple digital and physical formats. Select the items you would like to order using the check boxes, then choose CONTINUE.
Ghosts I-IV
All 36 tracks in a variety of digital formats including a 40 page PDF. more info
Ghosts I
The first 9 tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection available as high-quality, DRM-free MP3s, including the complete PDF. more info
No credit card or payment information is required for this download.
Ghosts I-IV on two audio CDs in a six panel digipak package with a 16 page booklet. more info
Pre-order, to be shipped April 8, 2008. INCLUDES immediate full download in a variety of digital formats.
Ghosts I-IV in a hardcover fabric slipcase containing: 2 audio CDs, 1 data DVD with all 36 tracks in multi-track format, and a Blu-ray disc with Ghosts I-IV in high-definition 96/24 stereo and accompanying slideshow. more info
Pre-order, to be shipped May 1, 2008. INCLUDES immediate download in a variety of digital formats.
We have SOLD OUT of the 2500 Limited Edition Packages.
I fucking love the Battleship New Jersey.
Hello WILLIAM,
Welcome to your weekly Ticket Alert! We found the following events that matched your interests.
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DAVE MASON
Thu, 03/06/08
Blend
Ridgewood, NJSelf Guided Tour of The Battleship New Jersey
Multiple date/times
Battleship New Jersey
Camden, NJ
The country wants change. They want Washington to stop all the partisan bickering and they want a different tone. They want their government to be serious and deal with real problems.
Can someone please explain to me how that can possibly happen until something is done about the reprehensible political press? From tax returns to Farrakhan to footage shown by "mistake" to the endless, trivial, gotcha bullshit, this debate spectacle tonight was a classic demonstration of what people really hate about politics. It isn't actually the candidates who can at least on occasion be substantive and serious. The problem is Tim Russert and all his petty, shallow acolytes who spend all their time reading Drudge and breathlessly reporting every tabloid tidbit and sexy rumor and seeking out minor inconsistencies from years past in lieu of doing any real work.
Judging by their silly questions tonight, Russert and Williams obviously know nothing about health care policy, Iraq, Islamic terrorism, economics, global trade or any other subject that requires more than five minutes study to come up with some gotcha question or a stupid Jack Bauer fantasy. It's embarrassing.
These people guide the way citizens perceive politics even if the citizens don't know it. It's hard for me to see how anything can truly change until this is dealt with.
In other words, not being able to beat Siegelman at the polls, Woods believes that his own party corruptly used the criminal justice process to take out an adversary. This is an extraordinary, heavy accusation. Not something that a senior Republican would raise easily about his own party. And the facts back the accusation up, beginning to end.
Conservatism's First Article of Faith states:Inasmuch as the profit motive is the most basic, most efficient, and most noble of all the conditions that combine to form the human character, we believe that the corporation is far better suited than government to meeting the needs of the People.They were there when our Our Leader needed them most, willing to shred the Bill of Rights in return for a tidy profit and the promise of even more lucrative contracts in the future. And how do we repay them (aside from the millions in dividends our treasury showered upon their stock holders)? Tragically, we do that by hemming and hawing over whether we'll give them immunity from being sued--heck some senators like Chris Dodd and congressmen like Jay Inslee even outright oppose it.
We've seen the truth of this born out many times from the swift response of FEMA contractors to the compassionate service provided by the pharmaceutical industry and the efficient health care management of this nation's insurers. But no private endeavor for the public good has been as gratifying to true patriots than the wiretapping of our citizenry by the telecoms.
Congress goes back into session today. That means the FISA extension bill, with its courageous lets-give-the-telecoms-a-pass-for-trashing-the-Bill-of-Rights provision still intact, could come up for a vote again, any time. We have to be ready to call our senators and congresspeople when it does and tell them that we demand that they allow the corporations to violate are Constitutional rights without fear of being brought to justice.
We must act. The stakes are far too high. Do we want AT&T to undergo the same fate as Blackwater, who's operatives now have to take a split second to think before they slaughter random people in the streets. I think not.
Elsewhere:
Firedoglake and the ACLU always have the latest on FISA action.
dbms_output.put_line('Let us remove the remaining role, and verify the creation of a DELETED level in its place.');
DELETE FROM ident_security_roles
WHERE ident_serialNumber = v_ident_user
AND role_id = v_higher_role_id;
BEGIN
SELECT sl.value INTO t_level_value FROM security_levels sl
INNER JOIN security_permission_levels spl ON spl.level_id = sl.id
INNER JOIN ident_permission_levels ipl ON ipl.permission_level_id = spl.id
WHERE ipl.ident_serialNumber = v_ident_user;
EXCEPTION
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
dbms_output.put_line('could not find a perm level in ident_permission_levels for this user, bogus!');
RAISE TEST_FAILED;
END;
IF t_level_value <> -1 THEN
dbms_output.put_line('Bogus, expected value of -1, found: ' || t_level_value);
RAISE TEST_FAILED;
END IF;
Thomas Horn
Christian Persecution Expert
Dear Mr. Horn,
I've been following the good work you're doing to exposing cases of Christian persecution. Your job must be incredibly challenging. Ending discrimination against Christians is a tremendous undertaking, but the sheer immensity of the task doesn't seem to deter you in the least. You've been very successful. I'd even go so far as to say your efforts are second only to those of Our Leader and his Glorious Crusade against Islam.
Regrettably, this email is more than a simple congratulatory letter. I'm writing to alert you to a particularly heinous act of anti-Christian discrimination I recently discovered in Singapore.
For years, Topshop, a local market chain, has stocked its shelves with Christian products for the Singaporean faithful. That all ended recently when the government ordered the market to stop selling such items. Now, local Christians no longer have access to "Looking Good for Jesus" cosmetics. They are denied the opportunity to bathe in Our Savior's immaculate love and "Looking Good for Jesus Bubble Bath with Citrus Scent," and they can no longer "get tight with Christ" by applying a dab "Looking Good for Jesus Sparkle Cream (with lily scent)".
We can't let this assault on religious liberty stand. We have to fight back and your organization can help us with funding and volunteers.
I'm in contact with Miss Poppy Dixon, an American distributer of the "Looking Good for Jesus" cosmetics line. She's willing to sell us as many units as she can secure. And if that isn't enough, we can also buy all the Last Supper Lunch Boxes and Fuzzy Dayglo Velvet Jesus Banks we want from her. Then it's simply a matter of shipping it to the faithful in Singapore.
Heterosexually yours,
Gen. JC Christian, patriot
Billy Gray:Show tonight, Clash Bar, CD Release for The MELTDOWNS! Woo!
4:36
yeah, she poked me on the facebook
4:36
we met up for beers, saw a flick
mikey twice:
4:36
wait, that works?
