PizzaQ -- guess the Question, then Answer it

Click, maybe that will help.

When someone answers this PizzaQ, I will credit the source of the image of the two golden knots. Obviously I am much too crappy an artist to have drawn them.

Should I just stop here? Does the image sufficiently explain what the PizzaQ is asking?

Well -- okay, if you want some Pizza (7 slices, your choice of toppings), you not only have to Answer the PizzaQ, but you have to figure out what the Question is, too.

I've been wanting to get around to this for a long time. Something Wonderful has happened, and I want to tell you all what it is.

Vleeptron wishes you a pleasant, thrilling Olympics and sincerely hopes this wiggles for you

It's Sports Time on Vleeptron!
All the Sports from Vleeptron!
We've got the latest Qx'ii scores!
All the games from the Dwingeloo League!
Dogfighting, fish-shooting,
cockfighting too!
Bare-knuckle boxing from 1902!
A fifth of our Sports
all take place in the Zoo!
Get your Sports on Vleeptron!
Get your Sports on Vleeptron!

steer clear of this island

The cannibal Cyclops, from Ray Harryhausen's "7th Voyage of Sinbad."

harvesting the homeless for profit

Agence-Vleeptron Presse nominates this as the least attractive news story of 2008 so far -- in USA, on Earth, in the Solar System, in the Milky Way Galaxy, on Vleeptron -- wherever. If you know an uglier story, Leave A Comment.

The heck with jail -- these people better pray there's no Afterlife. There's a valley near Reykjavik that smells like rotten eggs. I was glad when the car turned around and left. These folks -- including medical doctors -- may have to sniff rotten eggs for Eternity.

I suppose it raises the question: Has the world always been this predatory, or is this a new historical ratcheting up of the instinct of the strong and successful to use the weak and sick as Raw Material for more profit?

==========


The Los Angeles Times (California USA)
Thursday 7 August 2008

3 Southern California
hospitals accused of
using homeless for fraud

by Cara Mia DiMassa, Richard Winton and Rich Connell, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

On a Sunday afternoon two years ago, five homeless people being dropped off on Los Angeles' skid row by an ambulance caught the attention of police officers.

The officers videotaped what they thought was a case of hospitals dumping patients in a section of the city where few would notice or care.

But as investigators began to unravel the incident, they say they found something far different: a massive scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded healthcare programs of millions of dollars by recruiting homeless patients for unnecessary medical services.

The elaborate enterprise churned thousands of indigents through hospitals over the last four years and billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for costly and unjustified medical procedures, federal, state and local investigators said Wednesday.

Those involved in the alleged conspiracy "ranged from street-level operatives to the chief executive of a hospital," U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O'Brien said.

After raids on three hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties Wednesday, one hospital chief executive faces criminal charges and executives at two other facilities were accused of fraudulent business practices in a related civil lawsuit filed by Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.

Some of the homeless patients involved received tests or treatments that were potentially harmful, authorities said.

The "depravity" of the alleged scheme startled authorities, said Salvador Hernandez, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office.

"The defendants are accused of preying on the homeless and exploiting their desperate conditions for personal gain," he said.

Arrested on federal charges were Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam, an owner and chief executive of City of Angels Medical Center, and Estill Mitts, an alleged patient recruiter who operated a storefront facility called the Assessment Center in the heart of skid row. A 21-count grand jury indictment accuses the pair of healthcare fraud and receiving illegal kickbacks.

Mitts, who was released Wednesday afternoon on $25,000 bail and confined to his home, is also charged with money laundering and income tax evasion. His attorney declined to comment. Late Wednesday, Sabaratnam's attorney, John Vandevelde, argued at a court hearing that the charges against his client were "not that significant." But the doctor was being held in custody until another hearing today.

In addition to City of Angels, agents earlier Wednesday swarmed Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center and Tustin Hospital and Medical Center in Orange County. Pacific Health Corp., which owns both hospitals, said in a statement that it had cooperated with authorities and believed it would be cleared of any illegal conduct.

Officials said the investigation was continuing and additional defendants were expected to be charged. The total amount of the fraud was still being tallied, but prosecutors said Mitts' operation could have cost the government $11,000,000 in improper payments and that City of Angels collected $5 million in federal healthcare reimbursements. City of Angels did not respond to requests for comment.

Delgadillo sued the three hospitals, their operators and several others. The hospitals used unfair business practices to fill empty beds in a bid to boost their finances, the suit claims.

The privately owned medical centers allegedly worked with patient recruiting operations on skid row that plucked homeless people from the streets and delivered them, with fake medical diagnoses, to the hospitals.

According to court filings, "runners" or "stringers" on skid row looked for homeless recruits. Prospects were offered small sums of money, typically $20 or $30, to be paid upon completion of a hospital stay of one to three days. The street recruiter typically received $40 for each homeless recruit with Medicare eligibility and $20 for each recruit with Medi-Cal benefits, according to the city attorney's lawsuit.

Some solicitations were direct, but others were coded, according to the city attorney's lawsuit. One alleged street pitch referred to the color scheme of the Medi-Cal eligibility card: "Red, white and blue, just make it do what it do, for me and you."

A person familiar with the workings of the alleged scheme told The Times last year that employees at the Assessment Center would recruit people on skid row to reach out to potential patients, who may or may not have needed medical treatment. The source, who spoke on the condition that he not be named, said some patients were reimbursed for their time with money, food or a pack of cigarettes -- what was called an "incentive."

In other instances, the source said, patients walked into the center on their own.

Recruiters "were looking for someone who was sick or immobile," the source said. "Someone who was in need of money, who was down and out, sleeping on the street, with nowhere to go."

The source said it didn't matter whether the patients were currently using drugs or not, or whether they had underlying psychiatric issues.

Delgadillo said patients received treatment for conditions including dehydration, a yeast infection and a cardiopulmonary disorder that "didn't exist." One patient, referred to in the city attorney's lawsuit as "Recruit X," suffered from a mental disorder and was sent by the Assessment Center to all three of the medical centers.

At one of the hospitals, the lawsuit says, the patient was given a nitroglycerin patch for a nonexistent cardiopulmonary condition, causing a precipitous drop in her blood pressure. The treatment, said Delgadillo "put her in peril."

Wednesday's crackdown sends a message that "those who would seek to defraud our healthcare system, and those who would callously exploit mentally impaired and drug-addicted homeless men and women to turn a profit will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Delgadillo said.

In addition to Mitts and Sabaratnam, the city attorney's civil lawsuit names Pacific Health Corp.; Los Angeles Doctors Hospital Corp., which operates Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, corporation Chief Executive John Fenton and admitting physician Frederick Rundall; and Tustin Hospital and Medical Center, Chief Executive Daniel Davis, Chief Financial Officer Vincent Rubio and admitting physicians Kenneth Thaler and Al-Reza Tajik. Also named are Intercare Health Systems Inc., which owns and operates City of Angels Medical Center, and Robert Borseau, who, like Sabaratnam, was an owner/officer.

Most of the defendants could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Tustin hospital was allegedly guaranteed 40 to 50 patients a month; City of Angels got 25 to 30. Metropolitan Medical Center received patients whenever beds were available, according to the suit. City attorneys allege that the admitting Drs. Rundall, Thaler and Tajik did not see the patients until shortly before their discharge. City attorneys allege that for patient referrals, Mitts' group was paid $20,000 per month each from Metropolitan Medical Center and Tustin, while City of Angels paid between $400 to $1,000 a week to the recruiting group.

The suit also alleges that Rubio, the Tustin hospital's chief financial officer, personally received a $3,500-a-month kickback from Mitts' group to ensure that Tustin continued to take homeless patients from the skid row center.

cara.dimassa@latimes.com
richard.winton@latimes.com
rich.connell@latimes.com

Times staff writer Sue Horton contributed to this report.

- 30 -

Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times

bright shiny Platonic object from Harvard, hope it wiggles for you

If it doesn't wiggle, click [RELOAD]

Jellyfish movie
Curtis T McMullen
Mathematics Department
Harvard University
Cambridge Massachusetts USA

* His image and movie gallery *

"A fool and his money are soon parted." -- Thomas Tusser (1524–1580)

i built a house inside a house
i bought a tiger to catch a mouse
disconnect my phone
i don't want to hear those poor folks moan
cause i'm rich

"I'm Rich" -- Geoff Muldaur

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

The Los Angeles Times (California USA)
Friday 8 August 2008

Apple removes I Am Rich,
a $1,000 featureless
iPhone application

Eight people bought the software, which has no function except to alert other people that you have money.

by Mark Milian, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
mark.milian@latimes.com

Eight iPhone owners have joined an elite clan: Their gadget is running a program that cost nearly $1,000.

When the iPhone first hit the market in June 2007, those who paid the $499 entry price -- and signed the two-year AT&T contract -- owned a status symbol. A year later, we have the iPhone 3G, Apple Inc.'s speedier, sleeker and, most important, less expensive smart phone, which introduced a section for downloading third-party applications.

Now that the phone is affordable enough for a wider audience, a new status symbol has emerged: a seemingly useless application called I Am Rich.

Its function is exactly what the name implies: to alert people that you have money in the bank. I Am Rich was available for purchase from the phone's App Store for, get this, $999.99 -- the highest amount a developer can charge through the digital retailer, said Armin Heinrich, the program's developer.

Once downloaded, it doesn't do much -- a red icon sits on the iPhone home screen like any other application, with the subtext "I Am Rich." Once activated, the user is treated to a large, glowing gem. That's about it. For a thousand dollars.

Apple, which didn't respond to requests for comment, apparently had some problems with I Am Rich. After initially approving it for distribution, the company has since removed it from the store.

Heinrich, a German software developer, has yet to hear back from Apple concerning the removal. "I have no idea why they did it and am not aware of any violation of the rules to sell software on the App Store," Heinrich said in an e-mail to The Times on Thursday.

But Apple couldn't pull it down before curious aristocrats had purchased it -- eight times. Six people from the U.S., one from Germany and one from France dropped a grand for the gem in the first 24 hours it was available, Heinrich said. That's $5,600 in revenue for Heinrich and $2,400 for Apple, which collects 30% of each sale for "store upkeep."

In the e-mail, Heinrich said there seemed to be a market for the program. "I am sure a lot more people would like to buy it -- but currently can't do so," Heinrich said. "The App is a work of Art and included a 'secret mantra' -- that's all."

A possible explanation for its removal: A screen shot of an App Store review that has been circulating around the Web recently, showing a user's complaint that he purchased it accidentally. "I saw this app with a few friends and we jokingly clicked 'buy' thinking it was a joke, to see what would happen. . . . THIS IS NO JOKE. . . . DO NOT BUY THIS APP AND APPLE PLEASE REMOVE THIS FROM THE APP STORE," it read.

I Am Rich isn't the first software that has been removed from Apple's store. Box Office, a movie showtime resource, and NetShare, which let users connect a computer to the Internet using the iPhone's 3G wireless data service, disappeared without a trace.

- 30 -

========================
from gadget lab blog, WIRED.com
========================

Personally I have to say caveat emptor, people want to pay $1,000 for nothing then let them. These are probably the same people who will pay to have their iPhone gold dipped

Posted by: sundance | Aug 8, 2008 8:51:29 AM

I'd like to write an op-ed piece entitled:

Eight People Had Better Not Get Their Money Refunded

Posted by: Reed | Aug 8, 2008 9:05:01 AM

What's wrong with the iPhone store? How come it's okay for people to pay $100/month to use a trivial amount of bandwidth, but it's immoral to pay a one time fee of $1000 for only slightly less?

Posted by: pokute | Aug 8, 2008 9:05:19 AM

I agree with Sundance. Let the app stay on and let people pay what they want for it. I'm sure version 2 of the application ("I'm richer than you"?) could come out and sell for $10k if Apple had no price caps. Hey, let some rich guy spend his/her money the way he/she would like. Atleast he gets something for it.

Posted by: Techie | Aug 8, 2008 9:05:58 AM

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez! Large Hadron Collider cranks up on 10 September! near Geneva!

The New York Times
Friday 8 August 2008

Date Set for Operation
of Large Hadron Collider

by Dennis Overbye

Physicists, start your engines.

Officials at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, outside Geneva, announced Thursday that their new particle accelerator, the world’s largest, would begin operation on Wednesday 10 September. On that date, the physicists and engineers will make the first attempt to circulate a beam of protons around a 17-mile-long super-cooled underground racetrack known as the Large Hadron Collider.

The collider, 14 years and U$8,000,000,000 in the making, has been built to smash together protons that have been accelerated to energies of 7,000,000,000,000 electron volts, and examine the remains for clues to the origin of mass and new forces and particles in the universe.

But the collisions will not happen immediately. The first step on the journey to new physics will happen this weekend, when engineers test their method of injecting high-energy protons, which are produced in a separate accelerator, the Super Proton Synchrotron, into the collider by sending a batch through one part of the racetrack.

In September, the first protons to circle the entire ring will have a relatively modest energy of 450,000,000,000 electron volts. Once the physicists and engineers have learned to drive their new machine and had a few collisions at that energy, they will ramp up the energy as fast as they can to 5,000,000,000,000 electron volts — unexplored territory.

“Our main objective is to get to 5 TeV,” Lyn Evans, project director at CERN, said in an e-mail message. “How long it will take, I don’t know, but with the quality of the instrumentation, software, and above all the people we have, I am optimistic.”

Once they get up to speed later this fall, the collider will run for a month or two of “pilot physics.”

CERN shuts down for the winter to save money on its electric bill. While it sleeps, engineers will “train” the superconducting magnets that steer the energetic particles around their track to handle the high currents needed to produce fields strong enough to bend the paths of 7-trillion-electron-volt protons. When the collider awakens again in the spring it will be at full strength, and physicists will be face to face with their dreams.

- 30 -

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Cindy McCain deals dangerous drugs (but they're not illegal so it's okay) / buy a case of cheap beer, make McCain's wife richer

What is the difference between potential future First Lady Cindy McCain and a MARIJUANA dealer? Cindy deals a more harmful drug: ALCOHOL That's right, Cindy McCain -- wife of presumptive presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) -- is an alcohol dealer. As the the chairperson and majority shareholder of Hensley & Co., one of the nation's largest distributors of Anheuser-Busch beer, she made a fortune dealing more than 23 million cases of beer last year. Whereas selling millions of dollars worth of alcohol could land Cindy in the White House, selling just a few hundred or thousand dollars worth of marijuana continues to land countless Americans in the big house (prison, that is). This is despite the fact that marijuana is FAR less harmful than alcohol both to the user and to society. "Cindy McCain: Drug Dealer" is a provocative new campaign designed to highlight this hypocrisy and spread the message that marijuana is safer than alcohol and should be treated that way. CLICK HERE to check it out or go to: www.DrugDealerCindy.com Featured on the site is a short yet hilarious Web ad called "Drug-Deal-Er," which is a play on the old Budweiser frogs commercials. (A huge thanks goes out Paul Saurini for helping us produce this great video.) Also on the site is information on Cindy McCain's lucrative drug dealing empire, the facts about marijuana compared to alcohol, and PDFs of the Cindy "WANTED" poster that we would love to see posted everywhere! Word of the campaign has already traveled quickly, spreading from the blogosphere (such as this piece on The Raw Story) to the mainstream media (such as this story in today's Denver Post). We expect it will continue to grow, especially after our press conference today in front of the Hensley Cartel's Headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona! WE NEED YOUR HELP to spread it further! Please visit DrugDealerCindy.com today and: - Sign the on-line petition and forward it to all of your friends, family, and coworkers. - Download and print Cindy "WANTED" posters to hang around your community, in your office, or simply on your refrigerator. We need to get these up EVERYWHERE! - Watch SAFER's original "Drug-Deal-Er" video and share it with everyone you can. - Contact us to find out how you can do more to spread the word in your area and/or on the Web! - Make a donation to help us buy more ads and reach a larger national audience. Cindy "WANTED" poster ads are currently featured on some major national blogs and on more than a dozen of the most popular statewide political blogs around the country (click HERE for an example). We only had enough in our budget to buy ads for one week, though, and we need your help to keep them (and new ones) up and running. This is NOT an attack on Cindy McCain or alcohol! SAFER certainly realizes the "Cindy McCain: Drug Dealer" campaign will raise some eyebrows. After all, that's the point. But we trust you -- and the public in general -- will understand that this is NOT a personal attack on Cindy McCain and it is certainly not a partisan thing (as you may recall, SAFER also labeled Denver's Democratic brewpub-owning mayor John Hickenlooper a "Drug Dealer"). Cindy is proud of her job and her industry, and alcohol use and sales are widely accepted in this country. Why is highlighting them an "attack" or negative in any way? In fact, we hope to get the public and the media thinking about just why it seems so crazy to call someone who sells alcohol a "drug dealer," whereas there seems to be no problem using the term for those who sell marijuana. We should also point out that SAFER is NOT attacking alcohol. As we've said time and time again, we respect the right of adults to use alcohol responsibly. We are simply standing up for the millions of Americans our government punishes and considers criminals just because they make the SAFER choice to use marijuana for relaxation and recreation. PLEASE FORWARD this message widely!

To forward this message to someone: this link

Team Darfur's co-founder, Olympic speedskater Joey Cheek, gets his visa revoked by China

It's Sports Time on Vleeptron!
All the Sports from Vleeptron!
We've got the latest Qx'ii scores!
All the games from the Dwingeloo League!
Dogfighting, fish-shooting,
cockfighting too!
Bare-knuckle boxing from 1902!
A fifth of our Sports
all take place in the Zoo!
Get your Sports on Vleeptron!
Get your Sports on Vleeptron!

* * *

Are you still going to the Beijing Olympics?

Well, remember -- Visa is the only credit card accepted at the Beijing Olympics.

And the Peoples Republic of China is the only government that can issue you a visa!

Or revoke it.

And the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can't do anything about it.

Or won't do anything about it. IOC President Jacques Rogge is the crack whore and Nazi collaborator of sport.

Isn't it wonderful? The world's greatest athletes held by the nipples and balls of a huge, repressive totalitarian police state! Teaching the world's athletes to keep their fucking mouths shut! Or else!

And the journalists from what we used to proudly call "The Free World," agreeing to accept police-state censorship just so they can broadcast their cool sports pictures back to the folks at home watching on hi-def TV!

I'm so excited! And my USA President George Bush will be there, too! Wearing his USA flag lapel pin for all the world to see! I'm so proud! This will be the proudest moment of Bush's Legacy!

* * *

The Washington Post (Washington DC USA)
Wednesday 6 August 2008

Outspoken '06 Medalist
Cheek Has Visa Revoked

'Team Darfur' Co-Founder
Barred From Beijing Games

by Liz Clarke and Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writers

BEIJING, Aug. 6 -- The Chinese government on Tuesday revoked the visa of 2006 Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek, effectively barring the speedskating champion and social activist from attending the 2008 Beijing Games.

The move was promptly condemned by the Bush administration, and a White House official said on Wednesday that the U.S. embassy in Beijing will ask that the decision be reversed. Cheek is co-founder of Team Darfur, an organization composed of athletes attempting to draw attention to human rights violations in Darfur. China is a major customer of the oil produced in the war-torn region of Sudan.

"We were disturbed to learn that China has refused his visa. We are taking the matter very seriously," White House press secretary Dana Perino said as President Bush continued an Asia trip that will bring him to Beijing for the Games' opening ceremony. "We would hope that they would change their mind."

Cheek said in a telephone interview Tuesday night that he received a call shortly after 5 p.m. (Eastern time) from someone either from the Chinese embassy or consulate who informed him that his visa had been revoked.

"I asked for a reason, and they said we don't give reasons," said Cheek, 29, a part-time Washington resident who was scheduled to leave for Beijing on Wednesday afternoon.

He said his visa request had been granted a few weeks ago. "I said, who else can I speak to about this, and they said, 'There is no other recourse.'"

Cheek said that Team Darfur's co-founder, former UCLA water polo player Brad Greiner, had received a similar call about 10 minutes earlier.

The two had planned to attend the Games, which officially open on Friday, to support more than 70 Olympians from around the world who have signed on to support Team Darfur.

The action by Chinese officials is precisely the sort of measure that has been feared by those with misgivings about the International Olympic Committee's decision in 2001 to award the Games to China: that the country's officials would thwart the free expression of visitors and muzzle dissent among activists both inside and outside the country despite promises to the contrary.

By barring the co-founders of Team Darfur, China sent a powerful worldwide message without having to bar actual participants in the Games, which would interfere with the orderly, harmonious competition that China President Hu Jintao has vowed to stage.

"I'm not surprised they did this, because they said they were going to keep out activists," Olympic historian David Wallechinsky said from Beijing. "But these are legitimate Olympians with a history with the Olympics. I'd sure like to know what the [International Olympic Committee has to say about this]. I think it's really disappointing."

A spokeswoman for the IOC said the organization had learned of the development through the media and referred questions to Chinese officials.

"These applications from non-accredited press, this doesn't come within the IOC's [purview]," spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said.

"This is the first we've heard of this," U.S. Olympic Committee Chief Communications Officer Darryl Seibel said. "We are contacting the U.S. Embassy to see what they know about it."

No one at the Chinese Embassy in Washington could be reached to comment in calls made after the close of business Tuesday. A statement received Wednesday morning by fax from the spokesman's office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing said:

"Visa is a sovereign affair of one country, according to Chinese laws and regulations, and based on other host countries' practice on previous Olympics and other large scale events, China has made appropriate arrangements for foreign entry visas during the Olympic Games ..."

Cheek and Greiner are not the first athletes from Team Darfur to have visa trouble, Team Darfur spokeswoman Emma Mackinnon said. She said synchronized swimmer Kendra Zanotto, a 2004 bronze medalist who planned to attend the Beijing Games as a freelance journalist, had been denied a visa.

Mackinnon also said a number of non-American Team Darfur members contacted the central office in recent weeks asking to be disassociated from the group. She said all have asked for anonymity, but a few confided that their national Olympic committees had put pressure on them to cut ties.

Team Darfur's Web site lists 120 athletes from the United States as members, though 17 have declined to allow their names to be published and are cited only by sport. The list includes current soccer star Abby Wambach, retired Winter and Summer Olympian Chris Witty, world champion triathlete Siri Lindley and retired swimming gold medalist Summer Sanders.

A North Carolina native and Princeton undergraduate, Cheek emerged as an unlikely hero of the 2006 Turin Games after winning speedskating gold and silver medals. But what endeared Cheek to his fellow Olympians and many followers of the Games was his decision to donate his $40,000 bonus from the USOC to Right to Play, an organization founded to use sports as a platform to help needy children in Sudan.

Cheek challenged fellow Olympians to do the same, and more than $1 million was raised. The U.S. delegation honored him by selecting him to carry the U.S. flag during the closing ceremonies in Turin.

He was also honored by the USOC as its Sportsman of the Year, and he was among the Winter Olympians invited to the White House in May 2006, hailed during the visit by President Bush as "a wonderful example for us all."

Following his retirement from competitive speedskating, Cheek co-founded Team Darfur, an organization designed to draw attention to the plight of children in the troubled region. In speeches, appearances and commentary to promote the organization, Cheek was careful not to advocate a boycott of the 2008 Games or the violation of any IOC rules.

Cheek planned to attend the Games to support members of Team Darfur and attend several events to which he had been invited. He said he had been asked to be a member of a panel discussion on sports conflict resolution by the Olympic Alumni Association.

"I was going there to support athletes and be part of the Olympics," Cheek said. "I thought I was a permanent member of the Olympic body. The Olympic Alumni Association's tagline is 'Once an Olympian, always an Olympian.' You're never supposed to be a 'former Olympian.'"

"I am saddened not to be able to attend the Games," Cheek said in the statement. "The Olympic Games represent something powerful: that people can come together from around the world and do things that no one thought were possible. However, the denial of my visa is a part of a systemic effort by the Chinese government to coerce and threaten athletes who are speaking out on behalf of the innocent people of Darfur."

Washington Post staff writer Michael Abramowitz contributed to this report.

- 30 -

China Girls
Meet Beautiful Chinese Girls For Dating. Join Free Today!
www.ChineseLoveLinks.com

================

Associated Press (US newswire)
Saturday 2 August 2008

IOC being grilled
on Internet censorship

by Stephen Wade

BEIJING (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee was accused of backtracking on its promises of press freedoms Saturday and some Internet sites remained blocked less than a week before the Beijing Games kick off with opening ceremonies.

Under pressure from the IOC, Chinese organizers unblocked some sites at the main press center and media venues on Friday, but others remained censored for journalists covering the Summer Games.

"The IOC has always been very clear to say: We would like the fullest access possible so that you and your colleagues can do your job," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "That's clear for us. It's been clearly communicated in a number of meetings with organizers and the authorities. They have given many pledges that that will be delivered."

One reporter quoted IOC president Jacques Rogge as saying "foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet."

Davies suggested that Rogge, who is Belgian, may have not been completely precise when he spoke because he was using English, which is not his native tongue.

"There's been no change in the IOC's position," Davies said. "Again, I think we are trying to hang on every single word often spoken by people whose mother tongue isn't English. Let me be clear again: The IOC would like to see open access for the media to be able to do their job."

Numerous times over the last several years, Chinese officials and high-ranking IOC members said there would be no censorship on the Internet for accredited journalists covering the games.

Chinese authorities regularly block sites used by its citizens.

However, they have repeatedly said reporting would be "free and unfettered."

In 2001, when China won the right to host the games, Wang Wei, the organizing committee's executive vice president, was widely quoted as saying,

"We will give the media complete freedom to report when they come to China."

A check by The Associated Press on Saturday showed many sites the Chinese government dislikes —- for example, the spiritual movement Falun Gong -— were blocked. The sites being blocked seem to change daily, although certain key words always draw blank screens. Sites that host thousands of blogs are also routinely blocked.

Typing in "Tiananmen Square Massacre" yielded a site, but all the photographs on the site were blocked.

Kevan Gosper, head of the IOC's press commission, has acknowledged that full access may not be possible with the games taking part in a "communist society."

"I guess there will be some debate as we move toward the games if there are sites that may or may not be open," Gosper said. "And the line between what could be considered as a national interest issue might be a bit blurred. But we'll work on it and we will deal with any potential grievances."

Meantime, some TV officials have complained about limited live access to Tiananmen Square, red-tape rules that hinder the movement of cameras and reporters and the critical allocation of broadcast frequencies.

"We are continuing to work to have the organizers deliver what has been pledged, what has been outlined," Davies said. "And they have also assured us of this."

- 30 -

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Dutch postcard (circa 1930) by Margret Boriss

Click image for larger

postcard, 1925-1935
Dutch boy plays ninepins
by Margret Boriss

First Day Issue: Postalo Vleeptron / a Journey

Click image for larger.

First Day Issue: Postalo Vleeptron
a Journey

?

Click image for larger.

just one of me
just so much time
just one planet I can get to

one ocean, two airplanes

trains
fast, but not too fast
night train day train
dawn train sunset train
maybe a ferry

hotel, restaurant, platform sausage
internet cafe, bookstore, newstand
cash machine, post office
souvenirs & postcards

train stations
subways trams trolleys underground metro u-bahn

Le voyage commence par un desir,
il se termine par un souvenir.

The voyage begins with a wish,
it ends with a memory.

(for the great traveler John terWinkel,
for Nellie Bly, for Phileas Fogg, for me)

three works by Edward Burne-Jones (1833 - 1898)

Click, bigger maybe.

The artist Myles Birket Foster commissioned Edward Burne-Jones to produce seven pictures on the theme of St George and the Dragon. It represents the legend of St George, a Roman tribune from Cappadocia, who went to Silene in Libya where a dragon was terrorizing the town, demanding young women be sent to it as sacrifices.

When it was the turn of the king's daughter, Princess Sabra, to be sacrificed, she was rescued by St George who agreed to slay the dragon if the king and his subjects would convert to Christianity.

Foster ordered the paintings for the dining room of his Tudor-style house, The Hill, at Whitley in Surrey, which he had designed himself in 1863 and had decorated by the newly-established firm of [William] Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. These were among the first pictures on which Burne-Jones's talented studio assistant Charles Fairfax Murray was employed.

After Foster left the house, the St George paintings came up for sale in 1894. The following year Burne-Jones undertook some restoration work to the set and it was exhibited in 1897, winning the gold medal at the Munich International Exhibition, and again at his memorial exhibition.

The series, which has since been widely dispersed, includes The Return of the Princess (Bristol City Art Gallery), The King's Daughter (Musee d'Orsay, Paris) and St George Kills the Dragon (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney), with studies in Birmingham City Art Gallery and the British Museum.

(Text: Great Masters Gallery)

more porn

C. PETRONII SATIRICON LIBER

XLI. Interim ego, qui privatum habebam secessum, in multas cogitationes diductus sum, quare aper pilleatus intrasset. Postquam itaque omnis bacalusias consumpsi, duravi interrogare illum interpretem meum, quod me torqueret. At ille: Plane etiam hoc servus tuus indicare potest: non enim aenigma est, sed res aperta. Hic aper, cum heri summa cena eum vindicasset, a conviviis dimissus est; itaque hodie tamquam libertus in convivium revertitur. Damnavi ego stuporem meum et nihil amplius interrogavi, ne viderer nunquam inter honestos cenasse. Dum haec loquimur, puer speciosus, vitibus hederisque redimitus, modo Bromium, interdum Lyaeum Euhiumque confessus, calathisco uvas circumtulit, et poemata domini sui acutissima voce traduxit. Ad quem sonum conversus Trimalchio: Dionyse, inquit, liber esto. Puer detraxit pilleum apro capitique suo imposuit. Tum Trimalchio rursus adiecit: Non negabitis me, inquit, habere Liberum patrem. Laudamus dictum Trimalchionis, et circumeuntem puerum sane perbasiamus. Ab hoc ferculo Trimalchio ad lasanum surrexit. Nos libertatem sine tyranno nacti coepimus invitare convivarum sermones. Dama itaque primus cum pataracina poposcisset: Dies, inquit, nihil est. Dum versas te, nox fit. Itaque nihil est melius quam de cubiculo recta in triclinium ire. Et mundum frigus habuimus. Vix me balneus calfecit. Tamen calda potio vestiarius est. Staminatas duxi, et plane matus sum. Vinus mihi in cerebrum abiit.

XLII. Excepit Seleucus fabulae partem et: Ego, inquit, non cotidie lavor; baliscus enim fullo est: aqua dentes habet, et cor nostrum cotidie liquescit. Sed cum mulsi pultarium obduxi, frigori laecasin dico. Nec sane lavare potui; fui enim hodie in funus. Homo bellus, tam bonus Chrysanthus animam ebulliit. Modo, modo me appellavit. Videor mihi cum illo loqui. Heu, eheu! Vtres inflati ambulamus. Minoris quam muscae sumus. Illae tamen aliquam virtutem habent; nos non pluris sumus quam bullae. Et quid si non abstinax fuisset! Quinque dies aquam in os suum non coniecit, non micam panis. Tamen abiit ad plures. Medici illum perdiderunt, immo magis malus fatus; medicus enim nihil aliud est quam animi consolatio. Tamen bene elatus est, vitali lecto, stragulis bonis. Planctus est optime -- manu misit aliquot -- etiam si maligne illum ploravit uxor. Quid si non illam optime accepisset? Sed mulier quae mulier milvinum genus. Neminem nihil boni facere oportet; aeque est enim ac si in puteum conicias. Sed antiquus amor cancer est.

XLIII. Molestus fuit, Philerosque proclamavit: Vivorum meminerimus. Ille habet, quod sibi debebatur: honeste vixit, honeste obiit. Quid habet quod queratur? Ab asse crevit et paratus fuit quadrantem de stercore mordicus tollere. Itaque crevit, quicquid crevit, tanquam favus. Puto mehercules illum reliquisse solida centum, et omnia in nummis habuit. De re tamen ego verum dicam, qui linguam caninam comedi: durae buccae fuit, linguosus, discordia, non homo. Frater eius fortis fuit, amicus amico, manu plena, uncta mensa. Et inter initia malam parram pilavit, sed recorrexit costas illius prima vindemia: vendidit enim vinum quantum ipse voluit. Et quod illius mentum sustulit, hereditatem accepit, ex qua plus involavit quam illi relictum est. Et ille stips, dum fratri suo irascitur, nescio cui terrae filio patrimonium elegavit. Longe fugit, quisquis suos fugit. Habuit autem oracularios servos, qui illum pessum dederunt. Nunquam autem recte faciet, qui cito credit, utique homo negotians. Tamen verum quod frunitus est, quam diu vixit. Datum est cui datum est, non cui destinatum. Plane Fortunae filius. In manu illius plumbum aurum fiebat. Facile est autem, ubi omnia quadrata currunt. Et quot putas illum annos secum tulisse? Septuaginta et supra. Sed corneolus fuit, aetatem bene ferebat, niger tanquam corvus. Noveram hominem olim oliorum, et adhuc salax erat. Non mehercules illum puto domo canem reliquisse. Immo etiam puellarius erat, omnis Minervae homo. Nec improbo, hoc solum enim secum tulit.

XLIV. Haec Phileros dixit, illa Ganymedes: Narrat is quod nec ad terram pertinet, cum interim nemo curat quid annona mordet. Non mehercules hodie buccam panis invenire potui. Et quomodo siccitas perseverat! Iam annum esuritio fuit. Aediles male eveniat, qui cum pistoribus colludunt: 'Serva me, servabo te.' Itaque populus minutus laborat; nam isti maiores maxillae semper Saturnalia agunt. O si haberemus illos leones, quos ego hic inveni, cum primum ex Asia veni. Illud erat vivere. Si mila Siciliae si inferior esset larvas sic istos percolopabant, ut illis Iuppiter iratus esset. Sed memini Safinium; tunc habitabat ad arcum veterem, me puero: piper, non homo. Is quacunque ibat, terram adurebat. Sed rectus, sed certus, amicus amico, cum quo audacter posses in tenebris micare. In curia autem quomodo singulos pilabat. Nec schemas loquebatur sed directum. Cum ageret porro in foro, sic illius vox crescebat tanquam tuba. Nec sudavit unquam nec expuit; puto enim nescio quid Asiadis habuisse. Et quam benignus resalutare, nomina omnium reddere, tanquam unus de nobis! Itaque illo tempore annona pro luto erat. Asse panem quem emisses, non potuisses cum altero devorare. Nunc oculum bublum vidi maiorem. Heu heu, quotidie peius! Haec colonia retroversus crescit tanquam coda vituli. Sed quare nos habemus aedilem trium cauniarum, qui sibi mavult assem quam vitam nostram? Itaque domi gaudet, plus in die nummorum accipit quam alter patrimonium habet. Iam scio unde acceperit denarios mille aureos. Sed si nos coleos haberemus, non tantum sibi placeret. Nunc populus est domi leones, foras vulpes. Quod ad me attinet, iam pannos meos comedi, et si perseverat haec annona, casulas meas vendam. Quid enim futurum est, si nec dii nec homines eius coloniae miserentur? Ita meos fruniscar, ut ego puto omnia illa a diibus fieri. Nemo enim caelum caelum putat, nemo ieiunium servat, nemo Iovem pili facit, sed omnes opertis oculis bona sua computant. Antea stolatae ibant nudis pedibus in clivum, passis capillis, mentibus puris, et Iovem aquam exrabant. Itaque statim urceatim plovebat: aut tunc aut nunquam, et omnes ridebant udi tanquam mures. Itaque dii pedes lanatos habent, quia nos religiosi non sumus. Agri iacent. . .

XLV. -- Oro te, inquit Echion centonarius, melius loquere. 'Modo sic, modo sic', inquit rusticus: varium porcum perdiderat. Quod hodie non est, cras erit: sic vita truditur. Non mehercules patria melior dici potest, si homines haberet. Sed laborat hoc tempore, nec haec sola. Non debemus delicati esse; ubique medius caelus est. Tu si aliubi fueris, dices hic porcos coctos ambulare. Et ecce habituri sumus munus excellente in triduo die festa; familia non lanisticia, sed plurimi liberti. Et Titus noster magnum animum habet, et est caldicerebrius. Aut hoc aut illud erit, quid utique. Nam illi domesticus sum, non est miscix. Ferrum optimum daturus est, sine fuga, carnarium in medio, ut amphitheater videat. Et habet unde. Relictum est illi sestertium tricenties: decessit illius pater male. Vt quadringenta impendat, non sentiet patrimonium illius, et sempiterno nominabitur. Iam Manios aliquot habet et mulierem essedariam et dispensatorem Glyconis, qui deprehensus est cum dominam suam delectaretur. Videbis populi rixam inter zelotypos et amasiunculos. Glyco autem, sestertiarius homo, dispensatorem ad bestias dedit. Hoc est se ipsum traducere. Quid servus peccavit, qui coactus est facere? Magis illa matella digna fuit quam taurus iactaret. Sed qui asinum non potest, stratum caedit. Quid autem Glyco putabat Hermogenis filicem unquam bonum exitum facturam? Ille miluo volanti poterat ungues resecare; colubra restem non parit. Glyco, Glyco dedit suas; itaque quamdiu vixerit, habebit stigmam, nec illam nisi Orcus delebit. Sed sibi quisque peccat. Sed subolfacio quia nobis epulum daturus est Mammaea, binos denarios mihi et meis. Quod si hoc fecerit, eripiat Norbano totum favorem. Scias oportet plenis velis hunc vinciturum. Et revera, quid ille nobis boni fecit? Dedit gladiatores sestertiarios iam decrepitos, quos si sufflasses, cecidissent; iam meliores bestiarios vidi. Occidit de lucerna equites; putares eos gallos gallinaceos: alter burdubasta, alter loripes, tertiarius mortuus pro mortuo, qui haberet nervia praecisa. Vnus licuius flaturae fuit Thraex, qui et ipse ad dictata pugnavit. Ad summam, omnes postea secti sunt; adeo de magna turba 'Adhibete' acceperant: plane fugae merae. 'Munus tamen, inquit, tibi dedi -- et ego tibi plodo.' Computa, et tibi plus do quam accepi. Manus manum lavat.

XLVI. Videris mihi, Agamemnon, dicere: 'Quid iste argutat molestus?' Quia tu, qui potes loquere, non loquis. Non es nostrae fasciae, et ideo pauperorum verba derides. Scimus te prae litteras fatuum esse. Quid ergo est? Aliqua die te persuadeam, ut ad villam venias et videas casulas nostras. Inveniemus quod manducemus, pullum, ova: belle erit, etiam si omnia hoc anno tempestas dispare pallavit. Inveniemus ergo unde saturi fiamus. Et iam tibi discipulus crescit cicaro meus. Iam quattuor partis dicit; si vixerit, habebis ad latus servulum. Nam quicquid illi vacat, caput de tabula non tollit. Ingeniosus est et bono filo, etiam si in aves morbosus est. Ego illi iam tres cardeles occidi, et dixi quia mustella comedit. Invenit tamen alias nenias, et libentissime pingit. Ceterum iam Graeculis calcem impingit et Latinas coepit non male appetere, etiam si magister eius sibi placens sit. Nec uno loco consistit, sed venit raro; scit quidem litteras, sed non vult laborare. Est et alter non quidem doctus, sed curiosus, qui plus docet quam scit. Itaque feriatis diebus solet domum venire, et quicquid dederis, contentus est. Emi ergo nunc puero aliquot libra rubricata, quia volo illum ad domusionem aliquid de iure gustare. Habet haec res panem. Nam litteris satis inquinatus est. Quod si resilierit, destinavi illum artificii docere, aut tonstreinum aut praeconem aut certe causidicum, quod illi auferre non possit nisi Orcus. Ideo illi cotidie clamo: Primigeni, crede mihi, quicquid discis, tibi discis. Vides Phileronem causidicum: si non didicisset, hodie famem a labris non abigeret. Modo, modo, collo suo circumferebat onera venalia; nunc etiam adversus Norbanum se extendit. Litterae thesaurum est, et artificium nunquam moritur.

Total Solar Eclipse / Saros 126 / Greenland / Russia / Mongolia / China

Click image for larger.

Reuters (UK newswire)
Friday 1 August 2008

Total Solar Eclipse
Greenland / Russia / Mongolia / China

(Reuters) -- The moon will block the sun across a swathe of Russia, Mongolia and northwestern China just before sunset on 1 August, launching a momentous month for China as it hosts the Olympic Games in Beijing.

* A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and the earth, blocking out the sun from the areas in the moon's shadow. Without the sun's light, the sky darkens enough for stars to be seen and the corona makes a spectacular halo around the moon.

* The first datable records of a solar eclipse was in 753 BC, in Assyria, but earlier notations, among them Chinese diviners' queries on oracle bones from 1,300-1,100 BC, clearly refer to eclipses.

* From 720-480 BC, astronomers in the state of Lu (now China's Shandong Province) recorded eclipses that can be reliably dated. By the first millennium AD, Chinese imperial astronomers could predict eclipses with an accuracy of within 15 minutes.

* Ancient Chinese eclipse records can be used to calculate the slowing of the earth's rotation, due to the braking action of the moon.

* A solar eclipse in 1919 helped confirm Einstein's theory of general relativity.

* Eclipses are also scientifically interesting because they allow a rare glimpse of the cooler corona, glowing gases near the sun's surface and solar flares, which are normally not visible due to the brightness of the sun.

* The surface of the sun is relatively quiet at the moment, with fewer sunspots than expected.

* The next solar eclipse will occur on 22 July 2009, and could be viewed by hundreds of millions of people as it crosses straight through India and northern Bangladesh, then runs along the Yangtze River from Chongqing to Shanghai.

Sources: Dr F Richard Stephenson, Durham University; Dr Jay Pasachoff, Williams College (Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Alex Richardson)

- 30 -

Forgiveness, or Revenge, the dish best served cold / Pay now with Forgiveness to buy a decent Future / Bush's Legacy

National Museums Liverpool
Lady Lever Art Gallery
Liverpool UK

'The Tree of Forgiveness'
Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1882
Accession Number LL3635

After the conquest of Troy, Demophoön stayed at the Thracian court where Phyllis, the king’s daughter, fell in love with him. They agreed to marry but he had first to return to Attica. He delayed there so long that Phyllis doubted he would ever return and killed herself. The gods turned her into an almond tree which here the penitent Demophoön is embracing, to find the tree suddenly blossoming and Phyllis reappearing to him.

As so often with Burne-Jones, violent sexual passions — love, betrayal, remorse and forgiveness — are visualised within the context of myth and within an abstract linear design of great sophistication. This greatly enhances the expressive power of the story’s climax.

* * *

Jim Olson said ...

"Who the fuck wants to go to Beijing, China to spend their money to help these creeps show off their repressive police state?"

I'll tell you who. None other than George W. Bush. A sitting American President has not attended the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in a foreign country in years. But not ol' Georgie Porgie. Nope, he's gonna waste your tax dollars flyin' on Air Force One with a bajillion Secret Service to go to China, to attend the opening ceremonies.

But there is no money for proper armor, or food aid for the hungry, or money for bridges or schools.

Wednesday, 30 July, 2008

Oh, and just in case you are mistaken, FUCK GEORGE W. BUSH and the enabling horses he rode in on whose names are Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Rice, Rove and Cheney.

Thursday, 31 July, 2008

===================

I am having this very troubling feeling that I have contaminated you with my vulgarity and my anger. If it ever becomes an issue for you, please feel free to blame it all on me. The Bob made you do it. You fell in with Bad Companions. Community gossip about that accusation could haunt me like a colorful and entertaining compliment.

There's an alternative possibility that it isn't really my fault, it's Bush's. I'd feel a lot less guilty if that was what's going on here.

One very personal difficulty I have with some of what I understand about and see of Christianity is the emphasis on the virtue of Forgiveness.

Am I supposed to forgive Bush? For the torture? For Guantanamo and the suspension of due process and habeas corpus? For the lies that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, of Iraqis, and of my neighbors' kids in uniform? For the thefts, often lawlessly and in secret, of our individual freedoms and privacies?

Do you feel pushed into the Forgiveness Corner? How will you handle that? How will you balance that? Should we balance that?

Our instincts certainly are not screaming for Balance.

I'm asking with [ Sincerity: ON ]. Because South Africa and Czechoslovakia had to grapple with this question, and the transition leadership realized that Forgiveness for the most grievous and cruel acts of the old regime was necessary to move forward to a progressive new world without getting stuck in a (well-deserved) cycle of Revenge.

And a very natural human response to 8 years of Bush will be the Desire For Revenge. And those who choose that response will sincerely believe it's Righteous.

And they're right.

But it can also be foot-shooting, and be an obstacle for everyone's right to move to and live in a Better Future.

Forgiveness aside, there's the question of Bush's Legacy. Be happy in the Legacy he's solidly and permanently engraved for himself and his administration in granite.

You never goaded him to act the way he acted, it was all his idea. If anything we begged and screamed at him not to do the things he did.

But how he will be remembered, as a human being, as a president ... this is a lock. The first pairing, the nearest and most obvious, is to Nixon.

But really he has made his presidency the equal of Warren Harding's (1921-'23).

==============

Wikipedia:

The most infamous scandal of the time was the Teapot Dome affair, which shook the nation for years after Harding's death. The scandal involved Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, who was convicted of accepting bribes and illegal no-interest personal loans in exchange for the leasing of public oil fields to business associates. (Absent the bribes and personal loans, the leases themselves were quite legal.) In 1931, Fall became the first member of a Presidential Cabinet to be sent to prison.[10]

Thomas W. Miller, head of the Office of Alien Property, was convicted of accepting bribes. Jess Smith, personal aide to the Attorney General, destroyed papers and then committed suicide. Charles Forbes, Director of the Veterans Bureau, skimmed profits, earned large amounts of kickbacks, and directed underground alcohol and drug distribution. He was convicted of fraud and bribery and drew a two-year sentence. Charles Cramer, an aide to Charles Forbes, committed suicide.

No evidence to date suggests that Harding personally profited from these crimes, but he was apparently unable to stop them. "I have no trouble with my enemies," Harding told journalist William Allen White late in his presidency, "but my damn friends, they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!"[11]

===========

Worse; Harding was just dumb, he was not also cruel and malicious, and not even noted for any penchant to lie. He did not amass enemies who made it their life's work to destroy him or remove him. He elicited pity and embarrassment and disappointment.

(He didn't need enemies to destroy him. Harding did all his own self-destroying, and finally died on a re-election train tour to California.)

It is odd that Bush has made such a kindergarten distortive joke out of the word and out of the concept of Evil. He has called whole swaths of humanity Evil, dismissing them as beyond the civilized pale, and beyond discussion or exploratory negotiation.

And yet, where would the Evil-o-Meter point most violently in our times? How often would the Radio Shack Pocket Evil Detector start buzzing and whining and ululating in the Bush White House? Where and when in our times has Sparky, the Evil-Detecting Dog, gone to alert and begun barking most ferociously?

His is quite the Advanced and Certain Legacy, years before the Bush Library opens its doors.

"I have made of my life excrement," says the German judge and great law scholar in his war crimes cell in "Judgment at Nuremburg." (Screenplay by Abby Mann, the judge was Burt Lancaster.)

Bush has made his life toxic, radioactive (with long half-life) excrement. Two wars in Asia, and all the miserable Sequelae to these particular Liars' and Scoundrels' Wars (Congressman Lincoln's phrase for Polk's Mexican War.) The plight of their veterans in Bush's military and VA hospitals.

"Yes, you'll be remembered
You'll be remembered very well
And if I live a long life
Oh, the stories I can tell ..."

-- Arlo Guthrie,
song about Nixon

A few tips and guidelines about this Forgiveness business would be appreciated. How do you forgive a creep like this, and his cabal of lawless rogue scoundrels?

Should you? Cui bono? -- who benefits from forgiving this creep, besides the creep himself? Is forgiving most of what Bush has done, with malice aforethought, the price we must pay here in the Present to try to buy a more decent and more stable and more lawful Future? Must we Forgive Bush Now to give our kids better schools and healthcare and a life without American wars? Do we need to forgive now, so our women and men in uniform can come home safely to their sweethearts and families over the next ten years?

Are Truth and Reconciliation proceedings in our Future? There's a lot of Anger out there. That's a resource which could be tapped to generate a Lot Of Trouble for the next decade. The path to ponies and clean air and peace and justice and straighter kids' teeth and more teachers might have to take a detour around the righteous lust for Revenge -- "a dish best served cold."

Curb Your Enthusiasm / Toby Moment du jour / Obama flees another supporter, Ludacris, for a spicy pro-Obama rap song

Vleeptron got rap.
Vleeptron got hiphop.
Vleeptron got gangsta.
Vleeptron got Campaign '08.
Vleeptron got controversy.
Vleeptron got Toby Moments.
Vleeptron got game.

Politics As Usual

by Ludacris
from “Gangsta Grillz: The Preview” mixtape

I’m back on it like I just signed my record deal
Yeah the best is here
The Bentley Coup paint is dripping wet -- it got sex appeal
Never should have hated -- you never should’ve doubted him
With a slot in the president’s iPod Obama shouted him
Said I handled his biz and I’m one of his favorite rappers
Will give Luda a special pardon if I’m ever in the slammer
Better yet put me in office, make me your vice president
Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant
Now Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what?
If you said it then you meant it, how you want it -- head or gut?
And all you other politicians trying to hate on my man
Watch us win a majority vote in every state on my man
You can’t stop what’s ’bout to happen, we ’bout to make history
The first black president is destined and it’s meant to be
The threats ain’t fazing us, the nooses or the jokes
Get off your ass, black people, it’s time to get out and vote
Paint the White House black and I’m sure that’s got ‘em terrified
McCain don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and I throw em like candy wrap
‘Cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant
And you the worst of all 43 presidents
Get out and vote or the end will be near
The world is ready for change because Obama is here

Will an athlete help Tibet ask the world for its freedom at the Beijing Olympics?

Click image, but all text
and link reprinted below.

This full-page advertisement appeared on Page A9 in The New York Times yesterday (Tuesday 29 July 2008). Students for a Free Tibet raised U$51,000 from individual contributors to pay for it. I'm sure they'll be happy to still let you donate, so they can keep getting their message out.

* * * * * * *

AT EVERY OLYMPICS
THERE IS
ONE ATHLETE
WHO ENDS UP INSPIRING
THE WORLD WITH THEIR
COURAGE AND CHARACTER.

WE'RE HOPING THAT ATHLETE
IS READING THIS.

WHO WILL STAND UP FOR TIBET THIS SUMMER? As 11,000 competitors gather to stand up for their countries, we ask them this: Will one among you also stand up for Tibet? With the Olympics beckoning and the world looking to be inspired by your heroism, we remind you that 6 million Tibetans look to you for the very same thing. You can be there for Tibet, for they cannot. You can speak up for Tibet, for they have been silenced. The people of Tibet pass their torch to you. Will you carry it for them in Beijing?

TEAM TIBET 2008

www.athletewanted.org