Buddy Guy
Stormy Monday

You think they practice the snarl?

We’re hearing this alot lately, aren’t we. How convvvvvvenient that they don’t recall.

(AP) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she cannot recall then-CIA chief George Tenet warning her of an impending al Qaeda attack in the United States, as a new book claims he did two months before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“What I am quite certain of is that I would remember if I was told, as this account apparently says, that there was about to be an attack in the United States, and the idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible,” Rice said.

Read more at CBS News

Ok….. I don’t think this guy should be able to play professional football EVER again. They knew he had an anger problem and now he’s hurt someone seriously. He could have killed Gurode. What will he do next time???? There’s a history of violence here. Do they think him sitting out five games is going to make it go away??? Do they think losing 190,000.00 is going to hurt this guy??? It’s a drop in the bucket for him. I think it’s wrong that we allow guys like this play. Wrong wrong wrong……. If I were his team mates, or rivals, I’d refuse to go on the field with this guy.

By TERESA M. WALKER AP Sports Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Oct 2, 2006 (AP)- Albert Haynesworth’s temper has landed him in trouble with teammates and coaches before. By stomping another player’s head, the Tennessee Titans defensive tackle not only disgusted himself, he also drew a five-game suspension the longest for on-field behavior in NFL history.

And that may just be the beginning of the grief for Haynesworth, who fell to the Titans in the middle of the first round of the 2002 draft because of maturity questions.

The 6-foot-6, 320-pound Haynesworth stomped on Dallas Cowboys center Andre Gurode’s head Sunday, knocking off his helmet, then kicked and stomped his face. Gurode needed 30 stitches to repair the cuts left by the tackle’s cleats, and plans to talk with his family about whether or not to press charges, his agent told Nashville police Monday.

Read the full story at ABC News

Congratulations to Mr. Fire and Mr. Mello!!

MALCOLM RITTER
AP Science Writer
Posted October 2 2006, 7:10 PM EDT

NEW YORK — Two Americans won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for discovering a way to silence specific genes, a revolutionary finding that scientists are scrambling to harness for fighting illnesses as diverse as cancer, heart disease and AIDS.

Andrew Z. Fire, 47, of Stanford University, and Craig C. Mello, 45, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, will share the $1.4 million prize.

They were honored remarkably swiftly for work they published together just eight years ago. It revealed a process called RNA interference, which occurs in plants, animals and humans. It’s important for regulating gene activity and helping defend against viruses.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel

If it raised a “red flag” then why wasn’t anything done. Why? Because the political careers are more important than the safety of innocent pages. Their political careers are more important than anything……. and that’s why I believe Denny boy is about to be thrown to the lions.

By Andrew Taylor
ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:12 p.m. October 2, 2006

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Monday defended his office’s handling of questions raised about Rep. Mark Foley last year, saying the parents of a former male page were concerned about an e-mail Foley sent their son but didn’t want the matter pursued.
Hastert said neither he nor other GOP leaders were aware until last Friday of far more lurid computer exchanges two years earlier between the Florida Republican and another page.

Hastert, R-Ill., acknowledged that Foley’s 2005 e-mail to a Louisiana boy seeking a photograph raised a “red flag” with the Louisiana congressman who sponsored the page, but said his staff aides and Rep. John Shimkus, another Illinois Republican who chairs a board of House members who oversee the page program, did not know the contents.

Read more here
More on this at ABCNews

A happy Yom Kippur to all those who observe it.

Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement,” is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Judaism 101’s introduction is here and the Wikipedia entry is here.

According to Frank James, (The Swamp, a Chicago-Tribune blog), this time, the GOP are putting the blame on the media.

Over the weekend, Rep. Dennis Hastert, House Speaker, sent letters to both Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, calling for investigations of Foley. It’s what was said in those letters that is of interest here.

Speaker’s Press Office
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 1, 2006

Speaker Hastert Letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

(Washington, D.C.) Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) today sent the following letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

Former Representative Mark Foley resigned from the House of Representatives on Friday, September 29, 2006, after improper and illicit communications between Mr. Foley and former House pages were made public. While the House of Representatives on that day voted to refer this matter to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for investigation, they do not have jurisdiction over federal law or over him upon his resignation from office.

As Speaker of the House, I hereby request that the Department of Justice conduct an investigation of Mr. Foley’s conduct with current and former House pages to determine to what extent any of his actions violated federal law.

As I am sure you are aware, there are two different and distinct communications at issue here. First, Mr. Foley sent an email to a former page of Representative Alexander in the fall of 2005. This email was determined to be “over friendly” by Representative Alexander’s office but was not sexual in nature. Second, based on media reports, there is a different set of communications which were sexually explicit instant messages which Mr. Foley reportedly sent another former page or pages. These communications, of which no one in the House Leadership was aware to my knowledge, reportedly were sent sometime in 2003.

According to an Editor’s Note that appeared on the St. Petersburg Times’ website yesterday, the Times was given a set of emails from Mr. Foley to Representative Alexander’s former page in November of 2005. (See “A Note From the Editors” located at http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/, visited on September 30, 2006). The editors state that they viewed this exchange as “friendly chit chat” and decided not to publish it after hearing an explanation from Representative Foley. Acting on this same communication, the Chairman of the House Page Board and the then Clerk of the House confronted Mr. Foley, demanded he cease all contact with the former page as his parents had requested, and believed they had privately resolved the situation as the parents had requested. (emphasis mine)

Unlike the first communication, the second communication was a set of instant messages that contained sexually explicit statements and were reportedly generated three years ago. Last week, ABC News first reported these sexually explicit instant messages which led to Representative Foley’s resignation. These sexually explicit communications warrant a criminal referral in two respects. Initially, since the communications involve interstate communications, there should be a complete investigation and prosecution of any federal laws that have been violated. In addition, since the communications appear to have existed for three years, there should be an investigation into the extent there are persons who knew or had possession of these messages but did not report them to the appropriate authorities. It is important to know who may have had the communications and why they were not given to prosecutors before now.

Therefore, I also request that the Department undertake an investigation into who had specific knowledge of the content of any sexually explicit communications between Mr. Foley and any former or current House pages and what actions such individuals took, if any, to provide them to law enforcement. I request that the scope of your investigation include any and all individuals who may have been aware of this matter-be they Members of Congress, employees of the House of Representatives, or anyone outside the Congress.

Your attention to this serious matter is appreciated. I am also sending to the Department of Law Enforcement for the State of Florida a request to investigate whether or not any state laws were violated by Mr. Foley or anyone else with respect to this matter.

Sincerely,

J. Dennis Hastert
Speaker

The paragraph in bold text above is what’s of interest. Hastart seems to be saying that the media was also well aware of Foley’s transgressions but took no action, while Shimkus confronted Foley and demanded he cease all communication with the page.

Frank James goes on to write:

The paragraph is really meant for the public and the media. For the media, it’s a brush back pitch to get our attention.

A media organization had the same information that House Republicans had. The media organization did nothing with it while those in the House responsible for the pages gave Foley a stern talking to. So back off, seems to be the letter’s message to the media.

The other interesting thing about the letter is Hastert’s call for an investigation into who had copies of the sexually charged IMs which forced Foley’s resignation. ABC News reported the existence of those IMs and got them from somewhere.

Hastert appears to be suggesting that whoever had those IMs and didn’t go to law enforcement first may have committed a crime. Who knows, maybe it was some Democrat dirty trick meant to embarass House Republicans before the mid-term elections?

The MSM has been carrying Bushco water for quite some time now. I wonder how they feel about this? And, ‘Democrat dirty trick’? Foley hits on underage boys and Hastert gets angry about some non-existent ploy. Typical Republican game plan; obfuscate, finger-point, change the subject… wash, rinse and repeat. You have to give Republicans credit though. Bringing down a once highly regarded and loved country such as America is hard (and fortunately for them very rewarding) work!

(Full article)

So now the guy is an alcoholic……… is that supposed to make his behavior A-ok? An excuse for it? I don’t THINK so!!!

Scandal-hit US lawmaker in rehab

Former US Congressman Mark Foley, who has been embroiled in a scandal over sexually suggestive e-mails, says he is undergoing treatment for alcoholism.
The Florida Republican had checked himself into a rehabilitation facility, his lawyer said.

Mr Foley was forced to resign on Friday after it was revealed that he had sent sexual messages to young men, the youngest aged 16, on his staff.

Senior US politicians have called for a full inquiry into his conduct.

And the FBI is examining the messages to see if any law has been broken.

More at BBC News

Erykah Badu
Penitentiary Philosophy
Mama’s Gun

I was sitting in a hospital room this evening. No cable. Waiting for the Bears game to come on. We had on 60 Minutes, and watched a piece by Mike Wallace. Bumfight videos. The sickest thing I’ve seen in a while. The hospital I was in does an enormous amount of charity work. They have many homeless people every day, every night. Not always sick. Often times claiming illness so they can get a good nights sleep and a good meal. They feed them, let them sleep and then send them on their way. In the wintertime, they’ll sit in the waiting room for days before someone treats them. A nurse was telling me about this earlier today when I asked her if they treated many homeless people there. I had noticed quite a few in the waiting room and on the steps of the emergency room. After hearing of the good they do for these people, this Bumfight video really pissed me off. Some cold, amoral son of a bitch decides to make a video entitled Bumfight, where people go around and basically torture homeless people and buy them beer or give them a few cigarettes or a couple bucks to do dangerous stupid things. And he makes a million and a half bucks.
Not too long ago, a group of teens beat two homeless men in Fort Lauderdale. One survived. The other was not that lucky. There’s a growing trend of violence towards the homeless. And I sat in that hospital room tonight and wondered why. They say religion is on the rise. I know of no religion that teaches violence towards the weak. Or violence at all, for that matter. On my way out, I talked to a homeless man. He stated he had asthma, he was epileptic, and needed to get in that hospital to get some good rest. I hope he did……..

Next time you see a homeless person, go out of your way to be kind. The way I look at it…..in this day and age, we’re all just a day away from being in the same boat. There are no guarantees in life. We don’t know what’s going to come at us from one day to the next. And neither did that guy in front of the hospital tonight.

You can read the 60 minutes article at CBS News