Two words for this guy………SCUM……BAG!!

Rudy’s new political ad attacking Hillary Clinton features multiple pictures of General Petraeus in uniform – but now the Pentagon says that the General “has not condoned” the use of his image in Rudy’s ad or any other political ads, adding that it was done “without his consent.”

Rudy’s Web ad — launched yesterday — features images of a uniformed Petraeus as a narrator’s voice in the background accuses Clinton of slandering the General. In the ad, the Giulilani campaign also faults Clinton for not forcefully condemning a MoveOn ad in The Times that also features a picture of Petraeus.

Giuliani’s ad, in addition to featuring multiple pictures of Petraeus in uniform, also features photos of uniformed American soldiers in Iraq that are “shown as Mrs. Clinton is accused of turning her back on them,” as today’s New York Times piece on the ad puts it. You can view the ad here, on Giuliani’s campaign Web site.

Defense Department regulations prohibit uniformed personnel from appearing in political ads. And while these are stock photos, meaning that neither Petraeus nor the other military personnel actively moved to appear in Giuliani’s ad, their use in this ad makes the question of whether Petraeus or the Defense Department condone the use of images of him or other military uniformed personnel a fair one.

More at TPM

Sam Cooke
“Bring it on Home to Me”

Several thousand protesters marched Saturday from the White House to the Capitol to demand an end to the Iraq war, and at least 160 people were arrested when they jumped a barricade at the foot of the Capitol steps.

Many of the protesters were arrested without a struggle after they jumped over the waist-high barricade. But some grew angry as police attempted to push them back using large shields. At least two people were showered with chemical spray. Protesters responded by throwing signs and chanting: “Shame on you.”

The arrests came after protesters initially decided to lay down on the Capitol lawn with signs on top of their bodies to represent soldiers killed in Iraq. When police took no action, some of the protesters decided to start climbing over the barricade.

Before arriving at the Capitol lawn, the demonstrators marched on Pennsylvania Avenue holding banners and signs and saying, “What do we want? Troops out. When do we want it? Now.”

Counterprotesters lined the sidewalks behind metal barricades. There were some heated shouting matches between the two sides.

More at Yahoo News

It doesn’t rival the Pentagon’s $600 toilet seat, but the Justice Department can fork over a mean $4 meatball.

An internal Justice audit, released Friday, showed the department spent nearly $7 million to plan, host or send employees to 10 conferences over the last two years. This included paying $4 per meatball at one lavish dinner and spreading an average of $25 worth of snacks around to each participant at a movie-themed party.

There was plenty, too, for those needing to satisfy a sweet tooth.

More than $13,000 was spent on cookies and brownies for 1,542 people who attended a four-day “Weed and Seed” conference in August 2005, according to the audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. And a “networking” session replete with butterfly shrimp, coconut lobster skewers and Swedish meatballs at a Community Oriented Policing Services conference in July 2006 cost more than $60,000.

The report, which looked at the 10 priciest Justice Department conferences between October 2004 and September 2006, was ordered by the Senate Appropriations Committee. It also found that three-quarters of the employees who attended the conferences demanded daily reimbursement for the cost of meals while traveling - effectively double-dipping into government funds.

More at USA Today

I received an email about a week ago from Gunnar Becker’s Mom, Debey. The subject line was in reference to my post awhile back about all the “non-hostile, unexplained deaths in Iraq. A simple email. Two links.

Her son, US Private 1st Class Gunnar D. Becker, was on the list I posted.

US Private 1st Class Gunnar D. Becker Mosul (near) - Ninawa Non-hostile - unspecified injury

He died on January 13, 2005. My daughter’s birthday. Gunnar was a year younger than my baby. He would have turned 20 on January 22, 2005. I read about Gunnar, and the circumstances leading to his death and I have thought about his Mother everyday since. I can’t say it any better than the links his Mom sent to me do, so I’ll let his friends and family speak to their love for him and what a tragic loss they feel.

You can read about the circumstances surrounding his death, and the court martial that came of it here, and read all about Gunnar and his friends and family here. Thank you Debey, for sharing your son’s story with me. My thoughts and prayers are with you….today and always.

R.I.P. US Private 1st Class Gunnar D. Becker

BBC Online

A list of the world’s most polluted places has been published by a US-based independent environmental group.

The Blacksmith Institute’s top 10 towns and cities included sites in ex-Soviet republics, Russia, China and India. Peru and Zambia were also listed.

The report said an estimated 12 million people were affected by the severe pollution, which was mainly caused by chemical, metal and mining industries.

Chronic illness and premature deaths were listed as possible side-effects.

The annual review, which debuted in 2006, is listed alphabetically, and the sites are unranked “given the wide range of location sizes, populations and pollution dynamics”.

Among the new sites listed in 2007 were Tianying in China, where potentially 140,000 people were at risk from lead poisoning from a massive lead production base there.

The report also said that in the Indian town of Sukinda there were 12 mines operating without environmental controls, leaching dangerous chemicals into water supplies.

Sumgayit in Azerbaijan was also included in the report, which said the former Soviet industrial base was polluting the area with industrial chemicals and heavy metals.

Sumgayit, Azerbaijan; Potentially 275,000 affected
Linfen, China; Potentially 3m affected
Tianying, China; Potentially 140,000 affected
Sukinda, India; Potentially 2.6m affected
Vapi, India; Potentially 71,000 affected
La Oroya, Peru; Potentially 35,000 affected
Dzerzhinsk, Russia; Potentially 300,000 affected
Norilsk, Russia; Potentially 134,000 affected
Chernobyl, Ukraine; Potentially 5.5m affected
Kabwe, Zambia; Potentially 255,000 affected
Data: Blacksmith Institute

read more HERE

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and DAVID S. CLOUD
The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - Now that President Bush and Gen. David H. Petraeus have charted their course for the Iraq war, Democrats in the Senate say one of their proposals aimed at shifting the president’s strategy is finally close to winning enough Republican support for a real chance at being approved. It would require that troops spend as much time at home as on their most recent tours overseas before being redeployed.

The proposal, by Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, has strong support from top Democrats, who say that the practical effect would be to add time between deployments and force General Petraeus to withdraw troops on a substantially swifter timeline than the one he laid out before Congress this week, and that it would protect troops from serving protracted and debilitating deployments.

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware and a candidate for president, called the proposal the “easiest way” for his Republican colleagues to change the war strategy on the same day that the Bush administration released a mixed report on the Iraqi government’s progress toward various goals.

The Pentagon sought on Friday to challenge the Democrats- approach, with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates saying at a Pentagon news conference that it would only create further hardships for the military, including the prospect of even lengthier tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

read more HERE

Savers at a leading UK mortgage bank lined up for a second day to empty their accounts Saturday, a day after the lender was bailed out by the Bank of England after heavily slashing profit forecasts.

Long lines formed before counters opened at the Northern Rock building society, one of the UK’s top five lenders, as worried customers ignored reassurances from the bank and the government.

Customers are believed to have already withdrawn about £1 billion ($2 billion) since the bank’s woes were revealed, prompting speculation that the global credit crunch made raising funds through commercial borrowing difficult.

Shares in Northern Rock dropped up to 30 percent in Friday trading, with problems spilling over the European banking sector

More at CNN

Real Times’s Overtime segment with Drew Carey, Carl Bernstein, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky.

Wait…..I thought we didn’t torture? How can they stop doing something they weren’t doing in the first place?

The controversial interrogation technique known as water-boarding, in which a suspect has water poured over his mouth and nose to stimulate a drowning reflex, has been banned by CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden, current and former CIA officials tell ABCNews.com. (Image above is an ABC News graphic.)

The officials say Hayden made the decision at the recommendation of his deputy, Steve Kappes, and received approval from the White House to remove water-boarding from the list of approved interrogation techniques first authorized by a presidential finding in 2002.

The officials say the decision was made sometime last year but has never been publicly disclosed.

More at the Blotter

We Don’t Want the Enemy to Adjust…… Remember this interview? If I had been Matt Lauer I would have taken Bush’s finger, twisted it off his hand and shoved it up where the sun don’t shine. What a jerk.