Totally disgusting. Who do you think took a bath in a Burger King sink?

Just a 25-year-old aspiring musician who thought fans would get a kick out of watching him take a bath in the restaurant’s kitchen sink.

“This is August 7, this is my birthday and I’m taking a bath in the sink at Burger King,” the bathing employee, identified as Mr.UNST@BL3, aka Timothy Tackett, says in video footage that was posted online

I’m not sure what to make of this exactly. Ehud Olmert’s latest “peace” plan is seen as insufficient and does not provide for a Palestinian state that is both contiguous and governed from Jerusalem. Up until now, I didn’t think Abbas really cared about these things.

Actually, Olmert (and his plan) is a joke. In it, he is proposes that he keeps some Palestinian lands in exchange for some inhabitable desert land. I suppose Olmert never learned to play fair as a kid. Abbas is clear: “The Palestinian side will only accept a Palestinian state with territorial continuity, with holy Jerusalem as its capital, without settlements, and on the June 4, 1967 boundaries.” And his demand is a just one.

When did Abbas get a spine?

Yikes. These things happen in threes. 

Isaac Hayes — a legendary soul singer, songwriter, musician and producer whose career spanned four decades and who achieved unexpected fame later in life as the voice of “South Park” character Chef — died Sunday afternoon (August 10), a spokesperson for the Shelby County, Tennesee, sheriff’s department told WMC-TV in Memphis.

Some sad news. Bernie Mac died today at the age of 50.

Read about it here.

As reported by VOA News:

Georgian military forces have fought their way into the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday he had ordered an all-out offensive to regain control of the breakaway area.

Georgian tanks and troops, backed by artillery, have moved into the region and surrounded the capital Tskhinvali, where they are battling Russian-backed separatists for control of the city’s center. South Ossetian officials say 15 people were killed in the fighting.

I have to ask: Why has The White House, NATO and the EU not stepped in to help the people of South Ossetian? All they want is liberty and freedom, right?

Well sure there is a link between the Republican party and foreign oil deals. While McCain wants to continue to drill and buy, Obama seems more intent on conservation and alternatives. It seems option two is smart and in everyone’s best interests. But the Republicans and McCain have a different take.

The New York Times has this to say, after McCain was caught with oil donations:

Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign said Thursday that it would return all the contributions solicited for it by the Jordanian business partner of a prominent Florida fund-raiser for Mr. McCain.

For the McCain camp, the decision caps a queasy two days in which news accounts scrutinized a cluster of more than $50,000 in unusual contributions from a single extended family of Californians, the Abdullahs, and several of their friends.

Of course he’ll give it back. But that won’t change anything. McCain’s energy policy will continue the failed policy currently in place.

As Obama stated, and ridiculed by the Republicans, conservation methods would yield better results than offshore drilling would. From Political Punch:

proper tire inflation will save millions of barrels of oil per year, but that it will save more energy than new off shore drilling would yield.
…
But the salient point is that such measures are serious. Why the Republicans are mocking them at a time of energy crisis seems bizarre.

And don’t forget to check out the article from 1990. Seems bizarre to me in general how the Republicans have handled this issue historically and more importantly, how Americans in general have simply ignored the good, sound advice.

Obama, The Prince of Bait-and-Switch

by John Pilger

In the New York Times on 14 July, in an article spun to appear as if he is ending the war in Iraq, Obama demanded more war in Afghan istan and, in effect, an invasion of Pakistan. He wants more combat troops, more helicopters, more bombs. Bush may be on his way out, but the Republicans have built an ideological machine that transcends the loss of electoral power - because their collaborators are, as the American writer Mike Whitney put it succinctly, “bait-and-switch” Democrats, of whom Obama is the prince.

Those who write of Obama that “when it comes to international affairs, he will be a huge improvement on Bush” demonstrate the same wilful naivety that backed the bait-and-switch of Bill Clinton - and Tony Blair. Of Blair, wrote the late Hugo Young in 1997, “ideology has surrendered entirely to ‘values’ . . . there are no sacred cows [and] no fossilised limits to the ground over which the mind might range in search of a better Britain . . .”

Eleven years and five wars later, at least a million people lie dead. Barack Obama is the American Blair. That he is a smooth operator and a black man is irrelevant. He is of an enduring, rampant system whose drum majors and cheer squads never see, or want to see, the consequences of 500lb bombs dropped unerringly on mud, stone and straw houses

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/26/10622/

Whoever votes for Obama would be voting for someone who enables the killing of the Palestinians and would be contributing to the suffering of the Palestinians. Mccain would be the same.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/23/10537/

The presidential campaigns of Democrats and Republicans are no more about placing issues before the US public than competing commercials for new cars or bottled water are about the facts. Brought to us by the same corporate marketers that sell us lifestyles and beer, mainstream presidential campaigns aim to establish and exploit visceral, fact-proof loyalties to the brand of a party or candidate. The fact-proof nature of the Obama brand, and the lengths corporate media go to protect it were on prominent display during the candidate’s brief visit to Israel Palestine this week.

Finally, it seems as though Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, has come out with a warning that many doctors have been unwilling to make: That cellphones increase your risk for cancer. His message: “Id rather be safe than sorry”.

Here’s another blogger’s view (LA Times).

Here’s the original story.

Here’s the study.

While nobody knows for sure at this time — the data proves little, it is clear that enough concern exists to start thinking about serious precautions. Tami Dennis of the LA Times offers a few suggestions to minimize risk.

Some people call it a fad. But for the city of Flint, Mich., that urban style known as ’sagging’ is now a criminal offense.

What are your thoughts? Im 100% behind the Flint police department.

From Wikipedia:

The origins of the doctorate dates back to the ijazat attadris wa ‘l-ifttd (”license to teach and issue legal opinions”) in the medieval Madrasahs from the 9th century, though it was limited to Islamic law at the time, as in a Doctor of Laws degree.[4] … The degree of Doctor of Philosophy was a doctorate, generally granted as honorary degrees to select and well-established scholars

What I find particularly troubling about the US media, reporters, and politicians right now is the latest sensationalism: The evil Madrassas teaching children to hate America! Oh No! I doubt the vast majority of Americans really understand what a Madrassa is.

It is important to note here that there have been negative connotations applied to the word by news reports in Europe and the United States, in which madrasahs are often incorrectly inferred to be Islamic religious schools. Madrasahs are simply schools, and as with schools anywhere in the world, they may have different affiliations and curriculum.

I’m not sure what the psychology is, but this idea that average and non-average Americans alike need to be fearful of a handful of “Islamic” schools in Pakistan is absolutely absurd. The logic is totally fallacious; lazy thinking, lazy reporting, and sensationalism at its best. Meanwhile, inner city schools in the heart of every major city in the US is failing to produce well educated Americans who stay out of crime circles (most of whom would even think about higher education, let alone have it available to them!).

So while it is clear that curriculums around the world vary in extremes, from totally pro-America (perhaps the typical Australian school) to totally anti-American (schools in North Korea), it should also be clear that this will forever be the case as long as our world remains flat. And that the US (reporters and politicians) should not go on scaring the public into believing that the monster really does live under the bed and vacations in the closet.

Yet another example of word associations. For years I have been calling for an end to the association between “Islam” and “Terrorism”. Finally, as I wrote a short time ago, the US Government has called an end to it. One too many pig heads thrown into Mosques, I suppose.

Another not-so-surprising development:

The Sunday Times reports Stephen Payne, a Bush pioneer and a political appointee to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, was caught on tape offering access to key members of the Bush administration inner circle in exchange for “six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency.”

Read the story here.

Surprised?

Not me!

Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Friday which would have imposed an arms embargo against Zimbabwe and financial and travel sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and other key leaders of the country’s ruling party.

The resolution was proposed by the United States and backed by eight other countries, including Burkina Faso and European members of the council. South Africa, Libya and Vietnam joined Russia and China in voting against it. Indonesia abstained.

Story