Bill Clinton Link in Ethanol Probe
(SAO PAULO, Brazil) — A team from Brazil’s Labor Ministry found “degrading” living conditions for 133 sugarcane workers employed by an ethanol company whose investors include former President Clinton and other high-profile financial players.
At five sites inspected, workers “complained they were suffering from hunger and cold, and all of the locations were overcrowded and with terrible sanitary conditions,” according to a statement issued Friday by Jaqueline Carrijo, who led the inspections last month.
Okay, Clinton is a minor investor in a company that is a minor investor in Brenco. That’s not much of a connection and not much of an indictment of him. But certainly, as in the case of uberprogressives Mark Dayton, Al Franken, and Paul Wellstone, one who makes a big deal about the little folk and “feels your pain” might want to look a little more closely at his business connections.
So I was listening to the radio on the way to work and the host posed a survey question to the female members of the show’s crew. As best I can recall, the survey question went something like this:
“Suppose your husband came home and told you he had spent $4000 for four hours with a hooker. Then suppose that the reason he tells you this is that he is being investigated and that the story is on nationwide news. Then suppose that he asks you to go onstage with him at a press conference to show your support while he faces the reporters.
“The survey question is:
Not mine this time. KG has a quiz going and it’s a good one.
Being a fan from way back (like, from before he died nearly 35 years ago) I nailed all of them except the last one. That, I assume, is one of the ones released well after his death, like “Gunga Din”. I’m refraining from answering them for the moment, but please do drop by and answer them if you dare.
Well, I spent another bike ride with the Mamas and the Papas. Until I heard the song “Creeque Alley” lo these many years ago, I didn’t know that the M&tPs were so closely connected with the Lovin’ Spoonful, whose songs I have loved for many years. Well, there’s actually one that I’m not overly fond of even though it happens to be their only #1 song. Funny that.
Anyway, I do like these guys and since people (especially Joel) know the connection, it seems apropos to go with them. So here we go:
In a new venue this week through the kindness of Mr. Bingley and THS!
And this week, there are so many fuck offs and so little time. But here’s a small list off the top of my head:
Fuck off to corporate dweebs.
Fuck off to my sinuses.
Fuck off to spammers.
Fuck off to the master cylinder on my car, to the tune of $Outrageous.00
Okay, that’s enough for right now. Take it away! UPDATE:Just thought of another one: Fuck off to jackass writers who throw in utterly irrelevant and useless “facts” just because they happen to be technically true and would sound really, really good if they were actually relevant (but aren’t). Specifically, I’m thinking of this sentence:
Hydrogen—the most abundant element in the universe—is an attractive carrier of renewable energy.
Big breasts win verdict for Japanese pin-up
TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese pin-up model says that her big breasts have not only boosted her career — they also helped her overturn a court verdict.
The bikini model, who goes by her professional name Serena Kozakura, was cleared after a court decided she was too well-endowed to squeeze into a room through a hole, as she had been found guilty of earlier.
“I used to hate my body so much,” Kozakura … “But it was my breasts” that won in court, she said.
Cool.
Kozakura, 38, was convicted last year of property destruction after a man said she kicked in the wooden door of his room and crawled inside, apparently because he was with another woman.
Kozakura had said the man made the hole himself.
In her appeal, the defence counsel held up a plate showing the size of the hole and said that she could not squeeze through with her 110-centimetre (44-inch) bust.
“The judges were very good-mannered as they showed no expressions on their faces. I guess they’re well-trained,” Kozakura said.
I guess.
Anyway, aside from the titillation (heh) factor, the reason I bring this up is that a listener emailed the following comment to the radio show: “Somewhere, Johnny Cochran is looking up from his location down below and saying…
AN electronic device designed to ward sharks away from surfers failed so spectacularly during a trial off South Africa that it was eaten by a great white.
“It Comes in Pints?” is currently experiencing technical difficulties, as many of you have noticed. The Lovely and Talented BlogGoddess Emily is on the issue and, if I’m reading the situation accurately, is at this very moment beating a corporate dweeb over the head with his own femur. I’ll keep you all apprised of the situation.
In the meantime, the Lovely and Talented Mr. Bingley has graciously offered some space here should a synapse actually fire properly in what passes for my brain. And I think one may just have done so:
Maybe I’m getting cynical in my jaded old age, but when I see that the body of an African woman who campaigned against genital mutilation is found in the River Seine in the City of Youths and the police “don’t suspect foul play”…well, let’s see.
WASHINGTON (AP) – A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.
The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.
Former Michigan congressman Mark Siljander will recount his spiritual journey in which he “discovered commonalities between Islam and Christianity” in Reconcilable Differences: The True Story of the Quest to Bridge the Divide Between Islam and Christianity, slated for a summer 2008 publication by HarperSanFrancisco. Siljander also served as US ambassador to the United Nations.
…or whack job Huckabee. Well, shoot, it’s only Presidential Candidate Obama’s church.
Peace, my brothers. As long as you’re the same color as everyone else.
And unless you’re one of those filthy ‘middleclass’ types.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we were unable to travel to Sis’s house for Thanksgiving. We are having the CAGs father and wife over, along with a coworker and his wife. Well, our table does not have a leaf, so plan A was for me to make one, so we went to Lowes on Saturday to acquire the needed lumber. Lacking a planer, I needed to layer a number of boards to reach the desired thickness, but was unable to find any combination of boards that would work for less than the price of a few body parts. So being the anti-hero male that I am, I actually asked an employee in the lumber section for a bit of advice on the project. He looked at me and said “I would just take the measurements to the mill in Mt. Pleasant, and they can plane you a board the needed size for around $20 (ed-It turned out to be $33, but well worth it.).” But it was almost noon, and they closed at 12 on Saturdays, so we decided to call and give them the dimensions on Monday.
Wallace and Gromit are to return in a half-hour television adventure – the first since 1995’s A Close Shave.
Aardman Animations has announced that the cheese-loving inventor and his loyal dog will star in Trouble at’ Mill – to screen on BBC One in late 2008.
…MR. HARWOOD: Martha, I talked to a Republican strategist this week who said he sees the table being set for a report in September that suggests that the surge has not been as effective as they had hoped. Republican senators would start getting nervous, not back the administration on continuing the surge, and the White House would turn towards those recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. Is that the scenario you see playing out? MS. RADDATZ: Well, I think the Iraq Study Group is something that we’ve watched for a couple of months now, too. In fact, White House officials will say listen to what the president is saying, he’s talking about the Iraq Study Group much, much more in public in that, hey, I like this part of that and I like this part of it, and that’s a good recommendation. The thing about the Iraq Study Group is that overall they say you have to follow all the recommendations and I think that’s the bottom line with those. I think – MR. HARWOOD: But does it signal combat troops coming out? MS. RADDATZ: I don’t – I think truly that you have to wait and see the conditions on the ground. David Petraeus, who was criticized by Senator Reid as not painting the accurate picture, although Senator Reid himself has been there one time and that was two years ago. Dave Petraeus is going to be in a position he has to give a progress report. Dave Petraeus is highly admired, thought of as a very, very honest person. I mean, certainly he points out some progress there, but it is going to be very, very difficult after this week with the Samarra bombing to show progress.
There was a report this week that violence all over Iraq has grown. In Baghdad it’s slightly better. That’s where they now have 28,500 troops. Of course it’s going to be better, but what has happened so many times in the past, what I have seen so many times there, is you calm one area down and they move to other areas, and that is exactly what’s happening. But I think Petraeus would like the surge to continue. He knows you can’t have success unless you stay there long term.
She’s written a pretty damn fine book, too. If you check out the posted reviews, you will find some from the soldiers of the unit she profiles.
I don’t have much to say about this case one way or another
The Supreme Court examines Monday a case raising questions over free speech rights in US high schools as it hears arguments over a student’s unfurling of a quirky banner proclaiming “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.”
Joseph Frederick drew the ire of his school principal in Juneau, Alaska, on January 24, 2002, when the then 18-year-old student unveiled the huge banner in front of television cameras as the Olympic flame passed in front of a crowd.
Principal Deborah Morse, whose school had authorized the students to leave class for the event, was not amused by Frederick’s linkage between Jesus and a bong, a pipe used to smoke marijuana.
Morse crossed the street, destroyed the banner and suspended Frederick from school for 10 days.
But it reminded me of something that some guys in a fraternity at UVa did. One of their brothers had some disease (not one of the usual fraternity diseases, mind you) and they decided to have a benefit to raise funds for his treatment. So they had a Bong-a-thon, where people pledged a certain amount of money for each bong hit they did.
And man, did they do a lot.
NORFOLK, Va. — A riverboat squadron departed Thursday for Iraq, the first deployment of Navy swift boats to a war zone since Vietnam.
About 100 members of the Riverine Squadron 1 will integrate with Marines patrolling the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, eventually replacing the Marine force. They will patrol those waters to combat terrorist operations.
The ‘new’ Swifts are pretty cool. Hell, when they plane out at speed they have less of a draft than Chuck Rangel.
Question of the day is which of their officers will be “reporting for duty” in 2036?
Flatulence brought 99 passengers on an American Airlines flight to an unscheduled visit to Nashville early Monday morning.
American Flight 1053, from Washington Reagan National Airport and bound for Dallas/Fort Worth, made an emergency landing here after passengers reported smelling struck matches, said Lynne Lowrance, a spokeswoman for the Nashville International Airport Authority.
The plane landed safely. The FBI, Transportation Safety Administration and airport authority responded to the emergency, Lowrance said.
The passengers and five crew members were brought off the plane, together with all the luggage, to go through security checks again. Bomb-sniffing dogs found spent matches.
The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal body odor, Lowrance said. The woman lives near Dallas and has a medical condition.
From someone who made it out of the North Tower. She is the wife of a gentleman I share a hobby with, and have done some trading with in the past. Below is her story,
Uncategorized | Ken S. | 
March 11, 2008 9:49 am | 
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