Jon Stewart on the VP's Interview

In case you missed it...

House Panel Seeks Administration's Documents

A House Panel headed by Democratic Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman says that the White House Administration is not handing over documents that have been requested in their inquiry into how the administration has handled government scientific reports having to do with climate and the environment.

The allegations are that the administration has strong-armed scientists into taking out mention of global warming and climate change from reports and in other instances inserting their own verbiage and altering that of the scientists to change the meaning of the entire report.

Link Here

Excerpt to follow:

Two private advocacy groups, meanwhile, presented to the panel a survey of government climate scientists showing that many of them say they have been subjected to political pressure aimed at downplaying the threat of global warming.

The groups presented a survey that shows two in five of the 279 climate scientists who responded to a questionnaire complained that some of their scientific papers had been edited in a way that changed their meaning. Nearly half of the 279 said in response to another question that at some point they had been told to delete reference to "global warming" or "climate change" from a report.

The questionnaire was sent by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private advocacy group. The report also was based on "firsthand experiences" described in interviews with the Government Accountability Project, which helps government whistleblowers, lawmakers were told.

'Smoking Gun' on Global Warming

The second major international report, compiled by over 600 scientists and reviewed by even more than 600 experts, is due out in the very near future. The bottom line... 'duh', global warming is here and 'duh' humans are making it happen.

Full Article Here

Human-caused global warming is here, visible in the air, water and melting ice, and is destined to get much worse in the future, an authoritative global scientific report will warn next week.

"The smoking gun is definitely lying on the table as we speak," said top U.S. climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, who reviewed all 1,600 pages of the first segment of a giant four-part report. "The evidence ... is compelling."

Andrew Weaver, a Canadian climate scientist and study co-author, went even further: "This isn't a smoking gun; climate is a batallion of intergalactic smoking missiles."

The first phase of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is being released in Paris next week. This segment, written by more than 600 scientists and reviewed by another 600 experts and edited by bureaucrats from 154 countries, includes "a significantly expanded discussion of observation on the climate," said co-chair Susan Solomon, a senior scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She and other scientists held a telephone briefing on the report Monday.

That report will feature an "explosion of new data" on observations of current global warming, Solomon said.

One Photo - 10,000 Galaxies

Take a look...as far back in time as human eyes have ever seen. Some of these galaxies are over 13 Billion light years away, dating to a time when the Universe was a mere 700 million years old. This tiny patch of (seemingly empty) space when viewed by Hubble for a million seconds reveals 10,000 galaxies. How many galaxies do you imagine there are in total in the physical universe?

R2-D2

Would you like your own R2-D2 droid, one that will follow you around, play DVD's and project them for you, plug your iPod into, that will except S-Video and USB cables? and has a built in stereo system?

Check him out here

There is even a video of him...

Cheney Dooshbag and the Iranian Letter

So, according to the BBC today there is a letter that came through the Swiss to the State Department in 2003 from Iran. Right after we invaded. It simply states that they are willing to cut off their aid and support to both Hezzbolah and Hamas and help with the stabilization of Iraq if the US will play ball with them and get rid of sanctions and help them deal with their own exiled opposition group. The article goes on to say that a similar overture was made, secretly, by the Iranians after we invaded Afghanastan in 2001 where they offered a similar mutual working situation this time including them turning over Al Queda members to the US.

The State Department, under Powell, was initially very positive on this but of course when the letter made its way to DICK...well, he shoots his friends in the face, so what do you really expect from him? oh wait, I guess we should expect him to look out of for us...but that is not really in who's interest he is serving now is it?

The Article Here

Snippit...

Iran offered to cut off aid and support for the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, and promised full transparency on its nuclear program in a secret letter to the United States soon after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the British media reported.

According to the BBC, the letter, which it obtained, was unsigned, but the US State Department understood that it came with the approval of the highest Iranian authorities.

The Islamic republic also offered to use its influence to support stabilisation in Iraq, and in return asked for a halt in hostile American behaviour, an abolition of all sanctions, and the pursuit and repatriation of members of the Mujahedeen Khalq (People's Mujahedeen MKO).

The MKO is an exiled Iranian opposition group which fought alongside former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's army in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, and is currently based in Iraq.

Initially, the State Department was positive on the offer, according to Lawrence Wilkerson, former US secretary of state Colin Powell's chief of staff, who spoke to the BBC.

"As soon as it got to the White House, and as soon as it got to the Vice-President's (Dick Cheney) office, the old mantra of 'we don't talk to evil' ... reasserted itself," Wilkerson told the broadcaster.

"To our embarrassment at State ... the cable that I saw go back to the Swiss actually upbraided the Swiss for being so bold and audacious as to present such a proposal to us on behalf of the Iranians."

Pillow Fights?

In lighter news...

Girl Pillow Fights coming to a town near you?

from Reuters today...

No softies in Canada's Pillow Fight League

By Cameron FrenchTue Jan 16, 4:29 PM ET

Toronto's College Street bar district has seen its share of late-night fights, but a recent scrap was a bit out of the ordinary, as a financial journalist in a '50s housewife get-up tried to wallop the daylights out of a 35-year-old part-time waitress -- using a pillow.

The crowd of nearly 500 did little to interfere, as they had paid to be there.

Welcome to the Pillow Fight League, which has been drawing growing crowds in Toronto since it formed early last year, and is now set to export its campy fun to New York City.

The league is the brainchild of 38-year-old Stacey Case, a T-shirt printer and musician who came up with the idea that people would pay to see young women in costumes beat the tar out of each other with pillows -- and that women would volunteer to whap each other in front of a crowd.

The seeds of the idea came from a New Year's Eve show Case's band played in a Toronto bar just over a year ago. As a local burlesque troupe entertained the crowd by staging a mock pillow fight, they were shocked when women from the audience came forward looking to join the battle.

"It was really, really fun, and really funny that they were actually fighting for real. I woke up the next day, and I was like, "Oh my God, that was awesome," he said.

A few ads in a local newspaper later, and Case and some friends were booking events at local bars. Now they have a stable of 22 dedicated fighters, a growing fan base, and ambitions of turning the PFL into something bigger.

However, they're quick to point out it's not really just about young women in revealing costumes tussling in front of a largely male audience. Well, maybe it is a bit.

"People all have a conception in their head of what a pillow fight is all about," says Don "The Mouth" Lovranski, Case's co-investor and the big-voiced announcer for the shows.

"When they come to it, though, they see it's not hot blonds in negligees; the fights are real, and there's some fun to it. I think that's what the appeal is."

Case himself is league commissioner, a role that becomes part caricature once the ring lights brighten and the pillows come out. As the boss, he has to play the heel. Another cohort, Matt Harsant, becomes Matt Patterson, a throwback-style referee complete with a bow-tie and limited patience.

BOOZY SUZIE AND SARAH BELLUM

But it's the fighters that make the show, and they come in all shapes and sizes, with names like Sarah Bellum, the smart one, and Boozy Suzie, who enters the ring with a beer that referee Patterson confiscates with a stern wave of his finger.

Lynn Somnia staggers to the ring in a hospital gown with electrodes dangling, apparently released from her sleep-deprivation chamber.

Top contenders include Betty Clock'er -- by day a financial editor and by night a cushion-swinging housewife who brings a plate of cookies to ringside -- and Polly Esther, billed as the waitress from hell ("And somebody's gonna get served!," The Mouth bellows as she struts toward the ring).

While the personas are all good fun, the action in the ring is real, and as Case is quick to point out, unscripted.

The rules are simple: women only, no lewd behavior, and moves such as leg drops or submission holds are allowed as long as a pillow is used. After that, it's up to the combatants.

For the fighters, there's a small stipend, and a chance of fame if the popularity of the league continues to grow. But it's also a hobby, and maybe even has a therapeutic appeal for players like Polly Esther, who got her snarky waitress persona the hard way, during 20 years of waiting tables.

"All the people I've served over the years, the bad customers, the bad tips, Polly doesn't take it." she says. "She lashes out. She hates everybody, but she's not going to leave her job."

This past weekend, Polly didn't disappoint, torquing her long arms to deliver punishing pillow blows to Betty Clock'er in a fight to decide who will travel to New York this week to face PFL title holder Champain, an event Case is hoping will give an adrenaline shot to the league's profile.

The bigger picture involves a TV deal. Case says he has already turned down bids that didn't offer the mix of attention to the action and characters that he says makes the league more of a draw to the arts community than the mud-wrestling crowd.

The scene this past Friday would seem to bear him out, as the nearly 500 screaming fans looked more like an art-house movie crowd than a boxing audience.

The cheers reach a crescendo as Betty Clock'er fights off Polly Esther's roundhouse hits, then unleashes a well executed pillow-leg takedown and pins Esther for the three-count.

"I'm prepared for it to tank," says Case. "But I hope it doesn't."

New Executive Powers?

In the news today, our fearless leader has proclaimed the power to do what he wants with American's mail despite the law that says otherwise. His rationale is the same one used to defend warrant-less wiretapping. Now it is warrant-less postal snooping.

Full Article at the New York Daily News

President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

Bush's move came during the winter congressional recess and a year after his secret domestic electronic eavesdropping program was first revealed. It caught Capitol Hill by surprise.