Wednesday, July 18, 2012

THIS JUST IN! FADING CELEBRITY!

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE


CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O IS FINDING, AS OTHER STARLETS SUCH AS PARIS HILTON DID BEFORE HIM, LIFE ISN'T AN ALWAYS AND FOREVER PARTY.

AS HIS CELEBRITY FADES, PRINCESS BARRY LEARNS MITT ROMNEY'S GAINING ON HIM IN HEW HAMPSHIRE AND NOT EVEN THE ROBOTS HE DEPLOYS AS SPOKESPEOPLE CAN HIDE THAT.

 AND PEOPLE ARE GETTING REAL TIRED OF HEARING HIM BLAME EVERYBODY ELSE FOR HIS FAILURES AND CALLING HIM "THE WHINER IN CHIEF."  REAL TIRED.

REACHED FOR COMMENT THIS MORNING, BARRY O TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "I'VE DECIDED TO GO NUCLEAR!  I'M DOING IT AGAIN! TOPLESS PHOTOS!  IT'S THE ONLY THING THAT CAN LET ME DOMINATE THE NEWS CYCLE!  NIPPLES TO WIND AGAIN!"


FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Starting in the US where there's major news on the legislative front.  Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.  Her office issued the following today:
 
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
CONTACT: Murray Press Office
(202) 224-2834
 
TOMORROW: Murray to Call on Senate to Pass Veterans Omnibus Legislation
 
Murray will ask for immediate passage of the Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012
 
(Washington, D.C.) -- Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 18th, U.S. Senator Patty Murray will give a speech on the Senate floor calling for unanimous consent on the Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012, bipartisan, bicameral, and comprehensive legislation that combines provisions of the Veterans Programs Improvement Act of 2011 (S. 914, Report No. 112-088) and Honoring American Veterans Act of 2011 (H.R. 1627, Report No. 112-084 Part 1), as well as provisions from other Senate and House legislation. This comprehensive package would extend health care to veterans and their families who lived at Camp Lejeune, expand critical health programs, improve housing programs for severely disabled veterans, enhance programs for homeless veterans, and make needed improvements to the disability claims system.
 
 
WHO: U.S. Senator Patty Murray
WHAT: Senator Murray will seek unanimous consent on the passage of important veterans omnibus legislation.
WHEN: TOMORROW: Wednesday, July 18, 2012
11:00 AM ET/ 8:00 AM PST
WHERE: Senate Floor
WATCH: Speech will air live on C-SPAN 2
 
 
###
Kathryn Robertson
Specialty Media Coordinator
Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray
448 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510
202-224-2834
 
Senator Patty Murray's office
 
Senator Murray's YouTube Channel
 
Senator Murray's Press Office Twitter Account
 
RSS Feed for Senator Murray's office
 
 
Camp Lejeune is a North Caroline Marine Corps base which was considered to be one of "the biggest water-contimination case[s] in history, with more than a million people potentially exposed to carcinogens such as TCE and benzene from the 1950s to 1985, when the poisoned wells were shut down" (Mike Manager of GovExec).  Franco Ordonez (McClatchy Newspapers) observes, "Up to 750,000 people at Camp Lejeune may have been exposed to water that was poisoned with trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, benzene and vinyl chloride. Some medical experts have linked the contamination to birth defects, childhood leukemia and a variety of other cancers."
 
Senator Richard Burr, Ranking Member on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has long championed this issue.  Last month, Kat reported on a Senate Veterans Affairs Committeee hearing and  how there appeared to be movement on this issue and she quoted Chair Murry stating:
 

I am optimistic that by the time of the next mark-up the President is going to be signing into law the Honoring of America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012 which includes legislation from our last mark-up.  Veterans legislation obviously continues to be bi-partisan and that  is at it should be.  So I want to thank all the members of our Committee.
 
 
This will be a historic and long awaited moment for the many families of Camp Lejeune.
 
 
Iraq is considered the cradle of cvilization due to its long and historical importance. 
 
Oh, Baghdad
Center of the world
City of ashes
With its great mosques
Erupting from the mouth of god
Rising from the ashes like
a speckled bird
Splayed against the mosaic sky
Oh, clouds around
We created the zero
But we mean nothing to you
You would believe
That we are just some mystical tale
We are just a swollen belly
That give birth Sinbad, Scheherazade
We gave birth
Oh, oh, to the zero
The perfect number
We invented the zero
-- "Radio Baghdad," written by Patti Smith and Oliver Ray, first appears on her trampin'
 
 
For all of its glory and history the Baghdad-based government  currently attempts to hold onto the history of  another people.  AFP reported at the end of last month that Nouri al-Maliki's Baghdad government had made the decision to cut archaeological ties with the United States over Jewish archives.  Nouri's government insisted the Jewish archives belonged to Iraq.  The same government that refused to protect the Jews in Iraq now wants to lay claim to the documents: "The archives, which were found in the flooded basement of the intelligence headquarters in Baghdad in 2003, include Torah scrolls, Jewish law and children's books, Arabic-language documents produced for Iraqi Jews and government reports about the Jewish community."
 
The only thing Nouri's government can lay claim to is the government reports.  They can lay claim to that because Nouri is the New Saddam.  And, as such, he can claim the property of a people as surely as Saddam Hussein would be insisting, if these were Shi'ite papers, that they belonged to the Iraqi government.    A people own their own documents and that is especially true when you're dealing with an oppressed people -- the Shi'ites under Saddam or the Jews in modern-day Baghdad where all but a handful have been run out of their homes and out of the country.  Shame on the government for attempting to lay claim to that which it is not entitled to.   Xinhua noted this week, "Iraq rejected an offer made by the United States to bring back half of the Iraqi Jewish Archive previously transferred from Baghdad to the US after 2003, insisting that Iraq should restore the whole Archive, an Iraqi official newspaper reported on Sunday." 
 
While Nouri's government uses a great deal of time and energy trying to grab that which it is not entitled to, it refuses to maintain Iraq's historic treasures.   Dropping back to the May 29th snapshot:
 
Last week Aseel Kami (Reuters) reported on the State Board of Heritage and Antiquities' Mariam Omran Musa who is suing Iraq's Ministry of Oil over a pipline through Babylon which threatens the existence of the historical Hanging Gardens.  Musa declared, "Oil and antiquities are both national wealth, but I have an opinion: when the oil is gone, we will still have antiquities."  The Travel Channel notes that the Hanging Gardens were considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  RT adds:


The magnificent gardens allegedly built for a king's homesick wife in the 6th century BC were one of the Ancient World's seven wonders. Some historians doubt they existed, but they were described in many written sources and were said to have been destroyed by earthquakes.
The remains of the ancient city of Babylon are situated near present-day Al Hillah in Iraq's Babylon Province south of Baghdad. The country has long been trying to get UNESCO to add the site to its World Heritage list, but chances appear to be fading away as authorities plan to lay an oil pipeline there.
Iraq's Oil Ministry plans to extend a strategic route to export oil through six provinces at the center and south of the country.Two pipelines carrying oil products and liquid gas from Basra in the south to Baghdad were built under the ancient site in the late 1970s and early 80s.
Stephane Foucart (Guardian) seeks out expert opinion on the issue:
 
"The pipeline crosses the perimeter of the archaeological site but outside the walls, beneath the so-called outer city," said Véronique Dauge, chief of the Arab States Unit at the Unesco World Heritage Centre. "But even if it doesn't cross the centre of the ancient city, it is in an area that has never been excavated." The site covers approximately 850 hectares, most of which is virgin territory for archaeologists. A spokesman from the Iraqi oil ministry quoted by AFP reported that the land dug up revealed no archaeological remains.
"No one can say right now if the oil pipeline has caused damage," said Lisa Ackerman, executive vice-president of the World Monuments Fund (WMF), a New York-based foundation for preserving architectural heritage, who works on the site with the Iraqi authorities. "But I think it's very likely that it crosses sensitive archaeological zones."
 
 
Meanwhile AFP reports, "Teams of Iraqi archaeologists have discussed 40 ancient sites in the country's south from the Sumerian, Akkadian and Babylonian periods, an Iraqi antiquities offical said on Monday."  And hopefully the fate of those sites will be better than the currently threatened Hanging Gardens or other threatened sites in Iraq.  Mohamad Ali Harissi (Middle East Online) reports that historical sites discovered near Najaf's airport -- including "the remains of the celebrated ancient Christian city of Hira" -- are at risk, "unexplored and unkempt," due to a lack of excavation funding.  One of the people who led historical digs upon the discovery and in 2009 and 2010 is Shakir Abdulzahra Jabari who states, "The area has historical importance, because it is rich in antiquities, including especially the remains of churches, abbeys and palaces.  But now the antiquities have been neglected for a year, and they do not receive any attention, despite the fact that many Western countries are interested in Hira's history as the main gateway of Christianity into Iraq."
 
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the Hanging Gardens remain in jeopardy in Iraq today.  They're not the only historical marvel at risk.  There is also the famous Abbasi Bridge in Zahko.  Abdul-Khaleq Dosky (Niqash) reports on the bridge and notes the many origin stories told about the ancient marvel:
 
One of the oldest revolves around a young man in the Abbasside era - the Abbaside dynasty ruled for almost two centuries from the year 750 - who fell in love with a girl living in the village on the opposite side of the river; he built the bridge so he could be with her. 
Another story focuses on a Turkish architect who came to Zakho, which lies near the border of Iraq and Turkey, in the Middle Ages. A nearby Turkish governor had amputated one of his hands and as a kind of challenge to him, the architect decided to build a bridge.
Legend has it that the architect built the bridge by constructing both ends and then having it join in the middle. Using this method, the bridge was in danger of collapse many times. So the architect consulted a medium who told him that he should kill the first person to cross the river and bury the body in the centre of the bridge. Unhappily for her, the next day his son's wife, a woman called Dalal, came across the river to bring him his breakfast. And apparently that is why to this day the locals know the crossing as the Dalal bridge.
 
 
Iraq has so much worth preserving and so much in need of preserving.   It certainly is telling that Iran's Press TV can run -- and has run, here and here for examples -- multiple pieces on the Jewish archives and interview biased Americans but when it comes to Iraq's historical treasures Press TV has nothing to say.  That's your first indication that this isn't about history, just another pissing match and the world's certainly seen more than enough of those. 
 
 
 
 
Although it might not be at the top of your vacation destinations, let's not forget that Iraq is the home of the first city that was ever recorded, Sumerian, that was built over 6000 years ago so why diminish the importance of visiting such a pillar of civilization? We are not talking about an apple mac support London from the corner of the street here. True it has its own significance but what about a city that was built thousands of years ago and which is known to be the place where the first book was ever written. Here in Iraq between the rivers of Euphrates and Tigris once stood the great and famous Mesopotamia, a region where the first form of writing was developed, where the first signs of irrigations systems were found and where people had already discovered the wheel.
 
 
 





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