US Rebuffs Bin Laden 'Truce Call'
"We do not mind offering you a truce that is fair and long-term... so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan... there is no shame in this solution because it prevents wasting of billions of dollars...."White House spokesman Scott McClellan quickly dismissed the truce offer saying: "We do not negotiate with terrorists. We put them out of business."
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In other issues, Deputy Press Secretary Clark bin Kent said he had the menu if anyone else wanted to order Chinese for lunch. |
Shatner Kidney Stone Goes For $25,000
The money will go to Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for the needy."This would be the first Habitat for Humanity house built out of stone," joked Darren Julien, president of Los Angeles-based Julien's Auctions, which handled the sale.
Shatner, who played Kirk on the original "Star Trek" TV show and won an Emmy for his role on "Boston Legal," passed the stone last fall.
| Yarnek plans to pit Shatner's kidney stone against Hitler's in mortal combat. |
Obama Defends Clinton's 'Plantation' Remark
Sen. Barack Obama and other black Democrats are defending Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's description of the House of Representatives as a "plantation." First lady Laura Bush says Clinton's remark was "ridiculous."Clinton, D-N.Y., a potential presidential candidate for 2008, did not retreat from the "plantation" remark, telling reporters the term accurately describes the "top-down" way the GOP runs Congress.
![[George W Bush]](../images/gwb.jpg) |
"Casually employing incendiary words like 'plantation' is highly irresponsible, because doing so minimizes actual occurrences of ruh... minimizes actual occurrences of ruh... ruh... ruh..." | ||||
| [Laura Bush] "...oh, I just love this game! Is it... uh... uh... reading?" |  |
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"...ruh-- ruh-- ruh--" | ||||
| "...uh-- uh-- rutabaga?" | |
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"...ruh-- ruh-- ruh--" | ||||
| [Abraham Lincoln] "...uh, racism?" |  |
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"...with a capital 'R.'" | ||||
Iran Says To End Atomic Site Checks If Sent To UN
Iran said on Friday it would end voluntary cooperation with the United Nations over its nuclear program, including snap checks of atomic sites, if Tehran was referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.The United States and the European Union's three biggest powers said on Thursday that talks with Iran to curb its nuclear program were at an impasse and Tehran should be brought before the Security Council.
Iranian Foreign Minister Moocher Mistake warned that a referral would have "consequences" for the West.
| Incidentally, it's usually the party mooched from said to have made a mistake. |
Frey said the attempt to discredit him is almost enough to drive him to start taking the drugs he said he took in his book.'Million Little Pieces' Called A Fraud / Best-selling Oprah selection said to contain fabrications
Central to Frey's book, published in 2003, is his assertion that he was charged with assaulting a police officer in Ohio with his car, with inciting a riot, with possession of crack cocaine and felony drunk driving -- charges that he wrote resulted in him serving a three-month prison term....The Smoking Gun's Web site displays the original police officer's report of the 1992 incident which shows Frey was found drunk in his car without a driver's license but did not, as he wrote, serve time behind bars for the incident or behave in the outrageous manner portrayed in his book.
"He (Frey) was polite and cooperative at all times. He was later released on $733 cash bond," the police report from the October 24, 1992, incident concludes.
As we can see, showing aggression while only demonstrating casual effort in competition is one of the habits of highly successful heirs.Wealthy School Apologizes For Insulting Chants
Officials at a Wisconsin high school are apologizing for insults chanted at a basketball game. In their chant, fans of a suburban Madison school insulted their city opponents by suggesting they need food stamps to eat....Middleton is a well-to-do suburb, while 40 percent of Madison East's students are eligible for federally subsidized lunches....
East got the last laugh. They beat Middleton 66-55.
Body Armor Leaves Troops Vulnerable
A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the Marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon largely has declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.
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And because every stupid thing resulting from the invasion of a contained, oil-rich Muslim nation feeds the insurgency, al-Qaida announced it will dedicate its next round of suicide bombings to the US Marines lost due to insufficient armor. |
Yes, Planet of the Apes DVDs now link to all the Friends episodes -- except for the season Ross runs for president and is accused during the South Carolina primaries of fathering a black baby.Wal-Mart Ends Automated Movie Suggestions
Wal-Mart said it had fixed the immediate problem by removing what it called the "offensive combinations" from a webpage on www.walmart.com advertising a boxed DVD set, Planet Of The Apes: The Complete TV Series.Under "Similar Items," the page linked shoppers to four movies about the lives of the slain civil-rights leader, actress Dorothy Dandridge, boxer Jack Johnson and singer Tina Turner. It was manually changed by 5:30 p.m. CT to link shoppers instead to DVD sets of Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond and Star Wars.
http://www.usatoday.com/ tech/news/ 2006-01-05-wal-mart- offensive_x.htm
Yes, differences in dialect is the foundation of many whale situation comedies. One of the most popular involves a Cuban whale and his North Atlantic mate who keeps sneaking into his nightclub so she can sing.Whales Found To Speak In Dialects
Blue whales off the Pacific Northwest sound different than blue whales in the western Pacific Ocean, and these sound different than those living off Antarctica.And they all sound different than the blue whales living near Chile.
"The whales in the eastern Pacific have a very low-pitched pulsed sounds, followed by a tone," said David Mellinger of Oregon State University. "Other populations use different combinations of pulses, tones, and pitches."
http://news.yahoo.com/ s/space/ 20060104/ sc_space/ whalesfound tospeak indialects
Bush, Congressmen To Donate Abramoff Contributions
Abramoff raised at least $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney '04 re-election campaign, earning the honorary title "pioneer" from the campaign. But the campaign is giving up only $6,000 that came directly from Abramoff, his wife and one of the Indian tribes that he worked to win influence for in Washington.
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"It's getting so a fellow has to carry around a frying pan to swat the dollar bills away from his dollar-clutching g-string." |
Lobbyist Admits To Kickbacks, Fraud
Former high-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges, agreeing to cooperate in a federal corruption probe in Washington....Abramoff is a longtime associate of several top GOP leaders, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Americans for Tax Reform director Grover Norquist, and former Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed....
Prosecutors also detailed a "stream of things of value" given to an unnamed congressman, identified in the court documents as Representative No. 1, and to members of his staff. The items listed include a "lavish" golf trip to Scotland, tickets to sporting events and other entertainment, meals at Abramoff's "upscale" Washington restaurant, and campaign contributions to the representative and his political action committee in exchange for a series of actions by that representative. The Justice Department would not identify the congressman. But government sources have said he is Rep. Bob Ney, a veteran Republican from Ohio who heads the House Administration Committee.
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When asked if lobby-scandals were hurting the Republican-led congress, the president replied, "Nonsense! Without lobbies where would we get our adverbs, which are important parts of speech? As the jingle says, lobbies: get your adverbs there." |
Starbucks's 300 Chinese outlets versus Xingbake's 38 -- did Starbucks win a trademark suit or a really big game of Othello?Starbucks Wins Chinese Logo Case
A Shanghai court concluded that Chinese firm Xingbake had infringed the US firm's rights by using a Chinese name and logo similar to Starbucks.... Starbucks has 300 outlets in China, having opened its first in 1999....Starbucks insisted that it had registered its name and logo in 1996 and claimed that the use of the Xingbake name in 38 Shanghai outlets violated its intellectual property rights.