the/diseased/republik

well, the white man is being called out over the financial disaster that is plaguing the world's economy: Speaking in Brasília at a joint press conference with Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, Mr Lula da Silva told reporters: “This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing.” He added: “I do not know any black or indigenous bankers so I can only say [it is wrong] that this part of mankind which is victimised more than any other should pay for the crisis.” Mr Brown appeared to distance himself from Mr Lula da Silva’s remarks. “I’m not going to attribute blame to any individuals,” he said. - source -

The recent spree of pranks in which electronic road signs are hacked to warn motorists about Nazi zombies and raptors has spread. Officials aren't amused.-- Metro.co.uk -- One of the road signs in question The latest breach came on Tuesday during the morning rush hour near Collinsville, Illinois, where hackers changed a sign along southbound Interstate 255 to read, "DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES." A day earlier in Indiana's Hamilton County, the electronic message on a board in Carmel's construction zone warned drivers of "RAPTORS AHEAD - CAUTION."  And signs in Austin, Texas, recently flashed: "NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!" and "ZOMBIES IN AREA! RUN." Officials in Illinois are concerned the rewritten signs distract motorists from heeding legitimate hazards down the road. The hacked sign on Tuesday originally warned drivers of crews replacing guardrails. 'We understood it was a hoax, but at the same time those boards are there f...

In spite of a history of positive salmonella tests, the chief FatCat @ Peanut Corporation of America (AKA King Nut ) last month sent an e-mail to company executives claiming that previous lab testing had "never found any salmonella at all" in the firm's products. Classic denial. In a January 12 e-mail, a copy of which you'll find below, Stewart Parnell, PCA's chief executive, denied that the discovery of salmonella in the kitchen of a Minnesota nursing home was connected to the Virginia-based company, which is now at the center of a national salmonella outbreak that has resulted in nine deaths and the sickening of at least 600 consumers. "We suspect the salmonella could have been introduced by cross-contamination after the tub was opened," Parnell claimed. The e-mail, which was obtained by congressional investigators probing PCA, was sent by Parnell to prepare company managers for press inquiries. "Media have the power to turn this open container...

Gun battles between suspected drug gang members and troops have left 21 dead in northern Mexico, police say. Heavily armed soldiers near the Texan border were seen to remove bodies. The violence started when gunmen drove into Villa Ahumada, a farming town in Chihuahua state. They dragged several people - including police officers - out of their homes and killed at least six. Troops then arrived as the scene and 15 people, including one soldier, died in shootouts. Drug-related violence kills thousands every year in Mexico. In a separate incident on Monday, armed men forced their way into a prison in the northern city of Torreon, and killed three inmates. The dead men were being held for kidnapping and murder, and were transferred to the prison less than two hours before the incident. The gunmen also released nine other inmates from the prison before they escaped. Some 40,000 soldiers and police have been deployed since December 2006 against Mexico's drug cartels. -- VIDEO-BBC ...

The FBI raided the Peanut Corporation of America's Blakely, Ga., facility Monday as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the peanut recall. The company's subsidiary in Plainview, Texas, today announced it, too, would temporarily close its doors after lab tests detected the possible presence of salmonella. developments unfolded this week in a chain of events that has resulted in the removal of 1,845 peanut products from store shelves, following more than 600 illnesses and an estimated eight deaths linked to bad peanuts.

Alien Robs Convenience Stores With Klingon "Batleth" @10:06AM from the build-a-more-awesome-criminal dept. "Colorado Springs police are looking for a man who hit two 7-Eleven convenience stores , armed with a Klingon 'Batleth' sword inspired by the Star Trek science fiction series. They did appear more human in the original series." pics for mental image only.

US President George W Bush has invoked executive privilege to deny requests by Congress for the testimony of two aides over the firing of federal prosecutors. The row hinges on whether the attorneys were sacked for political motives. Democratic leaders say they could go to court to challenge Mr Bush's move. He invoked the same little-used power last month to withhold subpoenaed documents. The White House says Mr Bush is acting in good faith and has offered to let the aides do off-the-record interviews. The pair in question are Harriet Miers, former White House counsel, and Sara Taylor, former political director for the White House. Ms Miers has been summoned to appear under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and Ms Taylor to testify before the House Judiciary Committee the next day. 'Unreasonable' demands The Democratic heads of the two judiciary committees had set a deadline of Monday for the White House to explain the first invocation of p...

"Fortunately, I'm adhering to a very strict drug regimen to keep my mind limber..."

In a move that has executives from movie studios and record labels grinning from ear to ear, AT&T has announced that it will develop and deploy technology that will attempt to keep pirated content off its network. The move is spurred in part by the company's decision to offer IPTV television service as part of its U-Verse package , AT&T senior VP James W. Cicconi told the Los Angeles Times . Despite the major technical problems inherent in such a program, AT&T is moving ahead. By making themselves into the arbiters of copyright law, the company risks being drawn into a costly "arms race" with programmers who don't like the idea of a massive corporation (and one which appears to have turned over information to the NSA ) peeking into their packets and deciding which ones go through. This is exactly the situation that Dr. Greg Jackson, CIO of the University of Chicago, warned Congress about last week . "The only successful, robust way to address probl...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - With the 4-month-old "surge" in U.S. troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, U.S. commanders are turning to another strategy they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight Al-Qaida-linked militants who have been their allies in the past. U.S. officials who have engaged in what they call "outreach" to the Sunni groups say the groups are mostly ones with links to Al-Qaida, but disillusioned with Al-Qaida's extremist tactics, particularly suicide bombings that have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians. In exchange for U.S. backing, these officials say, the Sunni groups have agreed to fight Al-Qaida and halt attacks on U.S. units. Commanders who have undertaken these negotiations say that in some cases Sunni groups have agreed to alert U.S. troops to the location of roadside bombs and other lethal booby traps. U.S. commanders have successfully tested the strategy in Al-Anbar pro...

"At every point, there was part of me resisting, part of me enjoying," Lagouranis said. "Using dogs on someone, there was a tingling throughout my body. If you saw the reaction in the prisoner, it's thrilling." --washingtonpost -- read more | digg story

The CIA has dismissed a Council of Europe report alleging that it ran secret jails for terror suspects in Europe after the 11 September attacks. A CIA spokesman said the report was biased and distorted, and that the agency had operated lawfully. Swiss Senator Dick Marty, who wrote the report, said secret CIA prisons "did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania". The charge was denied by both Polish and Romanian officials. Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who served from 1995 to 2005, said on Friday: "There were no secret prisons in Poland." Romanian senator Norica Nicolai, who headed an investigation into the allegations, also denied his country's involvement. The report says Romania "was developed into a site to which more detainees were transferred only as the HVD programme expanded". "The secret detention facilities in Europe were run directly and exclusively by the CIA," the report says. But i...

Mr. Putin, in an interview at his country residence outside Moscow, said he considers U.S. plans to build an eastern European anti-missile site to shoot down Iranian missiles a provocation aimed at Russia. Asked what he might do to retaliate, he said he would return Russia to the Cold War status where missiles were aimed at European targets. “It is obvious that if part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States is located in Europe, and according to our military experts will be threatening us, we will have to respond,” he said. full story here . MORE INFO: Some international news sources: http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2007/06/04/2149_typ e82914type82916_132772.shtml http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/05-06-2007 /92787-criticalmoment-0 http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/04/news/russia.php

if you only watch two videos this year...please make them these two....

Barbers warned against Western haircuts | Oddly Enough | Reuters : "TEHRAN (Reuters Life!) - Iranian police have warned barbers against offering Western-style hair cuts or plucking the eyebrows of their male customers, Iranian media said on Sunday. The report by a reformist daily, later confirmed by an Iranian news agency, appeared to be another sign of the authorities cracking down on clothing and other fashion deemed to be against Islamic values. 'Western hair styles ... have been banned,' the newspaper Etemad said in a frontpage headline. It came a week after police launched a crackdown against the growing numbers of young women testing the limits of the law with shorter, brighter and skimpier clothing ahead of the summer months. Under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures. Violators can receive lashes, fines and imprisonment."