Posted on 04/14/2005 2:39:29 AM PDT by BigWaveBetty
U.S. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld can now also be called bushi, cheneyi and rumsfeldi, or simply slime-mould beetles.
Two former Cornell University entomologists named three species in the genus Agathidium after the U.S. leaders, Cornell announced on Wednesday.
Quentin Wheeler and Kelly Miller christened 65 new species of slime-mold beetles, named for the fungi-like molds on which they feed, which they discovered after collecting thousands of specimens for a study of their evolution and classification.
Wheeler, who after 24 years as a professor of entomology and plant biology at Cornell is now the keeper and head of entomology at the Natural History Museum in London, said the U.S. leaders were being honored for having "the courage of their convictions."
The bushi beetle is found in southern Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia; the rumsfeldi is from Oaxaca and Hidalgo in Mexico, and the cheneyi is known from Chiapas, Mexico, Wheeler said.
It looks like she's wearing the drapes! lol
The term "droopy drawers" comes to mind.
Shorts with leggings and a wifebeater t-shirt with gold chains--stop the madness! I didn't like most of the 80's fashions the first time around, so why would I want to see them again...
Alas, middle age has crept up and swatted me soundly!
April 25, 2005 -- PHYLLIS DILLER was in UCLA under an assumed name that sounded like some Chinese takeout — Miss Liz Jun. Scheduled to go home, she didn't. She's now in a private hospital in West Los Angeles.
A minute short of 88, with heart problems and hip replacement, Phyllis was to tour for her just-published Penguin bio, "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse: My Life in Comedy." She canceled. She told me her health wasn't A-1. Staying home, firing her heart doctor, taking medication into her own hands, she felt woozy after dinner with friends. Middle of the night she climbed out of bed, fell, gashed her head and damaged a neck vertebra.
She's just had surgery. A bone fusion between the second and third vertebrae and she's in a neck brace. Her secretary is staying in the hospital with her. There's also a huge knot on top of her head. When finally released and home to Brentwood's Rockingham Drive — just a newspaper away from O.J.'s old place — it'll be a live-in nurse with her handsome home slowly becoming a hospice. If you're a pal, give a call.
Just before surgery the killer Diller humor kicked in. Because she had tripped, she cracked: "The doctors don't know whether to operate on my head or my feet." (Cindy Adams)
Apart from the mediocre location, how was the concert? I liked the Police in the Syncronicity days, but haven't been too enamored of Sting since then.
Sting was great. It was a raw tour, Sting on bass, 2 guitars and a drummer. He did a lot of the Police stuff and a Beatles song.
When my friend and I were eating dinner before the concert I kept looking out the window and seeing 40- 50 somethings all heading to the arena. I made the comment that there were all these old people going to see Sting and then I realized...I AM OLD!!!
I shot this during the Dream of the Blue Turtles Tour in 1985. Not all my concert photos suck :)
Reality has a particularly unkind way of sneaking up upon us and smacking us up side the head sometimes. I remember that when I get out of bed and take that first, creaky, achey step each morning.
I'm old enough that I'd like to change the subject!
I was listening to a Dem today talking about the judges and filibusters issue. It has infuriated me the way the media ignored this story during the 4 years the Dems went against tradition, filibustering so many nominees. Today it occurred to me just how twisted this whole thing is.
The media has let the Dems claim that "Republicans did it too!", then they refer to how the R's wouldn't let Clinton's nominees get out of the Judiciary Committee for a floor vote. They're equating their own use of the filibuster to the R's committee tactic.
Then it hit me. Their convoluted argument IGNORES the fact that Clinton had a Senate controlled by Republicans. Bush not only has his own party in control, he increased his majorities in both houses. If you think about it, the essence of the Dems' argument is that the Congress has to treat the president's nominees the same...regardless of whether he's of their same party or not. A ridiculous assertion. And the media shouldn't let them get away with it.
Of course, you're right. That it was the Dems who previously changed the filibuster rule in the first place also seems to escape the steel-trap minds of the media doofuses, too.
"You cannot have bishops in the pulpit -- long before or the Sunday before the election, as they did in Catholic churches -- saying it was a mortal sin to vote for John Kerry," she said. "The church has a right and obligation to teach values. They don't have a right to restrict freedom of expression, which they did."
IOW, Teresa would restrict the church's freedom of expression. Well, that would make things easier for the dems.
Is there any group or person left that Kerry hasn't blamed for his defeat? Sheesh!
WHAT??!!
Criminal types amaze me. Bank fraud must be a time consuming venture yet Reggie still has time to drive around and accost young girls.
Compared to your other concert photos I'd have to say, yeah, those are total crap. Bummer.
The media will talk about stale bread in order to keep good news off the radar.
New MSM motto: If it doesn't make GWB bleed it doesn't lead...
Syria Ends Military Presence in Lebanon
By SAM F. GHATTAS Associated Press Writer
MASNAA, Lebanon (AP) -- Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon ended Tuesday when Syrian soldiers flashing victory signs crossed back over the border, completing a withdrawal brought about by international pressure and massive Lebanese street protests.
At a farewell ceremony near their shared border, a Syrian commander told Lebanese troops: "Brothers in arms, so long." The soldiers responded, "So long."
A commander of Lebanese soldiers then addressed his words to the Syrians, saying: "Brothers in arms, thank you for your sacrifices." His soldiers repeated, "Thank you for your sacrifices."
After the ceremony, the Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Rustom Ghazali, 10 carloads of intelligence agents and the remaining 250 Syrian soldiers crossed the border.
At the crossing, about 25 Lebanese civilians saluted Ghazali, who got out of his car and accepted a poster from a Lebanese man that said: "Thank you Syria." On the Syrian side, hundreds of Syrians waved flags and danced in the streets of Jedeidit Yabous.
The Syrians entered Lebanon in 1976, ostensibly as peacekeepers in Lebanon's year-old civil war. After the war ended in 1990, about 40,000 Syrian troops remained, giving Damascus the decisive say in Lebanese politics.
International pressure and Lebanese anger over the Feb. 14 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri helped turn the tide against Syria's presence. The opposition blamed the murder on the Lebanese government and its Syrian backers, accusations both governments deny. Huge "Syria Out" demonstrations in Beirut brought down the pro-Syrian government, and U.N. and U.S. pressure intensified on Damascus until it withdrew its army.
Syria has gradually pulled out 14,000 troops over the last two months.
Shaaban al-Ajami, the mayor of nearby Lebanese border village of Majdal Anjar, said he was happy to see the Syrians leave: "I feel like someone who was suffocated and jailed and has finally emerged from jail."
With the Syrians leaving, its Lebanese allies in the security services also were collapsing. Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed _ often described as the enforcer of Damascus' policy _ announced his resignation Monday, and another top security commander left the country with his family.
Gen. Ali Habib, Syria's chief of staff, said in a speech during the departure ceremony, that President Bashar Assad had decided to pull out his troops after the Lebanese army had been "rebuilt on sound national foundations and became capable of protecting the state."
Habib said Syria had no "ambitions in Lebanon, except to protect it." By withdrawing, Habib, said that Syria will have "fulfilled all its obligations toward" U.N. Resolution 1559, which called on it to pull out.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has dispatched a team led by Senegalese Brig. Gen. Mouhamadou Kandji to verify the withdrawal.
Habib stressed that the withdrawal does mean an end to Syrian-Lebanese ties.
"The relations will continue and become stronger at present and in the future," he said, then took a a swipe at the United States, saying, "anyone who thinks that the history of people can be eliminated by statements made by this or that state is mistaken."
Lebanese army commander Michel Suleiman lauded the role of Syria's army in Lebanon, crediting it with rebuilding the army, maintaining peace among the country's 17 sects and ending the 1975-90 civil war.
He pledged continued cooperation between the two countries in several fields, including the fight on terror. "Together we shall always remain brothers in arms in the face of the Israeli enemy," said Suleiman.
The 250 Syrian soldiers in red berets and camouflage, the last Syrian troops remaining in Lebanon, shouted "we sacrifice our blood and our souls for you, oh Bashar!" during the ceremony at Rayak, a few miles from the Syrian border.
Shortly before the ceremony began, Brig. Gen. Elias Farhat, director of the Lebanese Army Orientation Department, said the Syrian withdrawal does not mean an end to Lebanese-Syrian relationship. "The military deployment of the Syrian army is part of this relationship which links the two countries," he said.
Farhat pointed to the 1991 Lebanese-Syrian Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination Treaty, which calls, among other things, for the two countries to closely coordinate on security and defense matters and jointly work to fight sabotage, espionage and prevent any hostile activity against any country.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1391180/posts#5
Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.
Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.
Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay (R-Tex.) attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists. More
In an attempt to deep-six John Bolton's nomination, Democrats placed stories in The Boston Globe, USA Today and CNN citing a women who claimed Bolton threatened her - the very same woman who published an article on newsmax.com using those sources to predict world peace was at hand.
Those articles also failed to mention the fact that Lynne Finney, the women who claims she was abused by Bolton, has problems with her memory. She believes that she long suppressed and later recovered memories that she was molested by her father - a process which the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association regard as dubious and an unreliable source of testimony.
And that's not all that makes Finney's testimony suspect. She turns out to be a former Democratic political appointee, too. President Jimmy Carter twice appointed her to positions in the federal government and later gave her an award at a White House ceremony.
And how do we know all this about a woman who has "created many realities for herself," you might ask? Do we have super-secret sources and nasty opposition researchers working for us? Nope, we read her self-promoting Web site. That's something the USA Today, Boston Globe and CNN reporters could have done for themselves before they launched Sen. Barbara Boxer's loopy charges into the public domain. (Hint: Type her name in Google and hit the button that says "I'm feeling lucky.")
Of course, why would the oh-so-unbiased press ever be bothered to actually check out someone who makes sensational allegations against a Republican. We certainly can't let basic skepticism get in the way of the nakedly partisan lust for Bolton's scalp. After all, all the guy's done is spend a decade in public service at the departments of State and Justice. More
NOTE to the Vietnam vet who spat at Hanoi Jane Fonda. It's bad form, bad thing to do, but I don't blame you. She's "sorry" for that only now that her book's out. I first experienced Jane a lifetime ago. She won't recall because she was privileged and I was nothing. It was some small radio show, and she was an interviewee. She treated me poorly. The woman's had three husbands. Per her memoir, something was wrong with all of them. To me something's wrong with her.
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