Chimpanzees living in the West African savannah have been observed fashioning spears from sticks and using the handcrafted tools to hunt small mammals -- the first routine production of deadly weapons ever seen in nonhuman animals.

“This is a man with a wife and two children; he is a good person,” Mr. Wells told the jury in his final words. “He’s been under my protection for the last month. I give him to you. Give him back to me.”

With that, Mr. Wells teared up, sobbed audibly and sat down.

Taibbi discusses W's idea of wealth redistribution:

Sanders's office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.

The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.

Or how about this: if the Estate Tax goes, the heirs to the Mars candy corporation -- some of the world's evilest scumbags, incidentally, routinely ripped by human rights organizations for trafficking in child labor to work cocoa farms in places like Cote D'Ivoire -- if the estate tax goes, those assholes will receive about $11.7 billion in tax breaks. That's more than three times the amount Bush wants to cut from the VA budget ($3.4 billion) over the same time period.

Some other notable estimate estate tax breaks, versus corresponding cuts:

• Cox family (Cox cable TV) receives $9.7 billion tax break while education would get $1.5 billion in cuts


• Nordstrom family (Nordstrom dept. stores) receives $826.5 million tax break while Community Service Block Grants would be eliminated, a $630 million cut


• Ernest Gallo family (shitty wines) receives a $468.4 million cut while LIHEAP (heating oil to poor) would get a $420 million cut

And so on and so on. Sanders additionally pointed out that the family of former Exxon/Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, who received a $400 million retirement package, would receive about $164 million in tax breaks.

Compare that to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which Bush proposes be completely eliminated, at a savings of $108 million over ten years. The program sent one bag of groceries per month to 480,000 seniors, mothers and newborn children.

I predict that before the end of his term, W will be burning piles of homeless people on the White House lawn while cackling and thrusting his alcohol shriveled member into Lee Raymond's turkey-like wattle.

The key findings in PBS's report:

• The government is intercepting most emails sent domestically.
• AT&T is collecting most emails and sharing them with the government, specifically the NSA (this is backed up by Klein's documents).
• The NSA spy room at AT&T's San Francisco facility is only accessible to the NSA and AT&T employees cleared by the NSA.
• The NSA's interest seems to be in MAE WEST, *the* major hub of American and international internet traffic on the West Coast.
• The device installed in San Francisco is capable of intercepting 10 GIGBYTES of data per second. In layman's terms, that means it could go through all the information in all the books in the Library of Congress in 15 minutes.

Before the 14 jurors departed for a long break this afternoon, they filed into the courtroom, with all but one wearing bright red T-shirts with a white valentine heart over their clothes, to the uncertain laughter of many in the courtroom.

But as one juror, a retired North Carolina schoolteacher, rose to speak aloud, Judge Walton became visibly anxious that the juror might say something inappropriate that would threaten the trial. Jurors are not supposed to speak during court sessions and are supposed to make any concerns known through notes to the bench.

The juror said that they were wearing the T-shirts to express their fondness for the judge and the court staff on Valentine’s Day. He then added, to the judge’s growing discomfort, that they were unanimous in this sentiment, but they would all be independent in judging the evidence.

The one juror who apparently declined to don a T-shirt was a woman who had been a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[ via American Leftist ]

Ms. Cheney noted Mr. Dobson’s distortions of the research he cited [in a piece attacking her in Time] and added: “Every piece of remotely responsible research that has been done in the last 20 years has shown there is no difference between children raised by same-sex parents and children raised by opposite-sex parents; what matters is being raised in a stable, loving environment.”

She said Mr. Dobson was entitled to his opinion, “but he’s not someone whose endorsement I have ever drastically sought.”

But what’s with the “drastically,” Mary?

Could it be this: You sought Dobson’s endorsement in the past—your father certainly has, and you worked on his campaigns—but now, to avoid tough questions, you want to qualify and minimize your past sucking up to the likes of Dobson by stating that you never sought his endorsement all that, you know, drastically or anything.

Your side started it. It only serves you right that you’re going to have to finish it.

And you might want to have it all wrapped up before your kid is old enough to understand what’s being said about his family by your dad’s political allies. Take it from me, Mary: Explaining to your child, after he heard something hateful on the radio, that his family is very much “real,” that it’s not an attack on anyone else’s family, and that his parents are, in fact, fit to be his parents is as distressing and emotionally exhausting as it is unnecessary. And I blame you.

Whatever future developments may prove to be, my best guess is that the U.S. will continue to maintain a façade of Constitutional government and drift along until financial bankruptcy overtakes it. Of course, bankruptcy will not mean the literal end of the U.S. any more than it did for Germany in 1923, China in 1948, or Argentina in 2001-2002. It might, in fact, open the way for an unexpected restoration of the American system -- or for military rule, revolution, or simply some new development we cannot yet imagine.

...

[O]n March 16, 2006, Congress raised the national debt limit from $8.2 trillion to $8.96 trillion. This was the fourth time since George W. Bush took office that it had to be raised.

...

Among the creditors that finance these unprecedented sums, the two largest are the central banks of China (with $853.7 billion in reserves) and Japan (with $831.58 billion in reserves), both of which are the managers of the huge trade surpluses these countries enjoy with the United States.

...

For the sake of their own domestic employment, both countries lend huge amounts to the American treasury, but there is no guarantee of how long they will want to, or be able to do so. Marshall Auerback, an international financial strategist, says we have become a "Blanche Dubois economy" (so named after the leading character in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire) heavily dependent on "the kindness of strangers." Unfortunately, in our case, as in Blanche's, there are ever fewer strangers willing to support our illusions.

So my own hope is that -- if the American people do not find a way to choose democracy over empire -- at least our imperial venture will end not with a nuclear bang but a financial whimper. From the present vantage point, it certainly seems a daunting challenge for any President (or Congress) from either party even to begin the task of dismantling the military-industrial complex, ending the pall of "national security" secrecy and the "black budgets" that make public oversight of what our government does impossible, and bringing the president's secret army, the CIA, under democratic control. It's evident that Nemesis -- in Greek mythology the goddess of vengeance, the punisher of hubris and arrogance -- is already a visitor in our country, simply biding her time before she makes her presence known.

Moscow - When the going gets tough, President Vladimir Putin turns to his Labrador Connie and 11th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyam for advice, the Russian leader said at his annual news conference on Thursday.

"As far as bad moods go, of course I have them like any other person, but in those cases I try to consult with my dog Connie.

She gives me good advice," Putin said, referring to the black Labrador retriever who frequently appears with him at meetings with journalists and foreign leaders.

Note the change in Bush's body language and tone from '02 to '07. He's gone from messianic idealist to slumped over frat boy that doesn't really give a shit. Perhaps that bodes well for his ability to follow through with an invasion of Iran.

In a week that saw Jane Fonda bashing Bush and couldabeen-president John Kerry ragging on America, it took a real stud to rivet our attention.

Barbaro, the champion racehorse who captured America's heart, finally lost the fight and was euthanized. By the outpouring of condolences and attention, you'd have thought Dale Earnhardt had died.

What was it about that horse? It is a reasonable question to ask.

Our fixation on Barbaro began during the 2006 Kentucky Derby, where the colt won by six and a half lengths. Just moments into the Preakness Stakes, which many expected him to win, he shattered his right rear leg.

It was a catastrophic injury that would have resulted in most horses being euthanized on the spot. But Barbaro was special, not least in his ability to inspire humans.

Thousands if not millions followed his ordeal at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. Bloggers posted daily reports on Barbaro's progress; media trucks kept vigil in the parking lot; friends and strangers sent gifts, letters, e-mails and prayers.

...

How is it that in a time of terror and war, so many could become so emotionally invested in a horse? Maybe the better question is, how could they not?

...

One friend I spoke to had been sitting close to the track when Barbaro fell. She learned from Barbaro's ambulance driver that people had stopped on interstate overpasses and held signs wishing the champ Godspeed.

``I've never seen anything like it,'' she said, sniffling.

``I don't cry about my own horses, but Barbaro fought so doggone hard. He really wanted to live.''

It was Barbaro's spirit, apparently contagious, that attracted crowds. Sick and injured people said they found inspiration in the colt who wouldn't quit. His fight became their fight.

...

Most children can't wait to ride a horse, and girls emerge from the womb demanding one. Not getting a pony has become a metaphor for childhood disappointment.

I didn't get my pony either.

On another level, Barbaro may have been the right horse at the right time. Americans love a champion, a winner, a striver. We identify ourselves by those lights. But since Sept. 11, 2001, we are plagued with doubt, anxiety and no small fear that we may not win this race against evil. Here to remind us of our weak resolve in that struggle are Fonda and Kerry, whose headlines collided with Barbaro's.

Fonda, who has never met a war she could get behind, showed up on the National Mall to protest the ``mean-spirited, vengeful'' Bush administration. Kerry showed up at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he couldn't find anything good to say about the nation he once meant to lead.

No wonder we fell in love with a horse.

A country driven mad by partisanship found common cause in Barbaro -- an utterly neutral reservoir of hope, beauty and determination. For a while, we were all in the race with a champion, and, for a while, we were champions, too.

I feel, once again, as if I'm watching this take place under water. It's all there, I can see it, but it's all a bit distorted and everything is moving in slow motion. I'm screaming, but it comes out muffled and imprecise. The Bush administration is provoking a war with Iran, in real time, on television and we are just watching it happen.