David Addington, left, under subpoena, and John Yoo, back by popular demand. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

When Anonymity Fails, Be Nasty, Brutish and Short

Throughout the Bush presidency, he toiled in secrecy deep within the White House, a mysterious and feared presence who never stepped into the sunlight of public disclosure.

Until yesterday.

There he sat, hunched and scowling, at the witness table in front of the House Judiciary Committee: the bearded, burly form of the chief of staff and alter ego to the vice president -- Cheney's Cheney, if you will -- and the man most responsible for building President Bush's notion of an imperial presidency.

David Addington was there under subpoena. And he wasn't happy about it.

Could the president ever be justified in breaking the law? "I'm not going to answer a legal opinion on every imaginable set of facts any human being could think of," Addington growled. Did he consult Congress when interpreting torture laws? "That's irrelevant," he barked. Would it be legal to torture a detainee's child? "I'm not here to render legal advice to your committee," he snarled. "You do have attorneys of your own."

He had the grace of Gollum as he quarreled with his questioners. In response to one of the chairman's questions, he neither looked up nor spoke before finishing a note he was writing to himself. When Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) questioned his failure to remember conversations about interrogation techniques, he only looked at her and asked: "Is there a question pending, ma'am?" Finally, at the end of the hearing, Addington was asked whether he would meet privately to discuss classified matters. "You have my number," he said. "If you issue a subpoena, we'll go through this again."

Think of Addington as the id of the Bush White House. Though his hidden hand is often merely suspected -- in signing statements, torture policy and other brazen assertions of executive power -- Addington's unbridled hostility was live and unfiltered yesterday.

He sat slouched in his chair, scratching his mustache, as Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Constitution subcommittee, warned about "the unaccountable monarchy" before offering Addington five minutes to make an opening statement. Addington spoke for a minute and 12 seconds -- most of which was devoted to correcting two errors in Nadler's introduction.

"Is that the entirety of your statement?" the chairman asked.

"Yes, thank you," Addington replied. "I'm ready to answer your questions."

He sure was. When John Conyers (D-Mich.) inquired about Addington's pet legal concept, a "unitary executive theory" that confers extreme powers on the president, Addington dished out disdain.

"I frankly don't know what you mean by unitary theory," Addington replied......

ALSO:

David Addington Can't Talk About Torture,

Terrorists Might Watch C-span

02/20/08 - EU officials furious as Washington says it wants extra data on all air passengers

Bush orders clampdown on flights to US

The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.

The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as "blackmail" and "troublesome", and could see west Europeans and Britons required to have US visas if their governments balk at Washington's requirement.

According to a US document being circulated for signature in European capitals, EU states would also need to supply personal data on all air passengers overflying but not landing in the US in order to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, senior EU officials said.

"We made it as a tribute to women, because African women are defined by the shape of their bottoms," DJ Mix says. "Move your bottom, jump, you see..."

Ivory Coast's 'big-bottom' craze

A national dance craze in Ivory Coast has spawned a black market in treatments claiming to increase one's bottom size.

The dance in question has been inspired by DJ Mix and DJ Eloh's hit song Bobaraba, which means "big bottom" in the local Djoula language.

When it plays you can be guaranteed that the dance floor will be packed with people shaking their derrieres.

Even Ivorian footballers have adopted the moves and could be seen wiggling their bottoms in a curious on-pitch dance after each goal scored during the just-ended Africa Nations Cup.

However, doctors have warned of the possible dangers of some of the concoctions on sale.

While the dance has been embraced by both sexes, DJ Mix says it was inspired by women.

"I want to retire. I'm legally blind and I had a cple strokes four years ago. My vision is really getting to be a problem. And the record industry....

North Hills treasure trove of music goes up for sale on eBay

It started with a 1951 Frankie Laine single called "Jezebel." From there, Paul Mawhinney's obsession grew into the 3 million records that now fill the Record Rama archives.

When the clock strikes 6 p.m. tomorrow, it may be out of his hands and on the way out of Pittsburgh.

Mr. Mawhinney has put what he calls "The World's Greatest Music Collection" -- bigger than the one at the Library of Congress -- up for auction on eBay. He is selling the collection, housed in his store below a strip mall in Ross, as one unit with a starting bid of $3 million.

Mr. Mawhinney estimates the value at $50 million and said that CD Now nearly bought it for $28.5 million earlier in the decade, just before stock in the online Web site plummeted. He added that over the years, the Library of Congress and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum have both expressed interest in the collection.

But, between the digital revolution and the shrinking population of oldies collectors, the retail record industry is dying fast and a lot of the old-timers just want out.

Mr. Mawhinney, 68, said he's more determined than ever now to sell....

"The chapter has been placed on suspension pending the outcome of the investigation,” Grindel said.

10 Delta Chi pledges arrested in Estes Park

Boulder's Delta Chi Fraternity has been placed on suspension after 10 pledges were arrested over the weekend in Estes Park on suspicion of causing up to $10,000 in damage to two Super 8 Motel rooms.

Estes Park police were called to the motel about 2:30 a.m. Sunday and found large holes in the walls of two connected rooms, blood and vomit everywhere, destroyed furniture and a coffee pot filled with urine, according to a police report.

Officers said all the University of Colorado students were underage and suspected to have been drinking alcohol. They were arrested on suspicion of felony criminal mischief and underage drinking, and they were taken to the Larimer County Detention Center in Fort Collins

A representative of the Iowa-based Delta Chi Fraternity Inc.'s national headquarters is due to arrive in Boulder today to investigate the chapter and the men, ages 18 to 20, who are suspected in the vandalism, said Karl Grindel, assistant executive director of the headquarters......

Canada to Extradite Nazi to Italy

An 83-year-old former SS prison guard who was sentenced to life in jail in Italy for Nazi war crimes was being extradited from Canada to Rome on Friday, officials said.

Source URL: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iy7YMcKr8HTJ_OOl8JtT6eGB80hwD8UQSOAG0

Mysterious Creatures Found in Antarctica

Scientists investigating the icy waters of Antarctica said Tuesday they have collected mysterious creatures including giant sea spiders and huge worms in the murky depths.

Australian experts taking part in an international program to take a census of marine life in the ocean at the far south of the world collected specimens from up to 6,500 feet beneath the surface, and said many may never have been seen before.

Some of the animals far under the sea grow to unusually large sizes, a phenomenon called gigantism that scientists still do not fully understand.

"Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters," Martin Riddle, the Australian Antarctic Division scientist who led the expedition, said in a statement. "We have collected huge worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates."

The specimens were being sent to universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and DNA studies.

"Not all of the creatures that we found could be identified and it is very likely that some new species will be recorded as a result of these voyages," said Graham Hosie, head of the census project...

Source URL: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIiwv2nRo-eUt2NgxGLnrD-Fnr0gD8UTL23O0

Lincoln portrait made out of pennies

For decades, the elder Haber stashed the often-overlooked or unwanted copper coins. More recently, he decided to put them to good use.

"I had a ton of pennies," Jeff Haber said. "I have 30 years of collected pennies."

Inspiration came in the form of a portrait of Abraham Lincoln made entirely of pennies that he saw at the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum in Florida about eight years ago.

09/15/07 - Company patents playlists, sues everyone

HEADLINE:

Company patents playlists, sues everyone

STORY:

A company called Premier International Associates has filed suit against a slew of tech companies over infringement on two of the company's patents. Microsoft, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Viacom, Real, Napster, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Nokia, and Sandisk are named in one of the two suits filed this week, while Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Gateway, and Yahoo are named in another. All of the above companies are accused of violating Premier's patents for an electronic "List building system"—the older of which was applied for in 1997 and issued in 2001.

The patents describe what essentially comes down to a playlist. "A plurality of works can be collected together in a list for purposes of establishing a play or a presentation sequence. The list can be visually displayed and edited," reads the "725" patent. Both of them describe ways to graphically display an arrangement of songs from CDs or any manner of media that can then be played back sequentially or out-of-order.

09/14/07 - Police Find Man's Body, Guillotine In Wooded Area

Police Find Man's Body, Guillotine In Wooded Area

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The body of a 41-year-old man was found in a wooded area next to a guillotine he built and used to kill himself, police said.

The man, from the Detroit suburb of Melvindale, was discovered Monday by workers from a shopping center near his home.

Groundskeeper from the Fairlane Green shopping center at Outer and Fairlane drive discovered the body shortly before 11 a.m. Monday.

Allen Park Deputy Police Chief Dale Covert said the roughly six-foot tall guillotine was bolted to a tree and included a swing arm. Covert said police also found several store receipts detailing the materials used to assemble the device.

"I can't even tell you how long it must have taken him to construct," he said. "This man obviously was very determined to end his life."

Source URL: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/14099445/detail.html

Bush Flip-Flops on Troop Cuts in Iraq

Bush Flip-Flops on Troop Cuts in Iraq

President Bush, defending an unpopular war, ordered gradual reductions in U.S. forces in Iraq on Thursday night and said, "The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home."

Yet, Bush firmly rejected calls to end the war, insisting that Iraq will still need military, economic and political support from Washington after his presidency ends.

Bush said that 5,700 U.S. forces would be home by Christmas and that four brigades — for a total of at least 21,500 troops — would return by July, along with an undetermined number of support forces. Now at its highest level of the war, the U.S. troop strength stands at 168,000.

Source URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070914/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq

09/14/07 - McCain campaign suffers key shake-ups

John McCain jettisoned his two top aides Tuesday as the one-time Republican front-runner struggled to right a presidential bid in deep financial and political trouble.

Campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver offered McCain their resignations, which the Arizona senator accepted with "regret and deep gratitude for their dedication, hard work and friendship."

At least three other senior aides followed the two out the door, and the campaign announced that Rick Davis, who managed McCain's 2000 bid and has served as the current campaign's chief executive officer, will take over.

"I'm determined to continue to face our challenges head-on and win," McCain said, vowing to press on in an e-mail to supporters. Aides insisted he would not drop out of the race.

Full Story: Yahoo News

Donate or I'll abort my baby website is fake

(CBS 42) AUSTIN In South Austin, in a small apartment out of sight and out of mind, lives a Web site creator who is anonymously soliciting cash donations to stop an alleged unwanted abortion. The Web site (www.helpmybabylive.com) tells the story of a young couple who say, “….if we can’t raise $50,000 in the next three months, we’ll have to choose abortion. We don’t like it and we don’t like the nature of our appeal but it is what it is…”



The site claims to have collected more than $13,000 towards their goal and displays a countdown counter indicating how many days are remaining before the couple has to make the difficult decision. There’s also a set of “…terms and conditions…” for potential donors to follow, stating in part: “…you do not, and will never, know who we are. You agree not to try to find out who we are...you agree to pay only through PayPal…(and)…not to hold InvisiHosting, LLC liable for any actions on our part. You agree that they are not responsible for any dissatisfaction that you may experience as a result of donations to us (and) you agree to forfeit $25,000 per violation of these terms…”



At first glance, it is impossible to tell if the Web site is real or a scam. Or, even if there is a pregnancy or possible pending abortion. That’s why CBS 42 Investigates decided to dig deeper.



What we discovered is this is all a hoax. No couple coping with these difficult decisions. No thousands of dollars in contributions. And no impending abortion within the next three months.



After tracking down the site’s creator, 25-year-old Matthew Schiros, he told us “…it’s a joke” designed to “…further the national debate…” about abortion in America…”

Keith Elkins - Reporting



Full Story: KEYE TV

Also: Video: CBS 42 Investigates, CBS 42 Investigates, Read Keith's Blog

Chinese Eat Dinosaur Bones As Medicine

Villagers in central China spent decades digging up bones they believed belonged to flying dragons and using them in traditional medicines. Turns out the bones belonged to dinosaurs, and now scientists are doing the digging.

Until last year, the fossils were being sold in Henan province as "dragon bones" at about 25 cents a pound, scientist Dong Zhiming said Wednesday.

The calcium-rich bones were sometimes boiled with other ingredients and fed to children to treat dizziness and leg cramps. Other times they were ground up and turned into a paste applied directly to fractures and other injuries, he said.

Full Story: Washington Post

Alternate Tags: Tags: Dragons, Fed To Children

3 shot to death in dispute over fireworks

A neighbor apparently angry about noisy fireworks shot three people to death early Thursday and wounded two others, police said.

Terrance Hough Jr., a 35-year-old off-duty firefighter, was arrested in connection with the shootings near his home shortly after midnight, police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said. No charges had been filed Thursday morning.

The shooter was apparently upset about loud noise from fireworks at a house next door and opened fire, killing two men and a woman, all in their early- to mid-20s, Stacho said. He said another man was shot in the elbow and a woman was wounded in the hand.

Police had received a number of complaints in recent years about loud parties, fireworks and drag racing connected to the house where the victims were shot, Stacho said. Some complaint calls came from Hough's address, but no one called police about the party Thursday night.

Full Story: CNN.com

Alternate Tags: Shooting, fireworks, noise, 4th of July

Video: Watch Friends create a memorial for the shooting victim: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/05/fireworks.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Girl, 4, called 911 nearly 300 times

Authorities tracked down a 4-year-old girl who called 911 nearly 300 times last month by offering to deliver McDonald's to her suburban Chicago apartment.

Unbeknownst to her mother, the girl used a deactivated cell phone to call dispatchers 287 times in June - sometimes as often as 20 times a shift.

Dispatchers heard the child's voice but could only track the phone's signal to the apartment complex.

So authorities used a ruse to pinpoint her.

"We asked (the caller) what she wanted. She said she wanted McDonald's," said Steve Cordes, executive director of QuadCom's emergency center, which covers Carpentersville.

Full Story: Victorville Daily News

Alternate Tags: Tags: 911, prank calls, 4-year-old girl, deactivated cell phone, false promises of deliciousness

Police: Shoppers Stepped Over Victim

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) --As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including one who stopped to take a picture of her with a cell phone, stepped over the woman, police said

The June 23 situation, captured on the store's surveillance video, got scant news coverage until a columnist for The Wichita Eagle disclosed the existence of the video and its contents Tuesday।

Police have refused to release the video, saying it is part of their investigation

''It was tragic to watch,'' police spokesman Gordon Bassham said Tuesday। ''The fact that people were more interested in taking a picture with a cell phone and shopping for snacks rather than helping this innocent young woman is, frankly, revolting.''

The woman was stabbed during an altercation that was not part of a robbery, Bassham said। It took about two minutes for someone to call 911, he said.

Calloway, 27, died later at a hospital

Full Story: New York Times

AlternateTags: stabbing, Cell Phone, indifference

Israelis arrest Hamas leaders

Israeli troops in the West Bank arrested more than 30 senior Hamas members Thursday, the army said, including a Cabinet minister, legislators and mayors.

The Palestinian president condemned the arrests, saying they would hinder his efforts to restore a truce with Israel, and Washington expressed concern about the detentions. Hamas threatened to retaliate with attacks inside the Jewish state.

The arrests reflected an Israeli decision to target the Hamas political leadership — but not necessarily with the lethal airstrikes it has staged over the past week on targets linked to the Hamas military arm.

Israeli aircraft staged attacks during the day and into the night, mainly on Hamas training bases and command posts. A huge plume of black smoke rose over Gaza City after an afternoon attack, but there were no serious injuries, Palestinian medics said.

Full Story: YAHOO NEWS

Connecticut man teaches toddler not to bite by biting him all over

A city man was in custody Wednesday after police said he bit his 3-year-old nephew all over his body to teach the boy not to bite anyone.

Hector Pulido, 40, of North Summerfield Avenue, was charged with third-degree assault and risk of injury to a minor.

Superior Court Judge Michael Maronich ordered Pulido held in lieu of $100,000 bond. The case was continued to next Thursday.

The allegations came to light when police were called to a day-care center on Fairfield Avenue Tuesday to investigate a complaint of child abuse. The day-care staff showed officers that the boy had adult bite marks on his chest, abdomen, shoulder, back, thigh, leg and buttocks, police said.

Full Story: CONN POST . COM

Beer Train Derails, Dousing Denver Yard

A string of runaway rail cars spilled beer in downtown Denver Wednesday after they crashed into a parked locomotive and derailed.

No one was hurt, and the railroad's mainline operations were not affected, said Steve Forsberg, a spokesman for BNSF Railway, based in Fort Worth, Texas.

Forsberg said a switch engine was assembling a train around 4:30 a.m. when the crew lost control of the 34 cars, which rolled downhill into the stationary locomotive.

Full Story: MY WAY