Queen’s fury as Bush goons wreck garden

The Queen is furious with President George W. Bush after his state visit caused thousands of pounds of damage to her gardens at Buckingham Palace.

Royal officials are now in touch with the Queen’s insurers and Prime Minister Tony Blair to find out who will pick up the massive repair bill. Palace staff said they had never seen the Queen so angry as when she saw how her perfectly-mantained lawns had been churned up after being turned into helipads with three giant H landing markings for the Bush visit.

What a guy, Dubya has now managed to piss off a major ally. Something which could easily have been avoided by the Bushies showing elementary common decency and respect for others and their property.

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Solidarity! More on the Teamsters joining the grocery strike

A Teamster who works in a grocery distribution center in L.A. tells me they are in this for the long haul. This is not merely a symbolic, temporary strike in sympathy with grocery workers. The Teamsters will be out for months if need be.

Make no mistake, this is a death match

More than 8,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will be sidelined at 10 distribution centers in Southern and Central California for the duration of the strike, said Jim Santangelo, president of Teamsters Joint Council 42.

“We either end this thing together or we die together,” Santangelo said.

This solidarity strike will shut down Vons, Albertson, and Ralphs in southern California. With the distribution centers closed and the truck drivers on strike, there is no way the stores will be able to keep their shelves stocked.

The distribution centers are highly computerized; working there is a skilled profession. The grocery chains can’t hire untrained, unskilled labor to run them, and they don’t have the expertise or the personnel to do it themselves.

P.S. Just after the strike began, management attempted to drive some of the already loaded trucks, with results the striking Teamsters found quite comical!

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Sign on to defend the first amendment

Oppose the FBI’s targeting of the antiwar movement. Initiated by the ANSWER Coalition

We the undersigned stand in defense of the First Amendment and in opposition to the Bush Administration’s expanding effort to stifle dissent. Confronted with a rising tide of political opposition from the people of the United States, who are outraged at the lies used to justify a war and occupation of Iraq, Bush and Ashcroft are resorting to crass intimidation tactics against the anti-war movement.

More

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Michael Jackson using weblog for PR releases in his criminal case

Michael Jackson now has a weblog that will be his “source of official communications on my case. Any statement that does not appear on this website must be considered unauthorized.”

This is a novel, quite smart, use of weblogs. The blog itself is deliberately understated in look and feel, even if the actual postings seem a bit florid to me.

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It hadn’t occurred to me to worry about this

Could an ET’s send us a virus?

Could a signal from the stars broadcast by an alien intelligence also carry harmful information, in the spirit of a computer virus? Could star folk launch a “disinformation” campaign — one that covers up aspects of their culture? Perhaps they might even mask the “real” intent of dispatching a message to other civilizations scattered throughout the Cosmos.

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Nor have I worried about this - though LA County managed to

In an interesting twist on political correctness, LA County has banned the use of the terms ‘Master/Slave’ (commonly used to denote hard drive arrangements.) According to Snopes.com, ’someone within the County bureaucracy… had taken offense at “master/slave” references and complained to the board.’ LA County now requires that vendors working with the county remove all ‘master/slave’ references. Incredible

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However I have worried about this!

Global warming could cause trouble in California in 20 years

California could be feeling the heat within 20 years, many scientists report through many publications. Global warming would primarily affect California through fire and water.

Rising sea levels, up to three feet higher, would inundate the coastline while simultaneously reducing Sierran snowpack by one-third to one-half and causing it to melt both earlier and faster, requiring massive adjustments in water catchment and management.

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