www.partizane.com

HARRISBURG, Pa. — U.S. Rep. John Murtha, an influential critic of the Iraq War whose congressional career was shadowed by questions about his ethics, died Monday. He was 77.

The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said.

In 1974 Murtha, then an officer in the Marine Reserves, became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress. One of Congress' most hawkish Democrats,he wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.

Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but Murtha's growing frustration over the administration's handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/rep-john-murtha-iraq-293937.html

He was a good man.  nh

A little snow fell and more is due.  We up in the cold dark north wish some of it would come our way.  My usual cross country ski trails are getting rocky.

Hooray for the Saints and all of NOLA!  Watch the Bourbon Street happenings right here http://www.earthcam.com/usa/louisiana/neworleans/bourbonstreet/

What's up out there?

President Obama calls this Snowmaggedon. Whatever it's called, it's the biggest snow to hit DC in history but maybe not according to the airport figures. It's still snowing and we have about 30 inches on the ground. I'm very lucky to have power because over 200,000 homes are without power in the region, mostly in the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia, and 5,000 in DC. Some major roads in the area are blocked by fallen trees due to heavy snow and wind. A private jet hangar at Dulles airport had the roof collapse and a small old wooden church collapsed under the weight of the snow.

Here are a couple of iPhone photos I took earlier today looking out my front and rear upstairs windows:

That's what's being tweeted around today.http://twitter.com/peterdaou

On January 28, Iran’s government executed another young Iranian to silence opposition forces protesting the re-election of Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Arash Rahmanipour, just 19 years-old, was one of a group of eleven people sentenced to death for “moharebeh”, which means “waging war against God”. I’ve posted his photo on the left, because his image is so unlike what one would expect given the accusation against him. It was taken in court as he faced his accusers. Arash looks like a lamb led to slaughter and that pretty much accurately describes what happened to him.

While the Iranian government spread its version of the story, Rahmanipour’s lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, has told the truth as she witnessed it. Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor General said that Arash Rahmanipour confessed to crimes and had been tried in the presence of his lawyer. But Sotoudeh, said that the confessions were extracted under duress, and that she was not allowed to attend the trial. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Rahmanipour had been arrested during the post-election turmoil. Sotoudeh says he was arrested two months before the election, and his case had nothing to do with the post-election strife. 

 Sports Illustrated is getting some heat for this month’s cover of Lindsey Vonn shown on the left. Some people are saying it’s too suggestive, but I’m willing to give the magazine a pass and save my condemnation for its next sexist swimsuit issue. Fewer than 4% of SI covers showcase female athletes, so I’m celebrating that Vonn is being featured. I am also old enough to remember its 1992 cover featuring A.J. Kitt shown to the right, which pictured him in a similar pose.

When all is said and done, this time Sports Illustrated got one thing exactly right. Just as its cover proclaims, Lindsey Vonn is America’s best woman skier ever, and she makes it look so effortless that it is a joy to just watch her. She has the grace, skill, and poise of a natural athlete who has taken years to perfect her style.

Jim Tracy, a United States ski-team coach, described the first time he saw her ski this way: “She’s hauling down the mountain, her skis probably going 60, but the rest of her was hardly moving. It was like watching water flow down a hill.”

Nothing else you can do but enjoy it.  Have a blizzard party with neighbors and snuggle up with a good book.

Camping Headlamps are the best way to read in the dark.  Oil lamps are cool but very tiring on the eyes.

Have fun, stay warm and safe.  We'll see you on the otherside.

http://www.snowcity.com.sg/icebar/packages.html

Filed under, I'm sorry to post this but I have to.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/girl-buried-alive-turkey

Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an "honour" killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys.

The girl, who has been identified only by the initials MM, was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman.

Police made the discovery in December after a tip-off from an informant, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on its website.

The girl had previously been reported missing.

The informant told the police she had been killed following a family "council" meeting.

Her father and grandfather are said to have been arrested and held in custody pending trial. It is unclear whether they have been charged. The girl's mother was arrested but was later released.

Media reports said the father had told relatives he was unhappy that his daughter – one of nine children – had male friends. The grandfather is said to have beaten her for having relations with the opposite sex.

Why?

So many things going on right now and so many things about to happen. First, let's go back to a 1943 Disney cartoon called Chicken Little.

That was a little parable about the threat of Communism, a threat we still face today. Sure, there's no more Soviet Union and no more Mao. China has adopted a sort of state-sponsored capitalism. The threat isn't from without, it's from within. The DNC was taken over by leftists* in 2007 and the first thing they did was change the rules that governed them. They changed them again at the RBC meeting on May 31, 2008, thus ensuring that Obama would win the Democratic primary. The sky fell and we ended up with president Obama.

On February 3 at the United Nations Headquarters, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised his Special Envoy to Haiti, former US President Bill Clinton, for demonstrating “extremely important leadership.” The UN Secretary-General then asked Clinton "to assume a leadership role in coordinating international aid efforts, from emergency response to new construction of Haiti."

The earthquake that struck the impoverished nation on January 12 left widespread devastation and death in its wake. The Haitian government recently reported that the death toll had topped 200,000. According to information released by the UN, MR Clinton will work with the Haitian government in recovery and reconstruction efforts. He will help coordinate the work of UN agencies and other international partners, including government & non-government donors and private investors.

Chris "I forgot he was black, for an hour" Matthews wins the Tweety for his State of the Union speech analysis.  The editorial board of Partizane feels that beyond the pure stupidity of his racist remark we want to keep this episode before the eyes of the world.  Obviously, the other media players are giving him a by because, we don't know why but we know he's getting a pass.  We doubt Comcast will be as lenient a task master as GE and cannot wait for the change of ownership for this dog we also know as Tingles.

Click the image for larger size

as opposed to a talker - one who talks -

www.youtube.com/watch

That crash you heard on the West Coast Saturday night was Hollywood's glass ceiling being smashed as Kathryn Bigelow won the 2009 Director's Guild Award for Outstanding Director.  She is the first woman to bring home the honor in the 62 year history of the DGA.  Bigelow beat out James "Avatar" Cameron (her ex-husband) for The Hurt Locker a tense and honest look at wartime stress in the Iraqui campaign.  Only seven women directors have been nominated in the past:  Lina Wertmueller (Seven Beauties 1976), Randa Haynes (Children of a Lesser God, 1986), Barbra Streisand (Prince of Tides, 1991), Jane Campion (The Piano, 1993), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, 2003), Valerie Faris (with co-director Jonathon Dayton for Little Miss Sunshine, 2006).  Wertmueller, Campion, and Coppola went on to receive Oscar nominations, and were the first three women to ever be nominated for an Academy Award for their work as directors.  Bigelow received an Oscar nomination this morning, and in the tradition of all past DGA winners sits poised as the favorite to bring home an Academy Award.  It's been a Hollywood tradition for the winner of the DGA statuette to go on and also take home big boy Oscar.  Only six times in the history of the Academy Awards has a DGA winner lost the Academy Award nod to another director. Bigelow now has DGA history on her side, and it's up to the Academy to complete the win.

Go, Bigelow!!!!

****************************************************************************************************************************************************

“We arrived at this point as a result of an era of profound irresponsibility that engulfed both private and public institutions from some of our largest companies’ executive suites to the seats of power in Washington.” -President Barack Obama's Spending Plan

****************************************************************************************************************************************************

Remember the Copenhagen Climate Conference in Denmark? CBS reporter Sharyl Attkinsson remembered it and decided to follow the money and uncover exactly how much that experiment in international relations cost the American taxpayer. As a result of that investigation and thanks to Congressional expense reports, Attkinsson found that American taxpayers covered the expenses for the following Congressional members and their entourage: