More than 176,000 names were removed from the state’s voting rolls last year under a new statewide voter database that was developed to help counties find duplicate registrations and dead voters, Secretary of State Sam Reed says.

The purge of illegal registrations is the result of the new system that consolidated all 39 separate county systems into one database in January 2006.

Reed said Tuesday that from Jan. 1, 2006, to Dec. 31, 176,373 names were removed from the state’s database of about 3.2 million registered voters. They included:

John Edwards’ presidential campaign wants to make it clear that he doesn’t consider Israel a threat to world peace.
A spokesman for the 2008 Democratic candidate issued a statement today denying such a report on Variety.com.

Columnist Peter Bart reports that Edwards told a Hollywood fundraiser last month that the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities is perhaps the greatest short-term threat to world peace.

Edwards’ spokesman Jonathan Prince says the article is erroneous. He says Edwards says one of the greatest short-term threats to world peace is Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

We were just too joooopid.

Atta boy!
LGF

A truck bomb that combined explosives with chlorine gas blew up in southern Baghdad on Wednesday, and officials said it may represent a new and deadly tactic by insurgents against Iraqi civilians.

It was at least the third truck bomb in a month to employ chlorine, a greenish gas also used in World War I. It burns the skin and can be fatal after only a few concentrated breaths.

Would this be considered chemical weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

The war of words between leading 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spread Wednesday night, after the campaigns had earlier exchanged heated words when Clinton suggested Obama return funds to Hollywood bigwig David Geffen, who insulted her in a newspaper article.

“We aren’t going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom,” Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said in a statement that was e-mailed to the news media.

JR: Who’s dis????

Dave Munger: Dave Munger

JR: Dave Mungah?

Dave Munger: No, Dave Munger, with an “R”

JR: Dat’s what I said, Dave Mungah.
Sondra, it’s Dave Mungah......

Iraq war protesters are planning to converge on Washington next month and several organizations, including the POW-MIA group Rolling Thunder, are banding together to protect sacred ground for Vietnam War veterans.

The rally March 17 against the war, organizers say, is to get under way in a grassy park near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, known as the wall.

Two veterans’ groups said Wednesday they fear protesters may deface the memorial, a claim dismissed by the demonstrating groups.

“We’re going there to protect our memorial and show support for our troops,” said Artie Muller, founder and executive director of Rolling Thunder.

Muller said he and other veterans grew concerned because during a January anti-war rally, some protesters spray-painted graffiti on the steps of the Capitol.

Richard Becker, a spokesman for the upcoming rally, said the organizations involved have no intention of desecrating the black granite memorial wall. “I think it’s the spreading of myths and that’s a polite way of putting it,” Becker said.

You’d know all about that now, wouldn’t you.
(wonder if they’ll spit on it)

The controversial play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” is slated to open at the Seattle Repertory Theatre next month.
The play, crafted by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner, is based on the writings of Rachel Corrie, a student at The Evergreen State College who was crushed by a bulldozer in March 2003 while standing in front of the home that was being razed by Israeli troops.

“My Name is Rachel Corrie” was a hit at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Last spring, the New York Theater Workshop delayed the production after polling religious and community groups about its content. Last fall, the Royal Court Theatre opened the production opened Off-Broadway, where it ran for about two months.

In December, a Canadian theater company canceled the play from its 2007-08 season, citing concerns that it would be offensive to the Jewish community. Seattle’s version will be directed by Braden Abraham, and star Marya Sea Kaminski of Seattle.

Previews for the play will begin March 15, and opening night is set for March 21. The play is scheduled to run until April 22.

Tickets range from $26 to $40, and can be purchased by phone (877-900-9285) or online (http://www.seattlerep.org).

...... I thought they were clowns ......

Sondra,

I was absolutely amazed when I looked in on Jerry this afternoon.  He has had very shallow breathing because of the pain and his words have been weak, phrases short and his eyes somewhat discolored.  He has never been comfortable since the day I met him and he would often stop and pull his head back and make a lame attempt at a deep breath.

That said, we are only halfway through this whole procedure and when I walked into the room he was sitting up in bed and he looked quickly at me and in a deeper version of Jerry’s voice said “Hey Bud, I didn’t think I’d be seeing you, how are you”.  His eyes are all bright his breathing is deep and he is lying so comfy!!  He showed me his incision about an inch to the left of his belly button and maybe 4 inches long and from there they went all the way to his backbone!!!!!  He was talking to people in bright and quick terms and although he has morphine he is more quick and alert than I have ever seen him.
(Sierrahome)

I got to chat with him briefly and I am ASTOUNDED at how great he sounded.
Tomorrow’s another surgery ....

Two clowns were shot and killed by an unidentified gunman during their performance at a traveling circus in the eastern Colombian town of Cucuta, police said Wednesday.

The gunman burst into the Circo del Sol de Cali on Monday night and shot the clowns in front of an audience of 20 to 50 people, local police chief Jose Humberto Henao told Reuters.

One of the clowns was killed instantly, and the second died the next day in hospital.

“The killings had nothing to do with the show the victims were performing at the time of the incident,” Henao said in a telephone interview. ”We are investigating the motive.”

With an entrance fee of under 50 cents, Circo del Sol de Cali attracts mostly poor Colombians. It pitched its tents in Cucuta, near the border with Venezuela, earlier this month.

“The clowns came out to give their show, and then this guy came out shooting them,” one audience member told local television. “It was terrible.”

They obviously don’t read my blog.

Local reports say the audience of about 20 people, mostly children, thought the shooting was part of the show before realising both men had been killed.............

Participating in the forum today in Carson City, Nev., are, from left: former Senator Mike Gravel; Senator Harry Reid; former Governor Tom Vilsack; Senator Joe Biden; Representative Dennis J. Kucinich ; Senator Christopher J. Dodd; former Senator John Edwards; Gerald McEntee, the head of the public employees union sponsoring the event; and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

After a futile attempt to find a smart way to make Ash Wednesday relevant to our movie site, I came across this from one of my all-time favorite bloggers. I should’ve known The Anchoress would do it in a smarter and much more charming way than I ever could.

But let me take this opportunity to think out loud for a moment. You know, so many of us believe. So many of us believe that life here on earth is just the beginning and that after there will be justice — both good and bad — where we will be admonished for our sins and rewarded for our selfless deeds. I wish films would acknowledge this more often. Not in a Christian, but in a spiritual fashion. Every week a full 100 million Americans go to their particular church because we acknowledge the consequences of our life don’t end here on earth.

Many people take frequent moral inventories of their lives. We worry about that which we have done and undone, and regret the rocks contained in that bag we all haul around. This personal moral reckoning goes beyond the human consequence. It goes to our very eternity. Great dramas have been made of lovers separated here on earth, but what of the drama of those who fear some terrible deed will separate them for eternity? Or, send them to Hell? These are real human emotions. These are real stories of the human condition. These are stories so many of us could relate to and find comfort in. These are unexplored journeys ripe for the telling.

Just an idea.

todaze BDS poster boy

A Fredericksburg man is facing several assault charges after police say he hunted down a group of Republicans and confronted them in their home over their beliefs.

Police said Andrew Stone, 23, recently went to a home in Fredericksburg at around 5:30 p.m. after he saw a name and nearby address on a Republican Web site.

Stone confronted three residents about their political viewpoints, police said. When he found out the residents supported the Republican-led war effort in Iraq, police say Stone became enraged.

Stone then hit the homeowner and his roommates several times as they tried to force him out of the door, police said.

Stone faces three counts of assault and battery.

DaveM writes:

I noticed something interesting about one of my favorite sayings the other day:

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”

-- French novelist Anatole François (1844 - 1924)

Why 50 million, I wondered.  I did a quick search…

The population of the US in 1880:  50,189,209

So how do you really feel, Anatole?

breast milk is not vegan

We are offering a free room for a woman who is willing to provide breast milk for consumption to the household. We are an otherwise vegan house but have recently read A.O. Wilson’s study of the benefits of human breast milk to all human beings of any age.  This is not sexual. Neither appearance nor sexual preference are of any concern to us...............

SOG