Wolfowitz got to, got to, got to go !

Wolfowitz apologises over pay row

Mr Wolfowitz has been on a campaign to target corruption

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has apologised for "mistakes" made over the promotion and pay of an ex-colleague with whom he is romantically involved.

Mr Wolfowitz's partner, Shaha Riza, was moved to the State Department when he took the Bank's top job in 2005.

But the bank's staff association says she then received pay rises and promotions which were "grossly out of line" with the Bank's staff rules.

The controversy comes ahead of joint World Bank and IMF spring meetings.

Mr Wolfowitz also said he would accept any remedy that the World Bank's Board proposed.

The bank chief - formerly US deputy secretary of defence - has adopted a fiercely anti-corruption stance.

The latest furore threatens to undermine Mr Wolfowitz's personal campaign to combat corruption and poor governance.

Responsibility

Until now, Mr Wolfowitz has said he took "full responsibility" for the case, but said it was being left to a committee "that is dealing with it and I am comfortable with that".

But on Thursday he said: "I made a mistake, for which I am sorry."

Ms Riza had been a high-ranking communications employee at the bank working in the Middle East section.

When Mr Wolfowitz took over at the Bank in mid-2005, Ms Riza - then a Bank employee for eight years - was transferred to work for the US State Department, to avoid any conflict of interest.

But rapid rises in her tax-free World Bank salary to about $193,000 - more than the $186,000 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice receives before tax - have aroused ire among other Bank employees.

In a memo to its members earlier in April, the World Bank Staff Association said that the speed of both promotions and salary increases were "grossly out of line" with the Bank's rules.

"Senior management has put forward a call for good governance," the memo said. "In order to be credible, senior management must model the behaviour it espouses."

Aid

While facing press questions about the case, Mr Wolfowitz has tried to shift focus back to the bank's remit of fighting global poverty.

He said the world's richest nations had given 5% less aid over the past 12 months.

"We have yet to see evidence of significant new flows translate into real resources for development programmes on the ground," he said.

Ministers and trade leaders from the 185-nation organisation are to meet on Saturday and Sunday in Washington.

The agenda will include issues including fighting diseases and the state of the world economy.

source bbc http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6548291.stm

Tower of bears
all one does is build and knock down a tower of bears
it is just way too simple
to generate so much fun but it does.
great for kids and and kids at heart
found on stumble. sound is a must for this site

PEOPLE BEFORE PATENTS:
THE LIVES OF MILLIONS ARE AT STAKE!!

SIGN-ON TO HELP PROTECT ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE MEDICINES!!

Pharmaceutical company Novartis is taking the Indian government to court. If the company wins, millions of people across the globe could have their sources of affordable medicines dry up.

sign here: petition

Millions of people around the world today rely on affordable medicines produced in India. India's law contains elements that help put people before patents, but Novartis is taking the Indian government to court to force a change in the law. Neither Novartis, nor any company, should stand in the way of people's right to access the medicines they need.

We urge Novartis to DROP THE CASE now against the Indian government.
People before Patents: The lives of millions are at stake!

CO2
CO2
dear george please tell me
you are pretending to be stupid!

I can believe you are ignoring the dangers
of the gas, and taking the issue to the supreme court

The emperor has been exposed!!!
He has no clothes.

What a relief, now we can move forward , Yes? PLEASE!!!

Can the democrats come together on key issues or are the going to continue to look like the keystone cops?

Can a centrist viewpoint be reached by both parties, to get back to balancing the budget?

We can no long bash the president policy. we must collectively seek and provide a viable alternative. There is no easy road out of the hell, aka Iraq. Just running as fast as we can will only get us in deeper. Will we be smart enough to pause, and ask for assistance and directions from the nations* that have so much to loose if we try to run. *These nations being the relatively immediate neighbors of Iran as well as Europe and to a lesser degree Asia.

See "your poison" close up:
this is mine. can you guess? (select image to see) Sadly a closer look does not explain the next day pain.
goto:http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cocktails/index.html
to see others like Tequila, Vodka, White Russian etc

Firefox 2.0 is here.
I love the inline spell checking, very cool. It is great in creating blog entries.
I really like that each tab has a close button on the tab - making for easier tab management

Disadvantage is that not all extensions and themes have not all caught up.
If you want to keep up with the latest things in life, get it.

If you are happy with IE6, give it a try at least, but avoid IE7!!!
The new toolbars stinks. The items under the tools menu is a mess. Quasi-nerdsor bette will catch on quick but John & Abigale Q Public, will be crying, if they have to putts with settings.

S C R A T CH :"stay the course"
you got it
these are the orders right from the press secretary

Q Tony, it seems what you have is not "stay the course." Has anybody told the President he should stop calling it "stay the course" then?
MR. SNOW: I don't think he's used that term in a while.

Q Oh, yes, he has, repeatedly.
MR. SNOW: When?

Q Well, in August, because I wrote a story saying he didn't use it and I was quite sternly corrected.
MR. SNOW: No, he stopped using it.

Q Why would he stop using it?
MR. SNOW: Because it left the wrong impression about what was going on. And it allowed critics to say, well, here's an administration that's just embarked upon a policy and not looking at what the situation is, when, in fact, it's just the opposite. The President is determined not to leave Iraq short of victory, but he also understands that it's important to capture the dynamism of the efforts that have been ongoing to try to make Iraq more secure, and therefore, enhance the clarification -- or the greater precision.

Q Is the President responsible for the fact people think it's stay the course since he's, in fact, described it that way himself?
MR. SNOW: No."

source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061023-2.html

I see war as a ride into hell and back(we hope)
President Bush, with the road map of "Stay the Course", kept driving us in
deeper. With the discarding of this buzz phrase, this road map, they are admitting: we are officially lost in hell. There is NO road map at all anymore (not that the one the had was worth anything). In Maine they say "ya cant get there [out] from here" We better get one soon, but lets not take the first one past our way.
Some want us to believe there is some sort of express elevator, that we can take and get out of hell without anymore harm. Sad to say, most realists, independent of party know there is no such elevator.

The question is what and where IS the road out.
I don't think we can find it without asking for directions/ help in drawing up a road map.
This mapping help being from countries in Middle East and Europe,. God forbid, if we ask for help but we cant do it by ourselves. ( How many more body bags do we need to send back home to, before we get the administration to see this.)

oh yes, one last thing: get bush out from behind the wheel!!!

If you like animation short, here is a site to fall in love with: 50 great animated shorts from National Film Board of Canada
These are so wonderful! NFB lets you sort list and viewfilms in one of two formats (tip: click large fromat before movie starts or you must start movie over) Site includes Great films like Every Child/Chaque enfant by Eugene Fedorenko

This bumper sticker “two [fingers] for peace” expresses pretty much how I feel at the moment....

each week there is only more to be disappointed about. My only hope is that the midterm elections gives the "one for George" to George :-)

(please feel free to link to image two for peace)

The Sandbox

Was announced in this past Sundays (October 8,2006) Doonesbury comic strip

It is a "...milblog, featuring comments, anecdotes, and observations from service members currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan." "....offering those in-country a chance to share their experiences and reflections with the rest of us. The Sandbox's focus is not on policy and partisanship" ......,"but on the unclassified details of deployment -- the everyday, the extraordinary, the wonderful, the messed-up, the absurd. .....where all correspondence is read, and as much as possible is posted. And contributors may rest assured that all content, no matter how robust, is currently secured by the First Amendment." source: the sandbox

it is not the first military blog (milblog)... but it is worthy of a read! and We need a few more!

GEE George, Thanks for the war !!! not.....

How Al Qaeda views a long Iraq war | csmonitor.com:
"A letter from Al Qaeda leaders found in Iraq shows that the group sees the war as a boon for its cause."
By Dan Murphy| Oct 6, 2006 | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
"CAIRO – In appearances across the US, President Bush has been campaigning against withdrawing troops from Iraq, arguing that to leave now would hand a historic victory to Al Qaeda and inspire new generations of jihadists to attack the US.

But a letter that has been translated and released by the US military indicates that Al Qaeda itself sees the continued American presence in Iraq as a boon for the terror network, which has recently shown signs of expanding into the Palestinian territories and North Africa."
AL QAEDA IN IRAQ: Leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir is cultivating Sunni leaders.


'The most important thing is that the jihad continues with steadfastness ... indeed, prolonging the war is in our interest,' says the writer, who goes by the name Atiyah. The letter, released last week, was recovered in the rubble of the Iraqi house where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, former leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed by a US bomb in June.

more

very cool
interactive
art site
National Gallery
of Art, Washington

NOTE: it is not just for kids
The JUNGLE (left) is
one of a dozen
interactive art applets.
...

"... inspired by the paintings of French artist Henri Rousseau."

Dick Cheney aka VICE PRES. aka puppet master speaking with MR. TIM RUSSERT
Say he would do it [the war]
all over age the exact same way!!!!
Damn His Eyes! They just dont get it!!
from Meet the Press transcript:

VICE PRES. CHENEY: You’d have a man who had demonstrated capacity for violence, who started two wars, who had, in fact, been involved with weapons for mass destruction, who had every intention of going back to it when the sanctions were lifted. And by this point, especially with Ahmadinejad living next door in Iran, pursuing nuclear weapons, there’s no doubt in my mind that if Saddam Hussein was still in power, would have a very robust program under way to try to do exactly the same thing. The world is better off because Saddam Hussein is in jail instead of in power in Baghdad. It was the right thing to do and if we had it to do over again, we’d do exactly the same thing.

MR. RUSSERT: Exactly the same thing?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Yes, sir.

more ....it gets sadder

ITS CALENDAR TIME!
despair.com who does a great parody of the motivational posters now introduces
Build your own calendar.
Pick THE motivational ....
errr..... De-motivational topics like
AMBITION
with the subtext of:

The journey of a thousand miles sometimes ends very, very badly

Then personalize the dates with your own humor, and birthday reminders etc

Little people:
....so fine ! so so sweet ....

installation art at a new scale more more more

first mentioned by abby on boing boing

but worth another mention

and so so much better than the ugly cows in boston cow parade

Marry Me Bars!

I am in love with them....
sure they are not ice cream ....
but they are Dam Good for a soy product
company Tofutti Brands also makes tofutti cutties
even if you are not cutting back on "moo juice" derrivatives
it still worth the try
a possible vegan delight too....

Yahoo beta email is a dog

nice design maybe...but with all its ads
it really bites .....switching back to classic
for trivial email...using gmail for all essential email.

winning the midterm elections the BUSH way
Just when BUSH needs it, he pops
the fear word terrorism !!! (see below*) Sort of like the word "liberal" used in the past,
but oh it has than little extra Texas Kick, to swing the voters back around....
dam dam dam...my gray hairs are increasing in numbers
and Bush is not helping !

*the byline reads:
" His [presidents] speeches on security this week signal that Republicans will use the terrorism issue for the third election in a row."
more
source: Christian Science Monitor from the September 08, 2006 edition, By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

new!

• i am adding a sections Translated newspapers for newspaper that are translated by google tool structure:

translate.google.com
/translate?
sourceid=navclient-ff
&hl=en
&u=http://www.faz.net

• i added New Scientist to news digested