The Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has not publicly opposed the American troop increase, but aides to Mr. Maliki have been saying for weeks that the government is wary of the proposal. They fear that an increased American troop presence, particularly in Baghdad, will be accompanied by a more assertive American role that will conflict with the Shiite government’s haste to cut back on American authority and run the war the way it wants. American troops, Shiite leaders say, should stay out of Shiite neighborhoods and focus on fighting Sunni insurgents.

“The government believes there is no need for extra troops from the American side,” Haidar al-Abadi, a Parliament member and close associate of Mr. Maliki, said Wednesday. “The existing troops can do the job.”

The best argument yet for not sending more troops....it will inevitably cause more Iraqi civilian casualties as fighting "escalates".

-janelane, Committee to Impeach the Shrub

Promising Troops Where They Aren’t Really Wanted - New York Times

NEW YORK (AP) -- By the year 2030, New York City could have so many people straining its infrastructure that it won't have enough electricity or housing to meet demand, and rush hour traffic will last all day.

The city of 8.2 million people must start planning and building now for the expected growth of 1 million more over the next 25 years, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a panel of experts warned.

"We now have the freedom to take on the obstacles looming in the city's future and to begin clearing them away before they become rooted in place," Bloomberg said Tuesday.

Some of the findings presented Tuesday by a team of city planners, academics, scientists and environmentalists who have spent the past year studying the city's infrastructure and assessing its viability to cope include:

• In 25 years, rails and roads will be "crammed beyond capacity" and won't be able to accommodate the swarm of commuters during what is now considered normal rush hour. Lawmakers must act now to not only expand the road network but also to update the subway system, which was built starting in 1901 and still uses signal and switch technology developed before the 1940s.

• The city will need thousands more housing units. And it has to be affordable -- already, more than a third of city renters fork over more than half their income for rent, the group said.

• Energy demand could exceed supply by as early as 2012, and by 2030 the majority of the city's power plants will be more than 50 years old. The city needs to improve efficiency, use alternative energy sources and modernize its grid, which was built in the 1920s.

New York must not only meet the needs of its growing population but has to stay competitive as a global city, said Robert D. Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, a nonpartisan planning group.

"We can't put our head in the sand," he said. "We know that Shanghai and London and other great world cities that are competing with us are making plans like these and are doing a great job of building new economies and building the infrastructure systems."

Suggestions offered by the expert panel included taxing vehicles that drive into Manhattan's most heavily trafficked neighborhoods, called congestion pricing; and charging residents by the pound for the trash they throw out.

Atlanta can't be too far behind...we don't have any natural boundaries, but it seems traffic is terrible in midtown all the time and we don't hardly have a mass transit system to update.

-janelane, the choir

New York faces all-day rush hour by 2030 - CNN.com

At the end of the skit, in a line Mr. O’Brien insists was ad-libbed, he mentioned that the voyeur (actually Mark Pender, a member of the show’s band) was watching www.hornymanatee.com. There was only one problem: as of the taping of that show, which concluded at 6:30 p.m., no such site existed. Which presented an immediate quandary for NBC: If a viewer were somehow to acquire the license to use that Internet domain name, then put something inappropriate on the site, the network could potentially be held liable for appearing to promote it.

In a pre-emptive strike inspired as much by the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission as by the laws of comedy, NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159, after the taping of the Dec. 4 show but before it was broadcast.

By yesterday afternoon hornymanatee.com — created by Mr. O’Brien’s staff and featuring images of such supposedly forbidden acts as “Manatee-on-Manatee” sex (again using characters in costumes) — had received approximately 3 million hits, according to NBC. Meanwhile several thousand of Mr. O’Brien’s viewers have also responded to his subsequent on-air pleas that they submit artwork and other material inspired by the aquatic mammals, and the romantic and sexual shenanigans they imagine, to the e-mail address conan@hornymanatee.com.

One viewer sent a poem. Mr. O’Brien asked James Lipton, the haughty host of “Inside the Actors Studio” on Bravo, to read it on “Late Night.” It included the lines: “I want to freak thy blubber rolls,” and “The product of our ecstasy will be half man and half a-’tee.” After that a curtain opened, and Mr. Lipton gamely danced with the manatee character. Another viewer wrote a song, which Mr. Pender, the band’s trumpet player, crooned to the character. Set to the heavy metal band AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” it included the lyrics “She had big black eyes/no discernible thighs” and “The waves start shakin’/the ocean was quakin’/my pelvis was achin’.”

ROFLMAO! I gotta Tivo this shit. :-)

-janelane

So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet - New York Times

"Gimme Stuff" by Rappy McRapperson

Best/Worst Christmas song ever.

For more crack-head rapper antics, check out my fanny pack.

-janelane, celebrating December twentysomething

Gimme Stuff

NEW YORK -- New York Sen. Charles Schumer took to the busy streets of Manhattan Monday to warn consumers and holiday shoppers about a newer type of credit card.

The Democrat said the no-swipe cards that use radio waves to relay their data aren't as secure as the those that have data contained in a magnetic strip.

Tens of millions of no-swipe credit cards have been issued in the past year. When a customer uses the credit card to make a purchase, the card is processed by a radio frequency identification reader operated by the retailer.

"You may as well put your credit card information on a big sign on your back," Schumer said. He said thieves can equip themselves with the radio frequency readers to steal information. The cards are being marketed heavily as time savers.

Financial services companies promoting the cards insist they are safe.

So, on a whim I checked out my local news website and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. A lot of the stories under "Consumer" seem to be more far-reaching than I remember including this little gem.

-janelane, Clark Howard is my huckleberry

Senator: No-Swipe Cards Pose Security Risk - Money - WSBTV.com | WSB

After years of toiling and desperation, our engineers at ThinkGeek Gift Labs(TM) have finally invented something so unique and innovative, it perplexes even the brightest minds as to how global society might be impacted. We'll explain it to you but if your brain explodes, we warned you. You see, we have taken the flesh of a tree, mixed it up with some water and other patented goos. Then we took both some organic and inorganic pigments and dissolved them into a solvent. We took those pigments and applied them to the top of the modified tree flesh using very specific and highly intelligent patterns, and then coated everything with a nice protective finish made out of a special liquid that contains a low percentage of pigment and dries to a nice luster. We then folded these new creations and packaged four to a package and are selling them to you at a very affordable price so that you can turn around and use them to cover up things you want to gift to other people so that they might be surprised in a controlled manner.

Half of the humor is the description above :)

ThinkGeek :: Geeky Wrapping Paper

Ladies and gentlemen, President Bush:

“I know there’s a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there’s going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq,” the president said during a joint news conference here with Mr. Maliki, referring to the panel’s final report that is expected next week. “We’re going to stay in Iraq to get the job done so long as the government wants us there.”

Not the *Iraqi people*, not the *American people*, or the UN, the world, basic common sense, etc....the FREAKING PUPPET GOVERNMENT. Gee, you think a whole roomful of bright bipartisan guys can't read the writing wall? Read some Stephen King...the puppets ALWAYS come to life and kill their masters.

-janelane, puking sick of this man

Bush Dismisses Iraq Panel’s Pullback Plan - New York Times

“Either conditions will improve, or we will starve to death,” vowed one of the first hunger strikers, Steven Woods, in an Internet posting put up by groups opposed to the death penalty. Since death row was moved from an older and more open facility in 2000, he said, “We lost all our group recreation, art programs, and supplies” in addition to “work programs, televisions and religious services.”

Cry me a river. Maybe in the next life you'll think twice about murdering people, shithead.

-janelane

Texas Inmates Protest Conditions With Hunger Strikes - New York Times

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — Under a new federal policy, children born in the United States to illegal immigrants with low incomes will no longer be automatically entitled to health insurance through Medicaid, Bush administration officials said Thursday.

Doctors and hospitals said the policy change would make it more difficult for such infants, who are United States citizens, to obtain health care needed in the first year of life.

Illegal immigrants are generally barred from Medicaid but can get coverage for treatment of emergency medical conditions, including labor and delivery.

In the past, once a woman received emergency care under Medicaid for the birth of a baby, the child was deemed eligible for coverage as well, and states had to cover the children for one year from the date of birth.

Under the new policy, an application must be filed for the child, and the parents must provide documents to prove the child’s citizenship.

The documentation requirements took effect in July, but some states have been slow to enforce them, and many doctors are only now becoming aware of the effects on newborns.

Obtaining a birth certificate can take weeks in some states, doctors said. Moreover, they said, illegal immigrant parents may be reluctant to go to a state welfare office to file applications because they fear contact with government agencies that could report their presence to immigration authorities.

Administration officials said the change was necessary under their reading of a new law, the Deficit Reduction Act, signed by President Bush in February. The law did not mention newborns, but generally tightened documentation requirements because some lawmakers were concerned that immigrants were fraudulently claiming United States citizenship to get Medicaid.

Rampant corruption, pork-barrel politics, and PUNISHING BABIES WHO ARE US CITIZENS BY THE CONSTITUTION...God, I fucking hate Republicans and this administration.

-janelane, don't bitch at me....they *are* one in the same

Medicaid Wants Citizenship Proof for Infant Care - New York Times

When he learned in 1995 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, William Utermohlen, an American artist in London, responded in characteristic fashion.

It's only too bad there weren't more pictures, but the idea of gradually losing spatial ability (and not realizing why) is saddeningly apparent. What a terrible disease.

-janelane, writing in my notebook

Self-Portraits Chronicle a Descent Into Alzheimer’s - New York Times