Monday, December 31, 2007

Bush Addresses "Reckless Homeowners"...again...


President Bush: Remember my address when I exposilized that "reckless homeowners" took advantage of lenders to cause this foreclosure crisis with subliminal mortgage lenders? Well, now you won't believe this! Now I'm exposilizin' that the Rolling Stones are "reckless homeowners" who additionally, not only took advantage of the subliminal lenders, but they took advantage of the lobbyists, congress, and subliminal companies such as AmeriQuest Mortgage, and Arnold Schwartzekegger, better known as Mr. Freeze. (secret service whispers in Bush's ear, same guy as "My Pet Goat"). Sorry about that, the Rolling Stones are not "reckless homeowners." I meant the Americans losing their homes to foreclosure. Replace "Rolling Stones" with "Americans losing their homes to foreclosure" for everything I've said such far. These AMERICAN (pauses, looks at secret service guy) "reckless homeowners" are ruining America by taking advantage of subliminal lenders, lobbyists, congress, Arnold Schwartzekegger, and the Rolling Stones (looks over at secret service guy again). They must be stopped! I think they're terrists! Only terrists would do these things. I'm proposing a new law to safeguard the subliminal lenders, lobbyists, congress, Arnold Schwarzekegger, and the Rolling Stones. This law will give them immunity from being sued by these terrists losing their homes. We have to protect these fine Americans from the terrists. Not the ones losing their homes, I mean the other ones. I'm asking you to fall for this shit again. Thank you.

Wait A Minute! I Thought Bush Said Americans Losing Their Homes To Foreclosure Were "RECKLESS HOMEOWNERS"!!!!!!!


Remember Bush's speech about the "Reckless Homeowners"? And remember how the rightwing Nazi media like Rush Limbaugh & Michelle Malking & Sean Hannity were saying that the foreclosure crisis was the homeowners' fault?

Remember when I wrote THIS?

Well, LOOKEY HERE!

As state governments around the country were trying to regulate subprime lending practices that critics say were responsible for this year's mortgage meltdown, the subprime industry was spreading cash and gifts to lawmakers in a dozen states.

The Wall Street Journal's Glenn Simpson details the case of Ameriquest Mortgage Co., reporting the company worked with a married pair of DC lobbyists to spread more than $20 million in political donations in states considering subprime regulations. Ameriquest also handed out stacks of Rolling Stones tickets to lawmakers in eight states as well as to the campaign of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.


Did you get that? The subprime industry was spreading cash & gifts to lawmakers to allow predatory lending! Who were these lawmakers? Are they going to jail? Who were "the guys" spreading money and gifts? Are they going to jail? While 2+ million people are losing their homes?

MORE LIES!!! By Bush, Corporate America, Rush Limbaugh & the Nazi Media!!! LIES LIES LIES!!!

Rolling Stones tickets??? Arnold Schwarzenegger??? Fuck you, Rolling Stones AND Arnold Schwarzenegger!!! AND subprime lenders!!!

Beeg Don, vatch zis veedeeo...you little girly maun...I zink Keith Richard's teeth...zey are vrotten!!! NO vunderbar he didn't zing!!! Unt zat zinging guy, he has makup on! Vat is vit dat??? Unt vy ur zey dressed in zailor zoots??? Zey look like ze little girlie men!!! Like you, Beeg Don! I vill freeze zem vit meinuh freeze gun!!! Like I did vor ze California firez!!! Zey ur schteenkin' up ze joint vor 35 straight years! Der vorst zen ze Miami Dolphins!!!

(...would it be enough for your cheatin' heart?)

Big Dan's Big News Dec. 31, 2007



(got up this morning, sun peeking through the mountains on the left, several inches of snow)

· 2007 Deadliest for US Troops in Iraq

· Bush Will Veto Vet Benefits to Protect Iraq — From Lawsuits

· Suicide shocks Montana into assessing vets' care; All across America, veterans are slipping through the cracks, left to languish by their military units and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The experience in Montana, which by some measures does more than any other state to support America's wars, shows how far the military and the VA have to go.

· Saddam Provided More Food to Iraqis Than the U.S.; War on Iraq: The U.S.-backed Iraqi government will half Iraqis' rations because of "insufficient funds and spiraling inflation."

· Ever Wonder Why Comcast Is So Expensive? The family of Comcast founder Roberts will continue to receive his salary ($1.8 million/year) for five years after he dies.

· Ron Paul excluded from FOX News debate in NH Primary

· Video of the Moment: 'More Dead Cause of Ohio'

· GOP Mess in Iowa: Romney Stalls, Giuliani's Flailing, Huckabee Scares the GOP Establishment; Heading into the Iowa caucuses, the Republican field is in historic disarray with no obvious contender to take on the Democratic nominee.

· Pensito Review’s 2007 Nominees to the GOP Adulterers Hall of Fame

· Edwards: Obama Too "Nice" For The Presidency

· Pensito Review: Why I’m Endorsing John Edwards for President

· Kucinich wins in Virginia Poll; Kucinich at 30% in an poll sponsored by Democratic Party of Virginia.

· Huckabee would criminalize abortion and punish doctors.

· Yesterday The Times published a highly informative chart laying out the positions of the presidential candidates on major issues. It was, I’d argue, a useful reality check for those who believe that the next president can somehow usher in a new era of bipartisan cooperation. Reactions From Around the Web For what the chart made clear was the extent to which Democrats and Republicans live in separate moral and intellectual universes. On one side, the Democrats are all promising to get out of Iraq and offering strongly progressive policies on taxes, health care and the environment. That’s understandable: the public hates the war, and public opinion seems to be running in a progressive direction. What seems harder to understand is what’s happening on the other side — the degree to which almost all the Republicans have chosen to align themselves closely with the unpopular policies of an unpopular president. And I’m not just talking about their continuing enthusiasm for the Iraq war. The G.O.P. candidates are equally supportive of Bush economic policies.

· Bilawal Bhutto Zardari: My Mother Said Democracy Is The Best Revenge

· Bhutto's son, husband named to lead party; The party of slain former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto tapped her 19-year-old son Sunday as its new chairman, preserving one of Asia's most enduring political dynasties, but it turned real power over to her husband, a one-time businessman dogged by corruption allegations.

· Bhutto's Doctors Felt Pressure To Adopt Govt Story On Her Death

· The loss or theft of personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the trend isn't expected to turn around anytime soon as hackers stay a step ahead of security and laptops disappear with sensitive information.

· The Year in Pain: Top Ten Economic Stories of 2007; We even found a few bright spots. Which ones did you miss?

· U.S. seen internationally as an ‘Endemic Surveillance Society.’

· Republican-backed voter ID law heads to Supreme Court (bd: a way for Republicans to disenfranchize non-Republican voters...FAKE voter fraud accusations!)

· Lobbyists abetted mortgage mess; Lender lobbyists spent over $20M in political donations to relax lending laws.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Big Dan's Big News Dec. 30, 2007



(At the gathering at the reflection pool in front of the capitol, Sept. 29th, 2007, right before the anti-war march. I was there, I took this picture. The protestors were into 5-figures, but the next day, Rush Limbaugh said, "There were a couple-of-hundred Communists there"...and there was no coverage of the protest in the corporate controlled mainstream media...as usual! They blacklist covering protests.)

· US Military Deaths In Iraq Have Passed 3,900 Mark

· Man Will Walk 500 Miles To Impeach Bush and Cheney; Pelosi needs to put impeachment back on the table.

· Edwards surges, Huckabee's bubble bursts; Kohn Edwards has clawed his way into contention to win Iowa's caucuses on Thursday in the first vote for the Democratic presidential nomination, gaining strength even as rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have lost ground, according to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll.

· State decertifies AVS touch-screen voting machines; This much is now certain about the April primary election: Voters in Lackawanna (Scranton) and two other counties will not be using Advanced Voting Solutions electronic machines.

· FLASHBACK: Landslide Denied!!!!!!!! Exit Polls vs. Vote Count 2006

· New Suicide Attack In Pakistan

· Romney, Huckabee attack each other in Iowa; Mitt Romney's blistering ads criticizing Mike Huckabee and John McCain drew sharp rebukes from their targets and wary responses from voters Saturday, as candidates barnstormed Iowa five days before the nation's first presidential voting takes place in caucuses here.

· Ron Paul rips Fox News as ‘propangadists for war.’

· President Bush on Saturday signed legislation that extends a popular children's health insurance program after twice beating back attempts to expand it.

· Millions of birds disappearing across North America

· Tapes by C.I.A. Lived and Died to Save Image

· Another FAKE Bin Laden Video Acquired By Rita Katz's Israeli-connected SITE Group…what a sham!!!

· The Stillborn God; Is separation of church and state a myth in America?

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Big Dan's Big News Dec. 29, 2007

What sentence do the following pictures make up? Page down to the bottom of Big Dan's Big News to find out the answer to the puzzle highlighted in green!


Time to point out that everyone should bookmark AlterNet, it has so many good articles, it's "off the charts"!!!

· Creeping Fascism: From Nazi Germany to Post 9/11 America; Ray McGovern, Consortium News; Americans today are seeing the same sheepish submissiveness that characterized Germany after the burning of the Reichstag.

· Bush in Your Bedroom; The ten worst appointees for reproductive freedom.

· Bush is set to veto the defense appropriations bill Congress passed that would help America’s vets. That’s bad enough but wait until you hear why.

· Navy JAG Andrew Williams Resigns Over Torture

· Vermont town seeks to arrest Bush, Cheney for 'war crimes'.

· Police State America - A Look Back and Ahead; The post 9/11 scheme was to ignore the law, go to war and destroy our civil liberties...

· Kansas GOP Chair Brags of Vote 'Caging' Efforts, Successes; End of Year Letter Describes Plan to Identify, Challenge Voters in 2008..."To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!," brags Kansas GOP chairman Kris Kobach in his end-of-year letter. (bd: WAKE UP, PEOPLE! THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS THE ONLY PARTY THAT 24x7 IS TRYING TO DISENFRANCHIZE DEMOCRATIC VOTERS LIKE MINORITIES!!! IF YOU ARE A REPUBLICAN, IS THAT "OK" BECAUSE YOU'RE A REPUBLICAN???)

· Holt Takes Another Stab at Election Reform; Simplified Legislation Offers Money to Jurisdictions Who Wish to Move to Paper Ballots, Optional Audits...

· Watch this clip from CNBC and you'll have a better idea. Citi has more bad news, with rumors of 5-10% of the workforce being cut (10% is roughly 32,000 jobs!) and Bank of America won't deny reports of trimming the budget by removing soup, yes soup, from the cafeteria. They also have not denied the report that says they are no longer providing soap in their bathrooms. Yeesh. As if you didn't have to be cautious enough when shaking their hands, now this. Equally shocking is CNBC's comments about how these moves only hurt the little guy. If true, this means that the greedy fools who took BoA into the can will be OK (no cuts there!) but the regular workers are all being asked to sacrifice. Nice. It's interesting to note that only a short time ago it was US companies looking to buy into China and today, it's China buying into the US. Batten down the hatches...rough seas ahead. (hat tip AmericaBlog)

· The housing market plunged deeper into despair last month, with sales of new homes plummeting to their lowest level in more than 12 years. The slump worsened even more than most analysts expected, heightening fears that the country might be thrust into a recession. New-home sales tumbled 9 percent in November from October to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 647,000, the Commerce Department reported Friday. That was the worst sales pace since April 1995.

· 2007: 50 Most Loathsome People

· Pakistan government skips autopsy, shifts story on how Bhutto died; Violence and recriminations grew Friday over the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as Pakistan's government changed its account of how she died while her supporters charged that the government withheld personal protection she'd requested.

· Revealed: Pakistan hosed away evidence at Bhutto attack scene, violated law requiring autopsy...

· Aides: It's a cover-up

· Witness: Musharraf police left their posts before attack -

· US May Intervene In Investigation Of Bhutto's Assassination

· Bill Kristol is rewarded for being “wrong” on everything: NY Times gig is a comin’. William “the Bloody” Kristol gets rewarded with a gig by the NY Times for being a neocon—warmongering—psycho. The MMSSSMMM RULES! (bd: In MY opinion, William Kristol is one of the people really running this country behind the scenes! He's an extremely dangerous man with his power and anti-middleclass & poor "philosophies", his father Irving Kristol is known as the "Father of neo-conservatism", William Kristol is one of the top people responsible for ruining America!)

· Kristol’s lies, distortions, and hawkish proposals are notorious. A sampling of the views that New York Times readers may now be reading on a weekly basis

Democracy NOW! (DN!) on DISH channels 9410 & 9415, and DirecTV channel 375:
Greg Palast Reports on the Battle Between Indigenous Ecuadorians and the U.S. Oil Giant Chevron


Investigative Journalist Greg Palast files this report from the rainforests of Ecuador, where an indigenous tribe is suing Chevron for $12 billion for contaminating the Amazon. We also play part of Palast’s interview with Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa.


DN! transcript or DN! video

(answer to puzzle below)

"I LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC!" (hat tip deedee)

Friday, December 28, 2007

Big Dan's Big News Dec. 28, 2007

(John Edwards gets Big Dan's rating of "NOT BAD", which is actually good, because I am ultra-critical)



(click on picture for John Edward's '08 website; if you dismissed him a while ago, I suggest you do a double-take on him; he's been endorsed by Ralph Nader, and has had a populist/anti-corporate message in his 2008 campaign; post under "comments" if you like OR dislike John Edwards, and he makes "the cut" and goes up on the big board on the right, under "voting")

· Behind the Edwards Surge: Right Message at the Right Time; The anti-corporate message of the Edwards campaign has hit a nerve.

· "To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!," brags Kansas GOP chairman Kris Kobach in his end-of-year letter. In any case, it's clear that the undemocratic (small "d") practice of working to keep Democratic (large "D") voters off the rolls, through any means necessary, in order to keep them from voting, though any means necessary, has been mainlined as perhaps the top strategy for the GOP in 2008. Even Bush's Dept. of Justice, under the hand of John "Minorities Die First" Tanner, has now been officially mobilized to direct such practices on behalf of the Republican States of America. (bd: So you think we have democracy here in America? Think again! Why aren't the citizens of Kansas on the streets rioting after this joker's statament???)

· Pakistan On The Brink

· A few days removed from the Christmas Break and the Democratic race for the presidential nomination is as tight as ever.

· 2007: Top Ten Tales of War and Empire; War on Iraq: Which ones did you miss?

· Ron Paul rips 'neocons': 'We're getting ready to bomb Iran'

· Bilderberg tracker Daniel Estulin says he has received information from sources inside the U.S. intelligence community suggesting that people from the highest levels of government are discussing “eliminating” Rep. Ron Paul because its controlled political system is threatened by Paul’s exploding popularity.

· One week ago Google Reader's team decided to begin showing your private data to all your GMail contacts.

· The FBI today said it wants to install 150 digital billboards in 20 major U.S. cities in the next few weeks to show fugitive mug shots, missing people and high-priority security messages from the big bureau.

· A new online government spending database -- designed to increase transparency as to how taxpayer dollars are spent -- will actually allow intelligence agencies to keep more secrets about their private contracts than before.

· Thursday, December 27 2007 - 9/11 Commission; Van Auken & Kleinberg Editorial ; To the Editor:Re “9/11 Panel Study Finds That C.I.A. Withheld Tapes”

Outtakes From New Burger King Commercial


Here's the new Burger King commercial, where they tell people they stopped making the whopper, and, according to them, people "freaked":





Some of the outtakes they're not showing you:

Outtake 1:

BK Cashier: We stopped selling the whopper.

Customer: Thank God! Now I don't have to sue you for clogging my arteries!

Outtake 2:

BK Cashier: We stopped selling the whopper.

Customer: I don't want a whopper.

BK Cashier: Aren't you "freaked" that we stopped selling the whopper?

Customer: No. Can I have my Diet Coke, please? That's all I want, and could you please stop telling me about the Whopper??? This is getting really creepy! I didn't order a Whopper!

Outtake 3: (drive thru window)

BK Cashier: We stopped selling the whopper.

Little Old Lady: I came to pick up my prescription, is this the Rite Aid drive thru window???

Outtake 4:

BK Cashier: We stopped selling the whopper.

(Customer pulls out automatic rifle and shoots every living person in the Burger King. Police embark on high speed chase on Route 81, ending in even more loss of life).


The "Burger King" does the "Safety Dance":





The Mysterious Lack Of Mainstream Media Coverage On The Writers' Strike

Whenever people band together to fight for their rights, you can be sure the CMSM (corporate mainstream media) isn't going to cover it as much as it should, and YOU won't know exactly what the fight is about. All you know, is that there's a writer's strike. And you wouldn't even know that, if Jon Stewart wasn't on reruns!

In the 80's, writers agreed to cut their home video residuals by 80$% to help the growing VCR market. It's been 20 years, and VCR tapes have led to DVD's and sales have soared, but the 80% paycut has remained the same. The writers of a DVD you buy for $19.99 get FOUR CENTS! And, with the advent of the internet and downloads, studio executives want to pay the writers the same 80's paycut rate. And internet residuals have more profit because there's no product to be made, shipped, and stored. Websites that make billions off advertizing while running shows for free (streaming video), refuse to pay writers ANYTHING!

Everyone's making $$$ off the booming DVD sales, the internet, etc..., except the writers. There's a lot of money being made off the creative backs of the writers, by people who don't deserve it, like business executives who have zero creative talent like the writers.

What's the writers strike all about? They want their residual rate which they agreed to an 80% cut in the 1980's to go up, and when their shows get played over the internet, they want the same residual rate as TV (not FREE!).

Who IS making all the $$$ off of the shows the writers write??? Not the writers!!!

The strike is all about the creators making money from what they created, and the non-creators not making all the money off of what the creators created!

Watch this:



John Edwards:



Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello:

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Forget About Osama, the ZOO Is More Dangerous!


Tatiana, the bad tiger.

Zoo Officials Probe Killing by Tiger
By JORDAN ROBERTSON – 7 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Zoo was closed to visitors and considered a crime scene Wednesday as investigators attempted to determine how a tiger escaped from its enclosure and attacked three visitors, killing one of the men and mauling two others.

The tiger, a female named Tatiana, was the same animal that ripped the flesh off a zookeeper's arm just before Christmas 2006 (bd: real nice tiger!). An investigation of that incident by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health faulted the zoo, which beefed up the pen where big cats are kept. (bd: if you call 1 guy dead, 2 maimed, and the flesh eaten off a guy's arm "beefed up".).

The three men — one of them 19 years old and the others in their early 20s — were attacked just after 5 p.m (the tiger had just finished watching "Three's Company" rerun first). Tuesday on the east end of the 125-acre zoo grounds near Ocean Beach, police spokesman Steve Mannina said.

They suffered "pretty aggressive bite marks," Mannina said. (bd: as opposed to your "run of the mill" tiger bites, like when a tiger bites you "non-agressively"...only wants to taste you a little)

Police searched the zoo grounds during the night, using searchlights and thermal imaging equipment, and again during daylight, and were confident there were no other victims, Chief Heather Fong said at a news conference Wednesday (bd: THEY DIDN'T CATCH THE FUCKING TIGER YET??????????????).

Fong said police deemed the area a crime scene "because we're not certain why the incident occurred (bd: because the tiger was hungry?)— as result of human action or whether this was an incident where the animal was able to get out of the grotto (bd: we just ate at Grotto Pizza)."

Investigators were gathering physical evidence and taking statements from witnesses (bd: a coupla monkeys and a rhino saw the whole thing!), Fong said. She declined to comment on what the surviving victims said about the attack, saying that the investigation was continuing.

Fong added that to her knowledge there was no video footage of the attack (bd: Hey! A tiger's eating us! Anyone got their video camera?).

The San Francisco medical examiner had not been able to identify the dead man (bd: because he was eaten!), investigator Tim Hellman said Wednesday. The man did not have any identification and no one had called asking about him, according to Hellman (bd: Ring. Ring. Hello? Is the guy who just got eaten by the tiger there?).

The zoo's director of animal care and conservation, Robert Jenkins, could not explain how the 300-pound tiger escaped. The tiger's enclosure is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat and 20-foot-high walls, and the big cat did not leave through an open door, he said (bd: Did you check if there were any recent helicopter rentals?).

"There was no way out through the door," Jenkins said. "The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leaped out of the enclosure. (bd: hmmmm....real safe zoo, eh? especially since the zookeeper had the flesh eaten off his arm just last year by the same tiger!)"

Jack Hanna, the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and a frequent guest on nationally televised talk shows, predicted that other U.S. zoos would reassess their tiger enclosures if it turns out the tiger was able to leap out (bd: What about the helicopter angle?).

"This is a first in this country," Hanna said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "I've never heard of an individual (zoo visitor) being killed by an animal. It's much safer going to a zoo than getting in your car and going down the driveway (bd: except if you get eaten by a tiger...)."

Hanna said he wasn't familiar with the San Francisco Zoo's tiger exhibit or with Tatiana, but he said that since zoo tigers are well fed, it's unlikely the animal was looking for food (bd: maybe desert).

Hanna said he wanted to know if anyone was teasing the tiger. "Were they taunting the animal? I don't know that right now," he said. "Were they throwing things that were making it angry? (bd: If you taunt a tiger at the San Francisco zoo...YOU DESERVE TO DIE!!! GODDAMMIT!!! Apparently, no one ever teased a tiger before, or they would've gotten eaten sooner than this!)"

The two injured men, ages 19 and 23, were upgraded to stable condition Wednesday at San Francisco General Hospital after surgery to clean and close their wounds (bd: thanks for the graphic detail...how many stitches???), said surgeon Rochelle Dicker. They suffered deep bites and claw cuts on their heads, necks, arms and hands (bd: You shoulda seen duh other guy!).

Dicker said they were shaken up emotionally and would remain hospitalized for the day, but that because of their youth they would make a full recovery (bd: SF Zoo giving them 50% discount next visit).

The officers who shot the animal were alerted by a 911 call from a zoo employee (bd: Oh! They were searching the grounds for dead zoo visitors, not the tiger!).

The first attack happened right outside the Siberian's enclosure (bd: I HATE that goddam Siberian guy!) — the victim died at the scene. A group of four officers came across his body when they entered the dark zoo grounds, Mannina said.

The second victim was about 300 yards away, in front of the Terrace Cafe. The man was sitting on the ground, blood running from gashes in his head and Tatiana sitting next to him (bd: I was just wondering, where was all the security as all of this was going on?).

The cat attacked the man again, Mannina said. The officers approached the tiger with their handguns. Tatiana moved in their direction and several of the officers fired, killing the animal (bd: why didn't they just "taser" the tiger?).

Only then did they see the third victim, who had also been mauled (bd: sounds like a lot of shit going on, without much security, at least to me!).

Although no new visitors were let in after 5 p.m (bd: "The maulings are over, whaddya say we let some new visitors in??? Please! Don't pay attention to the 2 mauled visitors and the one dead guy, we shot the tiger...no need to ruin your plans for a nice day at the zoo!). Tuesday, the grounds had not been not scheduled to close until an hour later, and 20 to 25 people were still in the zoo when the attacks happened, zoo officials said (bd: I think we should close the zoo early, what do youze guys think?).

The zoo was expected to reopen Thursday, but its executive director, Manuel Mollinedo, said the big cat exhibits will remain closed "until we get a better understanding of what actually happened. (bd: Let me help you out: a tiger got loose, killed a guy, and almost killed 2 others. Does that clear things up for you a little bit???)"

Zoo officials working with experts from other zoos will re-evaluate the big cat facilities "so we can have a better way of managing these animals in the future," Mollinedo said (bd: Yeah! Like how about managing to NOT LET THEM KILL VISITORS!!!!!!!).

There were five tigers at the zoo — three Sumatrans and two Siberians (bd: Scratch that! FOUR tigers!).

On Dec. 22, 2006, Tatiana reached through the bars of her cage and grabbed a keeper, biting and mauling one of the woman's arms and causing deep lacerations (bd: WHAT THE....??? IS GOING ON THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!). The zoo's Lion House was temporarily closed during an investigation. California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health blamed the zoo for the assault and imposed a $18,000 penalty (bd: HOLY CHRIST! What kind of a zoo is this???).

After that attack, the zoo added customized steel mesh over the bars, built in a feeding chute and increased the distance between the public and the cats (bd: Leading to the tiger inevitably escaping and killing someone!!!).

Mollinedo said zoo officials did not consider putting Tatiana down after the earlier attack (bd: But thought that ripping someone's arm off wasn't that bad) But , because in that case "the tiger was acting as a normal tiger does."

Tatiana arrived at the San Francisco Zoo from the Denver Zoo a few years ago, with zoo officials hoping she would mate with a male tiger (bd: But she ate him). Siberian tigers are classified as endangered and there are more than 600 of the animals living in captivity worldwide.

Associated Press writer Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Big Dan's Big News Dec. 26, 2007

Red State Update with Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel:



Mike Gravel's 2008 election website (click here)

· Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008

· Disappointing Sales During Holiday Season

· Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park'; As central banks continue to splash their cash over the system, so far to little effect, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues things are rapidly spiralling out of their control

· A stark warning that human greed is threatening to destroy the environment was issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Christmas message, while the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales appealed to people to be more welcoming to immigrants.

· GOP Christmapocracy...

· Mike Huckabee's Christmas ad -- like everything Huckabee does -- provoked all sorts of vehement, angry, un-Christmas-like attacks from Republican pundits. The GOP establishment almost uniformly claimed that the edges of the bookshelf behind Huckabee formed the shape of a cross, which -- along with Huckabee's mention of the word "Christ" -- rendered Huckabee guilty of making a highly inappropriate, overt religious appeal for votes. But here is the Christmas ad from John McCain, which features not a subliminal cross arguably lurking in the background, but instead, an explicit one drawn in the sand, serving as the centerpiece of the ad, and expressly referenced -- twice -- by the political candidate, whose face lingers wistfully next to the cross for 10 of the ad's 30 seconds:

· Ten Biggest Health Stories of 2007

· Many journalists qualified for the sixteenth annual P.U.-litzer Prizes, but only a few were able to win recognition for turning in one of the truly stinkiest media performances of the year. As the judges for this un-coveted award, we have done our best to confer this honor on the most deserving. And now, the winners of the P.U.-litzers for 2007:

· Pope laments 'grim sound of arms' in Iraq, other conflict zones

· ThinkProgress Year In Review: The 10 Most Popular Posts Of 2007

· How an "Ex-Gay" Minister Saw the Light; Scott Harrison left the Christian "sexual orientation therapy" movement when he realized he couldn't pray away the gay.

· Wisconsin Police Fingerprinting On Traffic Stops; If you’re ticketed by Green Bay police, you’ll get more than a fine. You’ll get fingerprinted, too

· Middle East censors seek to limit Web access; Governments in the Middle East are stepping up a campaign of censorship and surveillance in an effort to prevent an estimated 33.5 million Internet users from viewing a variety of Web sites whose topics range from human rights to pornography. As a result, millions of Middle Easterners are finding it harder by the day to access popular news and entertainment sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Big Dan's Big News Dec. 25, 2007


Democracy NOW! DISH channels 9410 & 9415, DirecTV channel 375:

U.S. Soldiers Stage Mutiny, Refuse Orders in Iraq Fearing They Would Commit Massacre in Revenge for IED Attack


We speak with a reporter from the Army Times who gives an inside account of how an army unit committed mutiny and refused to carry out orders in Iraq. After an IED attack killed five more members of Charlie 1-26, members of 2nd Platoon gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally. Several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre.

DN! transcript or DN! video

· The Military Times link, see interviews with the soldiers, read the 4-part series right on the Military Times website (click here)...




Other news:

· "The Directives to Torture come from the Top": What Is Probably in the Missing Tapes (by Naomi Wolf)

· 9/11 Commission Chairman: ‘No Question’ CIA Attempted ‘To Impede Our Investigation’

· Military Evangelism Deeper, Wider Than First Thought

· The annual "War on Christmas" rightwing nonsense would just be seasonal silliness if it were not cover for a more sinister drumbeat. The right has taken to flying the "Christian" flag in ways that suggest none too subtly that foreigners - Muslims - are stealing our culture and traditions. "They" are stopping "us" celebrating Christmas and teaching Christian stories to our children. When Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, appeared on GMTV this week, although as usual he denied any atheist plot against Christmas, the theme in about 3,000 emails afterwards was: "We are not Muslims, our culture must not be silenced to avoid offending them."

· Jim Hightower's Gifts for a Happier New Year [VIDEO]; Wait till you hear about the gifts I gave to some of America's power elites for Christmas.

· System being designed to help hospitals figure out whether you'll pay them; The new medFICO score, being designed with the help of credit industry giant Fair Isaac Corp., could debut as early as this summer in some hospitals. People with low medical credit scores could receive lower-quality care than those with a healthy medFICO.

· Court curbs insurers' ability to rescind medical policies;
A ruling restricts the ability of California health plans to cancel coverage after patients run up medical bills.


· CIGNA has ignored this medical decision and calls the transplant “experimental” as justification for denying the treatment. CIGNA’s refusal of Nataline’s liver transplant—overruling the urgent appeals of an array of doctors and nurses—is indicative of the failures of the new healthcare plan sponsored by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Fabian Nunez. That plan, which is actively supported by CIGNA, requires every single Californian to purchase insurance products from companies like CIGNA, but does not address the problem of denial of care evident in this situation.

· Unpaid credit cards bedevil Americans; AP Impact: Americans' see their debt woes expand as unpaid credit card bills are on rise

· Some of us -- in my case, a political conservative and evangelical Christian -- are getting a queasy feeling when it comes to the presidential campaign of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and much of it has to do with his use of faith in this political campaign. Many who don't know Huckabee were initially impressed with him, me included. He comes across as authentic and likable, humorous and self-deprecating. He is an excellent debater and a first-rate speaker. But if you look closely, a disturbing pattern emerges.

· Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park'; As central banks continue to splash their cash over the system, so far to little effect, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues things are rapidly spiralling out of their control

· The US Senate is holding special one man sessions throughout Christmas and the New Year to prevent President George W. Bush from making appointments without the approval of the Democratic majority.

· The US government ignored numerous warnings over the past two years that private security firms in Iraq were operating with little supervision and instead expanded their role, a media report said Monday.

· "Motorists Against Detection, the vigilante anti-speed camera group have announced a summer of MADness which will see them target for destruction all speed cameras in the UK. It’s now going to be a period of zero tolerance against all speed cameras, said their campaigns director Capt Gatso. (((A remote descendant of General Ludd, I reckon.))) "The group claims speed cameras are just money-making machines and they have given the authorities long enough to prove their worth. The first camera to fall in the summer campaign is in south east London on the A2 at the Sun in the Sands roundabout on-slip heading northbound towards the Blackwall Tunnel.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Big Dan's Big News Dec. 24, 2007


· When Giuliani stepped down, he needed a warehouse. Under an unprecedented agreement that didn't become public until after he left office, Giuliani secreted out of City Hall the written, photographic and electronic record of his eight years in office — more than 2,000 boxes.

· Giuliani Claims It Would Have Been ‘Impossible’ To Give 9/11 Firefighters Working Radios.

· Americans are falling behind on their credit card payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting warnings of worse to come.

· Consumer Advocates Suggest Giving Cash, Not Gift Cards

· Immigration takes center stage in Iowa; The topic reverberates through town hall meetings and Republican debates, with candidates scrambling to outdo one another in getting tough on illegal immigrants as they compete for fed-up voters who constitute a broad and vocal chunk of the GOP political base.

· Billions Wasted On Pakistan Aid..."Sweeping Setback" in Search for Osama

· Former CIA Official May Seek Immunity In Exchange For Testifying In Tapes Scandal

· If Tobacco Regulation Works, Why Not Regulate Marijuana? If we really want to control marijuana and keep it away from kids, why not try a method that actually works?

· 16 Secrets the Restaurant Industry Doesn't Want You to KnowWe scrambled behind the counters, dug under the drive-thrus, and plunged into the deep fryers to find out what's really going into our meals


· Cynthia McKinney, a former six-term Congresswoman and an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, today officially launched her campaign as a Green Party candidate for President. In a video news release, McKinney says "the Republicans have deceived us; the Democrats have failed us. It is time for a new beginning: A time for hope to rise from the ashes of despair."

· Iraq The Hidden Story

· Google Spiders

· 9/11 Truth vs Mainstream Media; This video was recently removed from YouTube. I suggest you save this video on your local hard drive because it will probably be removed again! Many celebrities now speak out their doubts regarding 9/11! How long can Mainstream Media ignore 9/11 Truth?

(below) FOX attacks the environment:

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Big Dan Exclusive Interview With Mike Huckabee/New CD



(CD cover for Mike Huckabee & the Huckster's "Floatin' Cross")

Big Dan's Big Blog has an exclusive interview with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and we'll also ask him about his new CD: Mike Huckabee & the Hucksters/"Floatin' Cross".

BD: Nice to have you here, Mike.

Huck: Good to be here, Big Dan.

BD: Before we get into your new "Floatin' Cross" CD, I'd like to ask you about the accusations that the bookshelf in the background of your new ad looks like a cross floating across the screen. In fact, Ron Paul said, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." Ron Paul also accuses you of implying that the other candidates aren't "as Christian" as you.

Huck: That is absolutely false! That is not a bookshelf behind me, that is a floating cross. That's why I named our new CD "Floating Cross." Secondly, I am more Christian than the other candidates. Did you see crosses floating in back of ANY other candidate, but me? I am the only candidate with crosses floating behind him! I kept telling my campaign workers that there were crosses floating behind me, so when I shot this commercial, I suspected there would be a cross floating behind me. I'm glad the camera caught it!

BD: Can you talk about your statement that Jesus is helping you surge in the polls?

Huck: Yes. Jesus is helping me surge in the polls.

BD: Can you expand on that a little?

Huck: OK. Jesus is helping me surge in the polls...and Jesus is NOT helping the other candidates surge in the polls.

BD: Are you saying Jesus wants you to win the election?

Huck: Yes. Don't forget, I'm a Baptist minister. Me and the "Prince of Peace" are like THIS (crosses his fingers together)! A vote for anyone else but me, is a vote against Jesus!

BD: Let's talk about your new CD. The name of your band is "Mike Huckabee and the Hucksters". You do know, that the word "Huckster" is a derrogatory term?

Huck: NO! Aren't they the people who Huck corn out in the mid-west? I was trying to identify with the midwesterners!

BD: That would be corn-HUSK-ing, like the Nebraska CornHuskers...

Huck: Oh, crap! Are you kidding me???

BD: The song, (I Can't Get No) Crucifixtion, the riff at the beginning seems to be a lot like the Rolling Stone's (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.

Huck: I thought of that riff way before those godless Rolling Stones did!

BD: And your song, Imagine (there's no separation of church & state) sounds a lot like John Lennon's Imagine...

Huck: Next you're going to say that "Floatin' Cross" sounds like Crosby, Stills, & Nach's "Southern Cross"...

BD: Well, I was getting to that...


Mike Huckabee & the Hucksters "Floatin' Cross" CD songlist:

1. (I Can't Get No) Crucifixtion
2. Imagine (There's No Separation Of Church & State)
3. Hey Judas
4. Floatin' Cross
5. Me & Jesus Down By The Schoolyard
6. Jesus Is Just Allright With Me (with Michael McDonald)
7. The Devil Went Up To Iowa
8. I Rebuke Thee
9. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Preach Over You
10. Ain't Too Proud To Pray
11. Elected (with Alice Cooper)
12. Duh RNC Iz Bringun' Me Down (with Wu Tang Clan)

Big Dan's Big News Dec. 23, 2007

(click on picture)

· Iraq children 'paying high price' ; The violence led to extreme hardship for many children in Iraq; Two million children in Iraq are facing threats including poor nutrition, lack of education, disease and violence, the UN children's agency, Unicef, has said Remember, Iraq didn't attack us on 9/11! (same link as clicking on picture).

· Family sues insurer who denied teen transplant; 17-year-old girl died hours after Cigna finally agreed to pay for new liver

· A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty.

· Remember the "Warren County Lockdown" in Ohio? During the Bush-Kerry Election? Where Warren County Ohio election officials "locked down" the precinct saying they had a terrorist warning from the FBI, and later the FBI said they never issued a warning? Well, that was never investigated and those cronies are still in charge of Warren County!

· Lawyers demand Bush hearings; 1,000 attorneys call for probes into criminal, unconstitutional activity.

· The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that employers have the right to prohibit workers from using the company’s e-mail system to send out union-related messages, a decision that could hamper communications between labor unions and their membership.

· How To Rig a Republican Election (or Two); Former Alabama Gov. in Newly Unearthed Video: 'My Election Was Stolen Electronically, No Other Sugar-Coated Way to Say It'; Notable New Developments, in TWO Cases of GOP 2002 Election Rigging - in AL and NH - as a GOP Operative Sings in New Book...

· Bush Administration cuts $700 million in Medicaid funds for schools

· A review of classified documents by former members of the Sept. 11 commission shows that the panel made repeated and detailed requests to the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 and 2004 for documents and other information about the interrogation of operatives of Al Qaeda, and were told by a top C.I.A. official that the agency had “produced or made available for review” everything that had been requested.

· Less than a week before Christmas, the House of Representatives approved legislation Wednesday that seeks to boost consumer confidence in U.S. product safety regulation and strengthen toy testing.; The bill would increase funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, give it a new testing lab, reduce the levels of lead allowed in children's products to trace amounts and mandate additional testing of toys.

· CIA wants ex-agent who discussed waterboarding investigated

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Big Dan's Big News Dec 22, 2007



(click on picture)

(17-year-old's life not worth the $$$ to CIGNA!!! What has become of America? Rich Americans' lives are more important than poor/middleclass American's lives!!! Do YOU know if your insurance covers transplants? I bet you don't know, and I bet it doesn't!!! Do YOU know if your insurance covers chemotherapy? NO! Because you don't check on those things until you need them!!!)

· Family of dead teen to sue insurer that dallied on liver transplant; California nurses group says insurer CIGNA has 'blood on their hands'; The family of a 17-year-old California girl who died after being initially denied payment for a liver transplant is suing the teen's insurance company, an attorney for the family said Friday.

· We posted this story yesterday with an update to the heartbreaking result. While battling CIGNA for a new liver, her family and friends fought and protested until CIGNA finally gave in, but it was too late—the seventeen-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan died. (bd: same post as clicking on picture at top)

· More on CIGNA denying transplant to needy teen...

· Diebold Now Also Under DoJ Investigation as Stock Price Hits FIVE-YEAR Low!; Once-Great, Now-Disgraced American Company Also Facing SEC Probe, Lawsuits, Upcoming 2008 Election Meltdowns; Not to Say We Told Ya So, Diebold Shareholders...

· Attorneys Representing Gitmo Detainees Request Full Inquiry into Preservation of Evidence; CIA Destruction of Torture Tapes Raises Questions about Spoliation of Further Evidence, Attorneys Say; DOJ Says the Destroyed Videotapes Have No Connection to Gitmo, Where the Tortured Detainees Were Transferred

· Food banks face 'critical shortage' over holidays

· Torture Tape Updates: White House Lied! CIA Violated Court Order! Mukasey Covered Up! ... [yawn] What Else Is New?

· Remember Karen Hughes, a devoted Bushie from Texas who was sent to the Middle East to tell women how lucky they were that we invaded and occupied Iraq, because it brought them freedom? Karen has gone home to Texas again, but the Bush administration still needs a snake oil salesman undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs to tell everyone that things are really going great. Guess who they picked? (T)he AP has learned that the Bush administration has named her replacement: James Glassman. So who is James Glassman? Read on, dear reader, read on.


· Limbaugh At War With Huckabee

· Huckabee: The GOP's Cynical Use of Religion Has Come Home to Roost The holy-rolling monster the GOP's Dr. Frankensteins have created has thrown off the shackles, fled the lab, and is currently leading in Iowa. And the party doesn't know what to do.

· Cheney Repeatedly Met With Auto Execs Before White House Killed California’s Emissions Law

· Tony Blair TWICE blocked a major corruption investigation!

· Bonuses on Wall Street surge 14 percent This might have been one of Wall Street's most dismal years in a decade, but that hasn't stopped bonus checks from rising an average of 14 percent. Four of the biggest U.S. investment banks — Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. — will pay out about $49.6 billion in compensation this year. Of that, bonuses are traditionally estimated to represent 60 percent, or almost $30 billion.

· UNICEF REPORT: Little respite for Iraq’s children in 2007; But window to reach more vulnerable families opening for 2008; Iraqi children were frequently caught in the crossfire of conflict throughout 2007. Insecurity and displacement continues to cause hardship for many in the most insecure parts of the country and further eroded access to quality essential services country-wide. Iraq remains volatile; however conditions begin to allow for more a concerted effort to deliver assistance.

· The Shock Doctrine in Action in New Orleans

· “After protesters clashed violently with the police inside and outside the New Orleans City Council chambers on Thursday, the Council voted unanimously to allow the federal government to demolish 4,500 apartments in the four biggest public housing projects here.”

Friday, December 21, 2007

Fun With Snowmen

(click on pictures for larger image)





























(h/t deedee)

Big Dan's Big News Dec 21, 2007



· Mr. Freeze To Sue Bush Admin Over Emissions Plan

· VIDEO: Jamie Leigh Jones takes her Halliburton gang rape account to the House Judiciary Committee

· Wexler On Impeachment: ‘This Is Not The Lunatic Fringe — This Is Mainstream America’

· The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush; The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup.

· U.S. convoys struggle to adjust to policy change; U.S. soldiers have been ordered to assume that all civilian vehicles are friendly and to yield to civilian drivers instead of stopping traffic. That puts some Kentucky National Guard soldiers pulling convoy duty on edge. They figure if the roads get worse again, they'll be among the first to know.

· Evidence Mounts Of White House Ties To New Hampshire Phone Jamming Scheme

· Voting Rights Activists Win Big Cases in Florida and Arizona; Arizona: Activists move closer to proving electronic vote count theft. Florida: A law disenfranchising thousands of new voters is blocked.

· One thing is clear: the view from EVEREST is a mountain of "critical security failures" in Ohio's electronic voting systems --- the very same systems which will also be in use in other states and counties all across the U.S. in 2008. The question now is what can be done to mitigate the chances of yet another Ohio election meltdown next year, given the short time before before the state's primary in March, and the rapidly-approaching November general election when many eyes, no doubt, will again be on the Buckeye State.

· FBI investigates former CIA officer over waterboarding interviews; Former CIA officer John Kiriakou gave detailed descriptions of how a detainee known as Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded. The procedure produces the sensation of drowning and is widely considered a form of torture, which is illegal under U.S. and international laws.


· Mukasey: Exposing Spies ‘Not a Risk Worth Taking’ - Except for Valerie Wilson?

· C-SPAN TILTS RIGHT.; Turns out C-SPAN is not just painfully mind-numbing, but it also leans decidedly right in its coverage of think tanks, according to a new evaluation by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

· Attempting to Destroy CIA Tapes, Cheney Burns Down White House (bd: the Borowitz Report goes up on the big board of links on the right, under "funny")