Congressman Murtha Dies - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Representative John P. Murtha, the longtime Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, has died at age 77.

His aides released a statement saying that he died shortly after 1 p.m. today at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Mr. Murtha had been placed in intensive care last week after complications from gallbladder surgery, his staff said then.

Given that with Teddy Kennedy's passing the Demcoratic Party lost their US Senate majority to a Republican, am naming the coming electoral fight for this seat the SENATEPOCALYPSE.

It's not going to be pretty.

Yet another country beats the United States to electing a woman President. Costa Rica has elected Laura Chinchilla as their next President. Thus Costa Rica joins India, Pakistan, Israel, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Liberia and Chile, to name just a few, in accepting a woman as a democratically elected leader. This is one way that the US remains a bit backwards.

Laura Chinchilla is fairly right wing in my book. Pro-free market (which is fine up to a point), anti-abortion and anti-marriage equality, she wouldn't be my first choice for President. Her predecessor and mentor, Oscar Arias, supported legislation to separate church and state in Costa Rica. Chinchilla's views make me wonder if she will be more right wing than Arias. Somewhat paradoxically, Chinchilla's party, the Partido Liberación Nacional, is a member of the Socialist International, which makes it's free-market stand seem a bit at odds with its supposedly socialist claims. It should be noted that there was an even more right wing candidate in the running, so Chinchilla would qualify as "centrist" to many.

As a minor aside, Costa Rica has been developing into one of the greenest and happiest nations on earth. It ranks third in terms of Environmental Performance Index, along with Sweden, Iceland and Switzerland (sadly, the US ranks 63, along with Paraguay, Brazil and Venezuela). And Costa Rica came out on top in terms of Happy Planet Index. And, I will add, they are the source of one of my favorite hot sauces: Iguana Mean Green Jalapeno sauce.

Viva Costa Rica!

I wasn't going to write about how cute Brangelina looks in these photos after seeing them over at Oh No They Didn't. That is, until I saw on my twitter stream a messed up article about the Jolie-Pitts, ganked right out of gossip blogs, published on the Puerto Rican newspaper EL Nuevo Día.

What the hell people?!?! No wonder journalism is dead.

To which I say, TEAM BRANGIE! They soften this cynical bitch's hard cold heart and make me want to fall in love again.

They're just adorable.

The Wolfman is opening in theaters this week in the United States and El Papi Chulo to end all papi chulos, Benicio del Toro, has been in full force promoting the movie. This video is from 20minutos, in Spain.

So y'all know he's not just that gruffy voice and killer bedroom eyes, he's got producer credits for this little cinematic beast. From Benicio Del Toro - Wolfman Inspired By Del Toro's Memorabilia Collection - Contactmusic News:

We went to Universal with the idea. That is how you do stuff. You go to the studio."
And Del Toro is convinced his hairy appearance when he went to meet movie bosses persuaded them he was the right man for the lead role.
He adds, "I was in the middle of getting ready to do the Che movie. So I looked pretty much like a Wolfman! I looked either like The Wolfman or a smaller version of (Star Wars character) Chewbacca."

In this video, El Papi Chulo talks about approaching Universal with the Wolfman idea, watching old horror classics in Puerto Rican TV and identifying with the misunderstood monsters more so than their killers.

Awww!
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Many prominent Nigerians have called for the removal of Nigeria from the list of countries with links to terrorist organisations. They have argued that Nigeria has no business being on that notorious list. Personally I beg to disagree with them. The US should not be in a hurry to de-list Nigeria due to the following reasons.
First of all Nigeria was placed on the terror watch list following a failed attempt by a Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bomb a US airliner in December. Even though the case has been charged to court, investigations are still going on to determine how this young Nigerian suddenly transformed to a suicide bomber. Because of how terrorist groups operate, time is needed to dig out and piece together all the bits of information before establishing that Nigeria has absolutely no links with terrorist groups.
Some people have argued that Nigerians by their nature are not terrorists. That Farouk got radicalized, and embraced his suicide mission outside Nigeria. Well it depends on their understanding of the term ‘terrorism’. Many of the incidents that are taing place in the country like the attacks and killings in the Niger Delta, Jos, Kano and Kaduna can rightly be described as terrorist. People are not born terrorists. People become terrorists. Osama bin Laden was not born a terrorist. Farouk was not born a terrorist. So, terrorists are made.  more this way»

If you are in doubt as to how pastors could be instrumental to fueling or eradicatiing the persecution or execution of alleged witches and wizards then you need to read this report “War over Witches: As Pastors fight over Demons” by Joe Effiong in The Sun of April 21 2009. Effiong reported on the crusade “Coven on the Naked Wire, organised by Nigeria’s witch hunter general, Helen Ukpabio in Uyo Akwa Ibom state. The program was held at Ibom plaza. The poster of the crusade said it all in terms of what the event was all about- a propaganda on witchcraft and witch exorcism. “Are you in bondage, affliction, oppressed or tormented by witches? Come for free deliverance.” Helen must have emphasized the word “free’ to create the impression that she was not charging money for deliverance.
But Nigerians who patronize these penticostal churches and prayer houses know that there is no free deliverance anywhere.  more this way»