Is Snoop Dogg A Future Rotarian?

Hip-hop superstar Snoop Dogg surprised LSU football coach Les Miles (right) with a guest appearance at the July 30 Rotary Club of Baton Rouge weekly meeting.

Family Claims to See Jesus in Cat's Fur

You could call her a holy cat or a feline with Jesus on her side... An Indiana family says if you look closely at their pet, you can see the face of Christ.

"In this window well down here was 4 baby kittens... stuck together."

Lori Johnson couldn't help but take in two kittens, she found abandoned outside her house on mother's day.

"Oh no, i couldn't imagine giving them away now. I've worked too hard. They are a part of me now. I love being a mom."

The two kittens, brother and sister, now named sissy and bubby -- could also be called opposites... the female has striped fur. The male is all black.

"Maybe one's an angel.. and the other one' is not. Yeah, we have the good and evil." Recently, lori's husband was petting sissy when he noticed...

"He says 'i swear that looks like jesus with a shroud on' and i'm like 'ok,' and then my son took that picture, and it was like 'wow!'"

"After looking at the picture and stuff, it was like 'oh, there it is.'"

"See the eyes beard. here's the shroud."

After a closer look, you might see the "shroud of turin." And even if you don't... "then they might think we are weird crazy or something."

Something this family is fine with. To them, sissy's fur is a sign from above of joy and blessings to come.

"We've had a lot of things happen in our lives. This was a good sign that uh..
everything's ok and got somebody looking after us."

ABC 2 - Baltimore

MSNBC: Fox News does it again...

Once again... The Fox and Friends morning show staff needs to be fired....

This racist bullshit Fox News Channel keeps pulling needs to stop.

Good Lord, Dana Perino Is Full Of It

From yesterday's White House press briefing:

MS. PERINO: Also at the end of this week, Congress is expected to go on their August recess, and at that same time many families across America are making tough decisions about whether or not they can go on their summer vacations, due to the high gasoline prices.

God, this woman is full of it. Yes, across America families putting off vacation plans until congress votes on offshore drilling...drilling that wouldn't affect prices for years to come. This administration obviously thinks Americans are stupid.

As for what she's full of, you make the call.

Partiers mistake police for strippers

BERLIN — Police say two officers who responded to complaints about a raucous weekend party in western Germany were mistaken for male strippers by the female guests.

Simmern police spokesman Bernd Hoffmann says neighbours called police around 12.45 a.m. Sunday to complain about noise from a birthday party in their building.

A round of applause from the apartment resident — who had just turned 30 — and her friends greeted two officers who went to investigate.

Hoffmann said today that “they thought the policemen were dressed like that because they were strippers.

It took them a while to realize they were real police officers.”

Hoffmann says the women had not ordered strippers but thought someone had sent them as a birthday surprise.

The incident resulted in no arrests.

24 Hours Vancouver

Police Blotter of the Day - 7/28/08

Saint Cloud, Minnesota 7/28/08:

Police were called at 10:03 a.m. to Go For it Gas, 1000 Ninth Ave. S. A man robbed the store with a large-framed semi-automatic handgun, Sgt. Jeff Janssen said. The robber got an undisclosed amount of cash and a carton of Newport brand cigarettes.

The man ran south from the store and was last seen running through Southside Park, Janssen said.

Police describe the suspect as being a 30-year-old, light-skinned black man. He his about 6 feet tall and has a slim build.

Go Breast, Young Man

LIKE-MINDED TODDLER Not the kid in question, assorted boobs

Everything is bigger in Texas, right? Well, it looks like that even extends to the cojones of their toddlers. A five-year-old boy escaped his daycare center just outside of Dallas, Texas, earlier this week by saying he had to go to the bathroom. He then proceeded to sneak out through an unlocked fire exit, walk to a RaceTrac gas station to buy himself snacks and soda, and then stroll nearly a half-mile to the local Hooters, presumably to pick up a couple chicks and power a few hot wings. Nappy hour, if you will?

Embrace The Majesty Of The Bear. EMBRACE IT!

Here's how it's done: Take one video of a bear being released into the wild from the fine folks at KRQE News 13, place it in the dexterous hands of someone with too much time on their hands, sit back, and let the summertime enjoyment cascade down upon you. It will be 5 o'clock before you know it, people; we'll get through it together.

Whale taught to blow bubble rings

The whales have delighted thousands of visitors since being taught the impressive trick by scuba divers in a pool.

They are given a breath from the diver's regulator to give them enough air to blow the big bubbles.

Metro.co.uk

Man Drowns During Baptism

RIO VISTA (CBS13) ― Rescuers have called off the search for a 22-year-old man feared drowned during a baptism in the San Joaquin Delta.

The Hispanic man disappeared under the water late Sunday afternoon near the Brannan Island State Recreation Area, northeast of the San Francisco Bay, according to Coast Guard officials.

A Sacramento County Drowning Accident Rescue Team (DART) joined the underwater search for the missing man, whose identity has not been released.

Officials called off the search Sunday night.

CBS 13 - Sacramento

Obama's Private Prayer 'Leaked'

Senator Barack Obama probably thought that the prayer he penned in the solitude of his King David hotel room in Jerusalem would remain between him and the Almighty. But an Orthodox Jewish student had other ideas.

Following Jewish tradition, Obama donned a yarmulke and went to the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, where shortly before dawn on Thursday he stuffed his prayer into a crevass between the giant white stones, hewn over 2,000 years ago. Traditionally such prayers, and there are over a million every year, some arriving by fax and email, are collected twice a year and buried on the Mount of Olives. It is considered taboo to read the prayers.

But after Obama and his entourage left the sacred site, an orthodox seminary student went to the Wall, fished out Obama's personal note and delivered it to Maariv newspaper, which duly printed the senator's prayer.

The newspaper's decision to publish Obama's private words was "an outrage", said Rabbbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, supervisor of the Western Wall. "It damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves," the rabbi told Army Radio. "The note placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make use of them."

Obama didn't pray for an election victory, a lottery win to help pay for his campaign, or for his Republican rival Senator John McCain to be felled by lightning or a pecadillo. On the contrary; his prayer hints at the struggle within, how Obama is seeking divine guidance to surmount the obstacles that lie ahead of him in his lonely, awesome challenge to become the next president of the United States. On hotel stationary, he penned the following prayer, according to Maariv, which ran a photo of the note:

"Lord, protect my family and me," Obama wrote. "Forgive me my sins and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will."

Obama, now finishing up the European leg of his tour, has not commented on his private prayer being made public in Jerusalem.

CNN

Man Charged with Shooting His Own Lawnmower

More: Click here to read the criminal complaint

A man from Milwaukee is facing criminal charges after he solved a problem with his lawnmower by shooting it.

According to a criminal complaint, on Wednesday Keith Walendowski got drunk early in the morning. He decided to mow his lawn on the 3500 block of South Austin Street in Milwaukee.

He couldn't get the lawnmower to start. His solution? Prosecutors say Walendowski went to his basement and grabbed a sawed off shotgun, and he fired twice at the lawnmower.

"I'll tell you the truth. I got p---ed because my lawn mower wouldn't start, so I got my shotgun and shot it," Walendowski said to an officer. "I can do that, it's my lawn mower and my yard, so I can shoot it if I want."

If convicted, Walendowski faces up to six years and 90 days behind bars and fines of $11,000.

A local lawnmower repairman tells the Journal Sentinel that Walendowski may have trouble fixing the mower noting that anything not factory recommended voids the warranty.

620WTMJ

Fox gets called out for it's racist behavior by 620,000

Nas and Color of Change deliver 620,000 petitions to Fox News calling it out for its racist behavior.





Send your own message to Fox now

Driver Reaches For Handgun After Request For 'Grey Poupon'

SANDY - A wiseguy who asked another Utah driver whether he had any Grey Poupon -- in a reference to a world famous commercial -- found himself looking down the barrel of a semiautomatic handgun instead, authorities said.

A vehicle containing three people was traveling near 900 East Winchester Street (6600 South) on June 18, when one of the occupants decided to crack a joke to the driver next to them.

"Excuse me, sir... do you have any Grey Poupon?" asked passenger Stephen Cox.

The quip was a reference to the world famous commercials that advertise the dijon mustard -- in which a sophisticated older gentleman asks a limousine passenger to roll his windows down, and asks the same question. (Watch the commercial)

However, police say when Cox posed the question to 22-year-old Vitaly Alex Kovtun, of Sandy, the driver was not amused.

Instead of reaching for a bottle of the mustard, Kovtun allegedly pulled a semiautomatic handgun from the glove box, cocked it, and pointed it at the inquiring passengers in the other vehicle.

A man offers some Grey Poupon dijon mustard to another motorist in a famous TV commercial by Nabisco. (Nabisco)

Kovtun then allegedly said, "Here's your Grey Poupon! Roll your [expletive] windows up."

Those inside of the car managed to record Kovtun's license plate number before he left, which authorities later used to track him down.

According to court documents, Kovtun later admitted to pulling the handgun, cocking the slide and pointing it at those in the other vehicle.

No one was injured in the incident, but Kovtun has been charged with a count of aggravated assault, which is a third-degree felony.

The charge, according to Utah Code 76-5-102, alleges that Kovtun used a dangerous weapon likely to produce death or serious bodily injury.

MORE:

KUTV
TV Commercial: "Excuse me... do you have any Grey Poupon?"
TV Commercial: "Would you have any Grey Poupon?"

Obama is in Berlin, so McCain Visits a German Village.... German Village, OHIO

So, Barack Obama was in Germany today giving a speech in Berlin, so it was only right that John McCain speak to people in a similar venue........... Schmidt's Sausage House, a German restaurant in GERMAN VILLAGE, OHIO....

Hmm... So, if Obama goes to Mexico I guess McCain will go to a Taco Bell in, oh, Kalamazoo, Michigan perhaps???


Work those swing states good, Grandpa John!!! Oh, and I hope you do choose my state's governor, Tim Pawlenty, as your running mate... He will help guide you deeper into obscurity as the campaign goes on and you will be retiring to Sun City, Arizona by November 5th.

My stations meteorologist's fauxhawk is better than your station's

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

McCain Crying Over Attention on Obama in Iraq

John McCain and his campaign aides are frosted at the media for giving so much attention to Barack Obama's overseas trip, and they accuse reporters of being in love with the Democratic candidate. Apparently no one told them that, as Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz once advised, you should never complain about your problems, because most people don't care, and the rest are happy you have them.

Whining is not a reassuring habit in a political candidate. One thing all presidents and presidential candidates have in common is that sometimes the press coverage won't go their way. Stoic indifference is the best way to respond. If McCain gets in a snit over what The Washington Post does, how will he react when he has to deal with truly aggravating adversaries, like Kim Jong Il?

Besides, it's his own fault that Obama is getting so much attention. For weeks, McCain has been practically taunting his opponent into visiting Iraq--making it that much more newsworthy when Obama actually did.

McCain thought it was important for Obama to see the war firsthand. Now the media is treating the trip as important, and McCain acts as though they shouldn't.

The Arizona senator may be especially resentful because, in past campaigns, he was seen as the media darling--and even jokingly referred to reporters as "my base." But given that experience, he should know that if the press is treating Obama favorably now, it won't last.

Rest assured, if Obama makes a major gaffe while abroad, the media will swarm like piranhas around it, and McCain will be grateful for the coverage. We in the journalism business are like what Churchill said of the Germans: Always at your feet or at your throat.

Anchorman Part Deux!

Grab your Sex Panther cologne!!!!



Ron Burgundy—back in action?

"Anchorman" writer Adam McKay told ew.com that he and Will Ferrell have started working on a sequel that may take Ron Burgundy and his news posse into the 1980s.

Dreamworks told Entertainment Weekly that it had not yet talked to Ferrell and McKay, about a Part 2 for the cheesy, flute-playing, smooth-talking San Diego news anchor. But the possibilities are intriguing.

The audience will now allow us to do even crazier stuff," McKay told EW, "and that's really all we're looking for in our careers."

Chicago Tribune

During a segment on education, Fox News misspells the word ‘education.’

Spelling now joins geography on the list of subjects in which Fox News needs a lesson.

'Wall Street got drunk'

(CNN) — In case you're wondering why our economy is in the toilet, President Bush had the explanation at a closed Republican fund-raiser in Houston last week:

”Wall Street got drunk – it’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off your TV cameras. It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is: how long will it sober up.”

The depth of the intellect at the very top of our nation's government is staggering, isn't it?

But... But... But... He Brought Hockey Back

Norm Coleman has been running a television ad that has a guy in a bowling alley spewing all these great things that Coleman has supposedly "got done" during his tenure in the U.S. Senate... In the ad, voices off screen yell "He brought hockey back!!" after the guy on camera finishes a sentence (as if that is such an important thing... and on a side note, Norm Coleman was the mayor of St Paul when the NHL announced a return to Minnesota and the arena was built, so even if it were important to mention, it is completely irrelevant when it comes to Coleman's Senate tenure)

Anyway, Al Franken has shot back with an ad that spoofs the dumb Coleman "Bowling and Hockey ad... The ad features a man in a bowling alley discussing Norm's many failings as Senator, like voting for giant cuts in student aid, selling out to Big Oil, and rubber-stamping the Bush policy in Iraq. As he hears about more of Norm's record, he realizes that although hockey will always be Minnesota's favorite pastime, Norm Coleman hasn't represented Minnesota well in Washington.:

Robber Nabbed After Writing Note on Back of His Personal Checks

In another strange but true moment from the great state of FLORIDA of course.....

MARION COUNTY, Fla. -- A bank robber was captured pretty quickly Monday after police noticed that the note he handed a teller demanding cash was written on the back of his own personal check.

The incident began at a Bank Of America on SW 34th Street in Ocala just before 10 am.

Police said a man walked in and handed the teller a note that said he had a .45 caliber pistol and demanding money. After the teller complied and gave the man cash, he fled. Witnesses saw the man jump into a gold compact car driven by another man.

Not content with the first robbery the suspect pulled the same crime at another Bank Of America not far away several hours later. In that robbery the man also gave the teller a note, was given cash and fled. This time witnesses saw the man jump into a taxi and flee.

Police located the taxi soon after along with the suspect was in the back. They arrested 33 year old Patrick Johnson.

Investigators were then able to link Johnson to the crimes when they observed that the notes he had written his demands on were both checks from his personal checking account.

Johnson was transported to the hospital and checked out fine before being transported to jail.

MyFoxOrlando

John McCain is paying for that sandwich with a check

John McCain wears sneakers with velcro

John McCain gets confused by his remote control

John McCain would remember where he put it if you would just shut up for a few minutes, Dolores

John McCain is winking at that blond mannequin in the store window

John McCain won't make phone calls during thunderstorms

See these and many more by clicking on over on the internet (you just learned how to get on it too, right?) to JohnMcCainisyourjalopy.com

Ambitious McCain Already Redrawing Middle East

Here's John McCain on Good Morning America, discussing the situation in Afghanistan and noting that it's going to be a "very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border." Unfortunately, as others were quick to point out, the border between Iraq and Pakistan is actually what the rest of us call Iran, which puts a good thousand or so miles between those two nations. Still, I'm not inclined to be too hard on the man; my grandpa could barely find Pakistan on a map, and McCain is almost as old as him.

NBC Sets Leno's Last Day On 'Tonight'

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Conan O'Brien will take over the "Tonight" Show next June -- and what happens to deposed host Jay Leno after that is anybody's guess.

Leno's last show will be Friday, May 29, and O'Brien will start the following Monday, June 1, NBC executives told a Television Critics Association meeting Monday.

NBC is angling to keep Leno with the network but the late-night king has indicated he's ready to jump ship. Eager NBC competitors, including other networks and syndicators, are eager to help him make the leap.

Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, NBC Entertainment co-chairmen, were asked about the specter of Leno being hired by ABC and overpowering O'Brien in the ratings.

"We really believe in the decisions we've made with our partners, including Jay" and are standing by them, Silverman replied.

Jimmy Fallon is poised to take over O'Brien's "Late Night" in March or April of 2009, after honing his approach in brief Internet shows, Silverman and Graboff said.

O'Brien will wrap his "Late Night" run sometime in the first quarter of the year, with exact dates to be determined, the executives said. O'Brien reruns will fill the gap until Fallon takes over.

11 Alive

Some disappointed after cops bust strip club that let you have sex with porn stars, cocaine, and had a free cold-cut buffet. "It was fucking awesome"

Stripper "Janiella," (above) in a photo on the Hot Lap Dance Club’s Web site, was one of 21 employees, including Falynn Rodriguez rounded up in a raid on the nightspot, where officials said patrons could score a lap dance, drugs or sex.
------------------------

Sex with a porn star? $5,000.

Cocaine? Negotiable with the "house dealer."

Booze and Viagra? Bring your own.

The cold-cuts buffet? Gratis.

Lawyers and Wall Streeters could get pretty much anything they wanted at Big Daddy Lou's Hot Lap Dance Club on West 38th Street, officials said yesterday after a vice raid netted 21 of the swanky but illegal club's personnel.

Those hauled out in cuffs from the plush, red-velvet-upholstered alleged bordello include Andrew Rosa, a cop from the private police force of Sea Gate, Brooklyn, who was charged with a misdemeanor, promoting prostitution, for allegedly working there.

Then there's Louis Posner, 52, a Manhattan-based civil lawyer accused of owning the club, a 7,000-square-foot loft on the fifth floor of 344 W. 38th St. that featured live sex shows, big-screen porn movies and a suite of curtained "VIP" bedrooms.

"It was f- - -ing awesome!" one disappointed young customer told a reporter after showing up outside the padlocked club last night. "This was the greatest establishment."

Posner went by "Big Lou" among the customers and "Daddy" among the 40 to 50 women who worked there on any given night, according to law-enforcement sources and the criminal complaint charging him with money-laundering and promoting prostitution.

One dancer called him "sleazy, disgusting and very unloyal" boss who often cajoled the girls into giving him freebies.

His wife, Betty, 56, was charged with helping him launder the proceeds, which the sources said totaled more than $1 million a year.

Two other alleged managers were charged with felony promoting prostitution. Four women, including porn star Alexia Moore, were charged with prostitution after allegedly getting caught having sex with customers behind VIP-room curtains.

Another 13 employees were busted on misdemeanor promoting-prostitution charges, cops said.

Former customers, law-enforcement sources, court papers and the club's Web site paint a portrait of a swinging scene where customers could get anything from sandwiches to sex shows - some involving machines - to outright sex.

Moore, who's real name is Cassandra Malandri, and dancer Falynn Rodriguez, who prosecutors said offered an undercover cop a menage-a-trois sex romp for $5,000, were released last night after posting $1,500 bail.

NY Post

Little Girl Expresses Entire Nation's Sentiments

Yeah, I know I already posted this a few days ago... But it was classic enough to warrant a re-posting under a new headline.


If you haven't yet seen this video of a little girl crying and running away from George W. Bush at the White House T-ball game, you're in for a treat. And if America's editorial cartoonists are as vapid and unimaginative as has been suggested, expect to see a raft of scribblings with a jug-eared president standing alone as Uncle Sam (helpfully labeled "America") flees his embrace. Hell, it's what I'd do if I could draw.

COMING SOON: Black Dynamite

When this cat's not busy stickin' it to The Man, he's all about tappin' top-shelf foxy ass. With Michael Jai White.



Visit the website for this upcoming film by clicking HERE.

It looks like a sweet fucking movie by the looks of the trailer

New target in Colombia’s drug war: ecofriendly US users

Maybe upscale American cocaine users would quit if they knew what growing coca leaves does to the environment?? :)

Bogotá, Colombia

Millions of Americans use cocaine, but few of them consider the millions of acres of forest that have been cleared by coca growers in all corners of Colombia or the blue-billed curassow, a turkey-sized bird that is losing habitat to coca farming.

Ana Maria Caballero believes that many recreational cocaine users are well-educated professionals who also recycle, drive hybrid vehicles, and buy fair-trade products, but that they just don’t understand what cocaine is doing to Colombia’s environment.

Ms. Caballero works for Shared Responsibility, the Colombian government’s effort to raise consumer awareness of cocaine’s impact on one of the world’s most biodiverse nations. The project is led by Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón, who has more than a passing interest in narco-traficking – he was once kidnapped and held for months by Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel.

Colombia’s decades-old, drug-funded, armed conflict is complicated, says Caballero, but environmental devastation is apolitical. “When you talk about deforestation, when you talk about a specific species being threatened because coca is encroaching upon its sole habitat, there’s no political argument there,” she says. “It’s absolutely black and white. You are destroying natural treasures that belong to the world.”

According to Shared Responsibility, 43 square feet of forest are cleared to produce one gram of cocaine, and coca growers have cleared an area the size of New Jersey – nearly five million acres – within Colombia over the past 20 years.

Clandestine cocaine laboratories, which use an array of toxic chemicals, pollute once-pristine waters in remote areas. And slash-and-burn clearing for coca farms is one of the country’s largest sources of air pollution. The clearing also accelerates global climate change, which is shrinking Colombia’s mountaintop glaciers.

Now coca farmers are moving further south and west, into remote areas in the upper Amazon basin and along the border with Ecuador that are havens for many rare plants and animals.
Shared Responsibility and the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime have produced a series of maps labeled “Incidence of Illicit Crops in the Habitats of Endemic Species in Danger of Extinction” that illustrate the problem. Four critically endangered magnolia species, for example, are native only to southwestern Colombia, where coca growers are clearing thousands of acres of land.

Colombia has more bird species than any other country, 1,870 at last count. But rare endemic birds – such as the gorgeted puffleg, a hummingbird discovered just three years ago in southwest Colombia – are losing habitat within their limited ranges to coca cultivation.

Alonso Quevedo, president of the Colombian bird conservation group ProAves, says that in addition to deforestation, there are secondary effects. The coca farmers open previously wild, forested areas to settlement, and others follow to hunt and log.

Shared Responsibility took its photographic exhibit to London’s Trafalgar Square in May and Alex James, bassist for the British band Blur, is a high-profile spokesman in England. But it has not yet made a splash in the United States, which consumes the vast majority of Colombian cocaine.

According to a US Embassy official in Bogotá, the United States is the top cocaine consumer in the world, and Colombia produces 90 percent of that cocaine, likely 600 tons annually. Despite aggressive US-funded eradication efforts, coca fields remain abundant. A recent United Nations report estimated that 250,000 acres of Colombian coca fields were harvested in 2007; US estimates are considerably higher.

Will the Shared Responsibility message actually change the behavior of the estimated six million Americans who use cocaine?

“It’s probably not something that would influence me,” says one environmentally minded, occasional cocaine user who did not want her name used. She says she would rather see a more holistic approach to addressing drugs in society. And she says there are some times when she wants to turn her environmental filter off. “We all have our vices,” she says, “and you don’t want to think about this.”

But Caballero believes increased awareness can cut cocaine use, and she’d like to make connections with governments, universities, and environmental organizations in the United States and elsewhere. “It’s an international problem,” Caballero says. “People don’t understand where their drugs are coming from and that they are feeding this entire process that is not only socially destructive, but very environmentally destructive.”

We Support: Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Consciousness + Commitment = Change: How and why we are organizing...

The CIW is a community-based worker organization. Our members are largely Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the state of Florida.

We strive to build our strength as a community on a basis of reflection and analysis, constant attention to coalition building across ethnic divisions, and an ongoing investment in leadership development to help our members continually develop their skills in community education and organization.

From this basis we fight for, among other things: a fair wage for the work we do, more respect on the part of our bosses and the industries where we work, better and cheaper housing, stronger laws and stronger enforcement against those who would violate workers' rights, the right to organize on our jobs without fear of retaliation, and an end to indentured servitude in the fields.

From the people, for the people: Who we are...

Southwest Florida is the state's most important center for agricultural production, and Immokalee is the state's largest farmworker community. As such, the majority of our more than 2,500 members work for large agricultural corporations in the tomato and citrus harvests, traveling along the entire East Coast following the harvest in season. Many local residents, and thus many of our members, move out of agriculture and into other low wage industries that are important in our area, including the construction, nursery, and tourist industries. The community is split, roughly, along the following ethnic/national origin lines: Mexican 50%, Guatemalan 30%, Haitian 10% and other nationalities (mostly African-American) 10%.

We are all leaders: Our history...

We began organizing in 1993 as a small group of workers who met weekly in a room borrowed from a local church to discuss how to better our community and our lives. In a relatively short time we have managed to bring about significant, concrete change.

Combining community-wide work stoppages with intense public pressure -- including three general strikes, an unprecedented month-long hunger strike by six of our members in 1998, and an historic 230-mile march from Ft. Myers to Orlando in 2000 -- our early organizing ended over twenty years of declining wages in the tomato industry.

By 1998, we had won industry-wide raises of 13-25% (translating into several million dollars annually for the community in increased wages) and a new-found political and social respect from the outside world.

Those raises brought the tomato picking piece-rate back to pre-1980 levels (the piece-rate had fallen below those levels over the course of the intervening two decades), but wages remained below poverty level and continuing improvement was slow in coming. At the same time, the phenomenon of modern-day slavery was establishing a foothold in Florida's fields. While continuing to organize for fairer wages, we also turned our attention to attacking involuntary servitude in our state. From 1997-2001, we helped bring three modern-day slavery operations to justice, resulting in freedom for over 500 workers from debt bondage.

Since then, our Anti-Slavery Campaign has earned national and international recognition, based on its innovative program of worker-led investigation and human rights education, and a track record of real success. Our latest victory against indentured servitude came in January of 2007, when a crewleader by the name of Ron Evans was sentenced to 30 years in prison. You can read more about the Evans case and the CIW's work against the most extreme forms of farm labor exploitation by clicking on the following link: "Labor camps keep workers in servitude with crack cocaine," Naples Daily News 9/06. The Evans case was the sixth major servitude case in the past ten years in which the CIW has played a key role in the discovery, investigation, and prosecution of the operation, helping to liberate well over 1,000 workers.

The CIW is a co-founder of the national Freedom Network USA to Empower Enslaved and Trafficked Persons. We are also co-founders and Southeastern US Regional Coordinator for the Freedom Network Training Institute, conducting trainings for law enforcement and social service personnel in how to identify and assist slavery victims, as well as advocating for the full prosecution of all traffickers, including corporations and their sub-contractors. At the state level, we are members of the US Attorneys Anti-Trafficking Task Forces for Tampa and Miami, as well as Florida State University’s statewide Working Group against Human Trafficking through its Center for the Advancement of Human Rights.

In 2001, we turned a new page in our organizing, launching the first-ever farmworker boycott of a major fast-food company -- the national boycott of Taco Bell -- calling on the fast-food giant to take responsibility for human rights abuses in the fields where its produce is grown and picked. The fast-food industry as a whole -- including industry giants such as McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, and Wendy's -- purchases a tremendous volume of fruits and vegetables, leveraging its buying power to demand the lowest possible prices from its suppliers. Through this unprecedented market power, the fast-food industry exerts a powerful downward pressure on wages and working conditions in its suppliers' operations.

The Taco Bell boycott gained broad student, religious, labor, and community support in the nearly four years since its inception, including the establishment of boycott committees in nearly all 50 states and a fast-growing movement to "Boot the Bell" from college and high school campuses across the country. Large scale national actions helped move the boycott forward. For example, in 2003 we organized a 10-day hunger strike outside of Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, CA -- one of the largest hunger strikes in US labor history, with over 75 farmworkers and students fasting during the 10-day period -- galvanizing the support of national religious, labor, and student organizations and thousands of individuals. During that strike we posed Taco Bell’s executives one question: “Can Taco Bell guarantee its customers that the tomatoes in its tacos were not picked by forced labor?” The company had no answer. In 2004 and 2005, we organized cross-country tours featuring marches and actions in Louisville, KY, and Irvine, CA, lifting the campaign to new heights.

In March 2005, amidst growing pressure from students, churches, and communities throughout the country, Taco Bell agreed to meet all of our demands to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers in its supply chain. The boycott victory was celebrated by observers including former President Jimmy Carter, former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello, and the 21 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The Hispanic Caucus said of the accord, "This is a truly historic agreement, marking perhaps the single greatest advance for farm workers since the early struggles of the United Farm Workers. To the the workers and organizers of CIW, we express our deepest gratitude for their determined work for their own dignity and their historic contribution to advancing the cause of labor rights." Click here to read a detailed analysis of this historic agreement.

Following the successful conclusion of the Taco Bell boycott, the national network of allies that had helped carry that campaign to victory consolidated to form the Alliance for Fair Food, signalling the fast-food industry that the Campaign for Fair Food would not stop at Taco Bell. Since its birth in March of 2006, the AFF has become a powerful new voice for the respect of human rights in this country's food industry and for an end to the relentless exploitation of Florida's farmworkers.

And in April of 2007 -- following a two-year battle with the largest restaurant chain in the world, McDonald's -- the Campaign for Fair Food took an important new step forward. With an announcement at the Carter Center in Atlanta (President Jimmy Carter's center for conflict resolution), McDonald’s and the CIW reached a landmark accord that not only met the standards set in the Taco Bell agreement, but also committed the fast-food leader to collaborate with the CIW in developing an industry-wide third party mechanism for monitoring conditions in the fields and investigating abuses. You can read more about the details of the McDonald's agreement by clicking here.

Over the past several years, through the Campaign for Fair Food and our anti-slavery work, Immokalee has evolved from being one of the poorest, most politically powerless communities in the country to become today a new and important public presence with forceful, committed leadership directly from the base of our community -- young, immigrant workers forging a future of livable wages and modern labor relations in Florida's fields. In recognition of their work, three CIW members were recently presented the prestigious 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the first time the award has gone to a US-based organization in its 20 years of existence. In recent years, the CIW and the Campaign for Fair Food have been recognized by several other institutions, including the World Hunger Year's 2006 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award, the Freedom Network's 2006 Wellstone Award, and the 2005 Business Ethics Network's BENNY Award.

We Support: Freedom To Marry

Marriage is not a monolithic, unchanging institution, even though many people define it that way (or believe that God has defined it that way). Civil marriage and religious marriage are different institutions, but are often confused with each other because states allow the religious ceremony to double as the state ceremony.


There are different marriage laws in all the states and different definitions of marriage in every religious tradition. In addition to this diversity, civil marriage rights in the U.S. have been significantly broadened during the last fifty years.


Civil vs. Religious Marriage
Unlike some religious definitions, civil definitions of marriage do not usually mention childbearing, sexual relations, living arrangements, or religious beliefs or observance.


When clergy or congregations marry couples it is a religious rite, not a civil ceremony, although the government may recognize it. Clergy and congregations choose whom they marry. They aren't compelled to accept the state's marriage definition, and indeed, many religious institutions don't accept it. Many religious institutions are more restrictive than the state, rejecting interfaith marriages or remarriages after divorce. And some have a broader definition, blessing the unions of same-gender couples.


Religious Diversity

There are a variety of views of the purpose of marriage in the religious community; some think gender is irrelevant. Many religious organizations and people of faith have definitions that are probably different from yours.


Some faiths consider marriage an aid to religious instruction. Some call it an expression of committed love. Others say it is mainly for raising children. In some Christian faiths marriage is a sacrament, in others it is not. But whether one agrees with someone else's definition of marriage (or baptism, or sacrament, or communion) one must respect everyone's Constitutional rights of free speech and free exercise of religion.


The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, Ecumenical Catholic Church, Church of God Anonymous, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, Reconstructionist Judaism,
Reform Judaism, and Unitarian Universalist Association bless same-gender relationships as a matter of policy.


The United Church of Christ, and various Quaker groups leave the decision to clergy, congregations or local governing bodies.


The Presbyterian Church (USA) allows the blessings of same-gender unions with terminology restrictions.


Entanglement and Discrimination
The federal government and 49 state governments refuse (on what appear to be purely religious grounds) to grant the same legal recognition to same-gender couples that is available to mixed-gender couples who meet the same qualifications. State governments generally let religious ceremonies double as state ceremonies (in some states it is illegal to call a religious blessing a marriage without benefit of a marriage license from the state); the civil definition of marriage covers almost all religious definitions. (Some are more restrictive than the government.) Same-gender relationships are blessed in houses of worship by clergy and congregations from a wide range of religious traditions. The Constitution guarantees religious liberty. but same-gender marriages are still not recognized by almost all U.S. governments.


Civil marriage law has historically been used to legally encode segregation and majority privilege; it was forbidden to members of certain ethnic groups; and forbidden between people who were not members of the same ethnic group (blacks and whites still could not marry each other in some states until the Supreme Court overturned those laws in 1967). Denying legal marriage recognition on the basis of a single characteristic makes it easy to discriminate against everyone who shares that characteristic.


Without civil marriage, families are not legally recognized. In situations involving child custody, medical decisions, burial, and inheritance, preference is given to legally-recognized family members. There are thousands of local, state, and federal laws in which legal marital status determines government treatment of two consenting adults in a relationship. Without legal marriage recognition it is difficult or impossible to legally establish and maintain families(especially when facing opposition from relatives), contrary to the Constitutional right of free association.


Today, many see marriage as the last line of defense for encoding the supposed supremacy of heterosexuality. Only same-gender couples are legally discriminated against in civil marriage in the U.S. States have different requirements for marriage (such as residency and waiting periods, age of consent, kinship restrictions, and blood tests), and different procedures for obtaining a license, but all states and the federal government automatically recognize all marriages and divorces from all states, except those of same-gender couples. Within the last few years "Defense of Marriage" acts have been passed by Congress and more than half the state legislatures. But civil marriage isn't jeopardized by opening it up to more people. There aren't a limited number of licenses; people who support civil marriage for same-gender couples are not asking the state to stop recognizing mixed-gender marriages.


Religious Support for Equal Rights
Many religious organizations, including some that do not recognize religious same-gender marriage, either directly support civil marriage for same-gender couples, support equal rights for same-gender couples, or are opposed to the denial of equal rights for same-gender couples. These include ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, American Friends Service Committee, California Council of Churches, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Church of Religious Science, Ecumenical Catholic Church, Hawai'i Council of Churches, Interfaith Working Group, Pacific Congress of Quakers, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Unitarian Universalist Association, and Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.



The reasons religious organizations support equal rights for same-gender couples are varied. But it is fair to say that most see it as a matter of love, justice, basic fairness, and civil rights. Many agree that legal recognition of same-gender marriage would make very positive moral and social points--that we as a people value committed, caring relationships and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation or religion.

Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Headed by Evan Wolfson, one of America's leading civil rights advocates and lawyers, Freedom to Marry brings new resources and a renewed context of urgency and opportunity to this social justice movement. Freedom to Marry brings the work of its partner organizations and their many approaches — litigation, legislation, direct action, and public education — into a larger whole, a shared civil rights campaign that fosters heightened outreach to non-gay allies.

Freedom to Marry encourages dialogue with Americans thinking through the need to end discrimination in marriage, provides support to targeted state and local efforts, and promotes fairness for all families, including same-sex couples and the children raised by gay parents. By working to secure equal access to marriage, we help reinforce our country's historic commitment to freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and equal justice for all.

As we advance toward full marriage equality, we promote gains along the way for all families, including same-sex couples and the children raised by gay parents. By working to end the exclusion of same-sex couples and their families from marriage, we help reinforce our country's historic commitment to freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. By ending sex discrimination in marriage, much as we ended race discrimination in marriage a generation ago, we are building a better America, protecting and supporting families, children, and the freedom of choice for all.

British man arrested for sex with sheep, charged with bestiality in London, copyright infringement in Scotland

RUN SHEEP! RUUUUUUN!!!!!

A Briton has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a series of sex attacks on sheep, London police said on Friday.

The 27-year-old man was held at his home in Dulwich, south London, on suspicion of bestiality with sheep. He was also wanted in connection of the possession of drugs with intent to supply.

Detectives said the arrest followed allegations made to them in May and June.

"Two male joggers said they had observed a man molesting the sheep in a field at Botany Bay Lane, Chislehurst," police said in a statement.

"A similar incident was reported to police by a stables employee in the area."

Media reports said the man had been barred from visiting farmland while officers carried out their investigation.

"Ladies and gentlemen, O'Hare airport welcomes Mexicana Airlines 802, now arriving at gate 11 . . . 12 . . . 13 . . . 14 . . . 15 . . ."

CHICAGO -- A Mexicana Airlines flight overshot a runway while landing at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Friday night and struck a safety barrier, injuring a flight attendant, authorities said.

Flight 802 was arriving from Mexico City just after 7 p.m. when it was stopped by a barrier of lightweight, crushable concrete blocks, authorities said.

The safety barrier, known as an arrestor bed, was specifically installed to stop planes that overshoot runways, said Department of Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride.

"The good news is the safety enhancements that we had in place worked perfectly and things are OK out there," she said.

One crew member went to the hospital with minor injuries, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Richard Rosado. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said the injured person was a flight attendant.

Authorities differed on the number of people on board the Airbus A320.

Mexicana Airlines spokesman Adolfo Crespo said there were 145 passengers and crew aboard, but Rosado said 142 people were evacuated using a stair truck raised to the rear of the plane.

The passengers were transported by bus to a nearby terminal.

"Everything went textbook," Rosado said of the evacuation.

Crespo says crosswinds forced the plane's nose gear off the runway, but Molinaro said an investigation will take some time.

The arrestor bed was installed recently, "probably in the past year," Molinaro said.

"It did its job, it stopped the plane," he said.

O'Hare Runway 22L closed Friday, but Pride said she expected it to reopen soon.

"The incident has not significantly affected traffic at the airport," she said.

---

Girl runs away from Bush, chipmunk

Maybe it was the president. Or that giant chipmunk mascot.

Something made little Emily from Kentucky run away crying after she was called out onto the field to meet President Bush on the South Lawn yesterday after a tee-ball game. Emily took a few steps toward Bush, then a lot more steps back, hugged the fence looking terrified, got pulled up there by some adults and then ran away.

She was going, going, gone.

Lots of kids get nervous during big moments (meeting Santa and birthday parties for example). So, Emily, it's OK. There are a lot of congressional Republicans running away from Bush during this election year too.

Chicago Tribune

John McCain is learning how to use the internets

Pitiful:

I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself.

How long should it take to "learn" to get online? It's one point and a click.

Next up, John McCain tackles "the google."

NEW DailyDesultory Domain!!!!!

We are now easily accessible from the following domain:

http://www.dailydesultory.net


Movin' on up, to the east side... To that deeeeeluxe domain name......

Get this "Iraq war" charge off my bill!

The Bored Kangaroo

Nas Enters the Fox News Fracas

More fun with Fox News!

I've always been a fan of Nas... From "If I Ruled the World" back in '96 to "Hip Hop is Dead" in '07 and it continues today after watching the video to his new single "Sly Fox", which is a Fox News diss... Check it out.






Nas has a few choice lyrics for the station in his newest single, "Sly Fox," targeting in particular New York's own Fox 5, and, well, he seems kinda pissed! But there's more to the story, and it involves a strain of the very censorship he inveighs against. Seems he's capitulated in a more personal, extremely well-played battle and is scrapping plans to title his new album Nigger, opting instead for, sadly (and, media frenzy accomplished, smartly), Untitled. Nas tells the WSJ (!) of the sudden change: "Because of the heat coming down on me I saw it becoming a circus. I told myself that if it came to that point that I would make the change, because there's a message in that, too." We suppose there is!

Cubs fans will get cemetery that looks like Wrigley Field

CHICAGO (AP) -- Finally, the perfect answer for a team that has been killing its fans for 100 years: A place to put their remains.

A Chicago man and Bohemian National Cemetery on the city's North Side are joining forces to build for Cubs fans a final resting place that looks a lot like the spot where they saw their dreams of a pennant die year after year.

Called "Beyond the Vines," the 24-foot long ivy-covered wall is designed to look like the one in dead center at Wrigley Field.

It's all on the drawing board now, but the wall is expected to be up and ready to accept fans in October -- just about the time Cubs fans are starting their annual mantra of "Wait till next year."

And when it does go up, Dennis Mascari the president of Fans Forever, Inc., says it will transform the cemetery experience, if not for the dead, at least for the living.

"When you come to a cemetery to visit a loved one it's usually a pretty sad, gloomy situation," he said, standing on the lawn where the wall will be erected. "But when you come here and visit (what looks like) his home away from home ... Wrigley Field, it's going to be a great feeling for people."

Mascari, 60, is envisioning something special. There will be a stained-glass scoreboard. And at each of the 280 niches in the wall -- "eternal skyboxes, that's what we call them," he says -- there will be an urn emblazoned with the Cubs logo.

Near each urn will be a bronze baseball card with a photograph of the deceased fan who, Mascari said, depending on the wishes of the family can be dressed up in a Cubs hat, Cubs jersey or full Cubs uniform. It could also include the dead fan's 'statistics' such as date of birth, date of death, and maybe their favorite Cubs game and favorite Cub.

There's even talk of piping in Cubs games on speakers so nobody, living or dead, will miss an inning. Not only that, but if this idea appeals to more than 280 Cubs fans, the cemetery has set aside enough land to add a right-field wall and a left-field wall.

The price tag for interment will cost as much as $5,000, the "grand slam" package that includes pick up of the body and delivery to Bohemian for cremation in its brand new $100,000 cremation oven, a service, and, of course, the baseball card plaque and urn.

But Mascari knows there are plenty of fans who have long since died and their remains are just sitting in urns somewhere, waiting for their own Field of Dreams. Interment of those ashes can cost as little as $1,200.

If this sounds, well, crazy, urns with the logo of the Cubs and other sports teams are already on the market and the maker of those urns -- Eternal Image -- says last year that Cubs urns accounted for 10 percent of their Major League urn sales.

And nobody who saw survivors of dead Cubs fans bring photographs to the 2003 playoffs will forget the sight of them trudging home, pictures under their arms, after the Cubs once again failed to reach the World Series.

Besides, Cubs fans have for years been scattering ashes of loved ones at Wrigley Field -- a tradition immortalized by the late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman, in whose "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" an old man asks his own family to do just that at the "ivy-covered burial ground." Those ashes include some of Goodman's, scattered there by family and friends a year after his death.

That tradition reminds Mascari that his wall can offer something to fans they can't possibly get from having their ashes scattered on the outfield grass: Peace of mind.

"Last year the turf (at Wrigley) was removed," Mascari explained. "So something like this would make sure that fans would never have to worry about any turf being removed and put somewhere else."

Over at Wrigley, the Cubs aren't saying much. Team spokesman Peter Chase said in an e-mail that nobody connected with the team had heard of the wall or wanted to talk about it.

A longtime Cubs fan himself, Mascari hopes the team likes the idea, if for no other reason it might prompt fans to head to his wall and not Wrigley with dead fans' ashes.

But since there won't be a Cubs logo on the wall and the company that makes the urns is already licensed to do so by Major League Baseball, he doesn't think the Cubs can stop the wall if they wanted to.

One man who is talking about it is Philip Roux, the superintendent at the cemetery.

"I think this is great, the best publicity a cemetery could have," said Philip Roux, Bohemian's superintendent.

For one thing, he said it would remind people that the cemetery perhaps best known for being the final resting place for Anton Cermak, the Chicago mayor who was assassinated by a man aiming for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, is still open.

"We have space available," Roux said.

The big test will, of course, be convincing Cubs fans their remains belong in the friendly confines of Bohemian National Cemetery.

Out at Wrigley, where the Cubs were playing this week, fans' opinions varied. Some said they hated the idea. Others said they liked it but wouldn't want their remains to be alone and they just couldn't imagine their family members joining them.

Steve Kopetsky, a 53-year-old fan who lives in Corte Madera, Calif., said he didn't have a problem with spending the money to reserve a spot on the wall as much as he did if word got out that he'd done so.

"My wife would kill me," he said.

But Don Rood, a 31-year-old Chicagoan who wore his "Die-Hard Cub Fan" shirt to the game, said it makes perfect sense.

"What else are you going to do, lay in a box next to loved ones?" he asked. "It would symbolize what your passion is, what you enjoyed about your life."

SI

Favre To Miami?

From the "Highly Unlikely Department"

This Miami Herald columnist

GREG COTE

gcote@MiamiHerald.com

has a feeling the Dolphins could court Favre if the Packers said "no" if he asked to return after all... HAHAHAHA
------------------------------------


Brett Favre seems like he wants to parachute back into the NFL. They ought to be drawing a big ''X'' in the middle of the Dolphins' huddle and coaxing him to a soft landing right here in Miami.

(Dear Brett: You may have heard. Our weather is somewhat kinder to old bones than Green Bay's. We average about one inch of light snow every 35 or 40 years down here. And don't worry about that pay cut you'd probably have to take. We lead the nation in retiree-pleasing Early Bird specials.)

I know that some of you out there are saying of Favre becoming a Dolphin, ''It could never happen.'' But it could, and I'll tell you why.

I know some others are saying, ''It should never happen.'' But you're wrong. And I'll tell you why on that, too.

Remember that need + need = possibility.

Favre by most indications is a quarterback who needs to play again. Seems he has had a change of heart and wishes to recant his March 4 retirement, but Green Bay appears to have yanked away the welcome mat, like Lucy used to yank away the football just as Charlie Brown was about to kick it.

But Miami is a team that needs a QB it can trust and rely on in 2008. Favre last missed a game in 1992. Seriously. Tomorrow's sunrise cannot be trusted and relied on like this dude.

Granted, plenty could prevent this brief-but-blissful marriage from happening, such as Favre staying retired (unlikely) or (more likely) the Dolphins' hierarchy misguidedly thinking that rebuilding means you don't try to be as good as you possibly can now.

If you're Miami of course you don't pursue Favre if you believe that veteran journeyman Josh McCown is better. But not even people in McCown's family could possibly believe that.

You don't pursue Favre if you think John Beck will be ready, in two months, to make your team as good as Favre would. But you know that isn't the case, either.

And you don't pursue Favre if you are committed to handing the future, right now, to Chad Henne. But that also isn't the situation, as Henne prepares for the NFL equivalent of a redshirt season.

So here's what you do, Dolphins: You do what Green Bay isn't doing. You welcome Favre back to football. You trade lame-duck Jason Taylor (whom the Packers have coveted) to get him. You put McCown up for sale. And then you let Beck and Henne develop for a year under the unhurried tutelage of a master -- thereby being as good a team as you can be right now while also letting the roots take on future success at that position.

From Miami's perspective, having a quality QB now, even for one year, makes sense because the team ought not forsake 2008 in the name of rebuilding. This is a team that lost six games by only three points last year despite itself. A team much improved. And a team with what seems a ridiculously soft schedule. Add Favre and you're thinking .500. Maybe even wild-card hunt.

Dolfans have suffered too much for too long to see their club dismiss this coming season as hopeless. If you can shoot for a dramatic turnaround now while also shaping your future, you do both at once.

IT MAKES SENSE

From Favre's perspective, there also is some logic. This is a team that spent its past two No. 1 picks on a receiver and a blocker. A team with two solid running backs. A team with the imprimatur of Bill Parcells in charge. And a team whose fans will regard you as a civic hero if you win six games and a saint if you win eight.

It makes sense in so many ways.

The old ''he-should-stay-retired'' argument does not apply here. Favre looked closer to tank-full than on-fumes last season. He made the Pro Bowl, completed a career-high 66.5 percent of his passes, threw for 4,155 yards and 28 touchdowns, took his second-fewest sacks ever as a starter and had his lowest interception rate since 2000. Favre went out with his best QB rating (95.7) in more than a decade. He was just plain great, in other words.

The old ''he's-broken-down-physically'' notion certainly doesn't apply.

The ''he-should-go-out-a-Packer'' sentiment hardly fits, either. He surely would, if there were indications the Pack wanted him back. But there aren't. Besides, Favre would hardly be setting precedent. Johnny Unitas went out a Charger, Joe Namath a Ram and Joe Montana a Chief. Did Michael Jordan finish as a Bull? Oh, and Dan Marino came very, very close to signing with the Vikings in 2000, by the way.

Favre saying of the comeback, ''it's all rumor,'' hardly qualifies as him snuffing out the speculation. Packers cornerback Al Harris said, ''I know he has the itch to come back and play.'' Favre's brother told a Milwaukee TV station Favre has been working out and that he ''wouldn't be surprised'' if his brother un-retired. Their mother told a different station that Favre thinks Packers general manager Ted Thompson -- who has invested three years in first-round pick Aaron Rodgers and just drafted two other QBs -- doesn't want him.

DANCING NO. 99

Meantime, Favre has yet to file formal retirement papers with the league, meaning he is technically an active player with three years left on his contract.

So if he chose to come back but the Packers weren't interested, they'd have to trade him or release him. In that scenario The Dancing Defensive End, No. 99, might be enough to make a deal work.

Is it all far-fetched? Maybe. But the best ideas often seem that way -- until somebody has the foresight or nerve to make them real.