A November 20 Washington Times article by Jerry Seper repeated accusations in a House Republican report of wrongdoing by Eric Holder, who is reportedly President-elect Barack Obama's choice for attorney general, in the context of President Clinton's 2001 pardon of Marc Rich. In doing so, Seper suggested that Holder had illicitly worked with Rich attorney Jack Quinn to bypass career Justice Department officials and falsely suggested that Holder had written an email telling Quinn that "the 'timing is good' for Mr. Rich's request for a pardon." In fact, Holder did not write the email that Seper cited, and according to testimony by former White House counsel Beth Nolan, pardon applications were directed to the White House because the Justice Department's pardon office stopped handling new applications in the fall of 2000.

Seper reported that "[t]he former prosecutor whom President-elect Barack Obama wants to run the Justice Department bypassed the agency's career lawyers during one of the most controversial final decisions made by President Clinton in January 2001 -- the pardon of billionaire fugitive financier Marc Rich, congressional records show." He later claimed that evidence in a Republican-led House Government Reform Committee's majority report on the pardon "included an email in which Mr. Holder told Mr. Quinn to 'go straight' to the White House and that the 'timing is good' for Mr. Rich's request for a pardon." In fact, the email was not written by Holder. Rather, Quinn sent it on November 18 to several recipients not including Holder.

According to the majority report, the subject line of the email was "eric," and the body of the email said: "spoke to him last evening. he says go straight to wh. also says timing is good. we shd get in soon. will elab when we speak." The majority report said, "assuming the 'eric' referenced [in the email] is Eric Holder, this e-mail contradicts the heart of Holder's defense." While Seper noted that Holder "told lawmakers during the investigation that he thought he had done nothing wrong" and that Government Reform Committee report "was approved by Republicans, led by Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, over the objections of Democrats," Seper did not note that the Minority Views Report -- signed by 14 members of the committee -- stated that it is "unclear that 'eric' even refers to Eric Holder" and that "[a]ssuming the e-mail accurately reflects the words of Mr. Holder, it shows that he advised Mr. Quinn to submit the pardon petition directly to the White House. But this is not proof of wrongdoing." The minority report continued: "As Beth Nolan testified, the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department had indicated by then the he would not process any more pardon applications, while the President was continuing to accept clemency applications at the White House."

Indeed, according to the Nexis database transcript of a March 1, 2001, Government Reform committee hearing, then-committee ranking member Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) asked Nolan: "Did the pardon attorney's office tell the White House in September or October of 2000 that they couldn't take any more pardon applications and that they weren't going to be able to review them or get the information to the White House?" Nolan responded: "They told us that sometime in the fall, I'm not sure of the exact date."

From the Minority Views Report:

The evidence before the committee also does not prove the majority's accusation that Mr. Holder worked with Mr. Quinn to cut other Justice Department officials out of the pardon review process. In retrospect, it is clear that Mr. Holder should have done more to include other Justice Department officials in the review process. Indeed, Mr. Holder conceded as much during testimony. This mistake in judgment is not evidence of misconduct.

The majority points to a November 18, 2001, email message as proof of a conspiracy between Mr. Holder and Mr. Quinn. The subject line reads "eric." The text of the message reads: "spoke to him last evening. He says go straight to wh. Also says timing is good. We shd get in soon. Will elab when we speak." Neither Mr. Quinn nor Mr. Holder testified about this message, however. Indeed, as the majority itself acknowledges, it is unclear that "eric" even refers to Eric Holder.

Assuming the e-mail accurately reflects the words of Mr. Holder, it shows that he advised Mr. Quinn to submit the pardon petition directly to the White House. But this is not proof of wrongdoing. As Beth Nolan testified, the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department had indicated by then the he would not process any more pardon applications, while the President was continuing to accept clemency applications at the White House.

Seper also reported that "[t]he House committee concluded in the March 2002 report that Mr. Holder played a significant role in facilitating the pardon, first by recommending Mr. Quinn to Mr. Rich's legal representatives." Indeed, the majority report read: "After numerous failed attempts to have his case settled, Marc Rich hired Jack Quinn to represent him. Quinn was hired after a recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder."

Seper did not note that the minority report, however, stated the following of the claim that Holder "recommended" Quinn: "To reach the conclusion that Mr. Holder 'recommended' Mr. Quinn to Mr. [Gershon] Kekst, the majority ascribes great significance to a chance social encounter in late 1998 between Mr. Holder and Mr. Kekst, who had never before met." It continued:

According to Mr. Kekst, he found himself seated next to Mr. Holder at a large corporate event. After Mr. Holder indicated that he "worked at Main Justice," Mr. Kekst recalled asking him general questions about the system of accountability at the Department of Justice and, in particular, to whom U.S. Attorneys were responsible. Mr. Holder apparently responded that they were accountable to him; that was his job. He recalls asking Mr. Holder what a person would do if he believed he was the victim of an overzealous prosecutor. Mr. Kekst said that Mr. Holder suggested hiring a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who knows the process. He recalled that Mr. Holder then spotted Jack Quinn and said words to the effect of, "There is Jack Quinn, someone like that." According to Mr. Kekst, Marc Rich's name never came up in the conversation.

From the House Committee on Government Reform's March 1, 2001, hearings on President Clinton's pardons (from Nexis):

REP. HENRY WAXMAN (D-CA): Did the pardon attorney's office tell the White House in September or October of 2000 that they couldn't take any more pardon applications and that they weren't going to be able to review them or get the information to the White House?

NOLAN: They told us that sometime in the fall, I'm not sure of the exact date.

WAXMAN: And so around the time that the pardon attorney's office at the Justice Department was telling the White House that it would process no more pardon applications, the president was seeking out more applications and there was also an increase in pardon requests. Isn't that right?

NOLAN: Right, there had been in fact a great increase all through the year in applications, so the pardon attorney's office had more applications and hadn't been able to move them in any significant, faster rate.

WAXMAN: In December and January, did you feel overwhelmed by the amount of pardon requests that you were asked to process?

NOLAN: We were really inundated with pardon requests, and, in fact, sometime around Christmas week, I think, I spoke with Mr. Podesta and said, "We have to have a cut off. We can't possibly finish what we have, if more pardon requests come in and..."

WAXMAN: Where were they coming from?

NOLAN: They were coming from everywhere, Mr. Waxman. We had requests from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and both Houses. We had requests from movie stars, newscasters, former presidents, former first ladies. There wasn't anybody -- I refused to go to holiday parties because I couldn't stand being -- nobody wanted to know how I was, thank you very much. They wanted to know about a pardon. So I just didn't go.

WAXMAN: So let me make sure I understand this. The White House was involved in closing up its operations, but still trying to issue new regulations and negotiating a Middle East peace agreement. The president was insisting that you consider as many pardon applications as possible, despite the fact that the Justice Department wouldn't take any more applications after October of 2000, and you were being besieged by members of Congress and others to consider an ever-growing number of pardons. And on top of that, I suspect you weren't even aware of some of the pardon activities. Is that a fair statement of what was going on at the White House?

NOLAN: I think that is a very fair statement. I would add that we were also doing this shortened transition period and trying to work with the incoming administration, so that was another...

WAXMAN: And, Mr. Podesta, is that an accurate statement from your point of view?

JOHN PODESTA (former White House chief of staff): I think that's accurate, yes.

WAXMAN: You were hearing from members of Congress, and I even called you on behalf of a constituent, who I thought deserved consideration for a pardon, Mike Milken, who did not get a pardon.

NOLAN: That's right.

WAXMAN: And I understand you got calls from congressman and senators. Did any of them suggest you not follow the Justice Department Guidelines?

NOLAN: Yes, certainly. Several of them suggested that they knew it was too late, really, to go through the Department of Justice, but they wanted to send the pardon application directly to the White House.

WAXMAN: How many contacts, if you know, did you get from members of Congress, House and Senate?

NOLAN: I don't no, sir. I had probably 30 or 40 phone calls. And I think I took less than half of the calls. I just couldn't possibly respond to all the calls I had.

WAXMAN: Mr. Podesta, do you have any idea of how many calls you...

PODESTA: I would guess it's in the high double or in the triple digits.

WAXMAN: Were there any examples that stand out in your mind of congressman or senators that were asking you to issue pardons and not follow the Justice Department guidelines?

PODESTA: Well, let me clarify one thing. I don't think that members of Congress said, "Please issue a pardon, and, by the way, don't follow the Justice Department guidelines." I think they basically just didn't care whether we followed the Justice Department guidelines.

For example, I think in one particular case in which we did issue a pardon for Mr. Lake, that was done at the end, and I think did not go through the Justice Department. I think both the chairman and the Senate Judiciary Committee and the chairman of the counterpart committee to your committee in the Senate called on his behalf, or at least made their views known on his behalf.

WAXMAN: Senator Hatch?

PODESTA: Senator Hatch and Senator Thompson. I don't think they really cared whether that had gone through the Justice Department guidelines or not.

From the Times article:

The former prosecutor whom President-elect Barack Obama wants to run the Justice Department bypassed the agency's career lawyers during one of the most controversial final decisions made by President Clinton in January 2001 -- the pardon of billionaire fugitive financier Marc Rich, congressional records show.

Eric H. Holder Jr., then the deputy attorney general, worked with former White House Counsel Jack Quinn to ensure that department officials -- particularly federal prosecutors in New York who handled the Rich case -- "did not have the opportunity to express an opinion on the Rich pardon before it was granted," the Republican-led House Government Reform Committee concluded in a 467-page report in 2002.

The committee's evidence included an e-mail in which Mr. Holder told Mr. Quinn to "go straight" to the White House and that the "timing is good" for Mr. Rich's request for a pardon. Normally, pardon requests are reviewed by career prosecutors before a recommendation is forwarded to the White House.

Mr. Quinn responded in a typewritten note to Mr. Holder, just 10 days before Mr. Clinton issued the pardon, "Your saying positive things, I'm told, would make this happen. Thanks for your consideration."

Mr. Holder was not available for comment on Wednesday. But he told lawmakers during the investigation that he thought he had done nothing wrong.

[...]

The House committee, which finished its investigation in 2002, concluded from its interviews and the documents that Mr. Holder helped bypassed the normal procedure for pardons in Mr. Rich's case. The report was approved by Republicans, led by Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, over the objections of Democrats.

"The evidence amassed by the committee indicates that Holder advised Quinn to file the Rich pardon petition with the White House and leave the Justice Department out of the process," the report said.

[...]

The House committee concluded in the March 2002 report that Mr. Holder played a significant role in facilitating the pardon, first by recommending Mr. Quinn to Mr. Rich's legal representatives, and by delivering what it called a favorable opinion of the last-minute pardon to the president from a position of authority.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/28506?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Acid+attacks+and+rape%3A+growing+threat+to+women+who+oppose+traditional+orderch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Afghanistan+%28News%29%2CGender+%28News%29%2CWomen+and+women%27s+interests%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CWomenc6=Clancy+Chassayc7=2008_11_22c8=1122121c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Afghanistanc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FAfghanistan" width="1" height="1" //divp They were walking to school in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a group of teenage girls discussing a test they had coming up, when two men on a motorcycle sprayed them with a strange liquid. Within seconds a painful tingling began, and there was an unusual smell as the skin of 16-year-old Atifa Biba began to burn. /ppHer friend rushed over to help her, struggling to wipe the liquid away, when she too was showered with acid. She covered her face, crying out for help as they sprayed her again, trying to aim the acid into her face. The weapon was a water bottle containing battery acid; the result was at least one girl blinded and two others permanently disfigured. Their only crime was attending school. /ppIt was not an isolated incident. For women and girls across Afghanistan, conditions are worsening - and those women who dare to publicly oppose the traditional order now live in fear for their lives./ppThe Afghan MP Shukria Barakzai receives regular death threats for speaking out on women's issues. Talking at her home in central Kabul, she closed the living room door as her three young daughters played in the hall. "You can't imagine what it feels like as a mother to leave the house each day and not know if you will come back again," she said, her eyes welling up as she spoke./pp"But there is no choice. I would rather die for the dignity of women than die for nothing. Should I stop my work because there is a chance I might be killed? I must go on, and if it happens it happens."/ppBarakzai receives frequent but cryptic warnings about planned suicide attacks on her car, but no help from the government. Officials advise her to stay at home and not go to work, but offer nothing in the way of security assistance, despite her requests. She said warlords in parliament who received similar threats were immediately provided with armoured vehicles, armed guards and a safe house by the government./ppAfghan women are feeling increasingly vulnerable as the security situation worsens and a growing number of western and Afghan officials call for the Taliban to join the government./pp"We are very worried that, now the government is talking with the Taliban, our rights will be compromised," said Shinkai Karokhail, an outspoken MP for Kabul. "We must not be the sacrifice by which peace with the Taliban is made."/ppUnder Taliban rule, up until 2001, women were not allowed to work and were forbidden from venturing outside the home without a male escort. /ppAfghan women who defy traditional gender roles and speak out against the oppression of women are routinely subject to threats, intimidation and assassination. An increasingly powerful Taliban regularly attacks projects, schools and businesses run by women. /ppSix weeks ago, Lieutenant-Colonel Malalai Kakar was assassinated in her car on her way to work in Kandahar. She was Afghanistan's highest-ranking female police officer and a fierce defender of women's rights. Only five feet tall, she was known to have beaten men she found to be abusing their wives. Another senior female police officer was killed in the province of Herat in June./ppstrongSafe house/strong/ppTalking to the Guardian at a safe house on the outskirts of Kabul, Mullah Zubiallah Akhond, a Taliban commander from the southern province of Uruzgan, said the group's attacks on women were always political and not based on any desire to target or punish women specifically. /ppHe condemned the acid attack on the group of schoolgirls in Kandahar, and insisted the Taliban were not involved. "We support the education of girls, but separate from boys. We would not attack schoolgirls. We only target those working with the government."/ppThe Taliban's regional commands have varying attitudes toward women, but all those fighting under the Taliban banner are committed to enforcing their interpretation of sharia law, which forbids women from working or leaving the house without a male escort./ppThe Islamist group is just one of the many threats facing Afghanistan's few outspoken female MPs. "Our parliament is a collection of lords," said Barakzai. "Warlords, drug lords, crime lords."/ppIn parliament, she says, she is often greeted with screams of "kill her" when she stands up to speak, and she has had no shortage of personal threats from fellow MPs. /ppThey visit her privately to tell her she will be killed if she continues to speak out on such issues as the right of a woman to have a personal passport (separate from the standard "family passport") or against compulsory virginity tests for young women, and the right of a man to have custody of a child at two years old. It is not only men who oppose women in parliament - both Barakzai and Karokhail have faced obstruction from other female MPs on key women's issues./ppKarokhail said that, of the 68 women in the 249-strong parliament, only five were vocal on women's issues. The majority of women in parliament vote in favour of more traditional legislation that often rules against women's rights./ppSome women now fear the parliament is becoming more conservative towards women. "Talibani ideas are natural among our people, particularly their vision about women," said Barakzai. /ppAccording to Afghan commentators, President Hamid Karzai, desperate to win next year's elections, has been bringing former mujahideen commanders into parliament in the hope they will support him at election time. /ppMost of these former jihadi commanders share the Taliban's ideas about women and are expected to support legislation that will once again limit women's freedom. In addition, according to the Taliban commander, the group has a growing number of MPs in parliament lobbying for their policies./ppIn much of the country, especially rural areas, women remain subservient to the men in their family and rarely venture out of their homes. Even in the relatively liberal capital, Kabul, it is common to see women robed in blue burkas trailing five paces behind their husbands./ppIt is difficult to gauge how the worsening situation in the country is affecting women, but according to a recent study by the UN, some 87% of them suffer abuse in the home. Afghan human rights groups are documenting cases of "honour" killings, forced abortions and rape, and a database is now being constructed by the UN./ppNajla Zewari, who works for the UN's gender and justice unit, believes violence against women is increasing, fuelled by growing frustrations caused by the economic crisis and lack of security. She said there had also been a sharp increase in rapes by men who claimed they could not afford to pay the dowry needed to marry. After the public shame of an attack, the victim is usually outcast and the rapist is then the only man who will have the woman as his wife./ppIt is crimes like this that make many Afghans nostalgic for the harsh justice of Taliban rule. Barakzai countered: "Women were safe, in one sense, under the Taliban - but they were kept as slaves, they were not allowed to do what they wanted even in their own home."/ppAs the Taliban strengthen, the future for women in Afghanistan looks bleaker. Barakzai said women's rights, once heralded as the great success of post-invasion Afghanistan, had been sidelined and might suffer more in the struggle to find a solution to the fighting./ppLast week, a council of 400 women politicians met in Kabul to discuss this possibility and prepare ways to counter it. Karokhail said: "Our biggest fear at the moment is that the return of Talibani ideas to government will wind back the gains we have made in these last years."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/afghanistan"Afghanistan/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gender"Gender/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/women"Women/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660269112201400459684"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660269112201400459684" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/99961?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+Arsenal+drop+outspoken+Gallas+for+trip+to+Manchester+Citych=Footballc3=The+Guardianc4=Arsenal+FC+%28Football%29%2CFrance+%28Football+team%29%2CPremier+League+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSportc5=Football+World+Cup%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CPremier+Leaguec6=David+Hytnerc7=2008_11_21c8=1122123c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=Arsenalc13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2FArsenal" width="1" height="1" //divpstrong/strongstrong/pp/strongWilliam Gallas' hold on the Arsenal captaincy appeared to be over this evening and his very future at the club in jeopardy after he did not travel with the rest of the squad to the north-west for today's Premier League fixture against Manchester City./ppThe controversial Frenchman had followed his attack on an unnamed team-mate on Wednesday — that player is known to be Robin van Persie — with further outspoken comments about another of them yesterday./ppOnce again he did not name the player, identifying him only as "S" and saying that he played in midfield, but it is understood that he was referring to Samir Nasri, his France team-mate who joined Arsenal from Marseille in the summer. In his newly released autobiography, he criticised him for his "insolence"./ppArsène Wenger, the manager, was deeply concerned by Gallas' comments and had given serious thought to stripping him of the captaincy. He informed Gallas of his intention and the explosive result was that Gallas stayed behind in London as his team headed to Manchester./ppOn Wednesday, Gallas had spoken of the dressing-room being disrupted by one player who "insults us", an attack on Van Persie, while he also said that his young Arsenal team-mates were "not brave enough in battle", that there had been a row at half-time during the recent 4-4 home draw with Tottenham Hotspur and that the reason he was speaking out was because "there are things that can't be said and can't be tolerated"./ppWenger has defended his outspoken and emotional captain, whose methods have been under scrutiny since his bizarre sit-in protest at Birmingham City last February. Yet he has been pushed too far by Gallas and acted for the sake of dressing-room unity. He will be without one alternative captain at Eastlands as Cesc Fábregas is suspended and most likely another — Kolo Touré is described as a "major doubt" after he injured his calf in midweek. The goalkeeper Manuel Almunia is expected to wear the armband./ppWenger will publicly address the subject of Gallas after the game and in the meantime, he simply wants his players to pull together and do their talking on the pitch. Despite four Premier League defeats already this season, he believes that they have the mental strength and ability to rouse themselves./ppGallas was the victim of unfortunate timing as much as anything else with his latest comments from his book, which was released yesterday. His row with Nasri took place in the heat of the moment during France's failed Euro 2008 campaign and the pair promptly made their peace. What Gallas said to his biographer some months ago about the flashpoint, however, is insightful about his problems with the new generation of young players./ppHe said they "seem cheeky — they think they know everything but they know nothing". He added: "I too was 20 years old once. I would never have allowed myself to speak in such a way to a player older than me. We respected the veterans. We shut our mouths."/ppGallas said that he was stunned when the young player he argued with took Thierry Henry's seat on the France team bus. He described the young player as "insolent" and said that he finally moved. Gallas had scolded the player in training for not calling out when he passed the ball, and he gave a blow-by-blow description of the heated conversation that followed./pp"Are you speaking to me? Who do you take yourself for? You're only 20 ... I am not your friend," Gallas said./pp"I'm not your friend either," the player responded. "Straight away, I see red," added the 31-year-old./ppGallas' passionate nature has been held up as a strength but the generation gap between him and Arsenal's young tyros has contributed to his fall from grace./ppArsenal, meanwhile, will pursue the Football Association for compensation over the shoulder injury Theo Walcott sustained while on England duty this week, which will rule him out for at least three months./ppstrong/strong/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/arsenal"Arsenal/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/france"France/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague"Premier League/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227298789329112120300438560"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227298789329112120300438560" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/garage/" rel="tag"In the Autoblog Garage/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/sedans/" rel="tag"Sedans/Saloons/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/sports/" rel="tag"Sports/GTs/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/pontiac/" rel="tag"Pontiac/a/pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/in-the-autoblog-garage-2009-pontiac-g8-gxp/1172919/"img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/pontiacg8gxp_abg_01_opt.jpg" //abr / div align="center"emstrongsmallClick above for high-res image gallery of the Pontiac G8 GXP/small/strong/embr //div br /There's a Looney Tunes cartoon where Bugs Bunny is in charge of Yosemite Sam's inheritance, and every time Yosemite Sam loses his temper at something Bugs has done, the rabbit subtracts money. By the time Yosemite gets his act together... he's out of money. Substitute GM for Yosemite Sam and the buying public for Bugs Bunny, throw in a little credit crisis, and all we can say is that it would be a shame if the Pontiac G8 GXP fell victim to this scenario: GM running out of money just when it gets its act together. Because we're here to tell you - and you can quote us on this - the Pontiac G8 GXP is @#$%amp;*! Awesome.br /br /div class="postgallery"pstrongGallery: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/in-the-autoblog-garage-2009-pontiac-g8-gxp/"In the Autoblog Garage: 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP/a/strong/pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/in-the-autoblog-garage-2009-pontiac-g8-gxp/1172919/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/pontiacg8gxp_abg_01_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/in-the-autoblog-garage-2009-pontiac-g8-gxp/1172920/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/pontiacg8gxp_abg_02_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/in-the-autoblog-garage-2009-pontiac-g8-gxp/1172921/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/pontiacg8gxp_abg_03_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/in-the-autoblog-garage-2009-pontiac-g8-gxp/1172922/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/pontiacg8gxp_abg_04_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/in-the-autoblog-garage-2009-pontiac-g8-gxp/1172923/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/pontiacg8gxp_abg_05_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //a/divbr /strongfont size="1"Live photos copyright (C)2008 /font/stronga href="http://www.drewphillipsphotography.com/"font size="1" color="#660066"strongDrew Phillips/strong/font/astrongfont size="1" / Weblogs, Inc./font/strongpa href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/in-the-autoblog-garage-2008-pontiac-g8-gxp/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emIn the Autoblog Garage: 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP/em/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/in-the-autoblog-garage-2008-pontiac-g8-gxp/"In the Autoblog Garage: 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://www.autoblog.com/photos/in-the-autoblog-garage-2009-pontiac-g8-gxp/Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/in-the-autoblog-garage-2008-pontiac-g8-gxp/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/1379180/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/in-the-autoblog-garage-2008-pontiac-g8-gxp/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/84--7o3y9VN12BFvsskeSO6s6v0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/84--7o3y9VN12BFvsskeSO6s6v0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=p8uNJM7u"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=p8uNJM7u" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=Z3eQFOAw"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=Z3eQFOAw" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~4/yiKwiySETKQ" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/81006?ns=guardianpageName=Life+and+style%3A+Madonna%27s+next+victim%3A+place+your+betsch=Life+and+stylec3=guardian.co.ukc4=Madonna%2CCelebrity%2CLife+and+stylec5=Pop+Music%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Oliver+Marrec7=2008_11_21c8=1122015c9=articlec10=GUc11=Life+and+stylec12=blogc13=c14=Lost+in+Showbiz+blogh2=GU%2FLife+and+style%2Fblog%2FLost+in+Showbiz+blog" width="1" height="1" //divpRight. Now a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/21/madonna-guy-ritchie-divorced"that's out the way/a it's time for those concerned to dust down their party frocks and move on to find new love. I'm thinking, of course, of Madge and Guy - to whom, by the way, a pint of real ale on LiS down his own Mayfair pub in recognition of not pursuing a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/madonna"Madonna/a for money./ppSo, where should they look? For him, it's easy. He's still only just 40 and well-connected in polite society and the film industry. He has also done himself a wealth of good by not looking like a gold digger, so rich, older women will be queueing up. After all, he's proved that he can put up with pretty much anything after marriage to Madonna. /ppstrongLily Safra/strong, perhaps? Just because one or two of her previous husbands have died and left her lots of money, Guy shouldn't be put off. /ppstrongMargaret Thatcher/strong? His parents would be delighted, seeing as they're dyed-in-the-wool Tory types. /ppOr maybe the newly single strongSlavica Ecclestone/strong, who is divorcing hubby Bernie, and looks likely to win half his formula one wealth./ppThings might be a little more tricky for Madonna, so LiS hereby appeals to you, dear readers, to help point Madge in the right direction. To get the charity auction (as we like to think of this little exercise) started, here are a few possibilities:/ppstrongMaradona/strong: just got a new job; lost weight; from Argentina; she'll be able to remember his name - almost./ppstrongJohn Cleese/strong: mature; less funny than he used to be; well-practised at divorce for when the time comes./ppstrongPrince Andrew/strong: real-life royal; likes the jet-set lifestyle; comes with Fergie thrown in for free, so she could have a new best friend, too./ppstrongMichael Jackson/strong: could discuss music; has similar interests in regular changes of appearance, religion, etc; would not find her weird./ppWe will not countenance anything connected to Britney Spears (that was just a kiss) or David Banda's father, who is far too sensible to want anything to do with her. Over to you./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/madonna"Madonna/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/celebrity"Celebrity/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Lifeandstylecountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227295035400112119280460919"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Lifeandstylecountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227295035400112119280460919" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

Upon hearing about the suicide of a 13-year-old neighbor, a Missouri woman ordered her business assistant and daughter to delete the Internet account they are accused of using to harass the girl, the assistant testified Thursday.

Hervé Vilard est sain et sauf. Vendredi dernier, le chanteur français a été victim... (2 articles connexes)

[Editor’s warning: many of the links in this story lead back to the original sources of the drama. We've decided not to embed them in-line and thus left it to you to view. Viewing them might be disturbing for some readers. Please be advised.]

In a tragic story from NewTeeVee, we learn that a 19-year-old user of the online live-streaming video service Justin.TV has apparently commit suicide in front of an audience of fellow forum dwellers egging him on during the process. The death has been confirmed with the Broward County medical examiner and the timeline has been pieced together from several different forums that have chronicled the unfortunate series of events.

Most of the participants, as well as the deceased Abraham K. Biggs, were denizens of steroid information forum bodybuilding.com. Biggs, also known as CandyJunkie on the forum and Feels Like Ecstasy on Justin.TV, is alleged to have been a “well known troll” on the forum. He created a thread in the “misc” category yesterday afternoon detailing the amount of drugs he’s going to take with the intention to kill himself.

The moderators of the forum didn’t take his threats seriously “on account of his past trolling,” and other forum members continue to egg him on. At that point, Biggs posted his suicide note, which conveyed a general sense of depression and disappointment with life, not necessarily motivated by any hardship or cyber-bullying he may have received online.

At that point, Biggs turned on his Justin.TV channel, took the pills and laid down to go to sleep on his bed. After an unspecified amount of time, one forum member in particular from India became concerned by Biggs’ lack of movement and hunted down the actual name and location. He then pleaded with the forum to call the Miami-Dade police department, but was met with cynical replies declining to intervene on account of his “troll status.”

After several unsuccessful emails by the forum member to Miami-Dade police, he borrowed his father’s mobile and spoke to a number of policemen who didn’t take the call seriously, but directed him to the Broward County Sheriff’s Department.

Approximately an hour later, BSO and paramedics arrived on the scene and after quickly confirming his status, covered the camera.

This Isn’t a Result of Cyber Bullying, but the Behavior is No Less Atrocious.

We’re no stranger to covering suicides that take place with a large social component, and as chilling as it may be, this sort of thing will cease to be headline news in the future and actually be regarded as commonplace.

In 2004, students of Japanese culture were shocked to learn of online suicide clubs amongst the youth there. Over the the summer, I covered here at Mashable a series of suicides that were highly documented by virtue of their Bebo pages.

Children and young people committing suicide is not new.  Doing it in full view of the public by virtue of their social networking profiles or even live on camera as with Biggs is. This is simply a side-effect of our always on culture.

It’s easy to look for bad people or the misbehaved as scapegoats, and in this particular instance, there is plenty of blame to go around.  A screen capture of the chat room next to Biggs’ camera shows a shocking disregard for his feelings and of human life in general. Those of us who’ve been denizens of the Internet for any length of time know this is nothing new.

Events such as this are bait for politicians and empathetic impetus for well-meaning citizens alike to come together with righteous fury for social change and try to either pass a law or convict a suspect to “right the wrong,” “find justice,” and “prevent it from occurring again.”

I won’t pretend to know the pain of Biggs’ family, or any other family of a suicide victim, but as I said in the aftermath of the Bebo Suicide Cult, technology isn’t the demon here, only a conduit for the symptoms. It is the portal that can allow us assist our loved ones and perhaps spot a tragedy like this some distance off. Social media and social networking is meant to facilitate real live human interaction, which in the case of the depressed and suicidal can be what the doctor ordered.

---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:

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You Can Be on Justin.tv Too!
The Justin.tv “Sex Tape”
Latest Justin.tv Channel Launched in Bay Area
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PodShow Sees Success of Live 24/7 Programming
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divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/21685?ns=guardianpageName=Comment+is+free%3A+Gaunty%2C+you+were+rightch=Comment+is+freec3=The+Guardianc4=BNP+and+the+far+right%2CPoliticsc5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Mark+Lawsonc7=2008_11_21c8=1121545c9=articlec10=GUc11=Comment+is+freec12=blogc13=c14=Comment+is+freeh2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" //divpIt seems fairly unlikely that Jon Gaunt reads the Guardian. And, if he does, I would worry about the effect on the rightwing shock jock's blood pressure of the words he will read now. His sacking from TalkSport this week was a wrong and deeply worrying act, and it makes me think Gaunt may have been right in one of the favourite riffs of his Sun column and radio show: that Britain has gone barmy and is becoming a dictatorship of liberal opinion./ppThe systolic readings of Gaunty, as he likes to be called, may be even more at risk from the revelation that a commentator connected with this paper and the BBC - despised HQs of the PC revolution - is also troubled by this week's public exposure of the membership list of the British National party./ppDon't misunderstand this: I wouldn't want to be stuck in a lift with any of them, and have never agreed with anything said by presenter or party. But one of the most delicate judgments in any society is where the line of acceptable behaviour should be drawn, and both of these cases suggest that the boundary is now being marked in the ink of self-righteous idealism./ppThe brutal removal of Gaunt has been overshadowed by the fuss over other broadcasting absences - Jonathan Ross's push, John Sergeant's jump - but is far more significant. A broadcaster known to be outspoken on a station that trades in outrageousness lost his rag, no more or less than he has done a thousand times before, with a local councillor, whom he called a "Nazi" during a discussion about children in care./ppGaunt says that he meant to say "health Nazi" but the distinction is irrelevant. If there were ever libel proceedings the insult would be justified as "vulgar abuse". A career could only be ended over such an innocuous exchange in a culture that had seriously lost its nerve over freedom of expression./ppBut perhaps we have. Many of the people outed this week as BNP members probably are Nazis, metaphorically or actually, but the revelation of their names and addresses exposes the mess of our policies on tolerance. It is legal to belong to the party, or to vote for them, but membership is proscribed for some professions (soldiers, police and prison officers) yet not for others (doctors, nurses, teachers). Educational unions have called for the restrictions to be widened but, if this were to happen, logic suggests that the BNP should be banned, which would be controversial (and anti-democratic) but at least more coherent./ppAlthough the outcry over Ross and Brand is largely responsible for Gaunt losing his job, it is a distraction in this debate: no definition of free expression should include the right to invade people's privacy for entertainment. But the Gaunt and BNP incidents raise the fundamental question of the limits of free speech./ppThe point is that sacking shock jocks and demonising political parties are cosmetic measures. Banning attitudes removes them from view, but not from existence. Any politician who has campaigned in inner cities will tell you that both Labour and Tories have long had voters who are, frankly, racist. The one advantage of the rise of the BNP was that it became easier to measure, in elections, the numerical level of extremist opinion. But, now that the security of the membership list has been breached, such rumblings will be harder to calculate./ppToday, with the latest stage of the BBC inquiry into Granddaughtergate, we will discover if the risk has increased that Rossy will suffer a Gaunty. The mood for removal from Radio 2 (but continuation on TV) seems to be growing, and it would surprise me if he still has his current wireless slot in six months./ppMany would be pleased by this outcome, as they would also cheer the dismissal of Gaunt and the fact that we now know where BNP supporters live. But, taken together, these events suggest an emergency, but cack-handed, sanitisation of attitudes - an emergency carpet-sweeping exercise with a broom that hits some bits while missing others. A broadcaster loses his job for saying "Nazi", while those who hold extremist views on immigration are allowed to teach children but not go to war./ppThese ideological contradictions would make a good Gaunty phone-in, had he not become a victim of the silly view that a society that looks and sounds nicer has actually become nicer./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/bnp-far-right"BNP and the far right/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Commentisfreecountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727878112100421654622"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Commentisfreecountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727878112100421654622" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

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pPiracy on the high seas is making a comeback this year, particularly off the coast of the African nation Somalia, where raiders are using increasingly more powerful and sophisticated technologies to attack ships and hold their crew and cargo for ransom. Technology makers are hoping to come to the rescue with ultra-loud sound systems, electrified guardrails and other gadgets designed to help shippers avoid becoming the next victim. a href=http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=as-somali-pirates-step-up-attacks-s-2008-11-20[More]/a

Category: br / Size: 86.11 MBbr / Status: 1 seeders and no leecherbr / Speed: no trafficbr / Added: 2008-11-20 21:33:56

Yugo (now a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zastava"Zastava/a), the icon of a href="http://www.trekearth.com/themes.php?thid=3635"Soviet-era automaking/a, rolled out its a href="http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/for-yugo-a-place-of-eternal-rust-er-rest/?hp"last car/a on November 11th, 2008, a victim of the global financial crisis. The Kragujevac plant, having endured political crises and a href="http://www.marxist.com/Europe/zastava.html"NATO bombs/a, has finally been a href="http://www.examiner.com/x-572-Auto-Review-Examiner~y2008m11d17-The-Last-Yugo-Zastava-Automobili-says-Goodby-no-more"sold to Fiat/a. smalla href="http://www.metafilter.com/64535/From-Time-to-You-the-50-worst-automobiles"Previously/a./small br /