We've Moved

We hit our five year anniversary this past weekend and it's been a nice run here.

Now we'll be blogging at a new home. Be sure to bookmark and update any links if you've been so kind to link us in the past.

A feed is available here as well as a new Twitter link.

This site will still live on but all new content will be at the new place, where we'll have feature posts, blog items, headlines and links to other sites around the blogosphere.

Thanks to John E. for helping to get things up and running and thanks to everyone who's visited and linked since we started up back in November 2006.

OWS Animals Getting Free Healthcare

No, not the two-legged animals.

Dogged supporters of Occupy Wall Street are getting some free medical care — thanks to volunteer veterinarians at Zuccotti Park.

Protesters’ pets - including pooches, cats and rats - can receive check-ups once a week from a ragtag band of animal caretakers doling out shots and deworming and flea treatments.

They may want to also deworm and delouse the protesters.

A supporter of the Occupy movement, Barksy said he started volunteering when he saw a need man’s best friends were among the 99% protesting at the park.

"I supported OWS right from the beginning," he said. "On the second night I realized there were a lot of animals here. I figured the best way I could participate would be giving my skills."

New York Democrat Yanks Nude Photos Off His Website: 'How Do You Trust Someone Who Posts Naked Pictures of Himself on the Internet?'

What's the deal with these weirdo Democrats who feel they need to post lewd photos of themselves? OK, this guy says they're art photos, but really, who wants to look at this stuff? Didn't he at least pause to think after the Anthony Weiner fiasco?

Monroe County Legislator Stephen Eckel abruptly removed two nude photos of himself from a personal website on Friday after being questioned about them by a television reporter.

Eckel, 46, a Democrat from Rochester in the midst of a re-election campaign, said in a phone interview that he took the photos of himself in 2000 as a student at the Visual Studies Workshop while working on a master of fine arts degree at The College at Brockport. He received the degree a year later.

The sepia-toned photos, taken with a wide lens at an elevated angle, were full frontal nude shots of Eckel, but were not sexual in nature. He described them as art.

They were part of a portfolio of Eckel's from that time that he said he showcased on the Internet to find photography work and jobs teaching photography. He has periodically taught photography at local colleges since then.

Eckel said he had never been questioned about the appropriateness of the photos until today, when he was contacted by a reporter from 13WHAM-TV, who had learned of the photos from the Monroe County Republican Committee.

"This is nothing more than a Republican stooping to a new low in order to distract the public from the real issues facing Monroe County taxpayers," Eckel said. "These were taken 10 years ago as part of a portfolio that helped me earn a master's of fine arts. Clearly, they have nothing to do with my service in my district."

Eckel said he removed the photos because they would "deflect attention from the true issues of the campaign." Asked if he would post them again after the campaign, he said that would be something he would have to consider.

Tony Micciche, who is challenging Eckel for the seat in the 26th District — which covers parts of Rochester, Gates and Greece — said such photos, even as artistic works, show poor judgment.

"How do you trust someone who posts naked pictures of himself on the Internet?" Micciche asked. "He's an elected official. He should be held to a higher standard."

The New York Post has one of the shots here.

Update: Also posted at the new and improved JWF.

'I’m Like a Celebrity Back Home'

Like most of the Occupy Wall Street freaks, this guy is completely delusional.

Henry Perkins is giving Occupy Wall Street the old college try.

The 21-year-old University of Alabama junior has been earning college credits while living in the open-air, crime-riddled frat house of Zuccotti Park.

“I asked my professors and they said to go for it,” Perkins told the Daily News. “They’re living vicariously through me.”

“I learned a lot here,” added Perkins, who arrived in New York by train carrying only a computer, toothbrush, cell phone, some books and a tarp. “I realized that I never want to be in any system, and you can make it work.”

Since joining the protest against corporate excess three weeks ago, Perkins said he’s become the big man on Alabama’s campus while camping out 900 miles away.

He Skypes into class twice a week, listening to lectures and giving students colorful updates from the epicenter of the global movement. And he regularly checks in with his professors.

“I’m like a celebrity back home,” Perkins said.

Even his parents support his odd curriculum. Perkins’ proud mom said she has no problem with her son’s $8,600 in-state tuition being devoted to his immersive research project on Occupy Wall Street.

“I’m sure he’ll learn more in two weeks in New York than in two years in college,” said Danielle Juzan, of Mobile, Ala., who acknowledged that she’s still “worried sick” about her son.

“What impressed us the most was the fact that he was able to negotiate this with his professors.”

His folks impress easily. Imagine how they'll feel if this tool ever manages to get a job.

'If This Had Completely Gone South, He Was in a Position to Disavow'

Isn't it great being able to have it both ways?

Maybe it’s the fog of war.

Chuck Pfarrer, a former SEAL Team Six assault-element commander, raises serious questions about the official story of Osama bin Laden’s takedown in his new book, “Seal Target Geronimo.”

“The further I got away from the Beltway, the more accurate information I got,” he said.

Pfarrer says it only took the SEALs 90 to 120 seconds -- from landing to the firing the final shot -- to take out bin Laden, far shorter than other accounts have claimed.

He says the forces entered the compound on the third floor via the roof, not from the ground as the official version has said.

And the SEALs never said, “For God and country,” when they shot bin Laden dead.

President Obama’s role, too, was largely inflated.

He was out playing golf only 20 minutes before the raid began.

“If this had completely gone south, he was in a position to disavow,” Pfarrer claimed.

Just imagine how quickly he'd have thrown these guys under the bus. Instead he goes around using bin Laden's death as a campaign tool.

More here.