Good morning and welcome to another addition of the Saturday Morning Home Repair blog where we talk shop regarding all those broken odds and ends of things piling up around the house and/or improvements some actually endeavor to do by choice.

This week will be a bit special- most of the normal crew is out in the field (look for Spud1 to be live blogging from the Maine Democratic Convention) and I unfortunately can't stick around throughout the day, so, once again, this will be a community effort until we can jump in with whatever expertise is needed.

So, lets get started. I'll put on some of the old fair trade Swedish stuff I normally have, maybe even find some pastries since it is after all 6-10 hours ahead of ya'll in my part of Europe.

(Requisite Pandalicious pootie pic)

Both CNN and Al Jazeera are reporting an explosion at a mosque in Shiraz as of about 30 minutes ago, at 6 pm gmt+3.30.

Not a great deal of information is in at the moment, so updates will most likely follow.

UPDATE: It's now past midnight, GMT+1 in Stockholm, and at this point there is relatively no new information except a count of nine dead and 105 wounded.

I'll be turning in, but if anyone would like to monitor the situation further, perhaps one could begin an UPDATE comment and post beneath it.

Good morning Kossacks and welcome to the thirty-first addition of our weekly home repair blog. Our beloved Claude will be out this afternoon bluifying New Mexico and maybe he'll drop in now and again.

It is also yet another gray day in Stockholm, the 625th or so this fall/winter/spring-ish season and we still have not had any significant snowfall in a long time. Though, my weather widget predict some snow today and this coming week, it's predictability is often off by a bit, still perhaps better than our local weathermen and women- still utilizing those silly cartoonish maps. Correction, I see a few snowflakes outside now.

At any rate, welcome to the virtual table where we gather and chat about home repair Q and A, meta, or whatever is on your mind. By the dictates of tradition, the fair trade coffee is waiting, with fair trade sugar too, some ultra lefty organic Swedish milk too, (mea gulpa- I forgot to by either soy or wheat milk, well not really, I'm back on the cow, for a while at least.)

Morning Kossaks,

While searching around online, I just found that Noam Chomsky's Massey Lecture titled Necessary Illusions is now online as an mp3.

This piece has been an invaluable work with regard to understanding the world as we know it, on how it is presented to us through media, by the MSM, propaganda and persuasion. And while we endeavor to make sense of the intentions of the MSM and engrain another instance into our cerebral cortex where we have been either misled or lied to, trying to make sense of it all- that work has already been done. Please listen, save, bookmark, send to friends and family, and spread the word to other Kossaks- it is that important and offers more understanding than we will ever get from our media.

Good morning guys and gals, it is time, once again, for our weekly installment of home repair talk!

(disclaimer, this is what Stockholm would look like today if global warming wasn't here. I did take the image a few years ago on a luckily clear day. notice people walking on the ice.)

G'morn all!

Looks like a great morning on this wonderful planet, which has not fully yet been tainted by Bush, or nuked by temporary prez Nutzi Cheney...

The usual gang is out and about, as will I from time to time as I get ready for a summer trip to the Swedish countryside. So, as always, this is a community effort and we'll rely our collective grey cells to solve whatever home repair issue you have, want to have, or...

I'll put the coffee on- some really good stuff I bought in Paris last week, so, please join us below the fold.

     Good Morning Kossacks, I'll be hosting this edition of the SMHRB as your much loved host is away.

And, seeing as how this weeks addition's is coming to you live from Sweden, I thought I'd add to this week's blog by showing ya'll a little bit of the local color as Midsummer was celebrated in Europe yesterday.

As usual, this is where we gather to discuss home repair, community, and whatever floats, sinks, leaks your boat, viking ship, home is on your mind. Välkommen!!!

In an historic vote late in the evening on Tuesday, June 19, the New York State Assembly approved legislation guaranteeing marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples.

The measure was approved by a vote of 85 to 61 after a floor debate that lasted more than three hours. Four Republicans joined 81 Democrats in supporting the bill. The nays included 38 Republicans and 23 Democrats.

The marriage equality legislation was introduced by Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer on April 27, and sponsored in the Assembly by Daniel O'Donnell, an Upper West Side Democrat. O'Donnell and his partner John Banta were among the plaintiffs denied marriage rights in a ruling last July by New York's highest court.

Get ready to laugh...

The Swedish Press is reporting tonight that Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after being found tied up in his own garden, with "a number of sex toys around him. The man was noticably drunk and found with a muzzle." the article states.

It continues with the 'this isn't consistent with a diplomat's mission' b.s. from a spokesman and a bit of history on other unflattering Israeli diplomatic behavior like a 2000 incident where the ambassador to France died of a heart attack in a Paris hotel with a woman who was not his wife.

Other incidents included a change in diplomats to Australia following some condescending remarks regarding Asians and an apointee who had been downloading porn while stationed in Brazil.

Good morning all! Claude is out this a.m and asked me to take over the blog for the part of the day.

... and in the tradition of the great Claude... It is a wonderful morning here in Stockholm, we've finally been getting the snowy New Mexico weather of a month or so ago and it had been snowing up until last night or so in that peaceful day-dreaming stare out of the window sort of way. As the daylight hours are slowly increasing, the whiteness of the snowy sky was all the brighter. However, the -14C/6.7F temps were getting too annoying and it is now just a tad below freezing... and apparantly getting warmer...

The New York Times is reporting this morning that Iraq's Oil Law is close to completion and has some info on how the law looks so far.

The draft law would also radically restructure parts of Iraq’s state-controlled and often lethargic oil industry by giving wide independence — possibly leading to eventual privatization — to the government companies that control things like oil exports, the maintenance of pipelines and the operation of the oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.

Perhaps the MSM decided to bury this, but the Swedish paper Svenska Dagbladet is reporting that Gates has said that we are "... staying in the Middle East" and that, (translating from the article which appears to be a loose quote:)

The US has increased its military presence in the Persian Gulf. The intention is to make clear for countries in the region that the US will play a role there for a long time to come, says the new defense minister Robert Gates.

So much for the democracy of a democracy exporting country...

continued below...

Sorry for the late notice, but since the b-day diary has fallen off the charts and there were a few of you, us, who expressed an interest in pitching in for something special for Meteor Blades 60th b-day, MB has suggested we could make a donation to the Native American Rights Fund.

A bit of text from the front page of the website:

Celebrating 35 years of standing firm for justice.

Founded in 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is the oldest and largest nonprofit law firm dedicated to asserting and defending the rights of Indian tribes, organizations and individuals nationwide.

NARF’s practice is concentrated in five key areas: the preservation of tribal existence; the protection of tribal natural resources; the promotion of Native American human rights; the accountability of governments to Native Americans; and the development of Indian law and educating the public about Indian rights, laws, and issues.

Our work depends solely upon the generosity of donors like you. Please make a secure online donation today.

...and with the striking of the clock, midnight GMT+1, November the 28th 2006 begins in my little slice of Europe.

Our Meteor Blades is 60, as indicated by the title, and I'd like to say happy birthday!

In an article out of the Houston Chronicle today, U.S. to accept all but one of Iran's nuclear work requests, the US apparantly makes the biggest about face in ME policy to date- supporting Iran's nuclear initiative:

VIENNA, AUSTRIA — The United States said Monday it would accept Iran's request for U.N. aid on seven nuclear projects but urged the International Atomic Energy Agency to deny assistance for a plutonium-producing reactor that can be used to make a bomb.

Whether or not this includes enrichment it does not say.

One has to wonder how much power we have in leveraging the UN, (if we, in fact, actually don't run the damn thing,) considering this global about face...

More below...

UPDATE explained below too.

Dear Kos,

As it has been discussed regarding advertising and the direction of this site, I think this ad is going way too far:

To me, this appears to be propaganda that could get us into another war, at a time when so many of us are concerned for our troops, concerned for Iraqis and others in the ME, concered for our country, etc, etc...

This should be one of the last things ever brought into this site, it is, after all, right wing poison posted right at the top of our community, is it not?

please, anything but this.

Just a head's up: the Saddam verdict is expected tomorrow. No telling how or if it will be spun, but it should be on our radars as there has not been much anticipation of the event in the press, which may give the impression that the proceedings were an Iraqi affair as opposed to an American spectacle.

The second one is more tinfoily, but Haaretz reported last night that Areil Sharon's condition has worsened. Back a few months ago on one of those 'guess the October Surprise' diaries I made the prediction that this specific event, done like the Reagan funeral, would give a huge boost to the GOP and quite possibly the War on Terror, which, conincidently, we've been hearing more about Iran and Syria in the news in the past few days....  

Some news snips below...

Ok Kossacks! Before you go crazy with the new piece in the NYTimes you need to be asking more questions before you jump the shark on this one- this is, after all Judy Miller's newspaper, and it looks like she's writting under a pseudonym now:

Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing, that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. One diplomat said the agency's technical experts "were shocked" at the public disclosures.

How does this not set of flags for us? We've been through this before!