Family at Camp Casey w/ daughter in LA needs your help! (Please Read!)

Buddy Spell (aka Dylan Garcia) is one of Cindy Sheehan's lawyers. He and his wife are here at Camp Casey helping to make this action as smooth as possible.

When they left Louisiana they left their 7-year old daughter, Sarah, with a friend in Washington Parish. (In LA, counties are called "Parishes")

Due to the hurricane, they have lost all contact with their friend and they fear the worst. The Spells are frantic for solid information about the state of Washington Parrish or their daughter.

If you have solid information about what is going on in Washington Parrish, please call 612-578-0130. This is the cell-phone number of Alex, a close friend of the Spells. I have full permission from the family, mods and Admins to post this personal information.

The reason I have to post a telephone number is because internet access out of Camp Casey is spotty at best. Due to the nature of this emergency, he can't spend time monitoring his PM box and emails.

Please keep this thread kicked. I will post in this thread when we have the information we need.

Do not call the number unless you have solid, first hand information about the state of Washinton Parrish or Sarah Spell.

ON EDIT: If you have a blog, feel free to post the above information on your site.

Institutional Racism Alive And Well

George Bush's Day VS Reality

Man Drops F-inheimer On Fox News

quote[SHEPARD SMITH: You’re live on FOX News Channel, what are you doing?

MAN: Walking my dogs.

SMITH: Why are you still here? I’m just curious.

MAN: None of your fucking business.

SMITH: Oh that was a good answer, wasn’t it? That was live on international television. Thanks so much for that. You know we apologize.]

Man, I so hope I someday get interviewed by the asshats at Fox.

Messing With Mother Nature

quote[But wouldn't you know, the biggest dittohead on the block, Rush Limbaugh, is calling the storm Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel and warning that the left is going to use this tragedy against the right. Jonah Goldberg, who has never seen a bad joke bandwagon he could resist jumping on with both feet, blogged, and I quote, "It would be pretty cool if Fox played to caricature and repeatedly referred to the hurricane as Katrina vanden Heuvel." Not satisfied, he went on to imagine the headlines, "The destruction from Katrina vanden Heuvel is expected to be massive...The poor and disabled are particularly likely to suffer from the effects of Katrina vanden Heuvel."]

Rush has no shame, does he?

Just This Year: Bush Refused To Expand New Orleans Hurricane Protection

quote[The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified millions of dollars in flood and hurricane protection projects in the New Orleans district.

Chances are, though, most projects will not be funded in the president's 2006 fiscal year budget to be released today.]

Another one of Bush's bad ideas coming back to bite us on the ass.

Louisiana National Guard troops watch Katrina from Iraq

quote[More than 3,000 members of the Louisiana National Guard’s 256th Brigade serving in Iraq can only watch from Baghdad as Hurricane Katrina bears down on their families and homes in New Orleans and the other south Louisiana communities from which they hail. The deployed soldiers and their equipment, which includes high water vehicles, Humvees and generators, will be sorely missed as Louisiana attempts to prepare for and recover from the historic Category Five storm.]

This is yet another reason why we shouldn't be abusing our National Guard for wars of aggression.

US sniper kills Reuters soundman in Iraq

quote["American soldiers opened fire on the team, killing the soundman and wounding the cameraman before detaining him," the police said..."His US military and Reuters press cards, clipped to his shirt, were caked in blood. In one, there were two bullet holes," it said.]

You can target the goddamned face, but not see the press badge????

WTF???

Do you think assasination of foreign heads of state is ever acceptable as U.S. Policy?

This is in response to my Pat Robertson thread, in which I misunderstood a reader and acted completely innapropriately.

Please add your thoughts to the comments of that thread (or here if you prefer).

Family Terrorized After Fox News Wrongly IDs Them As Terrorists

quote[A couple whose home was wrongly identified on national television as belonging to an Islamic radical has faced harassment, and police are providing special protection.

After the report ran on Fox News on Aug. 7, people have shouted profanities at Randy and Ronnell Vorick and spray-painted "terrorist" (spelling it "terrist") on their property.

"I'm scared to go to work and leave my kids home. I call them every 30 minutes to make sure they're OK," Randy Vorick said. John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor who appears on the Fox News segment "Inside Scoop with John Loftus," gave out the house address during the broadcast.]

Yep, FOX is family friendly alright.

Cindy Back At Camp Casey, Day 18

quote[The most emotional thing for me though was walking through the main tent and seeing the huge painting on canvas of Casey. Many things hit me all at once: That this huge movement began because of Casey's sacrifice; thousands, if not millions of people know about Casey and how he lived his life and the wrongful way in which he was killed; but the thing that hit me the hardest was how much I miss him. I miss him more everyday. It seems the void in my life grows as time goes on and I realize I am never going to see him again or hear his voice. In addition to all this, the portrait is so beautiful and moving and it captures Casey's spirit so well. I sobbed and sobbed. I was surrounded by photographers, I looked around until I finally found a friendly face, then the news people crushed in on me and I couldn't breathe. I didn't mean to have such a dramatic re-entrance to Camp Casey, but the huge portrait of Casey really surprised me.]

Longhair, if you make it back this weekend, please post more pictures!

One hundred thousand Shi'ites protest Iraq charter

quote[A hundred thousand Iraqis across the country marched on Friday in support of a maverick Shi'ite cleric opposed to a draft constitution that U.S.-backed government leaders say will deliver a brighter future.]

Iraq is sinking ever so quickly into the chaos of Civil War.

Bush's Obscene Tirades Rattle White House Aides

quote[“I’m not meeting again with that goddamned bitch,” Bush screamed at aides who suggested he meet again with Cindy Sheehan, the war-protesting mother whose son died in Iraq. “She can go to hell as far as I’m concerned!”]

Is he losing what little brains he had??

White House Denies Bush On Vacation

quote[Almacy said the reason that Bush is in Crawford, Texas, is due to the renovation of the West Wing of the White House.

"He's operating on a full schedule; he's just doing it from the ranch instead of from the White House,' Almacy said. "The only week he had officially off was this last week.']

Apparently, they renovate the west wing every year, at the same time, for about five weeks.

McCain Backs Intelligent Design

quote[On Tuesday, though, he sided with the president on two issues that have made headlines recently: teaching intelligent design in schools and Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who has come to personify the anti-war movement.

McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.

The theory of intelligent design says life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and that a higher power must have had a hand in guiding it.]

Another reason to lose respect for him...

Did Pat Robertson Make Money On Chavez Threat?

quote["What's interesting to note," Martin continues, "is that a fund that Robertson is a large investor in, one of the deep offshore Smart Republicn Money trading pools, was a substantial purchaser of the Sep long bond and dollar contract indexes last night (Aug 22) just before he made those remarks.]

Interesting. Is it now time to fit him with an electronic ankle bracelet?

Bush says anti-war protests threaten to weaken the United States

quote[Bill Moyer, 73, wears a "Bullshit Protector" flap over his ear while President George W. Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)]

LOL! The picture is priceless.

The Latest Attempt To Stifle The Sheehan Protest

quote[Despite the threat of a civil rights lawsuit, a divided McLennan County Commissioners Court took the first step Tuesday in regulating traffic on more than seven miles of roadways around President Bush's Crawford ranch.]

They're grasping at straws here, folks.

Demand Your Data! Exercise The Right To Your Travel Records Held By The TSA

quote[Are you curious what kind of information the U.S. government has collected about you to test their Secure Flight passenger screening system? Want to find out whether the system works? Did you fly in the U.S. during June 2004? Four Alaskans sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) yesterday to find out what happened to their travel data.

In direct violation of the Privacy Act, TSA has collected over 100 million records from commercial data providers to test Secure Flight. If your records are contained in this database, you have a right to obtain them. What would happen if thousands of people requested their TSA travel records every day?]

But, does requesting this information automatically flag you as a terrorist?

UTAH RAVERS TREATED LIKE TERRORISTS!

quote[At about 11:30 or so, I was standing behind the stage talking with someone when I noticed a helicopter pulling over one of the mountain tops. I jokingly said "Oh look, here comes big brother" to the person I was with. I wasn't far off.]

WTF?!!! They had all the permits required. From what I've read, there was concern that some of the party goers might be organizing a protest against Bush (who just so happened to be in Utah).

Chilling Video Here.

Pat Robertson Calls For Assassination Of Hugo Chavez

quote["You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."]

Now, that is truly Christian!

Ron Jeremy: Too Much Sex Is a Bad Thing, For Cats

quote[Recently, Ron proved that he's a big man when it comes to small animals by taking a break from his daily grind to pose for a new PETA ad promoting spaying and neutering. In the tongue-in-cheek ad, the Surreal Life star lies naked on a bed, with the tagline “Too much sex can be a bad thing. Help end overpopulation—spay and neuter your dogs and cats.”]

P.P.S. (Pre.P.S. This is not pornographic, but I wouldn't watch it at work - anything involving Ron Jeremy and you should know better).

Okay, I am all for spaying and neutering, but this is convincing me that this policy should extend to humans.

Hypocrites and Liars - By Cindy Sheehan

quote[I got an email the other day and it said, "Cindy if you didn't use so much profanity ... there's people on the fence that get offended.

And you know what I said? "You know what? You know what, god damn it? How in the world is anybody still sitting on that fence?

If you fall on the side that is pro-George and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against this war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out. I got an email the other day and it said, "Cindy if you didn't use so much profanity ... there's people on the fence that get offended.

And you know what I said? "You know what? You know what, god damn it? How in the world is anybody still sitting on that fence?

If you fall on the side that is pro-George and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against this war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out.]

Ohio Democrats Mull Governor Impeachment

quote[House Minority Leader Chris Redfern said Sunday that Democrats had made no decision yet about whether to seek Taft's ouster — impeachment would be difficult if not impossible with Republicans controlling both houses of the Legislature.]

I just don't see this happening.

Another Reason To Hate Comcast

Note: Full article follows below, since the Tribune is subscription based.

Customer Disservice

Published August 18, 2005

It's not hard to commiserate with LaChania Govan's complaints about Comcast. The 25-year-old Elgin woman said that when she called to complain about persistent problems with her digital recording system, she was put on hold, disconnected, even transferred to the Spanish language line. (Note to Comcast: She doesn't speak Spanish.)

We've all had similar experiences, not necessarily with Comcast. When we call a company to complain about a balky DSL line or a cable box or some other technological marvel turned nightmare, we expect prompt and expert service. Instead, we sometimes end up in a circle of hell that even Dante couldn't have imagined.

Oh, the customer service rep is perfectly polite. And also perfectly unhelpful. The rep may be robotic, reading from a script and unable or unwilling to improvise. He or she may just be clueless. Who among us hasn't at times raised his or her voice a fraction on such calls, if only to register the frustration and exasperation that comes from describing a problem over and over again but finding precious little relief?

Even if tempers flare, the reps are trained not to retaliate, not to stoop to yelling or name-calling, even if the customer does. But you have to wonder, what do they say about us after the phone call ends? Well, we have a little better idea about that, thanks to Govan's experience.

After the aforementioned problems forced her to make dozens of calls to the cable company in July, her August bill arrived. In place of her name were these words: Bitch Dog.

Someone, somewhere enjoyed a few days of snickering about payback. But that ended Wednesday when the company apologized to Govan and said it was "appalled" by her treatment. The company said two customer service employees have been fired. Smart move.

The same thing happened in another incident, this one involving a Peoples Energy customer named Jefferoy Barnes, 44, of Maywood. Seems Barnes received four pieces of mail from the company that included the words "scrotum bag" in the line with his name. Barnes said he couldn't recall any interaction with company employees that could have prompted the slur. But the company says it has traced the problem and the employee responsible is being fired.

Rudeness and coarseness have become ingrained in too many of our daily exchanges. No doubt customer service reps could tell more than a few stories about harsh treatment by their customers too.

So, just a gentle reminder. On the phone, over the fence, in traffic, at the store ... be civil, please.

Clinton Envoy urged Osama's expulsion before 9/11

quote[A year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a U.S. diplomat assured a top official of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime that international sanctions on that country would be lifted if it expelled Osama bin Laden, newly declassified documents show.]

This for all the neandercons who like to blame everything on Clinton (still).

Former aide: Powell WMD speech 'lowest point in my life'

quote[A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.]

Was it any surprise that Powell didn't stay on for a second term?

[DIS]APPROVAL RATING FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH

SORTED ALPHBETICALLY BY STATE

He's going down, down, down...

Those Damned Talking Heads

Okay, so I just spent about an hour flipping between the major cable news channels (with at least twenty minutes devoted to Faux news-you know the crew, Insanity and Colmes, Gretta Van Something) and all I heard about was the following:

1) The BTK killer and how horrible a person he is (like I didn't already know).

2) The minuteman project (Insanity was camping there on-site); as if I hadn't already heard enough of the right wing innacuracies on this subject.

3) Again with the Aruba girl. Folks, and I hate to be so insensitive here, this is old news. Besides, I've been to Aruba and it is a very small island. If they haven't found her by now, then trust me, she's shark food. At least give airtime to the thousands of other American children that go missing each year.

So, what is new, you might ask? Why am I pissed off enough to rant? The answer is simple.

Cindy Sheehan.

Tonight, in my small state (CT), thousands of people came out at candlelight vigils (in every corner of the state) in support of this brave woman and her cause (ending our emperialistic war of aggression). I'd be highly, no, extremely surprised if this wasn't similar across the board and across the nation.

So why isn't it being played on the mainstream media? Why are they so scared of stories that are negative to the Bush whitehouse?

Thinking back to the Downing street memos, the editor of the Hartford Courant (the oldest surviving newspaper in this country) expressed puzzlement to me as to why that story was being negated, even in the opinion pages. Yet, when I offered a piece to her, I was summarily ignored and cut off from future communications.

Why is the media afraid of providing the real stories, of providing the important news? Why are they afraid to be critical of our administration?

To be sure, this certainly is not what our founding fathers had in mind when they came up with the idea of a free press.

Is anybody listening? Does anyone really care?

Peace..

Texas Marine told he's not state resident, must pay higher tuition

quote[Texas A decorated Marine doesn't qualify as a Texas resident any more because of the time he spent serving in Iraq.
That's what Carl Basham says officials told him when he tried to enroll in Austin Community College.

He's registered to vote in Texas, has a Texas driver's license and does his banking there. But he says officials told him that's not enough to qualify him for the lower tuition Texas residents pay.

That means he'd have to pay around 26-hundred dollars a semester in tuition, instead of about 500 dollars.

Basham did two tours of duty in Iraq.]

That's a good way to repay our soldiers.

Promising News For Bush: Scottish Scientists Grow Pure Human Brain Cells

quote[Human brain cells have been grown artificially in the laboratory in a world first for Scottish scientists. A team at Edinburgh University managed to turn embryonic stem cells into stable nerve stem cells used in the brain by adding a cocktail of chemicals.]

Seriously, this is exactly why the US government SHOULD be funding stem cell research.

Bush brings in an Iraqi ringer (again)

quote[THE VOICE OF AMERICA IS AN INTELLIGENCE OPERATION. IT IS SET UP TO BROADCAST AND "REPORT" PROPOGANDA. UNDER THE SMITH-MUNDT ACT OF 1948 IT IS ILLEGAL FOR VOA REPORTS AND BROADCAST INFO TO BE DISSEMINATED TO THE U.S. Why? Because the U.S. government isn't supposed to lie and spread propoganda to its own people.]

One more reason Rove must go...

CT Likes To Fuck With Its Citizens

quote[ Those who believe in the adage "when it rains, it pours" might take the tale of the plaintiffs in Kelo v. New London as a cue to buy two of every animal and a load of wood from Home Depot. The U.S. Supreme Court recently found that the city's original seizure of private property was constitutional under the principal of eminent domain, and now New London is claiming that the affected homeowners were living on city land for the duration of the lawsuit and owe back rent. It's a new definition of chutzpah: Confiscate land and charge back rent for the years the owners fought confiscation.

In some cases, their debt could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Moreover, the homeowners are being offered buyouts based on the market rate as it was in 2000.]

What the fuck??? I seriously hope the fucking judges who deemed this constitutional get their Goddamned houses taken away too.

Seriously, if you live in CT (oh, wait, the supreme court made this national, didn't it?), please write your state reps and senators about this. We cannot allow this to go on!

Scientists aim for lab-grown meat

quote[Developments in tissue engineering mean that cells taken from animals could be grown directly into meat in a laboratory, the researchers say.

Scientists believe the technology already exists to directly grow processed meat like a chicken nugget.]

Perhaps I will one day eat a steak?

OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS SCHOOL BOARD

quote[Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.]

I'm convinced.

(Even if you don't read the whole letter, make sure to scroll down to the graphs).

What Fox News Channel Would Have Done to Rosa Parks

quote[O'Reilly: "Rosa Parks claims she speaks for all of the African-Americans in the South, but in fact, we have found two African-Americans who say they disagree with her. They say she's just trying to gain publicity and doesn't speak for anyone in her race. They would know, they're black."

Hannity: "Could Rosa Parks be angling for a Senate run? What does she have to gain from her public stand? Coming up next, the incredible story of how this woman might be deceiving the whole country!"



Drudge: "We have found three members of the Parks family who say that Rosa doesn't speak for them. That, in fact, they are very happy with the government of the state of Alabama. The uncle, step-brother-in-law and niece three-times removed all agree that the better route is a dignified, respectful silent deference to authority. Developing ..."

Limbaugh: "We have just found information that before Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus, there were numerous times, she sat in the back of the bus! Ah ha! A flip-flopper!"]

Funny, yet true.

U.S. Lowers Sights On What Can Be Achieved in Iraq

quote[The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.]

I guess this is what Bush meant by, "staying the course?"

The President's Vacation From Reality

quote[George Bush has been listening for too long to
Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condi Rice. He should take a real vacation from the neocon fantasy factory of his misguided aides and sit down with someone who can introduce him to the reality of what is going on in Iraq and the world. The President should meet with Cindy Sheehan. And he should listen to this woman, who has sacrificed more than he or anyone in his inner circle ever has for America.]

Here, Here!!

21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak

quote[Karl Rove
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby
Condoleezza Rice
Stephen Hadley
Andrew Card
Alberto Gonzales
Mary Matalin
Ari Fleischer
Susan Ralston
Israel Hernandez John Hannah
Scott McClellan
Dan Bartlett
Claire Buchan
Catherine Martin
Colin Powell
Karen Hughes
Adam Levine
Bob Joseph
Vice President Dick Cheney
President George W. Bush]

Probe Poses Issue of What Rove Told Bush

quote[Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said the false statement law covers statements made to all members of the executive branch, including the president acting in his official capacity. In contrast, a typical false statement case involves lying to investigators or writing false information on a form to the government.]

So, either Bush was complicit in the Plame affair or Rove lied to him and (again) broke the law. Interesting...

Jack Abramoff Charged With Fraud

quote[The indictment by a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale charges Mr. Abramoff and a business partner with conspiracy and wire fraud in the $147.5 million purchase of the shipping line, SunCruz Casinos, in 2000. They are accused of presenting lenders with a counterfeit document suggesting that they had arranged a $23 million wire transfer to the seller.]

It's about time.

Warming Hits 'Tipping Point'

quote[Siberia feels the heat It's a frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined, contains billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas and, for the first time since the ice age, it is melting]

This is some scary shit. We really need to rethink our pollution/energy policies NOW.

Planting The Seeds For Another Military Quagmire

quote[US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said weapons from Iran have been found in Iraq.]

'nuff said.

NOVAK JOINS CAST OF ‘DEADWOOD’

quote[In the next episode, while being fellated by a prostitute, Novak’s character will unleash his expletive-laden verbal assault on townsfolk who have questioned his journalistic ethics.]

Ha ha ha!!!

How Much Pork Are You Getting?

quote[Click on a dollar value in the chart below for a complete list of a state's earmarks. You can find each state's total in the final bill (the figures on the left) and each state's total after the House bill passed in March (the figures on the right).]

Data from the Database of Earmarks in Conference Agreement to the Transportation Bill.

Much of this is shamefull waste.

Myers: Possibility of third Iraq tours for active-duty troops 'always out there'

quote[The U.S. military is “good for several years” if the current troop level in Iraq must be sustained, but third tours for active-duty servicemembers might be needed, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday.]

Reading the quotes from Rumsfeld simply reminded me why I hate the arrogant lying prick so much.

Hundreds Of Truckers Protest High Gas Prices

quote["The airlines are charging passengers. The steam ship lines are charging the shippers. Everyone who's got clout is getting a surcharge," said Ron Carver of the Teamsters Union. "But the truck drivers who have to buy their own fuel are going into bankruptcy because they don't have the clout to demand this. So they're here today asking Congress to pass a mandatory fuel surcharge to keep them afloat."]

And yet, Bush thinks this countries economy is in great shape and wants to cut taxes (for the already wealthy, of course).

Jagger Mauls Bush

quote[An extract from "Sweet Neo Con" features the following lines: "You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a patriot, well I think you're full of sh*t."]

S. Korean man dies after 50 hours of computer games

This dude must've been on something. What a freak!

Army Whistleblower Draws Fire

quote[She has asked many questions: Why is Halliburton — a giant Texas firm that holds more than 50 percent of all rebuilding efforts in Iraq — getting billions in contracts without competitive bidding? Do the durations of those contracts make sense? Have there been violations of federal laws regulating how the government can spend its money?]

F-ing ridiculous!

CIA Commander: We Let bin Laden Slip Away

quote[But in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora—intelligence operatives had tracked him—and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK.]

But, Saddam was so much more important, wasn't he?

Jessica Lynch: I Was Used As A Symbol

quote[think I provided a way to boost everybody's confidence about the war. I was used as a symbol. They could show the war was going great because "we rescued this person."]

US may deny visa for Iran leader's UN address

quote[The Bush administration is considering taking the unprecedented step of preventing a visting head of state from addressing the United Nations in New York by denying a visa to Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran's new elected conservative president.]

Personally, I think this would be a very bad move. At a time that tensions between the two countries are near the breaking point, I think the best solution would be actual dialogue, not intentional snubbing.

It kind of makes me think that this administration sometimes just wants to put its hands over its ears while screaming, "La, La, La, La...I can't hear you...La, La, La..."

The Iraq Infection

quote[Military doctors are fighting to contain an outbreak of a potentially deadly drug-resistant bacteria that apparently originated in the Iraqi soil. So far at least 280 people, mostly soldiers returning from the battlefield, have been infected, a number of whom contracted the illness while in U.S. military hospitals.

Most of the victims are relatively young troops who were injured by the land mines, mortars and suicide bombs that have permeated the Iraq conflict. No active-duty soldiers have died from the infections, but five extremely sick patients who were in the same hospitals as the injured soldiers have died after being infected with the bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii.

"This a very large outbreak," says Arjun Srinivasan, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. public health service and a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control.]

More wonderful news from the mideast.

Pressure getting to Novak?

This curmudgeon should know better.

The Bridge To Nowhere

quote[If taxpayers want to see how their federal highway dollars are spent, they should head north to this small port (pop. 15,000), which just got a $223 million federal grant to build one of the nation's largest bridges.

Rising 200 feet above water and almost as long as the Golden Gate on San Francisco Bay, the bridge will link this tourist-oriented town at the southern tip of the state to an island with about 50 inhabitants and an airport with fewer than 10 flights a day.]

What an egregious waste of taxpayers money.

For some reason I think the repugs are failing their own "fiscal conservatism" policy.

Baseball has another Lowe-down cheater

quote[Derek Lowe, the ex-Red Sox hurler who was the hero of last year's ALCS and the World Series, has abandoned his heartbroken wife and kids and moved in with a TV reporter who covers his new team, the Los Angeles Dodgers.]

What a sad story.

Sichuan’s 'Mystery Disease' may be Ebola Virus

quote[By midday July 29, the toll from the recent mystery disease in China’s Sichuan province had reached 163 cases of the disease, with 32 people dead and 27 critically ill. The symptoms of the disease have led some experts to speculate that Ebola virus could be the cause. Mainland internet BBS circulated a transcript of an interview with a Sichuan doctor who discussed the facts of this mystery disease in detail. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has prohibited news coverage, and has forbidden the use of the words ‘Ebola virus’ in reports, instead requiring the use of alternate wording.]

Scary that they appear to be covering this up.

Republicans Ready to Slime Fitzgerald

quote[Evidently Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, will lead the next foray against the special prosecutor. This week the Senator’s press office announced his plan to hold hearings on the Fitzgerald probe. That means interfering with an “ongoing investigation,” as the White House press secretary might say, but such considerations won’t deter the highly partisan Kansan.]

Did you expect anything different?

Karl Rove: Slightly More Popular Than Gay Marriage

quote[We’re not saying Rove is unpopular, but his mean favorability rating in the new Democracy Corps poll is slightly better than “gay marriage” and worse than “the Iraq war.” Ouch.]

HA HA HA!!!

'One of them made cuts in my penis. I was in agony'

quote[One of them took my penis in his hand and began to make cuts. He did it once, and they stood still for maybe a minute, watching my reaction. I was in agony. They must have done this 20 to 30 times, in maybe two hours. There was blood all over. "I told you I was going to teach you who's the man," [one] eventually said.]

What a disgusting account of torture!

Who's Paying for Our Patriotism?

quote[President Bush assures us that the ongoing twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worth the sacrifices they entail. Editorialists around the nation agree and say that a steadfast American public was willing to stay the course.

Should anyone be surprised by this national resolve, given that these wars visit no sacrifice of any sort -- neither blood nor angst nor taxes -- on well over 95 percent of the American people?]

This guy brings up a good point (and I say this with having had-and still have-family members serve in Iraq).

During WWI and WWII, there was rationing, victory gardens, and numerous personal sacrifices made by even the most ordinary civilians. Yet, Bush decides to lower taxes, and panders to corporate interests. All we complain about are higher gas prices. Does this make any sense?

12 warning signs of fascism

quote[Click each image to expand view.]