Obama The Only Candidate To Get It Right

quote["I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus," Obama told ABC News, "but I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."]

Meanwhile, Guiliani, McCain, Clinton, and Edwards all fall short.

Tainted Food May Have Hurt 39,000 Pets

quote[Pet food contaminated with an industrial chemical may have sickened or killed 39,000 cats and dogs nationwide, based on an extrapolation from data released Monday by one of the nation's largest chains of veterinary hospitals.

Banfield, The Pet Hospital, said an analysis of its database, compiled from records collected by its more than 615 veterinary hospitals, suggests that three out of every 10,000 cats and dogs that ate the pet food contaminated with melamine developed kidney failure. There are an estimated 60 million dogs and 70 million cats in the United States, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was even higher...

Fight Against U.S.

quote[The powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen on Sunday to redouble their battle to oust American forces and argued that Iraq's army and police should join him in defeating "your archenemy." The U.S. military announced the weekend deaths of 10 American soldiers, including six killed on Sunday.]

Why is this man still free???

US allowed Ethiopia to buy arms secretly from N. Korea

quote[Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country's nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from North Korea, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior US officials.]

Is there anything our government doesn't fuck up???

Americans Tortured By Americans

quote[He then drew a wider circle around his ordeal to include the countless others who have been held falsely without charge and denied normal legal constitutional protections under law. "My name used to be 200343," Vance said recalling his prisoner ID. "If they can do this to a former Navy man and an American, what is happening to people in facilities all over the world run by the American government?"

Vance's nightmare began last year on Apr. 15 when he and co-worker Nathan Ertel barricaded themselves in a Baghdad office after their employer, an Iraqi private security firm, took away their ID tags. They feared for their lives because they suspected the company was involved in selling unauthorised guns on the black market and other nefarious activity. A U.S. military squad freed them from the red zone in Baghdad after a friend at the U.S. embassy advised him to call for help.

Once they reached the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, government officials took them inside the embassy, listened to their individual accounts and then sent them to a trailer outside for sleep. Two or three hours later, before the crack of dawn, U.S. military personnel woke them. This time, however, Vance and Ertel, Shield Security's contract manager, were under arrest. Soldiers bound their wrists with zip ties and covered their eyes with goggles blacked out with duct tape.]

Seriously fucked up...

WHAT! THE! FUCK????

quote[The exit of Gina Glocksen, 22, of Naperville, Ill., cut the number of finalists to eight. Glockson had sang "Smile" on Tuesday night’s episode and received a thumbs up from Randy Jackson, who called her performance, "controlled," but thumbs down from the wonderfully spiteful Simon Cowell.

Gina sang through tears during her exit tune. “Thank you so much for letting me do this and get this far. I’ll be seeing you on tour,” she said.

Haley Scarnato and Phil Stacey had the next-lowest votes, which drew about 33 million calls and text messages.

In an Idol shocker, or non-shocker, 17-year-old Sanjaya Malakar, who has been attracting votes for his hairstyles if not for his singing, was not even among the bottom three. That may be partly due to the efforts of the “Idol” site VoteForTheWorst.com, which has been urging people to vote for Malakar.

Unfortunately guest mentor Tony Bennett came down with the flu and was unable to perform, but he was replaced by Michael Buble, who sang "Call Me Irresponsible."

Will Sanjaya make it to the final five? Get your Sanjaya Malakar odds, as well as all your American Idol odds in Bodog’s Sportsbook.]

Not that I've had much choice lately, but I'm thinking of boycotting the show until idiot-boy gets ejected. He may very well be the downfall of this stupid craze...and I think it might be a good thing.

BTW, Beckett pulled things together for the second Sox game, so all is not lost!!!

McCain Wrong on Iraq Security, Merchants Say

quote[“What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “The security procedures were abnormal!”

The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees — the equivalent of an entire company — and attack helicopters circled overhead, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit.]

Honestly? I'd feel safe taking a stroll just about anywhere, given that security contigent.

MEANWHILE: The six-day death toll until April 01 was “at least 507 people.”

Family Friend To Slam Bush

quote[His book, to be published this month by Sourcebooks with an initial print run of 20,000 copies, offers quite a different assessment of the two most powerful men in Washington. Under Bush and Cheney, he argues, the GOP has moved away from principles of small government, prudent foreign policy and leaving people alone to live their private lives -- all views Gold associates with his hero, Goldwater. "Invasion of the Party Snatchers" makes plain Gold's contempt for the direction of his party and the guidance of its leaders.

"For all the Rove-built facade of his being a 'strong' chief executive, George W. Bush has been, by comparison to even hapless Jimmy Carter, the weakest, most out of touch president in modern times," Gold writes. "Think Dan Quayle in cowboy boots."

Gold is even more withering in his observations of Cheney. "A vice president in control is bad enough. Worse yet is a vice president out of control."

For Gold, Cheney brings to mind the adage of Swiss writer Madame de Stael, who wrote, "Men do not change, they unmask themselves." Cheney has a deep streak of paranoia and megalomania, Gold suggests -- but he says he did not see it at first.]

I'm not surprised...

X Prize Offering Over $10 Million for 100mpg

quote[The race is on to develop a commercially viable car that can travel 100 miles on a gallon of gasoline.

The same group that awarded $10 million to a team that built the first private spacecraft to leave the earth’s atmosphere is expected to announce today the rules for its automotive competition.

The group, the X Prize Foundation, says that the automotive contest, expected to carry a prize of more than $10 million, could have a significant effect on the automobile industry by speeding up efforts to use alternative fuels and reduce consumption. The average fuel economy of vehicles sold in the United States has remained nearly stagnant — around 20 miles a gallon — for decades.

“The industry is stuck, and we think a prize is perfect to disrupt that dynamic,” said Mark Goodstein, executive director of the Automotive X Prize. “Failure is frowned upon in this industry, and that doesn’t make for big advances. It makes for incrementalism.”]

I love it!!!

Tainted wheat gluten sold as “food grade”

quote[Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten used in several of its recalled pet food products was supplied as a “food grade” additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten might have entered the human food supply.

“Yes, it is food grade,” Del Monte spokesperson Melissa Murphy-Brown wrote in reply to an e-mail query. Del Monte issued a voluntary recall Saturday for several products under the Gravy Train, Jerky Treats, Pounce, Ol’ Roy, Dollar General and Happy Trails brands.

Wheat gluten is sold in both “food grade” and “feed grade” varieties. Either may be used in pet food, but only “food grade” gluten may be used in the manufacture of products meant for human consumption. Published reports have thus far focused on tainted pet food, but if the gluten in question entered the human food supply through a major food products supplier and processor, it could potentially contaminate thousands of products and hundreds of millions of units nationwide.]

Great! More to worry about...