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Monday, May 05, 2008

Return of the population timebomb

May 5, 2008 11:00 AM | Printable version
It has become taboo over recent years, but population, not consumption, really is the key to managing our use of the world's resources

Truthout chats with Donna Frye

My Chat With Donna Frye
By Marc Ash
t r u t h o u t | Interview

Thursday 01 May 2008

Donna Frye is a name not well known outside of San Diego, but her story speaks to the heart of American politics today. What's wrong with American politics today? What ordinary people doing extraordinary things can do to change American politics for the better.
Have a look.

Donna talks about political realities in the County of San Diego.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

My PBS shows were different last night

Here's what was on last night.

Friday, May 2 KPBS
KPBS Channel 15
KPBSHD Channel 15.1

Evening
5:00 pm Washington Week
5:30 pm Mclaughlin Group
6:00 pm Bill Moyers Journal : Healthcare
7:00 pm The Newshour with Jim Lehrer
8:00 pm Fiesta Mexicana
10:00 pm Supernatural Science : Open to Suggestion
11:00 pm Road Trip : Central Coast

What's up with the Mclaughlin Group? A bunch of ancient Republicans screaming the same fucking message at each other. Damn, they need to get some hearing aids or something. Ugh. I don't have cable and I don't want to watch it.

Ummm, this is what was NOT on my teevee last night:


Week of 5.2.08
Election 2008: What to Expect
(click video link to watch online)

It usually is.

Bill Moyers wasn't on when it usually is & he opened the show with one hell of an essay on Rev. Wright.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that GOP operatives and crackers are getting their noses out of joint at some of the "liberal" programming on the local PBS station. Yes, to a lot of local fu%*tar#s, "Liberal" is a still a bad word. They can't help it. They're easily frightened.

Friday, May 02, 2008

Southern California Residents Gear Up for New Fight to Stop Secretive Expansion by Military Firm Blackwater (Democracy Now)

Blackwater Still Courting Investors
By Noah Shachtman
May 02, 2008 | 3:01:55 PM Categories: Mercs

Looks like Wired Magazine is doing a fine job of following all things Blackwater


San Diego GOP has a cracker?

Heh.

The FCC is as full of crap as a Christmas Goose

Adopted: May 1, 2008 Released: May 1, 2008

By the Assistant Chief, Policy Division, Media Bureau:

1. In this Order, we grant in part a petition for declaratory ruling filed by the Christian Broadcast Network, Inc. (“CBN”), producer of a 60-minute television program entitled “The 700 Club.”

This program airs weekdays on 100 television stations in the United States, as well as on the ABC Family cable network, FamilyNet, and Trinity Broadcasting Network.

1. In its petition, CBN asks the Commission to declare that the subject program qualifies in its entirety as a bona fide newscast within the meaning of Section 315(a) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the “Act”), 47 U.S.C. § 315(a), or, in the alternative, that the news segments aired on “The 700 Club” qualify as bona fide newscasts and the news interview segments qualify as bona fide news interviews pursuant to Section 315(a).

2 . For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that the newscast and news interview segments of “The 700 Club” qualify for the bona fide newscast and news interview exemptions under Section 315(a), respectively, and that these segments conducted on the program are exempt from equal opportunities.... (click here, to read the document)



So you kin click raht ther on the pitchur to find out a lil bit more about yer bona fide newzcaster/interviewer, thet the FCC sez is a bona fide news program exempt from the equal opportunities rule.

( Exempt from the equal opportunities clause????? )


"The FCC also ruled Friday that the news segments and interviews on Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club -- which airs on TV stations as well as ABC Family -- are also a bona fide news program exempt from the equal opportunities rule.

That show is hosted by Pat Robertson, himself once a presidential candidate.

But the commission stopped short of declaring the entire program exempt. CBN had asked that the whole show be exempt, but absent that, it wanted the interviews and news segments to get the exemption. The FCC chose the latter."

I know I've seen the Pentagon pundits on those gasbag Christofascist interviews. I need to go throw up.

Also


The Federal Communications Commission is requiring Sprint, the nation's third-largest wireless carrier, to clear certain channels by June 26, a move designed to eliminate radio interference with thousands of public safety agencies across the country. The company would essentially swap spectrum with the public safety agencies...

...The deadline was set three years ago in an initial order....

...Sprint, which said the FCC's new position was unreasonable, claimed if regulators enforce the deadline it would cripple the network....

...The court said if Sprint vacates those channels then it's likely it will immediately reduce radio interference that public safety agencies have experienced....

...expects the FCC will extend the deadline by at least another six months.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Hate the Yoo-Knighted States of Torture?




We got first dibs on the bastards that think torture is OK.

Read yesterday's post and then this one.

Clinton Gas-Tax Proposal Criticized
Economists Share Obama's View

By Alec MacGillis and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 1, 2008; Page A01

...Backing up Obama's position against Clinton's proposal to suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon tax for the summer is a slew of economists who argue that the proposal, first offered by Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, would be counterproductive...

The car took $50.00 in gas yesterday and it didn't fill up the tank. It ain't an SUV or truck.

Now the campaign geniuses think that allowing further disintegration of the infrastructure that the fucking 18 cents per gallon can't keep up with anyway, AND was stupid to continue building upon, (but that's another story altogether) is a good idea? (note how much higher CA gas taxes are)

Meanwhile people are going unfed, while the fat cats' profits on grain are up.


Before the bell: MRK, BP, ADM, MA, CFC, AAPL ...
Posted Apr 29th 2008 8:25AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: ...Archer Daniels-Midland (ADM)....... MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), ....Countrywide Financial (CFC), BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Merck and Co (MRK), U.S. Steel (X), Valero Energy (VLO)
Before the bell: Street awaits Fed (V, DB, GM)...

....Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM), the world's largest grain processor, said third-quarter profit rose 42% to $517 million or 80 cents per share, topping analyst estimates of 69 cents per share, as it traded more grains and crushed more soybeans. Sales climbed 64% to $18.7 billion. Seems that being in agriculture lately is a positive and ADM shares are rising 3.75% in premarket trading....

I'm fed up with this pattern.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, Teaching Imperialism 101

The RAND Corporation was the ur-think tank, the Cold War granddaddy of them all, and it's still with us.

A Litany of Horrors

America's University of Imperialism
By Chalmers Johnson

This essay is a review of Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire by Alex Abella (Harcourt, 400 pp., $27)

...Without RAND, our military-industrial complex, as well as our democracy, would look quite different...

...The RAND Corporation is surely one of the world's most unusual, Cold War-bred private organizations in the field of international relations. While it has attracted and supported some of the most distinguished analysts of war and weaponry, it has not stood for the highest standards of intellectual inquiry and debate. While RAND has an unparalleled record of providing unbiased, unblinking analyses of technical and carefully limited problems involved in waging contemporary war, its record of advice on cardinal policies involving war and peace, the protection of civilians in wartime, arms races, and decisions to resort to armed force has been abysmal...

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Watching this now

CARRIER

I tell you whut. I wouldn't last ten minutes on that ship. One of those pilots embodies everything that I hate. Cubby holes and needing everything to be seen black and white, right and wrong. Fuck that. Salute that jerk? Nope. I am not military material.

Rigid, inflexible, arrogant, pack like, and not nearly as fucking smart as they think they are. No, wait, that would be the Republicans. Uh, yeah, like I said, I've never been military material.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Kids from Polygamous Sect Remain in State Custody

Talk of the Nation
April 28, 2008 · More than 400 children remain in the care of the state after reports of child sexual abuse prompted a raid on a Texas polygamist compound. Authorities maintain that they are protecting the kids, but families argue there was no evidence of abuse. Guests and callers weigh in on what's best for the children.

Guests:

Howard Berkes, NPR rural affairs correspondent

Rodney Parker, attorney based in Salt Lake City, Utah; spokesman for the families whose children are in state custody


John Sampson, professor of law at the University of Texas; teaches the Children's Rights Clinic, which provides legal representation for abused and neglected children in Travis County

Jack Downey, president and CEO of The Children's Shelter in San Antonio, Texas; caring for 22 children from the Eldorado compound


Related NPR Stories

April 25, 2008Officials Using DNA to Sort Polygamy Sect Kids
  • April 23, 2008
    Courts Pitting Child Welfare Against Religious Freedom
  • April 17, 2008
    After Texas Raid, Officials Work to Help New Orphans
  • April 16, 2008
    Children from Polygamist Compound in Legal Limbo
  • April 9, 2008
    Texas Raid Leaves 400 Children in Custody



  • Gene Disorder Complicates Sect Custody Fight


    31 of 53 teen girls at FLDS ranch are pregnant or had baby
    By MICHELLE ROBERTS – 1 hour ago 3:59 PM 4/28/2008

    Tracing the Polygamists' Family Tree
    Sunday, Apr. 20, 2008 By HILARY HYLTON

    ...Four surnames dominate the list: Jeffs (relatives of Warren Jeffs, the sect's imprisoned leader and "prophet"), Jessop, Barlow and Steed.

    In the 1930s, two families, the Jessops and the Barlows, settled the area around Hildale, Utah, along the border with Arizona, where they founded the FDLS — and began handing down to their descendants a recessive gene for a severe form of mental retardation called Fumarase Deficiency...

    ...Families whose children are affected often avail themselves of state-funded medical care, consistent with the FLDS philosophy of seeking government aid — despite their suspicion of government — which they call "bleeding the Beast."

    ...The FLDS community, by and large, rejects the idea that Fumarase Deficiency is caused by genes, according to Tarby...


    Birth defect is plaguing children in FLDS towns

    Fumarase Deficiency afflicts 20, is linked to marriages of close kin
    By John Hollenhorst
    Published: Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006 11:36 p.m. MST

    Bust up in Bountiful (update)
    CBC

    More Clarity About Abuse, Intermarriage, Child Breeders, and the Fundamentalist Church of Later Day Saints
    Posted by Sara Robinson, Orcinus at 2:51 PM on April 25, 2008.

    Polygamy in Canada: Legal and Social Implications for Women and Children – A Collection of Policy Research Reports

    Barf.

    Update 12:07 PM 4/30/2008
    Official: History of injuries found in polygamist sect kids
    AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Investigators have discovered a history of physical injuries, including broken bones, in children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch compound, the chief of state protective services told legislators Wednesday...
    ..."When asked, women and children would change their names and ages," he said...
    ...Church officials have denied that any children were abused at the ranch and say the state's actions are a form of religious persecution.

    They also dispute the count of teen mothers, saying at least some are likely adults.

    Sunday, April 27, 2008

    Local Mayor stuff

    This reminded me of an old post of mine:

    McCain visits, gets Sanders' endorsement
    (it's a really short post)

    Mayor Sanders (used to be Chief of Police, so not surprised) but I'm not sure if him refusing to shake the other mayoral candidates hand and telling him "Fuck you Francis" was very endearing.

    So, who is this guy Francis who pissed off a pretty affable Sanders?

    The two faces of Steve
    Will voters who remember Steve Francis from 2005 recognize the new model?
    By David Rolland

    The new Steve Francis
    Who are you, and what have you done with that conservative rich guy?
    By CityBeat Staff

    Steve Francis meets with medical cannabis group
    Posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 by Marc @ 11:30 am

    Francis has promised to take the city out of the developers pockets.(Not)
    I don't think it can be done, it's how this city works, the M-I-C and the real estate developers. The Francis ads, the push polls, and blaming Sanders for the budget and
    pension crisis are annoying to me.

    Let's go back in time please, before there was a "strong Mayor" .

    And let's have look at how the city started going broke. Oh look, it was those "fiscal conservative" Republicans.

    Still there are so many people in this county who just mark the candidate with the R by the name. No matter what. It's what they do.

    Stupid? Intellectually lazy? Loyal to the point of self-destructiveness? Need daddy to tell them what to do? It's what their parents did?

    I don't get it. I just know that you'd have to be crazy to want the job, and I'm not thrilled with either of the candidates, basically I see two Rs.

    Saturday, April 26, 2008

    Chalmers Johnson writes, I read

    The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
    By Chalmers Johnson, Le Monde diplomatique. Posted April 26, 2008.

    World Total military expenditures --(2004 est) --- 1,100 bn

    World Total minus the US ------------------------------500 bn


    ...Our excessive military expenditures did not occur over just a few short years or simply because of the Bush administration's policies....

    ...In its conclusions, NSC-68 asserted: "One of the most significant lessons of our World War II experience was that the American economy, when it operates at a level approaching full efficiency, can provide enormous resources for purposes other than civilian consumption while simultaneously providing a high standard of living."...

    ...Dated 14 April 1950 and signed by President Harry S. Truman on 30 September 1950, it laid out the basic public economic policies that the U.S. pursues to the present day...

    ...By 1990 the value of the weapons, equipment and factories devoted to the Department of Defense was 83% of the value of all plants and equipment in U.S. manufacturing

    ...Military industries crowd out the civilian economy and lead to severe economic weaknesses....

    ...Devotion to military Keynesianism is a form of slow economic suicide...

    ...Some of the damage can never be rectified. There are, however, some steps that the U.S. urgently needs to take...

    ...If we do these things we have a chance of squeaking by. If we don't, we face probable national insolvency and a long depression....


    Yeah, the guy who wrote the Blowback Trilogy.

    Bill Moyers interviewed Jeremiah Wright (Part I)

    Part II

    It was worth watching last night. The links lead to the page with video stream links.

    Frankly, I got the impression from this piece that Reverend Wright takes the saying "faith without works is dead" as a direct challenge...

    I tried Googling that saying and got horribly confused by all the semantics squabbles on the internet tubey thingies. I dusted off my Bible and started reading at James 2:26. That's where the quote "faith without works is dead" comes from, but that's where the important information ends, back your way up through James to get it.

    Bet you didn't think I owned a Bible, didja?

    Well I do, and occasionally I consult it. There's some good stuff in it, and some really outdated CRAP in it also. Like all religious texts written a few thousand years ago, there is some silly, superstitious, arrogant, patriarchal, misogynous, homophobic, outdated bullshit in them.

    Update 8:42 AM 4/28/2008 -- AND as y'all reminded me, (thank you for that) there is violence, mayhem, murder, all that happy horseshit in thet there Bible too.

    Friday, April 25, 2008

    At least somebody did a follow up interview to the NY Times story

    The story.

    Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand


    The follow up interview on yer teevee.

    First fatal shark attack since 1959 in San Diego

    And according to this video interview with Prof Rosenblatt they never found the body then, the guy disappeared.


    The attack took place about 150 yards offshore.
    Several swimmers wearing wetsuitswere in a group when the shark attacked, said Solana Beach lifeguard Craig Miller. Two swimmers were about 20 yards ahead of the man when they heard him scream for help. They turned around and dragged him back to shore....

    ...club members had been meeting at the beach for at least six years and never had seen a shark...


    Oh great. Way to freak out the tourists right before tourist season. The sixty year old man looked like breakfast wearing a wetsuit. Shark took a taste and spit him out, they eat seals, not skinny old men. The shark is probably half-way to Monterey Bay by now. The water here is usually too warm for Great Whites during tourist season, which is not April or May which are actually nice here, but gloomy June, OK July and miserably hot August. It's going to be hot this weekend, but the water temp still ranges cooler. With a shark scare it just might be nice and empty at the beach. Hmmmmmmm.

    Update 2:04 PM 4/25/2008 with idiots running businesses like this one which are said to alter sharks' natural behaviour I may just cool off in the surf & I'll be taking short dips. Even then it might not be too frightening because most of the "dangerous" sharks off the coast of San Diego are 4-5 foot blues.

    Speaking of sharks:
    Countrywide CEO earns $132 million in 2007 pay, stock sales

    Bill Moyers interviews Jeremiah Wright tonight (click here)

    Excerpts from Rev. Jeremiah Wright Interview with Bill Moyers
    Greg Mitchell
    Rev. Jeremiah Wright Interview with Bill Moyers
    Posted April 24, 2008 | 12:24 PM (EST)

    I'll be watching PBS' NOW also tonight.

    Thursday, April 24, 2008

    Bill would make Coast Guard protect LNG terminals

    Right, yes of course, because the Navy hasn't yet been trained by Blackwater.

    Oil, specifically running out of the shit

    Seems to be
    what everybody's
    talking about it lately.

    I covered this my first month blogging.


    This study hadn't been written yet.


    well wouldja lookit that--

    ...Cost information available from projects and design studies performed in the 1980s can be escalated to give a very rough estimate of the anticipated capital costs
    for mining and surface retorting plants. Using this approach, a first-of-a-kind commercial surface retorting complex (mine, retorting plant, upgrading plant, supporting utilities, and spent shale reclamation) is unlikely to be profitable unless real crude oil prices are at least $70 to $95 per barrel (2005 dollars)...

    For three million barrels a day that require 2 barrels of water for every barrel of oil. We use 20 million barrels of oil a day now and water wastage in the west is just stupid. You can't reuse the water after you process out shale oil, it's toxic.

    Jeez, You won't die if you don't get your
    McFatass into your SUV and over to Burger Boob's for Cheezwhiz covered fries for three days. You WILL die if you don't get water after three days.

    Zogby: End it Now

    Ok then. Makes sense to me.

    Primary results

    Anything you want to know about the 2008 elections?

    Just in case you're not overwhelmed by that last ton of links in the last link, here's more .


    General Election polls, who does better to beat McCain state by state?

    Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    5:27 PM 4/23/2008 - 7 myths of energy independence

    The Seven Myths of Energy Independence
    NEWS: Why forging a sustainable energy future is dependent on foreign oil
    By Paul Roberts
    May/June 2008 Issue

    Hmmmm. I used to think that Mother Jones was kind of a hippy dippy publication. I don't think that way any more.

    Myth #2
    Ethanol Will Set Us Free

    Made me think about the Independent Lens show that we watched late last Sunday. It was called King Corn It was one of the most entertaining informational films I've ever watched.

    Myth #3

    ...The doe found that replacing three-quarters of the U.S. fleet with plug-in hybrids would cut vehicle CO2 emissions by 27 percent nationwide—40 percent or more if the country's power system were upgraded to match California's low-carbon grid...

    Trains are more efficient. WaPo just used a really nifty graphic two days ago, helllloooooooo?

    Myth #7
    Once Bush Is Gone, Change Will Come

    No presidential candidate has indi­cated he or she will raise energy taxes or sit down in oil talks with Tehran. All have ties to a self-interested energy sector, be it coal, ethanol, or nukes....

    Blackwater on the border

    Virtual fence on Mexican border deemed insufficient
    By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
    Associated Press Writer
    Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    So?


    Blackwater still needs to feed from the government trough, and what better place than San Diego? Just what we need patrolling the border here, Blackwater.

    There's just something about right-wing Christofacist zombies. Relentless fuckers, aren't they?

    Duncky will come to their rescue. Lemon Chicken man does his best to secure bucks for all the boondoggles that defense contractors can dream up.

    Rep Bob Filner, to his credit, has this to say

    I have a question though. Why is Blackwater training sailors here? San Diego is one big huge Navy base.

    THE DEMOCRATIC END GAME: Who has the right credentials?

    By Rhodes Cook April 03, 2008

    I might be wrong, I haven't been graded on this assignment yet, sorry, ungraded homework is the best I can do for the moment.

    This is me condensing the title linked article.

    The last time the Democratic Party had a fight involving the credentials committee was during the election cycle of 1972 over the nomination of what turned out to be George McGovern. At that time the party had a new ban on the previously used "winner-take all" system that a lot of Republican primaries & caucuses still use today. The party had recently switched to proportional allocation of delegates, and the anti-McGovern forces used this to strip McGovern of his California delegates. The legal challenge over S. Carolina and California delegates turned the convention chaotic. This situation doesn't look like the same fight, but basically it is. I'm not really sure how Florida and Michigan will seat their delegates at the convention, but I think the credentials committee may be more involved with the choosing of the Democratic Party candidate for President than they have since 1972.


    The Clinton-Obama battle could be decided by Michigan and Florida or by the credentials committee. I didn't know what the credentials committee was so I used Google and found this:

    What Is This Thing Called the Credentials Committee?
    By Greg Sargent - March 31, 2008, 4:23PM (TPM Election Central)

    (update: Ok, I'm still learning here, this says "Democratic Party may not seat delegation to violation of primary scheduling rules" )

    Pushing Back Against the Pentagon's Pundits

    I don't think the old men that run things in this country really understand just how fed up the American people are.

    Tell Congress: Investigate the Propaganda Pundits

    Tuesday, April 22, 2008

    The News Dissector

    is all over it today, except for he didn't link to BradBlog, which has really interesting info on

    The Pennsylvania Primary: Democracy of the Gods
    BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 4/21/2008 8:05AM
    Tuesday's Election Will be 'Unrecountable, Unverifiable, and Unauditable'...

    A Switch on the Tracks: Railroads Roar Ahead

    Monday, April 21, 2008; Page A01 (WaPo)


    Global Trade, Fuel Costs Add Up To Expansion for Once-Dying Industry
    Video
    Railroads Raise the Roof
    Staff Writer Frank Ahrens talks with Norfolk Southern engineer Bob Billingsley about expanding a Norfolk Southern tunnel in southwest Virginia to make way for double-stacked railcar containers. The railroad industry is enjoying a building boom as soaring diesel prices and a changing global market drive freight back to the rails...

    ...In the 1970s, tight federal regulation, cheap truck fuel and a wide-open interstate highway system conspired to cripple the railroad industry, driving many lines into bankruptcy....

    ...A train can haul a ton of freight 423 miles on one gallon of diesel fuel, about a 3-to-1 fuel efficiency advantage over 18-wheelers, and the railroad industry is increasingly touting itself as an eco-friendly alternative. Trucking firms also use the rail lines; UPS is the railroad industry's biggest customer...

    Hmmmmm, a little econ history, please:

    in approximately 1900. Nine out of the twenty-two fortunes were railroad fortunes:

    Update 3:42 PM 4/22/2008 Looks like the "gilded age" or robber baron history is being blogged over at TomDispatch also

    Sunday, April 20, 2008

    SUPERDELEGATE MATH
    Unpledged delegate projections don't favor Clinton
    By Alan I. Abramowitz
    Special Guest Columnist
    Dr. Alan Abramowitz is the Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science at Emory University, and the author of Voice of the People: Elections and Voting Behavior in the United States (2004, McGraw-Hill).

    A whosy-whatsy? A Superdelegate?

    Undecided superdelegates don't feel bound by primaries
    4/20/2008

    By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

    SUPERDELEGATES
    Dangling The Kryptonite

    by Chris Bodenner
    Wed. Apr. 9, 2008
    Speaker Nancy Pelosi on 4/9 "said she favors a reduction in the number of superdelegates -- and their oversized influence -- in choosing" the Dem nominee.
    Pelosi "did not say how many superdelegates would be appropriate in future elections or how they should be chosen. But she criticized the influence of this year's group and said the party should do a better job making the public aware of the rules that give them such power."

    Ummm, sure, Ok. More confused than I was before. By design?

    WHAT IF DEMOCRATS USED WINNER TAKE ALL?
    April 3, 2008
    Without proportional allocation Obama would trail
    By Wesley Little
    Special Guest Columnist
    Wesley Little is the Political Chair for Washington & Lee University's "Mock Convention", the nation's most accurate mock convention since its inception in 1908, and a political columnist for several Virginia news papers, including the News Advance and the News-Gazette.

    Basically, if the Dems used the same system the Repubs used that Clinton would be winning the nomination.

    THE DEMOCRATIC END GAME:Who has the right credentials?
    April 10, 2008
    By Rhodes CookSenior Columnist
    One of the basic themes of the long-running Democratic nominating campaign between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton speaks to the need for a new era in American politics. But increasingly it seems as though their race could be decided by a method quite old--a decision by the convention credentials committee that is voted up or down on the convention floor.

    Saturday, April 19, 2008

    Palestinian Suicide Bombers Attack Crossing Into Gaza

    A Hamas leader in Gaza City, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the group would carry out more attacks on crossings to break the nearly yearlong blockade of the territory.




    The military wing of Hamas has launched a rare suicide attack on Gaza's border with Israel.

    It came as a controversial meeting between Hamas officials and Jimmy Carter, the former US president, was concluding in Syria.

    At least 13 Israeli soldiers were wounded, and three Palestinian fighters were reported to be killed.

    Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports from Gaza.

    This. Crap. Just. Never. Ends.

    Friday, April 18, 2008

    Local newz

    Notice the wording of these headlines.

    Marine wife accused of poisoning husband
    Woman charged with first-degree murder for financial gain
    Thurs., Dec. 15, 2005

    Authorities: Wife Killed Marine Spouse For Breast Enhancements
    Sommer Resists Extradition
    POSTED: 9:03 am PST January 4, 2006
    UPDATED: 7:05 am PST January 5, 2006

    Well, can you imagine my surprise when this woman was released from prison yesterday?

    Test clears woman of poisoning husband
    Published: April 18, 2008 at 2:12 PM
    SAN DIEGO, April 18 (UPI) -- Prosecutors in San Diego have dropped charges against a 34-year-old woman convicted in January of killing her U.S. Marine husband.

    Cynthia Sommer was freed from the Los Colinas jail after spending two years and four months behind bars on charges of fatally poisoning Sgt. Todd Sommer with arsenic, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Friday.

    In freeing Sommer, prosecutors said the conclusions of a new group of toxicology experts has cast doubt on poisoning as a cause of Sgt. Sommer's death.

    District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis told a news conference Thursday "as soon as we had the information that pointed to reasonable doubt, we brought this case this afternoon to get the matter dismissed."

    Sommer, 23, died in February, 2002 after collapsing at the couple's home at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

    At first doctors said he died of natural causes but tests later found high levels of arsenic in his liver and kidneys.

    Court documents said a lab in Canada re-tested Sommers' tissue samples this month and found no evidence of arsenic.
    © 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

    For more go here

    Yeesh, I'm so cynical at this point I wonder if it might have been poisoning that killed him and it was easier for the local authorities and NCIS to grab her instead of dealing with the real problem.

    US Military Bases Known To Be Contaminated (ca. 1992) (From: Life in the Times)

    The following 59 U.S. military bases were suffering from significant water or soil contamination a year ago, according to the Department of Defense's interpretation of its latest hazardous waste survey. DoD officials say not every base suffering such contamination is on the list, because information was not available for all bases. The list is based on the latest status report for DoD's Installation Restoration Program.

    The IRP report contains no explanation of the problems at each base, so we asked each service to provide details. The Army did so. The Navy Chief of Information refused to help us gather the information...

    Moffett Field NAS, CA
    The major contaminants in the ground water are volatile organic compounds.
    Whidbey Island NAS, WA...

    Other Navy bases:
    China Lake, CA
    Indian Head NOS, MD
    Jacksonville NAS, FL
    Miramar NAS, CA (now MCAS Miramar)
    Pabmont River NAS, MD


    Toxic Trails: U.S. Military Bases and the Environment

    November 29, 2000

    Medical "professionals?"

    Filipino doctors on YouTube face penalty By OLIVER TEVES Associated Press Writer

    Anybody that's ever worked in an ER knows these kinds of cases show up, and the buzz goes around the hospital, but you never publicize them. NEVER. These medical "professionals" need a remedial class in ethical standards and to be penalized for "violating a code of conduct."

    The Philippines train and send out more nurses than most countries do.

    I'm sure most of them are highly competent professionals.

    This is why I don't bother with the debates

    and Jon Stewart will make you laugh as he 'splains it.