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Selected News For Aug 22 – Aug 28

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items we might otherwise miss.

To make the articles as readable as possible, please stick to the format described here.

  • Only post ‘hard news’ from established media outlets.
  • Avoid editorials and ‘thought pieces,’ unless they are truly newsworthy.
  • Eschew ‘major news’ items that most people will likely have seen elsewhere.
  • Articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted as a comment there.

  • Always post less than a third of the original article.

Posts of articles that do not follow these guidelines are susceptible to being edited or deleted.

Related Articles:

 

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

128 Responses to “Selected News For Aug 22 – Aug 28”

  1. beautyofreason
    August 22, 2009 at 1:33 am

    Since the topic of the week includes an Islamic mass murderer celebrated by his home country, I thought this article fit in nicely:

    Ahmadinejad Nominee Is Wanted in ’94 Bombing

    CAIRO — The man nominated to serve as Iran’s defense minister is wanted by Interpol in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, confronting Iran with yet another challenge to its international reputation after an electoral dispute undermined its legitimacy at home and abroad.

    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nominated Ahmad Vahidi on Wednesday to serve as defense minister when he submitted his list of 21 nominees to Parliament. Mr. Vahidi was the head of the secret Quds Force, an arm of the Revolutionary Guards that carries out operations overseas.

    He was one of five Iranian officials sought by Interpol on Argentine charges of “conceiving, planning, financing and executing” the 1994 attack, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds, said a statement issued by the Anti-Defamation League condemning the nomination. (…)

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08.....lobal-home

    Another sign that being weak only emboldens these thugs.

    Still want ‘em on July 4th Barry? Islamic guys attacking infidels in another country for no reason at all….hmm, sounds like something else that happened in I dunno, 2001.

    • canary
      August 22, 2009 at 2:33 am

      scary and scarier with Obama as president.

    • Liberals Demise
      August 22, 2009 at 11:27 am

      Barry sent his Islamist friends a Happy Ramadan greetings from the White House before invading “Marthas by da Sea”

      So in keeping with the Obama Lovefest with the Worlds foremost Peace Loving Religion
      ………………………….. “Happy Ramada Inn” ………………………………….

  2. BillK
    August 22, 2009 at 7:55 am

    This is a wonderful transcript from Fox News of an argument on Greta’s show by pro- and con- Whole Foods boycott advocates.

    Note two important things about this:

    1) Proof that this is all about single payer.

    2) Proof that no matter what they will repeat the same statistics over and over again without sources until you believe them.

    Point-Counterpoint in Whole Foods Boycott

    GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Last night, we told you about John Mackey, CEO of the national chain store Whole Foods. Last week, Mackey wrote an op-ed saying we need health care reform but not the president’s plan. And guess what happens? Some angry customers, more than 20,000 of them now, are calling for a boycott of Whole Foods, but not everyone agrees. We have both sides covered. Joining us live is Russell Mokhiber, founder of the group Single Payer Action. His group is organizing protests against Whole Foods. And on the other side, Crystal Jones, creator of the FaceBook page, I support Mr. John Mackey and Whole Foods, Inc.

    Welcome to both of you. And let me go first to you, Russell. Is John Mackey, the CEO, a bad guy?

    RUSSELL MOKHIBER, LEADING WHOLE FOODS BOYCOTT: Well, he had — he wrote a really nasty piece in The Wall Street Journal, and I think the majority of Whole Foods customers would disagree with him.

    VAN SUSTEREN: Why do you say he’s — as I read that article, I didn’t see it as a nasty — I saw this as a CEO, who, incidentally, a couple years ago gave up his pay and donates all his pay to charity — but that he had a different idea. He said he’s for health care reform, he’s just not for the president’s plan.

    MOKHIBER: Well, he’s…

    VAN SUSTEREN: Is that right?

    MOKHIBER: He’s for — he’s against single-payer. That’s what we’re concerned about. He’s against any government…

    VAN SUSTEREN: Does that make him a bad guy?

    MOKHIBER: I think it makes him a bad guy because 60 Americans are dying every day from lack of health insurance, and the only way to fix it, according to Marcia Angell, former editor of “The New England Journal of Medicine,” is single-payer, which means everybody in, nobody out. It’s the only way that controls costs and covers everyone.

    So if you come out against that and…

    VAN SUSTEREN: You think he’s a bad guy.

    MOKHIBER: Yes, I do — and 60 Americans are dying every day because of lack of health insurance — when you cross the border into Canada and that number is zero — and we know what works and we could do it tomorrow, then, yes. I think if he’s advocating for that, his customers should know it. And we’re going to go picket Whole Foods stores tomorrow and tell the customers, You’re spending money to pay this guy’s salary and this guy’s advocating against the only option that’s going to fix the system.

    VAN SUSTEREN: According to you.

    MOKHIBER: Yes, and that’s according to him.

    (CROSSTALK)

    VAN SUSTEREN: You are unwilling — you are unwilling to look at his editorial and see that he says, Look — he says, I’m for it. Here’s a solution, it’s just not just your solution! So you say he’s a bad guy!

    MOKHIBER: He has a big megaphone, The Wall Street Journal. We’re in front of the stores saying, Hey, look, you can shop here, but know his position.

    VAN SUSTEREN: No, you said he was a bad guy. It’s different.

    MOKHIBER: Well, he’s a bad guy because I think his policy — if he…

    (CROSSTALK)

    MOKHIBER: If his policy wins — if his policy wins, then 60 Americans are going to continue to die every day. So I would say that, yes, he’s a bad guy. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,541283,00.html

    Act like a zombie, and just repeat “60 Americans every day die from lack of health insurance.”

    I wonder, who are those 60 Americans, and why aren’t they showing up at hospital ERs where they have to be seen regardless of their insured status?

    I wonder how many Canadians die not because they don’t have “insurance” but because they’re refused life-saving treatment?

    Oh that’s right, that’s just a realistic cost vs. value judgement – not the fault of their health plan.

    No, Mr. Mackey is evil because he’s against single payer, something, if you believe his most recent statement, the President is against.

    So by association, I guess that means Russel Mokhber is saying Obama is evil, too?

    • curvyred
      August 23, 2009 at 9:55 am

      Oh my goodness, what an articulate young man – NOT!

      He cannot even defend his own position – he just says “he is a bad man” again and again and again.

      Why do so many liberals act like petulant children? – is it because deep down inside they are so insecure in their positions that they know cannot be defended with facts and are nothing but emotions and I want, I want, I want.

    • U NO HOO
      August 25, 2009 at 7:24 pm

      ““60 Americans every day die from lack of health insurance.””

      Name one.

    • neocon mom
      August 28, 2009 at 8:29 pm

      How many people in Canada die BECAUSE of their government run healthcare?

  3. BillK
    August 22, 2009 at 7:59 am

    A reason to never purchase or consult any Frommer travel guide again.

    From a supportive Associated Press:

    Travel Icon Says He’ll Avoid Arizona Because of Gun Laws

    PHOENIX — Travel icon Arthur Frommer says he won’t be spending his tourism dollars at the Grand Canyon, or anywhere else in Arizona, because the state’s laws allow people he described as “thugs” and “extremists” to openly carry firearms.

    The author of budget-travel guides said on his blog Wednesday that he was “shocked beyond measure” by reports that protesters openly carried guns and rifles outside a Phoenix building where President Barack Obama spoke on Monday.

    Frommer says he won’t personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons as a means of political protest. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,541522,00.html

    Can you imagine the outcry if this read “I won’t personally travel in a state where civilians like Cindy Sheehan are allowed to speak out against the leader of our country during wartime as a means of political protest?”

    It must be nice to be a hard lefty and pick and choose which parts of the Constitution you think are worthy of being followed.

    • curvyred
      August 23, 2009 at 10:00 am

      Well good, maybe my next vacation will be in Arizona and I will shop for provisions at Whole Foods.

  4. amber
    August 22, 2009 at 9:27 am

    I have a question:
    We have 5 burned out compact florescent light bulbs and about 6 more that will probably burn out soon. My husband wants to mail them one by one to Nancy Pelosi to have her deal with them. They cost us money to dispose of them anyways. I was wondering if the Secret Service or the FBI would show up at our home for doing that. If it is perfectly legal then we will do it, but if he will go to jail, then we won’t.

    • canary
      August 22, 2009 at 9:51 am

      Amber, I would not do it. If they broke, or if they didn’t, it would be a dangerous toxic material. They’d call you the uni-bulb bandit. You could send her samples of wrinkle cream, (sealed,untampered with). Gosh, her being such a beech, maybe not. At the dollar store they have fake grill teeth. You know those metal mouth with rhinestones. Or a book on beauty tips, might offend her. Hey with Halloween around the corner maybe “Joker Masks” will be available. At hardware lawn and gardent stores they have that dried packaged astro turf, you just lay down and water to life.

    • proreason
      August 22, 2009 at 11:09 am

      Sending toxic materials through the U.S. mail?

      Probably best to keep the poison in your home.

  5. Liberals Demise
    August 22, 2009 at 11:34 am

    Uh…………………don’t do it amber. They are just waiting to make a example of someone!

  6. MinnesotaRush
    August 22, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    “.. the uni-bulb bandit”

    Canary .. I love it! Uni-bulb bandit. (lmao)

    Whudda thought that “in the land of the free, and the home of the brave” that these bast_rds would’ve ever have been able (or even thought they could or should) to tell us what light bulbs we must use.

    Good gawd!!! We really do desperately need to clean and sterilize that DC pool!!!

  7. Rusty Shackleford
    August 22, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    Obama to health care critics: end `phony claims’

    By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 38 mins ago

    WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is challenging critics of his push to overhaul the health care system to stop making “phony claims” about proposals now the subject of intense coast-to-coast debate.

    “This is an issue of vital concern to every American, and I’m glad that so many are engaged,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. “But it also should be an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are.”

    “So today, I want to spend a few minutes debunking some of the more outrageous myths circulating on the Internet, on cable TV and repeated at some town halls across this country,” the president said.

    Obama said the overhaul would not cover illegal immigrants nor use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions, and he does not intend a government takeover of health care — as critics have claimed at contentious town hall-style meetings with members of Congress.

    He also took a swipe at “death panels,” an idea former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin introduced on her Facebook page.

    “As every credible person who has looked into it has said, there are no so-called death panels — an offensive notion to me and to the American people,” Obama said. “These are phony claims meant to divide us.”

    Rest of article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....e_overhaul

    ——So, once again, “Believe ME, not your lying eyes and ears! Or I will get angry. (You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry)

    Can we get a HULK caricature with a green Obama face?

    • proreason
      August 22, 2009 at 4:03 pm

      All this guy can do is play with words. It’s more outrageous than words can say.

      His incompetance is now at the level of high comedy.

      Unless abortions are explicitly NOT covered, they will be.

      Unless illegal aliens are explicitly NOT covered, they will be.

      And the only reason death panels no longer appear in the bill’s language is Sarah Palin.

    • Liberals Demise
      August 22, 2009 at 4:13 pm

      Who wants a Cash for Clunker car? He also said that the gov’t wouldn’t be in the car business.
      Honest debate to this BOZO is dissent and makes him outraged that we have the balls to call him a “Used Car ” salesman!!

      GET YOUR USED CARS HERE!!

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 22, 2009 at 6:14 pm

      Well, it’s gotten to the point, like Pro has said, you just have to put on your “opposite hat” and whatever he says, think the opposite. He’s also the master of the backhanded slap by saying things like “as every CREDIBLE person….has said”. So, the people who have read the bill and draw the correct inferences without any adult supervision are thus “none, or un-credible” on the basis of his estimation. In other words, an insult.

      But while we hear the gears grinding in the liberal democrat house while Pelosi tries to shift without using a clutch and so on….I’m still acutely aware that they may very well make this whole thing happen. Some of them have said they don’t care what their constituents think; They will make it happen anyway.

      This is democracy?

      If that happens, it’s certainly grounds enough for unseating every single waste of skin who voted for it. My personal preference would be to ride them out of the nation on a rail. Where does an elected official get off actually saying, “I don’t care what my constituents think”. ?????

      If that’s not socialistic, or even fascistic tendencies, what is? Do we have to wait until they’re at the door and taking our property before we realize what’s happening here? The basis for national socialism is the premise that government can care for the people better than the people can care for themselves. This was one of the underlying foundations of the hippie movement in the 60’s that “government wasn’t doing what it should to uplift the poor”. Well, that argument will never go away…even in Sweden where poverty is almost nil, there are groups who lobby the government there to “do more”.

      UGH.

      But again, as I have said….here we are with the hippies…who are still angry about Vietnam, making pot illegal, thinking that the US is bad, bad bad…and they’re gonna fix it. Again…it’s like giving powertools to a five-year-old. Sure, they want to build something and they have a picture in their head but haven’t the first idea how to get there in anything other than a statist way. By dictating what will be and hell and damnation if you oppose it. They stick their fingers in their ears and yell “LA LA LA LA LA LA” Hillary was first famous for that. Bill-Jeff just talked in riddles and now this nappy headed someitmes gray, sometimes not celebrity wanna-be uber-cool prez and his putt-putt golf team think they’re ready for the US Open.

      They all make me sick. Partisan politics aside, they can’t even summon a reasonable, logical argument. It’s all based on emotionally founded lies. Lies about policy, lies about history, lies about themselves….and there are so many and they are so grandiose, you have to say….STOP! I’ve heard enough!

      I guess one thing is interesting: That Obama expected the whole of the nation to be as ignorant as the populace of Chicago, where many of them feel that that’s how business is conducted. To him it’s normal. But to a largely conservative nation, we expect better of our president and he doesn’t like being held to task. He wants to play big-boy ball but without all the encumbrances like the law, the rules, fair play, and being expected to represent the PEOPLE.

      He likes to represent in the way that black ideologues say it, with their fist raised in the air.

    • proreason
      August 22, 2009 at 6:35 pm

      “That Obama expected the whole of the nation to be as ignorant as the populace of Chicago”

      They only listen to their own sychophants.

      The townhall uprisings are not only about Health Care, and we haven’t heard the end of outrage.

      The unique thing about Health Care is that it makes the secret criminal intent of the Fascists very very personal, very very quickly. That’s what has brought grannies out of their chairs and has sober, responsible men shouting at arrogant politicians in public meetings.

      Look at this one on Hot Air today:

      http://hotair.com/archives/200.....obamacare/

      Americans are the most tolerant people on earth. But when 60% of the country is being steam-rolled by an extreme and greedy 20% that was only allowed to seize power because of the country’s acceptance of an incompetant congenital minority loudmouth liar, it was inevitable that normal people would finally rise up.

      Thank God it has happened so soon.

      And again, it is hardly just about Health Care. Any of us here could write pages about the atrocities, the abuses of power, the arrogance of these political snot rags.

      In all honesty, they should be happy that we have stood up and announced OUR intent, because now the politicians today, unlike the French Aristocracy before that Revolution, have been fairly and fully warned.

      The anger that is in the streets now had better be satiated by a MAJOR change of direction, or our effete obscene arrogant greedy idiot politicians are going to be sorry in a way that goes way beyond losing their sinecures.

    • catie
      August 22, 2009 at 6:56 pm

      Did you hear him mentioning Sarah Palin the other day? I know he’s afraid to death of her. He should be. She is not as articulate as he is but she speaks to the majority of Americans. He is a puffed up clown.

    • proreason
      August 22, 2009 at 7:07 pm

      “She is not as articulate as he”

      Con men, Carny Barkers, Shyster Lawyers, and Hitler were also “more articulate” than Sarah Palin.

      The ability to triple-talk is a characteristic to fear, not to admire.

    • catie
      August 22, 2009 at 7:16 pm

      No Pro it is not. I just spent last Sunday at the Fair with the Carny Barkers.
      Have a great night all my friends and Jasper just Thank God that there are those who serve so you don’t have to. Please stop belittling them with your faux concern. We respect the Office of President, we do not respect the socialist who is in that office.

  8. canary
    August 23, 2009 at 5:29 am

    AP: US families of Lockerbie victims plan next move
    By Samantha Henry Aug 22, 2009

    NEWARK, N.J. – Relatives of Americans killed when Pan Am Flight 103… plan to converge on New York City in September to protest Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s speech at the United Nations.

    Family members are furious that convicted Libyan bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi …..was greeted in Libya by cheering crowds. He and his family also met later with Gadhafi.

    Susan Cohen, whose 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, died in the attack, called the release “a triumph for terrorism” and said Gadhafi is to blame.

    “Look what we’ve come to be, a man blows up an American plane and now here he (Gadhafi) is rolling into New York in triumph,”

    Friday meeting, broadcast by Libyan state television, Gadhafi praised Scotland’s “humane decision” to free al-Megrahi.

    He compared al-Megrahi’s return to his government’s 2007 release of five Bulgarian nurses and a naturalized Palestinian doctor

    … al-Megrahi’s release is a major concession to Gadhafi, who she said wields increasing power through lucrative oil contracts with Western nations.

    Cohen, like several victims’ family members, said she’s disappointed that President Barack Obama’s administration is not taking a harder line.

    Frank Dugan, …”We didn’t focus on that — it just turns our stomach to see that,” Dugan said in an interview after the call. “We were led to believe there wouldn’t be any ‘dancing in the end zone,’ as I call it, but that’s what happened.”

    Instead, members focused on logistics for the Gadhafi protest, tentatively planned for Sept. 23, along with plans for the upcoming 21st anniversary of the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing, which killed 270 people. The anniversary event will be held at Syracuse University, where 35 of the victims went to school.

    “These are the things we’re working on, things that are important to us,” Dugan said, adding that no final plans have been made for the Gadhafi demonstration.

    Dugan said earlier his group had been receiving calls from a wide variety of organizations that plan to join the protest. Cohen said she had even

    been contacted by a local group of Scottish immigrants who planned to protest their government’s actions on behalf of the Pan Am families.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....e_families

  9. canary
    August 23, 2009 at 5:46 am

    Subject: What Really Happened Last Week in Montana

    Hello All,

    By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered.

    On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date.

    On about Tuesday Bill found out that they would be holding the “Town Hall” at the airport.. of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very remote location. They chose ..the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote location, and you can not get to it easily.

    During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly. Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming. Though it was our President coming several expressed how excessive it was, especially during a recession. $$$$$

    Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be handed out on Thursday 9am at two locations and the president would be arriving around 12:30 Friday.

    Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out. However, 1500 were printed at a Local printing shop per White House request. Hmmmm……900 tickets just DISAPPEARED.

    This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama. Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!! And it would have been really wonderful to help out the local economy.

    On Friday Bill and I got out to the airport about 10:45am. The groups that wanted to protest Obama’s spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to protest and that area was roped off.

    A large bus carrying SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members drove up onto the area (illegal)and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a fight. Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd.

    The SEIU crowd was very organized and young. About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were not locals! They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs. Some even wore preprinted T-shirts. Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with them…..professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and preprinted signs. (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER area)

    Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid confrontation. They were orderly and respectful. Even though SEIU kept coming over and walking through, continuing to be very intimidating and aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU man.

    So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it.

    If you are wondering about the press…..Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar I mentioned. They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away.
    We Did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho .

    Speaking of the local media…they were invited. However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event.

    It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes……..the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come. Smoke and mirrors…EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!!

    Bill and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. America needs your prayers and your voices.

    Kathy
    Bozeman , Montana

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 23, 2009 at 11:57 am

      It’s really become show business on a grand scale, hasn’t it?

    • proreason
      August 23, 2009 at 10:54 pm

      “Bill and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit”

      Now you’ve seen an Emporer

    • Colonel1961
      August 23, 2009 at 10:59 pm

      Great post, canary. Scary as hell, but thanks for letting some more of the continuous ObamaBS find the light (and sweetness) of day…

    • dulcimergrl
      August 26, 2009 at 3:35 pm

      A friend of mine e-mailed this to me last week. I in turn sent it out to a bunch of other people, including a couple of known obambi supporters (I thought they were smart until I found that out). One of them replied back to me with: “What a lot of hatred being shown to our president!” I replied back to him: “Yes, and justifiably so. I hope we have a country left by 2012.”

      Makes me wonder–do folks like this not have eyes to see and ears to hear? It’s so obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention that things are not being run as they should, and evil is abroad in our land.

  10. canary
    August 23, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    NY Times: Marines Fight Taliban With Little Aid From Afghans
    By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. Aug 23 2009

    KHAN NESHIN, Afghanistan — American Marines secured this desolate village in southern Afghanistan nearly two months ago, and last week they were fortifying bases, on duty at checkpoints and patrolling in full body armor in 120-degree heat. Despite those efforts, only a few hundred Afghans were persuaded to come out here and vote

    American officers say their troops alone are not enough to reassure Afghans. Something is missing

    About all he says he does have are police officers who steal and a small group of Afghan soldiers who say they are here for “vacation.”

    It all raises serious questions about what the American mission is in southern Afghanistan — to secure the area, or to administer it — and

    The Marines have just enough forces to clear out small pockets like Khan Neshin. And despite the Americans’ presence, Afghan officials said 290 people voted here last week at what is the only polling place in a region the size of Connecticut.

    Even with the new operation in Helmand Province, which involves the Marines here and more than 3,000 others as part of President Obama’s troop deployments, the military lacks the troop strength

    Meanwhile, Afghans in Khan Neshin, the Marines’ southernmost outpost in Helmand Province, are coming to the Americans with requests for medical care, repairs of clogged irrigation canals and the reopening of schools.

    “Without the Afghan government, we will not be successful,” said Capt. Korvin Kraics, the battalion’s lawyer, who is in Khan Neshin.

    But southern Helmand has long been one of the most ungovernable regions, a vast, inhospitable desert dominated by opium traffickers and the Taliban.

    The Americans in Khan Neshin doubt that the Afghan government promised much of anything.

    Governor Massoud said he personally admired the Marines here, from the Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, but he said many people “just don’t want them here.”

    He estimated that two of every three local residents supported the Taliban, mostly because they make a living growing poppy for the drug trade, which the Taliban control. Others support them for religious reasons or because they object to foreign forces.

    , people understand that the Taliban have not disappeared, but simply fallen back to Garmsir, 40 miles north, and will almost surely try to return.

    Afghan national government “has been ineffective to date.”

    For instance, Marines must release detainees after 96 hours or turn them over to Afghan forces for prosecution, even if the nearest prosecutors or judges are 80 miles away.

    Some detainees who the Marines say are plainly implicated in attacks using improvised explosive devices or mortars have been released.

    The problems are compounded by a shortage of American troops, despite the recent reinforcements.

    To do even that they have stretched: three-fifths of the Marines are stationed at checkpoints and a handful of austere outposts

    That leaves no regular troop presence across the vast southernmost reaches of Helmand. On the Pakistani border the town of Baramcha — a major smuggling hub and Taliban stronghold — remains untouched by regular military units. American and Afghan officials say ..undermining Marine and British military units elsewhere. “It’s the worst place in Afghanistan,” Governor Massoud said.

    If the Afghan national government can provide more resources and security forces — and the Marines add more men — then the United States may be able to leave in two to three years, Colonel Grattan said.

    “We came here to rest, then we are going somewhere else,” said Lt. Javed Jabar Khail, commander of the 31-man unit. The Marines say they hope the next batch of Afghan soldiers will not be expecting a holiday.

    entire article
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08.....r=2&hp

    In a former article the U.S. marines did not trust Massoud or any of the Afgan officials.

  11. Rusty Shackleford
    August 23, 2009 at 9:43 pm

    Lieberman says many health care changes can wait

    By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer Douglass K. Daniel, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 1 min ago

    WASHINGTON – An independent senator counted on by Democrats in the health care debate showed signs of wavering Sunday when he urged President Barack Obama to postpone many of his initiatives because of the economic downturn.

    —–Wazzat, Joe? B-b-b-ut I thought the ONE said there would be “significant savings”. Are you actually saying that it’’s a bad idea to nationalize healthcare because of the economy and what it might do to it? In other words, it will COST a lot? Izzat what you’re saying, Joe?

    My GOD…..What have I been believing in all this time? You mean….Obama isn’t being straight up, yo? You bess not be jackin’ me bro’—I will bus’ you upside yo haid.

    “Democrats control 60 votes, including those of two independents, but illness has sidelined Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.”

    —–Illness. Tell me THAT ain’t ironic.

    “I think it’s a real mistake to try to jam through the total health insurance reform, health care reform plan that the public is either opposed to or of very, very passionate mixed minds about,” Lieberman said.

    —–Woah, NELLIE….you used the word “jam” as in…”force it down the people’s throat”. Izzat what you mean, Joe? Again, I thought the right-wingers were all kooks and making up lies about it being “jammed” upon us. Or are you referring to the stuff you put on your muffins?

    The rest of the article talks about republicrats willing to negotiate another style of healthcare “reform” and sadly…this is the fly in the ointment in the upcoming weeks. Certain representatives who SAY they are conservatives still believe that the health insurance industry is in need of overhaul. I cannot speak for everyone, but I speak for myself when I say it is not.

    It may be that this is what the hippie-crats had partly hoped for all along….to get some form of “social justice” in the form of this absurd crapola about health insurance for “everyone”

    Rest of story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....e_overhaul

    • canary
      August 24, 2009 at 1:14 am

      Lieberman supported McCain.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 25, 2009 at 6:40 pm

      That may be. I don’t care. McCain still thinks we all need to sit down and “fix” healtcare. My point about Joe is that he’s letting the cat out of the bag with regards to actually telling the truth about some of this plan. And although on the one hand I applaud his candor, I think he would do well to say it louder and to a lot more people. Plus, he has gone along with the current and thinks healthcare needs to be fixed also.

      And yes, he is a loose cannon on many issues and contrary to the writer’s opinion can’t be “counted on” to do anything.

    • canary
      August 28, 2009 at 12:59 am

      McCain has really become pathetic.

  12. Rusty Shackleford
    August 23, 2009 at 11:50 pm

    From the “Ain’t as easy as it looks, is it?” department at the AP:

    Obama facing hard choices on Afghanistan war plans

    By RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press Writer Richard Lardner, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 56 mins ago

    WASHINGTON – As public support for the war in Afghanistan erodes, President Barack Obama soon may face two equally unattractive choices: increase U.S. troops levels to beat back a resilient enemy, or stick with the 68,000 already committed and risk the political fallout if that’s not enough.

    Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is completing an assessment of what he needs to win the fight there. That review, however, won’t specifically address force levels, according to Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

    But military officials privately believe McChrystal may ask for as many as 20,000 additional forces to get an increasingly difficult security situation in Afghanistan under control. And one leading Republican is already saying McChrystal will be pressured to ask for fewer troops than he requires.

    “I think there are great pressures on General McChrystal to reduce those estimates,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in an interview broadcast Sunday. “I don’t think it’s necessarily from the president. I think it’s from the people around him and others that I think don’t want to see a significant increase in our troops’ presence there.”

    Mullen on Sunday described the situation in Afghanistan as “serious and deteriorating,” but refused to say whether additional forces would be needed.

    “Afghanistan is very vulnerable in terms of (the) Taliban and extremists taking over again, and I don’t think that threat’s going to go away,” he said.

    Mullen also expressed concern about diminishing support among a war-weary American public as the U.S. and NATO enter their ninth year of combat and reconstruction operations.

    In joint TV interviews, Mullen and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said last week’s presidential election in Afghanistan was historic, given the threats of intimidation voters faced as they headed to polling stations. It could be several weeks, however, before it’s known whether incumbent Hamid Karzai or one of his challengers won.

    “We’re not sure exactly what the level of voter turnout was,” said Eikenberry, a retired three-star Army general. “Taliban intimidation, especially in southern Afghanistan, certainly limited those numbers.”

    Charges of fraud in the election are extensive enough to possibly sway the final result, and the number of allegations is likely to grow, according to the commission investigating the complaints.

    Rest of article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....fghanistan

    —–Wait, I thought he didn’t like the word “victory”.

    • canary
      August 24, 2009 at 1:30 am

      “I think there are great pressures on General McChrystal to reduce those estimates,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in an interview broadcast Sunday. “I don’t think it’s necessarily from the president. I think it’s from the people around him and others that I think don’t want to see a significant increase in our troops’ presence there.”

      I disagree with McCain. “What people? have more influence on Gen McChrystal, who’s gave into Obama’s new war of trying to win over terrorists by bringing them aid, growing gardens, b.s.

    • pdsand
      August 25, 2009 at 6:47 pm

      “Mullen also expressed concern about diminishing support among a war-weary American public as the U.S. and NATO enter their ninth year of combat and reconstruction operations.”

      File that right under “if Wal-mart is lowering prices every day, why isn’t everything free by now”. I don’t see a single “war-weary” person in this country. Either there are people who have been opposed all along, or there are people who have been in favor all along. I’ve never heard of anyone who was a strong patriot on 9/12 but who has simply “gotten tired” of the war. And if there are people out there like that, then you know they don’t have the backbone and wherewithall to stand in line and vote.

  13. canary
    August 24, 2009 at 1:49 am

    AP: Millions face shrinking Social Security payments
    By Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher, Aug 23 2009

    WASHINGTON – Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won’t be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn’t happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975.

    By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.

    “To some people, it might not be a big deal. But to seniors, especially with their health care costs, it is a big deal.”

    President Barack Obama has said he would like tackle Social Security next year, after Congress finishes work on health care, climate change and new financial regulations.

    in October, when the Social Security Administration officially announces that there will not be an increase in benefits next year.

    “I think a lot of seniors do not know what’s coming down the pike, and I believe that when they hear that, they’re going to be upset,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who is working on a proposal for one-time payments for Social Security recipients.

    “It is my view that seniors are going to need help this year, and it would not be acceptable for Congress to simply turn its back,” he said.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....ler_checks

    • BannedbytheTaliban
      August 24, 2009 at 9:58 am

      The most interesting part about the article:

      Advocates say older people still face higher prices because they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care, where costs rise faster than inflation.

      How can this be? The AP and Obama assure us everyday that the government plan, a plan that is to be modeled after Medicare, is suppose to lower costs and make health care more affordable. I guess that doesn’t matter, because it will all be different once we get rid of those evil insurance companies.

  14. canary
    August 24, 2009 at 6:54 am

    From an Associated Press who will stoop to low levels to get the story wrong to the public.

    AP: Analysis: Health overhaul tactics need overhaul
    By Associated Press Writer Steven R. Hurst Aug 24 2009

    WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama still may push through an overhaul of the American health care system, but political indicators point to a needed overhaul of his own tactics for selling reform.

    Barely eight months in office, Obama is trapped between the jaws of a tightening vise.

    “The people don’t have sufficient information, and I’m surprised the administration and others backing reform haven’t done much more to educate the public,” said Robin Lauermann, professor of politics at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa.

    As he struggles against a powerful wave of opposition to reforming the system, his poll numbers are slipping significantly.

    A Washington Post-ABC News survey found that fewer than half of Americans — 49 percent — say they believe the president will make the right decisions for the country. That’s down from 60 percent at the 100-day mark in his presidency.

    The poll shows Obama’s overall approval is 57 percent, 12 points lower than it was at its peak in April. Fifty-three percent disapprove of the way he’s handling the budget deficit and his approval on health care continues to deteriorate.

    A look at other bare numbers — significant Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate — doesn’t explain the overwhelming complexity of bringing the United States in line with the world’s other wealthy democracies that guarantee health care to everyone.

    Mixed into that equation are the so-called Blue Dog Democrats — a conservative wing of the party that in many ways shares reform reservations with Republicans.

    As the health care argument swirls during the August congressional recess, Americans have witnessed ugly and offensive attacks on the motives of Obama and those who support changing the system, even though it is held responsible for a majority of private bankruptcies in the world’s No. 1 economy.

    Obama has allowed Congress to write the specifics of new health care legislation with minimal demands from the White House.

    The White House explains it took the more hands-off approach after studying former President Bill Clinton’s failure to push through a health care package. He sent Congress a fully written plan and saw his fellow Democrats, the majority, revolt because they had no role in shaping policy changes.

    Leaving the specifics to Congress has allowed debate to drag on,

    The lack of one specific piece of legislation for the president to sell has opened the door for opponents inside and outside government to heap unfounded allegations on the reform process. Some have been outrageous, including an assertion by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin,

    Such attacks on efforts to refashion health care have put Obama on the defensive, forced to debunk untrue claims and apparently losing ground in rethinking a system that has avoided a major overhaul for decades.

    EDITOR’S NOTE — Steven R. Hurst reports from the White House for The Associated Press and has covered international relations for 30 years.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....e_analysis

  15. canary
    August 24, 2009 at 7:06 am

    Rueters: Hundreds to remain entombed in Taiwan village Aug 24 2009

    TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan authorities will not attempt to recover the bodies of hundreds feared killed in a village by a mudslide this month, and will instead turn the site into a memorial park, a local leader said Monday.

    The T$100 million ($3.04 million) park, slated to open in a year, would sit above the landslide, which has been compared to a fallen mountainside, as a place to remember the aboriginal village, township chief Liu Chien-fang said.

    “The village had a special character as a Pingpu district,” Liu told Reuters, describing the local Austonesian ethnic group in the Kaohsiung county village of Hsiao Lin.

    “The homes were special, likewise the local customs and habits. It’s a shame nothing was left behind.”

    The official toll from typhoon Morakot stands at 291 dead and 387 missing, and the damage to agricultural production has been put at T$14.4 billion. It also plunged Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou into his worst crisis since being elected president in May 2008.

    (Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200.....Vkc3RvcmU-

  16. Flession
    August 24, 2009 at 7:27 pm

    From the Telegraph

    A guide to Barack Obama’s reading list on Martha’s Vineyard /b >

    * Lush Life by Richard Price
    A New York crime thriller that is also a satire on racial politics in America. From one of the writers of HBO’s The Wire, Mr Obama’s favourite television show.

    * The Way Home by George Pelecanos
    The latest novel from one of America’s greatest crime writers (and another Wire alumnus). A prodigal son spends 10 years in prison but then is tested when he come across some stolen money.

    * Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L Friedman
    The New York Times guru argues that embracing clean energy is the best way to revitalise the American economy – and save the planet. One that Republicans might also read.

    * Plainsong by Kent Haruf
    This quiet, gently uplifting novel, a US best-seller when it was published in 1999, describes a year in a small fictional town near Denver, and is a gesture towards literary seriousness.

    * John Adams by David McCullough
    A solid biography of America’s second president, who came between Washington and Jefferson. Made into a successful HBO miniseries last year but naturally Obama is reading the book. All 800 pages.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....eyard.html

    I, naturally, have no problems with Lord Barry reading a book, but honestly, I think we could do better. What books would you suggest for El Presdente? We already know he’s read Rules for Radicals and the The Communist Manifesto, but surely we, the fair, unbaised, objective blog readers can come up with something more suited for his tastes.

    I’ll start with saying The 5000 Year Leap might do him some good…

  17. canary
    August 25, 2009 at 1:32 am

    The Los Angelos Times: Glen Beck goes after Color of Change co-founder Van Jones Aug 24, 2009

    Glenn Beck used his popular Fox News show this afternoon to attack the background of Van Jones, a White House environmental advisor who co-founded an African American political advocacy group that organized an advertising boycott of his program.

    During his 2 p.m. PDT show, Beck did not address the boycott spearheaded by Color of Change to protest the talk show host’s remark last month that he believes President Obama is “a racist.”

    Instead, he spent a large share of his program suggesting that Jones, who co-founded Color of Change in 2005, is a radical. Jones now serves as a special advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

    During a six-minute biographical profile, set to ominous music, Beck said Jones was twice arrested for political protests and has described himself as a “rowdy black nationalist.” The talk show host cast the piece as part of a broader examination of Obama’s “czars,” special advisers to the president who “don’t answer to anybody.”

    “Why is it that such a committed revolutionary has made it so high into the Obama administration as one of his chief advisers?” Beck asked.

    Christine Glunz, a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, noted that Jones has been lauded as an environmental hero

    “Glenn Beck is trying to change the subject,” said James Rucker, executive director of Color of Change,

    Beck has gone after Jones in the past. On July 28, he called the activist a “self-professed communist” and questioned the role he was playing in the administration. His latest assault on Jones came as Color of Change announced that it has secured commitments from 36 companies who have pledged not to advertise on Beck’s popular program, including Wal-Mart and Sprint. However, some of the companies never had a presence on “Glenn Beck.” Representatives of Procter & Gamble and AT&T – listed by Color of Change as companies that had signed onto the boycott – told The Times that their companies did not run spots on Beck’s program to begin with.

    While the advertising boycott has generated substantial media coverage, Fox News said it has not impacted the network’s revenues or Beck’s audience.

    Since his Fox News show launched in January, Beck has attracted a sizable audience with his strident denunciations of the Obama administration and apocalyptic warnings about the country’s direction. Late last month, during an appearance on the morning show “Fox & Friends,” he accused Obama of having “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”

    “This guy is, I believe, a racist,” he added.

    The flap that ensued did not appear to dampen Beck’s viewership. This month, his show has averaged 2.25 million viewers, 99% more than tuned in during the same period last year, when the network aired “America’s Election HQ” during the time period. And his ratings are up from July, when Beck’s program averaged 2.05 million viewers. Fan websites such as Defend Glenn have called for viewers to fight back against the advertising boycott, and some media veterans have denounced the tactic as a suppression of free speech.

    Clorox announced last week that it was pulling its ads off all political talk shows.

    “We do not want to be associated with inflammatory speech used by either liberal or conservative talk show host,” the company said in a statement. “After a comprehensive review of political talks shows across the spectrum, at this time we have made a decision not to advertise on them. Clorox has done very little advertising on political talk shows overall, and given the sometimes inflammatory nature of these shows, we feel our advertising investment is best directed elsewhere.”

    – Matea Gold

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....ycott.html

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 25, 2009 at 6:44 pm

      Jeez, Glen…don’t you KNOW that only black people can call other people racists? Sheesh.

      And besides, racism only works in one direction…when it’s directed at blacks. They, themselves are immune from making any racist comments.

  18. canary
    August 25, 2009 at 7:08 am

    NPR: Aug 24 2009
    In Afghanistan’s Helmand province, one U.S. Marine captain says, militants are like the hairs on your head — pull them out and more grow back.

    Marines in the Now Zad district of Helmand province are trying to build trust among the local people

    They strike Dahaneh before dawn. Three helicopters carrying assault teams from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines and a squad of Afghan soldiers fly over a much slower convoy of armored vehicles also headed to the fight.

    The militants put up a fierce fight. The Marines guess someone’s tipped them off about the operation.

    Bullets, mortars and rockets rain down in periodic bursts on the troops. Most appear to be fired from mountains surrounding the town. But some Taliban fighters weave in and out of Dahaneh’s deserted streets.

    “That’s him there,” a Marine yells. “Go right!” comes another shout, punctuated by gunfire.

    On the second day, one Marine is killed, his legs blown off by a rocket-propelled grenade.

    But the operation commander, Marine Capt. Zachary Martin, says a meaningful victory here is about a lot more than who controls the terrain. He says the key to any long-term success will be to win over the town’s population, estimated at 2,000.

    “They’re waiting to see what we’re going to do,” he says. “They want to see if we’re going to stay the course, if we’re going to be the winning side,

    Martin says it’s about more than demonstrating who is stronger. It’s about whether the Marines can build trust.

    Today, Now Zad is a moneymaker for the Taliban. The militant group taxes residents and reaps profits from the many opium poppy fields now cultivated here.

    For years, the Taliban has kept people here cut off from the Afghan government — despite the presence of British and Estonian troops and, more recently, the U.S. Marines.

    It’s this perception of Taliban domination that the Marines here want to change. If they don’t, they see little hope of permanently driving out the Taliban.

    The Afghans “are our friends, and our enemies hide within them,” he says. “So the enemy could be the guy herding his sheep one day, and then the next day he can be the guy carrying the AK in the wood line that you can’t see, just firing at the helicopters because he needs to make a living for his family.”

    Thompson and others of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines’ Golf Company — which has been in Now Zad since May — are doing something they say no other foreign troops here have done before: They go into the villages to make friends with Now Zad residents.

    Martin, the company commander, says the Marines help the Afghan villagers whenever they can —

    “Once they saw that we were very careful with our rules of engagement, once they saw that we were eager to actually talk to them and to get to know them, to look at their problems and concerns — and that, furthermore, we were here to fight the Taliban and here to stay — our reception became much different,” he says. “To the point where now we have them invite us in for tea, they invite us to come to the mosque with them,

    He’s brought penicillin for an Afghan village boy with an ear infection. The retired New York City police lieutenant sports an unkempt beard, which to Afghans makes him appear to be a tribal elder among the Marines.

    But they faced retribution if they were seen talking to the Marines. So the Marines went there to drive out the Taliban.

    after the battle in Dahaneh, Afghan soldiers raised their country’s flag over a hastily constructed combat outpost that will house the Afghan and U.S. troops.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/s.....amp;f=1001

  19. nuthingbettertodo
    August 25, 2009 at 1:24 pm

    Never a dull moment in the Healthscare system in the UK

    Man collapses with ruptured appendix… three weeks after NHS doctors ‘took it out’
    By Daniel Bates
    Last updated at 5:30 PM on 25th August 2009
    Comments (0) Add to My Stories After months of excruciating pain, Mark Wattson was relieved to finally have his appendix taken out.

    NHS doctors told him the operation to remove the ruptured organ was a ’success’ and he was discharged from Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wilts.

    But just weeks later the 35-year-old collapsed in agony and had to be re-admitted by ambulance.
    Enlarge Mark Wattson, 35, from Swindon may have been the victim of botched surgery after he had to have his appendix removed twice
    To his horror surgeons from the same team told him that his appendix was still inside him and had burst.

    In an emergency operation it was finally removed, leaving Mr Wattson fearing another organ may have been taken out during the first procedure.

    The blunder has left Mr Wattson jobless as bosses at JJB Sports, where he worked as a shop assistant, didn’t believe his story and sacked him.

    Last night, as an internal investigation began, Mr Wattson told of the moment he realised what had happened.

    ‘I was lying on a stretcher in terrible pain and a doctor came up to me and said that my appendix had burst,’ he said.

    ‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I told these people I had my appendix out just four weeks earlier but there it was on the scanner screen for all to see.

    ‘I thought: “What the hell did they slice me open for in the first place”?

    ‘I feel that if the surgery had been done correctly in the first place I wouldn’t be in the mess I am today. I’m disgusted by the whole experience.’

    Mr Wattson first went under the knife on July 7 after his appendix ruptured and left him with severe abdominal pain for several weeks.

    He was discharged the next day but exactly a month later he had to dial 999 after collapsing in agony while job-hunting in Swindon.

    Following the second operation his appendectomy incision became infected leaving a hole in his stomach 4cm deep and 2cm wide.
    Mr Wattson was readmitted to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon after his appendix ruptured
    Mr Wattson was then admitted to hospital for a third time and spent another six days hospital and was prescribed antibiotics to treat the infection.

    He said: ‘I had a temporary job at JJB Sports but when I took in two medical certificates saying I had my appendix out twice they didn’t believe me.

    ‘Now I’m helpless. I can’t go out and find a job, I can’t go to interviews. I can barely walk and am in constant pain.

    ‘Before the first operation they told me I had to have my appendix removed and when I woke up afterwards they said it had been a complete success.

    ‘But then I keeled over in agony one month later and they did some tests at the hospital and we could see the appendix was still there on the scans.

    ‘As far as I was aware they took my appendix out and no one told me any different.
    ‘I have no idea what they have taken out but I want to find out what went wrong.”

    Earlier this month it emerged surgeons at a hospital in London operated on the wrong patient when two people on the same ward had the same name.

    The unnamed individual had a lung operation that should have been carried out on the other person. Another mistake involved removing the gall bladder from the wrong person.

    Compensation payments to NHS patients have risen by 20 per cent in the last year to a record high of £769million, meaning that more than £2million on average had been paid every day to people lodging claims against the health service.

    A spokesman for Great Western Hospital confirmed representative had met with Mr Wattson and an investigation was ongoing. He was unable to confirm what, if anything, was removed in the first operation.

    Paul Gearing, deputy general manager for head and neck, general surgery and urology for Great Western Hospital NHS Trust, said: ‘We are unable to comment on individual cases. However, we would like to apologise if Mr Wattson felt dissatisfied with the care he received at Great Western Hospital.’

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....z0PDTsnPNS

    • proreason
      August 25, 2009 at 1:28 pm

      Maybe the doctor had already removed his alotment of appendices the first day.

      Rules are rules, you know.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 25, 2009 at 6:49 pm

      This won’t do. tch tch tch…..Won’t do ‘tal. Those bloody yanks will be smearing our good name again, wot? I say we dedicate funds to give them a thumping good talking too and a finger wag. Ungrateful sots. And who let the Daily Mail have this information? Be certain they’re terminated, immediately.

  20. canary
    August 25, 2009 at 4:13 pm

    DailyOklahoman: OUR VIEWS Cases reveal pre-9/11 thinking
    Criminal justice model not way to deal with terrorists
    THE OKLAHOMAN EDITORIAL Aug 25 2009

    THE 9/11 attacks showed that the United States allowed al-Qaida’s threat to build partly because policymakers viewed terrorism as a problem for law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Two developments last week indicate a similar, pre-9/11 mind-set.

    One was an order by a federal judge that a Yemeni held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be released. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said the detainee’s brief time in an al-Qaida training camp and associations with Osama bin Laden’s inner circle weren’t enough to keep him locked up.

    The other, reported in The Washington Post, is a Justice Department investigation into whether Guantanamo defense lawyers illegally showed photographs of CIA personnel, including covert officers, to detainees.

    Kessler, appointed to the federal bench in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, ruled in a lawsuit by Mohammed al-Adahi, 47.

    Adahi had been held at Guantanamo since 2002 after being picked up with a group of Taliban fighters by Pakistani troops. Later it was learned that before his capture, Adahi attended a wedding at bin Laden’s house in Afghanistan and trained at an al-Qaida military camp for seven to 10 days before being expelled for disobeying rules.

    Although it appears Adahi met and spoke with bin Laden and was fairly close to the al-Qaida chief’s bodyguards, Judge Kessler said “such evidence, sensational and compelling as it may appear, does not constitute actual, reliable evidence that would justify the government’s detention of this man.” Because Adahi hadn’t yet fought for al-Qaida when he was captured, he shouldn’t be held any longer.

    Essentially, that’s the judicial system’s blind spot as it uses a criminal justice model to deal with terrorists. In civil society, it’s almost impossible to jail someone before they’ve actually committed a crime. 9/11 showed the horror that results from waiting for terrorists to strike — the rationale for keeping captured terrorists from returning to the battlefield.

    Most Americans probably would see Adahi’s associations as alarming and in the age of terror, too dangerous for him to be free. He’s just one of scores of Gitmo detainees suing for release.

    The Post report is equally disturbing. It shows why military tribunals, with greater safeguards against handing valuable intelligence to the enemy, make sense in dealing with Guantanamo’s inmates.

    The country is less safe when its front-line defenders are compromised, and with lawyers crawling all over Gitmo’s cases, there’s reason to fear more of this could happen.

    Likewise, civilian judges will see more cases like Adahi’s. Prevented from anticipating terrorism, they undoubtedly will make more rulings like Kessler’s, and the country will be at greater risk

    http://newsok.com/criminal-jus.....le/3395204

  21. canary
    August 25, 2009 at 5:21 pm

    KOHN Channel 3 A roadside bomb killed four Americans in Afghanistan today. Afghanistan Violence

    A roadside bomb killed four Americans in Afghanistan today.

    The service members died in southern Afghanistan but no further details were immediately available. The news came as the vote count in afghanistan’s presidential election continues.

    The news came as the vote count in Afghanistan’s presidential election continues.

    The national election commission says with just ten percent of the vote counted,

    President Hamid Karzai and his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, have each won about 40- percent.

    No final results are expected until September third.

    The latest American deaths in Afghanistan bring the number of U.S. troops killed there this month to 41.

    Last month 44 U.S. troops died, the largest number since the war began in Afghanistan in 2001.

    http://www.khon2.com/news/loca.....15;6RDg.cs
    again AP is not reporting American casualties

    • Liberals Demise
      August 25, 2009 at 5:25 pm

      How many just freed detainees were involved in this?
      Barry Hussiens’ hands are “wet” now!

  22. canary
    August 25, 2009 at 7:37 pm

    AP:Petraeus: More tough fighting ahead in Afghanistan
    By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press Writer Aug 25 2009

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The commander of the U.S. Central Command warned Tuesday that growing numbers of American soldiers sent to Afghanistan will encounter tough fighting,

    but said improving civilians’ lives is as important to winning the war as defeating militants.

    Gen. David Petraeus, speaking to the American Legion’s national convention, said Taliban militants have expanded their influence

    His comments came on the same day a bombing in Afghanistan killed four U.S. service members. August has become the second-deadliest month in the country since the 2001 U.S. invasion.

    Mullen also said the war in Afghanistan is about defeating al-Qaida and its allies. He said the forces behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are “still at it.”

    Petraeus said defeating al-Qaida in Afghanistan will require “more than just killing or capturing terrorists and extremists.”

    He said American and coalition forces are working with civilian officials to help the Afghan government win greater acceptance from its own people.

    And the military may need more than guns and bombs, Mullen said.

    “The best instruments may be shovels, tractors and teaching degrees,” he said.

    http://dailytimes.com/wire.las.....FGHANISTAN

    Sounds like Obama’s priority in Afganistan is for our troops to die building a retreat or retirement home for himself.

    • proreason
      August 25, 2009 at 8:23 pm

      It could take 50 years or more

      Afghans are medieval people, living in a country larger than Texas with terrain as rugged as Colorado, and they haven’t been conquered since Alexander the Great. Conquering them would be like conquering a herd of squirrels. They could only be controlled by brutish force that this country is not willing to use against such a primitive people who only pose a threat as a safe harbor for terrorists.

      They appear to have little interest in joining the modern world. We could pacify / stimulate / bribe / cajole / teach / force them for decades to change their ways and they will go back to their prior lives one minute after we leave.

      We should build a hardened facility that can hold 5 to 20,000 troops with a defendable airport to use as a base to periodically attack the Taliban and other terrorists, and to maintain a presence in case other wierd shit happens there.

      Other than that, every week we stay there will cost the lives of heroes….forever.

      Obama, of course, is an idiot for declaring it “his” war. His chances of winning it are zero.

      It’s another example of Bush running circles around the moron strategically and tactically.

  23. canary
    August 25, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    Obama picks militant pro-communist CZAR for Green Jobs. Glenn Beck exposes the pro-violent past of Van Jones. Towards of expose even gives more recent words Jones using profanity in encouraging violence. Jones claims he is from Africa and they know more about the environment, qualifies him for the job.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....edded#t=92

  24. Dave2882
    August 25, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    Dems prepare to AstroTurf townhalls

    WASHINGTON – Supporters of President Barack Obama’s health care agenda are ramping up their efforts with rallies and bus tours starting this week, aiming to counter increasing public skepticism leading up to Congress’ post-Labor Day return to Washington.

    “We want to send members of Congress back to D.C. with the real message, which is that the majority of the public want comprehensive health care reform and we want it now,” said Jacki Schechner, spokeswoman for Health Care for America Now, an umbrella organization of groups pushing for a comprehensive health care overhaul…

    Health Care for America Now is coordinating its efforts with Organizing for America, the Obama campaign organization now melded into the national Democratic Party, which reputedly has an e-mail list of up to 13 million names.

    Organizing for America plans a bus tour beginning Wednesday in cities including Phoenix, Albuquerque, N.M., Denver, Des Moines, Iowa, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, N.C., and Milwaukee. The bus will make 11 stops between Wednesday and Sept. 3.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....e_overhaul

  25. canary
    August 26, 2009 at 12:07 am

    Here is the cancled SUNDAY NIGHT PROGRAM about Obama.

    Forwarded from a friend to me…takes some time to watch…wonder why it did not air on TV like it was suppose to??
    WHAT WAS ELIMINATED FROM HANNITY PROGRAM SUNDAY NIGHT
    To everyone who thought the special about Obama was going to be on Hannity.
    It was taken off. Here are the segments. You better watch now before hey are removed too.
    Yes, the program was not aired Sunday so it was googled and found the segments
    had been taken off of the internet as well. Wonder who did this?
    Wonder who blocked this? Is this our NEW Government protecting us?

    Here are the 6 segments if they haven’t been removed before you get to them.

    Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rthv8QmJLUw

    Part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....eature=fvw

    Part 3 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

    Part 4 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

    Part 5 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

    Part 6 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 26, 2009 at 1:40 am

      Sorta makes you wonder what it is they’re afraid of, doesn’t it?

      Take note, that the liberals use the method that if you repeat it enough times, it becomes the truth. However, I will still submit that if you repeat the TRUTH enough times, it will eventually shatter the lies that the liberals keep spewing…as the people start to realize, “hey…that makes more sense” and eventually, truth wins out. As Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

      But the truth does eventually get there and when it arrives, it takes far less convincing and repeating than does the lie. BECAUSE, certain things become self-evident.

      Obama is the lowest class thing I’ve ever seen in my lifetime that has become president. I thought the Clintons were the worst with their pornographic Christmas trees and treatment of the Secret Service, etc, but this guy is just lower than low. It’s a shame that the good of the American people has never been on his mind, nor will it ever be.

      However, America is waking up. And they are seeing this thing for the first time. And they are realizing he’s not as they had expected and that he intends harm all across the board; From A to Z.

    • proreason
      August 26, 2009 at 4:18 pm

      Most of this information has been well known for a while.

      What amazes me about this criminal’s shady past is that nobody has come forward to talk about his days at Columbia, and so few about his days at Occidental, Harvard, his days as a professional agitator, and his high school years. Now, ordinarilly, you wouldn’t much care about a politician’s past from 20+ years ago, but it’s so clear that he has been virulently anti-American for decades that his past is of paramount interest to national security to know exactly who was influencing him.

      There must be hundreds of people with information about his radical revolutionary activities during those periods of his life. And certainly some of those people don’t like him or would speak up for enough money.

      Yet nobody does.

      I would sure like to know why. Are they still alive? Have his handlers Kerry-ized them? Are they frightened? Are they committed terrorists?

  26. canary
    August 26, 2009 at 12:33 am

    Ronald Reagan Speaks out Against Socialized Medicine and Socialism.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiyfG4WMxA0

    He mentions socializing the auto industry. And 2nd half, is the picture I believe Obama has painted. Doctor’s being ran by government. Government choosing our childrens’s Obama’s birth through college free education. Being told what jobs they will do.

    Obama will never be as articulate as Ronald Reagan nor give Americans a since of pride. Obama is making America sound like a dirty word to the entire world.

  27. pdsand
    August 26, 2009 at 1:35 am

    From Fox News Channel:

    Senator Edward M. Kennedy has just passed away.

    I said the Lord’s Prayer for him and his family.

    I can’t say I will miss him personally.

    • Bronson
      August 26, 2009 at 1:43 am

      Ted Kennedy dies at 77! If he had universal healthcare he would of been dead years ago! Is 10 minutes too soon?

    • Flession
      August 26, 2009 at 1:49 am

      Nah. I’ve already started singing “Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is Dead” since I’ve heard it.

      I just hope he found some sort of salvation or redemption. And believe me, that is very hard for me to say because a larger part in me hopes he burns in hell.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 26, 2009 at 1:57 am

      —Wonder if they’ll spend any time on it in the news?

      just askin.

      (I’m certain the ratings will HAVE to out-do Michael Jackson. BTW, is he still dead?)

      —–This just in…message from the beyond. Teddy says “I still won’t resign”.

    • Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
      August 26, 2009 at 2:08 am

      I hope the POS remembered the marshmallows! Rot in peace Teddy. No mercy for the murderer.

    • Flession
      August 26, 2009 at 2:08 am

      My easily offended co-worker is currently yelling at me for singing that song aloud as I read it.

      I was being cynical, and all, but still, I have no love and no respect for the man in life, and him dying has earnt him nothing in my end. I hope God gives him more mercy than I am capable of showing him.

    • pdsand
      August 26, 2009 at 2:18 am

      The moment after I got done praying for him I said, ‘may God have mercy on his soul’. He certainly has much to answer for. The least of which, I heard that he bellowed in the Senate during the welfare reform debate that white people should pay high taxes just as a form of retribution, even if the government programs that the taxes support aren’t working. Apparently it’s our duty to pay even though our money isn’t helping.

    • caligirl9
      August 26, 2009 at 2:39 am

      Guess he didn’t get the law in Mass changed in time to allow the governor to appoint an interim senator, instead the state will hold a special election.
      My mother always said not to speak ill of the dead. I do sincerely hope Mary Jo has the last word at the Pearly Gates.

    • caligirl9
      August 26, 2009 at 2:51 am

      Will the NY Times or other media outlets make boo-boos in his obit, a la Walter Cronkite?

    • canary
      August 26, 2009 at 4:11 am

      Cali, okay, I’ll try..snif..there were those more deserving to meet his fate.

    • JohnMG
      August 26, 2009 at 7:17 am

      This is a bit lengthy, but worth remembering.

      The Last of The Kennedy Dynasty

      As soon as his cancer was detected, I noticed the immediate attempt at the “canonization” of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a “great American” he is. I say, let’s get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history.

      1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.

      2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can’t count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea , where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received).

      3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris, never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his “education” NEVER advancing past the rank of Private!

      4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver’s license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing!

      5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a “state secret” until in the 1980’s when the report was unsealed. Didn’t hear about that from the unbiased media, did we?

      6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur’s keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond.

      7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party, passing several houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew – that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car.

      The Kennedy family began “calling in favors”, ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn’t call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy’s “political enemies” have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne’s family received a small payout from the Kennedy’s insurance policy, and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy’s family paid their attorney’s bills… a “token of friendship”?

      8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors and is widely held as the “standard-bearer for liberalism”. In his very first Senate roll, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries.

      9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration, up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard bearer for the nation in matters of “what’s right”. What a pompous ass!

      10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than “great American”. “A blonde in every pond” is his motto.

      Let’s not allow the spin doctors make this jerk a hero — how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is. Let’s keep this going for truth, justice and the American way!

    • artboyusa
      August 26, 2009 at 9:29 am

      “Where am I? Is this Heaven?”

      “Not exactly, no”.

      “It feels kinda warm. I’d expect Heaven to be more, um, climate controlled”.

      “You’re not in Heaven. I just told you that?”

      “So where am I? And who are you?”

      “Who am I? C’mon, take a good look: red skin, cloven hooves, long tail, horns on head, pointy little beard, carrying a pitchfork – who do you think I am?”

      “You look a little like Mitch Miller. Remember Mitch Miller?”

      “I’m not Mitch Miller! Man, you are SO dumb! Are you sure you’re not the Kennedy who got lobotomized? Sheesh!”

      “So there won’t be any Sing Along with Mitch?”

      “No! Don’t you get it? I’m the Lord of the Flies, the Emperor of Hell, the Prince of Darkness!”

      “Sorry, Ozzy. I didn’t recognize you…”

      “No! No! No! I’m not Ozzy – I’m…”

      “Mitch Miller?”

      “AAAAARRRGGGHHH! This is so frustrating! I need a drink”.

      “Hey, now you’re talking. Mind if I join you?”

      “Yes, I do mind! I don’t drink with the Damned”.

      “Oh. So what about me?”

      “Especially not you”.

      “It’s because I’m Irish, isn’t it?”

      “No, it’s because you’re damned. Damned to Hell! Damned for all eternity!”

      “Why? What did I ever do?”

      “What did you ever do? Ha! What didn’t you do is more like it. Look at this list of malfeasance and sin –it’s as long as my Satanic arm!”

      “Um, I can’t really see without my reading glasses. Is it okay if I go back and get them?”
      “No, you can’t go back and get them! You’re stuck here with me in Hell forever! Forever and ever and… – oh your god! That means I’m stuck with you too! Say, um, Ted; maybe you should go back and get those reading glasses, huh? Take your time. No rush…”

      Leader! Statesman! Lion of the Senate! Submerged Driving Pioneer! R.I.P Ted: you were a survivor, unlike Mary Jo. I’ll never forget how you came to Medford High in 1971 and honked and brayed through your stump speech before taking audience questions. Everybody was polite; no awkward queries about how fast does an Oldsmobile go when its underwater or anything like that. You got asked about replacing the draft with a volunteer army and you said you were totally against that idea because it would be unfair to the poor and I turned to my friend and nudged him.

      “Well, see you in Saigon” I said. “It’s only fair”.

      “But I’m poor too”.

      “Maybe you are; I’m disadvantaged”.

      “Lucky”.

    • proreason
      August 26, 2009 at 10:50 am

      Fredo is gone

    • Liberals Demise
      August 26, 2009 at 5:56 pm

      I wonder if he had gone to Cuba and got a second opinion if he would have ……………. never mind, he is still dead and (drink in hand lifted high) here’s to his Health Care Agenda; May it rot in HELL with him!

    • Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
      August 27, 2009 at 2:15 am

      artboy,

      Thank you for helping me through this time of great emotional despair. I knew I could count on you. snif, snif. “Submerged driving pioneer”, I almost chuckled.

  28. Bronson
    August 26, 2009 at 1:50 am

    Ted Kennedy’s tombstone will read: “I should of tied Mary Jo’s body to this stone.”

  29. Bronson
    August 26, 2009 at 1:53 am

    Finally a Kennedy dies from natural causes! Chappaquiddick just wont be the same without him. If they insist on burying him in Arlington Cemetery, there’s a part of a road there where drivers sometimes lose control and overshoot — that’s where he should go.

    • 12 Gauge Rage
      August 26, 2009 at 9:10 am

      So is this it then? Was Ted the last of the Kennedy clan in politics? Or is there another young Kennedy being groomed for a lifetime of political shenanigans? I’m surprised that with all his reckless behavior that he lived this long.

  30. canary
    August 26, 2009 at 2:47 am

    Rueters: New York Fed names AFL-CIO’s Hughes as chairman
    Mon Aug 24, 2009
    WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Monday named labor leader Denis Hughes as chairman of its board of directors, filling a vacancy created when the previous chairman stepped down amid questions over his purchases of Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) stock.

    Hughes, who has served as acting chairman since Stephen Friedman stepped down in May and who is president of the New York State AFL-CIO, was named chairman for the remainder of 2009.

    Regional Fed bank chairmen are designated annually. The U.S. central bank is comprised of a seven-member Board of Governors in Washington and 12 regional Fed banks.

    The New York Fed said the vice chairman position, which Hughes had held before becoming acting chairman, will be filled for the rest of this year by Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University.

    Two positions on the New York Fed’s board still remain open, but a bank spokesman said he expects they will be filled shortly. (Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Leslie Adler)

    http://www.reuters.com/article.....2020090824

  31. canary
    August 26, 2009 at 3:50 am

    AP: U.S. working with Libya on Gadhafi visit to U.N.
    By Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee Aug 25, 2009

    WASHINGTON – In a bid to head off any embarrassing incidents,
    the State Department said Tuesday it is working with Libya to find a place for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to stay when he visits the United Nations next month.

    Libya has drawn criticism from families and friends of Americans who died in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland,

    Gadhafi might set up a Bedouin-style tent at a Libyan-owned estate in the

    upscale New Jersey suburb of Englewood to accommodate him and his entourage.

    Some of the families of victims of the Lockerbie bombing — 23 of the 259 people killed were from New Jersey — live nearby and local officials and residents have protested the idea.

    State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said U.S. officials will keep in mind the “very raw sensibilities” of the families as it works to find a residence for Gadhafi,

    “Our priority has been and will remain the families of the victims of this tragedy,” Kelly told reporters.

    Gadhafi met in person with the freed Lockerbie bomber, former intelligence agent Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, on his return to Libya.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....JraW5nd2l0

    How about put him in a jail cell under protective custody. grrrrrrr.

  32. canary
    August 26, 2009 at 4:07 am

    Will Ted Kennedy leave his fortune to build a new children’s hospital?

    • artboyusa
      August 26, 2009 at 4:17 am

      I guess we’ll find out now.

    • canary
      August 26, 2009 at 5:04 am

      I just heard the news saying they were asking for contributions. Probably for a monument, that instead could feed poor starving children in Africa.
      hope the Navy and Government does not pay for another private Cape-Cod sea burial at tax payer’s cost. oh. almost forgot. snif..snif.. snif…

    • Flession
      August 26, 2009 at 5:51 am

      I might have also pissed off one of my online Lib friends. He went to DC for the off chance to work with Drunkendy, and now that dream is lost.

      He said this is the end of a dynasty. No more Kennedy’s in office, namesake or not.

      Couldn’t happen sooner, if you ask me.

      I had to explain to him that to understand my disgust for Drunkendy, you’d have to read Les Misérables. Except Valjean didn’t try to change his life around after robbing the kid.

      ….he might not talk to me for a few days.

  33. canary
    August 26, 2009 at 5:38 am

    AP IMPACT: Politics can drive stimulus priorities
    By AP Writers Eileen Sullivan And Matt Apuzzo, Aug 26 2009

    WASHINGTON – A sleepy Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border
    that sees about ‘three travelers a day’ will get $15 million under President

    Whitetail, Mont., an unincorporated town with a ‘population of 71, saw only about $63,000 in freight cross its border last year’.

    County unemployment is an enviable 4 percent. “I think, absolutely, it’s going to create jobs and build the infrastructure,” Tester said.

    Despite Obama’s promises that the stimulus plan would be transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence.

    • A border station in Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s home state of Arizona is getting $199 million, five times more than any other border station. …

    • A checkpoint in Laredo, Texas, which serves more than 55,000 travelers and 4,200 trucks a day, is rated among the government’s highest priorities but was passed over for stimulus money.

    • The Westhope, N.D., checkpoint, which serves about ‘73 people a day’ and is among the lowest-priority projects, is set to get nearly $15 million for renovations.

    The Whitetail project, which involves building a border station the size and cost of a Hollywood mansion, benefited from two key allies, Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. Both pressed Napolitano to finance projects in their state..

    Customs officials would not discuss that claim. Asked to explain Whitetail’s windfall, they provided a one-page fact sheet that contains no information …. almost identical to the fact sheet for every other Montana project.

    Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security agency overseeing border projects, .. will not make it public or explain its justifications for deviating from it.

    The Transportation Department, … was recently criticized by its internal watchdog for spending $1.1 billion on airport construction that didn’t meet financing standards.

    ..the public and members of Congress don’t know when the administration bumps a project ahead of others ranked more important.

    That’s the process the Obama administration described in a news release announcing $720 million in stimulus money for borders. Trent..who oversees the border projects, said the

    list Congress required is more like a meal plan. The administration can decide when to eat each dish, as long as everything eventually gets eaten.

    Explaining why one project might get pushed ahead, Frazier said, “You just really liked pizza and you wanted to accelerate it.”

    Officials said they could similarly justify every decision they’ve made. They would not provide those justifications

    But even some in Congress say they aren’t getting answers. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said he has yet to hear a good explanation about why highly ranked projects such as Laredo were snubbed.

    More than $116 billion in freight passed through Laredo last year, according to the Transportation Department. It is one of the busiest border stations in the country. Unemployment in the metropolitan area is 9.4 percent.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200....._crossings

  34. nuthingbettertodo
    August 26, 2009 at 11:04 am

    Foreign GPs who commute to Britain: £100-an-hour Poles and Lithuanians fly in for shifts our doctors won’t do
    By Rebecca Camber
    Last updated at 8:35 AM on 25th August 2009

    Comments (187) Add to My Stories
    The huge extent to which the NHS needs foreign doctors to treat patients out of hours is revealed today.

    A third of primary care trusts are flying in GPs from as far away as Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland because of a shortage of doctors in Britain willing to work in the evenings and at weekends.

    The stand-ins earn up to £100 an hour, and one trust paid Polish and German doctors a total of £267,000 in a year, a Daily Mail investigation has found.

    Blunder: David Gray, 70, was killed by German doctor Daniel Ubani (right)

    It raises fresh concerns that British patients are being treated by exhausted doctors without a perfect command of English.

    Yesterday the Royal College of GPs and the General Medical Council called for a ‘radical review’ of out-of-hours care so that the NHS no longer has to rely on help from abroad.

    The figures come months after an investigation was launched into the conduct of a German doctor after two patients died on his first shift in Britain.

    Daniel Ubani had just three hours sleep after travelling from Germany before he went on duty in Cambridgeshire.

    More…Tory MPs revolt over David Cameron’s plans to increase NHS spending above inflation
    One third of GPs would not take swine flu vaccine over safety fears

    The Nigerian-born doctor injected 70-year-old kidney patient David Gray with ten
    times the maximum recommended dose of morphine, and an 86-year-old woman died of a heart attack after Ubani failed to send her to hospital.

    The NHS is having to rely on doctors from overseas because a lucrative new contract for British GPs has resulted in more than 90 per cent opting out of responsibility for their patients in the evenings and at weekends.

    Despite doing less, their pay has soared by 50 per cent to an average of almost £108,000.

    Responsibility for out-of-hours cover has now passed to primary care trusts.

    The rules state that foreign doctors need to have basic GP training, but recent experience is not always necessary.

    Their qualifications are checked by the General Medical Council and the local PCT, but no checks are in place to ensure that they are not exhausted after working long hours in their home country.

    Our investigation revealed that more than a third of the 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) in England have flown in foreign GPs in the last year. Of the 146 trusts who responded, 51 have used overseas GPs in the last 12 months.

    The figure has trebled since 2008 when just one in ten primary care trusts were flying in GPs from abroad. However, it is impossible to know the exact number of GPs travelling to the UK as many primary care trusts do not keep a record of their nationality.

    Halton and St Helens PCT spent the most on foreign GPs for the second year running. Between 2008-9, it paid nine Polish and two German doctors a total of £267,000 for shifts in the UK.

    The rules state that foreign doctors need to have basic GP training, but recent experience is not always necessary/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    South Western Ambulance Service, which arranges out- of-hours cover in Bournemouth, Dorset and Somerset, spent £163,760 in the same period employing four German GPs – more than twice the sum spent the previous year.

    South Staffordshire PCT spent £13,585 on three foreign GPs who provided more than 205 hours of cover between 2008-9 on an hourly rate of £66.10, and Medway PCT spent £12,000 on foreign cover.

    Many of the trusts employ the same European locums regularly. East of England Ambulance Trust, which covers Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of Essex, employs two Italian and three German GPs for five shifts a month on average, while Leicestershire and Rutland PCT regularly employs three EU doctors.

    Campaigners fear the use of foreign doctors is putting patients’ lives at risk.

    Michael Summers of the Patients’ Association said: ‘The problem is that these PCTs send the work to agencies saying we need this number of doctors, we don’t really care where you get them, and they get any old Tom, Dick or Harry to do the job for £1,000 a weekend.

    ‘Patients’ lives are likely to be put at risk if we do not establish the level of expertise and medical training of these doctors arriving from all over the world.’

    Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: ‘The Government completely botched reform of the GP contract and failed to develop an adequate out-of-hours care system.

    ‘Relying on doctors being flown in for a weekend shift is not a sustainable way to cover up ministers’ mistakes.’

    Calling for a ‘radical review’ of out-of-hours care, Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘I am particularly worried about the use of doctors from Europe flying in to provide out-of-hours care and then flying back to their home countries to provide services there.

    ‘It’s not good for patients here or in their home countries.

    ‘Doctors from Europe who come to the UK to work in out of hours services must prove they are of the same quality as our home-grown doctors. We are not convinced there are appropriate checks in place to ensure they are.’

    Finlay Scott, chief executive of the General Medical Council, which regulates doctors, said the current system ‘does not guarantee the level of patient safety that we want’.

    A spokesman for the Department of Health said: ‘The NHS has always used professionals trained abroad because until recently we did not train enough for our own needs.

    ‘Now the need to use overseas doctors is declining.’

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....z0PIlcDuQf

  35. nuthingbettertodo
    August 26, 2009 at 12:46 pm

    Cops nab man slaughtering lamb at Northwest Side home
    Comments

    August 26, 2009

    FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS
    A man was arrested and charged with possession of having animals for slaughter after he was found with four lambs, including one he allegedly killed, at his North Park neighborhood home on Sunday.

    Abdulsalam Alawi, 38, of the 3200 block of West Ardmore Avenue, was charged with four counts of possession of animals for slaughter, municipal ordinance violations, according to a police report.

    Alawi was arrested at 11:25 a.m. Sunday at his home, where he allegedly had four lambs in his garage — one that had already been killed prior to the arresting officers arrival, according to the report.

    Alawi allegedly told officers he was intending to slaughter all four animals in preparation for his families’ upcoming holiday observance, according to the report.

    Alawi allegedly told officers he knew his home was not licensed slaughterhouse or “kill floor,” according to the report. He was found to be in violation of the state department of agriculture guidelines and requirements.

    Court information was not immediately available.
    http://www.suntimes.com/news/m.....09.article

    • caligirl9
      August 26, 2009 at 1:03 pm

      Oh but it’s cultural so it’s okay. Like dog fighting, cock fighting and horse tripping! We must be more understanding of our neighbors! (puke!)

  36. caligirl9
    August 26, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    Not a political loss, but perhaps a more profound one. I have no idea about his political leanings, but I loved the way he told the truth about the OJ Simpson case … and he will be overshadowed by Kennedy, just like Farrah Fawcett was overshadowed by Michael Jackson… Dominick was an advocate for victims’ and victims’ families’ rights.

    Society crime writer Dominick Dunne dies at 83
    Dominick Dunne, the former Hollywood producer and best-selling author known for his Vanity Fair essays on the courtroom travails of the rich and famous, died Wednesday in New York city after a long battle with cancer…
    http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/.....index.html

  37. canary
    August 27, 2009 at 12:12 am

    Boteach To Kaddafi: ‘Not In My Backyard’
    The Jewish Weekly by Steve Lipman Aug 26 2009

    When Libyan leader Moammar Kaddafi decided to set up camp, literally, in Englewood, N.J., during his upcoming visit to the U.S. for the United Nations General Assembly next month, he likely did not realize that his next-door neighbor would be one of this country’s best-known and most outspoken rabbis, with a gift for media attention…Rbbi Shmuley Boteach..

    says he woke up one morning two months ago and noticed a disturbing sight on the grounds of his home. Eight large trees and a metal fence, which separated his property from his neighbor’s, were gone.

    The perpetrators, claims Rabbi Boteach, were his neighbors, representatives of the Libyan government. The damage to his property and concurrent renovations on the neighboring home, a residence of the Libyan ambassador to the United Nations that had been in disrepair since the rabbi and his family moved to New Jersey a decade ago, led him to guess — correctly — why uncared-for property was suddenly being cared for: Libyan leader Moammar Kaddafi was coming.

    Libya subsequently announced that Kaddafi, who has ruled the Arab nation in northern Africa since a military coup 40 years ago, would attend the opening of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 15, and would live in a tent on the Englewood property during his U.S. sojourn.
    Find somewhere else to stay, the rabbi said.

    Rabbi Boteach announced at a press conference at his house this week that he is suing the Libyan government for damaging his property, and he wants an accounting of the high-tech surveillance apparatus that will likely be installed in the Libyan house as part of security measures before Kaddafi’s arrival.

    Rabbi Boteach will sponsor a protest rally at his house, with the participation of local government officials, on Sunday at 11 a.m.

    Rabbi Boteach said. “I don’t want a terrorist living next door to me. I suggest he pitch his tent in the UN compound [in Manhattan]. They’re his hosts.”

    (The Libyan leader’s request to camp out in Central Park was denied by city officials.)

    Al-Megrahi, suffering from terminal cancer, was released from Scottish prison, setting off furious protests in the U.S. and the West.
    Libyan television showed Kaddafi embracing the terrorist.
    “He clearly is a lover of terrorists, an abettor of terrorists, a champion of terrorists,” Rabbi Boteach told The Jewish Week in a telephone interview.

    Englewood officials told Rabbi Boteach that the Libyan property there “was millions of dollars in arrears in property taxes, with the Libyan government claiming immunity from local taxation, even though the same claim was being made on a property in New York and an exemption is provided for only one residence,” he wrote last week in the Jerusalem Post. “Orthodox Jews account for a very large percentage of Englewood’s tax revenue, and since Kaddafi’s embassy refuses to pay a dime in taxation, it is our community which in no small measure finances the basic services of his mansion.”

    for entire article go to
    http://www.thejewishweek.com/v....._York.html

  38. canary
    August 27, 2009 at 12:42 am

    VOA:Group: US Screening Reporters in Afghanistan
    By VOA News Voice of America 26 August 2009

    The International Federation of Journalists ifj
    A group representing journalists around the world says the U.S. military is screening reporters who are seeking to enter Afghanistan under the protection of U.S. troops.

    The International Federation of Journalists alleged Wednesday that the Pentagon is using a public relations firm to determine how journalists are portraying the U.S. military in their coverage.

    The IFJ general secretary, Aidan White, said that such action raises doubt that the U.S. Army is interested in helping journalists work freely in Afghanistan.

    A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. military previously used a contractor to deal with journalists, but only to determine the reporters’ interests as they sought to enter the field with U.S. troops. Spokesman Bryan Whitman denied that journalists were granted or denied requests based on their portrayal of the U.S. military.

    Whitman added that the only measurement the Pentagon uses to assess news reports is their accuracy.

    The International Federation of Journalists says it represents more than 600,000 journalists in 123 countries worldwide.
    http://www.voanews.com/english.....-voa68.cfm

  39. canary
    August 27, 2009 at 1:11 am

    Marine corporal awarded Navy Cross
    The Desert Tail By Kurt Schauppner Wed Aug 26, 2009

    MCAGCC — Cpl. Richard S. Weinmaster doesn’t remember using his own body to shield his comrades from the blast of an enemy grenade during an ambush last year in Afghanistan, nor does he remember continuing to fight despite being critically wounded.

    His fellow Marines, however, do remember

    Weinmaster was promoted to corporal Thursday, Aug. 20 as he was awarded the nation’s second-highest award for valor — the Navy Cross — in a ceremony at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center’s Lance Cpl. Torrey L. Gray Field.

    Now 20, then-Pfc. Weinmaster was serving in the Sangin District of Afghan-istan’s Helmand Province with 3rd Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 7th Mar-ine Regiment on July 8, 2008 when his unit came under attack.

    According to a citation signed by the Secretary of the Navy, Weinmaster placed himself between his team leader and an enemy grenade, using his body to shield the man and other Marines from the blast.

    “Although he was critically wounded, Private First Class Weinmaster continued to carry on the attack, en-gaging enemy forces with accurate automatic weapons fire and forcing them to break contact, until he collapsed from the gravity of his wounds,” the citation notes.

    Weinmaster, who is recovering at the Wounded Warrior Battalion in the San Diego area, said after the ceremony that, with two pieces of shrapnel still lodged in his brain, he has no memories of the events which led to the medal ceremony.

    His parents, Jim and Kathy Weinmaster, and two siblings, Josh and Ashley, traveled from their home in Cozad, Neb., for the ceremony. Jim Weinmaster took part in the ceremony, helping pin corporal bars to his son’s lapel…
    “We knew he’d got hit by a grenade but we didn’t know what happened,” he said, describing the ceremony as “very humbling.”
    The elder Weinmaster said his family lives on five acres in the farming community of Cozad.

    “I have actually wanted to join since I was in the third grade,” he said, noting that his interest in the service was piqued when a Marine came to his school and gave a very convincing speech.

    Someone who will remember the incident for a long time is Lance Cpl. Travis Wilkerson, the team leader whose life Weinmaster saved through his actions.

    “There is nothing I can do to repay that man,” Wilkerson said.

    Comments? Questions? E-mail Kurt Schauppner at kurts@deserttrail.com
    http://hidesertstar.com/articl.....587262.txt

    Amazing the President of the U.S. didn’t attend, too busy freeing terrorists and honoring Ramadan. Here’s a brave Marine that saved on Health care by saving his fellow man. God Bless him and all soldiers. And please Lord, help this brave young man heal.

  40. canary
    August 27, 2009 at 4:11 am

    After Diagnosis, Determined to Make a ‘Good Ending’
    The New York Times \By MARK LEIBOVICH Aug 27 2009

    WASHINGTON — The once-indefatigable Ted Kennedy was in a wheelchair at the end, struggling to speak and sapped of his energy. But from the time his brain cancer was diagnosed 15 months ago, he spoke of having a “good ending for myself,” in whatever time he had left, and by every account, he did.

    As recently as a few days ago, Mr. Kennedy was still digging into big bowls of mocha chip and butter crunch ice creams, all smushed together (as he liked it). He and his wife, Vicki, had been watching every James Bond movie and episode of “24” on DVD.

    He began each morning with a sacred rite of reading his newspapers, drinking coffee and scratching the bellies of his beloved Portuguese water dogs,

    If he was feeling up to it, he would end his evenings with family dinner parties around the same mahogany table where he used to eat lobster with his brothers.

    He took phone calls from President Obama, house calls from his priest and — just a few weeks ago — crooned after-dinner duets of “You Are My Sunshine” (with his son Patrick) and “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” (with Vicki).

    “There were a lot of joyous moments at the end,” said Dr. Lawrence C. Horowitz, Mr. Kennedy’s former Senate chief of staff, who oversaw his medical care.

    But interviews with close friends and family members yield a portrait of a man who in his final months was at peace with the end of his life and grateful for the chance to savor the salty air and the company of loved ones.

    Befitting the epic life he led, Mr. Kennedy was the protagonist of a storybook finale from the time of his diagnosis in May 2008.

    Mr. Kennedy raced to complete his legislative work and his memoirs (“I’ve got to get this right for history,” he kept saying),

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08.....nted=print

    Isn’t it great that inspite of being told he didn’t have a chance he sucked the tax-payers for unnecessary treatment, that he could have donated to other’s who had more of a chance.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 27, 2009 at 10:03 am

      How utterly touching. Reminds me of the movies of Adolph playing with his beloved German Shepherds.

    • proreason
      August 27, 2009 at 10:50 am

      Brain cancer explains a lot, doesn’t it?

    • ilzito guacamolito
      August 27, 2009 at 11:25 am

      ~ Isn’t it great that inspite of being told he didn’t have a chance he sucked the tax-payers for unnecessary treatment, that he could have donated to other’s who had more of a chance. ~

      But then we wouldn’t have gotten those memoirs of his. I wonder how many pages he devoted to being expelled from Harvard, Chappaquiddick, complicity with the Soviets, etc. After all, “I’ve got to get this right for history,” he kept saying.

    • Liberals Demise
      August 27, 2009 at 11:26 am

      No mention of finger painting with the contents of his Depends. He loved the Arts …..I mean he was a co-sponsor of the NEA, was he not?

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 27, 2009 at 11:53 am

      Dain Bramage

  41. Rusty Shackleford
    August 27, 2009 at 10:00 am

    From the AP:

    Kennedy to lie in repose in Boston for 2 days

    By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer Ray Henry, Associated Press Writer – 1 min ago

    HYANNIS PORT, Mass. – As Sen. Edward Kennedy’s family prepares for his public memorials, people are already visiting the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston to pay their respects.

    About 20 people were lined up before the library opened at 9 a.m. Thursday.

    Kennedy’s body will travel the 70 miles from Cape Cod to lie in repose at the library he helped develop in tribute to one of his slain brothers.

    Rest of story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....y_memorial

    —–I swear, if I had the money, I’d bribe the hearse driver to peel off the bridge at Chappaquiddick and watch that thing sink to the bottom.

  42. BannedbytheTaliban
    August 27, 2009 at 11:05 am

    Yippie!!!

    From the BBC

    Young Guantanamo Afghan to sue US

    One of the youngest detainees held at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay will sue the United States for compensation, his lawyers say.

    Mohammed Jawad was released and arrived in his native Afghanistan earlier this week. His family says he was 12 at the time of his detention in 2002.

    He was in custody for seven years. The Pentagon, however, disputes his age.

    Mr Jawad had been accused of injuring two US soldiers and their interpreter by throwing a grenade at their vehicle.

    …His family and lawyers say Mr Jawad was subjected to torture while in detention.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8224357.stm

    It just keeps getting better! Perhaps he should have free health care too.

    • Liberals Demise
      August 27, 2009 at 11:52 am

      He can gladly have my share of Nobama Care. MoMo Jawad can pick it up next door in Pakistan. When he is there fighting against the infidels!

    • BannedbytheTaliban
      August 27, 2009 at 3:10 pm

      I’d like to compensate him with 168 grs of lead.

  43. Rusty Shackleford
    August 27, 2009 at 11:08 am

    Fed chairman victim of identity fraud ring: Newsweek

    Wed Aug 26, 7:24 pm ET

    WASHINGTON (AFP) – Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke was one of hundreds of victims of an identity fraud ring that stole over 2.1 million dollars from individuals and financial institutions, Newsweek magazine reported on Wednesday.

    The magazine, citing court documents, said the central bank chief became entangled in the scam after a thief stole his wife’s purse in August of last year and began cashing checks on the family’s bank account.

    The purse-snatcher was working for a crime ring that federal agents and police in several US states had been investigating for months, Newsweek said, adding that Bernanke’s wife, Anna, was not specifically targeted.

    It said the theft of the Bernanke checkbook became part of a wide-ranging identity-theft investigation by the US Secret Service and US Postal Inspection Service which had been previously underway.

    Newsweek said the probe culminated in a series of arrests, criminal complaints, and indictments brought by federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....kenewsweek

    ——-You know, it’s a bloody shame, stealing money like that….

    • proreason
      August 27, 2009 at 11:10 am

      “The purse-snatcher was working for a crime ring ”

      Was it our government, or a private enterprise?

  44. BannedbytheTaliban
    August 27, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    USAToday puts a tepid toe in the DNCs pool of corruption:

    Do campaign contributions help win pension fund deals?

    By Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY

    More than two dozen firms that have surfaced in a broad corruption investigation of public pension funds gave at least $1.97 million in campaign contributions to officials with potential influence over the funds’ investments, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

    The givers included private-equity giants such as the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and the Quadrangle Group, the firm founded by Steven Rattner, who in July resigned as the White House point man for the auto industry rescue. The contributions are legal, and the firms haven’t been accused of wrongdoing related to the giving.

    The analysis of donations since 1998 showed the money flowed in 30 states to incumbents and candidates for governor, treasurer and other posts that influence billions of dollars in pension fund awards.

    Several of the firms won pension investment work after they, their executives or hired intermediaries gave contributions. The awards generate lucrative fees and lend prestige that could help lure new clients.

    …Cuomo’s investigation so far has produced two guilty pleas and criminal charges against four defendants. The suspects include Hank Morris, a nationally known campaign strategist who was the top political adviser to former New York state comptroller Alan Hevesi, and David Loglisci, a former Hevesi aide at the nation’s third-largest public pension fund. Both have pleaded not guilty.

    …Prominent givers included David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group. He contributed $48,000 since 2002 to Hevesi’s election bids, records show.

    …Campaign finance records show Schwarzman; his wife, Christine; and Peterson gave a combined $30,000 to three candidates who ran in 2002 to succeed H. Carl McCall as state comptroller. Hevesi, the winner, got the most, $21,000. Separately, McCall received $25,000 from Christine Schwarzman for his unsuccessful bid for governor.

    …Stephen Schwarzman gave $11,000 to Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell’s races in 2002 and 2006, campaign finance records show. Pennsylvania’s governors by law appoint six of the state pension board’s 11 members.

    …Rattner gave $5,000 to Richardson’s election committee in 2002, campaign finance records show. Long known as a major Democratic fundraiser and contributor, Rattner gave an additional $15,000 to Richardson in 2006, the records show. The gifts didn’t pose a conflict because Richardson didn’t vote on the Quadrangle investment, Wollmann said.

    http://www.usatoday.com/money/.....ions_N.htm

    The amazing thing, the word Democrat appears only once when all persons mentioned are in fact Democrats, some of them very prominent democrats such as Bill Richardson and Ed Rendell. It seems pay-to-play is the standard way of doing business for democrats, and it has all the way back to Tammany Hall and the Chicago Democratic Machine. In fact, the DNC functions pretty much the same as it did back then. The Chicago Machine was also known as the Cook County Democratic Organization, key word being Organization. Not go all Glenn Beck on everybody; groups like ACORN and SEIU are really modern day political machines who have taken control of our republic. Complete with voter fraud and knee breakers, except pay-to-play was know back then a patronage.

    Where is the outrage?

  45. caligirl9
    August 27, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    It’s a start… baby steps. From the LA Times.

    L.A. County inmates to have immigration status checked as part of new program

    All inmates booked into jails throughout Los Angeles County will have their immigration status checked beginning today, but federal officials said they don’t have the resources to deport all illegal immigrants with criminal records who are identified.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement will prioritize illegal immigrants with prior convictions for violent crimes, including murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery. Though immigration officials plan to assess every case individually, they said some with less serious criminal records may be released back into the community.

    “The reality of the situation is that we don’t presently have the resources to respond to every single person,” agency head John Morton said during a recent visit to Los Angeles. “We are focusing on the worst of the worst.”

    …Nationwide, about 12% of all inmates checked were here illegally and had prior criminal convictions. Of those, about 6,700 had been convicted of violent crimes. Another roughly 60,000 had other criminal convictions…

    If inmates have been previously deported or have outstanding orders, they also will be subject to removal, said Trey Lund, field office director of detention and removal operations for ICE in Los Angeles.

    …But Joan Friedland of the National Immigration Law Center said she is concerned about the racial profiling that occurs before booking. Friedland also said she doesn’t trust that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will only deport those with serious criminal convictions.

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....ogram.html

    A few are better than nothing. Get rid of the worst, but dammit—secure the damn border!!!!!

    • Liberals Demise
      August 27, 2009 at 5:41 pm

      Time to bring out the catapults and send them home with our Best Wishes for a hard landing!!
      Fling…..WHOOSH! AAAAAaaaaaaEEEEEEeeeee!!!!
      Fling ….. WHOOSH! AAAAAAAaaaaaaaEEEEEeeeee!!!

  46. canary
    August 27, 2009 at 6:28 pm

    Torture report features local tie
    Interrogation of 9/11 boss led authorities to this city
    THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH By Jack Torry August 26, 2009 3:07 AM

    WASHINGTON — An internal CIA report made public Monday says the agency’s heavily criticized interrogation techniques led to the 2003 arrest of a Columbus truck driver who eventually pleaded guilty to providing assistance to al-Qaida.

    The 2004 report, released after an order by a federal judge, asserted that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attack, provided CIA interrogators with information that “led to the investigation and prosecution” of Iyman Faris, a native of Pakistan who was living in Columbus.

    Faris, 39, is serving a 20-year sentence after admitting that he had scouted the Brooklyn Bridge in 2002 as a possible target of a terrorist attack. … al-Qaida considered cutting the lines of suspension bridges in New York City to cause their collapse, Faris..

    Although the heavily censored 259-page report focuses on waterboarding and other harsh techniques that CIA officials employed, the inspector general acknowledged that “there is no doubt the (harsh interrogation) program has been effective.”

    The report said information provided by the detainees “assisted in the identification of terrorists,” including Faris. The report added that “detainees, both planners and operatives, have also made the (CIA) aware of several plots planned for the United States and around the world,” including flying a hijacked airliner into the tallest building in California.

    But CIA senior managers “believe that lives have been saved as a result of the capture and interrogation of terrorists who were planning attacks.”

    Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenants, was captured March 1, 2003, in Pakistan. The FBI arrested Faris on March 20, 2003, and he pleaded guilty on May 1 of that year.

    Two of his Columbus-area friends also are in federal lockups:

    • Nuradin Abdi, a native of Somalia, pleaded guilty in July 2007 to conspiring to support terrorists and is serving a 10-year sentence for plotting to blow up an unidentified local shopping mall.

    • Christopher Paul, a graduate of Thomas Worthington High School, was sentenced in February to 20 years for conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction on targets in Europe and the United States.

    Former Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, who served on the Senate Intelligence Committee that had access years ago to the report, said the captured terrorists “are ugly, nasty human beings who were bent on destroying us.”

    “As the inspector general report points out, information they received from these individuals saved lives. This was very valuable information.”

    But Carrie Davis, staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said, “There have been studies galore showing that these so-called enhanced interrogation techniques — or torture — are ineffective.

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has named an independent prosecutor to examine possible abuse.

    However, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, said the “men and women who protect this country should never have to worry that they will face criminal prosecution as a result of a political election.”

    Boehner charged that Holder’s decision “smacks more of a witch hunt designed to satisfy political allies than a strategy to keep the American people safe.”

    Garrette Silverman, a spokeswoman for Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, …believes we need to focus on best practices for the future and not be preoccupied with the past.”

    Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Cleveland, was among those who contend the probe ordered by Holder doesn’t go far enough.

    Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind contributed to this story.
    jtorry@dispatch.com
    http://www.dispatchpolitics.co.....mp;sid=101

  47. canary
    August 27, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    Fund established to help fallen PTC soldier
    The Citizen.Com Thu, 08/27/2009 – 4:49pmBy: John Munford

    Daniel Berschinski, a 1st lieutenant in the Army, lost both his legs in an explosion when he stepped on an improvised explosive device while his unit secured a village in Afghanistan Aug. 17, a family friend told The Citizen.

    A fund has been established to help the Berschinski family as they will need to make multiple trips back and forth between Washington to help care for Daniel. Donations may be sent dropped off at the SouthCrest Bank in Tyrone on Ga. Highway 74 across from the SouthHampton Publix shopping center.

    Donations may also be mailed to 105 St. Stephens Court, Suite A, Tyrone, Ga. 30290.

    Berschinski, who earned his Eagle Boy Scout as a member of Peachtree City’s Troop 175, is being visited in Washington, D.C. by his parents Bob and Susan and brother Rob, who works as a civilian for the office of the secretary of defense in Washington.

    The doctors don’t think Berschinski suffered any brain damage but he lost both his legs in the blast, the family friend said.

    Berschinski is a member of the Army’s 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, 1st Battalion, 17th regiment. He graduated from McIntosh High School in 2002.

    Local photographer Rainy Chastine has offered to collect flight passes, frequent flyer miles, and donations for the family at her Fayetteville studio located at 255 East Lanier Avenue, Fayetteville.

    Chastine is asking for get well wishes, cards, photos and the like to be sent to Rainyinga@aol.com so they can be put in a digital frame for Berschinski to watch in his room.

    http://www.thecitizen.com/~citizen0/node/38980

    The questioning of brain damage to our injured troops is often, with such “wounds” as the media refers to when a soldier is “wounded” is the massive bleeding leads to strokes and blindness.
    Our soldiers are in the worst terrorist areas in Afganistan. These terrorists blowing people up, consider it an honor, so let’s give the monster terrorists the honor of blowing theiry consider being blown up an honor. The good ones have had 8 years to get out. Our soldiers being forced to babysit, feed, and build for them, is not going to change their religious beliefs. Obama who was raised his entire life with muslims knows this, without a doubt. Obama and his cronies are doing everything they can, as fast as they can gain control of America. We don’t need more troops over there, we need more big bombs.

  48. canary
    August 27, 2009 at 7:37 pm

    AAP: US army admits monitoring reporters August 27, 2009

    The US Army in Afghanistan has admitted keeping files on journalists and
    classifying reporting on the war as
    positive,
    negative and
    neutral,

    but insists reporters have never been denied access on the basis of past reporting.
    The Pentagon on Thursday distanced itself from the practices revealed by the newspaper Stars and Stripes.

    “A tool like this serves no purpose and for me doesn’t provide any value,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. “As I’ve said before, the metric we use at the Department of Defence to rate a story is based on whether or not the story is accurate.”

    US forces in Afghanistan acknowledged in a statement that it uses public relations group Rendon for “several analytic reports, to include characterisation of specific topical stories/events as positive, negative or neutral, as well as whether media reporting is an accurate portrayal of the facts as we know them.”

    Stars and Stripes, a publication funded by the Pentagon but with an independent editorial mandate, said the files on journalists were aimed at determining how to influence their reporting while embedded with a military unit.

    “We have used background information, which typically includes basic biographical information about the reporter and a snapshot of what they have been covering recently, to prepare leaders for interviews as any public affairs office might prepare for any media engagement,” the army said.

    http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/w.....reporters/

  49. canary
    August 27, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    Hezbollah part of next government: Hariri
    (AFP) – Aug 27 2009

    BEIRUT —
    “The national unity government will include the (ruling) March 14 alliance, and I also want to assure the Israeli enemy that Hezbollah will be in this government whether it likes it or not because Lebanon’s interests require all parties be involved in this cabinet,” Hariri said at an Iftar feast to break the Ramadan fast on Tuesday night.

    Earlier this month, Israel warned that the Lebanese government as a whole would be blamed for any attack from its territory if the Shiite militant group were part of the new government.

    “If Hezbollah joins the government it will be clear that the Lebanese government will be held responsible for any attack coming from its territory against Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

    Hariri, son of slain billionaire ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, was named prime minister on June 27 after his Western-backed alliance defeat a Hezbollah-led coalition backed by Syria and Iran earlier in the month.

    http://www.google.com/hostedne.....AKCUaVZ5ZQ

  50. canary
    August 28, 2009 at 1:19 am

    TIME: After Kennedy’s Death: Silence from the Pope
    By Jeff Israely Aug 27 2009

    There was a poignant footnote to President Obama’s historic July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

    Behind closed doors in the papal library, Obama handed Benedict a letter that Senator Edward Kennedy had asked him to personally deliver to the pontiff. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later told reporters that nobody – not even the President – knew the contents of the sealed missive.
    Obama himself asked Benedict to pray for Kennedy, and called the ailing Senator afterward to fill him in on his encounter with the 82-year-old Pope.

    The letter, most likely already re-sealed and tucked away in the Vatican archives, was probably just a dying Catholic’s request for a papal blessing. In the eyes of the traditionalist wing of the Church, however,

    Kennedy should have been asking the Pope for forgiveness. The Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reported Kennedy’s death, praising his work on civil rights and fighting poverty, but noted that his record was marred by his stance on abortion. As of yet, unlike some other world leaders,
    Pope Benedict has not commented or issued an official communique in response to Kennedy’s death. One veteran official at the Vatican, of U.S. nationality, expressed the view of many conservatives about the Kennedy clan’s rapport with the Catholic Church:
    “Why would he even write a letter to the Pope? The Kennedys have always been defiantly in opposition to the Roman Catholic magisterium.” Magisterium is the formal expression for the authority of Church teaching.

    Ted Kennedy received his first communion directly from Pope Pius XII, and his marriage in 1958 was performed by Cardinal Francis Spellman, the influential Archbishop of New York.

    Edward Kennedy, it can be said, was not cut out for the priestly life. His first marriage to former model Virginia Joan Bennett, ended in divorce in 1982, with the marriage annulled by the Roman Rota more than a decade later. And there are the infamous episodes in his life that showed a man not quite in control of his demons. …

    “Here in Rome Ted Kennedy is nobody. He’s a legend with his own constituency,” says the Vatican official. “If he had influence in the past it was only with the Archdiocese of Boston and that eventually disappeared too.”
    Some say the final sunset on the Kennedy name within Catholic halls of power was the Vatican’s decision in 2007 to overturn the annulment of the first marriage of former U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy, the eldest son of Robert Kennedy.
    The successful appeal by Joe Kennedy’s ex-wife Sheila Rauch, an Episcopalian, was another blow for the Kennedy image in Catholic circles.

    During Benedict’s 2008 trip to the U.S., there was some heated debate (with conflicting photographs and eyewitness accounts) about whether or not Kennedy took Holy Communion at the papal mass at Nationals Stadium in Washington, with conservatives insisting that the Pope says the rite should be denied to pro-choice politicians. With this in mind, Church observers are keen to see if Boston’s Archbishop Cardinal Sean O’Malley will preside over Kennedy’s funeral.
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/0.....NyZWxhdGVk
    See TIME’s complete Ted Kennedy coverage.

    I can’t believe Obama and his family cost the tax-payers for that Rome trip

    • caligirl9
      August 28, 2009 at 2:57 am

      I have been avoiding broadcast anything of any type these past few days … so I’m purposefully ignorant on what’s going on in the world.
      This is very telling though … so much for sainthood, at least the way my raging dem friends talk …

      I still think Kennedy’s biggest sin is the murder of Mary Jo and the fact he never really atoned for that … no consequences from the law or the electorate. God will make it right in the end though.

    • artboyusa
      August 28, 2009 at 4:11 am

      Yeah, when’s the Pope gonna put Ted up for sainthood? What’s the hold up? C’mon Pope Benny, let’s have sancto subito, okay? I mean, the man could walk on water, apparently, unlike Mary Jo…

  51. canary
    August 28, 2009 at 1:31 am

    Rueters: Colombian senator tells Chavez: “Open Your Eyes!”
    By Hugh Bronstein (editing by Todd Eastham) Aug 27 2009

    BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s diplomatic spat with Venezuela took a new turn this week with a series of billboards in Bogota showing pictures of Hugo Chavez, the leader of the neighboring country, with his eyes closed.

    “Hey!”, the billboards say, “Open your eyes!”

    For years Colombia has asked the self-styled socialist revolutionary to do more to help combat Marxist Colombian guerrillas widely despised in the country for their violence and use of kidnapping.

    But relations between the countries have only worsened.

    Colombia accuses Chavez and Correa of not cooperating in its fight against drug-running insurgents. Both leaders have shunned Washington while strengthening ties with China, Russia and Iran.

    Chavez has attacked Colombia as a “narco-state,”
    This followed a scandal in which Venezuela was accused of providing rockets to Colombia’s biggest rebel army, known as the FARC.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200.....gn_2/print

    click for picture of billboard.

  52. canary
    August 28, 2009 at 9:39 am

    AP:US service member killed in Afghanistan Aug 28 2009 by Matt Lee

    KABUL – The U.S. military says an American service member has died in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, making August the deadliest month of the eight-year war for U.S. forces.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

    KABUL (AP) — President Hamid Karzai angrily accused the U.S. of pushing for a runoff in the Afghan presidential election during a heated meeting with the special envoy to the region, officials familiar with the encounter said Friday.

    The reported exchange was another sign of strains between the U.S. and Afghan authorities. An Afghan lawmaker accused the U.S. of violating international and Islamic law by firing on a clinic where a wounded Taliban commander had taken refuge. U.S. officials said they attacked only after taking gunfire and determining there were no civilians inside.

    An angry Karzai accused the U.S. of pushing the idea of a second round even before all the votes had been counted and he would accept the election commission’s tabulation as long as they reflected the facts. He did not elaborate.

    strains…. after President Barack Obama’s administration took office this year.

    Relations between the Americans and Afghans have also been strained by the U.S. policy of detaining suspected insurgents without charge and killing civilians in military operations.

    Friday, an Afghan lawmaker accused the U.S. military of violating Islamic and international law by using a helicopter gunship to fire on a medical clinic two days before where an injured Taliban commander had bunkered down. The U.S. military said it cleared the clinic of civilians and that government officials approved the use of the helicopter to end the firefight.

    After the battle, Afghan and U.S. forces met with villagers and discussed rebuilding the clinic, a U.S. summary of the meeting said. The wounded Taliban commander was taken prisoner.

    Afghanistan’s health minister said insurgents violated the sanctity of the clinic by bringing their guns into the clinic. He said they hid the weapons under their clothes, and that they were the first to fire. The Taliban turned the clinic into a bunker, he said, and the U.S. forces were needed to rout them out.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....lbQ–

    This article is so conflicting with other reports, that the mistrust in any leadership in Afganistan is as bad as trusting Obama’s.

  53. canary
    August 28, 2009 at 10:08 am

    FOX News: Barack Obama’s Civilian Army by Glen Beck Aug 27,2009

    The reason Thursday’s show is the last before Friday’s solution, … this phrase from Barack Obama and think he meant it literally:

    THEN-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BARACK OBAMA: We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

    .. they really haven’t responded to any of our questions or challenged any of the facts in our last few shows other than “Hey, don’t call him a ‘czar!’”

    But I can’t make this piece of the puzzle fit, unless this piece is about building some kind of thug-ocracy.

    Mr. President: Why do we need a civilian national security force that is “just as strong, just as powerful” as the military?

    It’s clearly not because we feel there is a threat from illegal aliens crossing the border, because anyone who would say that has been deemed a racist. A civilian national security force on the border is called The Minuteman — is that they were “vigilantes.”

    It can’t be a civilian national security force against Islamic extremists, because according to this administration we aren’t even at war against Islamic extremists anymore.

    Mr. President, is your civilian national security force to protect us from things the Missouri State Police, your own Homeland Security and the liberal Southern Law Poverty Center have come out and said were a threat: militia groups; tea party goers; folks with “Don’t Tread on Me” flags; me; Sarah Palin?
    recent stories:

    — Flag.gov e-mail asking for tips on “fishy” behavior
    — Cookies on your computer that track whenever you’ve been on a government Web site — this used to be illegal but that was changed
    — The government is using outside companies to track and contact you. Are they gathering information on you? I know that on “cash for clunkers” they didn’t trust the dealers.

    Who will the civilian national security force protect us from?

    THEN-VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JOE BIDEN: Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America…. Remember I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said: Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.

    Who builds an army against an unidentified, unrecognized threat?
    Maybe we have to start with the company whose CEO is a close financial adviser to the president of the United States, who helped write the health care bill and cap-and-trade bill and who has billions of dollars at stake: Jeffrey Immelt.

    Immelt has been appointed by president to the board of directors to the New York Federal Reserve…Let’s look for what they may be saying the threat will be that we will need a civilian national security force against.

    {NBC} It would seem to me the network that sells “Yes We Did” dolls, mugs and t-shirts and is obviously extraordinarily close to the president in seven different ways —

    SEN. BARBARA BOXER, D-CALIF.: All of this is a diversion by the people who want to, frankly, hurt President Obama. And by the way I saw some of the clips of people storming these townhall meetings. The last time I saw well-dressed people doing this,..

    CONTESSA BREWER, MSNBC: “A man at a pro-health care reform rally just outside, wore a semiautomatic assault rifle on his shoulder and a pistol on his hip…. I mean, white people showing up with guns strapped to their waists. (He was black)
    … a good portion of the American people are the enemy? They are such a danger we need a civilian national security force as well-funded and well-trained as the military?

    That’s who they think the enemy is and, once again, the media has it completely wrong.
    “The Enemy Within” — I wrote it months ago. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out — let me give you this quote:

    “It’s not just the political class who has mastered the art of deception. There are other potentially deadly masters who will seek to exploit your frustration and sense of desperation…and the need for violent action…”

    There was the Obama Joker poster creator; the right tried to take advantage of this and added the word “socialist” under it. But the creator of the poster is a Kucinich supporter who doesn’t like Obama because he’s not left enough.

    Then there was that clip on MSNBC: The racist white person (according to MSNBC) who brought a rifle to the Obama town hall — wasn’t even white! He was black.

    In Denver, Maurice Joseph Schwenkler and an at-large accomplish smashed in windows at the Democratic Party HQ in Denver. Both parties accused Schwenkler of supporting the other, but he’s a “trans-gendered anarchist” who belongs to the radical anarchist protest group Denver Bash Back.

    Remember, Obama adviser “czar” Jones created STORM who believes: “Revolutionaries need to be militant in street actions. As leaders in the fight for liberation, we should be role models of fearlessness before the state and the oppressor.”

    So when we’ve got a president creating a “civilian force” as strong as the military…

    VAN JONES, GREEN JOBS ‘CZAR’: ..I’m basically a community organizer with the federal family.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,543822,00.html
    for entirety and videos’s click url. sorry so long.

  54. nuthingbettertodo
    August 28, 2009 at 12:08 pm

    Kennedy Friend Recalls How Much He Loved to Joke About Chappaquiddick

    http://www.breitbart.tv/kenned.....aquiddick/

  55. sheehanjihad
    August 28, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    Here’s a little diddy that should give us pause….a bill that gives Obama or his minions the authority to shut down PRIVATE computers after declaring a “cyber emergency”. Reminds me of another despot who cooked up lame excuses to take control of his country too back in the thirties……

    http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html

  56. 12 Gauge Rage
    August 28, 2009 at 1:32 pm

    SJ, Big Brother always starts out with small subtle steps that no one notices until it gets out of hand and nobody can stop it. Short of a bloody, violent revolution. The power to shut down private computers is only a veiled attempt to shut down the voice of the people. My wife found an amusing video about the government’s abuses. The video is called ‘The Government Can’ sung to the tune of the Candy Man Can. The lyrics are cleverly full of sarcastic wit. You can watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/user/ti.....O2eh6f5Go0. Normally the comedian spoofs other themes of life but this is his first one on politics.

  57. nuthingbettertodo
    August 28, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    Cardiologists Crying Foul Over Medicare Cuts Hurt Obama Revamp

    Alex Nussbaum and Lisa Rapaport Alex Nussbaum And Lisa Rapaport – Fri Aug 28, 12:00 am ET
    Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) — An Obama administration plan to cut Medicare payments to heart and cancer doctors by $1.4 billion next year is generating a backlash that’s undermining the president’s health-care overhaul.

    While President Barack Obama and members of Congress have spent August debating health insurance and medical costs at public forums, specialists are waging what one advocate calls a “tooth and nail” fight against a separate initiative to boost the pay of family doctors, and cut fees for cardiologists and oncologists. The specialists, in newspaper columns and meetings with lawmakers, say patients will lose access to life-saving care, from pacemakers to chemotherapy.

    The proposal by Medicare, the government insurer for the elderly and disabled, is an effort by Obama to focus U.S. medicine on preventive care. The fight by physicians who work with the most expensive patients is weakening support for Obama’s broader goal, legislation to remake the health system, said Mark B. McClellan, 46, a former Medicare chief.

    “If you can make the health-care debate all about moving slices of the pie around, it’s very easy to generate opposition and very easy to get derailed,” said McClellan, a physician and analyst at the Brookings Institution, a policy research center in Washington, in an interview.

    Obama and his allies in Congress are pushing to extend coverage to the 46 million Americans without health insurance, at a potential cost of $1 trillion over a decade. The separate Medicare proposal, announced July 1, slashes projected spending for care by cardiologists and oncologists by more than 10 percent each, while paying family doctors 8 percent more and nurses an additional 7 percent.

    more…….

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomb.....pw9zinj4_1

  58. canary
    August 28, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    Bloomberg.Com: Cardiologists Crying Foul Over Medicare Cuts Hurt Obama Revamp
    Alex Nussbaum and Lisa Rapaport Aug 28, 2009

    Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) — An Obama administration plan to cut Medicare payments to heart and cancer doctors by $1.4 billion next year is generating a backlash that’s undermining the president’s health-care overhaul.

    patients will lose access to life-saving care, from pacemakers to chemotherapy.

    The cuts could have the unintended consequence of rationing care, especially in rural regions
    …said Alfred Bove, president of the American College of Cardiology.

    “A fair number of cardiologists are looking at the accounting and saying ‘we can’t afford it,’” Bove said in a telephone interview.

    Some oncologists in rural areas may stop offering chemotherapy in the office, forcing patients to travel to more- distant hospitals, said Allen S. Lichter, 63, CEO of the 27,000- member American Society of Clinical Oncology in Alexandria, Virginia.

    The cuts would be “impossible” for some small-town cardiologists who rely on Medicare patients, said Zia Roshandel, a heart doctor in Culpeper, Virginia.

    Already squeezed by government and private insurers, Roshandel said he has cut office hours, forgone paychecks and shifted his 12 workers to a high-deductible insurance plan over the past two years. The latest proposal would push him out of private practice altogether,

    Medicare would reduce reimbursements for some of Roshandel’s most common procedures, raising the amount patients will need to pay up front, he said. The government would cut the $251 it pays for an echocardiogram, a sonogram of the heart, by 40 percent, he said. The rate for a cardiac catheterization, another test, would drop by a third to $249.

    Those reductions include an additional across-the-board cut of 22 percent for all physicians mandated by federal budget rules.

    Some 65 million people already live in areas considered by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to have too few primary care doctors, with less than one practitioner for every 2,000 people

    The number of medical school graduates in the U.S. entering family medicine fell more than a quarter from 2002 to 2007, according to a study last year by the group and the American Medical Association.

    With the number of Americans older than 65 soaring, specialists will be in short supply, Grover said… “In the next 20 years, we are going to face a physician shortage really across the board.”

    Reid Cherlin, an assistant White House press secretary, said the administration would have no comment “since it concerns a pending regulation.”

    Tensions are rising among doctors, said Ted Epperly, 55, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians in Leawood, Kansas

    While family-care students typically spend parts of their three-year residencies training with specialists, “What I’ve heard is ‘maybe we just won’t have time any longer to teach your residents,’” Epperly said.

    Alex Nussbaum in New York anussbaum1@bloomberg.net ; Lisa Rapaport in New York at lrapaport1@bloomberg.net .
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomb.....qnpw9zinj4

    Obama wrote of his bitterness of people moving from large cities, though it increased minority owned businesses. The move has hurt minority businesses. This is his agenda to force people to move back into high crime areas they left, such as Chicago.

  59. proreason
    August 28, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    Shocker. CNN discovers the $9T deficit will cause taxes to go up. A LOT. Who knew?

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/.....#8211;?x=0

    “…Shy of finding a fairy willing to leave trillions under Uncle Sam’s pillow, lawmakers will have to raise taxes and cut spending….”

    With the crack reporters at CNN on this breaking news, the country will be on safe footing before you can say jimminy cricket.

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