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Selected News For Week Aug 23 - Aug 29

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items themselves.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, please try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly editions here.

Of course articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there. As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.

Related Articles:

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 am. You can leave a response.

54 Responses to “Selected News For Week Aug 23 - Aug 29”

Diane
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
From the AP, as posted on Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....dy_to_lead

It’s pretty much what you’d expect from the AP, but this part in particular caught my eye:

Emergencies aren’t the only challenges for a new president. Obama would also face the unfamiliar task of overseeing a massive bureaucracy.

Obama plans to address that by filling his Cabinet with Washington experts — perhaps including Republicans.

Yeah. Obama is such a uniter that I’m sure he’ll consider including Republicans in his Cabinet. That’s assuming there’s any room left over after he’s done with the Communists, the racists, and the terrorists.
notsoyoungjim
August 24th, 2008 at 1:59 am
An unintentionally hilarious video for Barockstar featuring (among others) Dave Stewart (the s in the Eurythmics), Forest Whitaker (still looking like Idi Amin ), Whoopi Goldberg (smugly praying), Justin Alexander (channeling Martin Luther King), Joan Baez and the immortal Barry Manilow! Just a sampling of the B-listers gracing this maudlin dirge.

http://tinyurl.com/5o5jxp

McCain should just throw in the towel right now.

sample lyric:

“This is the ground that keeps our feet from getting wet . . .
This is the sky over our head. . .
and what you see depends on where you stand
and how you jump will tell you where your gonna land . . .”

“and this is the video . . .
that shows we are self-righteous . . .
and this is the thumb that I must suckle
while into his navel I must gaze . . . .”
texaspsue
August 24th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
BO “Video of the Day”.

http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.....te-reaper/

Funny, but, sooo true.
wardmama4
August 24th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Notsoyoungjim - I could not get through the whole video - so much worse than Imagine - more like We Are The World and such drivel - on and on and on - guess it makes them feel oh so good to make $$$$ - singing a drivel song about voting, or prayer, or America, or Obama, or race relations, or whatever it was supposed to be about.

Texaspsue - that was great, I wish that every tv and radio station ran that even a couple of times a day until the election - best quote (for me) - You can take my vote from my cold, dead hands.
Gila Monster
August 24th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
You just knew this was going to happen, from the AP, the DNC’s favorite propaganda arm.

Dems give Michigan and Florida full voting rights
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer

DENVER - Democratic delegates from Michigan and Florida were awarded full voting rights at the national convention Sunday, despite holding early primaries against party rules.

The convention credentials committee voted unanimously to restore the voting privileges at the behest of Barack Obama, the party’s presumptive nominee for president. The states were initially stripped of delegates for holding primaries before Feb. 5. The party’s rules committee restored the delegates in May, but gave them only half votes.

Democrats hope the gesture will strengthen their standing in two important battleground states while ending a contentious chapter of the nominating process.

“The only way we will be successful is if we are unified as a party and all Democrats know we are full partners,” said Chris Edley Jr., a committee member from California who introduced the resolution to restore Florida’s votes.

The party’s move raises questions about whether it will be able to control its primary calendar in the future. A commission will work on the issue over the next two years.

Representatives from Florida and Michigan said they were penalized enough. None of the major candidates campaigned in the states before the primaries, and the delegates’ votes weren’t restored until after the nomination was decided.

“We realize that mistakes have been made, but we’re excited in Florida,” said Scott Maddox, a former Florida Democratic chairman and a member of the credentials committee. “We have suffered enough.”

http://tinyurl.com/4lbfj8

Ah , Dhimmicratic democracy at work, ain’t it grand!!
The nomination has been decided so now we are going to allow you to vote. Simply hilarious!! ;o)
wardmama4
August 24th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Gila - I bet that MI and FL threatened to use every vote they had for Her Royal Clinton to get this little ‘concession,’ that or else it was the business as usual for Dems to ignore the rules that they set in place.

I am going to go pray that the Clinton machine eats Obamanation up and spits him out - it is about time someone teaches these cheaters - that cheaters never prosper. And crime should not pay - in America.

Be just like Slick Willie and Her Royal Clinton to be the ones to do it. Takes one to know one.
ptat
August 24th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
That adolescent parade of nonsense by incredibly rich and overpaid entertainers had me begging for an answer from each: HOW MANY HOMES DO YOU HAVE!? (It doesn’t really matter of course. I’m just being foolish to reveal foolishness—knowing exactly how many homes you have seems to be the biggest issue facing the nation right now, thanks, again, to Obama’s juvenile mind.)
Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
August 24th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
texaspsue,

That video is excellent, I laughed my a** off. “You’re wearin’ me out with the Kentucky Fried analogies brother”. That’s priceless!

Thanks for the link.
BillK
August 25th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Beaming with pride, the to-the-left-of-Pravda Madison, WI Capital Times states:

Wisconsin’s Gaylord Nelson took Biden under wing

By John Nichols

As Barack Obama recounted when he introduced his running mate, Joe Biden has known tragedy.

And Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, one of the great liberal lions of the chamber in the 1970s, played a critical role in seeing the senator from Delaware through that tragedy.

Indeed, were it not for Nelson, the progressive senator who is today best remembered for his role in creating Earth Day, Biden might not have become the senior senator and vice presidential candidate that he is today.

Recalling how Biden got elected to the Senate in 1972 as “a young man with a family and a seemingly limitless future,” Obama told the crowd in Springfield Saturday, “Then tragedy struck. Joe’s wife Neilia and their little girl Naomi were killed in a car accident, and their two boys were badly hurt. When Joe was sworn in as a senator, there was no ceremony in the Capitol. Instead, he was standing by his sons in the hospital room where they were recovering. He was 30 years old.”

Biden has recounted that he thought seriously about giving up on a Senate career.

Then Nelson — an ardently anti-war senator who was delighted by the election of a new liberal ally from Delaware in the otherwise frustrating 1972 election that saw Richard Nixon roll over Nelson’s close friend George McGovern in the presidential race — took Biden under his wing.

Alec Loftus, who now serves as the spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, dug up some of Biden’s comments from July 2005 when Biden came to Wisconsin for a memorial service organized to honor Nelson after the former governor and senator’s death at age 89. (Nelson had left the Senate after his defeat for re-election in 1980, serving for many years as counselor for the Wilderness Society and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 in recognition of his environmental activism.) …

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/302024

Just a reminder of what will come back to bite you in the a** down the road as liberals brainwash new arrivals.

If only Biden had quit (cue pleasant fantasy music here…)
BillK
August 25th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Watch for the left to say this is proof we need Government-run and Government-paid broadband:

From the (Madison, WI) Capital Times:

Broadband growth slowing in U.S.

By Jeff Richgels

With the U.S. broadband market maturing, growth naturally is slowing.

The 20 largest cable and phone companies in the country — which represent about 94 percent of the market — acquired 887,000 net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the second quarter of this year, according to Leichtman Research Group Inc.

That is 51 percent of the growth in the second quarter of 2007. Cable firms had 85 percent as many additions as a year ago, and phone companies 23 percent as many; the cable companies added over 670,000 subscribers, representing 76 percent of the net broadband additions for the quarter.

The 20 major providers now account for 65.1 million subscribers — 35.3 million for cable and 29.7 million for phone companies.

The cable firms now have a 54 percent share of the overall market, with a 5.6 million subscriber advantage over the hpone companies.

“Net broadband additions in the quarter were the fewest of any quarter in the seven years LRG has been tracking the industry,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, said in a statement. “While the relative number of quarterly broadband adds has certainly peaked, the decline in additions this quarter compared to the same period last year was exacerbated by Verizon and AT&T’s emphasis on selling higher speed FiOS and U-verse bundled services, often at the expense of the traditional DSL service.” …

http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories/301955

The left often whines about this, citing broadband penetration due to government-funded networks in size-of-a-postage-stamp countries in Europe and Asia.
BillK
August 25th, 2008 at 10:26 am
From an overjoyed Los Angeles Times:

Conditions may be ripe for Al Qaeda in Somalia

U.S. counter-terrorism efforts have alienated many Somalis, and a leader of the hard-line Islamic group Shabab says it is ready to unite with Bin Laden’s organization.

By Edmund Sanders

NAIROBI, KENYA — Conventional wisdom long held that Somalia was so inhospitable that even Al Qaeda gave up trying to gain a foothold amid feuding clans, erratic warlords and a wily population hardened by years of anarchy.

Now, in the wake of an aggressive U.S. counter-terrorism program that has alienated many Somalis, there are signs that Al Qaeda may have its best chance in years to win over Islamic hard-liners in the Horn of Africa nation.

After once denying or downplaying links to the terrorist network, a senior leader of Somalia’s most notorious Islamic militia now acknowledges that his group has long-standing ties to Al Qaeda and says he is seeking to forge a closer relationship.

“We are negotiating how we can unite into one,” said Muktar Robow, a top military commander of Shabab, which the U.S. State Department designated a terrorist organization this year. “We will take our orders from Sheik Osama bin Laden because we are his students.”

Merging with Al Qaeda operatives in the region makes sense, he said, given the recent U.S. crackdown, including a May 1 airstrike that killed Shabab’s previous commander.

“Al Qaeda is the mother of the holy war in Somalia,” he said. “Most of our leaders were trained in Al Qaeda camps. We get our tactics and guidelines from them. Many have spent time with Osama bin Laden.”

U.S. officials said it’s unclear whether Shabab’s threat is real or just anti-Western rhetoric intended to rattle U.S. intelligence officials. Analysts note that Al Qaeda faces the same challenges that prevented it from establishing a Somalia base before, including power struggles among the country’s Islamists, competition from local clan networks and differences between those seeking to focus attacks in Somalia and those favoring Al Qaeda’s global agenda.

U.S. Ambassador Michael E. Ranneberger acknowledged growing links between Shabab and Al Qaeda, but said ties remained in the early stages.

“There are indications of a fairly close Shabab-Al Qaeda connection, though it’s not clear to what extent they’ve been operationalized,” he said. “Is Shabab taking orders from Al Qaeda? I would say no. They are still running their own show.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....2841.story

But I thought al Qaeda was just in Afghanistan and that America was wasting its time worrying about it anywhere else in the world?

Of course the best part?

Now, in the wake of an aggressive U.S. counter-terrorism program that has alienated many Somalis

Yep - it’s all Bush’s fault.
BillK
August 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Expect the Freedom from Religion foundation to file suit any day now.

From the AP:

Cross dedicated near United Flight 93 site

As hundreds of firefighters bowed their heads in prayer, a cross made out of steel from the World Trade Center was dedicated Sunday near where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into the ground on Sept. 11, 2001.

The 2-ton, 14-foot-high cross sits on a concrete base shaped like the Pentagon at a fire station in Shanksville, Pa., a few miles from where the plane crashed into a field. The cross made a 311-mile journey from Brooklyn on Saturday, accompanied by hundreds of motorcyclists, many of them current or retired New York firefighters.

“We wanted to find a home for this steel,” said Paddy Concannon, a retired lieutenant from the Fire Department of New York. “This is an effort on our part to tie the three events together: the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville.”

The cross is not part of the official $58-million Flight 93 National Memorial. That memorial will be built in phases and is expected to about 40% complete by the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

The Flight 93 crash killed all 40 passengers and crew members.

The flight, which was en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, was the only one of the four planes hijacked that day that did not reach its intended target, believed to be in Washington.

Investigators think passengers who rushed the cockpit caused the hijackers crashed the plane near rural Shanksville, about 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....6589.story

May these American heroes never be forgotten.
BillK
August 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Shocker, Ahnold wants real Republicans to give in!

From the Los Angeles Times:

Confronted by realities, Schwarzenegger turns to tax hike

With the state budget 56 days overdue, the governor explains his shift on taxes.

By George Skelton

SACRAMENTO — It can’t be done, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was insisting, staring at me over a table in his office. You can’t have a responsible, honest state budget without a tax increase.

Not this year.

The governor wasn’t trying to convince me. I’ve been singing that tune every budget since he took office. This was a new song for him.

I’d asked the governor how he could explain his new advocacy of a sales tax increase to Republican voters who had supported his reelection two years ago after he promised not to raise taxes. Many still believe the state can make ends meet merely by cutting spending.

“You can’t cut the whole $15 billion,” Schwarzenegger said, referring to the gaping hole in a $102-billion general fund.

“You’d have to severely cut into education, which I don’t think is the right thing. You would severely cut into healthcare, which is not the right thing to do. You would severely have to cut into prisons, and we can’t do that.”

A good Republican trade-off for a one-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax increase for three years, he asserted, would be a long-term budget fix: A constitutional amendment requiring the state to transfer 3% of its annual revenue to a rainy-day fund until it grew to 12.5% of the general fund. The kitty could be tapped only in a fiscal emergency.

Also, if the state were heading into a hole in midyear, the governor could unilaterally pare spending up to 7% on state operations and deny cost-of-living adjustments.

“Fix the budget system once and for all so this will never, ever happen again,” he asserted. “Do a compromise where you make the Democrats do something they never would have done and make we Republicans do something we normally would never do.”

He added: “I just think the wisest thing to do is to go to the people and say, ‘Look, I know I’ve said no taxes. But now we are in a situation where we have to do that temporarily . . . I need your help.’ “

But he’s getting few takers in the Legislature.

The budget proposal Schwarzenegger outlined last week also calls for $2 billion in additional program cuts, including $1.1 billion in education. He’d raid $567 million in public transit money. And he’d steal federal cost-of-living adjustments for the aged, blind and disabled. Democrats object to all that.

They’re also not wild about his budget reforms. “We don’t want to exchange multi-year spending cuts for a one-year budget,” says Assembly Budget Committee Chairman John Laird (D-Santa Cruz).

So you’d think this would be a good bargain for Republicans: a temporary tax increase in return for long-term spending restraint. But they don’t think the restraint is strong enough — not strong enough to overcome their hatred and fear of taxes. Practically all have signed pledges not to vote for a tax increase.

“We Republicans have all been united in our belief that the state has a spending and not a revenue problem,” declared Senate GOP Leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto, echoing what also used to be Schwarzenegger’s mantra. “It is so discouraging to see the governor walk away from these core principles.”

That comment fired up Schwarzenegger.

“I have people’s principles,” he told me. “I want to be a public servant, not a party servant. I mean, I’m a supporter of my party and I’m a Republican. But we’re supposed to serve the people, not the party.”

He’s frustrated at the Republicans’ unwillingness to bend and deal.

“Look,” he said, “I hate tax increases. But I’m willing to go beyond my beliefs and ideology to make a compromise. It’s the only way we can solve this budget problem.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....371.column

Of course, Ahnold hasn’t “served the party” since at least 2004.

I wonder how many of those “people” will enjoy higher taxes.

Oh, that’s right, only “the rich” will pay and they’ll be “temporary.”

Riiiight.

Ahnold can’t solve the problems because he’s unwilling to make cuts, the author of course paints it as Republicans being “afraid” of tax increases despite years of proof that they’re the wrong thing to do, and of course the Republicans who have a pair are painted as the obstructionists.

Sorry, Ahnold, but it’s the other Republicans who are doing what the people elected them to do; you’re the joke who just doesn’t get it.

Business as usual in the United States.
BillK
August 25th, 2008 at 10:28 am
How could this be?

From the AP:

Realtors say existing home sales rose in July

WASHINGTON — A trade group for real estate agents says sales of existing homes rose 3.1 percent in July as buyers snapped up deeply discounted properties in parts of the country hit hardest by the housing bust.

The National Association of Realtors reported sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5 million units. Sales had been expected to rise by only 1.6 percent, according to economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR.

Still, home sales were 13.2 percent lower than a year ago.

The median price for a home sold in July dropped to $212,000, down by 7.1 percent from a year ago. …

http://www.latimes.com/busines.....1848.story

So prices dropped and home sales went up.

Hmmmm…
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 3:05 am
From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

The Biggest Stars Donate Gobs Of Money To Obama

By Doug Elfman

OBAMA STARS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS
(If the amount is above the legal max of $4,600 for a candidate, that means the star has also given to the Democratic Party):

J.J. Abrams: $2,300
Ben Affleck: $4,600
Byron Allen: $2,300
Jennifer Aniston: $2,300
Patricia Arquette: $2,300
Rosanna Arquette: $2,300
Kevin Bacon: $2,200
Billy Baldwin: $1,000
Tyra Banks: $2,300
Ellen Barkin: $2,300
Angela Bassett: $2,300
Shane Battler: $2,300
Maria Bello: $2,300
Tom Bergeron: $1,750
Halle Berry: $2,300
Valerie Bertinelli: $2,300
Jerome Bettis: $2,300
Judy Blume: $4,600
Steven Bochco: $30,800
Andy Borowitz: $2,100
Zach Braff: $2,300
Steve Brill: $4,600
Christie Brinkley: $2,000
James L. Brooks: $4,600
Blair Brown: $500
Jackson Browne: $2,300
Warren Buffett: $4,600
Mark Burnett: $2,300
Ken Burns: $2,300
LeVar Burton: $300
Candace Bushnell: $1,000
Kate Capshaw: $2,300
Michael Chabon: $4,600
John Cleese: $2,300
George Clooney: $2,300
Glenn Close: $2,300
Harry Connick Jr.: $4,600
Cindy Crawford: $2,300
Alan Cumming: $500
Jamie Lee Curtis: $4,600
Matt Damon: $4,600
Larry David: $2,300
Geena Davis: $4,600
Robert DeNiro: $2,300
Danny Devito: $2,000
Taye Diggs: $2,300
Paul Dooley: $30,800
Michael Douglas: $4,600
Anthony Edwards: $2,300
Michael Eisner: $500
Hector Elizondo: $200
Omar Epps: $2,300
Linda Evans: $2,300
Milos Forman: $3,050
Jodie Foster: $3,300
Michael J. Fox: $2,300
Jamie Foxx: $2,300
Jonathan Franzen: $1,000
Morgan Freeman: $2,300
Jim Gaffigan: $1,250
Jeff Garlin: $250
Jennifer Garner: $4,600
David Geffen: $2,300
Richard Gere: $2,300
Jamie Gertz: $2,300
Thomas Gibson: $1,000
Cuba Gooding Jr.: $2,300
Berry Gordy: $30,800
Lou Gossett Jr.: $4,600
Topher Grace: $4,600
Brian Grazer: $4,600
John Grisham: $1,000
Jasmine Guy: $2,300
Herbie Hancock: $2,300
Tom Hanks: $2,300
Ed Harris: $2,000
Emmylou Harris: $2,000
Mariette Hartley: $250
Teri Hatcher: $2,300
Sean Hayes: $1,000
Dennis Haysbert: $2,300
Christie Hefner: $2,300
Hugh Hefner: $2,300
Cheryl Hines: $1,000
Dustin Hoffman: $2,300
Susanna Hoffs: $2,300
Bruce Hornsby: $2,300
Ron Howard: $4,600
Phil Jackson: $2,300
Randy Jackson: $2,300
Joan Jett: $250
Billy Joel: $2,300
Scarlett Johansson: $2,300
Kevin Johnson: $2,300
Magic Johnson: $2,300
Spike Jonze: $2,000
Michael Jordon: $2,100
Casey Kasem: $1,000
Jeffrey Katzenberg: $2,300
Garrison Keillor: $200
David E. Kelley: $2,300
Margot Kidder: $500
Don King: $2,300
Calvin Klein: $2,300
Michael Kors: $2,300
Cedric The Entertainer: $2,500
Don LaFontaine: $3,300
Christine Lahti: $2,300
Jim Lampley: $1,000
Jessica Lange: $2,300
John Larroquette: $1,500
Sharon Lawrence: $2,300
Norman Lear: $2,300
Spike Lee: $2,300
John Legend: $4,600
John Lithgow: $1,000
Nia Long: $2,300
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss: $4,600
Sidney Lumet: $2,300
Bernie Mack: $2,300
Seth MacFarlane: $1,000
Tobey Maguire: $2,300
Norman Mailer: 200
Natalie Maines: $2,300
Barry Manilow: $2,300
Stephon Marbury: $2,300
Branford Marsalis: $4,600
Seth Myers: $2,300
Bette Midler: $4,600
Toni Morrison: $1,000
Rob Morrow: $500
Alonzo Mourning: $2,300
Eddie Murphy: $2,300
Paul Newman: $4,600
Randy Newman: $2,300
Craig Newmar: $2,300
Mike Nichols: $2,300
Leonard Nimoy: $2,300
Cynthia Nixon: $1,000
Edward Norton: $33,100
Rosie O’Donnell: $2,300
Frank Oz: $2,300
Sarah Jessica Parker: $2,300
Adrian Pasdar: $4,600
Joe Paterno: $250
Jane Pauley: $2,300
Holly Robinson Peete: $4,600
Robin Wright Penn: $2,300
Rhea Perlman: $2,000
Tyler Perry: $4,600
Oliver Platt: $978
Sidney Poitier: $4,600
Ellen Pompeo: $4,600
Annie Potts: $2,300
Bonnie Raitt: $2,300
Harold Ramis: $3,300
Lynn Redgrave: $600
Carl Reiner: $200
Paul Reiser: $2,300
Ryan Reynolds: $3,100
Lionel Richie: $2,300
Jay Roach: $2,300
Tim Robbins: $2,300
Chris Rock: $4,600
Linda Ronstadt: $500
Eli Roth: $500
Mark Ruffalo: $1,000
Meg Ryan: $1,00
Horatio Sanz: $500
Susan Sarandon: $3,000
Martin Scorsese: $1,000
Garry Shandling: $2,300
Brooke Shields: $2,300
Maria Shriver: $2,300
M. Night Shyamalan: $2,300
Ben Silverman: $2,300
Alicia Silverstone: $400
Russell Simmons: $1,000
Tom Skerritt: $1,000
Emmitt Smith: $2,300
Jada Pinkett Smith: $4,600
Will Smith: $4,600
Steven Spielberg: $2,300
Morgan Spurlock: $2,300
Ben Stiller: $2,300
Oliver Stone: $1,000
Meryl Streep: $2,300
Barbra Streisand: $2,800
Betty Thomas: $2,300
John Thompson III: $2,300
Cheryl Tiegs: $500
Garry Trudeau: $2,300
Kate Walsh: $2,800
Vera Wang: $2,000
Denzel Washington: $2,300
Isaiah Washington: $4,550
Steven Weber: $2,300
Jann Wenner: $4,450
Forest Whitaker: $2,300
Bradley Whitford: $2,300
Gene Wilder: $2,300
will.i.am: $2,300
Oprah Winfrey: $2,300
Joanne Woodward; $4,600
George Zimmer: $2,300

FAMOUS CONTRIBUTORS TO McCAIN:

Sheldon Adelson: $2,300
Troy Aikman: $2,300
Mario Andretti: $2,300
Pat Boone: $4,600
Jerry Bruckheimer: $9,600
Barry Diller: $4,600
Clint Eastwood: $2,300
Dick Eberson: $4,600
John Elway: $2,300
Kelsey Grammer: $2,300
Brad Grey: $2,300
Kirk Kerkorian: $2,300
Lorne Michaels: $2,300
Jack Nichlaus: $1,100
Arnold Palmer: $1,000
Richard Petty: $1,000
Jerry Reinsdorf: $4,600
Susan Saint James: $2,300
Curt Shilling: $2,300
Vin Scully: $2,300
Gary Sinese: $2,300
Harry Sloan: $40,800
Roger Staubach: $40,800
Ben Stein: $2,800
Rip Torn: $2,300
Donald Trump: $33,050
Dick Van Patten: $2,020
Darrell Waltrip: $1,000
Steve Wynn: $30,800

…

http://www.lvrj.com/blogs/elfm.....Obama.html

What, no qualms about taking money from “torture porn” director Eli “Hostel” Roth?

The article also lists celebrities who’ve donated to Hilary but not yet to Obama, but this post is too long already.
Diane
August 26th, 2008 at 3:12 am
That does it. I’m going to start Tivoing Frasier again.
artboyusa
August 26th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Artboy’s Confession: Sorry, but I have to get this off my chest. Can’t live with this secret any longer. I, Artboy, do freely confess that during a recent holiday in Stockholm I knowingly contravened the United States government’s embargo on trade with Cuba (“that imprisoned island”, as President Kennedy called it, just before agreeing a secret deal with the Russians that would guarantee it stayed imprisoned for going on fifty years now). I committed this crime by willingly, knowingly and on multiple occasions drinking “Havana Club” rum, a prohibited item. My companion, Mrs Artboy, is innocent of any crime, as she only likes liquor that tastes like candy (“Castro can keep it” she said, upon tasting the 7 year-old cane product). I know that I will commit this crime again if given the opportunity, so I hope that the government will save me from myself and catch me before I drink again.
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 7:49 am
From Denver’s KCNC Television:

Plot to Kill Obama: Shoot From High Vantage Point

By Brian Maass

CBS4 has learned at least four people are under arrest in connection with a possible plot to kill Barack Obama at his Thursday night acceptance speech in Denver. All are being held on either drug or weapons charges.

CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass reported one of the suspects told authorities they were “going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a … rifle … sighted at 750 yards.”

Law enforcement sources tell Maass that one of the suspects “was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative.”

The story began emerging Sunday morning when Aurora police arrested 28-year-old Tharin Gartrell. He was driving a rented pickup truck in an erratic manner according to sources.

Sources told CBS4 police found two high-powered, scoped rifles in the car along with camouflage clothing, walkie-talkies, wigs, a bulletproof vest, a spotting scope, licenses in the names of other people and 44 grams of methamphetamine. One of the rifles is listed as stolen from Kansas.

Aurora police alerted federal officials because of heightened security surrounding the Democratic convention, Dudley said.

“Clearly we feel that there are federal implications — otherwise we would not have notified those agencies,” Det. Marcus Dudley with Aurora police said Monday night. “The weapons clearly would cause great concern.”

Subsequently authorities went to the Cherry Creek Hotel to contact an associate of Gartrell’s. But that man, identified as Shawn Robert Adolph, 33, who was wanted on numerous warrants, jumped out of a sixth floor hotel window. Law enforcement sources say Adolph broke an ankle in the fall and was captured moments later. Sources say he had a handcuff ring and was wearing a swastika, and is thought to have ties to white supremacist organizations.

A third man — an associate of Gartrell and Adolph, Nathan Johnson, 32, was also arrested. He told authorities that the two men “planned to kill Barack Obama at his acceptance speech.”

Johnson, along with his girlfriend, Natasha Gromek, are also under arrest on drug charges.

The Secret Service, FBI, ATF and the joint terrorism task force are all investigating the alleged plot.

The U.S. Attorneys Office has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon. The U.S. Attorney in Denver said it does not believe there is a credible threat to Obama or the convention.

“It’s premature to say that it was a valid threat or that these folks have the ability to carry it out,” said a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. …

http://cbs4denver.com/investig.....02827.html

Not unlike recent FBI pronouncements regarding terrorists, in which every group is judged “incapable” of carrying out an attack… until they do.
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 7:55 am
From the AP, the kooks are finally out:

Protesters And Police Clash, Pepper Spray Used

By Judith Kohler & Colleen Slevin

Police in riot gear clashed with about 300 protesters about a mile from the site of the Democratic National Convention on Monday night, and some of the demonstrators were hit with pepper spray.

Authorities said the confrontation erupted as police tried to disperse a crowd that was disrupting traffic near the Denver City and County Building, but one protester said police “were coming at us” with no warning.

The disturbance resulted in about 100 arrests, on charges of failure to obey a lawful order, obstructing a public roadway and interference, Jefferson County sheriff’s officials said.

Three hours after the confrontation, officers continued to line sidewalks in the area in an attempt to get loiterers to leave.

“It would be nice if we could get people to disperse, but they’re not committing a crime,” said Jacki Kelley, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman.

Earlier, officers led at least two people away as the crowd chanted “Let them go!” Some of the protesters threw bags containing a colored liquid at police.

Kaycee Ryann and Eric Finch said they were in the crowd marching through Civic Center Park, which lies between the City-County Building and the state Capitol, when police tried to split the crowd into smaller groups.

“There was no warning. We weren’t coming at them. They were coming at us,” Finch said.

AP Television News video showed one group of protesters counting down from 10 and then charging at police. They quickly retreated as police shoved them back. Some of the officers gripped their batons, one hand at either end, as they pushed the protesters back.

Finch said he was struck by rubber pellets and a baton.

Polly White of the Joint Information Center, a command set up by city, state and federal authorities to field media inquiries during the convention, said she had no reports of police firing rubber pellets.

Ryann and Finch described themselves as anti-capitalists who were protesting ecological devastation. They said others in the crowd were protesting other issues.

Police formed lines to contain a large number of people at the scene while they questioned some, but everyone was allowed to go after about an hour.

It was believed to be the first time a police-protester confrontation turned physical and the first time officers used any kind of chemical spray since demonstrations began on Sunday, a day before the convention.

Ron Kovic, a paralyzed Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist who led a peaceful march the day before, hurried to the scene in his wheelchair from his downtown hotel after he heard about the confrontation.

“We must remain nonviolent. We must have the high moral ground,” he told the crowd.

“There’s a powerful police presence here. The chill of 1968 is in the air of Denver,” said Kovic, whose story was chronicled in the book and movie “Born on the Fourth of July.”

Earlier Monday, protesters chanting “Stop the torture, stop the war” marched from Civic Center Park to the federal courthouse complex.

Some wore jail-style orange jumpsuits and black hoods, like inmates at the infamous Abu Graib prison in Iraq.

At the courthouse complex, the crowd heard a recording by former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, imprisoned in the killing of a police officer 27 years ago in Philadelphia. Activists in the U.S. and Europe have rallied in Abu-Jamal’s support, saying he is the victim of a racist criminal justice system.

“Here, democracy is on life support,” Abu-Jamal said on the recording. …

http://cbs4denver.com/denver20.....03008.html

I always listen to a convicted cop killer on issues of “democracy,” don’t you?

I really fail to see in what way these idiots could be more accommodated, with Police already bending over backwards to be “nice.”

If these morons feel democracy is so in danger, perhaps they should have tried protesting Tibet during the Olympics in Beijing.
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 8:00 am
From Denver’s KCNC Television:

Delegate-Funded Wind Turbine Finally Working Right

By Paul Day

Better late than never.

A massive wind turbine erected early this year with funding support from the Democratic delegates is finally producing energy or the Eastern Plains town of Wray, Colorado.

“I am so excited,” said Ron Howard, Superintendent of the Wray School District, which owns the turbine.

The trouble-plagued wind turbine had become an embarrassment to Wray after it was dedicated in a ceremony last winter that included Gov. Bill Ritter.

Brent Orr, the project manager for the turbine says it wasn’t a source of personal frustration, “Just the pain and agony I’ve watched the school go through.”

Strapped for cash, the district had turned to Democrats for help.

Interested in promoting Colorado-generated, clean power as part of their “greenest ever” Democratic National Convention, the convention delegates purchased renewable energy credits through a non-profit organization.

The purchase provided the necessary funding to complete the Wray Wind Turbine Project.

Soon after it was erected, A DNC video crew showed up in Wray to do a story which is still posted on the DNC’s Web site. But Andrea Robinson, the DNC’s director of greening, who narrates the story, fails to mention one critical fact. The windmill had never produced any power.

In the story, Robinson not only ignores the problem but seems to mislead viewers by asking students on camera, “What does it feel like knowing you’re generating clean power in your own community.”

Ron Howard says he informed the DNC video crew of the true situation.

“I believe they would tell you that I was truthful and said that it was not producing, but that we expected it to,” Howard said.

The Greening Office for the DNC was asked repeatedly by CBS4 for an interview to discuss this and other stories but a spokesperson was never provided.

Problems with the wind turbine were first made public last month by a political blog called Face the State. Afterwards, state Republicans poked fun at the project. One GOP legislator, Colorado Sen. Greg Brophy from Wray referred to the DNC’s Green Convention as an “absolute sham.”

But who’s laughing now?

Howard says mechanical problems related to the converter were finally corrected about a week ago. Last Friday, anchor bolts supporting the huge wind tower were re-tensioned. Within minutes, the turbine began making clean, renewable power just in time for the start of the convention.

“I don’t have a crystal ball,” Orr said. “But everything looks good.”

Howard said his district should reap up to $100,000 annually by selling power to the City of Wray in a purchase power agreement.

http://cbs4denver.com/denver20.....03063.html

But how many years of “$100,000 annually” will it take to recoup the cost of building the pinwheel?

Hey, they got political cash, that’s all that counts.
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Unbelievably, the Los Angeles Times continues their investigation of a union.

SEIU spending scandal spreads to Michigan

Rickman Jackson, former official in Los Angeles chapter, takes leave of absence from Michigan local. Action comes after Times reports of payments to firms owned by L.A. leader’s family

By Paul Pringle

A spending scandal at California’s largest union local spread to a second state Monday as the head of a sister labor group in Michigan stepped aside because of a widening financial inquiry.

The Service Employees International Union said that Rickman Jackson, who formerly served as chief of staff at the California organization, has taken a leave of absence from its biggest Michigan local less than a week after the president of the Los Angeles chapter relinquished his post.

Both departures followed reports in The Times that the local and a related charity paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms owned by the wife and mother-in-law of its president, Tyrone Freeman, and spent similar sums on a Four Seasons Resorts golf tournament, restaurants such as Morton’s steakhouse, a Beverly Hills cigar lounge and a Hollywood talent agency.

The Times also disclosed that a housing corporation Freeman helped launch used the address of a Bell Gardens home that property records show is owned by Jackson. Freeman, Jackson and housing corporation representatives have declined to say whether Jackson was paid for any use of his residence.

SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette would not say Monday whether the union’s inquiry into Jackson’s activities was focused on his home and the housing corporation. The corporation, whose website says it was set up primarily to help union members obtain affordable housing, did not receive the tax-exempt status it sought and had lost its right to do business in California.

Freeman and Jackson were appointed by SEIU President Andy Stern, one of the country’s most influential labor leaders. In a statement Monday, Stern said, “We will not tolerate any action by any leader that harms the interests of our membership.”

Jackson could not be reached for comment Monday. In an earlier e-mail, he said he would have no comment on the union investigation. Freeman has denied any wrongdoing.

In its statement, the SEIU said it has enlisted former California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp to assist in the Los Angeles investigation, and that former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin has agreed to preside over an internal hearing on the inquiry next month.

The statement also announced that Stern’s administration would seek trusteeship of an Oakland local that has resisted the union’s efforts to shift 65,000 of its 150,000 workers to the chapter that Freeman headed. The Los Angeles local was placed in trusteeship last week and all of its officers were removed.

In the statement, Stern’s office accused the Oakland local of improperly setting up a nonprofit and a legal defense fund with members’ dues, misappropriating an internal database and retaliating against workers who criticized its leadership. The statement said that the union found significant evidence that the Oakland chapter’s leadership “engaged in a pattern of financial malpractice and fraud.”

Ringuette said she knows of no allegations that officers of the Oakland local or their relatives personally profited from any of the purported actions. The Times reported some of Stern’s charges against the local in June.

The president of the Oakland organization, Sal Rosselli, denied the allegations Monday. He said the trusteeship move was an attempt to deflect attention from the spending inquiry in Los Angeles and now Michigan, and to punish him for fighting the 2-year-old proposal to transfer his members to Freeman’s local.

“It’s an act of desperation by Stern,” Rosselli said. “They’re just recycling stuff he’s already talked about.”

Ringuette said that wasn’t true. “We’re talking about members’ dues money,” she said. “We take these matters very seriously.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....2516.story

Is this surprising to anyone?

Once again, recall SEIU is essentially the California janitor’s union, their members averaging around $14/hour.
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Wow, big shock again.

From the Los Angeles Times:

North Korea suspends dismantling of nuclear program

By Barbara Demick

Less than two months after it blew up the cooling tower of its main nuclear plant in a televised spectacle, North Korea announced that it has suspended the dismantlement of its nuclear program.

North Korea’s foreign ministry said Tuesday it was responding to the United States’ failure to live up to its promises of removing it from a blacklist of “terror-sponsoring” states. It said the suspension had taken place as of Aug. 14 and that it would next consider restoring some of what it had dismantled already at its main nuclear compound in Yongbyon.

President Bush indeed asked Congress on June 27 to remove North Korea from the terror list, but the administration has also said that the measure wouldn’t go through until it could verify a 60-page inventory that North Korea had submitted of its nuclear program.

North Korea said in Tuesday’s statement that the United States’ insistence on verification infringed on its sovereignty and was a “brigandish demand of unilaterally disarming.”

“The U.S. is gravely mistaken if it thinks it can make a house search in the DPRK (North Korea) as it pleases just as it did in Iraq,” North Korea said in the statement distributed over its official news agency.

This latest development is a blow to the Bush administration’s dream of claiming for his legacy the removal of the North Korean nuclear threat. The spectacular demolition of the cooling tower, which was witnessed by a State Department official and a CNN crew on June 28, raised hope that the long-running tussle over nuclear dismantlement might be coming to a conclusion.

But long-time North Korea watchers expressed no surprise by North Korea’s decision, which appears to be straight out of a familiar playbook of abrupt changes of opinion, brinksmanship and threats.

“Nobody thought this was going to be easy,” said Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst in Seoul with the International Crisis Group. “What is going on here is one of two possibilities; either they have not been bargaining in good faith and have no intention of giving up their nuclear weapons, or they are just trying to negotiate the best bargain they can.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his late father, Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994, have outlasted every American president since Harry Truman. Many analysts believe that the Communist regime is reluctant to strike a deal with a lameduck administration, especially one with which relations have been so testy.

“They are not in any rush to expedite the process,” said Pinkston. …

http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....6056.story

“Nobody thought this would be easy?” More like nobody thought it would ever occur.

What does North Korea gain by going along with this, and more importantly, what do they lose by not?

Bottom line, if China and Russia demanded they play along, North Korea would.

They don’t, so North Korea doesn’t, and - surprise! - the US looks ineffective.

Recall these “agreements” are how the idiots in Denver (and I’m not talking the protesters) want to deal with the world.
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Ah, “unity.”

From the Los Angeles Times:

Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton rift persists

His backers see her support as tepid. A reported flap over Bill Clinton’s convention speech only exacerbates matters.

By Peter Wallsten and Peter Nicholas

The big question of the presidential election, says L. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s first elected black governor, is not whether America is ready for a black president. Rather, he asks, “Are the Clintons ready?”

What Democratic candidate Barack Obama needs, says Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., is for Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton to provide a “Pee Wee Reese moment,” referring to the white ballplayer who embraced Jackie Robinson when white baseball fans rained abuse on the pioneering Dodger.

As the Democratic National Convention began Monday, some black delegates who are pledged to Obama are unhappy — even seething — at what they say is weak support from the former president and first lady in the wake of a bitter primary campaign.

Their anger is the latest turn in the ongoing rivalry between the Clinton and Obama camps, a breach Democrats must repair if they are to win over lagging Clinton supporters. It is boiling over at an inopportune time — with the race against Republican John McCain tightening to a dead heat and the Obama campaign hoping that this week’s Democratic gathering will convey a sense of unity and momentum.

Instead, in interviews with delegates and aides to the rival camps, it was clear Monday that tensions have only swelled since the heat of a primary competition fraught with racial, gender and generational differences. Obama backers are frustrated that the Clintons do not seem willing to let go of their 16-year dominance of the Democratic Party, while Clinton aides complained privately that the young presumed nominee is not paying them proper respect — a tension heightened by the revelation that Obama never seriously considered his rival as a running mate.

The mutual frustration comes amid reports that Bill Clinton and the Obama camp are at odds over the substance of the former president’s speech to the convention Wednesday. That report led to a joint unity statement on Monday.

“There is absolutely no cause for this, no reason for this continuing divide,” said Wilder, the former Virginia governor who is now mayor of Richmond. “Do you want to win or not?”

In an interview conducted before he took part in a panel on race sponsored by Politico, Wilder laughed off the argument forwarded by Clintonites that the couple endorsed Obama and have promised to deliver gracious speeches. The New York senator, Wilder countered, could easily signal to her supporters the gravity of the situation.

“All she has to do is say, ‘Finished. Over. I’m here, I’m supporting [Obama], and you don’t help me by doing what you’re doing,’ “ Wilder said, adding later that he came to the morning panel to “ask the question as to whether America is ready for an African American president. The question is, are the Clintons ready? That’s what it comes down to.”

Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, a leading African American lawmaker and the third-most powerful Democrat in the House, was critical of the Clintons’ tactics during the primaries. In an interview Monday, he said he did not hold them responsible for the current concerns but is worried about how Sen. Clinton’s supporters might cloud the convention.

“We learned coming out of the caucuses that sound bites can in fact be detrimental,” Clyburn said. “So, irrespective of what may or may not happen on the [convention] floor . . . the problem is you might have two or three people who will say something, and that may become the headline.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/pr.....2554.story

All this would be hilarious to watch were it not for the mass walk-out of Republican delegates likely to occur should McCain actually name Lieberman as his VP pick.
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 8:31 am
From the Los Angeles Times - concern that Biden’s celebrity support isn’t as deep as Obama’s.

Biden’s Hollywood wingman

By Tina Daunt

SOMETIMES life really does imitate art.

As the Democratic National Convention was kicking off, actor Richard Schiff, who played the White House communications director on “West Wing,” was holding court with a pack of reporters on a concrete version of a red carpet outside of a restaurant here.

The Emmy Award-winning actor was completely at ease talking about real-life politics and his favorite politician, Sen. Joe Biden.

Schiff met Biden several years ago and immediately saw him as the “real deal.” He was so impressed with the Delaware senator that he decided to campaign for him in Iowa. After presumed presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama announced Saturday that Biden would be his running mate, Schiff was among the first in Hollywood to publicly praise the ticket during an appearance on “Larry King Live.”

“I just realized that there was something special about the guy,” Schiff said in Denver on Sunday night. “He’s so dedicated to public service. And I love how personable he is.”

Even so, Biden’s Hollywood support historically hasn’t been particularly broad — mostly moguls, musicians and a sprinkling of actors. Supporters have included Schiff’s “West Wing” colleague Bradley Whitford, Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg (though probably not in the same room with Eisner at the same time), Barry Diller, Rick Hilton (a John McCain supporter and Paris’ dad), Barry Manilow, Don Henley, Richie Sambora and Cher. It wouldn’t make a bad concert or a record company

Schiff, who joins a glittery potpourri of celebrities this week at the DNC, helped get the party underway Sunday at the Creative Coalition’s celebration of African American artists and political activists at the downtown Denver restaurant Mezcal. He hopes to catch up with Biden after the senator accepts the vice presidential nomination this week. The “West Wing” actor wonders whether Hollywood was so excited about Obama and Sen.Hillary Rodham Clinton that it looked past Biden’s qualities. (According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Delaware senator raised only $111,442 from the entertainment industry during his recent presidential bid.)

While Schiff was musing about Biden’s appeal, other celebrities were joining the parade through the well-watched doors of Mezcal, including filmmaker Spike Lee, actress Kerry Washington and actor-director Giancarlo Esposito, who arrived in a van promoting his new film, “Gospel Hill.”

On the way into the party, Washington stopped to chat about why she’s in Denver: It’s all about Obama. She noted that she’s been on the road campaigning for the senator, making stops in nine cities over the last year. She plans to head to Ohio, a critical swing state, over the weekend.

“At first I was torn over whether to support Obama because, as a woman, I liked Hillary Clinton,” she said. After she met the Illinois senator in person, her mind was made up and there was no way she was going to miss the DNC and its many parties.

Lee, the headliner for the Creative Coalition’s first Denver celebration, breezed past reporters who had gathered on the sidewalk outside the restaurant, an unlikely spot on a gritty block of Colfax Avenue. However, actor Matthew Modine, decked out in a black jacket and canvas Vans adorned with an orange koi fish print, chatted up the crowd about his personal cause: getting everyone on bicycles — at least for a day.

“It’s to empower people to restore and protect the environment,” he said.

http://www.latimes.com/enterta.....5178.story

Ah yes, nothing “saves the environment” like a pointless push to get “everyone on bicycles — at least for a day.”

I love the fact that the press is playing up the celebs at the DNC, as it plays nicely with McCain’s ad on the subject.
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 8:36 am
From the San Francisco Chronicle, the courts strike again:

Court rules S.F. teen illegal needs services

By Jaxon Van Derbeken

A San Francisco court set aside a drug-trafficking case Monday against a 14-year-old Honduran immigrant - a ruling that juvenile justice officials fear will undermine Mayor Gavin Newsom’s new policy requiring that such offenders be held for possible deportation.

Juvenile Court Commissioner Abby Abinanti concluded that the youth, identified only as Francisco G. because of his age, should be treated within the social welfare system, not as a criminal offender. If federal authorities don’t intervene, the ruling would almost certainly allow him to remain in this country.

Abinanti issued her ruling after a social services official and a city attorney’s representative on an advisory panel reviewed the youth’s history and concluded that he should be considered a victim and thus be entitled to receive social welfare services.

Prosecutors and a third member of the panel, a Juvenile Probation Department representative, objected, citing the youth’s immigration status. In the end, Abinanti ordered that the youth be turned over immediately to social workers for possible placement in a group home, according to authorities who spoke on condition of anonymity because juvenile proceedings are closed to the public.

Abinanti, through a court spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Federal officials assert that placing young felons in group homes amounts to a violation of U.S. law prohibiting the aiding and abetting of illegal immigrants. They suspect that declaring drug dealers to be innocent victims is an end run around the requirement that such immigrants be handed over for possible deportation.

Monday’s ruling fueled such criticism.

“I am concerned that there are people who are still attempting to find strategems to avoid compliance with federal law,” said Joseph Russoniello, the U.S. attorney for Northern California, who faulted San Francisco’s past practice of shielding juvenile offenders from deportation. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....12AFM3.DTL

“Concerned?”

It would be shocking if San Francisco courts hadn’t ruled this way.

As Pelosi says, there’s nothing wrong with “San Francisco values”…
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 8:58 am
From the gay publication The Advocate, news that Miley Cyrus’ “Sweet 16″ party at Disneyland will coincide with the unofficial “Gay Days”:

Miley to Celebrate Sweet 16 With Disney Gays

The world’s most popular teenager, Miley Cyrus, will celebrate her 16th birthday at the Disneyland resort in Anaheim, Calif., on October 5, the same time Gay Days takes place.

The 11th annual Gay Days event, which attracted 30,000 gays and lesbians to the park last year, actually takes place October 3-5. Gay Days describes itself as a “mix-in with straight parkgoers,” where the LGBT crowd wears red shirts. Gay Days is not Disney-sponsored, so park operators will not have official regulation over the event.

Cyrus will celebrate her birthday with 5,000 fans, including volunteers from Youth Service America on October 5. “I only turn 16 once, so it’s going to be an awesome party with my favorite rides, hanging out with friends, fireworks, and more,” she said in a press release on Thursday. “I’ll even get to sing a couple songs.” Cyrus’s event promises fireworks, music, and a celebration for the youth volunteers. …

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid59772.asp

That’ll be a fun surprise…
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 9:03 am
From News.com Australia, AP and Reuters:

Teenage Iraqi girl unable to go through with suicide bombing

A TEENAGE Iraqi girl wearing a vest packed with explosives who turned herself in rather than go through with a suicide bombing has told police and media she was drugged and forced by relatives to don the explosives.

The girl, identified only as Rania, aged 15, surrendered to police on Sunday in Baquba, capital of Iraq’s restive Diyala province where Sunni Arab al-Qaeda militants are waging war on US and Iraqi forces.

She was still wearing the vest when she called to police to get it off her.

“Reports are that she approached the IPs (Iraqi police) saying she had the vest on and didn’t want to go through with it,” US military spokesman Lieutenant Commander David Russell said.

“If she was forced to put on the vest or if she did it voluntarily, that is still being reviewed.”

US officials said she had turned herself in, while local police said she was caught after arousing suspicion, the Associated Press reported.

Police footage obtained by Reuters showed a girl with dyed red hair talking with four Iraqi policemen from a distance, her back against a wall. After some minutes, one them approached her and tied her arms back onto a railing.

Two policemen then removed the vest. After searching her, one took off his jacket and draped it over her bare shoulders.

Under interrogation in a police station later, she said an older woman had strapped the vest to her and had told her to go near the entrance of a local school and await instructions from someone who would meet her there, police said.

Police presented the girl to the media yesterday, prodding her to confess to plans to stage a suicide bombing.

Rania appeared confused but denied the allegation, saying she never intended to carry out the attack and wanted to remove the vest.

McClatchy Newspapers reported that Rania said her husband was behind her mission.

Police accuse him of being a member of al-Qaeda. …

http://www.news.com.au/story/0.....01,00.html

Of course the story downplays the whole thing:

She said that she and her family had discovered only recently that her husband was with al-Qaeda.

She said she didn’t know whether her husband had planned for her to die that day. But she insisted that he cared for her.

An Iraqi police officer said the girl’s family was known for supporting al-Qaeda in Iraq and that her father had carried out a suicide bombing.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the girl led the police back to where she was given the explosives and that they found a second bomb belt in an empty apartment.

Rania’s mother and sister were also arrested.

The young police officer who threw himself at Rania when he realised she was wearing an explosive vest has been rewarded with the equivalent of about $4500.

His commander, Colonel Ali Ismail Fatah, said he thought that Rania didn’t know what she was doing.

“She wasn’t in her right mind,” he said

“She did not seem to understand she was doing something terrible.”

Meanwhile, where’s NOW’s outrage on this one, in which a young 15 year-old girl is sent by her husband to blow herself up, but still believes her husband cares for her?
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 9:56 am
From a joyous AP:

Western Leaders Slam Russian Recognition of Breakaway Georgian Regions

MOSCOW — Russia formally recognized the breakaway Georgian territories at the heart of its war with Georgia on Tuesday, heightening tensions with the West as the United States dispatched a military ship bearing aid to a port city still patrolled by Russian troops.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia forced Russia’s hand by launching an attack targeting South Ossetia on Aug. 7 in an apparent bid to seize control of the breakaway region.

In response, Russian tanks and troops drove deep into the U.S. ally’s territory in a five-day war that Moscow saw as a justified response to a military threat in its backyard and the West viewed as a repeat of Soviet-style intervention in its vassal states.

“This is not an easy choice but this is the only chance to save people’s lives,” Medvedev said Tuesday in a televised address a day after Russia’s Kremlin-controlled parliament voted unanimously to support the diplomatic recognition.

Western criticism came almost immediately.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the decision to recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in Georgia is “extremely unfortunate.”

She said the U.S. regards Abkhazia and South Ossetia as “part of the internationally recognized borders of Georgia” and will use its veto power in the U.N. Security Council to block any Russian attempt change their status. …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,410507,00.html

The libs want the return of “Camelot”; unfortunately that means the Cold War and perhaps a new Cuban missile crisis as well…
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 10:00 am
From the New York Daily News:

John Edwards calling former staffers asking for forgiveness

By Thomas M. Defrank

John Edwards is burning up the phone lines, begging former aides and backers to forgive him for lying about his affair - but hearing their rage instead.

As Democrats kick off their convention Monday, the onetime presidential contender is a man without a party - or a political future - trying to rebuild bridges through dozens of remorseful phone calls.

It’s proving a hard sell with onetime true believers.

Many are bitter and disillusioned after swallowing his lies about his affair with a campaign staffer and vouching for his credibility with friends and journalists.

Some ignore his plaintive phone entreaties and don’t call back - even when Edwards leaves follow-up messages. A few return his calls - and give him a piece of their angry minds.

When Edwards reached one longtime confidant asking for advice, he was cut off with a terse: “I don’t want you to call me again.”

The conversation ended abruptly.

“I let you down, and I’m sorry,” is a common refrain of these messages, said another top ex-assistant on the receiving end of one of the calls.

“It was kind of pathetic, to tell you the truth,” said the ex-aide, who said he didn’t return the call and doesn’t expect to speak to his former boss again. …

http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....s_ask.html

One wonders, however, how long “moral outrage” will hold among loyal libs.
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Why did she even comment? Is it working?

From the New York Daily News:

Hillary Clinton slams John McCain ads that ‘divide’ Democrats

By Michael Saul

DENVER - Hillary Clinton slammed John McCain on Monday for using her in attack ads against Barack Obama and declared that the Republicans’ divide-and-conquer tactics won’t fly.

“I understand that the McCain campaign is running ads trying to divide us, and let me state what I think about their tactics and these ads: I’m Hillary Clinton and I do not approve that message,” said Clinton, prompting cheers at a breakfast for the New York delegation.

“We are, after all, Democrats, so it may take a while,” said Clinton. “We’re not the fall-in-line party. We’re diverse, many voices. But make no mistake - we are united.”

Clinton spoke amid grumbling from inside the Obama camp that she is not fully aboard and that there was too much whining from her side over the vice presidential selection process.

Even now, aides to the former rivals are still dickering over the choreography of her last hurrahs at the convention. She is the headline speaker Tuesday night.

Questions about her intentions arose again when Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who was on e of her strong supporters, told USA Today “she wants to run again” - an opportunity that would open sooner if Obama lost to McCain.

“I’ve never said that,” Clinton said Monday. She did not spell out whether or not she holds hopes of a second presidential bid.

As supporters chanted her name and held aloft signs that read “Hillary Made History,” Clinton urged her backers to commit themselves fully to Obama’s presidential campaign.

“I ask each and every one of you to work as hard for Barack and Joe Biden as you worked for me,” said Clinton, who wore a canary yellow pantsuit. …

http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....ds_th.html

Why do I get the feeling that Bill and Hill might actually be voting for McCain this fall?
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 11:53 am
More bad good news from the AP:

Number of Uninsured Americans Drops; Poverty Holds Steady

WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau reports that the number of people lacking health insurance dropped by more than 1 million in 2007, the first annual decline since the Bush administration took office.

The nation’s poverty rate held steady at 12.5 percent, not statistically different from the 12.3 percent in 2006. That meant there were 37.3 million people living in poverty in 2007.

The statistics released Tuesday do not take into account the consequences of the economic downturn that began late last year.

Census says 45.7 million people — 15.3 percent of the population — were uninsured in 2007. That’s down from 47 million in 2006.

The median — or midpoint — household income rose slightly to $50,200, marking the third consecutive annual increase.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,410682,00.html

How could the number of uninsured have fallen when insurance companies have just gotten greedier?
BillK
August 26th, 2008 at 11:56 am
You’ll love this; it’s life in Modern America.

From Fox News:

Baseball Team’s Pitcher, 9, Ousted for Being Too Good

A Connecticut youth baseball team with a phenomenal 9-year-old pitcher has been disqualified because its team is too good.

The team, Will Power Fitness, has an 8-0 record thanks in large part to pitcher Jericho Scott, the New Haven Register reports. His pitching is so fast and accurate, the Liga Juvenil De Baseball De New Haven asked the team’s coach, Wilfred Vidro, to replace him so he wouldn’t frighten other players.

“The spirit of the league was community, family, well-being, nurturing,” Peter Noble, the league’s attorney, told the Register. “It’s an extended family and it’s been disrupted.”

On Saturday, Jericho and his team showed up to the ballfield despite the fact the league canceled the game because they feared an “unhealthy environment” due to parental bickering, Noble told the paper. Jericho’s parents, Nicole and Leroy, planned to meet with an attorney on Monday.

The Scotts said the league — which is not affiliated with the Little League — wanted Jericho to play for a stronger team. The parents and the coach claim the reason is because that team is sponsored by a local barbershop where the league’s president currently cuts hair, the paper reported. …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,410162,00.html

Mediocrity - that’s what America is all about.
SG
August 27th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
From the UK’s Telegraph:

Palestinian children ‘kept naked in stable for 20 years by their father’

A Palestinian man has been accused of treating his two mentally ill children like animals by locking them naked in a stable for 20 years.

By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
27 Aug 2008

In what could be one of the worst cases of child abuse in Palestinian society, one of the region’s most conservative and occasionally brutal, Ibrahim Kandeel Masalmeh is also accused of beating his children and feeding them with slops.

He was detained by Palestinian police during a sweep for drugs and gun smugglers in the village of Beit Awa near Hebron in the West Bank.

While looking for hiding places they came across a dusty shack, suitable for animals, near Mr Masalmeh’s house, with a man and woman inside.

“We heard a voice and movement inside a locked shack so I ordered it to be opened,” said Samih Saifi, the police commander for Hebron district.

“I saw a naked man and a semi-naked woman, in a shack roofed with zinc, that us usually used for sheep.

“I saw a leather pot filled with water, and some barley but there were no sheep.”

He said the woman was aged 42 and her brother 38.

“The father claimed that he feeds them well, but I doubt what he said,” the officer said.

“We will take the father to court, on charges of mistreatment of their children, and locking them in an inhumane way.

“The neighbours told us they did not know there were two human beings locked away for 20 years and treated like animals.

“The father beat them violently.”

The owner of the house allegedly told investigators the two people were his children and that he had hidden them after they developed mental problems.

He said he wanted to keep them hidden from his neighbours because he felt “ashamed”. The two alleged victims are currently receiving psychiatric help….

http://tinyurl.com/5ptt8e
BillK
August 27th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Don’t worry about those pesky voter registration records in Wisconsin.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Mistakes won’t disqualify voters

By Patrick Marley

Madison - The Government Accountability Board this afternoon couldn’t agree on what to do about voters whose information doesn’t match other records, and so decided not to require voters to show ID at the polls if they don’t correct that information.

The board voted 5-1 to continue to match voter information to driver’s license records, but said mismatches won’t disqualify people from voting.

The vote came just after a 3-3 vote on a proposal that would have required voters to show ID at the polls if they hadn’t corrected any mismatched information.

Supporting the measure that would require ID at the polls in some cases were board members Tom Cane, Victor Manian and Gerald Nichol. Voting against it were Michael Brennan, William Eich and Gordon Myse. All six are retired judges.

Manian was the lone dissenter on the motion that said people who have mismatches do not face sanctions if they don’t correct their information.

The state began comparing voter registration information with driver, death and felony records earlier this month when its voter database became fully functional. The database and checks on information are required under a 2002 federal law.

One in five voters who have registered or changed their addresses since Aug. 6 have come up with mismatches, often because of transposed numbers, missing middle initials or similar issues.

Republicans urged the board to take a harder line to make sure they prevent fraud. Democrats argued such a stance would prevent legitimate voters from casting ballots.

http://www.jsonline.com/watch/.....p;id=45380

Of course having nothing to do with the many fraudulent voter registrations ACORN has been found to have created in past weeks and months…
BillK
August 27th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Damn those scientists, finding out that embryonic stem cells aren’t the only hope of treating diseases like diabetes and Parkinson’s.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

New technique sidesteps stem cells

By John Fauber

After more than a decade of trying to harvest the promise of embryonic stem cells, scientists have hit on a fascinating new approach that sidesteps them entirely. By adding genes to targeted cells in the body they have been able change the basic makeup of those cells, turning them into potential disease-curing cells.

The feat, which was performed in mice, involved reprogramming cells in the pancreas that normally do not produce insulin so that they began producing the sugar-regulating hormone, opening the door to a potential new approach to treating diabetes.

While stem cells long have been prized as potential replacement cells in treating various diseases, the new method, accomplished by Harvard University scientists, suggests that ailments such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and heart disease could be treated using the patient’s own cells.

The paper opens a whole new field of experimentation for a variety of diseases, said Story Landis, head of the stem cell task force at the National Institutes of Health.

The accomplishment, turning one cell type into another is something that scientists have talked about for decades,” Landis said. “It’s pretty spectacular.”

Indeed, if the technique can be perfected, it would represent one of the Holy Grails of medicine, said Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology.

“This is an impressive scientific milestone,” he said. “It introduces a whole new paradigm for treating human disease.”

However, a potential treatment for diabetes still could be 10 years away, said John Buse, president for medicine and science at the American Diabetes Association.

Buse noted that many successful experiments in mice proved disappointing when tried in people.

“Is this going to be the one that solves the problem?” said Buse, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “Who knows?”

Either way, the twist is the latest breakthrough on a fast and winding road toward finding new disease treatments, a quest that began a decade ago when human embryonic stem cells were first isolated.

Since 1998, when University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists first isolated the contentious cells, it has been hoped that the breakthrough would lead to new cell-replacement therapies to treat various intractable diseases. At the very least, embryonic stem cell research was hoped to be a way to better understand diseases or as a method to test new drugs.

But the feat required the destruction of five-day-old embryos obtained from fertility clinics and that led to years of contentious fighting over the morality of such an approach.

Later, scientists were able to obtain embryonic stem cells without using traditional embryos, those created by the union of a sperm and egg, by doing so-called therapeutic cloning in which the genetic material of an adult cell was inserted into a hollowed out egg cell. But that method also required the destruction of embryos and raised new concerns about using the process to clone a human.

Then last year, scientists in Japan and Madison found a way to dispense with the need for embryos altogether and use a patient’s own cells. They were able to genetically reprogram human skin cells and obtain cells that acted just like embryonic stem cells, which they named induced pluripotent stem cells.

But the new method, described Wednesday in the journal Nature, dispenses with the need for any kind of stem cell.

Instead, the researchers injected three genes - which had been selected from a list 1,100 genes — into exocrine cells, which make up about 95% of the cells in the pancreas. The genes, known as transcription factors, were able to reprogram the exocrine cells to become insulin-producing beta cells, which make up about 1% of the cells in the pancreas. Beta cells are the ones that die when attacked by the body’s own immune system, leading to type one diabetes.

The reprogrammed cells began producing insulin and appeared to be responding (making insulin) to glucose levels in the blood. …

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=788210

I guess this means that conservatives haven’t “stopped medical research” after all.

After all the crying and moaning about how the lack of federally funded embryonic stem cell research was killing people daily (never mind that there has never been a ban on privately funded embryonic stem cell research) it turns out it may have been pointless anyway.

Not that the left will ever admit that.

It’s the scientific equivalent of if billions of barrels of oil were found under the United States; the left would still say we couldn’t drill our way out of the problem.

Now, will Michael J. Fox do commercials admitting that just possibly he was wrong about the right?

Naturally, given the scientists work for an embryonic stem cell lab, they’re careful to not kill their funding source:

While there now is optimism that the approach might work in helping to regenerate heart tissue damaged by a heart attack, it’s unclear whether it will be able to produce cells in large enough numbers.

Because of that, embryonic stems still will be needed, said Timothy Kamp, a professor of medicine and physiology and co-director of UW’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center.

The power of these (embryonic stem) cells, he says, “remains their ability to proliferate and expand in culture as well as grow into the full range of human cell types.”

Too bad there still hasn’t been a single successful treatment based on the use of embryonic stem cells…
BillK
August 27th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
From the to-the-left-of-Pravda Madison, WI Capital Times:

True Republicans drawn to Obama

Former congressman Leach’s endorsement of the Democratic candidate in line with the GOP’s original values

By John Nichols

RIPON — When former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach — a Republican stalwart with close ties to the Bush family — endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, he made a point of noting that he was not switching parties.

“As a Republican, I stand before you with deep respect for the history and traditions of my political party. But it is clear to all Americans that something is out of kilter in our great republic,” explained Leach, who argued that Obama’s “transformative campaign” represents “a clarion call for renewal rooted in time-tested American values that tap Republican as well as Democratic traditions.”

Leach said those Republican traditions include a commitment to individual rights, fairness, equality and “progressive internationalism.”

Leach’s outline of traditional Republican values is correct.

Democratic loyalists might debate how far back in the party’s history one must go in search of those values. But if you go all the way back, to a little white schoolhouse located just off the main street in this quiet eastern Wisconsin college town, you will find roots that look very much like those described by Leach on the day that he endorsed the first African-American candidate ever nominated for the presidency by a major American party.

In many senses, Obama’s nomination is the culmination of a political journey begun not in the southern precincts to which the Democratic Party traces its roots, but to a March 20, 1854, meeting where a political provocateur named Alvan Bovay called together his socialist neighbors in order to form a new party that would fight for “free soil, free speech, free men.”

In the 1850s, Ripon was a hotbed of radical ideas. A decade earlier, in the winter of 1843, a series of lectures at the Franklin Lyceum in Southport (now Kenosha) inspired several dozen men and women to adopt the views of Charles Fourier, a visionary French socialist thinker who sought to restructure society into cooperative agricultural communities called “phalanxes.” The newly committed “Fourierites” pooled their meager resources and purchased land on the edge of what is now Ripon. Their Wisconsin phalanx, known as Ceresco, proved to be a success, eventually growing in population to a peak of 180. By the early 1850s, the utopian agricultural community — including buildings that stand to this day — had been incorporated into Ripon.

Bovay initially preached the anti-slavery gospel on the streets of New York, where he had sought to organize working men into a radical political party. He had limited success there and eventually followed the advice of his friend and mentor, newspaper editor Horace Greeley, to “go west, young man.”

In Ripon, Bovay found plenty of support for his view that the “old parties” of the day — the conservative Democrats and the slightly more liberal Whigs — had failed to respond to the moral requirement that the United States end the practice of slavery. The campaigner gathered his followers at Ripon’s schoolhouse on a cold, late-winter night and formed a new party that they named “Republican” because the word was, to Bovay’s view,” suggestive of equality.”

The new party sought that equality not just for slaves, but for all workers, declaring in an early platform that its intent was to join “the old battle — not yet over — between the rights of the toiling many and the special privileges of the aristocratic few.” That platform promised to promote women’s rights, defend immigrants, advance trade union organizing, limit the amount of land that any individual could own and forbid corporate monopolies. …

http://www.madison.com/tct/opi.....ion/302243

You get the idea.

State Rep. Gordon Hintz, an Oshkosh Democrat who represents a district near Ripon, thinks Obama should campaign in the region, perhaps even in Ripon.

“Republicans of today are nothing like the Republicans who founded that party,” says Hintz. “Barack Obama should be talking about that fact, and suggesting that he is the candidate that people who appreciate the old Republican values should be supporting.”

If he does, can we bring up that it was Democrats who fought against freeing the slaves?

Or for that matter, civil rights legislation in the 1960s?
BillK
August 27th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Ah, life in a liberal paradise, from the Madison, WI Capital Times:

Alder wants to force talk on public urination, sleeping in parks

By Kristin Czubkowski

Madison police would no longer be allowed to fine the homeless for public urination and sleeping in parks under ordinance changes to be introduced soon by Ald. Brenda Konkel.

With limited shelter space and no new city programs for the homeless population coming down the pipe in 2009, Konkel said the ordinance changes she will introduce at a City Council meeting in September are intended to spark a discussion about how the city treats the homeless.

“If we don’t have any money for new programs to do the kind of outreach to the homeless that we need to do, and to have public restrooms available and to do all those types of things, we’ve got to do something different,” said Konkel, who represents part of the east isthmus.

She added that the nighttime closure of bathrooms at Brittingham Park on the south side was one impetus for the changes. The closures were a response to complaints about the homeless population at the park and included other measures such as improved lighting and security cameras.

In addition to stopping fines for public sleeping and urination, Konkel said in a recent interview that she also will propose a change that would force city agencies to treat the possessions of the homeless with more respect. Before city agencies can clear away a homeless person’s belongings, workers would have to place a notice at the site 72 hours in advance and also give notice of where the possessions would be stored. Cities like Portland, Ore., and Cincinnati have similar rules.

Konkel said she was inspired to work on this ordinance after the city Parks Division cleaned an area along the Yahara River in April where some homeless people had stored their belongings. For some people in such a situation, she said, the belongings may be of great personal importance, such as pictures of children or a family Bible.

“A lot of times, it might look like junk to us, but if it’s their only blanket, that’s not junk to somebody who has to sleep outside in the cold,” she said.

Konkel acknowledged that the changes on public sleeping and urination in particular would likely be controversial, but she said in the context of no new money in the 2009 budget to keep working on homelessness, fining the homeless would be unfair.

“It’s not fair to give somebody a ticket for something they can’t do anything about,” she said, adding that collecting the fines also tends to cost the city court resources and that the homeless can rarely pay the fines anyway. …

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/CTstaging/302244

Of course it’s only a matter of time before clearing away garbage possessions of the homeless is considered entry without a warrant by SCOTUS…
BillK
August 27th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
From a “why don’t we just say this is all Bush’s fault” AP:

Louisiana eyes Gustav, activates Guard troops

By Michael Kunzelman and Tamara Lush

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — On the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s third anniversary, a nervous New Orleans watched Wednesday as another storm threatened to test everything the city has rebuilt, and officials made preliminary plans to evacuate people, pets and hospitals in an attempt to avoid a Katrina-style chaos.

Forecasters warned that Gustav could grow into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane in the next several days and hit somewhere along a swath of the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to Texas - with New Orleans smack in the middle.

“I’m panicking,” said Evelyn Fuselier of Chalmette, whose home was submerged in 14 feet of floodwater when Katrina hit. Fuselier said she’s been back in her home one year this month, and called watching Gustav swirl toward the Gulf of Mexico indescribable. “I keep thinking, ‘Did the Corps fix the levees?,’ ‘Is my house going to flood again?’ … ‘Am I going to have to go through all this again?’”

Taking no chances, city officials began preliminary planning to evacuate and lock down the city in hopes of avoiding the catastrophe that followed the 2005 storm. Mayor Ray Nagin planned to leave the Democratic National Convention in Denver to return home for the preparations, as did U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu. Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency to lay the groundwork for federal assistance, and put 3,000 National Guard troops on standby.

If a Category 3 or stronger hurricane comes within 60 hours of the city, New Orleans plans to institute a mandatory evacuation order. Unlike Katrina, there will be no massive shelter at the Superdome, a plan designed to encourage residents to leave. Instead, the state has arranged for buses and trains to take people to safety.

It was unclear what would happen to stragglers. Jerry Sneed, the city’s emergency preparedness director, said officials are ready to move about 30,000 people. Nearly 8,000 people had signed up for transportation help by late Wednesday.

At a suburban Lowe’s store, employees said portable generators, gasoline cans, bottled water and batteries were selling briskly. Hotels across south Louisiana reported taking many reservations as coastal residents looked inland for possible refuge.

Steve Weaver, 82, and his wife stayed for Katrina - and were plucked off the roof of their house by a Coast Guard helicopter. This time, Weaver has no inclination to ride out the storm.

“Everybody learned a lesson about staying, so the highways will be twice as packed this time,” Weaver said.

Katrina struck New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, and its storm surge blasted through the levees that protect the city. Eighty percent of the city was flooded.

Though pockets of the New Orleans are well on the way to recovery, many neighborhoods have struggled to recover. Many residents still live in temporary trailers, and shuttered homes still bear the ‘X’ that was painted to help rescue teams looking for the dead.

Many people never returned, and the city’s population, around 310,000 people, is roughly two-thirds what it was before the storm, though various estimates vary wildly. …

http://customwire.ap.org/dynam.....AVS_THREAT

Once again, in case people missed it:

New Orleans is located below sea level.

It’s inevitable that no matter how much money is spent rebuilding levees, in a big enough storm, the city

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