Friday, September 30, 2005

 
USATODAY.com - Alaska firm gets Gulf rebuilding job:
Processed amid mounting questions about dozens of no-bid awards, the $39.5 million contract won approval despite a proposal from a local businessman who contends he could do the job for roughly half the price.

 
shootfirst.org: shoot first, ask questions never!:
On October 1, 2005, Florida becomes a more dangerous place. That's when the Shoot First Law goes into effect, giving the people of Florida the right to use deadly force as a first resort when they feel threatened, even in a public place. But the Shoot First doctrine isn't just staying in Florida — it's about to become a national disgrace.

Imagine the consequences if a Floridian feels 'threatened' by a politician or political action.
Hmmm! Maybe this law does have some merit.
- Frank

 
GAO: Education Department Broke Rules:
'The taxpayer-funded propaganda campaign coming from the White House is another sign of the culture of corruption that pervades the White House and Republican leadership.'

 
HoustonChronicle - Casey: Will DeLay be defeated like Capone?:
His (DeLay's) national political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), has raised more than $12.5 million since 1998. He has been chastised by the House ethics committee for allowing the impression that large contributions might buy legislative favors.

 
Tools for the ultimate high-tech survival kit | CNET News.com:
... if you're tech-savvy, and your home disaster kit already includes a flashlight, cans of food, bottled water, a first aid kit and plastic ponchos, then you may want to consider some advanced technologies for survival.

 
Not So Bosom Buddies - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC:
The White House has little to gain from jumping into the sewer with DeLay, even if it has gained handsomely from DeLay’s work in the past. Bush’s aides like to cite DeLay’s effectiveness as a leader, suggesting their warm feelings will disappear as soon as he becomes ineffective.

 
Newsday.com: Incoming FDNY chaplain questions 9/11 story:
In a telephone interview Thursday, Imam Intikab Habib, 30, a native of Guyana who studied Islam in Saudi Arabia, said he doubted the United States government's official story blaming 19 hijackers associated with al-Quaida and Osama bin Laden.

 
New York Daily News - Richard Cohen: Lynndie deserves an apology:
The Washington Post on Wednesday published a letter written to Sen. John McCain by an Army captain, a West Pointer at that. In it, Capt. Ian Fishback says that for 17 months he's been searching for the Army's standards regarding the humane treatment of detainees. He cannot find them.

 
Gitmo's Hunger Strikers:
From its inception, Guantanamo has relied on a soldier-speak that is replete with half-truths and distortions. In 2002 there was a ripple of concern at the number of Guantanamo detainees trying to take their own lives. The military then announced that suicide attempts had radically declined. It took a foreign journalist to expose the truth: The very word 'suicide' had been replaced by the authorities with the term Manipulative Self-Injurious Behavior (SIB)--and there were still plenty of SIBs. The military was lying by semantics.

 
MercuryNews.com | 09/29/2005 | Expensive fix to victims' roofs:
NEW ORLEANS -- Across the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast, thousands upon thousands of blue tarps are being nailed to wind-damaged roofs, a visible sign of government assistance.

 
'Viking' vessel to make epic voyage to America:
He calls the ship Mjollnir. That's Norse for Hammer of Thor. It's as long as an 18-wheeler, with a Viking dragon snarling from the prow, and Robert McDonald wants to sail it from the Netherlands to the Florida Keys.

 
HoustonChronicle.com - DeLay says he didn't get to tell his side:
AUSTIN - The day after U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's grand jury indictment, his lawyer and the jury foreman on Thursday appeared to contradict the Texas politician's assertions that he was not given a chance to speak before the jury.

Tsk, tsk - Still playing the Blame Game!
- Frank

 
Hanging Up On Dell?:
All tech companies have some unhappy customers, of course, but recent surveys suggest the ranks of frustrated Dell Inc. owners are growing. Complaints to the Better Business Bureau rose 23% in 2004 from the year before, and they're up another 5% this year.

Due to poor support, my last Dell computer purchase was in 1994.
- Frank

Thursday, September 29, 2005

 
Leo Sternbach, Valium's Inventor, Dies:
Valium was the country's most prescribed drug from 1969 to 1982. Nicknamed 'Mother's Little Helper' after the Rolling Stones song, it was three times more potent than its predecessor, Librium, another member of the class of tranquilizers invented by Sternbach.

 
USATODAY - Neil Young's music travels into the past, future:
'I'm not a preacher, and I'm certainly not a good example, but I have my own feelings about God. I'm kind of a nature guy. My cathedral is forests, or the prairies, or the beach.'

I like the same 'cathedral.'
- Frank

 
USATODAY.com - Computers hang up SBA loans:
Of 28,488 emergency loan applications that had been received from the hurricane zone by Wednesday, just one check had been sent, Small Business Administration figures show.

Whew! More bad news.
- Frank

 
Looking back at it all, Alan Alda can laugh now. Almost dying will do that.:
The first line in his book is this: 'My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six.' As Carl Reiner said to Alda after reading the 224-page memoir, 'You're entitled to be a lot crazier than you are.'

 
USATODAY.com - 'N.Y. Times' reporter released from jail:
The reporters' sources — rather than being whistle-blowers exposing wrongdoing and facing retaliation if identified — are government officials whose motives in leaking appear to have been to undermine the credibility of a critic who dared to take on the Bush administration.

Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff! Another sleazebag on the Bush team.
Gee, sounds like he violated federal law. What are the odds he will get indicted?
- Frank

 
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Arctic ice 'disappearing quickly':
The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk for a fourth consecutive year, according to new data released by US scientists.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

 
Worldandnation: Brown bristles at blame: 'I know what I'm doing':
WASHINGTON - Finally given the chance to question the man who has become the public face of the inept response to Hurricane Katrina, congressional investigators on Tuesday were a bit surprised to find that Michael Brown was unapologetic.

Proving once again that Ignorance is Bliss. Brown seems as clueless as the President. Neither of them recognizing how ill prepared they are(were) for jobs they should never have been given.
- Frank

 
GOP Ignores Lessons of Democrats' Past Mistakes:
In response to the criminal charges he now faces, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has offered up the time-honored defense of Washington politicians: My enemies are out to get me.

Neither ethical nor creative.
- Frank

 
FEMA made hasty $236 million deal with cruise line during Katrina crisis / 3 ships now sit half empty in river and Mobile Bay:
The six-month contract has come to exemplify the cost of haste that followed Katrina's strike and FEMA's lack of preparation.

 
DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe:
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.

Another sleazebag accused, and hopefully despite the crony system - convicted!
- Frank

 
Windows Security Tips - Yahoo! News:
Even if you run a firewall, use up-to-date antivirus and anti-spyware scanners, and maintain strict download discipline, you can still end up with the latest and meanest infectious agents in your PC. Antivirus and other security tools need frequent and detailed updates to work effectively; they can't block a piece of malware that they haven't seen before.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

 
Monster Mold Threatens Health in the South:
Mold now forms an interior version of kudzu in the soggy South, posing health dangers that will make many homes tear-downs and will force schools and hospitals to do expensive repairs.

 
GovExec.com - Chertoff warned of problems with separate border security agencies (9/27/05):
Before announcing his decision not to merge two border security agencies under his control, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was warned that his choice was 'likely to aggravate, rather than remedy, the difficulties' the two agencies were experiencing, according to a draft of a report obtained by Government Executive.

 
Bill Introduced As Joke Signed Into Law | The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

The Onion

S. 1718, also known as the Preservation Of Public Lands Of America Act, authorized a shift of $138 billion from the federal Medicare fund to a massive landscaping effort that, over the next five years, will transform Yellowstone National Park into a luxury private golf estate.

 
Security Watch: In defense of Mozilla Firefox - CNET reviews:

GEEK NOTE

If I'm going to conduct my banking and other such services online, I'm sure as heck not going to use Internet Explorer.

 
For Bush, an Issue of Competence - Business Week:
... a President who seems late on the uptick, tolerates political cronies in high places, and delegates too much authority to underlings.

 
Kon-Tiki raft voyage to be re-created - Boston.com:
OSLO, Norway -- An effort to recreate the late Thor Heyerdahl's famed 101-day Pacific crossing aboard the Kon-Tiki balsa raft resumed Tuesday after a postponement forced by last year's southern Asia tsunami.

 
Hostage Gave Meth to Atlanta Fugitive:
The woman who says she gained the trust of suspected courthouse gunman Brian Nichols by talking about her faith in God discloses in a new book that she gave him methamphetamine during the hostage ordeal.

Ashley Smith did not share that detail with authorities after she talked her way out of captivity.



Monday, September 26, 2005

 
USATODAY.com - Prosecutors weigh criminal charges over body armor:
The Justice Department is investigating whether a company sold defective bulletproof vests for President Bush, federal agents and local police and then waited nearly two years to alert customers that the body armor could be unsafe.

Now, now! Lets not play the Blame Game!
- Frank

 
Russell Beattie Notebook - Why I Might Switch Back…:

GEEK NOTE

Now that I’ve been using Macs for a while, I’m wondering if they’re all that special. The hardware is nice, but OS X can be as slow, buggy, non-standard, frustrating and annoying as any other operating system. Also, I don’t really use most of the included apps, so most of what makes OSX so special doesn’t really apply to me.

Another long list of reasons for the Mac to Windows switch.
- Frank (Switched 2 years ago)

 
CREW - Group lists 13 'Most Corrupt' in Congress:
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says in its report that the 13 members, among them Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), might have violated a variety of congressional ethics rules.

 
Independent Online Edition - American fury over Greenspan leak: "
Bitter disagreements over global economic policy broke out into the open yesterday as the French Finance Minister claimed that Alan Greenspan had admitted America had 'lost control' of its budget while China warned the US to drop demands for radical economic policy changes.

 
Hybrids: Don't buy the hype - Sep. 26, 2005:
A hybrid Honda Accord costs about $3,800 more than the comparable non-hybrid version, including purchase, maintenance and insurance costs. Over five years, assuming 15,000 miles of driving per year, you'll make up that cost in gasoline money if the price of gas goes up immediately to $9.20 a gallon and averages that for the whole period.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

 
Did the Press Miss Widespread Prisoner Abuse in Iraq?:
The soldiers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the abuse took place almost daily and often came under orders. Anything short of causing an inmate's death was allowed, they said.

The residents of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, nicknamed soldiers at the nearby base 'the Murderous Maniacs,' New York-based Human Rights Watch said. 'The soldiers considered this name a badge of honor.'

 
Navy Secretly Contracted Jets Used by CIA - Yahoo! News:
Two of the companies — Richmor Aviation Inc. and Premier Executive Transport Services Inc. — chartered luxury Gulfstreams that flew terror suspects captured in Europe to Egypt, according to U.S. and European media reports. Once there, the men told family members, they were tortured. Authorities in Italy and Sweden have expressed outrage over flights they say were illegal and orchestrated by the U.S. government

Thursday, September 22, 2005

 
Dvorak Uncensored - Homeland Security Bars British Journalist from Country:
The controversial British journalist, who is based in Beirut, filed many eyewitness reports on the U.S. invasion of Iraq and criticized Western reporters for “hotel journalism ,” a phrase he coined to describe correspondents who covered the war from heavily fortified hotel suites and offices.

 
Blackwater Down:
About 150 heavily armed Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the chaos of New Orleans. Officially, the company boasted of its forces 'join[ing] the hurricane relief effort.' But its men on the ground told a different story.

Creepy!! IT SEEMS LIKE THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON!

 
Bush's Booze Crisis - National Enquirer:
'When the levees broke in New Orleans, it apparently made him reach for a shot,' said one insider. 'He poured himself a Texas-sized shot of straight whiskey and tossed it back. The First Lady was shocked and shouted: 'Stop George!'

Hey, this is from the National Enquirer, not Fox News, so it must be true.
- Frank

 
USATODAY.com - Cold-war device used to cause Katrina?:
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho weatherman says Japan's Yakuza mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge itself for the Hiroshima atom bomb attack — and that this technology will soon be wielded again to hit another U.S. city.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

 
Pentagon Nixes 9/11 Hearing Testimony:
The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said Wednesday he would look into whether the Pentagon obstructed his committee by refusing to allow testimony from five people who had knowledge of a secret military unit named 'Able Danger.'

They were expected to testify Wednesday about a link between al-Qaida and four of the Sept. 11 hijackers — including leader Mohamed Atta — that the unit is said to have uncovered more than a year before the 2001 attacks.

 
Senator Sold Stock Before Price Dropped:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, sold all his stock in his family's hospital corporation about two weeks before it issued a disappointing earnings report and the price fell nearly 15 percent.

 
FEC Sues Pro-Republican Political Group - Yahoo! News:
Federal election regulators have taken a political group to court in what could serve as a test case for how the government will address complaints over millions of dollars in big contributions poured into last year's presidential race

Hopefully, at some point the political involvement of various religious organizations will get some scrutiny.
- Frank

 
California Whooping Cough Cases Surge - Yahoo! News:
Nearly three times as many whooping cough cases have been reported in California this year compared to 2004, according to the state Department of Health Services.

The state tallied 1,276 cases and four infant deaths through August. For the same period in 2004, it logged 450 cases and two deaths."

 
An Uncertain Future for San Joaquin River - Yahoo! News:
ANSEL ADAMS WILDERNESS, Calif. - It begins as fresh snowmelt, streaming from Mount Ritter's gray granite faces into Thousand Island Lake, a bouldered mirror. The clear blue water spills out through a narrow canyon, and the San Joaquin River is born.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

 
KSDK NewsChannel 5 - FEMA Sends Trucks Full Of Ice For Katrina Victims To Maine:
City officials say they have no idea why the trucks are here, only that the city has been asked to help out with traffic problems. But the truck drivers NEWSCENTER spoke to said they went all the way down to the gulf coast with the ice -- stayed for a few days -- and then were told by FEMA they needed to drive to Maine to store it.

 
S.F. hydrants don't fit equipment from other fire departments. In a disaster, the city could be ... Hosed:
If a big earthquake hits San Francisco and flames spread through the city, firefighters rushing in from elsewhere to help will encounter what could be a major problem -- their hoses will not fit the city's hydrants.

 
Gossip Meets the G-Men in Vast FBI Files:
Celebrities and criminals, rock stars and mob stars, athletes and artists — scores of high-profile Americans have their very own FBI file, a bold-faced universe rife with dirt and scandal. It's no surprise that gossip columnists such as Walter Winchell turn up as sources

 
Google goes wi-fi:

GEEK NOTE

On its website, the search outfit said that it is making public a client-based VPN (Virtual Private Network) access to its Google WiFi service. GOOGLE LINK

 
Poynter Online - The Pathology of Apology:
That's why the big sorry 'but' form of apology is actually no apology at all. Think about the last time you heard someone begin a sentence with the clause, 'I'm sorry, but' -– as in, 'I'm sorry, but that's not news.' Was the person really sorry? I doubt it. In my experience, 'I'm sorry, but' almost always is another way of saying, 'Never mind what anybody else thinks; I'll have the last word here.'

 
PoughkeepsieJournal.com - Studio for the students:
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY - 'They could have gone to any of the 50 states,' Clinton said. 'I really wanted them to come to Poughkeepsie.'

Officials said Clinton lobbied to bring the program to New York, and eventually Poughkeepsie, with help from district and state education leaders.

 
New York Daily News - Home - Denis Hamill: Bush's 'bullhorn moment' just bull:
I often ask successful conservative businessmen friends if they would let George W. Bush run their private businesses. They almost always smile and admit they wouldn't. And yet they voted for him torun the most powerful nation on the planet.

It would be funny except that almost 1,900 Americans troops have been killed to create an Islamic state that spirals toward a possible civil war in Iraq since Bush's wonderful 'bullhorn moment.'

An Interesting editorial with a few important historical reminders.
Sad footnote: We passed the 1,900 American troops killed mark today.
- Frank

 
NATIONAL JOURNAL: White House Staff Salaries: Who's Making What (07/26/05):
The White House is required to send the salary list to Congress annually.

 
Karzai Wants End to U.S.-Led Operations:
Karzai demanded an immediate end to foreign troops searching people's homes without his government's authorization. He also said foreign governments should 'concentrate on where terrorists are trained, on their bases, on the supply to them, on the money coming to them' — a veiled reference to support that militants allegedly get from neighboring Pakistan.

 
Scandal Visits the White House:
The Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal reached into the White House yesterday, picking off President Bush's top procurement official -- who just barely had time to resign before being arrested.

David Safavian - another one down. I wish they would move up the chain and arrest, indict, or impeach the sources of all of this corruption. There is plenty of room at Guantanamo if we stack them up as other prisoners were.
- Frank



 
USATODAY - Guard relief hurt by obsolete equipment:
Hurricane Katrina exposed serious weaknesses in the National Guard's communications systems, particularly a shortage of high-tech radios and satellite communications gear, the Guard's top general said Monday.

I guess the billions of dollars 'given' to bushCo crony companies like Halliburton were not enough to actually get useful products from them.
- Frank

 
Bubble won't burst / Study finds Bay Area housing prices in line with economic growth:
SAN FRANCISCO - The recent, rapid price increases stem not from a speculative frenzy but from basic economic factors, including low interest rates, strong income growth and abnormally low prices in the mid-1990s, said researchers at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

 
New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Errol Louis: She knows the game:
Sheehan has humanized what the polls say is now a majority position among citizens: that the Bush administration has been untruthful about the reasons for the war, wildly wrong about forecasts of success and is committed to staying put in what increasingly looks like a military quagmire.

 
The Daytona Beach News-Journal:
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- As Jason Messenger flew a single-engine airplane a dozen feet above the runway, a man in a Jeep speeding alongside reached out with a pole and tugged the plane's faulty right landing gear into its proper position.

Monday, September 19, 2005

 
USATODAY.com - President sinking in ratings:
A 54% majority says the best way for the government to pay for hurricane relief is by cutting spending for the war. Just 6% support spending cuts in domestic programs, as Bush has suggested.

Nearly two-thirds of those polled, 63%, say some or all of the U.S. troops in Iraq should be withdrawn. A record-high 59% say it was a mistake to invade.

Hard to believe that support is this high, considering this psuedo-president's lifelong record of incompetence, unreliability and lack of compassion.
- Frank

 
USATODAY.com - British soldiers free two from Basra jail:
British soldiers used 10 armored vehicles to break down the walls of the central jail in this southern city Monday and freed two Britons, allegedly undercover commandos arrested on charges of shooting two Iraqi policemen, witnesses said.

 
USATODAY.com - Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. roars onto NYC catwalk:
The collection's look is 'a little bit The Sound of Music. A little bit of Orange County. A little bit of the Rastafarian rasta girls. A little bit English Great Gatsby garden party girls,' Stefani says. 'Pretty much the same thing I always do, but different versions of it.'

 
Panel Suggests Ways to Improve Elections:
A private commission trying to restore public confidence in national elections recommended on Monday requiring a free photo ID for voters, drawing opposition from Democrats and some voting rights activists.

 
Intelligence in the Internet age | CNET News.com:
'The key thing about all the world's big problems is that they have to be dealt with collectively,' Engelbart said. 'If we don't get collectively smarter, we're doomed.'

 
Crave privacy? New tech knocks out digital cameras | CNET News.com:
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with an inexpensive way to prevent digital cameras and digital video cameras from capturing that secret shot.

 
Dvorak Uncensored - Banks Aid In Creating Fraud:
Why go to all the trouble of stealing someone’s identy when banks make it easy to simply make one up? Shouldn’t they be held accountable for the use of that identity to defraud? Perhaps if a bank is held as a codefendent in a fraud case, this might stop. But punishment would have to include jail time because you know a fine will just be termed a cost of doing business and passed on to customers.

 
No Place for a Poet at a Banquet of Shame:
So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of the candles, and I could not stomach it.

 
Pro-Troop Org Says Anti-War Activists “Exploiting” Katrina:
Melanie Morgan, Chair of Move America Forward, says she’s angered by the interplay of those who oppose the war on terrorism with those suffering one of the worst natural disasters to strike in this nation’s history.

Another clueless and little used mind! Somehow this woman has determined that Cindy Sheehan is "anti-military"?? She must have taken common sense lessons from the president. I guess she and W both feel that sending troops to die in Iraq is "pro-military." Idiocy reigns!
- Frank

 
Almaden Resident | September 15, 2005 - Cache Crop: Geocaching is high-tech treasure hunting:
Historically, treasure hunting has meant searching for lost fortunes that include diamonds and rubies or Spanish doubloons and gold. Legends have them buried in such exotic places as sunken ships or isolated caves. Today, a new form of treasure hunting has people searching cities, parks and wilderness areas for pencils, bumper stickers and rubber duckies.

 
Wired 13.09: Reinventing Television:
...the audience... ...has grown almost threefold to 1.4 million viewers a night. It boasts a legion of young, smart fans who are among the most demographically desirable audiences in the industry - further collapsing the caste distinctions between networks and cable... ...may be the most popular TV program on the Internet.

 
Faith-based disaster:
Immediately after the hurricane, there were only two secular organizations to which FEMA's Web site urged that contributions be made; all the others were faith-based. What's worse, in at least some instances, FEMA relied on faith-based charities to spearhead the emergency-relief effort, regardless of whether they had expertise. Case in point: Tulsa, Okla.

 
Bush administration paradox explained:
With governing, it's been almost criminally incompetent -- failing to act on clear predictions of a terrorist attack like 9/11 or a natural disaster like Katrina, botching intelligence over Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction, failing to secure order after invading Iraq, allowing prisoners of war to be tortured, losing complete control over the federal budget, creating a bizarre Medicare drug benefit from which the elderly are now fleeing, barely responding to the wave of corporate lootings and running the Federal Emergency Management Agency into the ground. Not since the hapless administration of Warren G. Harding has there been one as stunningly inept as this one.

Time for impeachment, indictments, and some viable 3rd political party candidates.
- Frank

 
Firefox and Mac security sanctuaries 'under attack' | The Register:
Symantec has attacked the perceived security advantages of Firefox and Apple Macs by drawing unfavourable comparisons with Microsoft's software and describing Mac fans as living in a 'false paradise'. According to the latest edition of Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, 25 vulnerabilities were disclosed for Mozilla browsers and 13 for Microsoft Internet Explorer in the first half of 2005.

 
Florida could bow to drilling - OrlandoSentinel.com: State News:
Instead of being blocked by Florida lawmakers, as efforts have been for years, the proposal may well be drafted by three of them: Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala; Rep. Michael Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs; and Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla.

 
New Scientist News - How far should fingerprints be trusted?:
A HIGH-profile court case in Massachusetts is once again casting doubt on the claimed infallibility of fingerprint evidence. If the case succeeds it could open the door to numerous legal challenges.

 
local6.com - News - Bob Vila To Feature Home Built To Withstand Category 5 Storm:
PUNTA GORDA, FL - With concrete walls measuring 6 inches thick, shatterproof windows and an elevated foundation, the new home is designed to withstand even a Category 5 hurricane.

 
Short hairstyles are chic, convenient and less costly -floridatoday.com:
MELBOURNE, FL - Darlyne McGee, owner of Silhouette Hair Design in Melbourne, says she's blown away by the number of women who come into her salon wanting to chop their treasured locks.

 
Bush, and Satchmo, in New Orleans:
It seemed almost a sacrilege for the president to stand in the jazz-mad French Quarter, using the St. Louis Cathedral and statue of Andrew Jackson as a Disney-like backdrop, and announce that now he is going to do something, after the death and destruction are done, leaving the taxpayers with a $200 billion bill (much of which will go straight into the already Iraq-packed pockets of his friends at Halliburton and Bechtel and the like). His speech came on the very day The New York Times published an article about the many jazz and blues musicians from the Big Easy now forced to live in Cajun country and beyond, perhaps never to return to their homes and livelihoods.

 
thedesertsun.com | Schwarzenegger anti-union strategy may backfire:
At the state Republican Party convention here this weekend, Schwarzenegger publicly embraced Proposition 75, the ballot initiative designed to defund the political activity of public employee unions. With that, the governor can no longer credibly suggest that his 'year of reform' agenda is anything other than a partisan war on Democrats and their allies.

 
Kozlowski sentencing nears - Sep. 16, 2005:
Kozlowski, along with former Tyco CFO Mark Swartz, was found guilty in June of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the manufacturing conglomerate. The sentencing comes Monday. Both men face up to 30 years in state prison, but are hoping for a lot less.

 
USATODAY - The bucks start here: Bush's plan raises questions:
Some Republicans worry that Bush's willingness to spend whatever it takes betrays conservatives' small-government philosophy. 'We simply cannot break the bank of the federal budget that is currently running about an $8 trillion national debt, about $26,000 per family,' Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said Sunday on ABC's This Week.

Yet another argument for changing presidential election requirements to include tests for basic math skills, literacy, and most of all - common sense!
- Frank

 
Katrina survivor found in New Orleans home - Yahoo! News:
Almost three weeks after Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans, a 39-year-old man was found alive on Sunday in one of the hardest-hit areas and apologized to rescuers for his dirty home

Sunday, September 18, 2005

 
Feds, locals clash on return to N.Orleans - Yahoo! News:
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, head of the federal recovery efforts in New Orleans, said the city lacked most basic services -- such as drinkable water, sewage and electricity. Its protective levees remained vulnerable, and the city lacked a plan to respond to any new emergency.

 
Left Behind: Bush's Holy War on Nature:
During their time in power, Bush's officials have worked systematically and energetically to undo half a century of environmental law and policy based on hard-learned lessons about how to sustain healthy environments. Strikingly, they have failed to protect the environment even when they could have done so without repercussions from special-interest campaign contributors. Something more is going on.

 
MercuryNews | 09/17/2005 | Anniversary trip became two days of fear, squalor in Superdome:
Rumors of rape, shootings and suicide rippled through the increasingly unnerved crowd in the Superdome in New Orleans. Sewage covered the floors. Lawlessness prevailed. Meals and water were delivered erratically. Rescue seemed an illusion.

 
New trigonometry is a sign of the times - PHYSORG.COM:
These new concepts mean that trigonometric problems can be done with algebra,' says Wildberger, an associate professor of mathematics at UNSW.

'Rational trigonometry replaces sines, cosines, tangents and a host of other trigonometric functions with elementary arithmetic.'

 
The Globe and Mail: The new face of New Orleans:
Despite President George W. Bush's vow that 'there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again,' the city that emerges over the next decade will likely be a lot smaller. And chances are that it will be a lot whiter.

 
Montreal Gazette - canada.com - Can this man save the world?:
Everyone wants to cut car emissions. Sooner or later, someone will find a way to do it. Joe Williams hopes it's him.

 
The Observer | How the penguin's life story inspired the US religious right:
Leipzig pointed out that this species of penguin, the emperor, is usually monogamous for a year, but not for life: the following year, it takes a different partner. He added: 'People read it into what they want. There are universal truths about parenting and bonding with offspring, but it's not a film with a political and social agenda. When we put the English-language version together, we never once had a discussion about social, religious or cultural points of view. We wanted to get the audience involved to follow the penguins' lives.'

America's religious right, in grasping at this as proof of 'intelligent design', provide in their myopic whining, one of the better arguments against 'intelligent design.'
I can imagine God crying as He observes the lengths to which some will go to avoid using the brains He has blessed them with.
- Frank


 
Toshiba introduces fuel cell prototypes for audio players:
The 100mW unit, can power flash-based players for approximately 35 hours on a single 3.5ml charge of concentrated methanol, claims Toshiba. The 300mW unit delivers sufficient power to keep an HDD-based audio player running for approximately 60 hours on a single 10ml charge, said the company.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

 
MercuryNews.com | 09/16/2005 | Report: Cable broadband prices jump, while DSL declines:
Cable-modem service was, on average, 75.8 percent more expensive than DSL during the month, up from a 53.3 percent gap in July. While phone carriers cut prices -- the average DSL price decreased by 9.2 percent -- cable companies raised them.

 
Clinton global aid meeting gathers $1.25 bln - Boston.com:
A glow of goodwill emanated from many in the conference, buoyed by those who stepped up to sign a commitment to action and receive a handshake from a beaming Clinton.

Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said the event was only possible because of the reputation and personality of the former president.

It is somewhat ironic that a former president does something decent, ethical, and competent, while the current president wreaks havoc with corruption, incompetence and an aura of sleaze.
- Frank

 
USATODAY.com - Amazed rescuers find 76-year-old man, trapped for 18 days:
Without ever leaving home, Gerald Martin lived out one of the most remarkable survival stories of Hurricane Katrina. Rescuers who found him Friday, as they searched his neighborhood by boat, were astounded at his good spirits and resiliency after 18 days without food or human contact.

 
Pensions in aftermath of the airline bankruptcy bloodbath - Sep. 16, 2005:
The fund, known as the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC), already faces a $23 billion gap in what it takes in through corporate premiums and what it has promised to pay retirees.

Friday, September 16, 2005

 
New York Daily News - They scoff at Bush's promises:
Others wondered why he was talking in an empty city instead of to its residents, 60 miles away.

Our psuedo-leader seems to be reenacting his National Guard active duty days.
- Frank

 
New York Daily News - Mike splits with Bush, GOP; opposes Roberts for Court:
“Judge Roberts’ response did not indicate a commitment to protect a woman’s right to choose,” Bloomberg said. “There can be no turning back and for that reason I oppose the nomination of Judge Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

 
Who's in Charge? Karl Rove!:
Rove's leadership role suggests quite strikingly that any and all White House decisions and pronouncements regarding the recovery from the storm are being made with their political consequences as the primary consideration. More specifically: With an eye toward increasing the likelihood of Republican political victories in the future, pursuing long-cherished conservative goals, and bolstering Bush's image.

Maybe we can get Pat Robertson to say one of his special prayers for this power hungry puppet-master!
- Frank

 
God Loves The 1974 VW Dasher / Why my mom's old yellow econobox still beats the crap out of any new car on the road - SFGate.com :
We have the technology. We have the brainpower. We could, if there were any real incentive to do so, if the government had done its job and if they had pushed forth with anything resembling social responsibility, and if the populace had been educated enough to care, we could easily have fast sexy well-built cars that get 100 mpg, right now, today, cars that give off nearly zero emissions...

 
Federal Forecasters Got Hurricane Right:
For all the criticism of the Bush administration's confused response to Hurricane Katrina, at least two federal agencies got it right: the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center.

They forecast the path of the storm and the potential for devastation with remarkable accuracy.

The performance by the two agencies calls into question claims by President Bush and others in his administration that Katrina was a catastrophe that no one envisioned.

 
Humor Helps Nation Deal With Katrina:
The joke rattled through e-mails across the country even as lives hung in the balance after Hurricane Katrina: What's President Bush's position on Roe vs. Wade? Answer: He doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.

 
IBM to Encourage Employees to Be Teachers:
International Business Machines Corp., worried the United States is losing its competitive edge, will financially back employees who want to leave the company to become math and science teachers.

 
Venezuelan leader lashes at US in UN speech - Yahoo! News:
At a press conference after his speech, Chavez said that the United States was a 'terrorist state' because of its actions in Iraq, Robertson's assassination call and for harboring Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted for the bombing of a Cuban airliner.

'It is a terrorist state. It is a government that violates all rules and behaves shamelessly,' he said.

 
Judge Orders Release of Jailed Grandmother - Yahoo! News:
hours after her plight was featured in an Associated Press story, a local judge on Thursday ordered Maten freed on her own recognizance, setting up a sweet reunion with her daughter, grandchildren and 80-year-old husband.



 
Power-dressing man leaves trail of destruction - Yahoo! News:
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building

Thursday, September 15, 2005

 
USATODAY.com - Hope turns to anguish at intensive-care unit:
'You think of a hospital as a place that gives treatment. But it had become kind of a medieval nursing facility. We were just providing comfort to the dying. That's what we were doing,' says anesthesiologist James Riopelle, the last of the living to leave. 'There was no good solution. There were only bad choices.'

 
USATODAY.com - Bush: U.S. to pay most of costs to rebuild New Orleans:
'And here in New Orleans, the street cars will once again rumble down St. Charles, and the passionate soul of a great city will return.'

I guess 'they' have determined that there will be no more Katrina-like hurricanes.
- Frank

 
Katrina Ushers in Return of Big Government:
They're also deferring — for now — vows to finish the Reagan revolution against big government and turning to some of the same kinds of public health, housing and job assistance programs they once criticized as legacies of the Democrats' New Deal and Great Society.

The same imbeciles who could not respond intelligently to hurricane Katrina are now getting their corrupt little mitts on unprecedented budget money.
- Frank

 
The Many Faces of Dr. Coburn:
On the first day of hearings on Judge John G. Roberts Jr.'s nomination to Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court...
...Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn busied himself with a crossword puzzle.

On April O7, five months prior to this hearing, Michael Schwartz, Coburn's chief of staff, told me, 'Tom doesn't know anything about this judiciary stuff, so I'm feeding him piles and piles of memos every day.'

 
AP Wire | 09/15/2005 | Deaconess, 73, jailed for alleged looting:
Police say the grandmother from New Orleans took $63.50 in goods from a looted deli the day after Katrina struck.

Family and eyewitnesses have a different story. They say Maten is an innocent woman who had gone to her car to get some sausage to eat but was wrongly handcuffed by tired, frustrated officers who couldn't catch younger looters at a nearby store.

Not even the deli owner wants her charged

 
floridatoday.com -Local News:
PALM BAY, FL - The heartwarming story of a Palm Bay couple who opened their house to hurricane evacuees has ended in hard feelings.

 
USATODAY - Tests find too much mercury in storebought fish:
A University of North Carolina Lab found elevated mercury concentrations in 24 swordfish samples from supermarket chains including Safeway, Shaws, Albertsons and Whole Foods.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

 
Local News - Visalia Times Delta - www.visaliatimesdelta.com:
EXETER, CA - Pasadena developer will submit preliminary plans to the county today to turn 35,000 acres of grazing land in a pastoral valley east of Exeter into a large planned residential community beginning as early as 2010."

 
Twinkie, Twinkie, little star:
The Twinkie is celebrating its 75th birthday this year. Yet, this simple yellow sponge cake filled with vanilla cream has managed to generate interest and even a bit of controversy over the years.

 
Google Launches Industrial Strength Blog Search:
Google has introduced its long awaited blog search service, becoming the first major search engine to offer full-blown blog and feed search capabilities.

Blogsearch

 
Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows - Yahoo! News:
...Chertoff - not Brown - was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.

But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.

 
CHARITIES ARE FOR SUCKERS - Yahoo! News:
It's ridiculous, but people evidently need to be reminded that the United States is not only the world's wealthiest nation but the wealthiest society that has existed anywhere, ever. The U.S. government can easily pick up the tab for people inconvenienced by bad weather--if helping them is a priority. That goes double for Katrina, a disaster caused by the government's conscious decision to eliminate the $50 million pittance needed to improve New Orleans' levees.

For our leaders the optional war against Iraq is such a priority, which the Congressional Budget Office expects to cost $600 billion by 2010. That's four or five Katrinas right there. (That's also where the levee money went.) Because rich people are always a political priority, their taxes have been slashed by $4 trillion over a decade--the equivalent of 32 Katrinas. So worried are our public servants about the tax burden placed on the rich that they're looking out for rich dead people. This is why they've gutted the estate tax that, at a cost of $75 billion annually, will run half a Katrina a year. Trickle-down economists beginning with Milton Friedman shout 'starve the beast,' but while the social programs are put on a diet, the mean and powerful pig out more than ever.

A little bit painful to read, but hard to argue with.
- Frank

 
The Storm That Ate The GOP / Who will pity the soulless Republican Party now that Katrina is mauling their regime?:
This is what, I imagine, the GOP overlords are asking each other over cocktails and baby seal kabobs and whale-blood transfusions: Do you think the people are finally beginning to sense it? Are they finally waking up? You think they know that the fact that Bush is finally taking a modicum of responsibility for his administration's failure -- something he never, never does -- is a sign of true GOP desperation? Do you think they recognize that BushCo isn't really spending a dime on Katrina relief, that the $52 billion they just crammed through Congress without any discussion isn't actually going toward repairs and rebuilding at all?

You think people sense that all of it, every single dime, is going toward -- you guessed it -- PR? Spin control? You know it's true. Every government truck and every National Guardsman and every aid package and every miserable FEMA agent you see is merely in place to try and shore up Bush's miserable poll numbers, his dwindling support. Hell, it's the only reason Bush -- or his party -- does anything for the 'good' of the nation.

Thanks Mark! It is a shame that it took Katrina to wake up the press and many citizens. Sure hope they stay awake.
- Frank

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

 
Your New PC: Be Very Afraid: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance:
A friend who bought a Mac mini not long ago was handed a disk with the then-new Tiger version of OS X and instructed to install it himself. Despite Apple's pride in the tight integration between its hardware and software, the company wasn't about to upgrade all the old machines on the shelves when a supply of free labor--customers--was readily available.

One area where Mac and PC are sadly equal.
- Frank

 
As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories':
On Saturday, after being challenged in court by CNN, the Bush administration agreed not to prevent the news media from following the effort to recover the bodies of Hurricane Katrina victims.

But on Monday, in the Bywater district, that assurance wasn't being followed. The 82nd Airborne soldier told reporters the Army had a policy that requires media to be 300 meters -- more than three football fields in length -- away from the scene of body recoveries in New Orleans. If reporters wrote stories or took pictures of body recoveries, they would be reported and face consequences, he said, including a loss of access for up-close coverage of certain military operations.

The lies and corruption seem to trickle down and permeate every level under this President.
I wonder if we will ever know how many actually died in this fiasco.
- Frank

Monday, September 12, 2005

 
USATODAY.com - Poll shows racial divide on storm response:
A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll finds a stark racial divide in Americans' attitudes toward the plight of Hurricane Katrina's victims, the performance of President Bush and the reasons the government's early response was wanting.

 
Headphone Use May Worsen Hearing Loss:
Today, doctors say many people also are wearing headphones, not just to enjoy music, but also to block out ambient noise on buses, trains or just the street. And all of it can contribute to hearing loss

 
Dozens Found Dead at New Orleans Hospital - Yahoo! News:
The bodies of more than 40 mostly elderly patients were found in a flooded-out hospital in the biggest known cluster of corpses to be discovered so far in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

 
White House Threatens Mercury Change Veto - Yahoo! News:
By repealing the EPA rules finalized last March, the Senate would force the agency to return to the tougher Clean Air Act rules imposed during the Clinton administration that requires the nation's 600 coal-burning power plants to use the best available technology to reduce mercury emissions.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

 
Dvorak Uncensored - Bush Invokes 9/11 Mantra.. As Usual:
Where is the mention of government incompetence that played its own part in the “resultant devastation”? I would think that someone who has decided to “lead” an investigation would want at least to make a passing reference to it in his weekly radio address. “We’re going to find out why you did not receive the help you needed” would be a reassuring start. Instead, we get this.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

 
25 Stupid Quotes About Hurricane Katrina - Stupidest Hurricane Katrina Quotes:
'I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.' –President Bush, on 'Good Morning America,' Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina

 
komo news | 'I'm So Lucky':
A grizzly bear attacked a man, ripped off his skull, broke his neck and back -- and the man's only thoughts were to keep his daughter safe

 
Bush allows Katrina contractors to pay below prevailing wage - Sep. 9, 2005:
'The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities,' Miller said.

There seems to be no end to this IDIOCY!

- Frank


 
CNN - 3 days of death, despair and survival - Sep 9, 2005:
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) -- Trapped inside the darkened, stifling hot attic of her flooded home in New Orleans with her two teenage daughters, Debbie Este watched her own mother die as they waited for help she thought would never come.

 
Firms with Bush ties snag Katrina deals - Yahoo! News:
...the web of Bush administration connections is attracting renewed attention from watchdog groups in the post-Katrina reconstruction rush. Congress has already appropriated more than $60 billion in emergency funding as a down payment on recovery efforts projected to cost well over $100 billion.

 
Lawyer Is Fired After Talking About Rove - Yahoo! News:
Rove is registered to vote in Kerr County, Texas, where he and his wife own two rental homes that he claims as his residence. But two local residents told the Post they had never seen Rove there.
...
The attorney told the reporter that it was potential vote fraud in Texas to register in a place where you don't actually live, and she was quoted as saying Rove's cottages don't 'sound like a residence to me, because it's not a fixed place of habitation.'

 
Soldier Not Killed in Action; Kin Not Told:
The Army said Saturday it knew for more than a year after 1st Lt. Kenneth Ballard's death in Iraq in May 2004 that he was not killed in action, as it initially reported. The family was not told the truth until Friday.

 
MercuryNews.com | 09/10/2005 | FEMA director says media made him a scapegoat:
Friday, allegations surfaced that Brown had padded his resume. He angrily denied those charges and contended that the White House and FEMA had erred in their descriptions of two of his past jobs.

While being clueless as to how poorly he handled Katrina, Brown has now made the above claim that the White House and FEMA provided his bogus background experience. Looks like Chertoff and Bush need to be fired as well.
- Frank

 
USATODAY - President's approval rating dips below 40:
The public's view of the nation's direction has grown increasingly negative as well, with nearly two-thirds now saying the country is heading down the wrong track.

Of more concern to me is how almost 40% can approve. Are there that many corrupt or incompetent people among us? Quite frightening to ponder.
- Frank

 
USATODAY - Woman charged with posing as U.S. ambassador:
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) — U.S. agents arrested a Virgin Islands woman for allegedly posing as an American ambassador, occasionally getting body guard protection and even riding in motorcades, an official said Friday.

Friday, September 09, 2005

 
Doctors Emerging As Heroes of Katrina - Yahoo! News:
On Sept. 1, 2005, many wore hospital scrubs that said MD, RN and EMT. Thousands of health care workers stayed with patients in devastated hospitals after the storm struck. Thousands more rushed in to help.

 
Gore Helps Airlift New Orleans Victims:
On Sept. 1, three days after Katrina slamed into the Gulf Coast, Simon learned that Dr. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

'The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute — food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of water surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside,' Simon wrote.

 
eBay: VIDEO WHERE I SHOUT "GO FU** YOURSELF" TO DICK CHENEY :
For those who don't know Mr. Cheney is infamous for telling Senator Leahy 'go fu** yourself' on the senate floor.

After seeing this video clip yesterday, I was surprised that Dr. Marble wasn't slipped onto the Katrina casualty list.
- Frank

 
Will Somebody Say Thank You? - M. Reagan:
"This man called President Bush has a lot to answer for. I don't know if this man is really taking care of America. This government has been shameful."

"just picture George Bush waking up in the morning and saying to Laura: 'The hell with those workers. We're not going to send help to New Orleans because we hate ‘em.'"


SATIRE AGAIN? I sure hope so.
I took the comments above out of context from this article, much like the author does with his 'facts' in creating it. Possibly indicative of Alzheimers being hereditary.

 
Laura Bush Calls Criticism of Husband 'Disgusting':
'And I know that. I mean, I'm the person who lives with him,' she said. 'I know what he's like and I know what he thinks and I know how he cares about people.'

Mrs. Bush did not offer any explanation for the difference between what she knows and the actions taken (or not taken) by her husband.
- Frank

 
Think Again: The Return of Self-Respect - Center for American Progress:
In a report published on its Web site the other day, the BBC made the observation that the hurricane coverage is the first time since Watergate that the members of the U.S. media have forcefully stood up to politicians and those in power – though they might have added “in a story about something other than sex.” In a sense this may be true, but that’s not the whole story. Over the past week, reporters have not simply called politicians on their lies and evasions (often to their faces), which happens all too infrequently, but they also showed a concern with checking the facts and doing due diligence before filing their stories. Sadly, this is a slightly remarkable fact, but one that is happily noted in this instance.

 
Poynter Online - Covering Katrina:
Many news reports from the Katrina-ravaged region of the Gulf Coast look and sound more like dispatches from a warfront than 'the Big Easy.'

Covering this story requires committed journalists and companies that are prepared and supportive of the journalists they are putting in harm's way.

 
Police made their storm misery worse:
"the cops weren't necessarily the good guys, and it was crystal clear that most of the city government structure collapsed along with the levees that left the city at the mercy of the rising waters."

LINK TO FULL WRITEUP

 
Frustrated volunteers go it alone to provide help - The Boston Globe:
Fed up with bureaucratic obstacles to aiding the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, a group of Boston-area women is collecting and sending supplies to Louisiana themselves.

The women are packing an 18-wheeler, set to leave Sunday, with hair care products, toys, clothes, suitcases, and other items to give to thousands of evacuees now staying in Lafayette, La., some 135 miles northwest of New Orleans

Note that this situation still exists and today is September 9th!
- Frank

 
FEMA Chief Brown Relieved of Katrina Duties:
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, The Associated Press has learned.

Good Start! What about Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, etc. ??
Hopefully indictments will follow each as they are relieved of duties.
- Frank

 
USATODAY - Four years after 9/11, New York is back:
The Big Apple is completing a record summer, with hotels fuller and pricier than ever. Business travelers are back doing their deals, and tourists are visiting in record numbers, motivated partly by a sense of patriotic duty. The boom shows no sign of letting up.

 
USATODAY - Unlike 9/11, Katrina divides rather than unifies America:
Two-thirds of the public, according to the latest Pew poll, and lawmakers of both parties blame Bush, who is one face of a federal government they say was too slow to respond.

 
Pay Dispute Forces Closure of Iraq Airport:
The brewing standoff could involve American forces in a confrontation with Iraqi troops. An official close to the dispute said the U.S. military had joined security forces from the British company at a checkpoint to block Iraqi interior ministry troops.

 
George W. Bush Still Rocks! - Stop criticizing! The rich man's CEO president is executing his job requirements perfectly:
The truest measure of any president, of any leader, is how well he takes care of his own people. And Bush, well, Bush has done a simply spectacular job of taking care of exactly his own people -- the wealthy, the corporate, the extreme religious right, his core base of supporters -- while happily and fiercely ignoring, restricting, condemning, destroying the rest.

 
New Backpack Puts Juice in Power Walking - Yahoo! News:
As soldiers, hikers and students can testify, it takes energy to haul around a heavy backpack. Now, researchers have developed a backpack that turns that energy into electricity.

 
Reuters AlertNet - U.S. device makers vie in pain treatment market:
The devices, about the size of a pager, are typically implanted in the abdomen or buttocks and block the sensation of pain by sending electricity via an insulated wire to the spinal cord.

 
Guardian Unlimited | Bic over the moon as sales top 100bn:
Bic, the company that has made a fortune out of things to be thrown away, has sold its 100 billionth disposable ballpoint - selling an average of 57 pens every second since it was launched in 1950.

According to the company, that is enough pens to stretch 40 times the distance from the earth to the moon if laid end to end or to fill the Arc de Triomphe 23 times over.

 
HoustonChronicle.com - Navy pilots praised for rescues, but . . .:
Two Navy helicopter pilots were praised but then reminded of the importance of supply missions after delivering their cargo and then rescuing 110 hurricane victims in New Orleans instead of immediately returning to base, the military said today.

 
MS Patch Day: Can 1 Bulletin Hit the Spot?:
Microsoft on Thursday announced plans to ship one security bulletin on Tuesday, Sept. 13, to provide patches for a 'critical' flaw in its Windows operating system.

Are Microsoft and FEMA somehow related?
- Frank

 
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Iraq rebuilding under threat as US runs out of money:
'We have scaled back our projects in many areas,' James Jeffrey, a senior state department adviser on Iraq, told a congressional committee in Washington, in remarks quoted by the Los Angeles Times. 'We do not have the money.'

 
Conservative Pundits Reluctant to Criticize Bush's Katrina Response:
The Bush administration has received a torrent of bi-partisan criticism for its initial response to Hurricane Katrina. But most conservative columnists have continued to go fairly easy on George W. Bush during the past week, according to an E&P survey.

Another reminder of the importance of separating 'news' from 'opinions' in selecting information sources.
- Frank

 
IBM launches super-fast printer in business push - Sep. 9, 2005:
The device, IBM said late Thursday, can churn out Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' in less than a minute or print documents spanning the Empire State Building in less than 4 minutes. It starts at about $500,000 and the top-of-the-line version costs $1 million, said Robert Cooper, director of product printing for the Armonk, N.Y.-based company.

 
AP: 9/11 Recovery Loans Loosely Managed - Yahoo! News:
The government promised banks a hands-off approach in overseeing nearly $5 billion in Sept. 11 recovery aid to small businesses. What it got in return was numerous loans to companies that didn't need terror relief — or even know they were getting it, The Associated Press found

 
Wheat fungus may pose global threat: report - Yahoo! News:
A resilient new strain of wheat fungus from east Africa is threatening to spread to the Middle East, Asia and the Americas and bring catastrophic crop damage, scientists said on Thursday

Thursday, September 08, 2005

 
USATODAY.com - Powell calls pre-Iraq U.N. speech a 'blot' on his record:
He said he had never seen a connection between Baghdad and the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. 'I can't think otherwise, because I'd never seen evidence to suggest there was one,' he said.

 
USATODAY.com - Natural gas prices may leap 71%, oil, electricity less:
Natural gas prices could rise as much as 71% in places, the largest increase in projected energy costs as a result of Hurricane Katrina, the Energy Department says

 
USATODAY.com - Texas grand jury indicts PAC connected to DeLay:
AUSTIN (AP) — A grand jury has indicted a political action committee formed by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and a Texas business group in connection with 2002 legislative campaign contributions.

 
Hurricane Katrina - Our Experiences:
"Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, 'Get off the fucking freeway'. A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water."

One can only HOPE that scum such as this sheriff and his ilk, right up to the president, get their well deserved turns to be on the receiving end of this type of treatment.
- Frank

 
Dvorak Uncensored - What’s Wrong with the Media in a Nutshell:
NYO - News Story 2 — This is one of the most amazing articles I’ve read yet about today’s journalists. It’s about how many of them witnessed events in New Orleans and could not reconcile their observations with official comments. So they had to call their editors because they did not know what to do. And many of the reporters are now sent to counselling because they had to witness the suffering and it made them sad. What the hell is wrong with these idiots? Seriously. They should be ashamed of themselves. They should sell donuts instead of reporting.

An incredibly frightening article - with observations by John Dvorak in his blog.
It looks like the press has suffered the same debility that infects the White House.
- Frank

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

 
FEMA accused of censorship - Yahoo! News:
FEMA's policy of excluding media from recovery expeditions in New Orleans is 'an invitation to chaos,' according to Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a part of Columbia University's journalism school.

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