Archive for August 21st, 2007
Are we becoming a Pill Popping Population?
August 21st, 2007
Via the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Painkiller use soars in U.S.
People in the United States are living in a world of pain and are popping pills at an alarming rate to cope with it.
The amount of five major painkillers sold at retail stores rose 90 percent between 1997 and 2005, according to an Associated Press analysis of Drug Enforcement Administration data.The increase was even higher in Pennsylvania (102 percent) and New Jersey (108 percent).
More than 200,000 pounds of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased at retail establishments nationwide during the most recent year data were available. That is enough to give more than 300 milligrams of painkillers to every American.
I am very aware that these prescription and over the counter medications are necessary in many cases but it seems with an increase like this, there must be other explanations.
Pain management can be very difficult but I do believe there are cases where meds are over prescribed and people become dependent on a pill doing all the work.
Posted in 
Nineteen Years of Experience(s)
August 21st, 2007
I had the intention of posting this a few days ago, but server problems (we all know those days) made a different decision for me.
I have met many individuals over the years who have asked me how I could handle being raised in a military family, never really having a “home” or not having the same consistent social contacts that other children or adults have.
The question of not having a place to call “home” is a reasonable question. I have a birthplace, but that is not my home. The military life, both before and after I was married, taught me that “home” is where life lands you. You gain the skills to adapt to many different and unusual situations, and I do not think you have time to form many prejudices as you must learn to quickly accept those around you in similiar situations to yours.
Over at Jack Army Sgt. Nichols produced a list of the advantages of serving in the United States Army for nineteen years. While I did not personally experience many of the things on this list, I have seen and continue to see many who did..what an education.
Nineteen years ago, I started my Army career, at the time with the intention of doing my four years and returning to Texas, to Texas A&M University specifically, and getting a degree. In high school, I was accepted to Texas A&M and was awarded scholarships from the Army and the Navy (to become a Marine officer). I turned it all down and enlisted because I just was fed up with school. I could not see myself in four (or more!) years of school.
I have never regretted that decision. Despite how things turned out, though not too shabby actually, I love the Army. I love the experiences I’ve had. When I start telling “war” stories (not so much about war but about what I’ve done, where I’ve been) folks are amazed. When I really think about it, so am I. For example, in what other job would I have been able to
live overseas, and
jump out of airplanes, and
learn a foriegn language, and
shoot all kinds of guns, and
ride in helicopters and airplanes, and
visit ten or so countries and about 18 different American states, and
Check out the site to see the rest of the list. Sgt. Nichols is up for promotion soon..I personally hope he decides to go for 30. The US Army is fortunate to have soldiers like him who recognize that along with the disadvantages (and there are those), service to your country can be a rewarding experience for both the soldier and their family.
If You Own a Michael Vick Jersey Send it Here
August 21st, 2007
Michael Vick may be innocent until proven guilty but this video is a must see for animal lovers everywhere.
Check it out. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Wiki Wars.
August 21st, 2007
After all this time I find out that my research tool, Wikipedia, can be written and edited by anyone.
It’s been said history is written by the victors. However, in 2008’s presidential contest, history is increasingly being written, rewritten and argued by the supporters, friends, relatives, and maybe even the staffs of presidential hopefuls.
Every day on Wikipedia, the battle for the 2008 election is fought across the candidates’ pages through a steady flow of additions, deletions, edits, and reverts. A study of three days of changes on the candidates’ pages may not be a predictor of popularity or electability, but it certainly is fascinating in its own right.
In terms of activity, on August 17 the winner in sheer volume of changes in a single day was Mitt Romney, whose main biographical page logged a wearying twenty-eight edits. Internet darling Ron Paul came in second with eighteen changes, while others registered few or no edits.
Many of the changes on any given day in Wikipedia are fairly mundane: typo fixing, formatting adjustments, shifts of information from one section of a page to another. Others are repairs of vandalism, the wildly outrageous statements that are the equivalent of scrawls across a campaign poster and are usually quickly deleted. (It’s a safe bet that “Ron Paul is the new spokesman for Fierce Melon Gatorade” is going to be noticed and taken out pretty quickly.)
In the case of Romney’s busy day, most of the activity involved these kinds of small changes. But two larger stories emerged. One was the appearance of a list of financial controversies related to Bain Capital, the investment firm Romney co-founded. During the day, the list was cut, put back, moved to another section, and cut again. It is currently not part of the page.
The other major story for Romney, that had apparently been percolating for a while, was the question of how much information to include about his wedding. Yes, that’s right: his wedding. Romney had had both a civil ceremony for non-Mormons to attend and a ceremony in the Mormon church, which was only for members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Earlier this had been a whole paragraph, with specifics about guests at both ceremonies; as of now, it’s down to one sentence and everyone seems to agree that’s just right.
The amount of activity on any candidate’s page is also dependent on the news cycle. John Edwards had no changes on August 17th. However, on August 18th, a story broke about his investment in a hedge fund that was involved in foreclosures in New Orleans. His page went through the process of adding this information and fine-tuning it. Initially, it appeared as the vague and negative, “Edwards has attacked sub-prime mortgage lenders. In August, 2007, it was revealed by several news organizations that Edwards profited from foreclosing on subprime lenders by repossessing homes of Katrina victims.” Throughout the day, words and information were added until it became the much more specific and factual, “In August of 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported that a portion of the Edwards’ family’s assets were invested in Fortress Investment Group, that had, in turn, invested a portion of its assets in subprime mortgage lenders, some of which had foreclosed on the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims. Upon learning of Fortress’ investments, Edwards divested his funds from the investment group and stated that he would try to help the affected families.” Wikipedia editors are always striving for a “neutral point-of-view” and this type of evolution in breaking news is not uncommon.
How Hot is Hot? Michael Totten Tells Us.
August 21st, 2007
Michael Totten has posted another terrific piece.
This time the take is a bit different as he shows how our military is garnering some of their intelligence in Iraq. A fascinating read with lots of human elements.
The night was reasonably cool for Baghdad in the summer. The temperature rarely drops below 100 degrees Fahrenheit before midnight, but this night it felt like a cool 90 by ten p.m.
Plastic lawn chairs were arranged in a circle on the grass. I expected a relaxing evening of important conversation in comfort. The lawn chairs, though, were not for us. The owner of the house said we should have our meeting inside.
“He owns a store,†Lieutenant Pitts said to me on the way in. “He sells us phone cards and stuff at the right price, not at a jacked up rate. We call his store Wal-Mart.â€
Inside the house was brutally hot. The lights were on, but the air conditioner was off. The fierce heat of the day couldn’t escape into the atmosphere like it could in the yard. If we were in the U.S. I would have suggested we sit outside, but I was the stranger and a mere observer in a foreign land and was not about to complain.
The snippet above is one small portion of this rather lengthy, but well worth the read piece.
Court Ruling Challenges Feds’ Secrecy.
August 21st, 2007
Here is one for you.
A new court decision could begin to roll back some post-9/11 government secrecy that has forced nearly two dozen intelligence-related cases out of federal courts without rulings.
In a ruling unsealed last month, a federal appeals court questioned the application of the so-called “state secrets” privilege, which government lawyers can use to encourage a judge to drop a case by arguing it jeopardizes national security.
By using the privilege, government lawyers assert that if the case were to continue, they could be forced to divulge secrets that are vital to the nation’s security. If judges agree — as they nearly always do — they dismiss the case.
In a secret June ruling, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the dismissal on those grounds of a 1994 suit by a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who claimed the U.S. government had illegally wiretapped his communications when he was working out of Rangoon, Burma.
The state secrets privilege was not broad enough to throw out the entire case, the court ruled. With sufficient unclassified evidence already on hand, the court determined the case should be allowed to proceed.
The ruling could have an impact on current lawsuits involving classified programs, including suits against AT&T and the National Security Agency over the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP), which is alleged to have involved data and communications of Americans, according to experts.
Away For a Few Days
August 21st, 2007
I’m having a crisis right now with a sick dog. Not just any dog, but my favorite dog.
Right now she’s in the hospital for vomiting and Monday she stopped eating. She has a history of cancer that has been in remission for over three years now.
Wednesday our vet is probably going to do exploratory surgery on her digestive tract to see if she can pinpoint the problem.
Depending on what it is and how severe it is she may be euthanized while on the operating table. We have been told we can go in there to be with her if that happens.
If we find an isolated tumor and chemo can take care of it we’ll probably do that, but no radiation as that burned her badly last time.
I’ll return when my head is back on straight.
In the meantime, Sue’s server is giving her trouble and she’ll post if she can get service. Guss will be aboard and has promised to write conservative as well as liberal posts. I may be here for commenting.
FEC COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST THOMPSON.
August 21st, 2007
You talk about frivolous lawsuits. This is just plain stupid.
Liberal blogger Lane Hudson has filed a complaint against Fred Thompson with the Federal Election Commission, accusing the “testing-the-waters†candidate of violating election law. Hudson is the same activist who posted instant messages between former Rep. Mark Foley and a congressional page.
The AP reports: “The law prohibits anyone who is ‘testing the waters’ from hoarding the money for use during his actual campaign. Potential candidates also cannot refer to themselves as candidates, can’t run ads that publicize their intention to campaign or take steps to qualify for the ballot in a primary or caucus state.â€
Average Incomes Fell for Most in 2000-5
August 21st, 2007
I guess when they say that the economy has been grateful Wall Street and not for the average American, they weren’t kidding.
Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows.
While incomes have been on the rise since 2002, the average income in 2005 was $55,238, still nearly 1 percent less than the $55,714 in 2000, after adjusting for inflation, analysis of new tax statistics show.
The combined income of all Americans in 2005 was slightly larger than it was in 2000, but because more people were dividing up the national income pie, the average remained smaller. Total adjusted gross income in 2005 was $7.43 trillion, up 3.1 percent from 2000 and 5.8 percent from 2004.
Total income listed on tax returns grew every year after World War II, with a single one-year exception, until 2001, making the five-year period of lower average incomes and four years of lower total incomes a new experience for the majority of Americans born since 1945.
The White House said the fact that average incomes were smaller five years after the Internet bubble burst “should not surprise anyone.â€
Teens need the gospel message, and the GOSPEL Journey can help.
August 21st, 2007
This post is from a friend of Js new blog. Truman invokes a lot of thought. I’ve put his link at the end of this post. Please visit and give him your support.
The first time I met Greg Stier, I thought he was energetic, full of passion for teenagers, and the type of person I wished I was. The green goblin of envy grew strong in me. If only I could talk like him! If only I had his passion and drive! Then I really listened to him speak, and realized I didn’t need to be Greg Steir. I already had some of what he had: a desire that the teens that I knew would not slip and fall when they went to college, just as I had.
That was in 2003, and I’ve been plugging in to Greg’s Dare2Share organization ever since. Dare2Share is a parachurch group that teaches high school kids how to share their faith and hold on to their faith after they leave home for college or wherever. It’s a beautiful ministry, especially considering that more than 50% of kids “lose†their faith after leaving home. Some never had it, some let it wane, some get snatched by the Evil One, some stay silent while in the lion’s den, and some flourish—just like the Lord Himself describes in Matthew 13.
It’s so critically important for today’s Christian youth to hear the gospel message and learn how to share it—especially considering the sobering reality that many churches today don’t even preach the gospel message! Many churches are more concerned with the moment, more concerned with feeling good in the here and now and forcing Christ to conform to this culture than preaching His good news. It is tragic that some denominations are changing the word of God to fit their comforts on this world instead of preaching Christ crucified for our sins.
I found this in my mail and had to share.:)
August 21st, 2007
The sharing of marriage…
The old man placed an order for one hamburger, French fries and a drink.
He unwrapped the plain hamburger and carefully cut it in half, placing one half in front of his wife.
He then carefully counted out the French fries, dividing them into two piles and neatly placed one pile in front of his wife.
He took a sip of the drink, his wife took a sip and then set the cup down between them . As he began to eat his few bites of hamburger, the people around them were looking over and whispering.
Obviously they were thinking, “That poor old couple – all they can afford is one meal for the two of them.”
As the man began to eat his fries a young man came to the table and politely offered to buy another meal for the old couple. The old man said, they were just fine – they were used to sharing everything.
People closer to the table noticed the little old lady hadn’t eaten a bite. She sat there watching her husband eat and occasionally taking turns sipping the drink.
Again, the young man came over and begged them to let him buy another meal for them. This time the old woman said “No, thank you, we are used to sharing everything.”
Finally, as the old man finished and was wiping his face neatly with the napkin, the young man again came over to the little old lady who had yet to eat a single bite of food and asked “What is it you are waiting for?”
She answered
Sizzling study concludes: Global warming ‘hot air’
August 21st, 2007
Here is a different take on global warming from WorldNetDaily.
A major new scientific study concludes the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on worldwide temperatures is largely irrelevant, prompting one veteran meteorologist to quip, “You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide.”
That comment comes from Reid Bryson, founding chairman of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Wisconsin, who said the temperature of the earth is increasing, but that it’s got nothing to do with what man is doing.
“Of course it’s going up. It has gone up since the early 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we’re coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we’re putting more carbon dioxide into the air.”
“Anthropogenic (man-made) global warming bites the dust,” declared astronomer Ian Wilson after reviewing the newest study, now accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Journal of Geophysical Research.
The project, called “Heat Capacity, Time Constant, and Sensitivity of Earth’s Climate System,” was authored by Brookhaven National lab scientist Stephen Schwartz.
New Rules May Limit Health Care Program Aiding Children.
August 21st, 2007
I just don’t understand this administration. I try but I just can’t. Why can’t we take just a few billion from Iraq and put it towards full coverage for our children?
The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.
Administration officials outlined the new standards in a letter sent to state health officials on Friday evening, in the middle of a monthlong Congressional recess. In interviews, they said the changes were intended to return the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage.
After learning of the new policy, some state officials said yesterday that it could cripple their efforts to cover more children and would impose standards that could not be met.
“We are horrified at the new federal policy,†said Ann Clemency Kohler, deputy commissioner of human services in New Jersey. “It will cause havoc with our program and could jeopardize coverage for thousands of children.â€
Huckabee finally breaks out fightin’ words.
August 21st, 2007
I know I’m a Democrat but I love this guy. He seems to give off a persona of honesty and I like that.
– What success Mike Huckabee has found as a presidential candidate stems largely from his homespun charm – a folksy populism that gets heads nodding when he muses about the Lava soap his skin had to endure during a childhood filled with more want than wealth.
But if the former Arkansas governor wants to find greater success and become a first-tier player in the Republican primary race, he faces having to turn his wise-cracking image on its head and start trying to turn attack dog.
And that transformation has already begun.
Without naming names, Huckabee is using his second-place finish at the Iowa GOP’s straw poll Aug. 11 to take aim at Mitt Romney, the winner at Ames.
In media appearances and on the stump, the normally sunny Huckabee is using barbed language to portray Romney as a politically expedient and wealthy spendthrift who can’t relate to the day-to-day problems of average Americans.
“Here’s a guy who didn’t just become pro-life to run for president,” Huckabee said of himself at a dinner of 100 Republicans gathered here last week for spaghetti and meatballs and political rhetoric. “Here’s a guy who didn’t just read the latest issue of NRA magazine and decide he’s going to be for the Second Amendment.”
IS THE UNITED STATES AN IMPERIALIST POWER AND DOES IT MATTER?
August 21st, 2007
Here is something to ponder from the Right Wing Nut House.
For those who actually understand what the term means, there is no reasonable ground for objecting to the term “imperial†to describe America’s role in the world. Even our Foreign Policy Community elites have begun acknowledging that we are acting as an empire and are openly debating the best forms of imperial management. And the seemingly endless string of military interventions over the last several decades under a whole slew of “justifications†leaves no doubt that we see ourselves as world rulers who violate sovereignty and use military force at will, whenever—as Drezner himself said—we perceive that it promotes our interests to do so. That is what an empire does, by definition.
Rare dead star found near Earth.
August 21st, 2007
Much more interesting than politics and a lot less controversial. I must admit that when I read the headline I thought they were talking about someone like Gary Coleman. I know it’s a stupid thing to say.
Astronomers have spotted a space oddity in Earth’s neighbourhood – a dead star with some unusual characteristics.
The object, known as a neutron star, was studied using space telescopes and ground-based observatories.But this one, located in the constellation Ursa Minor, seems to lack some key characteristics found in other neutron stars.
Details of the study, by a team of American and Canadian researchers, will appear in the Astrophysical Journal.
If confirmed, it would be only the eighth known “isolated neutron star” – meaning a neutron star that does not have an associated supernova remnant, binary companion, or radio pulsations.
The object has been nicknamed Calvera, after the villain in the 1960s western film The Magnificent Seven.
“The seven previously known isolated neutron stars are known collectively as The Magnificent Seven within the community,” said co-author Derek Fox, of Pennsylvania State University, US.
“So the name Calvera is a bit of an inside joke on our part.”
The authors estimate that the object is 250 to 1,000 light-years away. This would make Calvera one of the closest neutron stars to Earth – and possibly the closest.
‘08 PROSPECTS: EDWARDS’ HEDGES.
August 21st, 2007
This is an editorial by Rich Lowry written in the New York Post.
I wouldn’t vote for John Edwards but I think that all presidential candidates on both sides could be a little less hypocritical. I must say though, John Edwards is especially guilty of it.
FRANCOIS de La Rochefoucauld had a point when he said, in his frequently quoted formulation, that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. In the case of John Edwards, however, hypocrisy is simply a way of life.
The infamous $400 haircut – actually, some of his hairstyling sessions ran as much as $1,200 all told – wasn’t a freak embarrassment for a candidate so self-righteously devoted to the poor. It was part of a pattern so pervasive that it has become the defining aspect of Edwards’ candidacy.
When he lambasted hedge funds for incorporating offshore to avoid or delay paying U.S. taxes, what could be more natural than that he made nearly $500,000 for part-time work at the Fortress Investment Group, with hedge funds incorporated in the Cayman Islands for tax purposes?
When he hit other candidates for taking donations from Rupert Murdoch’s media holdings, wasn’t it inevitable that it would turn out he had taken $800,000 from Murdoch’s HarperCollins for a coffee-table book?
Obama Calls for Easing Cuba Embargo.
August 21st, 2007
I don’t know what to think about this story. I’ve never been able to figure out why we don’t trade with Cuba. Would it be such a bad thing? I do know one thing. It is not going to get you very many votes in southern Florida.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is leaping into the long-running Cuba debate by calling for the U.S. to ease restrictions for Cuban-Americans who want to visit the island or send money home.
Obama’s campaign said Monday that, if elected, the Illinois senator would lift restrictions imposed by the Bush administration and allow Cuban-Americans to visit their relatives more frequently
as well as ease limits on the amount of money they can send to their families.“Senator Obama feels that the Bush administration has made a humanitarian and a strategic blunder,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in an e-mail. “His concern is that this has had a profoundly negative impact on the Cuban people, making them more dependent on the Castro regime, thus isolating them from the transformative message carried by Cuban-Americans.”
Obama was explaining his position in an op-ed piece Tuesday in The Miami Herald.
While the U.S. embargo has limited who can travel to the communist island and what can be sent there since the early 1960s, restrictions added by the Bush administration in 2004 made visiting and shipping gifts to Cuba more difficult.
Most Cubans in the U.S. can only visit the island once every three years and can only send quarterly remittances of up to $300 per household to immediate family members. Previously, they could visit once a year and send up to $3,000. The U.S. also tightened restrictions on travel for educational and religious groups.
The Cuban-exile vote is considered key to winning Florida, and top presidential candidates have generally followed the recommendations of the community’s most hard-line and vocal leaders, who support a full embargo against Fidel Castro’s government. Castro, 80, is in poor health and turned over temporary power last year to his brother
Bloomberg: I Can’t Win White House.
August 21st, 2007
I would love to see someone running that isn’t beholding to anyone. Wouldn’t that be something?
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said _ again_ that he’s not running for president, adding in a television interview that he wouldn’t win anyway.
“Nobody’s going to elect me president of the United States,” he told Dan Rather for a program that will air Tuesday on cable’s HDNet channel. “What I’d like to do is to be able to influence the dialogue. I’m a citizen.”
The billionaire left the Republican Party recently to become an independent, throwing into overdrive the speculation that he will make a run for the White House.
Bloomberg likes to throw water on the rumors while simultaneously keeping them alive behind the scenes. His aides are not bashful about promoting the idea that he could jump into the race next year as a self-financed independent candidate.
Lieberman Shrugs Off Failed Iraq Predictions, Now Claims ‘Road To Victory’ Goes Through Syria.
August 21st, 2007
This man scares the hell out of me.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) writes today in the Wall Street Journal that the U.S. “road to victory†in Iraq goes through Damascus, and urges Congress to “send a clear and unambiguous message to the Syrian regime“:
The United States is at last making significant progress against al Qaeda in Iraq–but the road to victory now requires cutting off al Qaeda’s road to Iraq through Damascus. […]
It is therefore time to demand that the Syrian regime stop playing travel agent for al Qaeda in Iraq.
When Congress reconvenes next month, we should set aside whatever differences divide us on Iraq and send a clear and unambiguous message to the Syrian regime, as we did last month to the Iranian regime, that the transit of al Qaeda suicide bombers through Syria on their way to Iraq is completely unacceptable, and it must stop.
Lieberman’s approach to confronting terror in the Middle East has only produced more violence and chaos. Shortly after the Iraq invasion — a move that Lieberman championed — he claimed the war would bolster the U.S. ability to take on Syria:
With victory in Iraq all but certain, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman said Tuesday the United States should use what he called “very aggressive diplomacy†to handle Syria and other countries suspected of harboring terrorists.
Democrats see ‘results’ in Iraq war.
August 21st, 2007
This is a very interesting piece written in the Washington Times. May be the Democrats and Republicans can come together and find a solution that makes everyone happy.
Top Senate Democrats have started to acknowledge progress in Iraq, with the chairman of the Armed Services Committee yesterday saying the U.S. troop surge is producing “measurable results.”
Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan highlighted improved security in Baghdad and al Qaeda losses in Anbar province as examples of success — a shift for Democrats who have mainly discounted or ignored advances on the battlefield for weeks.
“The military aspects of President Bush’s new strategy in Iraq … appear to have produced some credible and positive results,” Mr. Levin said in a joint statement with Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, after a two-day visit last week to Iraq.
Mr. Levin joins a growing chorus of Democrats — including 2008 presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois — who say the troop surge has produced benefits, but who also bemoan failures of the fledgling Iraqi government they have repeatedly criticized for taking an August vacation.
Brought Down By Arrogance.
August 21st, 2007
If ever I wanted someone to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, this was it.
We’ve had a few days to grow accustomed to the notion of Michael Vick going to jail, but it’s nonetheless a stunner to hear the actual admission of guilt in the form of a plea bargain. We’re now into the meat of one of the most sordid episodes in recent sports history and it’s clear that Vick, barring something completely unforeseen, is going to jail. Athletes have run afoul of the law since the turn of the previous century, but it’s not often we see the career of someone with Vick’s talent, profile and degree interrupted in its prime by a jail sentence. It’s possible his career will even be ended by this jail sentence, an NFL suspension and by the contempt with which he’ll be held for years after his release.
It’s the newest cautionary American tale: Football icon flips American dream on its head. It’s so totally overwhelming and wildly extreme it’s difficult to know where to begin. Vick is alleged to have not just run a dogfighting ring, which by itself is illegal and heinous, but to have tortured and killed dogs with his bare hands, lied to the man who’s paying him $105 million about his involvement and lied to the NFL commissioner’s face about his involvement. You wonder what Vick was thinking as the federal government knocked him out in what amounts to less than one round. Could the feds have had a more solid case against him? The dog-killing is such a showstopper, most folks don’t even realize the feds could have nailed him for gambling as well.
Senator Calls for Maliki’s Ouster.
August 21st, 2007
It couldn’t happen soon enough. Who knows? With a new leader peace might be possible.
Declaring the government of Iraq “non-functional,” the influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said yesterday that Iraq’s parliament should oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his cabinet if they are unable to forge a political compromise with rival factions in a matter of days.
“I hope the parliament will vote the Maliki government out of office and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister and government,” Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said after a three-day trip to Iraq and Jordan.
Filner Summoned Over Airport Altercation.
August 21st, 2007
I guess the once gutless wonders are coming out swinging. Good for you.
Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., has been summoned to court on assault and battery charges after an incident at Dulles Airport on Sunday night where he allegedly pushed a United Airlines bag claim employee.
Filner allegedly attempted to enter an employees-only area, pushed aside an employee’s arm and wouldn’t leave when asked, according to a statement from Courtney Prebich, assistant media relations manager for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Filner disputed the account in a brief statement issued by his office.
“Congressman Bob Filner is on his way to Iraq, visiting our troops, and will have a full statement when he returns. Suffice it to say now, that the story that has appeared in the press is factually incorrect _ and the charges are ridiculous,” the statement said without elaborating.
Leahy Threatens Bush Aides With Contempt.
August 21st, 2007
God I hope that this pimple comes to a head, soon.
A top Senate Democrat on Monday threatened to hold members of the Bush administration in contempt for not producing subpoenaed information about the legal justification for President Bush’s secretive eavesdropping program.
“When the Senate comes back in the session, I’ll bring it up before the committee,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I prefer cooperation to contempt. Right now, there’s no question that they are in contempt of the valid order of the Congress.”
Leahy’s committee on June 27 subpoenaed the Justice Department, National Security Council and the offices of the president and vice president for documents relating to the National Security Agency’s legal justification for the wiretapping program.
White House lawyer Fred Fielding, in a Monday letter to Leahy, said that the administration needed more time.
