This blog is written by a couple of pissed-off patriots who share a fierce dedication to the Constitution - the only words ever put to paper worth dying for. We exist to remind y'all that America was founded on four boxes:
The Soapbox
The Ballot Box
The Jury Box
The Ammo Box
They should be used in that order. This is our soapbox.
Tropical Storm Gustav left 22 dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before it pulled away from the countries Wednesday, officials said.
The storm is expected to pass between Cuba and Jamaica before heading into the Gulf of Mexico.
The storm killed 14 people in Haiti, said Pierre Louis Pinchinat, deputy director of Haiti's Civil Protection Directorate. Authorities said eight more, including six children, were killed in a mudslide triggered by heavy rain in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Forecasters warned that Gustav, which was a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall in Haiti on Tuesday, is likely to regain hurricane intensity by Friday.
The forecast shows Gustav entering the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday or Sunday as a Category 3 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph (179 kph).
Almost a year ago [summer, 2006] the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declared that it had restored New Orleans' levees and floodwalls to pre-Hurricane Katrina strength.
But the system is actually riddled with flaws, and a storm even weaker than Katrina could breach the levees if it hit this year, say leading experts who have investigated the system.
Hillary sure is a class act I was moved to the verge of tears when she interrupted the roll call to move that Senator Obama be nominated by acclimation. It was historic, and I am proud to be one of those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. And I still want her to be the Majority Leader come January.
We still love the Big Dog He stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. He needs a role - ambassador to the UN maybe?
What's the finish? Maybe Obama's got Zhang Yimou to do the hidden-rope trick, and have him lifted, Beijing-style, to the heavens when he's done. Will he reappear three days later at the Bird's Nest?
Or maybe he'll just do a Napoleon and coronate himself. By the time Napoleon made himself emperor, he had won the Battles of Lodi, of Arcole, of Rivoli, of the Pyramids and of Marengo. And had promugulated the Napoleonic Code. He had yet to write a single autobiography.
Of course, Krauthammer doesn't have the common decency to acknowledge the Imperial President himself, his propensity to hold himself above the law, issue signing statements, ignore the Congress, ignore the rule of law, and torture people, but why start now?
On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary, a nervous New Orleans watched Wednesday as another storm threatened to test everything the city has rebuilt, and officials made preliminary plans to evacuate people, pets and hospitals in an attempt to avoid a Katrina-style chaos.
Forecasters warned that Gustav could grow into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane in the next several days and hit somewhere along a swath of the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to Texas - with New Orleans smack in the middle.
Taking no chances, city officials began preliminary planning to evacuate and lock down the city in hopes of avoiding the catastrophe that followed the 2005 storm. Mayor Ray Nagin left the Democratic National Convention in Denver to return home for the preparations.
If a Category 3 or stronger hurricane comes within 72 hours of the city, New Orleans plans to institute a mandatory evacuation order. Unlike Katrina, there will be no massive shelter at the Superdome, a plan designed to encourage residents to leave. Instead, the state has arranged for buses and trains to take people to safety.
Your move, Bobby Jindal. Do you really want to rely on Ray Nagin to evacuate New Orleans? And how does Karl Rove plan to explain away and spin the disaster, should one (let's hope not) unfold again?
It would be quite fitting if it happens this way: There's quiet buzz in Washington this week that convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and several colleagues-including scam-artist Michael Scanlon-will be sentenced soon for their roles in the 2005 tribes-and-bribes scandal. These rumors have circulated before, so perhaps it's the natural gossip of idle politicos during the Capitol's dog days. But individuals tangentially related to the case say the sentences could come as early as next week, during the Republican convention.
Apparently, according to the neo-con war hawks, the turmoil in the Caucuses is entirely the result of unprovoked Russian aggression.
Traitor Joe and Huckleberry Graham are on the pages of the Wall Street Journal today declaring that Russia's Aggression Is a Challenge to World Order, in which they rail against Russian aggression for 1200-plus words and not one of 'em acknowledges that the Georgians got the ball rolling by attempting to forcibly repatriate South Ossetia, which had existed under a de facto independence since a bloody rejection of Georgian rule in 1991-1992
They were, however, quite quick at attempting to draw parallels with Kosovo.
Russia's invasion of Georgia represents the most serious challenge to this political order since Slobodan Milosevic unleashed the demons of ethnic nationalism in the Balkans. What is happening in Georgia today, therefore, is not simply a territorial dispute. It is a struggle about whether a new dividing line is drawn across Europe: between nations that are free to determine their own destinies, and nations that are consigned to the Kremlin's autocratic orbit.
The worldview of the simpleton is much easier to get a handle on - too bad it has so very little to do with reality.
In reality, it is a far more complex situation than McCain's surrogates are making it out to be. And worse - they take exactly the wrong lessons away from the very example they cite.
The number of troubled U.S. banks leaped to the highest level in about five years and bank profits plunged by 86 percent in the second quarter, as slumps in the housing and credit markets continued.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data released Tuesday show 117 banks and thrifts were considered to be in trouble in the second quarter, up from 90 in the prior quarter and the biggest tally since mid-2003.
The FDIC also said that federally-insured banks and savings institutions earned $5 billion in the April-June period, down from $36.8 billion a year earlier. The roughly 8,500 banks and thrifts also set aside a record $50.2 billion to cover losses from soured mortgages and other loans in the second quarter.
"Quite frankly, the results were pretty dismal," FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said at a news conference, but they were not surprising given the housing slump, a worsening economy, and disruptions in financial and credit markets.
They go on to say that 98% of the banks in this country can "weather" the crisis and stay afloat. I don't find that comforting, and I don't think we're out of the woods because it will take years for all of the ARMS and bad loans to play out. Then there are the abandoned homes, the deteriorating neighborhoods where people aren't going to be able to sell what they have. Two percent doesn't sound like a lot, but it's just another legacy of runaway lending, mismanagement, and lack of Federal oversight.
My goodness, looking around the eco-blogosphere it would seem that we're all a bunch of druggies looking to score some magic white powder. I'm talking about the good stuff - baking soda. The miracle elixir of tree-huggers the world over.
Check it out, people are using it to clean their homes, de-stinkify their pits, wash their hair and, of course, brush their teeth. The funny thing? It works. It's all-natural. It's biodegradable. It's readily available. And it's cheap. My God, what more could you ask for?!?
I switched to baking soda for teeth brushing in May. It definitely took some getting used - and a little recipe-tweaking - but it does a fine job. It's another one of those changes where it may not work 100% of the time, but who cares? It works 85% of the time and that's good enough for me. So on garlic-pizza night I use "real toothpaste". Whoopdy-doo. It's better than using it every single night.
I got the hard sell on this from my dentist last month. Her version of this included apple cider vinegar and baking soda. No, I haven't tried it.
In their sworn statements, Sergeants [Sgt. First Class Joseph P.] Mayo and [Sgt. Michael P.] Leahy described the events that preceded the shooting of the Iraqi men, who apparently were Shiite fighters linked to the Mahdi Army militia, which controlled the West Rashid area of southwest Baghdad.
After taking small-arms fire, the patrol chased some men into a building, arresting them and finding several automatic weapons, grenades and a sniper rifle, they said. On the way to their combat outpost, Sergeant Hatley's convoy was informed by Army superiors that the evidence to detain the Iraqis was insufficient, Sergeant Leahy said in his statement. The unit was told to release the men, according to the statement.
"First Sergeant Hatley then made the call to take the detainees to a canal and kill them," Sergeant Leahy said, as retribution for the deaths of two soldiers from the unit: Staff Sgt. Karl O. Soto-Pinedo, who died from a sniper's bullet, and Specialist Marieo Guerrero, killed by a roadside bomb.
"So the patrol went to the canal, and First Sergeant, Sgt. First Class Mayo and I took the detainees out of the back of the Bradley, lined them up and shot them," Sergeant Leahy said, referring to a Bradley fighting vehicle. "We then pushed the bodies into the canal and left."
Sergeant Mayo, in his statement, attributed his decision to kill the men to "anger," apparently at the recent deaths of his two comrades.
Sergeant Leahy, in his statement, said, "I'm ashamed of what I've done," later adding: "When I did it, I thought I was doing it for my family. Now I realize that I'm hurting my family more now than if I wouldn't have done it."
This is not another Haditha type incident--this is the actual confession of the soldiers involved. There isn't any dispute as to what they did, because they've given their statements. They will likely be charged with murder.
Once again, this war is consuming human beings for no good reason, driving them to extremes and killing and wounding untold thousands. We cannot leave Iraq soon enough and we cannot do enough to take care of the men and women who had to go fight this war.
A bad decision...Major League Baseball reversed its long-standing opposition to instant replay and will allow umpires to check video on home run calls in series that start Thursday. The start date comes nearly 10 months after general managers voted 25-5 to use the technology, and following MLB agreements with the unions for umpires and for players. "I believe that the extraordinary technology that we now have merits the use of instant replay on a very limited basis," commissioner Bud Selig said. "The system we have in place will ensure that the proper call is made on home run balls and will not cause a significant delay to the game." Three series are scheduled to start Thursday, with Philadelphia at the Chicago Cubs, Minnesota at Oakland and Texas at the Los Angeles Angels. For other games, replays will be available to umpires starting Friday.
It doesn't stand for what you think it stands for...The Philippine government will ask Muslim guerrillas to disarm and dismantle armed units when peace talks resume to prevent further attacks once a final agreement is signed, a presidential peace adviser said Tuesday. Such a guarantee has become crucial because of recent attacks on civilian communities by three Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commanders who were apparently frustrated over problems in the negotiations, Hermogenes Esperon said.
Monkey see, monkey do, monkey give...For capuchin monkeys, it seems, it's better to both give and receive than just to receive. At least, that is what researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, have found. Monkeys were given a choice of receiving a food reward, or receiving a food reward and also having another monkey receive food. When paired with relative or "friend" the monkeys primarily went for the double reward, known as the "prosocial" choice...
Hillary is hitting all the right notes, and the die-hards better fall in line. You fancy yourselves good soldiers? Your CO just gave you a direct order. Follow it.
And damn, does she have grace to go with that good humor and fighting spirit. I voted for her too, because she is a class act and would have done a good job. But it's politics, and she is not going to be the nominee. Time to move on.
we are no fans of ms. malkin or her politics; however, the last thing the left needs is blood on their hands at the democratic convention. so we sat and watched the accompanying youtube:
The militants in the tribal areas of Pakistan have me worried. This morning an attempt was made on the top officer from the U.S. consulate in the North West Frontier Province when gunmen ambushed her car in the provincial capital, Peshawar. No casualties were reported, and the credit goes to the driver for his quick action and quicker thinking, reversing course and speeding away, getting the diplomatic team to safety.
The attack came one day after the Pakistani government issued a decree banning the Taliban movement, indicating that they would be taking a more muscular stance against insurrection in the tribal areas. It also came one day after the ruling coalition broke apart leaving the government in turmoil as country becomes ever more restive, especially the tribal regions
By 5 p.m. ET, delays were beginning to clear as the Salt Lake City facility began processing flight plan requests at closer to normal speed, said Hank Krakowski, chief operating officer for the FAA's Air Traffic Organization.
The largest remaining delays from the glitch were at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, he said.
The administration said there were no radar outages and said they had not lost contact with any planes. The roughly 5,000 flights that were in the air when the breakdown happened were not affected -- just those that were waiting to take off.
The facility south of Atlanta is having problems processing data, requiring that all flight-plan information be processed through a facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. The two facilities process all flight plans for commercial and general aviation flights in the United States, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.
The administration said there are no radar outages and said they have not lost contact with any planes.
The problem appeared similar to a June 8, 2007, computer glitch that caused severe flight delays and some cancellations along the East Coast.
A suicide car bomber killed at least 23 people in the city of Jalowla, in northern Diyala today,. Fifteen of the dead were police recruits. It was one of the deadliest attacks in weeks and followed closely a similar attack in Baghdad a couple of days earlier that killed 25. The attack comes at a time when Iraqi security forces are trying to root out Sunni insurgents in the restive Diyala province.
Officials said the car exploded outside a photocopy station where police recruits were photocopying documents. They said the dead included at least 15 of the new policemen.
(More real Democrats, please. We need to purge the DLC scum, the DINOs and the Blue Dogs who don't represent the interests of real Americans. - promoted by Blue Girl)
Yesterday morning during a CNN discussion from the floor of the Democratic convention in Denver, I told anchor John Roberts that despite the personality tiff between the Obama and Clinton people, and despite some blemishes on Joe Biden's record, one thing is undebatable: The progressive wing of the Democratic Party has finally defeated the corporate wing of the party. You can watch the clip here.
This morning - the morning after Ted Kennedy's electrifying convention speech, the Wall Street Journal's headline reiterates this point with a striking headline: "Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table.". The story takes a deeper look at the remarkable rise of progressives - a rise that was so powerfully woven into the fabric of this convention by Ted Kennedy's emotional speech last night.
As someone who has fought the trench war against corporate front groups like the Democratic Leadership Council way back when it was considered uncouth, I can tell you that I have never seen the party so ideologically unified. After years of watching the Washington Democratic Party Establishment attack economic populists and anti-war activists, progressives have come back. The turnaround can be explained by two factors: George W. Bush and the 2008 Democratic Primary.
In so aggressively overreaching on so many issues, Bush has been America's polarizer-in-chief to the point that the center of public opinion has tectonically shifted in a progressive direction. Today, polls show broad consensus support for the major tenets of a progressive agenda: namely, universal government-sponsored health care, trade policy reform, a re-regulation of Wall Street, and an end to the Iraq War.
Home prices experience record slide What is left of the middle class saw their biggest investment lose value in the second quarter. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index showed a record 15.4 percent loss during the quarter from the same period a year ago.
Japan seems to have forgotten the 80's bubble, if the recent buying spree they have embarked on is any indication. They have resumed their former habit of gobbling up overseas acquisitions, using their cash-on-hand to acquire assets that have lost value in the global credit crisis and economic slowdown. Japanese acquisitions this year have already topped 2007's total by 91 percent.
Most of the roughly 15 houses destroyed were those of men who worked at the airstrip as security guards, district chief La'l Mohammad Omarzai told AFP.
President Hamid Karzai ordered the investigation into Friday's operation in the western province of Herat after Afghan officials said high numbers of civilians were killed but the US-led coalition said only 30 militants died.
The toll is one of the highest for civilians since international troops arrived in Afghanistan to topple the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 and comes after a string of such incidents, most of them involving air strikes.
"We went to the area and found out that the bombardment was very heavy, lots of houses have been destroyed and more than 90 non-combatants including women, children and elderly people have died," the Islamic affairs minister told AFP after his visit to Shindand district earlier Sunday.
"Most are women and children," said the minister, Nematullah Shahrani.
Shahrani said his investigation was continuing and he was due to meet US Special Forces who had been involved in the operation with Afghan troops and commandos.
"They have claimed that Taliban were there. They must prove it," the minister said. "So far, it is not clear for us why the coalition conducted the air strikes," he said.
North Korea says it has stopped disabling its nuclear facilities, accusing the US of reneging on a six-party disarmament deal...North Korea says it took the step because the US failed to remove it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
But the US says it wants to agree more stringent verification processes before it does so.
North Korea finally submitted a long-delayed account of its nuclear facilities to the six-party talks in June - and was expecting to be removed from the US list of terrorism sponsors in return.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters the U.S. will not grant the North the concession until it agrees to a "strong verification regime." He declined to provide specifics, saying the North Koreans know what they have to do.
So either we do, or we don't. It's kind of hard to negotiate deals when no one can agree on what it is will satisfy the requirements of the deal itself.
This blog is written by a couple of pissed-off patriots who share a fierce dedication to the Constitution - the only words ever put to paper worth dying for. We exist to remind y'all that America was founded on four boxes:
Watch Live DNC
