| Flooding kills dozens in El Salvador. "At least 91 people have been killed in El Salvador by flooding following days of heavy rain, the government says. Authorities have declared a state of emergency in five regions, Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said. Mr Centeno said the capital San Salvador and central San Vicente province were the hardest-hit regions. Journalist Juan Carlos Barahona told the BBC that San Vicente had almost been completely cut off by landslides and collapsed bridges. Mr Barahona, of the El Salvador daily La Prensa Grafica, told the BBC that the other worst affected areas were La Libertad, La Paz and Cuscatlan. Mr Centeno said 60 people were still missing, and about 7,000 more were in shelters."
That puts Iraq a giant step ahead of us. "The Iraqi parliament has approved a crucial election law ahead of national polls due in January 2010. The reform was passed by a wide margin after weeks of deadlock, which had raised fears that the parliamentary election might have to be delayed. There have been concerns that such a postponement could undo recent progress towards greater stability." Only fundamental campaign finance reform will end the rule of money in our elections and the resulting legislative disasters.
And they didn't even need Michael Moore to tell them. "Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new BBC poll has found widespread dissatisfaction with free-market capitalism. In the global poll for the BBC World Service, only 11% of those questioned across 27 countries said that it was working well. Most thought regulation and reform of the capitalist system were necessary. There were also sharp divisions around the world on whether the end of the Soviet Union was a good thing."
Ur Doin It Rong. You tell him he'll be welcomed with open arms, THEN you arrest his ass. "Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court, has pulled out of an Islamic summit in Istanbul, officials say. The Turkish government had previously welcomed the attendance of President Bashir at the meeting and said that he would not be arrested. But the EU, which Turkey hopes to join, wanted the invitation to be withdrawn."
Trust us: the army is going to be all over this one. And Traitor Joe is the last person from whom it needs help. "Senior US Senator Joe Lieberman says he plans to open a congressional investigation into last week's deadly shooting at a Texas army base. Mr Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told Fox TV that he wanted to find out whether it was a terrorist attack. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim army major, is suspected of killing 13 people. Mr Lieberman also said he hoped to determine whether the army missed signs that Maj Hasan harboured extreme views. The 39-year-old army psychiatrist opened fire at the Fort Hood base on Thursday. Besides those killed, 29 people were wounded. Maj Hasan was shot by a police officer and remains in a coma."
A timely reminder of just what vicious, callous fuckers the Chinese really are. "Thousands of people have turned out to welcome the Dalai Lama as he makes a controversial visit to a monastery close to the Tibetan border. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is in Tawang in India's state of Arunachal Pradesh, itself a source of dispute between Beijing and Delhi. Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of trying to undermine its rule in Tibet and says the visit is anti-China. The Dalai Lama insists his visit is "non-political". The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 when Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet. In August this year, the Dalai Lama, 74, made another hugely controversial visit - to Taiwan, another region China considers part of its territory."
The biggest killer in any third-world war is always epidemics. "As if the Taliban, car bombs, roadside bombs, leftover Soviet land mines, political unrest and errant NATO air attacks weren't enough, Afghans are facing a new killer: the H1N1 flu pandemic. The government has declared a state of emergency, and closed schools, universities and even wedding halls and public bathrooms for three weeks to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed 10 people in the capital in less than two weeks. Cases are popping up in provinces spanning the country, with new outbreaks reported in two more provinces on Saturday."
Where are the death panels and political litmus tests for treatment? These are some of the changes in the way health insurance would work in the United States if the House bill were to become law: 1. Creates a government-run plan, or "public option," to offer insurance coverage to compete with private sector insurance companies. 2. Sets up health insurance "exchanges," or marketplaces, where consumers can easily compare coverage and rates. 3. Requires nearly everyone to obtain health insurance coverage starting in 2013. 4. Requires health plans to allow young adults to remain on their parents' policies till their 27th birthday. (Six more follow.)
Because what really matter is who gets the credit. "Kentucky lawmakers are at the center of a political feud over how to best derail the so-called "pain-pill pipeline" from Florida to the Bluegrass State, a multi-state trafficking scheme that has contributed heavily to the state's crippling prescription drug addiction epidemic. Competing national prescription drug-tracking programs -- one supported by Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers, who sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and another called the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting program, or NASPER, backed by Kentucky Reps. Ben Chandler and Ed Whitfield -- have complicated matters."
The question isn't whether it's the best health care in the world; the question is how much we pay for it. 'For five desperate minutes, emergency room doctors at UC Davis Medical Center frantically tried to revive Scott Hawkins. In those five minutes, the 23-year-old California State University, Sacramento, student was hooked up to life support monitors, air pumped into his weakened lungs as he bled on a gurney. Hospital officials said Hawkins was given the highest level of emergency care, with a phalanx of surgeons, specialists and nurses at the ready. His parents called the effort "heroic." Five minutes later, doctors pronounced him dead. Few question the extent to which doctors tried to save the student's life on Oct. 21, but the amount billed for his emergency care has provoked outrage - a further example, critics said, of what is wrong in a health care system that is roundly maligned for its escalating costs. The charge for those five minutes: $29,186.50 - including a single-ticket item for $18,900.50, described on the itemized bill as "Trauma Rescue Service."'
"Mother, mother ocean" isn't just a song lyric. "The womb of the world is dying while bureaucrats squabble over turf. Off the coast of Washington state, mysterious algae mixed with sea foam have killed more than 8,000 seabirds, puzzling scientists. A thousand miles off California, researchers have discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling vortex roughly twice the size of Texas filled with tiny bits of plastic and other debris. Every summer a dead zone of oxygen-depleted water the size of Massachusetts forms in the Gulf of Mexico; others have been found off Oregon and in the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Erie and the Baltic and Black seas. Some studies indicate that North Pole seawater could turn caustic in 10 years, and that the Southern Ocean already may be saturated with carbon dioxide .... As the grim news mounts, a storm is brewing in Washington, D.C., over who should oversee oceans policies. A White House task force has recommended creating a National Ocean Council that would develop and implement national ocean policy and include the secretaries of state, defense, agriculture, interior, health and human services, labor, commerce, transportation and homeland security."
Pawlenty's running He was in Iowa late last week, attacking the healthcare reform legislation that has cleared the House and goes on to the Senate. His speech at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines is the first high-profile event of the early try out season in the state that holds the nation's first presidential caucuses. "They can't even get us, in a reasonable time, a vaccine for the H1N1 virus, how are they going to manage our health care?" asked Pawlenty, coyly pandering to the ignorant tea party crowd that doesn't understand the biological limitations of vaccine production. He does, but his intended audience doesn't. That makes his pandering that much more cynical and craven, if not downright venal.
Brown leads, and California voters seem grouchy about it Former Governor and current California Attorney General is by far the most popular candidate for governor in next year's election, but most voters in his party are unhappy that he is the only major Democrat running, according to a new USC/LA Times poll on Sunday.
If you're okay enough that the Royals can ruin your day you probably aren't one of the folks the City Union Mission exists to help. All the more reason to be proud of the Boys in Blue for teaming up with the Mission, which has been helping families in need in Kansas City since 1924, and serving Thanksgiving feasts to people in need who might not have a Thanksgiving otherwise. Hall of Fame second baseman Frank White and outfielder David DeJesus will join Royals associates in serving a Thanksgiving feast to guests at City Union Mission's two area facilities. Former Royals outfielder Les Norman will also participate in the event.
Tennessee GOP fights against election integrity and verifiable paper ballots. In November of 2008, when Tennessee was still using touch-screen machines, the state managed to run counter to the national trend and report gains for republicans in an anti-GOP year. Since winning the state house, the GOP majority and secretary of state have fought tooth and nail against implementing the law passed in 2008 that would mandate paper-ballots in 2010.
We non-Apple types have long suspected that your overpriced iPhones were nothing more than escapees from the Island of Misfit Toys, we were just too kind to point it out.
A(nother) timely reminder of just what vicious, callous fuckers the Chinese really are They exploit the hell out of Africa for the continents mineral resources and mollify those who object to the exploitation with $10 billion in cheap loans and diminished duties at customs.
Don't rush out and buy "K2" If you are so inclined to seek your enlightenment or just cop a buzz by smoking something stick with the real stuff. The fake stuff may work the same way, but the fake cannabinoids have dangers the real ones don't - for one thing, the researcher who oversaw the development of the synthetics says his research shows the fake ones metabolize into carcinogens.
A Mars pact has been struck between the United States and European space agencies, giving the go-ahead to scientists and engineers from the two competing agencies to start working together on joint missions to mars. The missions start with an orbiter in 2016, rovers in 2018 and maybe even a network of landers by then as well. The ultimate goal for the series of missions is the return of rock and soil samples to Earth for study and analysis.
And finally...
Wanda Sykes is our favorite czar ever.
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Best New SoapBlox - 2008
