Study: Lack of MRAPs Cost Marine Lives
By RICHARD LARDNER – 6 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of U.S. Marines have been killed or injured by roadside bombs in Iraq because Marine Corps bureaucrats refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, an internal military study concludes.
The study, written by a civilian […]
FEMA trailers toxic, tests show
Facing Relocation
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Alex Brandon / Associated Press
Jim “Hawk” Herring, with his dog Koko, lives in a FEMA trailer in the Lakeview area of New Orleans. With recent government tests confirming high levels of formaldehyde in the temporary residences, U.S. health officials are urging that hurricane victims be relocated as soon as possible.
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By Terry Hutchens and Mark Alesia, The Indianapolis Star
Indiana University President Michael McRobbie will hold a 3 p.m. press conference to talk about the NCAA allegations against basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, Indiana University officials announced this morning.
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Images: (Samson & Delilah) via bp3.blogger.com via teaattrianon.blogspot.com; (Map) Rand McNally via 2chambers.com;
The Rant
Time for a real leader
Capitol Hill Blue
February 15, 2008 - 8:10am
By DOUG THOMPSON
Hillary Rodham Clinton claims she has “solutions” while Barack Obama only has “speeches.” Obama, she says borrowing an old Texas cliché, is “all hat and no cattle.”
From this vantage point, we’ll take Obama’s words over Clinton’s solutions. Given her performance in the […]
Lieberman Defends Waterboarding: It’s ‘Not Like Putting Burning Coals On People’s Bodies’
Yesterday, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) “reluctantly acknowledged” that he doesn’t believe waterboarding is torture. According to the Connecticut Post, Lieberman downplayed the severity of the waterboarding because it doesn’t inflict permanent physical damage:
In the worst case scenario — when there is an imminent threat […]
But Not Very Far!!
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By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer Wed Feb 13, 6:15 PM ET
NEW YORK - A fossil found in Wyoming has apparently resolved a long-standing question about when bats gained their radar-like ability to navigate and locate airborne insects at night. The answer: after they started flying.
The discovery revealed the most primitive bat […]
Now I am really confused!!
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Pedro, Marichal denounced over cockfight
Practice banned in U.S., but it’s legal and popular in Dominican Republic
updated 1:02 p.m. ET, Thurs., Feb. 7, 2008
Now it’s New York Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez and Hall of Famer Juan Marichal who are being denounced for animal fighting.
A video of Martinez and Marichal at a cockfight […]
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Andrea Thompson
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com1 hour, 57 minutes ago
A new species of duck-billed dinosaur unearthed in Mexico is helping scientists fill in gaps in the fossil record of the Age of Dinosaurs.
The creature, dubbed Velafrons coahuilensis, was a massive plant-eater belonging to a larger group of duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs.
The dino’s species name comes from the […]
PAGE ONE
SOCIAL INSECURITY
High-Interest Lenders
Tap Elderly, Disabled
By ELLEN E. SCHULTZ and THEO FRANCIS
February 12, 2008; Page A1
DOTHAN, Ala. — One recent morning, dozens of elderly and disabled people, some propped on walkers and canes, gathered at Small Loans Inc. Many had borrowed money from Small Loans and turned over their Social Security benefits to pay back […]
HOLDFAST.blog
FISA Vote Tallies: Part II
February 12th, 2008 ·
The Dodd/Feingold Amendment 3907 to strip retroactive immunity from the underlying SSCI bill just failed, 31-67. 51 votes were needed to pass.
Voting with the Republicans were the following eighteen Democrats (again, rough count):
Bayh, Inouye, Johnson, Landrieu, McCaskill, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Stabenow, Feinstein, Kohl, Pryor, Rockefeller, Salazar, Carper, […]
Writer Sues Mel Gibson Over ‘Passion’
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 5:56 AM EST
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A screenwriter sued Mel Gibson and his production company on Monday, claiming he was misled by the actor-director into accepting a small payment for writing “The Passion of the Christ,” and was refused extra money when the film […]
This grotesque letter is but the latest
in an 8-year riptide of greed and reason number 83,246 for the turning out of the party of big business.
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Doctors balk at request for data
Physicians object to a letter from Blue Cross seeking information that could lead to policy cancellations.
By Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February […]
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Image: (Main pix) via gregpalast.com via static.flickr.com; (right hand) dansdata.com; (Vitalis) petrassoap.com;(hair) After The Fox via posterplace.com
Castro, McCain spar over Cuban torture in Vietnam
Mon Feb 11, 11:41 AM ET
HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro took on front-running U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday, accusing him of lying about Cubans torturing American prisoners of war in Vietnam.
At a campaign stop in Miami last month, the Arizona senator told […]
Frankly, the Stones experimentation with drugs had little to do with me except for their difficulty in enunciating lyrics, but not knowing the dangers involved certainly seems a bit odd. Unless, they learned all they knew from…
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Keith Richards’ Advice For “The B***h” Amy Winehouse
Hollywood Reporter | February 10, 2008 10:42 AM
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards […]
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Images: (Halo Light) tvhistory.tv; (knobs) beyondbooks.com;(box) earlytelevision.org;(aquarium & friends) cf now. (By the way, this really did not happen.)
One would have thought this was a story best over-looked by Team Clinton.
It almost sounds as if Lady Macbeth protests too much.
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Hillary rips MSNBC’s Shuster
By: Kenneth P. Vogel and Michael Calderone
February 10, 2008 08:07 AM EST
ORONO, Maine — Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday morning ripped MSNBC over reporter David Shuster’s suggestion that Chelsea Clinton was […]
Reuters
Thu Feb 7, 5:06 PM ET
Scientists make unique knee-brace power generator
By Will Dunham Thu Feb 7, 9:18 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Talk about a knee-jerk reaction. Scientists in the United States and Canada said on Thursday they have developed a unique device that can be strapped on the knee that exploits the mechanics of human […]
Britain says North Sea incident “contained”
21 minutes ago
(Reporting by John Joseph, Adrian Croft; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
London (Reuters)-Britain evacuated of(sic) oil workers from a North Sea accommodation platform on Sunday after reports of a bomb threat but officials said the incident was quickly contained and there was no need to send in a bomb squad.
About […]
City boasts less spitting, better queuing
Fri Feb 8, 12:23 PM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - Less spitting, better queuing and cleaner streets show Beijing has become more “civilized,” but the city still has to fine-tune its etiquette to attain Olympic standards, Xinhua news agency said Friday, citing a new study.
China wants to leave nothing to chance […]
The New York Times
February 9, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Revenge of Seamus
By GAIL COLLINS
Oh, Mitt, Mitt, Mitt.
Losing Mitt Romney from the presidential race is not just a matter of another Republican biting the dust. It’s all those dozens and dozens of future incarnations that we may never have a chance to meet. I was hoping that someday […]
Sadly, Feinstein and Schumer were blinded by the light…
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…or was it the nifty lapel flag?
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By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 8, 2008; Page A04
The attorney general yesterday rejected growing congressional calls for a criminal investigation of the CIA’s use of simulated drownings to extract information from its detainees, as Vice President Cheney called […]
Archbishop faces calls to go over sharia remark
Sat Feb 9, 2008 1:57pm GMT
By Adrian Croft
LONDON (Reuters) - Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, faced calls to resign on Saturday for suggesting that the introduction in Britain of some aspects of Islamic law was unavoidable.
The Archbishop of Canterbury tried to quell the […]
Oh? THAT economy!
New York Times
February 8, 2008
Weak January Dashed Retailers’ Gift-Card Hopes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Here is a sign of how shaky the economy is becoming: Wal-Mart says its shoppers are redeeming their holiday gift cards for basic items — pasta sauce, diapers, laundry detergent — rather than iPods and DVDs.
Merchants had hoped that shoppers […]
Clemens’ wife accused of using HGH
Report: McNamee injected her prior to Swimsuit shoot
Updated: Friday February 8, 2008 6:42PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Brian McNamee told congressional investigators he injected Roger Clemens’ wife with human growth hormone as she prepared for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition photo session five years ago, the New York Daily News reported Friday.
McNamee […]
The Center for Public Integrity
Here’s the report that top officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thought was too hot for the public to handle—and the story behind it.
By Sheila Kaplan
For more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards […]
Thursday, February 7, 2008 - 3:00 PM EST
Wal-Mart opening health clinics
Baltimore Business Journal - by Sue Schultz Staff
Expanding its brand into the health care market, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unveiled plans Thursday to open 400 new health clinics nationwide by 2010.
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Images: (Pix) dallasnews.com;(Dracula) images.buycostumes.com via draculacostumes.net; (IV Bag) spservices.co.uk; (IV Post) alimed.com;(Smiley) answers.com; (Igor) […]
Think Progress
February 5, 2008
McConnell calls Bolton op-ed a ‘gross misrepresentation’Former UN Ambassador John Bolton penned an op-ed in today’s WSJ claiming that the key judgments in the latest Iran NIE were “distorted,” written by “policy enthusiasts,” and put the “intelligence community’s credibility and impartiality on the line.” Today during a Senate threat assessment hearing, Sen. […]
Clemens speaks under oath to Congress
By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Sports Writer 19 minutes ago
Roger Clemens spoke under oath for about five hours to congressional lawyers Tuesday, then said he told them he did not use performance-enhancing drugs.
“I just want to thank the committee, the staff that I just met with. They were very courteous,” Clemens […]
By Ryan Singel 02.04.08 | 12:00 AM
The Bush administration has failed to nominate any candidates to a newly empowered privacy and civil-liberties commission. This leaves the board without any members, even as Congress prepares to give the Bush administration extraordinary powers to wiretap without warrants inside the United States.
The failure rankles Sens. Joe Lieberman […]
Clinton’s ‘35 years of change’ omits most of her career
By Matt Stearns | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — To hear Hillary Clinton talk, she’s spent her entire career putting her Yale Law School degree to work for the common good.
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She routinely tells voters that she’s “been working to bring positive change to people’s lives for 35 years.” […]