Dead Again

The bipolar computer is now catatonic. (It has a hard drive, it can't find the hard drive, it has a hard drive, it can't find the hard drive....whatever.) I'm at the local public library, posting from a computer supplied by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as the mousepad helpfully tells me.

The new computer is ordered, and most of it has arrived, but they've back-ordered one piece -- the keyboard.

So, maybe I'll be back in three days, or not until after Labor Day. It's catch as can for a few weeks here.

Beautiful Dead Girls

The stories you should be reading, while the news media obsesses over Jon Benet Ramsey; from dailykos:

Beautiful Dead Girls

by hrh

Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 08:19:05 PM PDT

[From the Diaries - MB]

We hear a lot about beautiful dead girls in the US media.  Here are some that we haven't heard about much.  Their smiles haven't been plastered over the supermarket tabloid press, and they're not likely to be.  One of the reasons is that they don't fit the popular stereotype of beautiful-woman-as-helpless-victim.  Another reason is that many people still haven't focused on the reality of women in the military.  Even here on DKos, I see comments about "sons and fathers" who have been killed and maimed.  Almost NO MENTION of women in the military.

Here, in no particular order, are some American heroes who were killed in combat in Iraq:

• hrh's diary :: ::

(expanded from my comment in georgia10's diary)

Army Sgt. Amanda Pinson, age 21, killed in mortar attack, March 15, 2006.

She told a reporter in 2003,  "I thought, `This is what I want to do -- and I'm going to do it, no matter what.' I tell everybody, `It just feels right.'"

"She loved being in the Army and she loved doing her job," Ehlen said. "She felt like her work saved American lives. That's what she did."

Air Force Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Jacobson, age 21, killed by roadside bomb, September 28, 2005.

"She loved what she was doing and she loved to be able to say that people should give her respect because without her and those like her we wouldn't be free. She stood up for her beliefs and made everyone around her be aware of them," said her grandmother, Sondra Millman-Cosimano of Riviera Beach.

Marine Lance Cp. Juana Navarro-Arellano, age 24, killed by small arms fire, April 8, 2006.

"She was the toughest girl I've ever met," said Pfc. Gustavo Navarro Cristales, a bulk fuel specialist with 9th ESB and close friend of Navarro-Arellano. "She demanded to be treated equal."

Her incredible strength and tenacity was something learned from their mother, Navarro-Arellano's brother explained.

"Juana saw our mother raise six kids by herself," Lorenzo said. "That made her tough. She saw the entire struggle."

Marine Lance Cpl. Holly Charette, age 21, killed by roadside bomb, June 23, 2005.  

"She wanted to become a Marine after 9-11," Charlene Wheetman, Charette's aunt, said Saturday in a statement on behalf of the family. "She wanted to do something for her country. She was a very proud Marine."

Army Spc. Carrie French, age 19, killed by roadside bomb, June 15, 2005.

French said his daughter had an adventurous spirit and loved the outdoors. She had plans to travel Europe and study law after her tour of duty in Iraq.

For her high school graduation gift she asked her father to take her skydiving.

"She was willing to try anything, really," Rick French said.

[...]

He said she died doing what she wanted to do.

"I was scared (when she deployed), but I was very, very proud of her," he said. "She's my hero."

Army Spc. Toccara Green, killed by roadside bomb, August 14, 2005.  

Toccara Green's desire to be in the military was evident early: for four years in high school she got up early and stayed late to participate in her campus ROTC.

Family and friends say her devotion to her country is what inspired her.

"The only thing that puts my mind at ease is that she died for what she believed in," said Garry Green Jr., her brother. "She said her ideal situation: go out fighting for our country."

Army Staff Sgt. Tricia L. Jameson, age 34, killed when a roadside bomb blew up her Humvee ambulance on July 14, 2005.  She was a health-care specialist responding to a casualty incident.

A friend of hers said she "wanted to go get her hands on some serious injuries and fix some things."

Marine Cpl. Ramona M. Valdez, age 20, killed by roadside bomb on June 23, 2005.

Ramona, a communications specialist who wanted to become a policewoman, had originally been expected home in May. But she died Thursday in an attack on her convoy in Fallujah.

Fiorela Valdez said the family is bitter about the war it increasingly regards as senseless, and blames President Bush.

"Why doesn't he send his daughters over there? If he had a family member there, he'd end the war right now," Valdez said.

Army Pfc. Sam W. Huff, age 18.  killed by roadside bomb on April 18, 2005.

Eighteen-year-old Pfc. Sam Huff was born with a man's name.

But she was a consummate "girlie-girl," said her father, Robert Huff.

She liked to wear false eyelashes and played flute in her high-school band. Last July, she joined the Army, the first step in a career she hoped would take her to the FBI.

On April 18, Huff, an only child, became the 37th U.S. female to die in combat since 2003.

Yesterday, her parents and comrades gathered in a Fort Lewis chapel to recall Huff's independent spirit and her unfulfilled ambitions.

But what they remembered most was that she loved soldiering, and she was good at it. The memorial became, in part, a testimonial to the growing role women are playing in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Born in Tucson, Ariz., on July 12, 1986, Huff was 16 when she announced her intention to enlist in the Army, go to college to study psychology and become an FBI agent....

"We just stood there, dumbfounded," said Robert Huff, a retired Tucson police detective. His wife, Margaret Williams, served as an air traffic controller in the Marines.

But there wasn't any family talk of women not belonging in the military, he said: "Not in our house, are you kidding?"

[...]

"Beneath that beautiful young lady was a backbone of steel," Sgt. Sam Jones wrote in a letter read aloud during her funeral.

Army Sgt. Jessica M. Housby, age 23, killed by roadside bomb on February 09, 2005.

Lt. Archie Rose of the Illinois National Guard said Housby received an award in 1999 after taking part in a training exercise at Fort McCoy, Wis.

She was chosen as the top cadet out of a group of 187 because of her "hard work, enthusiasm and the responsibility," he said.

Army Sgt. Shawna M. Morrison, age 26, killed in mortar attack September 05, 2004.

It was Shawna Morrison's adventurous spirit that propelled her to seek the new, the different, the stimulating, in life.

"She liked to try things, go new places, try new food," said her brother, Allan Morrison. "She liked to test stuff out."

The family often took fishing trips that Shawna looked forward to, [her father] said, and his daughter never minded threading a worm onto a hook.

"She always had a smile. She had a super personality and was great to be around. She would laugh at anything," he said.

Army Spc. Jessica L. Cawvey, age 21, killed by roadside bomb on October 6, 2004.

She had a 6-year-old daughter named Sierra.  Her uncle said, "She joined the service because she wanted to provide the right future for her daughter."

The Cawveys keep the medals and ribbons their daughter earned during her military career in a special wooden box. Sierra recognizes many of the ribbons, and as she showed them to a visitor, she called them by name: "Good Conduct . . . Purple Heart . . . Bronze Star . . ."

"Why did she get that one?" asked her grandma, pausing.

"Because she died."

Army Pfc. Leslie D. Jackson, age 18, killed by roadside bomb on May 20, 2004.

"The Army is what she wanted. That's why there are no regrets," said her aunt, Pearl Roberts. Jackson exchanged e-mails with school principal Earl M. Pappy about her decision to enter the military and her experiences in Iraq. "The students are very upset because she was respected very, very much," he said.

[...]

She viewed the Army as a way to further her education, Roberts said. Jackson grew up in a close-knit family and "loved to shop and dress up and do her nails."

Army Spc. Isela Rubalcava, age 25, killed by mortar attack, May 8, 2004.

Her cousin said, "She's always been a happy person, always smiling. When she came back from boot camp, she was cheerful and told us about how great it was."

Army Sgt. 1st Class Linda Ann Tarango-Griess, age 33, killed by roadside bomb on July 11, 2004.

Her husband said, "She really loved her military career."

Army Sgt. Tatjana Reed, age 34, killed by roadside bomb July 22, 2004.

"She loved the Army," her mother said.

She had a 10-year-old daughter.

Army Capt. Kimberly N. Hampton, age 27, killed when her Kiowa helicopter was shot down on January 02, 2004.

Her parents said she had wanted to be a pilot since she was a child.  In third grade she wrote a paper about how she always wanted to fly.

While in Iraq, she wrote her mother an email:

"If there is anything I can say to ease your mind ... if anything ever happens to me, you can be certain that I am doing the things I love," she wrote. "... I'm living my dreams for sure, living life on the edge at times and pushing the envelope. ...

"So, worry if you must," she added, "but you can be sure that your only child is living a full, exciting life and is HAPPY!"

Army Pfc. Rachel K. Bosveld, age 19, killed in mortar attack October 26, 2003.

She enlisted in the Army when she graduated in June 2002, following in the footsteps of her father, who served in the Army in Italy from 1967-1969, and Craig, who served in the Army in Alaska.

"She idolized her brother," Marvin Bosveld said, pointing to a photograph of Craig holding a toddler-sized Rachel on a tree branch. "I had some reservation because she was a girl. She asked me not to worry about it. She was as good as anyone."

Her mother said she desperately tried to talk her daughter out of it.

"I would have done anything to have her choose a different career," Mary Bosveld said. "She said, `I know, Mom, but I have to do this. ... I want to keep up the family tradition. Except, Mom, I'm going to be the first girl in our entire family."'

There are many more.  If you want to see their names and how and where they died, go to Coalition Casualties and search on "Female".

I'd like everyone who has some kind of problem with feminism to look long and hard at the faces of these women and consider the fact that they died for YOU and they were doing a man's job.

Will Wonders Ever Cease?

The dead computer rises from the ashes yet again. I think it's bipolar.

See You in September

Catskill sunset taken from east of the Hudson River
I seem to be on a hiatus. My computer, which came back to life for two weeks, has once again bit the dust, and its replacement is on its way.

Here's what I did last week:

Funnel Cake, Prized Cows, and Defiance After a Devastating Flood

So I'll return to full-time blogging in September. Until then, ciao.

Driving While Democratic

I received this in email:

These bumper stickers were compiled by Jerry Paull, a former Methodist minister in Lakeside, Ohio, who writes: The following actual bumper stickers are now on cars. I didn't write any of them. I'm only the messenger. If they make you laugh, good. If they make you cry, good. If they make you angry, that's good too. If you don't want to read them, hit the delete button.


BLIND FAITH IN BAD LEADERSHIP IS NOT PATRIOTISM


IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION


IF YOU SUPPORTED BUSH, A YELLOW RIBBON WON'T MAKE UP FOR IT


POVERTY, HEALTH CARE & HOMELESSNESS ARE MORAL ISSUES


OF COURSE IT HURTS. YOU'RE GETTING SCREWED BY AN ELEPHANT


BUSH LIED, AND YOU KNOW IT


RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: A THREAT ABROAD, A THREAT AT HOME


GOD BLESS EVERYONE
(No exceptions)


BUSH SPENT YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY ON HIS WAR


PRO AMERICA, ANTI BUSH


WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?


IF YOU SUPPORT BUSH'S WAR, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? SHUT UP AND SHIP OUT


FEEL SAFER NOW?


I'D RATHER HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO SCREWED HIS INTERN THAN ONE WHO SCREWED HIS COUNTRY


JESUS WAS A SOCIAL ACTIVIST - THAT IS A LIBERAL


MY VALUES? FREE SPEECH. EQUALITY. LIBERTY. EDUCATION. TOLERANCE


IS IT 2008 YET?


DISSENT IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF PATRIOTISM -- Thomas Jefferson


DON'T BLAME ME. I VOTED AGAINST BUSH -- TWICE!


ANNOY A CONSERVATIVE; THINK FOR YOURSELF


VISUALIZE IMPEACHMENT


HEY BUSH! WHERE'S BIN LADEN?


CORPORATE MEDIA = MASS MIND CONTROL


STOP MAD COWBOY DISEASE


GEORGE W. BUSH: MAKING TERRORISTS FASTER THAN HE CAN KILL THEM


KEEP YOUR THEOCRACY OFF MY DEMOCRACY


DEMOCRATS ARE SEXY. WHOEVER HEARD OF A GOOD PIECE OF ELEPHANT?


ASPIRING CANADIAN


CORPORATE MEDIA: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION


DON'T CONFUSE DYING FOR OIL WITH FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM


STEM CELL RESEARCH IS PRO LIFE


HATE, GREED, IGNORANCE: WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION


HONOR OUR TROOPS; DEMAND THE TRUTH


REBUILD IRAQ? WHY NOT SPEND 87 BILLION ON AMERICA?


FACT: BUSH OIL
1999 - $19 BARREL
2006 - $70 BARREL


THE LAST TIME RELIGION CONTROLLED POLITICS, PEOPLE GOT BURNED AT THE STAKE


I'LL GIVE UP MY CHOICE WHEN JOHN ROBERTS GETS PREGNANT


SUPPORT OUR TROOPS; IMPEACH BUSH


HOW ON EARTH CAN 59,411,287 PEOPLE BE SO DUMB?

I'm Just Saying

If I have to walk into the airport carrying a clear plastic bag of tampons, the terrorists have won.

I Am a Sick Puppy

Harbor, Tyre, Lebanon
Watching CNN as the soon-departed Daryn Kagan interviews a foreign correspondent standing in front of an empty beach in Tyre, Lebanon. The poor guy keeps looking over his shoulder as the sound of bombs falling increases. Daryn says, 'Those bombs seem to be getting closer. If you need to go, you need to go.' And the intrepid correspondent says, 'No, Daryn, I'm here for you.' Yes, that's what he really said. Unfortunately, I missed his name.

Is it so wrong of me that I want to see these war whores get blown up on live TV?

It is wrong, I know. I just can't help it. And I know I'll feel really bad if my secret wish comes true. But they're masquerading as journalists, doing an empty standup outside their hotel, adding nothing to the world's understanding of what is happening here.

Now CNN switches to a shot from that godforsaken hellhole, Crawford, Texas, which they are describing as "The Western White House." Can't they just call it what it is, the second home of President Eternal Vacation? There's no crisis great enough for him to give up his constant vacations. If he'd been in Crawford on 9/11 they would have waited even longer to tell him what was going on. And he wouldn't have been pretending to read. Did you see that the White House issued a list of books Brush Cutter is reading on his vacation? The guy doesn't read. Why the charade?

Grumpy today despite the cessation of blistering temperature.

Posting will be spotty for the next few days as other life responsibilities predominate. Sorry. Maybe on my return I'll be in a better mood.

It Was 108 in Central Massachusetts Last Wednesday

Yeah, that's my excuse for missing all these stories:

National Tennis Center to be named after foremother Billie Jean King.

The Iraqi blogger Riverbend describes the exodus from Baghdad, and why it's happening.

Tom Friedman has run out of six month segments (Friedmans), and even he now says we must 'disengage' from the civil war we created in Iraq. Better late than never.

Hillary Clinton, finger in the wind, ripped Donald Rumsfield a new one in a Senate Hearing. Five years too late, baby. It was the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Brent Wilkes, Duke Cunningham's benefactor, told the New York Times how he funneled bribes to Republican Congressman to get government contracts.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites marched in Baghdad chanting 'death to Israel.' I love to see democracy flowering in the middle east. Great job by the Cheney Administration.

In a new book, our former ambassador to Croatia says Bush didn't know there were two different sects (Shia and Sunni) in Iraq before the invasion. I'm shocked. At this point it would be news to learn that Bush understands anything.

Two nuclear power plants in Sweden shut down after almost melting down. As we said after Three Mile Island, We All Live In Pennsylvania. We all live in Sweden.

There's a parody making fun of Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth on YouTube. Guess who made it? A PR firm that works for Exxon Mobil.

Mel Gibson, drunk as a skunk, goes on a tirade about Jews. You know, when I get drunk I don't go on racist tirades. I might say 'men can be such pigs', but that's because I believe that. You think Mel is really sorry? Neither do I.

The Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and The Poodle, Tony Blair, had a big press conference announcing a new initiative to combat global warming. Its centerpiece? Voluntary cooperation by industry. That should do the trick. It's been working so well so far.

Daryn Kagan to leave CNN to start a blog. Hah! Nobody leaves a job to start a blog. She's getting shitcanned. Her blog is supposed to be inspirational. I'd be inspired if she started posting dirt on former boyfriend Rush Limpaugh. Daryn?

And here's a story I missed two weeks ago. The US rushed a shipment of laser-guided missiles to Israel after the Israel-Lebanon war started. Maybe that's why we're having a hard time getting Lebanon to talk to us about a cease fire.

The US Has FUBAR'd Iraq

From R.J. Eskow's HuffPost article: Communication Breakdown: Army Major Describes Yet Another Example of GOP Military Mismanagement; he took the image from the Times of London.

12,000 of 34,000 doctors have left Iraq; perhaps because 2,000 have been killed, and 250 kidnapped.

I've Got an ActBlue Page

Main St USA is the name of my ActBlue page. I've got five candidates so far, and if there's someone you think I should add, send me an email (edwardssupporter@aol.com) or tell me about your candidate and your argument as to why I should support her, or him, in the comments section.

Here are my 5:

(1) Kirsten Gillibrand: Running for the NY-20 Congressional seat (my mom's district); David Boies' partner, smart lawyer, and running against the evil oaf, incumbent John Sweeney, the jerk who led the Brooks Brother riot in Dade County during the 2000 Florida vote counting fiasco, and more recently a Jack Abramoff bagman, working hard to keep sweatshops open in the Marianas Islands.

(2) John Bonifaz: Running to be Secretary of State in Massachusetts. When John Kerry took his millions and his promise to fight for every vote and left Ohio in 2004, John Bonifaz bought a plane ticket and went to Ohio and led the fight to have all the votes counted. Running against incumbent Bill Galvin, our comical Secretary of State who never saw a TV camera he didn't ham up to.

(3) Eric Massa: Running for the NY-29 Congressional seat, western New York where many friends and relatives live. One of the Fighting Dems, the large group of military veterans running to bring a realistic view of the military into government. Had enough chickenhawk leadership yet? Vote for the Fighting Dems. Oh, and Massa's opponent is a real piece of work, the Shotgun Senator (when he was in the NY State Senate, he fired a shotgun at his now ex-wife), incumbent Randy Kuhl.

(4) Jon Tester: Running for the Montana Senate seat against incumbent Conrad Burns, Abramoff bagman, and the Senator most famous recently for accosting a group of firefighters from Virginia in the Billings, Montana airport and accusing them of doing a poor job. Tester is a rancher, a gun owner, and a progressive.

(5) Joe Sestak: Running for the PA-07 seat currently held by Curt Weldon, one of the dumbest wingnuts in Congress (he keeps issuing statements saying we've found the WMDs in Iraq. Right.) Sestak is a retired 31-year Navy veteran with a Doctorate in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. Weldon, on the other hand, is a typical corrupt Republican; his 29-year-old daughter is a lobbyist trading on Daddy's contacts. Plus he publicly criticized Sestak's choice of cancer treatment for his 5-year-old daughter. Yucch.

Yellow Elephants for Joe

Jesus' General's latest Lieberman ad, 'cause the College Republicans are organizing for Lieberman. What is that he keeps saying about being a Democrat? Right.

Crackling Skies

caption: shot from our kitchen last night during the storm in toronto.

I saw this picture on BlogsNow.

Welcome To The Doughnut Hole

Democrats running for Congress this fall must emphasize, over and over, that the Medicare Part (D)isaster bill was pushed by the Republicans and has been a huge boon for one group: pharmaceutical companies, because the bill BARRED Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices.

WaPo: Bills Soar As Many Hit Gap in Drug Plan
Medicare Provision Jolts Some Seniors

Although the Medicare handbook clearly describes the coverage break, critics say most Medicare recipients, bombarded with advertising from private prescription plans, focused on deductibles and premiums and the drugs included.

"There was a lot of emphasis on signing up seniors. It was a crusade almost," said Stuart Guterman, a Medicare expert with the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund. He doubts that many companies highlighted the doughnut hole in their marketing push. "That's not a selling point," he said.

Previous posts:

Medicare Part (D)isaster Doughnut Hole Is Here (May 21, 2006)

'Part D is a complex system of subsidies to private insurance companies' (May 15, 2006)

Medicare Part (D)isaster Penalties: Will Rethugs Blink? (May 13, 2006)

Bush To Old People: Drop Dead (May 10, 2006)

Medicare Part (D)isaster, Incompetently Administered, Misleading Poor Seniors (May 7, 2006)

Most Severely Ill Senior Citizens Already in Medicare Part (D)isaster Doughnut Hole (April 27, 2006)

Medicare Part (D)isaster: Watch Out For That Hole (April 12, 2006)

President Out-of-Touch Moron Meets the Seniors (March 19, 2006)

Medicare Part (D)isaster: Making the Mentally Ill Sicker (February 6, 2006)

Medicare Part (D)isaster Creating Havoc at Social Security Administration (February 4, 2006)

Right Wing Blogs Exhibit Myopia Over Medicare Part D(isaster) (January 24, 2006)

Medicare Part (D)isaster (January 20, 2006)

Operation Photo Op, Medicare Part D edition, 1.0 (January 18, 2006)

'Horrific at Best' (January 9, 2006)

The Incompetence, The Corruption, and The Cronyism: Sunday, January 8, 2006 (January 8, 2006)

Calling the Commonwealth's Chief Law Enforcement Officer. Are You There?

Daniel W. Goldstone, at his collection agency, Norfolk Financial Corp., was disbarred this year. In 1996, a federal judge determined he had bilked a client [Sears, Roebuck] out of more than $800,000.(Globe Staff Photo / John Tlumacki)
Boston Globe: Debtors' Hell
Part I: Preying on Red-Ink America

Great piece in today's Boston Globe on sleazy collection agents taking advantage of lax government oversight to prey on small debtors, taking their cars and even their homes for non-payment of credit card debt. If our Attorney General Tom Reilly, Democratic candidate for governor, had guts, or a smidgen of opportunistic political sense, the two scumbags profiled, disbarred attorney Daniel Goldstone and his brother Chad Goldstone, would be served with papers tomorrow by the state seeking an immediate cessation to their operations. Unfortunately Tom Reilly has shown all the backbone of an invertebrate, and no political sense, so he'll continue to drive his gubernatorial campaign into the ground and ignore it.

My advice to Tom would be, the Globe has handed you a gift. This is an issue you have jurisdiction over, which would be popular with all voters! Jump on this!

Not holding my breath.

Look Past Our Slanted Media

Adnan Harakeh cries as he stands by the wreckage of his house in the village of Nmeiriya July 29, 2006. Adnan lost his wife and five children in Israeli air strikes. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho (LEBANON)
You're not getting a real picture of what's going on between Israel and Lebanon if you're watching American TV. Seeing the Forest points out We Are Seeing Different News About Lebanon. We are getting a one-sided view of the story. The massive Lebanese civilian casualties (more than ten times greater than the Israeli casualties) are being reported and shown around the world. But not here, because that's not our media's story. It's not our government's position, and the corporate media is not about to contradict the Bush Administration.

YouTube has lots of short videos from Lebanon.

Also, go watch Mosaic - excerpts from Middle Eastern news shows.

Kissinger Barbie: Midwife From Hell

Commondreams: Condoleezza Rice: Midwife From Hell

After being one of the most inept national security advisers in the nation’s history, Condoleezza Rice is now earning the same grade as secretary of state.

Her description of the conflagration in Lebanon as the “birthpangs of a new Middle East” was about as callous as it gets, matched only by Bush’s remark that the conflict represents “a moment of opportunity.”

Nor were families of the Israeli victims (about 50 so far, and most of them soldiers) cheering the new day, either.

Rice’s cruel opposition to an immediate cease-fire has left the whole world outside of Israel (and Tony Blair’s kennel) aghast.

[]

Politically naïve, Rice also appears woefully jejune about human nature.

Eric Massa, NY-29, A Fighting Dem for the House

firedoglake: Blue America — Eric Massa, NY-29

I read firedoglake's post on Eric Massa and went to the Act Blue page to send him a little money. Gotta support those Fighting Dems.

He called me! Less than an hour later! He is committed to personal politics. Every contributor gets a phone call. He said his Republican opponent, Randy Kuhl (the Shotgun Senator) just left on a Congressional factfinding mission -- to Iraq. We agreed that the money being spent to send the clueless Kuhl to Iraq would be better spent on armor for the troops, who are still underequipped.

So if you live in western New York, please get out there and work for Eric Massa and put a Fighting Dem in the House in place of a right-wing nutjob.

AP Thinks Lieberman Is Toast

These are the #2 and #3 articles on Yahoo Politics News right now:

#2 Struggling AP: Lieberman faces political abyss

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - Anti-war Democrats bailed in droves. Teachers unions left over vouchers. Men are drawn to his challenger, and women aren't all that crazy about the incumbent, either.

Once, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut seemed on the brink of the vice presidency, a principled moderate in a party that didn't always warm to them. Now, hewing to his support for the war in Iraq, he confronts a political abyss, abandoned by all groups but the poorer, older and less educated Democrats in his state.

#3 AP: Incumbent senators who have lost primaries





I just think he's an ass. Here's his ad trying to prove he's a Democrat. Looks like an ass to me. (Yes, this is an actual Joe Lieberman ad, courtesy LamontBlog.)

You Know These Bastards Are Laughing All The Way to the Banks

WaPo: Exxon Mobil Posts $10.36 Billion Profit
Company Faces New Round of Criticism

Exxon Mobil Corp. said yesterday that its second-quarter earnings jumped 36 percent, to $10.36 billion, boosted by climbing oil prices and larger profits at its refineries.

The quarterly profit -- the second-largest in U.S. history -- brought forth a fresh round of criticism from consumer and environmental groups. Critics accused the Irving, Tex.-based company of getting rich at the expense of motorists -- squeezed by $3-a-gallon gas prices -- while distributing billions to shareholders through dividends and by buying back shares. The largest quarterly profit by an American company, $10.71 billion, was also posted by Exxon, in the fourth quarter of 2005.

One bank would be too small to hold all the ill-gotten gains. Will a Democrat stand up and propose a windfall profits tax? How many quarters of record profits will it take?

Coal Industry Buys a Scientific Streetwalker

As lawyers we are taught, When the law is on your side, argue the law. When the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When you don't have the law or the facts, argue really loud! The coal industry has another choice -- buy the argument you need. They've paid over $100,000 to the only scientist they can get to dispute global warming. Of course, he's an unethical sleazeball with no credibility, but he has a degree, and is a doctor of something. That's enough for the coal industry to pawn him off on the supine corporate media. So he writes crap opinion pieces, published in trash papers like the Washington Times, and ends them with this neutral description:

Patrick J. Michaels is senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute and professor of natural resources at Virginia Tech.

When in actuality, he's a coal industry whore. A scientific streetwalker, as it were.

ThinkProgress: LEAKED MEMO: Coal Industry Coordinating Propaganda Blitz Attacking Global Warming Science

A secret memo by the coal industry details a coordinated campaign to spread misinformation about global warming. The memo expresses fear that if the government addresses climate change — through a carbon tax or regulating greenhouse gasses — it will cut into their profits.

Their solution: “support the scientific community that is willing to stand up against the alarmists.” (The memo also refers to people who believe in global warming science as those “whose true motivation is to stop growth, develop renewable resources [and] discontinue the use of fossil fuels, especially coal.”)

But the coal-based utility leading the campaign ran up against a problem: there is no scientific community who agrees with them. The memo acknowledges almost everyone who disputes global warming science have no “involvement in climatology.” So they’ve decided to lavish funding on one climatologist who will do their bidding: Pat Michaels.

The memo describes how the coal-based utility contributed “$100,000 to Dr. Michaels this year.” It also “contacted all the [utilities] in the United States” asking for contributions to Michaels’ research and “obtained additional contributions.”....

Go to the ThinkProgress article for embedded links.