I had this a**hole on my fantasy football team last winter: ESPN
NFL star Michael Vick was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on charges of sponsoring a dogfighting operation so grisly the losers either died in the pit or sometimes were electrocuted, drowned, hanged or shot.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback and three others were charged with competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and conducting the enterprise across state lines.
I hope they throw the book at them. They deserve the whole 6 years.
if the media were going to give the GOP the drubbing the Dems got over their filibuster threats: MediaMatters
A Media Matters for America survey of reports on the GOP’s refusal to allow an up-or-down vote on the amendment — offered by Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Jack Reed (D-RI) — turned up several others that avoid stating that Republicans are attempting to block or filibuster the amendment…
A huge underground lake has been found in Sudan’s Darfur region, scientists say, which they believe could help end the conflict in the arid region.
“Much of the unrest in Darfur and the misery is due to water shortages,” said geologist Farouk El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing, according to the AP news agency.
“Access to fresh water is essential for refugee survival, will help the peace process, and provides the necessary resources for the much needed economic development in Darfur,” he said.
Climate change
The team used radar data to find the ancient lake, which was 30,750 km2 – the size of Lake Erie in the US – the 10th largest lake in the world.
A similar discovery was made in Sudan’s neighbour Egypt, where wells have been used to irrigate 150,000 acres of farmland, the researchers say.
NEW YORK — More than a million animals, including elephants, buffaloes, ostriches, lions, giraffes and a rare type of stork, have been unexpectedly seen living and migrating across Southern Sudan, where no surveys of wildlife had been conducted for the past 25 years due to civil war in the region.
now, it could be just a serendipitous coincident that the latest NIE was released just prior to the filibuster on the iraq war, but given the propensity of BushCo™ to use these things for calculated political purposes…..l kinda doubt it.
Meet the Pentagon’s New Spin Unit:
The Bush Administration has installed hacks across the federal bureaucracy, with Michael Brown, the man who helped destroy New Orleans while director of FEMA, as only the most notorious example. Now the Pentagon’s public affairs division has become a dumping ground for administration cronies.
I touched upon this topic last week in an article about Dorrance Smith, a former senior advisor to President Bush 41 and now assistant secretary of defense for public affairs under Bush 43. In 2006, when the press and retired senior military officials were pummeling Donald Rumsfeld, Smith created a rapid-response team of die-hard loyalists to defend the then-defense secretary.
The rapid-response team has been shut down but several sources tell me that another of Smith’s spin projects is ongoing. This project seeks to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers, mostly those with a heavily conservative tilt. The unit, which one source says was originally called “Surrogates Operation” but was later re-christened “Communications Outreach,” also reportedly provides talking points and briefings to retired military officials who now support the administration in appearances as media pundits….
To head up the unit, Smith brought in Erin Healey, a former junior assistant press secretary at the White House…..Another person reportedly involved with the operation is Jocelyn Webster, who formerly worked in the White House’s political operation for Sara Taylor, the Karl Rove aide who now finds herself in a bit of hot water.
[…]
Healey may have some knowledge of defense matters, but she’s certainly no expert. Webster and George were described to me by one well-informed source as “very young with no background in national security or foreign affairs.” This person said that some defense officials have been “put off to say the least by these neophyte political appointees telling retired and active personnel in uniform what to say and what to think.”
All this is typical of the current dysfunction at public affairs under Smith, who has surrounded himself with inexperienced political staffers….
as part of the BushCo™ ongoing support of the troops, the WH is balking: “…the Bush administration has said it “strongly opposes” key military pay and benefit gains tossed into the fiscal 2008 defense bill:“
A military pay raise for next January of 3.5 percent versus 3 percent endorsed by the White House.
Lowering the age-60 start of reserve retirement annuities for reserve component members by the length of their future mobilizations.
Expanding eligibility for Combat-Related Special Compensation to service members forced by combat disabilities to retire short of 20 years.
Directing pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide the Department of Defense with same-price discounts for Tricare retail pharmacy network that are provided on medicines dispensed from base pharmacies.
SAO PAULO (CNN) – Recovery workers searched wreckage for victims of today’s fiery crash of a TAM Airlines Airbus A320 that was attempting to land in a driving rainstorm at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport.
In February, a Brazilian court banned large jets at the busy airport because of safety concerns. But there was an outcry about limiting the convenient, busy airport, and an appeals court reversed the ruling. (Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 planes)
According to the initial investigation, the plane’s pilot apparently overshot the runway and tried to take off again. Some witnesses said they saw the plane skid across Avenida Washington Luis, a freeway adjacent to the runway, before it slammed into the building, which served as a depot for TAM’s express courier service.
The Sao Paulo fire department reported at least 200 people had died in the crash, including some on the ground, which would rank it as Brazil’s deadliest air disaster. Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning.
The disaster has renewed lingering questions about the airport’s runways. Investigators said they will look into whether Brazilian aviation authorities rushed to reopen the airport’s recently resurfaced runway, which had been closed for several weeks for repairs.
Fears of a supermarket strike this summer in Southern and Central California evaporated Tuesday when the region’s largest grocery chains and the union representing 65,000 store employees reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract.
The accord would make up some of the ground the United Food and Commercial Workers union lost in a bitter, lengthy walkout and lockout 3 1/2 years ago.
“We have recovered a lot without a strike,” said Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles. “I think our members will overwhelmingly accept this. The wage increase and improvement in health plan benefits are significant.”
– linkage
Officials discovered three bodies of illegal border crossers late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, including a 33-year-old woman whose 10-year-old son was with her.
With the latest three bodies found, the Border Patrol has recovered at least 16 bodies in the Tucson Sector in July, bringing its fiscal-year total to at least 132. From Oct. 1 through June, the agency had reported 116 border deaths in the Tucson Sector, down slightly from the 119 at the same time the year before – linkage
I had this a**hole on my fantasy football team last winter: ESPN
I hope they throw the book at them. They deserve the whole 6 years.
if the media were going to give the GOP the drubbing the Dems got over their filibuster threats: MediaMatters
No surprise, huh?
Water find ‘may end Darfur war’
Hope springs peace.
.
NEW YORK — More than a million animals, including elephants, buffaloes, ostriches, lions, giraffes and a rare type of stork, have been unexpectedly seen living and migrating across Southern Sudan, where no surveys of wildlife had been conducted for the past 25 years due to civil war in the region.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."or, spinning the angles:
now, it could be just a serendipitous coincident that the latest NIE was released just prior to the filibuster on the iraq war, but given the propensity of BushCo™ to use these things for calculated political purposes…..l kinda doubt it.
Meet the Pentagon’s New Spin Unit:
karl’s bloodstained fingerprints are all over this operation.
lTMF’sA
as part of the BushCo™ ongoing support of the troops, the WH is balking: “…the Bush administration has said it “strongly opposes” key military pay and benefit gains tossed into the fiscal 2008 defense bill:“
heckofa job chimpy…and you too, senators.
it’s impossible to shame people who have no sense of shame.
lTMF’sA
Who was at the table?
Dick, the Vice, fought down 2 legal battles to keep his energy task force meetings with (cronies) a secret.
A ‘former White House Official’ leaked the list to Wapo and They’ve put it all together.
(H/T: cursor)
You can’t go wrong with a headline like this: 130-year-old outhouses yield treasures
.
SAO PAULO (CNN) – Recovery workers searched wreckage for victims of today’s fiery crash of a TAM Airlines Airbus A320 that was attempting to land in a driving rainstorm at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport.
In February, a Brazilian court banned large jets at the busy airport because of safety concerns. But there was an outcry about limiting the convenient, busy airport, and an appeals court reversed the ruling. (Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 planes)
According to the initial investigation, the plane’s pilot apparently overshot the runway and tried to take off again. Some witnesses said they saw the plane skid across Avenida Washington Luis, a freeway adjacent to the runway, before it slammed into the building, which served as a depot for TAM’s express courier service.
The Sao Paulo fire department reported at least 200 people had died in the crash, including some on the ground, which would rank it as Brazil’s deadliest air disaster. Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning.
The disaster has renewed lingering questions about the airport’s runways. Investigators said they will look into whether Brazilian aviation authorities rushed to reopen the airport’s recently resurfaced runway, which had been closed for several weeks for repairs.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."10 years old…