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POPSEnd of life management - Conservative Style Feel sorry for the guy that he felt that was his only way out. Seems like physician assisted suicide would have been far less jolting on his loved ones. It's sad when you can not have a way to end your life on your terms in a dignified manner. On another note. While in Ireland Egan will be most remembered for attending a Sinn Fein annual convention right after 9/11. Because the visit took place directly in the aftermath of 9/11 Sinn Fein was under pressure on the terrorism front. Egan's presence signaled that the Bush administration was still determined to deal with Sinn Fein despite 9/11. What's this, conservatives negotiating directly with terrorists? Seems like all the noise from conservatives regarding direct political talks with terrorists is merely posturing and grandstanding for political gain regardless of outright hypocrisy.
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POPSConservatives Obstructing key Obama nominees Department of Defense: Sens. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) announced today that “they are blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination of Ashton Carter as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.” The senators want assurances that Carter will not “change the criteria” on which the Pentagon considers a refueling tanker contract that could benefit defense contractors in their state. Department of Veterans Affairs: Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) asked the Senate Veterans Affairs committee to delay voting on the “nomination of Tammy Duckworth, an injured Iraq war helicopter pilot, to be an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs.” Contacted by ThinkProgress, Burr’s Press Secretary, David Ward said that Burr is waiting for the answers to several questions he’s put to the White House and Duckworth, but would not disclose what those questions were.
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POPSHow to Honor the U.S. Flag Since republicans have made flag politics a cornerstone of their campaigns (instead of trying to solve problems that face average Americans everyday), you would think the leader of the conservatives and republicans wouldn't keep disrespecting the flag as he does here and on opening night of the olympics. However, I do think this symbolizes something very profound. America has gone backward under Bush and the republican presidency. Sheesh, what a moron. Can we be done with the republicans already?
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POPSEthnic disparities in treating pain in U.S. Emergency Rooms More: In the study, opioid narcotics were prescribed in 31 percent of the pain-related visits involving whites, 28 percent for Asians, 24 percent for Hispanics and 23 percent for blacks. Minorities were slightly more likely than whites to get aspirin, ibuprofen and similar drugs for pain. In more than 2,000 visits for kidney stones, whites got narcotics 72 percent of the time, Hispanics 68 percent, Asians 67 percent and blacks 56 percent. The data came from a well-regarded government survey that collects information on emergency room visits for four weeks each year from 500 U.S. hospitals. The new study was funded by federal grants.
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POPSWhat can the budget for the Iraq War buy? Doesn't clip as well as I hoped so visit the website: Remarkable, that it is admitted these days (by generals, former administration appointees, and neocon architects of the war) that the war in Iraq is about controlling oil resources, and look what you could do with the money that we've spent on that fiasco. With $611 billion, you could convert all cars in America to run on ethanol nine times over. TheBudgetGraph.com estimates that converting the 136,568,083 registered cars in the United States to ethanol (conversion kits at $500) would cost $68.2 billion. Many, many environment-friendly cars on the road With $611 billion, you could convert all cars in America to run on ethanol nine times over. TheBudgetGraph.com estimates that converting the 136,568,083 registered cars in the United States to ethanol (conversion kits at $500) would cost $68.2 billion.
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POPSWhy does Bush want to attack Iran? It's not as dangerous as Pakistan.
More: The safe haven provided by Pakistan has already had dire effects on U.S. and NATO efforts to fight the resurgent Taliban next door in Afghanistan Dozens of Taliban commanders have moved their wives and children to Pakistan, where they live in the suburbs of cities like Peshawar and Islamabad The militants dominate in areas beyond the tribal areas as well. Armed groups have effectively seized control in places like the picturesque Swat Valley, where a jihadi leader named Mullah Fazlullah rides a black horse and commands hundreds of men under the noses of a nearby Pakistani Army division that seldom leaves its barracks. Peshawar is perhaps the most important production and distribution center for Taliban and other Islamist material. Jihadi CD and DVD shops abound. One shop features large posters of the notorious Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah Akhund, who was killed in Helmand earlier this year, and pictures of Guantnamo inmates in their orange jumpsuits behind barbed wire
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POPSGOP Theft of 2008 Presidential Election via California More: "They're back," said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane in an email this afternoon. "This Freddie Krueger of initiatives is back and once again, it appears the shadowy conservative forces behind this electoral hijacking are trying to hide where the money is coming from."
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POPSGOP Hitman: Ken Starr's Moral Compass More: Furthermore, the parent of one of Epstein’s youngest victims is outraged that he could walk without registering as a sex offender and tells Radar, “What this man did to my daughter was horrible. He thinks that with all his money, his big deal lawyers, and his hired thugs, he can get away with anything. I pray that other young girls will never have to suffer like my daughter did. The whole world should know that he is a sex offender.” So, now that Ken Starr’s not lapping it up at the public trough, turning a simple investigation into a monster that only served political interests, it’s good to see him getting dirty and doing legitimate, if very disgusting, legal work. After all, even slimeballs need representation. Personally, if I’m a slimeball, though, there’s not a chance of me calling Starr.
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POPSBaghdad Children "armed" to teeth More: Trade Minister Abed Falah al-Sudani considered banning the toys because they look so realistic. However, given the seeming impossibility of the task, he shelved the idea 10-year-old Haider, has another reason to play with his toy gun "I love it. I like holding it and going outside to kill evildoers. I like to go outside at night like my uncle (a member of the Mahdi Army)," said the boy wearing a ragged T-shirt. In Sadr City, in the vast ghetto where Sadr is considered a hero and his militia calls the shots, children in their war games reflect the bitter sectarian divides -- one side gets to be Shiite militiamen, the other Sunni insurgents. In other neighbourhoods, it's police versus "terrorists", or army versus Al-Qaeda, according to local news Another vendor, Hassan, 27, runs a stall in Bab al-Sharji in the centre of Baghdad. He confirmed that guns are the all-time favourites with children, male or female. "Children prefer guns to trains, balls or radios," he
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POPSIraq Self Reliance Years Away (How many more Billions?) More: The PRT program itself has been plagued by problems. Previous reports have found it was difficult to find people with the correct skills to do the work — particularly civilians. There also has been a shortage of Arabic speakers and understanding of Iraq's culture and history as well as a lack of organization within the U.S. government to carry out the program, according to those past reports
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POPSU.S. Mercenaries deported from Namibia: "We settle our disputes by peaceful means" More: SOC-SMG is looking to hire role players for their 'security guard' training. Which role will you get to play? A disarmed U.S. soldier? A poor Iraqi child looking for scrap metal to sell? Helpful Hint: Read the fine print of your health insurance policy (if you have one) before applying 3. We are also looking for Role Players on a part-time basis to augment our staff supporting scenario role-playing for our clients (military, law enforcement, government agencies). Please indicate "HDSOC Role Player Position" in the subject line. Some Role Player positions require a Secret clearance and can last for a month duration. You must be willing to undergo a criminal background check and be a U.S. citizen to be eligible.
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POPSU.S. Military and Iraqis Agree: Blackwater unprovoked, Fired on Fleeing Citizens and Cars More: U.S. soldiers did not find any bullets that came from AK-47 assault rifles or BKC machine guns used by Iraqi policemen and soldiers. They found evidence of ammunition used in American-made weapons, including M4 rifle 5.56mm brass casings, M240B machine gun 7.62mm casings, M203 40mm grenade launcher casings, and stun-grenade dunnage, or packing. At least two cars, a black four-door taxi and a blue Volkswagen sedan, had their back windshields shot out, but their front windshields were intact, indicating they were shot while driving away from the square, according to the photos and soldiers An Iraqi colonel walked up to Tarsa and described the Blackwater shooters as men in "tan uniforms, black helmets, and that flag," pointing at the U.S. flag on Tarsa's sleeve. Their actions underscore the long-standing tensions between the U.S. military and private security companies -- and the military's concerns that such shootings could undermine U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq.
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POPSRoboBugs: That Dragonfly is a U.S. Government Spy More: Defense Department documents describe nearly 100 different models in use today, some as tiny as birds, and some the size of small planes. All told, the nation's fleet of flying robots logged more than 160,000 flight hours last year -- a more than fourfold increase since 2003. A recent report by the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College warned that if traffic rules are not clarified soon, the glut of unmanned vehicles "could render military airspace chaotic and potentially dangerous." The Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems project aims to create literal shutterbugs -- camera-toting insects whose nerves have grown into their internal silicon chip so that wranglers can control their activities. DARPA researchers are also raising cyborg beetles with power for various instruments to be generated by their muscles.
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POPSThe People vs. The War Profiteers- "Soldier is that guts in your ice?" More (8 pages more, read the article): U.S.-military regulations state that once a trailer has been used to store corpses it can never again be loaded with food or drink intended for human consumption The diseases that may be communicated include aids,hepatitis, tuberculosis, septicemia, meningitis, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of mad cow. Bud Conyers next caught sight of trailer R-89, about a month later, packed not with human casualties but with bags of ice—ice that was going into drinks served to American troops. You could still see a little bit of matter from the bodies, stuff that looked kind of pearly, and blood from the stomachs. It hadn't even been hosed down Conyers and Logsdon say that R-89 was not the only truck that was loaded with ice after being used as a mortuary. in 2006 alone, according to Forbes, Halliburton C.E.O. David Lesar collected nearly $30 million in compensation. Halliburton's stock price rose fourfold from $10 to $40.
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POPSIraq: Another Dirty Secret - South African Mercenaries, former White Apartheid era Veterans More: The root of that distrust dates to the mid-1990s, when thousands of white officers left South Africa's security agencies during the transition from apartheid to majority black rule. Unemployed soldiers and police joined private security companies that got embroiled in African wars from Angola to Sierra Leone. A wheelchair-bound man who owns an SUV with vanity plates that proclaim "Baghdad," Brink lost a leg and fingers in 2005 to a mine that exploded under his armored vehicle in Baqouba, a hotbed of the Iraqi insurgency. Since returning to South Africa, he has been encouraging wounded colleagues to apply for U.S. worker's compensation under the U.S. Defense Base Act, which applies to all workers, American or foreign, who are subcontracted in war zones by Washington Brink was advising them on how to file for U.S. worker's compensation. I'll buy a farm if I can collect on my claim, said Gouws, 45, But I don't recommend this method of getting a farm to anyone else
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POPSLouisiana GOP State Senator has "A Wide Stance" - Larry Craig Alert More: "The report states that DiFatta watched a man use the bathroom while peering through a hole in a bathroom stall. The man held DiFatta until police arrived, at which time he was issued the misdemeanor summons and ordered to appear in court. In the second incident, Jefferson Parish deputies working an undercover detail in a men's bathroom at Dillard's at Lakeside Shopping Center in March 2000 stopped DiFatta after he indicated a desire to engage in sex with an undercover deputy in an adjoining bathroom stall, according to an interoffice memorandum written by Sgt. Keith Conley, one of the deputies involved in the investigation.
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POPSScandal at christian Oral Roberts University - Lawsuit Pending More: Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of the university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have worked on the campaign. The professors also said their dismissals came after they turned over to the board of regents a copy of a report documenting moral and ethical lapses on the part of Roberts and his family. The internal document was prepared by Stephanie Cantese, Richard Roberts' sister-in-law. Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years. University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework. Mrs. Roberts spent $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off."
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POPSMethodists battle Bush over SMU Presidential Library More: SMU is a university of the church and is home to one of our outstanding theological seminaries. Its United Methodist identity and its moral authority would be seriously compromised were it to be identified with the policies of George W. Bush in this way." Executive Order 13233 Opponents are "questioning the educational value of the Bush complex" given that earlier in his administration Bush issued Executive Order 13233, "which," the press release notes, "provides former Presidents with virtually unlimited powers to deny or grant access to documents generated under their administrations." The Executive Order extends these powers to a president's heirs. a petition drive was launched by bishops, clergy and laity of the United Methodist Church that "call for the SMU trustees and the UMC to reject the Bush project. That petition now has the signatures of 15 UMC bishops and more than 10,800 Christians
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POPSUnder Bush, EPA pursuing fewer Polluters. More: Critics of the agency say its flagging efforts have emboldened polluters to flout U.S. environmental laws, threatening progress in cleaning the air, protecting wildlife, eliminating hazardous materials, and countless other endeavors overseen by the EPA. "You don't get cleanup, and you don't get deterrence," The actual number of investigators available at any time is even smaller, agents said, because they sometimes are diverted to other duties, such as service on EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson's eight-person security detail. "Environmental crimes are simply not in the U.S. attorney top 10 priorities," said one senior EPA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the news media.
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POPSRightwing A*Hole: Bill O'Reilly - "M-Fer, I want more iced tea." As Media Matters for America has documented, O'Reilly has made a number of provocative statements about race. In a February 27, 2006, conversation with a caller about the disproportionately few jobs and contracts that have gone to locals in the rebuilding of New Orleans, O'Reilly said: " he homies, you know ... I mean, they're just not going to get the job."
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POPSUS Government Spying: You getting that creepy feeling? Records the Identity Project obtained confirmed the government is receiving data from reservation systems, such as Galileo and Sabre. The data, in some cases, are more detailed than the information to which the airlines have access. The DHS created a program called DHS Trip to provide redress for travelers facing screening problems at ports of entry. DHS Trip does not allow a traveler to challenge an agency decision in court. The system is exempt from certain Privacy Act requirements, including the right to contest the content of the record. A traveler has no ability to correct erroneous information Zakariya Reed, an Ohio firefighter, said in an interview he has been detained seven times at the Michigan border since 2006. Twice he was questioned by officials about politically charged opinion pieces he had published in his local newspaper. The essays were critical of US MidEast policy. During a secondary interview, he said, "they had them printed out on the table in front of
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POPSKucinich: Bush Cronies and privitization of Iraqi Oil More: The connections between Hunt Oil Company and the Bush Administration are numerous: * Mr. Ray Hunt, CEO of Hunt Oil, acted as the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee for President George W. Bush in 2002, led the Republican National Committee's Victory Fund for President George W. Bush and personally donated $20,000 to the Committee. * Mr. Hunt contributed $100,000 toward inaugural festivities for President George W. Bush in 2001, while Hunt Consolidated contributed $250,000 toward the 2005 Bush presidential inaugural gala. * Mr. Hunt has also given generously toward construction of the Bush library by securing $35 million in additional property for the endeavor. * President George W. Bush has twice appointed Mr. Hunt to a seat on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which is said to have access to intelligence that experts acknowledge is advantageous to the international energy interest of the Hunt Oil Company.
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POPSBush sets up the Iranian Powder Keg More: The Iraqi commander in charge of the southern part of the country, General Mohan al-Furayji, said he would not hesitate to call for British help if there was an emergency.
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POPSWal-Mart: "Every Day Price Frauds" More: If you think you save money going there regularly, Wal-Mart is playing you for a fool. There is no good reason to shop at Wal-Mart except that you have absolutely no other choice. . . . PS While we're at it, there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny, you don't get all "A"s if your roommate commits suicide and there were no weapons of mass destruction.
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POPSHispanic - Patriot - Illegal Immigrant More: Earlier this year President George Bush commuted the sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff. In so doing, the President spared Libby two and a half years in prison for his conviction for lying to federal investigators. The President cited Libby's "exceptional public service" and prior lack of a criminal record as explanation for his action. He concluded that Libby's sentence was "excessive" and the punishment "harsh." In light of the sacrifice made by Armando Soriano, one wonders whether deporting his father is a far more "excessive" and "harsh" punishment?
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POPSThe Iraq War Architects: Where are they now? MITCH DANIELS - Key Quote: Mitch Daniels had said the war would be an “affordable endeavor” and rejected an estimate by the chief White House economic adviser that the war would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion as “very, very high.”
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POPSRepublican Leader: War on Terror "Phony" Although no fan of Newt Gingrich he hits the spot on this topic. Tired of Bush=Cheney aiding and abetting the terrorists by keeping us dependent on Mid-East oil and Mid-East chaos that keeps its price high and highly profitable for his buddies.
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