Greatscat!

The Guardian:

Air strikes in the British-controlled Helmand province of Afghanistan may have killed civilians, coalition troops said yesterday as local people claimed that between 50 and 80 people, many of them women and children, had died.

In the latest of a series of attacks causing significant civilian casualties in recent weeks, more than 200 were killed by coalition troops in Afghanistan in June, far more than are believed to have been killed by Taliban militants.

The bombardment, which witnesses said lasted up to three hours, in the Gereshk district late on Friday followed an attempted ambush by the Taliban on a joint US-Afghan military convoy. According to Mohammad Hussein, the provincial police chief, the militants fled into a nearby village for cover. Planes then targeted the village of Hyderabad. Mohammad Khan, a resident of the village, said seven members of his family, including his brother and five of his brother's children, were killed.


“As for catching Osama, it’s irrelevant. Things are going swimmingly in Afghanistan.”

-Ann Coulter, Republican Spokeswoman


-Diane

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"one of the most closely guarded secrets in top levels of the bureaucracy".



um, not anymore.


-Diane

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-Diane

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4 Non Blondes, enjoy.

-Diane

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The Best Damn Cat Blogging this side of the Mississippi!


-Diane

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The Bush compound, formally Walker's Point, is the summer home of 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush. Located adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean in southern Maine, near the town of Kennebunkport, the property has been a family retreat for more than a century.

The estate was first purchased by St. Louis banker George H. Walker in the late 19th century, who built the mansion in 1903. The estate was later sold to his daughter Dorothy Walker Bush and her husband Prescott Bush, and has remained in the Bush family since.

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Olbermann on the horror of Rupert Murdoch.

-Diane

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Olbermann: Republicans and the pets they abuse.

-Diane

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Via Media Matters:

On the June 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck commented on a mock ad -- produced by subscribers to his website known as "Insiders" -- depicting a "giant refinery" that produces "Mexinol," which, according to the ad, is a fuel made from the bodies of illegal immigrants from Mexico. Beck read from the ad: "At Evil Conservative Industries, we know four things for certain. The country needs cheap, alternative fuel source. Two, the human body is 18 percent carbon. Three, carbons can be turned into hydrocarbons. Four, we have a buttload of illegal aliens in our country."

Beck continued to read from the ad: "Evil Conservative Industries is proud to present the fuel of the future, Mexinol. A clean-burning, cheap alternative to gasoline, Mexinol's future seems unlimited in its potential. There are other gasoline alternatives available such as ethanol. However, Mexinol has certain advantages from corn. Corn has to be grown, harvested, and processed. With Mexinol, raw materials come to you in a seemingly never-ending stream. Go ahead and purchase that boat-sized SUV. There's plenty of Mexinol for everyone."

Beck introduced the discussion by saying, "Sometimes the Insiders go too far," and later said, "I don't think we need to make the illegal aliens into fuel." Beck also said, "That would be evil conservative, yeah. I don't even know if that's conservative. That would be ... [p]sychotic, perhaps? Sociopathic, perhaps?" Beck's executive producer and head writer, Steve "Stu" Burguiere, added, "Just evil, pretty much." However, as of June 29, the ad was posted on the front page of Beck's website under the title "Picture of the Day," with a caption that described the "ad" as a "brilliant creation."

A "brilliant creation"? I agree with the 'psychotic, sociopathic' commentary, but apparently Beck was just using that line to cover his racist ass on the air.

-Diane

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Michael Moore was denied entry into the NYSE this week for an interview that was to take place there with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. The interview continued -- outside -- but interesting to note that when Michael asked if anyone else had ever had access to the NYSE for an interview denied, Maria won't answer him and quickly changes the subject. I think Michael has probably seen every trick in the book by now.

-Diane

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THE US military said it had uncovered 35 to 40 bodies in a mass grave south of Falluja, in Iraq's Sunni dominated Anbar province.

A Falluja hospital source said 35 bodies had been retrieved and were being finger-printed to establish their identity.

The military said the killings were relatively recent and the bodies had been bound and bore gunshot wounds.



This is much smaller than Saddam's mass graves, therefore, this must be progress.
So don't be ungrateful, Iraq, you're freeeeee!

-Diane

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-Diane

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(CNN) — Normally VIP visits to Iraq are kept under wraps, at least until the day of the trip. But Senator John McCain Friday night said he’s going to Iraq next week.

Responding to a question in Chicago about whether the Iraq strategy can succeed, the Republican presidential candidate said, “I understand the sorrow of the American people. I visit the wounded quite often at Walter Reed and Bethesda. I’m going to Iraq on Monday. And I’m going to be proud. I would rather spend the 4th of July with the men and women in Iraq than anywhere else in the world.”



Trip to Baghdad #6. Who's paying for 'em, and more importantly, who won't have security on Monday because they're guarding his ass?

Oh, the picture? I googled McCain, and there it was.

-Diane

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DALLAS — A black bag found in a middle school girls' locker room contained rotten oranges and not a human fetus, the Dallas County medical examiner reported today.

A janitor doing end-of-school cleaning Thursday at Ben Franklin Middle School found what appeared to be a human fetus in a trash bag inside a locker, police said.

The janitor called the police, who found it difficult to determine the contents of the bag, Dallas police spokeswoman Sr. Cpl. Janice Crowther said.

Police then turned over the bag to the Dallas County Medical Examiner.


The dead fetus alert for the Dallas area is now cancelled, repeat, the dead fetus alert is now cancelled. Please go about your business, and try to act normal.

-Diane

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-Diane

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If it's Ben Harper, you know it's all good. :)

-Diane

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It looks as if Daddy and Junior Shrub had to take someone along to bait their hooks for 'em. Figures.

U.S. President George W. Bush (R) and his father, former U.S. President George Bush (C), wave from their boat as they go fishing off the coast of Kennebunkport, Maine, June 29, 2007. At left is a fishing guide. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)

-Diane

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Olbermann: So much for fighting terrorism in Iraq so it doesn't 'follow us home' after the bombs that were discovered today in London. Keith speaks with Larry Johnson, former CIA and counter-terrorism officer.

-Diane

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MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski refuses to cover another Paris Hilton story, but Joe Scarborough runs the video clip anyways...damnit.

-Diane

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Statements from Harry Reid, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on their desire to continue to fight to bring an end to the war in Iraq, and to improve healthcare for Veterans.

Senator Reid mentions hearing on a talk radio show that Iraqis now 'celebrate' death by natural causes, because it's becoming so rare compared to the death by violence from the war. He also mentions that we're coming up on the end of the most deadly 3 month period since the start of the 2003 invasion, and sounds deeply disturbed, and sincere in his comments.

Pelosi sounds angered by the continued disturbing news out of Iraq, angered that it's been such a struggle to bring about an end to the war, and mentions the Iraqis being afraid to eat the fish in the Tigris River because of all of the dead bodies contaminating the waters.

-Diane

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Another air raid in Afghanistan leaves 17 'suspected' militants dead. The military is certain they weren't civilians, as such a thing could never happen.

-Diane

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The former senator from Alaska says that drugs are "a public health issue, not a criminal issue."

Raw Story has more from last night's live-blogging of the debate.


-Diane

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BAGHDAD - Five American soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a coordinated attack in southern Baghdad involving a roadside bomb and rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. military announced Friday.

The soldiers were on a combat patrol when a roadside bomb exploded near them on Thursday, the military said in a statement. Shortly after the blast, insurgents attacked with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, it said.

All seven wounded soldiers were evacuated to a military hospital, and one has since returned to duty, the military said. The victims' names were withheld pending family notification.

The deaths brought to 99 the number of U.S. troops who have died in Iraq this month, according to an Associated Press count. The toll for the past three months — 329 — made it the deadliest quarter for U.S. troops in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.


Last throes, indeed.

-Diane

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The Toll.


-Diane

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-Diane

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This is a great campaign ad. Via Atrios. :)

-Diane

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Late night.

-Diane

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Video here.


-Diane

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-Diane

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-Diane

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I've always heard that wingnuts eat their own.




-Diane

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She's baaaack. Coultergeist via phone on MSNBC this morning calls Elizabeth Edwards a "Harridan."

The column that Ann refers to as "one of the greatest columns ever written" is the one where she suggested that John Edwards was politically exploiting his own son's death and using it like a "bumper sticker."

Coltergeist calls people fags, mocks their dead children, publicly says she wishes they would be murdered, and when someone responds with 'hey, um, you're kinda mean' she blows her top.

For a little background on the republican party's spokeswoman, here's a bit from Media Matters:

Ann Coulter is a syndicated columnist for Universal Press Syndicate, a legal affairs correspondent for the conservative newspaper Human Events, and a frequent pundit and guest on Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN. She is often billed as a "constitutional attorney," apparently based on her University of Michigan law degree and membership in the conservative Federalist Society (a chapter of which she founded while attending the University of Michigan Law School).

Coulter first came to national prominence as a legal correspondent and pundit for MSNBC, which fired her for insulting a Vietnam veteran. The conservative National Review dropped her column after she responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, by stating that America should "invade their [terrorists'] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." In an interview with The New York Observer, Coulter stated that "[m]y only regret with [Oklahoma City bomber] Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building." USA Today also removed Coulter as a columnist covering the 2004 Democratic National Convention after she referred to the gathering as the "Spawn of Satan convention."


The msm should be ashamed for parading this lunatic out in public. For more of Coultergeist's lies, and deranged behavior, visit here at Media Matters.


-Diane

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(AFP/DDP/Marcus Brandt)

-Diane

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They're part of the executive branch again, via Raw Story:

The White House, under attack from Congress for allegedly firing federal prosecutors based on political affiliation, asserted executive privilege Thursday and said they could not turn over documents that could shed light on the prosecutors' firings.

In a letter to the chairmen of the the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, President George W. Bush's attorney asserted that White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents for former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.

"With respect, it is with much regret that we are forced down this unfortunate path which we sought to avoid by finding grounds for mutual accommodation," White House counsel Fred Fielding wrote. "We had hoped this matter could conclude with your committees receiving information in lieu of having to invoke executive privilege. Instead, we are at this conclusion."


Let the contempt citations fly.

-Diane

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From Thersites:

Oh fuck you, Obi-Wan. What the fuck is this, "know hope"?


-Diane

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We can always use Katrina as a guage, and then there's this.


-Diane

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June 25, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Creative scientists have until next week to submit proposals for creating a shape-shifting military robot that can shrink and then reconfigure itself to normal height and shape.

The description of the robot, at a high level, is somewhat reminiscent of the villainous liquid-state cyborg of the sci-fi movie Terminator 2 -- except that this robot would be dispatched to save lives on the battlefield. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is accepting proposals for building the so-called Chemical Robot (ChemBot) from researchers until July 2.

According to the Department of Defense unit's request for proposals, potential developers should avoid using hard materials that can't "rapidly traverse arbitrary size/shape openings whose dimensions are much smaller than the robot itself and are not known a-priori."

The RFP suggests using technologies like gels, thickening fluids and shape memory materials that can return to an original shape after completing a mission. DARPA acknowledges that some technologies may still be in the research labs of submitters.

Ultimately, the agency said it hopes the ChemBot can provide "the ability to safely and covertly gain access to denied or hostile areas and perform useful tasks," and provide help to soldiers "over a broad spectrum of military operations."

DARPA describes ChemBot as a soft and flexible device that can squeeze through apertures and then reassemble to do its job. The agency is looking for the ChemBots to be capable of traveling distances, transforming in all three dimensions and carrying their own power source.



A week to come up with this? I guess if they can do it in the movies...

-Diane

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Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld turned special operations forces into a “giant killing machine,” said Douglas Macgregor, a former Army colonel and frequent critic of the Defense Department.

Now, with Rumsfeld gone and Navy Vice Adm. Eric Olson about to take control of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), Macgregor anticipates a return to the fundamentals drilled into Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other specially trained troops.

“The emphasis will be on, ‘If you have to kill someone, then for God’s sakes, kill the right people,”’ Macgregor said. “In most cases, you’re not going to have to kill people and that’s the great virtue of special operations. That’s been lost over the last several years.”


Well this explains much. If you call every person killed by the US a member of al-qaeda, they instantly become 'the right people.' Gee, that's so different from the Rumsfeld strategery. *rolls eyes*

-Diane

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Relatives cry as they transport the bodies of policemen on a police vehicle in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad June 27, 2007. Four policemen were killed during clashes with suspected insurgents in Kirkuk on Wednesday, police said. Picture taken June 27, 2007. REUTERS/Slahaldeen Rasheed (IRAQ)


-Diane

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BAGHDAD - Twenty beheaded bodies were discovered Thursday on the banks of the Tigris River southeast of Baghdad, while a parked car bomb killed another 20 people in one of the capital's busy outdoor bus stations, police said.

The beheaded remains were found in the Sunni Muslim village of Um al-Abeed, near the city of Salman Pak, which lies 14 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The bodies — all men aged 20 to 40 years old — had their hands and legs bound, and some of the heads were found next to the bodies, two officers said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Meanwhile, a parked car bomb ripped through a crowded transport hub in southwest Baghdad's Baiyaa neighborhood at morning rush hour, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 50, another officer said on the same condition.

Many of the victims had been lining up for buses, awaiting a ride to work. Some 40 minibuses were incinerated in the explosion, police said.

Associated Press Television News video showed an open square strewn with smoldering car parts and charred bodies with clothes in tatters. Bystanders, some weeping, gingerly loaded human remains into ambulances.

A pickup truck rumbled slowly away from the scene, with two pairs of legs — the dead bodies of victims — dangling out of the back.




-Diane

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-Diane

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Lawyers, guns, and money, enjoy.

-Diane

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Elizabeth Edwards calls in to Hardball to ask the spokeswoman of the repug party to stop with the hate speech.

-Diane

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More Metro Detroiters are struggling to pay their hospital bills, a troubling side effect of the region's prolonged economic slump and health insurance plans that have shifted more medical costs to patients.

At least five Metro Detroit health systems have seen their bad debt from unpaid patient bills rise by millions of dollars in the past several years.

The increase in delinquent bills, which is expected to get worse, is coming even as many local health systems are providing more free treatment or charity care to patients.

Tyanne Lavigne, 30, of St. Clair is among those feeling the pinch from higher out-of-pocket medical costs.

She worked out a payment plan three times in as many years with Beaumont Hospital in Troy to settle her debt. Although Lavigne is insured through a PPO and she and her husband both work, the medical bills stemming from the birth of her son and two surgeries for the baby were too much to handle at once.

"It's hard. We live paycheck to paycheck. That's just how it is in Michigan," she said.

The mounting debt not only is a strain on local health systems, but also can have serious consequences for patients left with huge bills and damaged credit.

Local hospitals -- reluctant to turn late-payers over to collections agencies -- often are willing to work out payment arrangements.

"We do everything we can along the way to prevent that," said James Connelly, chief financial officer of Henry Ford Health System, which saw its bad debt rise from $36.9 million in 2003 to $42.2 million in 2006.

Hospitals are trying to offset the increase in unpaid bills in numerous ways, including by quickly identifying uninsured patients who qualify for programs such as Medicaid; collecting more payments at the time of service; and informing patients beforehand about their share of the cost of planned medical procedures.


I wonder how that 'informing patients beforehand about their share of the cost of planned medical procedures' goes? "Hello, Mrs. Smith? I see you're scheduled to come in to have that bad kidney removed on Monday. Do you realize that your portion of the bill -- after insurance payments -- will be $25,000.00? Would you like to set up a payment plan now to settle that? Sure, I'll hold while you take your pain medication..."

I just don't envision anyone facing an unexpected major surgery (or what about serious emergency room trips? 'Hi Mr. Jones, do you realize that heart monitor you're hooked up to is going to run you about $1000.00 an hour? Have you thought about payment plans for that debt?') to be prepared for these discussions.

It seems just cruel that when your health, or your life are in jeopardy, that you can't just focus on yourself and getting well at that time. In a perfect world. Or, at least a country with socialized healthcare.

-Diane

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-Diane

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An Iraqi hospital worker inspects the bodies of victims of violence at a hospital in the restive city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. US and Iraqi troops are conducting a major operation in the city of Baquba.(AFP)

-Diane

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