Some dinosaur dung was snapped up at auction in New York even as a 4.5 billion year old meteorite which was supposed to top the sale went unsold.
NOTE FROM JOHN: I know a thing or two about petrified dinosaur crap, as I own some. Seriously. It's cool stuff. That's mine to the left. Well, my petrified dinosaur crap, that is...
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457,000. That’s the number of construction jobs that have been lost since the sector peaked in September of 2006.Read More......
What’s interesting to me about this number is that at the beginning of the downturn in housing we didn’t see a huge drop in construction jobs, primarily because workers moved from residential into commercial.
Now that commercial is slowing as well, construction workers are falling out of jobs like flies. And they’re not the only ones. Big surprise furniture manufacturing jobs are falling as well.
Senator Obama and Senator Clinton want to set a date for withdraw. That's what they want to do is get everybody out. I believe that would lead to catastrophe and chaos and that we would have the whole region including the whole region and the country in such turmoil that we would be required to come back to the region. And I just want to promise you this. My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.
"No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons," McCain told reporters.First off, buh bye Israel. McCain just wrote you off. Yep, no more American soldiers in Middle East wars if we can just get ourselves off of foreign oil. So you mean if Iran nukes Tel Aviv we're not getting involved? Nope, McCain said no more American soldiers. So much for defending Israel. Kind of a massive story the media missed here.
Bankruptcy filings by U.S. consumers jumped 47.7 percent in April from one year ago as families cope with fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis, the American Bankruptcy Institute said.Read More......
The 92,291 bankruptcy filings in April also marked an increase of 7 percent from March, the non-partisan institute said.
The principles of counterinsurgency are diverse, but they could be summed up as methods of warfare used to draw a civilian population's political and personal allegiance away from a guerrilla force. A counterinsurgent force seeks to coordinate military and civilian methods to offer both material and ideological incentives to a population so it will support a government and reject that government's enemies.And rather than recognize these facts as they are, the US seems to vacillate between condescending to Sadrists in an attempt to placate them and openly trying to eradicate the group. We underestimate the power of popular movements to our own peril, and while I find many of Sadr's beliefs and goals extraordinarily distasteful, he's not leaving the picture anytime soon. Read More......
Currently, the U.S. military and its civilian associates have launched a "population protection" strategy to defend Baghdad residents against sectarian and criminal gangs; to promote competent and responsible governance at the provincial as well as national levels; to jump start commerce; and to provide social services like education health care and sanitation. But in the areas under his control, Sadr provides all these things -- and does so better than the Iraqi government.
It's all a mess, though I must say when "The War Room" came out other folks interpreted Kantor to be impugning Indiana residents.More on this brouhaha here. Read More......
In The Washington Post's review of the film in 1993, critic Desson Howe referred to "a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana (when it looks as though Clinton's ahead in Dan Quayle's state)."
And a 1995 story in the Sydney Morning Herald said that "As for the good folk of Indiana, they are still recovering from the 1993 documentary War Room, which revealed the grim truth behind the Clinton election campaign. It showed Mr Kantor bursting in on election night to tell other campaign staffers that incredibly, Mr Clinton was doing well even in Republican Indiana. 'And those people are s---!' he declared breathlessly."
The nation's top military officer warned yesterday that the transition to a new American president will mark a "time of vulnerability" as the United States fights two wars, and he said military leaders are already actively preparing for the changing of the guard.Okay, first off, sounds a little bit like he's questioning the fact that we're having elections. This strikes me as inappropriate coming for the uniformed military, or anyone else for that matter. It also sounds like he's cranking up the "scary" in order to help the Republicans win the elections. That's just as inappropriate from a member of our military. Then he said the following:
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, said the U.S. political transition will be "extraordinarily challenging," particularly as the military is engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan and faces interference in both countries from Iran.
Offering an unusual insight into how senior military leaders are anticipating the transition to a new president, Mullen said he is continually thinking about how military decisions taken today will play out under a new administration.Gee, you think? You just told all of your men and women that our elections are a "vulnerability" and that the transition won't be smooth - and now you think it might not go smoothly? Perhaps expressing a little confidence in our democracy might be a better lesson to give our troops. Totally inappropriate behavior from a military leader. Read More......
"There are very few either briefings or meetings that I'm in that I'm not thinking about 'How does what we're talking about right now transition to next spring?' " Mullen said. He said U.S. commanders in regions overseas, as well as chiefs of the different services, are having similar discussions.
The transition is unlikely to be smooth, predicted Mullen, who assumed his position seven months ago for a two-year term. He said he hopes to offer a stabilizing influence as a military leader who will bridge two administrations.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has come out strongly against the idea of a gas tax holiday, versions of which are being proposed by Sens. Clinton and McCain:Read More......
"First of all, there's no reason to believe that any moratorium on the gas tax will be passed onto the consumer, first and foremost. This has not been the history, of a lowered gas tax being passed onto the consumer. Second of all, it would defeat everything we've been trying to do to lower the cost of oil. ... There are other remedies that are much better than that, and again, have a direct impact on the problem that we're trying to solve. I think the biggest answer to our challenges is to invest in renewable energy resources and to do it now."
Yesterday, when I heard about the DC Madam’s suicide, I kept thinking this whole thing could have been ripped right out of an Edith Wharton novel. It's so 19th century. Women are still paying the ultimate price for prostitution – death, humiliation and destitution – while men continue to thrive in positions such as a U.S. Senator or a well-paid attorney. Makes me wonder how much our country has progressed since the 19th Century.During the trial, Dana Milbank did a column documenting the public humiliation of the women who worked for Palfrey. The prosecutors were vindictive. I'm not saying they were without fault, but there is something very 19th century about this whole sordid affair. Read More......
I found a post about the ABC News report last year that Palfrey’s list consisted of “…thousands of names, tens of thousands of phone numbers,” Ross said. “And there are people there at the Pentagon, lobbyists, others at the White House, prominent lawyers — a long, long list.” Ross added that the women who worked for the service, potentially as prostitutes, “include university professors, legal secretaries, scientists, military officers.”
You don't hear much about any of those guys. I wonder if any of these men felt real remorse over these women, whose futures have been ruined. Their livelihoods have been destroyed, their reputations strewn all over the nation’s media.
Will Senator David Vitter mourn Deborah Palfrey who arranged pleasure sessions for him? Does Randall Tobias think about the women he paid and wonder whether they are now okay? Are food prices affecting their lives? How about their kids? Probably not. Sex is over. It is on the next cocktail party for them.
But not for the young naval officer who has lost her job.
Clearly, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Still, despite a series of trials that have put Mr. Obama on the defensive and illustrated the burdens he might carry in a fall campaign, the Obama campaign is rolling along, leaving Mrs. Clinton with dwindling options.Obama just keeps his eye on the prize.
Mr. Obama continues to pick up the support of superdelegates — elected Democrats and party leaders — at a quicker pace than Mrs. Clinton.
On Thursday, he got a boost from a high-profile defection: Joe Andrew, a former Democratic national chairman appointed by former President Bill Clinton, said he had changed his mind and would back Mr. Obama. Even after Mrs. Clinton’s victory in Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama has held on to a solid lead in pledged delegates, those selected by the voting in primaries and caucuses.
Although Mrs. Clinton has cut into Mr. Obama’s popular vote lead, it would be difficult for her to overtake him without counting the disputed results in Florida and perhaps Michigan.
By and large, the group that matters most at this point — the uncommitted superdelegates, who are likely to hold the balance of power — still seem to view their decision the way the Obama campaign would like them to see it. They suggest that they are more sympathetic to the argument that they should follow the will of the voters as expressed by the delegates amassed by the candidates when the primary season is done rather than following Mrs. Clinton’s admonitions to select the candidate they think would best be able to defeat Senator John McCain and the Republicans in November.
VOICE OF CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. He used two words. He said he was saddened, and he was angered. And I tell you, this is not a man given to a lot of public emotion. I think we -- he has been kind of calm and cool throughout this entire campaign.It really sounded like the idea that Obama has been "kind of cool and calm" was a problem for Crowley. That's probably the buzz among the press corps.
I have not seen him -- and it may not have come across on the TV. It's hard to know when you're in the room. But he was clearly seething and he was clearly upset, particularly when he was asked about his future relationship with Jeremiah Wright.
"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.Read More......
Every year around three right whales are either injured or killed in collisions with ocean-going vessels like containerized cargo ships even though they are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Right whales frequently wash up on shore bearing deep scars from being struck by ships propellers.Read More......
To reduce ship strikes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decided that ships should restrict their speed to 10 knots or less near whale feeding and calving grounds during parts of the year.
But Mr Cheney's office, which tends to operate in secrecy, sent letters repeatedly questioning whether the rule was needed according to leaked documents. Flatly contradicting the scientific research Mr Cheney's staff argued, "that we have no evidence that lowering the speeds of 'large ships' will actually make a difference."
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