From the International Tribune Herald:

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in New York. He was 84 and had homes in New York and in Sagaponack on Long Island.

His death was reported by Morgan Entrekin, a longtime family friend, who said Vonnegut suffered brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago.

RIP

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Pull up a chair and pop the popcorn cause this is gettin good…….

From Think Progress:

“The White House said Wednesday it had mishandled Republican Party’sponsored e-mail accounts used by nearly two dozen presidential aides, resulting in the loss of an undetermined number of e-mails concerning official White House business.”

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel “could not say what had been lost, and said the White House is working to recover as many as they can. The White House has now shut off employees- ability to delete e-mails on the separate accounts, and is briefing staffers on how to better make determinations about when - and when not - to use them, Stanzel said.”

UPDATE: The Politico has more details:

This is a big problem for the White House, and Waxman said it raised ’serious legal and security concerns- about the e-mail related activities of Bush administration aides.

Waxman’s staff are supposed to meet with RNC officials on Thursday about the “rnchq” and “gwb.43″ e-mail accounts, which some White House officials, like Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, use for authorized political work. Waxman suspects that White House aides were using the accounts to evade presidential record-keeping requirements.

The Politico also reports that the White House held a private briefing on the situation for some reporters, who relayed the message, “it’s really bad for the White House.”

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From Focus:

Diabetics in a revolutionary new stem cell trial have begun to produce insulin naturally - meaning they no longer need to inject themselves with the hormone.

In a joint study by Brazilian and American doctors, 15 young patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes had stem cell transfusions, which were drawn from their own blood.

Led by Julio Voltarelli from the University of Sao Paulo, the team reports that, “Ninety-three per cent of patients achieved different periods of insulin independence.”

People with type 1 diabetes have to regularly inject themselves with insulin because the naturally occurring hormone is destroyed by their own immune system.

The results published in the Journal of the American Medical Association mean people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, including 300,000 sufferers in the UK, may be freed from the routine of needles by a single stem cell injection.

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“Stardust”
Frank Sinatra (1943)

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Of course, they’re too busy talking about Imass. All Imass, all the time……

I’ll say it again, I think this US Attorney firing scandal is going to snowball. Big time. I heard the appeals court judge in Chicago heard the attorney’s opening remarks. After the opening remarks, Ms. Thompson’s attorney was in his car driving back to Wisconsin. The judge, in the meantime, went through all the papers and documents. He had the attorney called and told to return to Chicago immediately and come back to the courtroom. When he arrived, the judge said this case was total bullshit, I want this woman released NOW. This woman lost her job, was falsely prosecuted, had to sell her home to pay legal fees, and spent 4 months in prison. I try not to hate, because it is a waste of energy, but I do hate the Bush administration and all the damage they’ve done. There’s no punishment great enough for these amoral, self serving assholes.

An April 11 article in The Washington Post on the House Judiciary Committee’s decision to subpoena hundreds of Justice Department documents related to the U.S. attorney firings noted that Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) has “joined other members in demanding records and additional information about a federal public corruption case” in Wisconsin. Regarding the case, the Post reported only that a federal appeals court in Chicago ordered a former state employee to be “released after overturning her conviction.” The article did not report that Georgia Thompson — who was not identified by name — was convicted on charges brought by a Bush-appointed U.S. attorney just before the 2006 election, that Wisconsin Republicans used her conviction to attack Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) during the campaign, that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit took the highly unusual action of ordering the defendant released during oral argument because of the lack of evidence to support the conviction, and that Feingold and five other senators have requested information about the case to investigate whether “politics may have played an inappropriate role” in the prosecution.

Full article at Media Matters

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AMF….

From Yahoo News:

NEW YORK - MSNBC said Wednesday it will drop its simulcast of the “Imus in the Morning” radio program, responding to growing outrage about the radio host’s racial slur against the Rutgers women’s basketball team.

“This decision comes as a result of an ongoing review process, which initially included the announcement of a suspension. It also takes into account many conversations with our own employees,” NBC news said in a statement.

The announcement also was made on air.

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Figures…….

President Bush’s spy chief is pushing to expand the government’s surveillance authority at the same time the administration is under attack for stretching its domestic eavesdropping powers.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell has circulated a draft bill that would expand the government’s powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, liberalizing how that law can be used.

Known as “FISA,” the 1978 law was passed to allow surveillance in espionage and other foreign intelligence investigations, but still allow federal judges on a secretive panel to ensure protections for U.S. citizens - at home or abroad - and other permanent U.S. residents.

The changes McConnell is seeking mostly affect a cloak-and-dagger category of warrants used to investigate suspected spies, terrorists and other national security threats. The court-approved surveillance could include planting listening devices and hidden cameras, searching luggage and breaking into homes to make copies of computer hard drives.

Read more at Forbes

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A video thank you to Cindy Sheehan from the ever amazing Ava Lowery

Camp Casey is an amazing experience no matter what time of the year you attend. My Brother, Uncle, and I attended last August during the middle of a drought during 100 degree weather. We stayed a week and despite the heat, and some frustrations with our tent and being stuck in a tent with each other for a week, we had an absolutely amazing and truly life changing time at the Camp. My Mother and I attended again this past week for Camp Casey Easter. We met so many activists from all over the country who came to support Cindy and the peace movement. Cindy Sheehan has inspired us all to become more involved and I know personally she is one of my own role models in the peace movement. Thank you Cindy for all you have done and continue to do to inspire us. This video is just one small token of my appreciation.

Please stop by Gold Star Families for Peace and consider donating what you can to help Cindy and others continue to spread the word about this immoral war based on the Bush administration’s lies.

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Jon Stewart on Imus

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More outsourcing……. We keep going the way we are, and there won’t be any jobs in the U.S. Plenty of foreign products to buy, but no money to buy them with.

NEW YORK: Citigroup announced Wednesday that it would eliminate or reassign more than 26,500 jobs as part of a sweeping overhaul to cut costs and streamline the global bank’s sprawling operations.

Under intense pressure from investors, the company announced plans to lay off more than 17,000 workers, with the first pink slips coming this week. About 9,500 jobs will be moved to locations overseas or around the United States where the cost of doing business is lower, from more expensive locations like London, Hong Kong and New York, where the company’s headquarters are based.

Two-thirds of those jobs will be eliminated through attrition.

Roughly 8 percent of Citigroup’s 327,000 workers, from entry-level consumer bankers to senior executives in the investment bank, will be affected by the restructuring. All five of its major business divisions will face cuts.

“Ultimately these changes will streamline Citi and make us leaner, more efficient, and better able to take advantage of high-revenue opportunities,” Charles Prince 3rd, Citigroup’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Read more at The International Herald Tribune

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Increasingly anxious to appear competent and in control, the Bush gang is reportedly looking for a “war czar” who would oversee the United States- role in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are, of course, a few problems with this, not the least of which is the fact that no one actually wants the job.

The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.

“The very fundamental issue is, they don-t know where the hell they-re going,” said retired Marine Gen. John J. “Jack” Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job. Sheehan said he believes that Vice President Cheney and his hawkish allies remain more powerful within the administration than pragmatists looking for a way out of Iraq. “So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, A-No, thanks,- ” he said.

Entire article can be found at “Crooks and Liars”

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WASHINGTON –Public approval for Congress is at its highest level in a year as Democrats mark 100 days in power and step up their confrontation with President Bush over his handling of the Iraq War, the issue that overshadows all others….

The findings from an AP-Ipsos nationwide poll provide a snapshot of public sentiment in the days after the House and Senate triggered a series of veto threats from the president by passing separate bills that provide funds for the war, yet also call for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops.

cross posted from DAILY KOS

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Unsurprisingly, George W. Bush’s announcement of a “surge” in Iraq came despite the firm opposition to any such move of Americans and the even stronger opposition of the (thoroughly irrelevant) Iraqis. It was accompanied by ominous official leaks and statements — from Washington and Baghdad — about how Iranian intervention in Iraq was aimed at disrupting our mission to gain victory, an aim which is (by definition) noble. What then followed was a solemn debate about whether serial numbers on advanced roadside bombs (IEDs) were really traceable to Iran; and, if so, to that country’s Revolutionary Guards or to some even higher authority.

Entire article can be found at Mother Jones online

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NEW YORK - Democratic presidential contender
John Edwards toiled on the early shift at the Sarah Neuman Nursing Home in Mamaroneck, a northern suburb of New York, waking patients, serving breakfast and living - for a few hours, anyway - the life of a $14-per-hour health care aide.

Edwards’ visit was part of the “Walk a Day in My Shoes” campaign organized by the politically influential Service Employees International Union. In January, SEIU announced it would invite all the 2008 presidential candidates to spend a day on the job with one of its members, most of whom work in hospitals and other health care facilities.

With organized labor one of the most powerful influences in Democratic politics, several of the party’s candidates have accepted SEIU’s invitation, including Sens.
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chris Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. But Edwards is the first to actually take part in a work visit.

More at YAHOO

John Edwards 2008 Election

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Something we don’t hear much about…..Grandparents raising their grandkids when their kids are killed in Iraq. Write to your congress people to urge passage of the Latham-Hagel legislation in support of grandparents raising children of deceased soldiers.

Army Pfc. Hannah McKinney’s young son, Todd, and new husband were waiting for her to come home from Iraq last September. But just weeks before they were to be reunited, McKinney, 20, was killed in action. Now her parents, Barbie and Matt Heavrin of Redlands, Calif., are raising two-year-old Todd, McKinney’s child from a previous relationship.

“Some days I’m overwhelmed with sadness thinking about Hannah,” says Barbie Heavrin. Despite the emotional devastation, grandparents and other relatives who are left to raise a loved one’s child don’t get the financial support from the government that a surviving parent would.

The Heavrins are rearing their grandson without the benefit of the $100,000 “death gratuity” the government gives to next-of-kin-defined as spouse or child-to offset the financial burden when a service member is killed. Nor did the Heavrins, who have been rearing Todd since their daughter’s deployment to Iraq, receive the $400,000 from group life insurance in which soldiers are automatically enrolled. McKinney had chosen her husband of less than a year as the beneficiary of both, despite the fact that he was not living with or caring for the toddler.

“You have an awful lot of grandparents who are caregivers while their children are deployed,” says Kathleen Moakler of the National Military Family Association in Alexandria, Va. Of the 3,131 soldiers killed in Iraq as of Feb. 3, a total of 143 were single parents, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

Listen to touching interview with the Heavrins, and read more at AARP Bulletin That’s right punk….. I said AARP! (that’s for Bat) Another great article in the AARP Bulletin is 12 Ways to Support Our Troops. Check it out!

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