Charlie Musselwhite
“I’m Just a Bad Boy”

Ok, enough nicey nice. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!

WASHINGTON - Former White House aide Harriet Miers will continue to refuse to appear before a House committee, her lawyer said Tuesday despite Democrats’ threats to hold her in contempt.

“Ms. Miers will not appear before the committee or otherwise produce documents or provide testimony,” lawyer George T. Manning said in a letter to the committee.

The House Judiciary Committee had given Miers, President Bush’s former legal counsel who defied a subpoena to appear before the committee, until Tuesday to change her mind about testifying. Lawmakers have been investigating whether the White House was involved in the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors.

“Her failure to comply with our subpoena is a serious affront to this committee and our constitutional system of checks and balances,” House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said. “We are carefully planning our next steps.”

More at Forbes

from Media Bistro
and From Michael Moore’s web site:

“I do feel kinda bad taking it all out on Wolf Blitzer. It’s not like he’s the official representative of the mainstream media. I mean, he’s from Buffalo, for crying out loud! He said to me at the end of the show last week to please come back on ‘anytime you want.’ I will take him up on that offer and appear again with him tomorrow (Wednesday). I’m not expecting a dozen roses or make-up sex — I only want a promise that there will be no more distorted distractions so we can have a decent discussion about the REAL issues…”

read more at Michaelmoore.com

I’m posting this because I live the flip flop hell. I ran around in flip flops and bare feet for years, managing an aquatic facility, teaching swimming lessons and training lifeguards. Then when I moved to Florida, it was year round flip flops. The only time I put real shoes on was when I had to. Now, I am paying the price. Heel pain. Not fun. My flip flop days are pretty much over. Now I wear them only when I’m going to the pool or to run short errands. Wish I knew then what I know now…….. Oh….one other thing on footwear. If you do water aerobics often, get a good pair of water shoes. Although it’s low impact, there is an impact.

Take good care of your feet girls……so you can keep wearing those 5″ heels when the situation warrants!

Once upon a time, flip-flops were cheap, rubber thongs that you wore to wash your car or schlep to the beach.

Nowadays, they-re a summertime craze. No longer just dull drugstore specials, the sandals with the V’shaped straps turn up everywhere in eye-popping shades, from hot pink to lime green. They come adorned with spangles, flowers, and college logos. One company even created flip-flops with a built-in bottle opener.

Fun and fashionable, flip-flops have their place in your shoe closet, experts say. But they-re not meant to be worn with abandon — or else you may be courting foot pain.

Flip-Flops: Good and Bad
Jackie Hartnett, a young Northern California woman, owns five pairs, including some with a Hawaiian motif and a black pair with polka dots. Come rain or shine, she wears flip-flops. “They-re really comfortable. I don-t like shoes because they-re so confining,” she says. Her boyfriend accidentally steps on her toes, but to Hartnett, that’s a small price to pay for the breezy feel of flip-flops.

“Flip-flops and sandals during the summer are very common and very popular,” says John G. Anderson, MD, a Michigan orthopaedic surgeon and American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society spokesman.

What’s their best purpose? “Flip-flops give you some basic protection to the bottom of your foot to walk around poolside or on a surface that may be warm during the summer,” says Jim Christina, DPM, director of scientific affairs for the American Podiatric Medical Association.

They can also help prevent you from catching athlete’s foot or plantar warts in public showers, according to foot specialists.

In contrast, it’s a bad idea to play sports or hike trails in flip-flops, foot pain experts tell WebMD. Here’s a quick primer on flip-flop safety.

More at WebMD

By HOPE YEN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — VA Secretary Jim Nicholson abruptly resigned Tuesday after months of the Bush administration struggling to defend charges of shoddy health care for veterans injured in the Iraq war.

Nicholson, a former Republican National Committee chairman and a Vietnam veteran, was picked by President Bush to head the Veterans Affairs Department in 2005. Planning to return to the private sector, he said his resignation is to take effect no later than Oct. 1.

Nicholson, 69, is the latest in a line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the Bush administration.

“It has been an honor and privilege to lead the VA during this historic time for our men and women who have worn the uniform,” Nicholson said in a statement. “We have accomplished so much and the VA is always striving to improve our services to veterans.”

His resignation comes amid intense political and public scrutiny of the Pentagon and VA following reports of shoddy outpatient care of injured troops and veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and elsewhere.

More at the AP

South Floridians are hoping to generate local interest in a national movement to change presidential politics.

Unity08, which has support on the national level from people who’ve been involved in Democratic and Republicans candidates, hopes to propel an independent ticket into the White House next year.

Locally, organizers plan to get people from Broward and Palm Beach counties involved and will hold a public meeting Thursday evening.

Helping lead the effort is Jake Jacobson, who lives west of Boca Raton.

He said Unity08 is finally the way to do something about the “broken political system.” The idea is to come up with a presidential and vice presidential candidate from each party, and, using the Internet, try to get that person elected.

“We are going to eliminate the dollars that are involved in politics and we are going to end the gridlock and paralysis that are caused by lobbying and actual bribery,” Jacobson said.

To those who say it’s not realistic to end the dominance of the Democratic and Republican parties, Jacobson responds: “This wall is going to come down because the will of the people must be heard, not the will of the politicians, not the will of the lobbyists. If 63 million could vote for American Idol, more than any presidential candidate has ever gotten, then we can surely get 15 million people” for the planned Internet nominating convention next year.

More at the Sun Sentinel

More about Unity08 here

SLIDELL, La. — A $1.63 property tax bill that never reached its destination in 1996 has turned into a nightmare for Kermit and Dolores Atwood, who are now trying to keep from losing their home over the unpaid notice.

Dolores Atwood calls the events that followed the wayward bill, including the eventual sale of their home at a sheriff’s tax sale, “seven years of emotional hell.”

“I don’t know how much more I can endure,” said Atwood, 69, while sitting in a FEMA trailer in front of her Hurricane Katrina-ravaged home north of Slidell.

The couple hope recent state court decisions, which say their home should never have been put up for sale, withstand appeals by a land company.

In 2000, the Atwoods learned their four-bedroom home had been sold in a tax sale three years earlier for the $1.63 in unpaid taxes, plus 10 cents interest and $125 in sale costs.

Atwood said the couple learned of the sale about a week after the three-year period in which delinquent taxpayers can reclaim their property had ended.

The bill was sent to a defunct address and returned undelivered to the St. Tammany Parish sheriff’s office. Atwood then complained to the sheriff’s and assessor’s offices that she never received the bill and knew nothing about it. The house, which the couple has owned mortgage-free since 1968, previously was totally state homestead exempt, meaning there was no tax bill, Atwood said.

“The sheriff’s office could have easily found us,” Atwood said. “We’re in the phone book.”

Although the State Tax Commission nullified the sale, the couple found out in 2002 - when they attempted to sell the house and got a $90,000 offer, a buyer, Jamie Land Co., had filed suit. The company had bought the property rights from American Land Investments.

Atwood said the couple couldn’t sell the house because they didn’t have clear title to the property. When Katrina hit, trees fell on the house. She said they didn’t have insurance, and because they didn’t have clear title, they didn’t qualify for federal rebuilding help.

In May 2006, State District Judge Patricia Hedges ruled that the property title belongs to the Atwoods. Jamie Land appealed. Last month, a three-judge panel of the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal upheld Hedges’ decision. Jamie Land asked the court to rehear the case, but that request was denied last week.

Now, the company plans to ask the Louisiana Supreme Court to take up the case.

More at the Sun Sentinel

Sickening…….

By BOB WOODRUFF, JAMES HILL, JAIME HENNESSEY and JOSHUA KORS

Army Spc. Jonathan Town is back home in Ohio now, but still very much at war.

“When you see bits and pieces of actual people or people bleeding to death or anything, it’s very unsettling. It’s something you’ll never be able to forget. Period,” Town told ABC News’ Bob Woodruff.

Since his discharge in 2006, Town has not only dealt with the emotional scars of war, but he has also found himself at the center of a national debate on mental health care for veterans as a crowd as diverse as singer Dave Matthews and members of Congress has questioned how 22,000 veterans were diagnosed and discharged since 2001.

In Town’s case, the discharge came two years after he was injured in an attack. In the fall of 2004, a 107 mm rocket ripped through his unit’s headquarters in Ramadi, exploding two feet above Town’s head and knocking him unconscious.

The rocket blast left Town with hearing loss, headaches, memory problems, anxiety and insomnia. For his wounds, he was awarded the Purple Heart.

But when he returned to the states seeking treatment for those very wounds, the Army quickly discharged him, asserting his problems had been caused not by the war but by a personality disorder that predated his military career.

Read more at ABCNews

Tuesday afternoon treat. Enjoy!

Don McLean - American Pie

And the leading Republican presidential candidate is … none of the above.

The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that nearly a quarter of Republicans are unwilling to back top-tier hopefuls Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain or Mitt Romney, and no one candidate has emerged as the clear front-runner among Christian evangelicals. Such dissatisfaction underscores the volatility of the 2008 GOP nomination fight.

In sharp contrast, the Democratic race remains static, with Hillary Rodham Clinton holding a sizable lead over Barack Obama. The New York senator, who is white, also outpaces her Illinois counterpart, who is black, among black and Hispanic Democrats, according to a combined sample of two months of polls.

A half year before voting begins, the survey shows the White House race is far more wide open on the Republican side than on the Democratic. The uneven enthusiasm about the fields also is reflected in fundraising in which Democrats outraised Republicans $80 million to $50 million from April through June, continuing a trend from the year’s first three months.

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