Orquesta D’Soul
Songs from their “Money Money” CD

And stock in Maybelline took a nose dive………

RALEIGH, N.C. — Tammy Faye Messner, who as Tammy Faye Bakker helped her husband, Jim, build a multimillion-dollar evangelism empire and then saw it collapse in disgrace, has died. She was 65.

Messner, who had battled colon cancer since 1996 that more recently spread to her lungs, died at her home Friday, said her booking agent, Joe Spotts. A family service was held Saturday in a private cemetery, where her ashes were interred, he said.

She had frequently spoken about her medical problems, saying she hoped to be an inspiration to others. “Don’t let fear rule your life,” she said. “Live one day at a time, and never be afraid.” But she told well-wishers in a note on her Web site in May that the doctors had stopped trying to treat the cancer.

In an interview with CNN’s Larry King two months later, an emaciated Messner - still using her trademark makeup - said, “I believe when I leave this earth, because I love the Lord, I’m going straight to heaven.” Asked if she had any regrets, Messner said: “I don’t think about it, Larry, because it’s a waste of good brain space.”

More at the Miami Herald

From BlueOregon:

Peter DeFazio wants to see the classified portion of the continuity-of-government plan. But the White House has denied him access.

From the O:

As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure “bubbleroom” in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.

On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED.

“I just can’t believe they’re going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack,” DeFazio says.

Even conservatives are calling this White House on its bizarre secrecy and use of executive power:

Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he “cannot think of one good reason” to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee.
“I find it inexplicable and probably reflective of the usual, knee-jerk overextension of executive power that we see from this White House,” Ornstein said.

DeFazio had asked to see the documents so that he could alleviate the fears of conspiracy-minded constituents. So much for that plan:

“Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right,” DeFazio said.

I hope they have a great time while here…..without destroying anything. And I wonder where they’re headed from here. And now the countdown until Buck posts a smartass comment about me and sailors…….3—-2——1

Thousands of sailors traded bell-bottomed whites and flip-brim caps for shorts and T’shirts Friday as they disembarked from five warships visiting Port Everglades after weeks of training at sea.

“They’re all over the port,” said Ellen Kennedy, port spokeswoman. “They’ve got on their beach clothes and look like they’re ready to enjoy South Florida.”

The sailors numbered more than 5,000, and are serving aboard an aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman; two destroyers, the USS Oscar Austin and USS Winston S. Churchill; a nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Montpelier; and a British Royal Navy destroyer, the HMS Manchester. The vessels left Norfolk, Va., on July 2 and have been on training maneuvers required before their certification for deployment to a war zone.

The Truman, anchored about two miles offshore, can be seen from the south end of Fort Lauderdale’s beach. Because of security concerns over the complement of fighting aircraft it carries, the 1,092-foot-long behemoth isn’t allowed in port.

The British are well represented on the visit: There’s the U.S. Navy’s Churchill, named after the famous World War II prime minister; the Royal Navy officer who as a courtesy is always aboard the Churchill; and the Manchester, one of Britain’s more powerful destroyers.

As sailors swarmed into town by shuttle and taxi, many carried maps distributed by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. Some slung golf clubs over shoulders. “For many of these sailors, it’s their first liberty call,” Kennedy said. “They’re real eager to come landside.”

More at the Sun Sentinel

A federal infectious disease laboratory in DeKalb County is supposed to be a crown jewel in the nation’s defense against bioterrorism and other killer diseases.

But an hourlong power outage at the building last month, and the failure of a backup generator system, have raised questions about safety at the facility run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The incident also renews concerns about security and regulation of similar high-containment labs being built across the nation to work with the world’s deadliest germs, several experts said.

“This is an astonishing design lapse,” said Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist on Rutgers University’s biosafety committee. “It’s just remarkable that a building of such national prominence, intended for work with some of the most lethal agents, was designed and constructed without an effective backup power system.”

The outage shut down air pressure systems designed to contain deadly germs for about 60 minutes. No injuries were reported.

Ebright said CDC should close the lab building until the problem is fixed.

CDC and other experts disagreed. They said the high-containment labs have many layered safety systems that protect scientists and the public even if power fails.

More at the Atlanta Journal

Ok, why would the guy’s commanding officer be relieved if he had nothing to do with it? What’s that saying….. people in extreme situations do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. I have never been to war, but I wonder how whacked out these guys are after 15 month tours, home for not long enough, back for another 15 month tour….. I can’t imagine what it’s like. And when you’re fighting an enemy that doesn’t wear a uniform, how do you know who to shoot and who not to shoot? Who to trust and who not to trust? I imagine you trust no one. I don’t know if these guys are guilty or not…..I’m just saying I can’t imagine what it’s like for these men and women who are over there.

By JEFFRY SCOTT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Winder - The mother of a Georgia soldier charged this week with the murder of an Iraqi man said Saturday she believes her son was “just following orders as far as I know.”

Army Specialist Christopher P. Shore, 25, of Winder, and Sgt. 1st Class Trey A Corrales of San Antonio, Texas, were charged in the alleged premeditated killing of the unidentified man on June 23 in an area near Kirkuk, Iraq, about 155 miles north of Baghdad.

They were charged after soldiers in their unit reported them to military authorities, the Army said. Shore and Corrales are assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, which is part of the 25th Infantry Division based in Hawaii.

Speaking to the press for the first time, Shore’s mother, Debra Kessler, said she has not talked to her son or Army officials since he was charged Wednesday, but she plans to hire a civilian attorney to defend him.

“I love my son and I stand behind him,” Kessler said. “We are doing everything in our power to help him.” She has set up fund in her son’s name at Bank of America for public contributions to his defense.

The soldier’s commanding officer - Lt. Col. Michael Browder - was relieved of his command in connection with the investigation. Browder is not a suspect and has not been charged, base spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Donnelly said in a news release.

Col. Donnelly said by e-mail Friday from Iraq he does not believe Shore has yet been been assigned an Army attorney. Col. Donnelly said Shore and Corrales now have limited duties and remain on forward operating bases, but they are not being held in confinement.

He declined to give further details because the case is under investigation by the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division. The Army Times reported that five soldiers in the 25th Infantry Division, including Shore and Corrales, have been accused of murdering Iraqis in separate incidents since April.

Shore and Corrales are scouts who arrived with their unit in Iraq between July and August 2006, according to the newspaper. Kessler would not confirm how long her son has been in Iraq. She said she talked to him by e-mail - “but only rarely.”

In Winder, a small town about 50 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta, few people seemed to know Saturday that a soldier from their town had been accused of murder in Iraq.

At the local American Legion Post, Melvin H. Webb, a 66-year-old Vietnam veteran, said he heard the news reports, and it didn’t surprise him that an American soldier had been charged with murder in Iraq.

“He was trained to kill, and sent over there to kill, and he killed,” Webb said. “Sounds like he was just following orders. That’s why so many of our soldier are dying in Iraq. Because they’re being told not to shoot. Because they’re afraid to shoot.”

WOOPTYFUCKINDOO! Who can live on $234.00 a week? And I’d guess most of these jobs provide no medical coverage. I got news for congress. Raising minimum wage in the next two years to just above $15,000 before taxes is no big accomplishment. Not even close to catching up to the cost of living. Who can own a car, put gas in it, buy food, pay rent and utilities, clothe oneself, pay your own medical expenses, and MAYBE have have enough left over for a little entertainment or leisure???? I’m glad it’s going up, but what a friggin joke.

Then there’s our ever sacrificing congress of millionaires, who refused to give themselves a raise of $4,400 (which amounts to about 37% of a minimum wage workers annual income) until the minimum wage bill was passed. God they are so very caring and concerned about the low income workers in America, aren’t they? Makes my heart flutter……

WASHINGTON - Fast-food waitress Fawn Townsend of Raleigh, N.C., knows exactly what she is going to do if her salary goes up with Tuesday’s increase in the federal minimum wage: start saving for a car so she can find a second job to make ends meet.

“My goal personally is to get a vehicle so I can independently go back and forth to work and maybe pick up extra work so I can have that extra income, because minimum wage is not cutting it,” said Townsend, who is 24 and single.

“Being a single person, you can’t pay all your bills with one minimum wage job.”

Many lawmakers, along with advocates for low-wage workers, are celebrating the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade. Yet many acknowledge that raising it from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 will provide only meager help for some of the lowest paid workers.

About 1.7 million people made $5.15 or less in 2006, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The reality for a minimum wage worker is that every penny makes a difference because low-wage workers make the choice between putting food on the table and paying for electricity or buying clothes for their children,” said Beth Shulman, former vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

“Saying that, it’s clear going up to $5.85 is not enough to really make sure that people really can afford the things that all families need,” said Shulman, author of “The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans.”

Minimum wage workers will get an additional 70-cent boost each summer for the next two years, ending in 2009 at $7.25 an hour. That comes to just above $15,000 yearly before taxes for a 52-week work year.

More at YahooNews

BAGHDAD (AP) - Aircraft fired missiles and dropped a bomb in a Shiite stronghold in northeastern Baghdad, killing six militants, the U.S. military said Saturday. Iraqi officials claimed a higher death toll, saying 18 civilians were killed.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, urged parliament to cancel its summer break or at least limit it to two weeks, expressing frustration over the failure to pass key legislation aimed at promoting reconciliation and stemming support for the violence.

In other violence, a minibus was struck in a mortar attack shortly after noon in the predominantly Shiite area of Baladiyat in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding 11, police said. Mortar shells also slammed into the eastern outskirts of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four, another officer said on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

The U.S. military said that a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier in Diyala province on Friday, raising to at least 3,631 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

More at CNews

And the Dems who told us they’d get us out have………continued to fund Bush’s failed Iraq war.

There is little question that the winds of discontent are stirring among Republicans on Capitol Hill over the direction of the Iraq war. A majority, of course, continued to support President Bush with their votes this week during the latest Iraq debate. But several Republicans no longer whisper, or walk away, when asked about their skepticism.

So why is that sentiment not echoing throughout the Republican presidential field?

“That’s a very good question,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who twice ran for president. “It’s the foremost issue facing our country, and our country broadly supports a different policy. One would think the presidential candidates would tune in to that.”

Mr. Alexander is among those advocating a new direction. While stopping short of support for a firm deadline to withdraw troops, he has proposed putting into law the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which called for a change of mission.

More at the NYTimes

CBS report on Turkey troop buildup on Iraq border.