By MARCIA DUNN
Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA discovered a worrisome gouge on Endeavour’s belly soon after the shuttle docked with the international space station Friday, possibly caused by ice that broke off the fuel tank a minute after liftoff.

The gouge - about 3 inches square - was spotted in zoom-in photography taken by the space station crew shortly before Endeavour delivered teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan and her six crewmates to the orbiting outpost.

“What does this mean? I don’t know at this point,” said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. If the gouge is deep enough, the shuttle astronauts may have to patch it during a spacewalk, he said.

Columbia was destroyed during re-entry four years ago because of a hole in its wing, the result of a large chunk of foam insulation that broke off the external fuel tank and slammed into the wing at liftoff. Ice is heavier than foam, however, and would cause more damage to the thermal cover that protects the shuttle from the intense heat of re-entry at flight’s end.

NASA was still rejoicing over the shuttle’s arrival at the space station, and the grand entrance by Morgan, Christa McAuliffe’s backup for Challenger’s tragic mission in 1986, when engineers saw photos of the gouge.

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by Joe Conason
Salon.com

A Republican victory in 2008 could sink America’s reputation in the world even lower.

Aug. 10, 2007 | Even if George W. Bush is the most awful American president in modern times, as many historians believe, and even though he has brought the United States into unprecedented disrepute around the world, as opinion polls indicate, the bombastic tone of the candidates seeking to succeed him from his own party raises a disturbing possibility.

If the next president is a Republican, this truly bad situation could become still worse.

Concerning the Iraq war, of course, there is no discernible difference between the current president and his would-be Republican successors (with the exception of Ron Paul, the libertarian antiwar candidate from Bush’s home state of Texas). The leading GOP contenders have all endorsed the current escalation of U.S. forces. They all share the president’s determination to keep our troops there indefinitely. They all insistently echo Bush by linking the invasion and occupation of Iraq with the attacks of 9/11.

Yet beyond the horrors of Iraq and the excesses of the “war on terror,” for which history will hold him culpable, Bush at least has acknowledged the importance of reaching out to the world’s Muslims (although he tends to reach out too often with bombs and a torture technique known as waterboarding). In his rhetoric, the president usually seeks to distinguish the religion of Islam, which he has honored in the White House on many occasions, from the murderous perversion of that faith. And in his best moments after 9/11, he has defended the rights of Muslim Americans to live here without suffering persecution or prejudice.

Perhaps Bush’s efforts deserve to be dismissed as little more than lip service, but semantics matter. The Republicans most likely to win their party’s presidential nomination constantly use language that is meant to inflame anger against Muslims for political advantage.

During the last Republican debate, on Aug. 5, Rudolph Giuliani eagerly provided an example of this syndrome when he attacked the Democratic presidential candidates for failing to describe terrorism as Islamic. “During four Democratic debates,” he complained, “not a single Democratic candidate said the word [sic] ‘Islamic terrorism.’ Now, that is taking political correctness to extremes.” To him, the absence of that phrase in their speeches, no matter how tough their stance against terror, proved that Democrats are guilty of “weakness and appeasement.” The other Republicans, again except for Paul, agreed — although as John Dickerson of Slate has pointed out, that phrase is also assiduously avoided by the Bush White House.

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Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Friday that he misspoke when he said he spent as much time, if not more, at ground zero exposed to the same health risks as workers combing the site after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I think I could have said it better,” he told nationally syndicated radio host Mike Gallagher. “You know, what I was saying was, ‘I’m there with you.’”

The former New York mayor struck a nerve with firefighters and police officers when he said Thursday in Cincinnati that he was at ground zero “as often, if not more, than most of the workers.”

“I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them,” he told reporters at a Los Angeles Dodgers-Cincinnati Reds baseball game.

Fire and police officials responded angrily, saying Giuliani did not do the same work as those involved in the rescue, recovery and cleanup from the 2001 terrorist attacks, which left many workers sick and injured.

“I have a real problem with that statement,” said Battalion Chief John McDonnell, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association in New York. “I think he’s really grasping and trying to justify his previous attempts to portray himself as the hero of 9/11.”

More at Breitbart

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By Fred Bronson
Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Jazz icon Ella Fitzgerald is back on the U.S. pop album charts for the first time in just under 38 years.

“Love Letters from Ella” debuted at No. 97 on the Billboard 200 Wednesday, and it also entered the Top Jazz Albums tally at No. 2, behind Michael Buble’s “Call Me Irresponsible.”

Fitzgerald, who died in 1996, had not been on the Billboard 200 since “Ella” peaked at No. 196 in October 1969. The new CD, released through a partnership between Concord Jazz and Starbucks, is her highest-ranked title since “Ella and Basie!” went to No. 69 in 1963. Counting only her solo LPs, this is Fitzgerald’s finest hour since “Ella in Hollywood” starred at No. 35 in 1962.

While her career dates back to 1934, Fitzgerald’s chart span on the Billboard 200 now extends 51 years to the debut of “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook” in 1956.

On the Top Jazz Albums tally, “Love Letters from Ella” ties the peak position of the “Best of Song Book Collections” CD in July 1996 as the highest-charting Ella titles since “Ella in Rome - The Birthday Concert” ruled for five weeks in July-August 1988.

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Can these guys get ANYTHING RIGHT??? Answer…..NO.

By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer

President Bush’s program to rapidly detect biological attacks and disease outbreaks has been anything but speedy in getting started, the victim of bureaucratic bungling, a federal watchdog says.

Administration officials acknowledge problems but say the system has begun operating - 21 months after Bush announced the surveillance initiative and three years after he ordered the effort in a presidential directive.

The program kept bouncing between sections of the Homeland Security Department. Managers were not hired. The approach to the surveillance kept changing. And the necessary technology wasn’t operating, the Homeland Security inspector general says in a report obtained by The Associated Press. The report is expected to be released publicly as early as next week.

Underscoring the importance of the issue, the report comes as Britain is struggling with an outbreak of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, a threat to farm economies and tourism.

More at the Associated Press

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Official reprimands issued to three high-ranking Army officers are only mildly critical of their mistakes after the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman and at times praise the officers.

The Army also said it would not include the reprimands in the officers’ military records, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Tillman’s direct superiors knew within hours of his April 2004 death in Afghanistan that the former football star had been killed by fellow Army Rangers, but the truth was kept from the public and Tillman’s family for five weeks - in direct violation of Army regulations.

“You should not consider this as an adverse action,” letters to the officers say. “This document will not be filed in any system of records maintained by the Army.”

More at the Associated Press

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Some cheer this news. Others pooh-pooh it. Me? I’m just glad that everyday, non-rich folk like Cindy are still able to participate in American politics. It’ll be an uphill battle for her and I wish her luck (regardless of how I feel about Pelosi).

Go, Cindy!

Sheehan announces House candidacy

Cindy Sheehan speaks during a news conference Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007, in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO - A tearful Cindy Sheehan cited her son, killed in Iraq, as her inspiration as she announced her candidacy Thursday for the U.S. House against Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Sheehan last month said she intended to run against Pelosi, the House speaker, if the San Francisco congresswoman didn’t move to impeach President Bush by July 23.

Sheehan said Thursday that Pelosi had “protected the status quo” of the corporate elite and had lost touch with people in her district, most of whom, she asserted, want American troops out of Iraq.

Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Pelosi, would not comment on Sheehan’s candidacy but said the speaker has always opposed the war in Iraq and has focused on bringing troops home “safely and soon.”

After her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004, Sheehan gained international attention by setting up camp outside the president’s Texas ranch and demanding to meet with him.

On Thursday, Sheehan said her son inspired her to run against Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Congress since 1987.

“The country is ripe for a change,” said Sheehan, who spoke at a podium with her son’s photograph attached to it. “It’s going to start right here and right now.”

Sheehan said she would run as an independent on a platform of universal health care, making college affordable and improving ethics in the legislative and executive branches. She did not offer specifics.

The money being spent on the Iraq war should be used to help the country’s shrinking middle class, she said.

SUDHIN THANAWALA, Associated Press Writer

Source: Yahoo! News

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Yeah, right. More like saving face! How embarrassing…

This is what we get for having a society that demonizes the intelligent among us, while putting goons like Bush up on a pedestal.

Dropouts

The United States has quietly withdrawn from an international study comparing math and science students.

Aug. 9, 2007 - Americans took note when Bill Gates said last spring that American schools needed to beef up science and math standards if the country was going to maintain a competitive edge in the new century. So did Congress, which last week approved legislation called the America COMPETES (Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education and Science) Act, which carves out a whopping $43.6 billion for science education and research.

So why did the federal government quietly decide last year to drop out of an international study that would compare U.S. high’school students who take advanced science and math courses with their international counterparts?
[...]

Conspiracy theorists suggest that the U.S. government withdrew from the study without making any announcement because it anticipated another poor showing. “Maybe they don-t want to hear more bad news,” says John Ewing, executive director of the American Mathematical Society.

Peg Tyre, Newsweek

Source: MSNBC.com

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Look at these numbers……..

Market declines in Europe and New York on Thursday sparked a similar rout in Asia on Friday. Stocks in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia dropped by more than 2.5 percent, while the benchmark Kospi index in South Korea fell 4.27 percent, the biggest decline since June 2004.

Most major European markets were down by 3 percent or more Friday. U.S. stock market indicators opened down about 1 percent on Friday.

Early Friday, the Federal Reserve announced a three-day repurchase agreement, or “repo,” to inject liquidity into the market, the second day it has taken such an action. The bank said early Friday that it would accept $19 billion in mortgage-backed securities. The Fed said it would provide “reserves as necessary” and would do all it could to “facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets.”

The move occurred after the federal funds rate, the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans, ticked above 6 percent again Friday - well above the central bank’s target of 5.25 percent. Speculation also grew that the Federal Reserve would consider an emergency cut in interest rates.

in a short statement, said it will provide “reserves as necessary” to help the markets safely make their way. The central bank did not provide details but said it would do all it can to “facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets.”

The Bank of Japan said Friday that it had added $8.4 billion, to money markets, while the Reserve Bank of Australia said it had lent banks 4.95 billion Australian dollars, or $4.2 billion, its biggest such injection of liquidity since 2003.

The European Central Bank injected another $83.4 billion, into the banking system Friday, after providing $95 billion the day before. The U.S. Federal Reserve was also expected to inject additional liquidity into markets Friday.

More at the International Herald Tribune

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Your World

The Romney Boys Committment to the Nation

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Of course he does. Once he’s used them up, he’s done with them. He doesn’t care what happens to them once he’s done with them.

The Bush administration opposes a Democratic effort to restore full educational benefits for returning veterans, according to an official’s comments last week.

Senate Democrats, led by Virginia’s Jim Webb, want the government to pay every penny of veterans’ educational costs, from tuition at a public university to books, housing and a monthly stipend.

Such a benefit was a major feature of the historic 1944 G.I. Bill, which put more than eight million U.S. soldiers through college and is now credited by historians as fueling the expansion of America’s middle class in the post-war era.

But in recent years the benefit has dwindled; under the current law, passed in 1985, veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan can expect Uncle Sam to cover only 75 percent of their tuition costs. That’s not enough, say Democrats and veterans’ advocates.

More at the Blotter

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Is this part of the “bloody August” we were warned about?

President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues.

At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of unspecified consequences if it continued its alleged support for anti-American forces in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had conveyed the warning in meetings with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, the president said.

Bush wasn’t specific, and a State Department official refused to elaborate on the warning.

Behind the scenes, however, the president’s top aides have been engaged in an intensive internal debate over how to respond to Iran’s support for Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq and its nuclear program. Vice President Dick Cheney several weeks ago proposed launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iraq run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy.

The debate has been accompanied by a growing drumbeat of allegations about Iranian meddling in Iraq from U.S. military officers, administration officials and administration allies outside government and in the news media. It isn’t clear whether the media campaign is intended to build support for limited military action against Iran, to pressure the Iranians to curb their support for Shiite groups in Iraq or both.

More at McClatchy

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R.I.P. Jaron Holiday

Also killed Saturday was Jaron Holliday, 21, of Tulsa, Okla.

The oldest of eight children, Jaron Holliday’s mother, Kelly Holliday said he was a gifted pianist and a people person. Kelly said her son always wanted to go into the military.

“He knew when he signed up, he knew what he was signing up for — so there was never any question about what his purpose was in life,” Kelly said.

Still, she said the word that her son had been killed on Saturday was shocking.

“I was just another one of those mommas that believed that my baby was coming home and it was extremely shocking and difficult and I tell you, nobody will ever be able to erase that vision of those two Army personnel coming into my home and giving us that kind of news,” Kelly said.

The news came at a most trying time for her and her family.

“I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and I’m undergoing chemotherapy and lost my hair and he told me he’s so concerned about me here and he just wanted to be here,” Kelly said.

She said he asked if he should return home early.

“He said, A-Mom If you need me to come home, I’ll come home’ and I said son, A-I just want you to finish your job there and finish strong and come home whole in body in soul and spirit, so we can celebrate together,’” Kelly said.

source

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A microphone lowered into a narrow hole drilled into a mine cavity where six workers are believed to be trapped has detected no sound so far, officials said early Friday.

A TV news crew reports near a sign of support outside the community center where miners’ families are gathered.

There has been no communication with the six men since Monday’s mine collapse.

The 2.5 inch bore hole reached the cavity in the central Utah mine more than 1,800 feet below the surface at about 10 p.m. MT Thursday (midnight ET), according to Richard Stickler, assistant secretary of the Department of Labor for mine safety and health.

Mine CEO Bob Murray said no conclusions could be drawn yet from the lack of sound detected.

“The fact that we have not picked up any sound I believe should not be interpreted as bad news,” Murray said. He said the “good news” is that the drill found the cavity.

“There could be a number of factors as to why sounds in there might not be picked up, and I wouldn’t look at it as good or bad news,” he said.

One encouraging sign, he added, was testing showed that the air in the cavity was “very, very good.”

“That means that if they’re alive, they’re going to stay alive in that atmosphere,” Murray said.

Murray and Stickler spoke to reporters at the rescue command center early Friday morning. Murray said they met first with the families of the miners, describing their reaction to the news as “quiet” and “subdued.”

More at CNN

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