From FoxNews:

A relative of former President Bush died of a heart attack while visiting his seaside vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine Tuesday, Fox News confirmed.

Paramedics transported the husband of the former president’s cousin to the Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford, Maine, Fox News sources confirmed.

The patient had been a guest of the 41st president and his wife, Barbara Bush, when he suddenly became ill.

“President and Mrs. Bush are both fine. It was not one of them,” Kristan King, a spokeswoman for Barbara Bush, told The Associated Press from Kennebunkport. “It was one of their houseguests here staying with them.”

BRING THEM HOME!!!!

From MSNBC:

A helicopter went down in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers aboard, the military said, the deadliest crash since January 2005.

The military said initial indications showed the aircraft experienced a mechanical problem and was not brought down by hostile fire, but the cause of the crash was still under investigation.

The UH-60 Black Hawk was part of a pair of helicopters on a nighttime operation when the crash occurred. The four crew members and 10 passengers who perished in the crash were assigned to Task Force Lightning, the military said. It did not release identities pending notification of relatives.

By Robert Weiner and John Larmett
AlterNet.Org

Contrary to the mythology the party has created, GOP presidents are terrible for business.

At last week’s news conference, President Bush again said that he’s reduced the deficit to $239 billion, created 8 million jobs and generated unemployment at a low 4.5%. He said the economy is strong, largely due to his tax cut policies. On the other side, Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), House Appropriations Committee chairman, has complained of our limited resources now because of Bush’s “gargantuan deficits he created with that stupid war and those stupid tax cuts paid for with our money.”

There is a widely held belief that Republicans are better for business than are Democrats. Let’s look at the facts. The wild stock market ride of recent weeks does not compare to the two worst stock events, the crash of 1929 and the 1987 free fall, which also occurred under Republican administrations. Since 1900, Democratic presidents have produced a 12.3% annual return on the S&P 500, Republicans only 8%. Gross Domestic Product growth since 1930 is 5.4% for Democratic presidents and 1.6% for Republican presidents.

Bush inherited from President Clinton an annual federal budget surplus of $236 billion, the largest in American history. Clinton balanced the budget for the first time since 1969. Budget surpluses were expected to total $5.6 trillion between fiscal year 2002 and 2011.

Despite this, Bush transformed the surpluses into a $1.1 trillion annual deficit in just three years because of the Iraq war and his relentless push for permanent tax cuts for wealthy Americans, a new iteration of Herbert Hoover’s equally catastrophic “trickle-down” theory. Bragging about a $239 billion deficit sets such a low standard that Bush can claim horrific failure as a good thing for the country. The Bush administration’s annual loss of three-quarters of a trillion dollars is unprecedented. Bush presided over the loss of 2 million American jobs in his first 2 1/2 years and has net gained 5.6 million in six years, the worst since Hoover. Clinton created 23 million jobs.

read more HERE

from Earth Times.Org

ELMWOOD PLACE, Ohio, Aug. 21 A young Ohio man was so caught up in text messaging as he walked across a railroad track he failed to notice a train bearing down on him.

Zachariah Smith, 18, waited until a southbound CSX train passed, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. He did not notice the northbound Norfolk Southern train passing by immediately afterward.

Smith was struck by the second train and was seriously injured.

Elmwood Place Mayor Richard Ellison said he arrived at the scene immediately after the accident and talked to three of the five people who saw it. They said the engineer was “blowing his horn like mad” when he saw the young man.

“The only way the train could have missed him was if it could make a turn,” Ellison said.

The lights and gates at the crossing were in working order, witnesses said.

By NATASHA T. METZLER
The Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Va. - Drunken driving fatalities increased in 22 states in 2006 and fell in 28 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, federal transportation officials said Monday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released data showing there were 13,470 deaths in 2006 involving drivers and motorcycle operators with blood alcohol levels of .08 or higher, which is the legal limit for adults throughout the country. The number was down slightly from 2005, when 13,582 people died in crashes involving legally drunk drivers.

The overall number of deaths involving drivers and motorcycle operators with any amount of alcohol in their blood was 17,602 last year. That was up from 17,590 in 2005, according to spokeswoman Heather Ann Hopkins.

“The number of people who died on the nation’s roads actually fell last year,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said at a news conference in this Washington suburb. “However the trend did not extend to alcohol-related crashes.”

Transportation officials announced the new figures as they unveiled a $11 million nationwide advertising campaign as part of a Labor Day weekend campaign “Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.”

“This crackdown is very, very, very important because it’s the penalties that are imposed when someone chooses to ignore the law that really have the ability to make changes,” Peters said.

Among states, Arizona, Kansas and Texas had the greatest increases in number of drunken driving deaths last year. But Utah, Kansas and Iowa had the largest percentage increases compared with 2005. Texas had the largest actual number drunken driving deaths with a total of 1,354.

read more HERE