Subdudes
“Need Somebody”

By STEVEN R. HURST
The Associated Press

You’re doin’ a helluva job, Bushy!

BAGHDAD - This year’s U.S. troop buildup has succeeded in bringing violence in Baghdad down from peak levels, but the death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running nearly double the pace from a year ago.

Some of the recent bloodshed appears the result of militant fighters drifting into parts of northern Iraq, where they have fled after U.S.-led offensives. Baghdad, however, still accounts for slightly more than half of all war-related killings - the same percentage as a year ago, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.

The tallies and trends offer a sobering snapshot after an additional 30,000 U.S. troops began campaigns in February to regain control of the Baghdad area. It also highlights one of the major themes expected in next month’s Iraq progress report to Congress: some military headway, but extremist factions are far from broken.

In street-level terms, it means life for average Iraqis appears to be even more perilous and unpredictable.

The AP tracking includes Iraqi civilians, government officials, police and security forces killed in attacks such as gunfights and bombings, which are frequently blamed on Sunni suicide strikes. It also includes execution’style killings - largely the work of Shiite death squads.

The figures are considered a minimum based on AP reporting. The actual numbers are likely higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted. Insurgent deaths are not a part of the Iraqi count.

read more HERE

We’ve had a ton of bad and rotten news over the past week. Time for something on the beautiful and graceful side! This is World Champion multiple kite flier Ray Bethell and his demonstration video of what he can do. And it’s incredible. Enjoy. - JS

Make sure your speakers are on for the incredible
music that goes with the video.

Before moving back home to KY, I owned an end unit condo in Knoxville, TN. The parking was directly in front of the unit and, to the side, was a row of thick, tall firs. Absolutely beautiful, except they also were home to pigeons. I couldn’t tell you the number of evenings, even during winter time, I’d go out and spray water up into the trees to run these birds off. If I didn’t, the next morning, my car would be completely covered up. Seriously!

Before moving, the homeowners association decided the only thing to do was to cut the trees down. Well, they did. And it ruined the look of my home.

I never hated a bird up until then.

Foul Play?

Officials investigating the deadly Minneapolis bridge collapse are looking at an unlikely culprit: pigeons.

Could pigeons have played a role in the Minnesota catastrophe?

Aug. 25, 2007 - Of all the possible causes of the deadly collapse of Minnesota’s Interstate 35W bridge earlier this month-uneven traffic patterns, de-icing salts, faulty construction-the latest is the most surprising: Pigeons. Or more precisely, the waste the birds leave behind. “Pigeon dung can be a serious issue-it’s acidic and will easily eat away almost any metal,” explains engineer William Schutt, president of Matcor, a corrosion-protection firm in Doylestown, Pa. “It can wash into and then rust the bolts and rivets of bridges if they-re not cleaned and checked properly.”

The build-up of pigeon excrement on the I-35W bridge was substantial enough to be noted in several Minnesota Department of Transportation inspections over the years, pointing to the steel box sections of the bridge as a popular nesting spot. Those sections are crucial to supporting the structure, and in 1999 bridge workers placed plastic screens over openings in the beams in an effort to repel the birds. But the dung continued to pile up. A 2006 inspection of the bridge still reported “severe pigeon debris” on its steel deck truss.

Eve Conant, Newsweek

Source: MSNBC.com

from The Huffington Post

SEOUL, South Korea - Floods that swept across North Korea earlier this month killed at least 600 people, double the previously known toll, the country’s official news agency said Saturday.

Citing North Korea’s Central Statistics Bureau, the Korean Central News Agency reported at least 600 people were dead or missing and thousands were injured. The report was the first in North Korean media to specify a precise death toll from the disaster.

Earlier, international aid groups estimated about 300 were dead or missing.

KCNA said the heavy rains caused “huge material losses” to the country, “creating unprecedented difficulties in people’s living and economic construction.”

At least 100,000 people were left homeless and more than 8,000 public buildings were totally or partially destroyed, it said.

More than 1,000 factory or mining buildings were damaged or submerged by the torrential rains, and “lots” of arable land was washed away, the report said.

The rains also flooded four railroad tunnels and triggered landslides that buried at least 200 sections of track, it said. Thousands of sections of roads and bridges also were destroyed, KCNA said.

The week of severe rainstorms was the country’s heaviest rainfall in 40 years.

Impoverished North Korea has been widely publicizing the damage while openly seeking outside help _ an unusual move seen as a sign of desperation for a country often reluctant to acknowledge any internal problems.

Jo Yong Nam, head of North Korea’s recovery efforts, said the flood damage, when calculated in financial terms, was 10 times worse than floods last year, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan reported Thursday.

By JOHN MARKOFF
The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24 - A Chinese technology company has expressed interest in buying a maker of computer disk drives in the United States, raising concerns among American government officials about the risks to national security in transferring high technology to China.

William D. Watkins of Seagate Technology

The overture, which was disclosed by the chief executive of one of the two remaining drive makers in the United States, William D. Watkins of Seagate Technology, has resurrected the issues of economic competitiveness and national security raised three years ago when Lenovo, a Chinese computer maker, bought I.B.M.’s personal computer business.

Tensions have been increasing lately between the countries over China’s ambitions in developing its military abilities and advanced technologies for industrial and consumer uses.

Although disk drives do not fall under a list of export-controlled technologies, the attempted purchase of an American disk drive company would require a security review by the federal government, according to several government officials.

In recent years, modern disk drives, used to store vast quantities of digital information securely, have become complex computing systems, complete with hundreds of thousands of lines of software that are used to ensure the integrity of data and to offer data encryption.

That could raise the prospect of secret tampering with hardware or software to make it possible to pilfer information via computer networks, intelligence officials have warned.

read more HERE

National League

Eastern Division

New York Mets are in first place, 6 games ahead of Philadelphia

Central Division

Chicago Cubs are in first place, 1.5 games ahead of Milwaukee

Western Division

Arizona Diamondbacks are in first place, 2 games ahead of San Diego

American League

Eastern Division

Boston Red Sox are in first place, 6.5 games ahead of the New York Yankees

Central Division

Cleveland Indians are in first place, 1.5 games ahead of Detroit

Western Division

Los Angeles Angels are in first place 1 game ahead of Seattle

by Will Durst
cross posted at Buzz Flash

Karl Rove, Bush’s brain, quit last week. And no, he hasn’t been replaced, so yes, you could say the cavity remains empty. To put it another way: Voldermort has left the building. Darth Vader took off his helmet. Proof positive that Satan had more than just a passing acquaintance with the Pillsbury Doughboy has exited stage right. This sudden shift of malodorous winds has caused liberals to shiver in separation anxiety knowing they’re going to have to look elsewhere to assuage their demon jones, as they no longer have the pale pudgy strategist as target for their limp verbal projectiles.

Mr. Rove made his teary announcement at a joint press conference held on the South Lawn of the White House alongside the tenant whom he thrust into residency of that property with all the elegance and subtlety of an armor plated freight train run off its tracks into a Third World flea market. The 43rd President of the U.S. visibly choked up saying “so long” to the man he affectionately called “Turd Blossom,” as his alter ego was pried away from him for the first time in 14 years.

Rove scoffed at reporters’ questions about future subpoenas in the federal prosecutor firings investigation leading to his abrupt retirement, referring to the inquiry as “pure politics.” And coming from the high grand master of pure politics, this should be considered the ultimate compliment. Then the man with the power to cloud men’s minds shuffled off to Nowheresville City in what he labeled a desire to spend more time lying to his family.

But the furniture in his White House office had yet to be decontaminated when his family apparently grew tired of his company kicking him out to spend the bulk of his new free time on various television news shows tossing fistfuls of scathing barbs at potential Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, whom he described as “fatally flawed” but meant “colder than a witch’s catcher’s mitt hidden under a crate of four pound rump roasts in the rear of a walk-in freezer.”

read more HERE

By PETROS GIANAKOURIS
The Associated Press

ZAHARO, Greece - Forest fires sweeping uncontrolled across southern Greece have killed 44 people, some found Saturday in the charred homes of mountain villages reached too late by rescue crews hampered by powerful winds. New blazes erupted across the country, including a fire on the fringes of Athens.

The deadliest fire was in the western Peloponnese region of southern Greece, where at least 38 people were killed in mountain villages near the town Zaharo, the fire department said. A massive fire whipped by strong winds continued to burn out of control.

Firefighters searching through charred houses after daybreak found 10 bodies in the village of Makistos, the department said. They were believed to include a mother and her four children reported missing during the night.

Nine of those killed near Zaharo - including three firefighters - died after a car crashed into a fire truck and led to a pile up as people tried to flee the area, the fire department said. The smoldering remains of the fire truck lay overturned in a gully, and the charred wreckage of cars and a motorbike were strewn across the road.

“This is a day of national mourning,” said Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who visited the afflicted areas and chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting. “We are fighting against heavy odds, on many fronts and under particularly tough conditions.”

Hot, dry winds gusting to gale force were expected to continue Saturday before abating in the evening. The winds frequently prevented firefighting planes from taking off, leaving mainly ground forces to fight the flames in the southern Peloponnese, occasionally helped by helicopters.

read more HERE

Hey, QuestionGirl! Here’s something you all can do today…

Saturday in the Park- Chicago