In one small article, Lou Dobbs sums up with great clarity where we, the American people, really stand.

“Dobbs: The November surprise“, IMO, a very good read!

Is this a case of “function follows form”, or “…the egg and the chicken”? I don’t know. But as much as it may cause your head to hurt, it certainly has an ‘appropriate’ feel to it. And all of it brought to you by FOX!

Kiefer Sutherland will serve 48 days in jail

Actor pleaded no contest to DUI charges; A-24- season will go on as planned

LOS ANGELES - Kiefer Sutherland pleaded no contest Tuesday in his drunken driving case and will begin serving a 48-day jail sentence while his Fox TV drama “24″ begins its winter production break in December.

The show’s star agreed to serve 30 days for driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08 percent, as well as 18 days for violating his probation for a 2004 drunken driving case, according to court records.

The actor was not in the courtroom and his attorney, Blair Berk, entered the plea agreement. A second misdemeanor charge, driving under the influence, was dropped. The charges stemmed from a traffic stop in Los Angeles last month.

Associated Press

MSNBC.com

David Shuster does a fine job of pointing out the idiocy of the Republicans focus on the Moveon.org ad. Go David Go!!

In sharp contrast to the lionization of General David Petraeus by members of the US Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus’s superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (Centcom), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad in March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.

Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little chickenshit” and added, “I hate people like that,” the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

More at the Asia Times

from Media Bistro

Tonight on World News, ABC’s Bob Woodruff updates the story of Omar, an Iraqi translator who helped save Woodruff’s life after the anchor was wounded in a roadside attack. Omar had been working with the US military, but later fled to Syria as a refugee.

In June, Woodruff tracked down Omar in Syria, for a series of reports about the exodus of Iraqi refugees to neighboring countries. Well, Omar recently arrived in the U.S. on a special immigrant visa that grants him permanent residency.

from The Boston Globe

Stories awarded the Pulitzer Prize:

Bush challenges hundreds of laws

Bush could bypass new torture ban

Cheney aide is screening legislation

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement

Bush cites authority to bypass FEMA law

all stories have their link in the story title. - JS

Our congratulations to the Boston Globe’s Charlie Savage

Excellent post by Brian Trent, of Populist Party Of America. A must-read!

You are Destroying America. Yes, You.

Sooner or later (as all great civilizations through time have dealt with) America will be attacked by terrorists again. There are too many people out there hopelessly addicted to extremism, to acting as pawns in a game of supernatural Risk, to blind fanaticism for it not to happen.

But that won’t destroy America.

In history, there have been the Hyksos, the Hittites, the Visigoths, the Huns, the Golden Horde, the Crusaders, and countless other unnamed peoples who have arrived with sword and torch to bring devastation to society. Today they use bombs and AK-47s. And in the future, even if education raises up humanity from the gutters of ignorance there will still be those of the fanatic pathology. It is likely there will always be barbarians.

But that won’t destroy America either.

You will.

Read more »

from YAHOO! NEWS

NORTH BEND, Ore. - Middle School student Kyleray Katherman had a hunch something was amiss with the school’s drinking fountain water. And right he was.

For an English assignment, he tested the bacteria content at four water fountains and one toilet to challenge a ban on students from bringing bottled water to class. It seems some were using it to sneak in alcohol.

Guess which was cleaner? It wasn’t the water fountains.

He then asked students where they would prefer to get their water. That wasn’t the fountains, either.

Classmates, teachers, administrators and board members said they had no idea.

Katherman attends the Oregon Coast Technology School that operates at North Bend Middle School with a focus on infusing technology into all areas of study.

Katherman, 13, used Q-tips and petri dishes, swabbing the spigots of four fountains and sampling one toilet, dunking the cotton in the bowl’s center and then dragging it around the rim for a complete sample.

He took the results to the school lab put them under a light to speed up the bacteria’s growth.

The petri dishes with fountain water were swarming with bacteria. The sample from the toilet was clean, probably because the toilets are doused with cleansing chemicals daily.

“I wanted to see the looks on their faces,” Katherman said.

Either allow water bottles back, Katherman urged, or install “down-pour” systems used in office water coolers.

He took his results to the North Bend School Board with an eye-opening PowerPoint presentation.

Administrators quickly replaced the spigots and casing at three of the water fountains and custodians gave them all a thorough cleaning.

More teachers are providing water in classrooms now, but the ban on water bottles remains.

“It was a great lesson. We don’t always see things in and about the school that are in need of repair,” said Scott Edmondson, the school’s principal, adding, “You’d be surprised how clean the water is in a toilet.”

By JOSEPH WHITE, Associated Press Writer

Add another name to the list of guys who will never get laid. - JS

WASHINGTON - The winner of the spelling bee sounded as if he’d rather be at a math Olympiad. Thirteen-year-old Evan O’Dorney of Danville, Calif., breezed through the Scripps National Spelling Bee with barely a hitch Thursday night, taking the title, the trophy and the prizes in a competition that he confessed really wasn’t his favorite.

The home’schooled eighth-grader easily aced “serrefine” - a noun describing small forceps - to become the last youngster standing at the 80th annual bee. He triumphed after a tense duel with Nate Gartke of Spruce Grove, Alberta, who was trying to become the first Canadian to win.

Afterward, Evan spoke more enthusiastically about attending a math camp in Nebraska this summer than about becoming the English language’s top speller.

“My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together,” he said. “And with the music I like to let out ideas by composing notes - and the spelling is just a bunch of memorization.”

Evan, who tied for 14th last year, won $35,000 cash, plus a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond and a set of reference works. He said he knew how to spell the winning word as soon as the pronouncer said it.

read more at YAHOO!

President Shit For Brains is now aiding the enemy. Today, when speaking at a high school in Michigan, the genius showed a map indicating our troops presence around Baghdad. Now the enemy can bomb those areas. Way to go Boy Wonder!!! Way to support the troops!!!!!

I direct your attention to a map showing our troop presence around Baghdad late last year. This is how we were positioned. Most troops were at bases on the
outskirts of the city. They would move into Baghdad to clear out
neighborhoods during the day, and then they would return to their bases at
night. The problem was that when our troops moved back to the bases, the extremists, the radicals, the killers moved back to the neighborhoods.

And we’re changing. Part of our strategy change, part of the new
mission in Baghdad is for American troops to live and work side by side
with Iraqi forces at small neighborhood posts called joint security
stations. You can see from this map, there are now more than two dozen
joint security stations located throughout Baghdad; more are planned. From
these stations, Iraqi and American forces work together to clear out and
then secure neighborhoods — all aimed at providing security for the people
of Baghdad. If a heavy fight breaks out, our forces will step in, and Iraqi
forces learn valuable skills from American troops; they’ll fight shoulder
to shoulder with the finest military every assembled.
Full transcript here

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Secret Service officers were injured on Tuesday after a gun held by another Secret Service officer accidentally fired inside the White House gate, according to a spokesman, Darrin Blackford.

Their injuries are non-life threatening, the spokesman said.

One officer suffered a shrapnel wound to the face, and the other was wounded in the leg.

They were taken to George Washington Hospital.

At the time, President George W. Bush was on a trip to Blacksburg, Virginia, to attend a ceremony at Virginia Tech university following Monday’s shooting rampage.

“It appears that at approximately 2:10 p.m. (1810 GMT) there was an accidental discharge of a service issued weapon, which occurred inside the Southwest Gate at a security post near the White House,” Blackford said.

Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, Lafayette Park across the street from the White House and other nearby walkways were all shut down to pedestrian traffic due to the incident. Many police vehicles were in the area.

Source: Reuters

Are we nearing the end of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” era? If Staff Sgt. Eric Alva has any say, it just may be. Alva is believed to be the first soldier wounded in the Iraqi war. And he happens to be gay.

Alva called for the policy to be abandoned at a news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday where he also announced his homosexuality.

Massachusetts Rep Marty Meehan is leading the charge to have the ban lifted. Having failed once before in his attempt, Meehan thinks now is the time to try again. Retired Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was introduced, stated he was having second thoughts about the policy. “Last year I held a number of meetings with gay soldiers and Marines,” the General wrote in The New York Times. “These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers.”

(Fighting for democracy, freedoms and rights over there, while many still don’t have them here.)

Read Full Story

Good for them! They took their (undeserved) hits, and they stood their ground. I think it’s high-time we turn the tables and boycott Bush and all of his enablers back down deep into the recesses of complete insignificance.

5 Grammys mark Dixie Chicks’ comeback

LOS ANGELES - The Dixie Chicks completed a defiant comeback on Sunday night, capturing five Grammy awards after being shunned by the country music establishment over the group’s anti-Bush comments leading up to the Iraq invasion.

The Texas trio won all the biggest categories, including record and song of the year for the no-regrets anthem “Not Ready to Make Nice.” They also won best country album, which was especially ironic considering they don’t consider themselves country artists anymore.
[...]

The Dixie Chicks won all five awards they were nominated for, sweet vindication after the superstars’ lives were threatened and sales plummeted when Maines criticized President Bush on the eve of the Iraq war in 2003. Almost overnight, one of the most successful groups of any genre was boycotted by Nashville and disappeared from country radio.
[...]

The standing ovations the Chicks received Sunday illustrated how much the political climate has changed regarding the Iraq war, and even Bush.

“That’s interesting,” Maines crowed from the podium after the country award was handed out earlier in the night. “Well, to quote the great ‘Simpsons’ - ‘Heh-Heh.’

“Just kidding,” added Maines. “A lot of people just turned their TVs off right now. I’m very sorry for that.”

Yahoo! News