And .... they're off!

Louisiana Parents Fear Elementary School Cafeteria Scanner Will Implant the Antichrist’s ‘Mark of the Beast’ on Kids’ Hands

Congress: They don't work for you.

Bedbugs in hospitals.

We can blame Chile for deforming the earth.

This PROVES we should let the oil companies build pipelines all over the place and drill and ... oops...

Roundup ... is really really toxic.

Have telemarketing people been calling you more on the phone?

What single gif or picture would you show someone?

Georgie Bush's Great Mulligan.

Teaching Game Theory.

Starting the week with a bang... Or maybe a whimper...

Louisiana's coast is feeling the sea-level rise.

While state officials continue to argue over restoration projects to save the state’s sinking, crumbling coast, top researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have concluded that Louisiana is in line for the highest rate of sea-level rise “on the planet.” * Indeed, the water is rising so fast that some coastal restoration projects could be obsolete before they are completed, the officials said.
NOAA’s Tim Osborne, an 18-year veteran of Louisiana coastal surveys, and Steve Gill, senior scientist at the agency’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, spelled out the grim reality in interviews with The Lens. When new data on the rate of coastal subsidence is married with updated projections of sea-level rise, the southeast corner of Louisiana looks likely to be under at least 4.3 feet of gulf water by the end of the century.

The Republicans are getting upset that the Democrats are standing back and letting them fall on their faces. Josh Marshall says it best:

Official Washington is accustomed to having a Democratic safety net — not cash transfers for those who fall through the cracks of the market economy — but that Democrats will come in and solve crises created by GOP government by crisis.

Cheney is afraid of being tried as a war criminal.

No chemicals, no GMO grain, India has record crop:

What if the agricultural revolution has already happened and we didn’t realize it? Essentially, that’s the idea in this report from the Guardian about a group of poverty-stricken Indian rice and potato farmers who harvested confirmed world-record yields of rice and potatoes. Best of all: They did it completely sans-GMOs or even chemicals of any kind

And farmers are demanding control over the seeds:

Vandana Shiva: 'Seeds must be in the hands of farmers',Biodiversity campaigner accuses corporate giants of trying to take over the world's seed supply through genetic engineering,

I have here in my hand... McCarthyism style innuendo doesn't quite work the way it did before YouTube and the internets....

News worth not pulling your hair out

Zack is 17-year-old high school senior at Baton Rouge Magnet High School. What sets him apart from his peers – and why we’re making him this week’s Skeptical Ninja – is his tireless efforts in ridding creationism from Louisiana’s science classrooms.

He’s already won a victory. His efforts have helped convince the Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to buy biology textbooks that accurately teach the theory of evolution, despite powerful forces on the opposing side.

After all the bad press, the poisonous food and the deadly toys....

Here we go again... and again and again.... Now China is producing defective and smelly drywall:

(CNN) -- Officials are looking into claims that Chinese-made drywall installed in some Florida homes is emitting smelly, corrosive gases and ruining household systems such as air conditioners, the Consumer Product Safety Commission says.

The Florida Health Department, which is investigating whether the drywall poses any health risks, said it has received more than 140 homeowner complaints. And class-action lawsuits allege defective drywall has caused problems in at least three states -- Florida, Louisiana and Alabama -- while some attorneys involved claim such drywall may have been used in tens of thousands of U.S. homes.

Homeowners' lawsuits contend the drywall has caused them to suffer health problems such as headaches and sore throats and face huge repair expenses.

The drywall is alleged to have high levels of sulfur and, according to homeowners' complaints, the sulfur-based gases smell of rotten eggs and corrode piping and wiring, causing electronics and appliances to fail.

"It's economically devastating, and it's emotionally devastating," said Florida attorney Ervin A. Gonzalez, who filed one of the lawsuits. It would cost a third of an affected home's value to fix the dwelling, Gonzalez said.

"The interior has to be gutted, the homeowners have to continue paying mortgages, and they have to pay for a [temporary] place to live," Gonzalez said.

Apparently they aren't going learn any time soon that producing deadly products kills people and pisses off the ones that live. I put back on the shelf almost everything I can that has 'Made in China' stamped on it.

Is this actually because McCain despises the telepromter?

The details remains sketchy. But based on a press conference held moments ago by McCain campaign chairman Rick Davis, the Republicans are planning to cancel or radically scale back some or perhaps even all of this year's Republican convention. All that seems certain now is that the convention will be called to order tomorrow afternoon and stay in session for roughly two hours -- between 3 PM and 5 PM local time. They'll do some official business but eschew openly partisan activities.

From there forward it appears they'll wait to see just how protracted and bad the landfall in Louisiana is, and then go from there, deciding on a day by day basis how much of a convention to hold on that day.

Davis still left the question up in the air. But it appears that there is a good chance that McCain will give his acceptance speech not in person in Minnesota but rather by satellite link somewhere in the Gulf region.

And I betcha he won't be caught eating cake, either.

Three years ago

Diaper Dave subpoenaed

WASHINGTON -- The "D.C. Madam" served a subpoena Tuesday on Sen. David Vitter, R-La., requiring him to testify about his use of the Washington, D.C., escort service federal prosecutors say was a prostitution ring.

The subpoena calls on the freshman senator to testify at a federal court hearing Nov. 28 looking into the business operations of the $2 million escort service Deborah Jeane Palfrey operated in the nation's capital for 13 years.

Vitter has acknowledged being a client of Palfrey's company, Pamela Martin & Associates, and his telephone number appeared six times in the firm's phone records between 1999 and 2001, when he was a member of the House of Representatives. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

[snip]

Palfrey's attorney, Montgomery Sibley, said Vitter is being summoned to testify about what transpired during his sessions with the escorts. Sibley said he thinks Vitter might have been a client of Neble, and the subpoena also requires him to show up with any records relating to her or the service.

[snip]

Vitter declined to say whether he would honor Palfrey's subpoena or challenge it. A spokesman said, "Sen. Vitter is completely focused on critical Louisiana priorities in the U.S. Senate."

Uh huh. Riiiiiight.

Kinda like Abu Ghraib?

Where the low ranking officers get punished but not the people who were responsible for the action itself?

Washington, DC (AHN) - The U.S. Air Force plans to relieve four officers of duty after an incident where six nuclear-armed cruise missiles were lost. The missiles were flown across the the country in a B-52 bomber.

More than 60 Air Force personnel have had their nuclear security clearances taken away because of the incident. Defense Department officials say procedures for handling such missiles were not followed.

The cruise missiles were supposed to be carrying dummy warheads and were to have been transferred from North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

Six of the missiles, though, had nuclear warheads with more than 50 times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The missiles also reportedly sat in the plane for hours before the mistake was discovered.

Or are these officers being punished only because the story was leaked to the press? Have the higher-ups answered the question as to WHY they were being shifted in the first place against international law? Does this have anything to do with Cheney and Iran?

Bush's legacy of neglect

Is working so well, don't you think?

JACKSON, April 22 Cuts in welfare and poor medical care may be responsible for a sharp increase in infant deaths in Mississippi and neighboring states, doctors said.

"I don't think the rise is a fluke, and it's a disturbing trend, not only in Mississippi but throughout the Southeast," said Dr. Christina Glick, a neonatologist in Jackson, Miss. The trend reverses decades of progress in reducing infant deaths in southern states with large black populations and extensive poverty, the New York Times reported Sunday.

Contributing factors may include cuts in welfare and Medicaid, poor access to doctors and a growing epidemic of obesity among potential mothers, the Times said.

Mississippi's infant mortality rate rose from 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2004 to 11.4 per 1,000 births in 2005. The national average in 2003, the last year for which such information was compiled, was 6.9.

Smaller increases also occurred in 2005 in Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee. Louisiana and South Carolina saw increases in 2004 and have not yet reported for 2005.