Ailing ... Kennedy returns to the Senate for vote

Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, battling a brain tumor, walked through a wall of applause and into the Senate on Wednesday and cast a dramatic, decisive vote on long-stalled Medicare legislation.

"Aye," the 76-year-old Kennedy said in a loud voice, smiling broadly and making a thumbs-up gesture as he registered his vote.

Spectators in the galleries that overhang the chamber burst into cheers - a violation of decorum that drew no complaints.

"It's great to be back. I love this place," he said after his brief visit.

Kennedy made his way into the Senate on his own power, appearing little the worse for his illness. A patch of scalp was clearly visible through his familiar white hair, although it was not clear whether that was a result of surgery he underwent or the effects of chemotherapy or radiation that are part of his treatment.

He walked into chamber accompanied by Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, his party's presidential nominee-in-waiting, as well as fellow Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Kennedy's son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island.

Democratic senators, who had been tipped to his presence, burst into applause when he entered. Some Republicans looked around quizzically, then quickly joined in the applause when they saw Kennedy.

"I return to the Senate today to keep a promise to our senior citizens, and that's to protect Medicare," the senator said in a statement issued by his office as the vote was unfolding.

"Win, lose or draw, I wanted to be here. I wasn't going to take the chance that my vote could make the difference."

Kennedy's dramatic return gave Democrats the impetus they needed to free Medicare legislation from gridlock. It had received 59 votes on an earlier test, one short of the 60 needed to advance. Kennedy made 60, and when Republicans saw the outcome was sealed, several of them joined Democrats to pad the margin. The House already has overwhelmingly approved the measure.

Lawmakers are under pressure from doctors and the elderly patients they serve to void a 10.6 percent pay cut for doctors treating Medicare patients. It kicked in July 1 because of a funding formula that establishes lower reimbursement rates when Medicare spending levels exceed established targets. Some doctors say they'll quit taking new patients if the cuts stand.

Officials said Kennedy left Boston immediately after his daily cancer treatment for a flight to Washington. He was returning home immediately, in time for Thursday's treatment.

"It was a very important day. This whole issue of Medicare is something that's been enormously important to me since I've been in the United States Senate," a smiling Kennedy told reporters on returning home Wednesday evening. "This was a key vote on this issue, so I was glad to be able to participate."

He said he was touched by the reception from colleagues.

"It's nice to be able to get a good round of applause from even those that you differ with from time to time," he said.

Asked what his doctors thought about the trip, he said, "Well, that's another story for another time."

One official said Kennedy has been in regular contact with Majority Leader Harry Reid, and had asked his doctors earlier this week whether he could make a quick trip to Washington. He told Reid on Tuesday he would be there.

Kennedy was last in the Senate in mid-May. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor this spring after suffering unexplained symptoms that resulted in his being taken to a hospital on Cape Cod, Mass., and then flown to Boston.

He later underwent surgery at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.,

Seated in the Senate gallery were Kennedy's wife, Vicki, and Caroline, his niece. As the tourists and senators alike rose in a standing ovation, Vicki Kennedy wiped away tears.

So did many of Kennedy's colleagues and several Senate clerks.

Warren Jeffs released from Vegas hospital

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was released from a Nevada hospital Wednesday, a day after he was found "convulsive," weak and feverish in an Arizona jail cell, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.

The 52-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was released around 5 p.m., police Officer Jose Montoya said. He said he did not know where Jeffs was transported to.

Calls to the Mohave County Sheriff's Department, which had custody of Jeffs, were not immediately returned.

Earlier Wednesday, a sheriff's spokeswoman said Jeffs was conscious but in a "weakened state of health, acting in a convulsive manner, shaking, and running a fever" when he was found Tuesday his solo jail cell in Kingman, Ariz.

That prompted jailers to move Jeffs from the Mohave County Jail to Kingman Regional Medical Center. He was then flown about 100 miles to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas.

"We're not told what his diagnosis is," spokeswoman Trish Carter said of Jeffs. "But based on our observations from jail staff, it does not appear to be life-threatening."

During his hospitalization, Jeffs was under heavy guard while being treated in Las Vegas for an unknown medical condition, the Police Department said in a statement.

Jeffs' Arizona lawyer, Mike Piccarreta of Tucson, acknowledged that Jeffs was hospitalized but refused to say why.

"I really don't want to comment on his personal medical condition," Piccarreta said. "I think anyone that was being incarcerated as a result of persecution for his religious beliefs would not be in good health."

Jeffs has been in custody since his August 2006 arrest outside Las Vegas. He had been on the run for more than a year, and made the FBI's Most Wanted List before his capture.

Utah court documents show that Jeffs lost 30 pounds in jail awaiting trial in St. George, Utah, and that he was hospitalized for treatment of a self-imposed fast, dehydration and sleep deprivation.

A clinical social worker who interviewed Jeffs in April 2007 reported that Jeffs attempted to hang himself in January 2007 at the Washington County jail, and was seen several days later throwing himself against walls and banging his head.

Jeffs was convicted by a Utah jury last year of two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison for his role in the 2001 marriage of a 14-year-old follower to her 19-year-old cousin.

Records show that Jeffs was treated in a Utah prison infirmary in February 2007 for health problems attributed to refusing to eat. A year later, Utah authorities say, the 6-foot-3 Jeffs weighed 145 pounds when he was moved to Arizona.

Carter said she did not immediately know how much Jeffs weighed when he was hospitalized Tuesday.

"Our job is to ensure he's in good health and ready to go to trial," Carter said. "If he has any medical conditions, we are going to have deputies and detention officers make sure he's safe and healthy."

Jeffs is charged in Arizona as an accomplice with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor stemming from the marriages he allegedly arranged between underage girls and older men.

He also had been charged with four counts of incest as an accomplice, but those charges were dropped last month after Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn found Arizona's incest law does not apply to the arranged marriages of teenage girls and their older male relatives.

Carter said Jeffs has been jailed in protective custody - alone in his cell 23 hours a day, and allowed one hour of recreation segregated from other inmates.

Jeffs was named in 2002 as the president, or prophet, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an insular sect with nearly 6,000 followers that practices polygamy in arranged marriages that have sometimes involved underage girls.

Many FLDS members live in the twin border towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, about 160 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Another FLDS ranch was raided in west Texas in April, setting off a lengthy legal battle over the custody of hundreds of children.

*****

So the story keeps going and going and going and going and going and going and ...

The Moon has water!

Might be that tale about green cheese has some merits to?!

All jokes aside this is big news:

Today, researchers announced that they've found water molecules in moon matter retrieved by NASA Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The water was coaxed out of volcanic glass pebbles (like those seen below).
From National Geographic:

The researchers believe the water was ejected along with magma when "fire fountains" erupted more than three billion years ago from the moon's surface.

The finding raises new questions about the long-standing "giant impact" theory, which holds that the moon was formed more than a billion years prior to that when a Mars-sized body slammed into Earth and sent debris into orbit.

Researchers once believed the impact was hot enough and long enough to vaporize volatile elements, including the building blocks of water.

The new study "puts some limits on how hot this planet was and how quickly the volatile elements condensed back into the solid," said study lead author Alberto Saal, a geologist at Brown University.

Water on the moon

Mexico closes 5 hotels south of Cancun

Mexico's Environmental Department is closing down at least five small, upscale hotels and three other developments south of Cancun.

Officials say the businesses don't have permission to operate in the protected area near the Tulum Ruins.

Inspectors and soldiers arrived Monday to post closed signs. They say they will be back on Friday to permanently close the businesses and begin clearing out guests.

The closures were officially announced Wednesday.

Hotel owners say their papers are in order and the government can't shut them down.

Federal environmental prosecutor Patricio Patron says the hotels could eventually be demolished if the owners can't prove their legal right to the land. But he says that will take a year or more.

*****

Having worked as an Archaeologist at the Tulum ruins I can say that the Mexican government is right to close those 'hotels' because the 'tourists' from those hotels were always trampling trough the site and touching everything ...

They especially loved to have their photo made with them touching - literally touching history - a mural that was behind a wooden portcullis made of timbers the diameter of a telephone pole which they would squeeze around to stand grinning their shit-eating grins with hands on the fragile mural despite the sign beside the mural (in 16 different languages no less) telling them not to touch the mural and that the Federales will shoot them if they do. Many a tourist doesn't know how close they came to having a third eye for their stupidity.

Austria gets tougher on smokers

Austria's parliament is tightening smoking restrictions in food and drink establishments.

The law passed Wednesday requires restaurants and bars larger than 861 square feet (80 square meters) to create separate smoking sections. It prohibits minors and pregnant women from working in spaces where they are exposed to smoke.

Establishments smaller than 538 square feet (50 square meters) can choose whether they go smoke-free. For those between 538 and 861 square feet (50 and 80 square meters), authorities will determine if the creation of a separate room is feasible. If not, owners will have to pick between the two options.

The designated areas must have special signs saying smoking is dangerous.

*****

It looks like the Europeans are finally getting with the program!

Hooray!

New World Heritage natural wonders

The World Heritage Committee added eight natural sites and 19 cultural sites to UNESCO's World Heritage List of cultural, natural, and mixed properties that have "outstanding universal value." The new natural sites include:

* Joggins Fossil Cliffs (Canada)
* Mount Sanqingshan National Park (China)
* Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems (France)
* Surtsey (Iceland), image at left
* Saryarka - Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan)
* Monarch Butterfly biosphere Reserve (Mexico)
* Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona (Switzerland)
* Socotra Archipelago (Yemen)

Twenty-seven World Heritage sites added (UNESCO), World Heritage 2008 photo gallery (UNESCO)

State employee won't lower flags for Helms

A longtime North Carolina state employee has chosen to retire instead of lowering flags to honor repugnant-ican Jesse Helms.

L.F. Eason III told his staff at the state Standards Laboratory not to lower the flag. The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that Eason sent workers an e-mail saying he didn't think it was appropriate to lower the flags because of Helms' "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice."

Eason is calling it quits after 29 years with the Department of Agriculture.

Even in death the Black Prince of Darkness is fucking up other people's lives!

It should be telling that a person with 29 years in on a job is willing to quit that job rather than 'honor' an honor-less demon when the entire world is rejoicing the demon's passing!

Twelve little words gone missing

From the boys and girls over at Scrutiny Hooligans:

{quote: in part}

I can’t believe I missed this until just now.

Many of you may have read about or seen the footage of Code Pink’s protest during the shrub's address at a swearing-in ceremony for new American citizens that was held at Monticello on July 4th. If not, well, it’s on YouTube.

Looking past the protest, the shrub quoted Thomas Jefferson's last letter, which was written to Roger C. Weightman, during his speech. The letter was sent as a regret that Jefferson wouldn’t be able to attend a 50th anniversary celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which turned out to be the very day that Jefferson (as well as his Presidential predecessor John Adams) shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible. From the shrub's address:

Thomas Jefferson understood that these rights do not belong to Americans alone. They belong to all mankind. And he looked to the day when all people could secure them. On the 50th anniversary of America’s independence, Thomas Jefferson passed away. But before leaving this world, he explained that the principles of the Declaration of Independence were universal. In one of the final letters of his life, he wrote, “May it be to the world, what I believe it will be — to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all — the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.”

Kind of gets you right there, doesn’t it?

Of course, anyone familiar with Thomas Jefferson’s letters would have been correct to detect something missing from that quote. It appears that Bush’s speech writers had edited out twelve words…

This is the full quote from Jefferson’s letter to Weightman.

Note the boldface emphasis:

"May it be to the world what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self government."

Part of me would like to think that the real reason those words were excised from Jefferson’s quote was because during his initial rehearsal of this speech the shrub kept saying “monkey” instead of “monkish” and couldn’t keep himself from laughing uncontrollably (because, like most men of his ilk, he thinks that farts and monkeys are absolutely frickin’ hilarious!), and his speech writer simply grabbed his red pen and prevented the “leader of the free world” from making an even bigger ass out of himself. But it seems to me that the real reason the words of one of our founding fathers were censored should be obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention over the last seven-odd years.

I think that Mojo Nixon said it best when he said “You know, Thomas Jefferson’s gonna be mighty pissed when he finds out about this…”

{end quote}

(Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

*****

I can not believe I missed this until now either!

WWF vehicle ambushed in Congo gorilla reserve

Unidentified gunmen ambushed a vehicle belonging to an international conservation group in an eastern Congo gorilla reserve, killing two people and wounding three others, officials and a U.N.-funded radio station said Wednesday.

The vehicle belonged to the World Wildlife Fund, said Thierry Bodson, the local head of the organization in Congo. The gunmen carried out their attack late Monday in Kasoso in Virunga National Park, a lush game park in Central Africa that is home to some of the world's last remaining mountain gorillas.

U.N.-funded Radio Okapi reported that the vehicle was carrying 11 people. The wife of a park guard and her daughter were killed. The three injured were a park guard, the wife of another guard and a trainer for the World Wildlife Fund, Radio Okapi said.

The attackers fled with five GPS tracking devices, the radio said.

The identity of the assailants was unknown. Bodson said only that the car "had been spotted by bandits and they opened fire."

Virunga National Park is in a lawless swath of eastern Congo, straddling a volcanic mountain range that borders Rwanda and Uganda. About 700 endangered mountain gorillas live in the region; a couple of hundred of them live in Congo.

Local militia groups - including Congolese Mayi Mayi and Rwandan rebels - have been active in the region for more than a decade, feeding off a vulnerable civilian population.

More than 120 rangers have been killed in Virunga park over the last decade.

Polygamist sect leader Jeffs hospitalized

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was taken from jail in Arizona to a Las Vegas hospital for what the sheriff described as a serious medical problem.

Jeffs, 52, was brought to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center on Tuesday, authorities said.

Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan didn't specify Jeffs' medical problem, but said it was serious enough to move him about 100 miles from Kingman Medical Center to the Las Vegas hospital.

Jeffs is president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - an insular faith of nearly 6,000 people. The faith practices polygamy in arranged marriages that have sometimes involved underage girls.

One of their ranches was raided in west Texas in April, setting off a lengthy legal battle over the custody of hundreds of children.

Jeffs was convicted by a Utah jury last year on two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison for his role in the 2001 marriage of a 14-year-old follower to her 19-year-old cousin.

Jeffs is charged in Arizona as an accomplice with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor stemming from the marriages of two girls. He had also been charged with four counts of incest as an accomplice, but those charges were dropped last month.

The sect leader has had several health complications during his jail stay, including a trip to a prison infirmary because of a self-imposed fast. Jeffs also attempted suicide last year and was seen throwing himself against the walls and banging his head, authorities said.

Jeffs' Las Vegas lawyer, Richard Wright, did not immediately respond Wednesday to messages from The Associated Press.

Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center spokesman Dan Davidson said he had no patient listed under Jeffs' name, and said he could provide no further information.

In dropping the accomplice to incest charges last month, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn found that state incest law does not apply to the arranged marriages of two teenage girls and their older male relatives.

*****

And the soap opera continues ...

Did You Know ...

That during the American Revolution the provisional government wanted to be sure its soldiers did not get dry.

Every soldier got a quart of beer a day along with a pint of milk.

Hurricane Bertha could strengthen in coming days

Those darn prickly hairs ...

Forecasters are saying Hurricane Bertha could become stronger in the next day as it heads toward Bermuda.

It's unknown if or when the hurricane will make landfall. Forecasters have been urging people on the island to monitor the storm's progress.

As of about 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, the center of the storm was about 550 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands and about 715 miles southeast of Bermuda.

Maximum sustained winds are about 75 mph with some higher gusting. National Hurricane Center forecasters expect the storm to regain strength in the next 24 hours but say there is a lot of uncertainty in that prediction.

The Atlantic season's first hurricane is traveling west-northwest at about 12 mph.

Those prickly hairs are still standing on the back of my neck and it seems they are starting to stand up on the forecaster's necks as well ...

Bertha is going to be a doozy before she all finished.

Chinese Police probe death of Canadian model

A young Canadian model was found dead in her Shanghai apartment building this week, and police said Wednesday they suspect she was murdered.

An official in the news department of Shanghai's Public Security Bureau said that police got an emergency call early Monday about the death of Diana O'Brien. Police said she was 23, though media reports in Canada have said she was 22.

The official, who gave only her family name, Fang, gave no further details on O'Brien's death.

Police said O'Brien entered China on June 24. She was working for a Shanghai-based modeling company, JH Model Management.

The Web site for JH, which says it is "one of the leading modeling agencies in the East of China for over 100 models," has not been accessible since Tuesday evening.

A young man who answered the door Tuesday night at the address the agency gave on its Web site said he didn't know of any modeling agency there. The apartment is in a high-rise building complex where several apartments have been converted into offices.

A statement from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada said consular officials in Shanghai were told of O'Brien's death on Monday and that Canadian officials are in regular contact with the Chinese authorities conducting the investigation.

The statement from spokesman Andre Lemay, citing Canada's Privacy Act, said no further information could be released at this time.

Atheist soldier sues Army for 'unconstitutional' discrimination

Army Spc. Jeremy Hall was raised Baptist.

Like many Christians, he said grace before dinner and read the Bible before bed. Four years ago when he was deployed to Iraq, he packed his Bible so he would feel closer to God.

He served two tours of duty in Iraq and has a near perfect record. But somewhere between the tours, something changed. Hall, now 23, said he no longer believes in God, fate, luck or anything supernatural.

Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist.

His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety.

In March, Hall filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others. In the suit, Hall claims his rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment were violated and suggests that the United States military has become a Christian organization.

"I think it's utterly and totally wrong. Unconstitutional," Hall said.

Hall said there is a pattern of discrimination against non-Christians in the military.

Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, after refusing to pray at his table, Hall said he was told to go sit somewhere else. In another incident, when he was nearly killed during an attack on his Humvee, he said another soldier asked him, "Do you believe in Jesus now?"

Hall isn't seeking compensation in his lawsuit -- just the guarantee of religious freedom in the military. Eventually, Hall was sent home early from Iraq and later returned to Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas, to complete his tour of duty.

He also said he missed out on promotions because he is an atheist.

"I was told because I can't put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn't make a good leader," Hall said.

Michael Weinstein, a retired senior Air Force officer and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is suing along with Hall. Weinstein said he's been contacted by more than 8,000 members of the military, almost all of them complaining of pressure to embrace evangelical Christianity.

"Our Pentagon, our Pentacostalgon, is refusing to realize that when you put the uniform on, there's only one religious faith: patriotism," Weinstein said.

Religious discrimination is a violation of the First Amendment and is also against military policy. The Pentagon refused to discuss specifics of Hall's case -- citing the litigation. But Deputy Undersecretary Bill Carr said complaints of evangelizing are "relatively rare." He also said the Pentagon is not pushing one faith among troops.

"If an atheist chose to follow their convictions, absolutely that's acceptable," said Carr. "And that's a point of religious accommodation in department policy, one may hold whatever faith, or may hold no faith."

Weinstein said he doesn't buy it and points to a promotional video by a group called Christian Embassy. The video, which shows U.S. generals in uniform, was shot inside the Pentagon. The generals were subsequently reprimanded.

Another group, the Officers' Christian Fellowship, has representatives on nearly all military bases worldwide. Its vision, which is spelled out on the organization's Web site, reads, "A spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform empowered by the Holy Spirit."

Weinstein has a different interpretation.

"Their purpose is to have Christian officers exercise Biblical leadership to raise up a godly army," he says.

But Carr said the military's position is clear.

"Proselytizing or advancing a religious conviction is not what the nation would have us do and it's not what the military does," Carr said.

The U.S. Justice Department is expected to respond to Hall's lawsuit this week. In the meantime, he continues to work in the military police unit at Fort Riley and plans to leave as soon as his tour of duty expires next year.

(from CNN)

The one, the only, photograph of Earth

Virtually every picture showing the full Earth derives from one photograph taken in 1972. Yet hardly anybody notices this.

Apollo 17 was NASA's last and most successful manned Moon mission. Within just a few hours of launch the crew were 24,000 km away and could see an entire hemisphere of Earth. The photo they took was labelled AS17-148-22726 and was added to the hundreds of thousands of others in the NASA archives. And there it would have remained, were it not for environmental organisations and famine-relief organisations of the early 1980's. Its prominent depiction of Africa and Antarctica made it perfectly suited as symbols for both causes. Posters started appearing pairing the photo with captions such as "It's the only one we've got".

This initial boost was all that was needed to start a monopoly. From then on, whenever someone was seeking to use a photograph of Earth, naturally it was an example of AS17-148-22726 that one would find first. Television, newspapers, websites, mouse pads and marketing material are all oozing with copies of the photograph. Yet astonishingly few people notice that they are being presented with the same photo over and over.

Timetable

Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki raised the prospect on Monday of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of u.s. troops as part of negotiations over a new security agreement with Washington.

(You ain't just whistling Dixie there!
They's a many of us fer setting a timetable an' sticking to it)

It was the first time the U.S.-backed Shi'ite-led government has floated the idea of a timetable for the removal of American forces from Iraq.

(Most likely it ain't the first - Just the first we've heard about)

The cabal has always opposed such a move, saying it would give militant groups an advantage.

(Whoa, big surprise there, buddy boy)

How deep is your Purple!?

You know you have a hit when the Japanese play your tune on their traditional instruments in full orchestral splash with choral accompaniment ...

Forecasters say Hurricane Bertha has weakened to a Category 1 storm.

As of 11 p.m. EDT Tuesday, the center of the storm was about 580 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands and about 840 miles southeast of Bermuda.

Maximum sustained winds decreased to 80 mph with some higher gusting. The storm is expected to continue weakening over the next couple of days. The Atlantic season's first hurricane is headed to the northwest at about 12 mph.

Bertha is expected to continue heading toward Bermuda. Forecasters urged people on the island to continue monitoring the storm's progress. Large swells and high surfs could affect portions of Bermuda late Wednesday.

It's unknown if or when the hurricane will make landfall.

*****

I don't know ... those prickly hairs are still standing up on the back of my neck telling me something is up with this storm.