Doing the exact opposite from what they should be doing

Breaking News:

More US troops may go to Afghanistan this year

Pentagon leaders on Wednesday signaled a surge in U.S. forces in Afghanistan "sooner rather than later," a shift that could send some units there within weeks, as officials prepare to cut troop levels in Iraq.

Senior military officials are looking across the services to identify smaller units and other equipment that could be sent to Afghanistan, according to a defense official.

Although there are no brigade-sized units that can be deployed quickly into Afghanistan, military leaders believe they can find a number of smaller units such as aviation, engineering and surveillance troops that can be moved more swiftly, said the official, who requested anonymity because the discussions are private.

The moves are expected to happen within weeks rather than months, the official said.

*****

They should be bringing ALL the troops home not sending MORE!
But in typical cabal fashion they are doing exactly the opposite of what they should be doing!

The shrub is claiming privilege

As if that is anything new ...

The shrub invoked executive privilege to keep Congress from seeing the FBI report of an interview with the prick Dick Cheney and other records related to the administration's leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003.

The shrub's decision drew a sharp protest Wednesday from Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of House Oversight Committee, which had subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to turn over the documents."This unfounded assertion of executive privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person," the California Democrat said. "If the vice president did nothing wrong, what is there to hide?"

Waxman left little doubt he would soon move for a committee vote to hold Mukasey in contempt of Congress.

Casino regulators got items meant for Katrina victims

The agency that regulates Mississippi's casinos got pillows, stoves, dinnerware and other items meant for Hurricane Katrina victims, according to state records.

The Mississippi Gaming Commission was among 11 state agencies that received the household items from the state's surplus agency.

A breakdown of what each agency received shows the commission took a coffee maker, a case of pillows, wash kits, two dual-burner stoves, plates and utensils, two cases of hand sanitizers and 20 five-gallon containers.

Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, could not be reached for comment. But an aide, Becky Clark, said the agency is keeping the items "in case of another hurricane."

The Mississippi Department of Corrections also got 20 coffee makers, 15 tents, four cases of pillows, five cases of men's underwear and other supplies.

An investigation revealed in June that for two years after Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency stored 121 truckloads of household items that were purchased or donated for Katrina victims. FEMA eventually declared the items surplus, saying it was too expensive to keep warehousing them, and then offered them to federal agencies and states.

Sixteen states, including storm-ravaged Mississippi, took the items. However, it was discovered that those items were given to the 11 state agencies, schools, cities and fire departments rather than being distributed to residents trying to rebuild their homes.

Leaders of nonprofit groups helping Katrina victims were astounded when shown photos of the FEMA supplies. All said they were unaware that such supplies were available.

As of this moment ...

4,121 brave men and women are gone.

Life's Cardinal Rules

The Cardinal Rule of Moving

Never pack a box heavier than you can lift because you may be the one lifting it!

*****

Now, if someone would tell the Mrs., of this rule maybe my back will stop hurting. Of course when moving a library one does have to expect a little heft to be involved - books are heavy ... but come on, a 100 lbs in a square/foot box - now damn it that's a bit excessive even for this old ball player.

She can only lift 10 lbs by the way. More boxes, but hey, no back pain, there.

White worm-eating slug discovered in Wales

Here's a BBC story about the discovery of a new slug species.

It's pure white and carnivorous, feasting on worms instead of the typical slug diet of plants and decaying matter.

Because it was found in Wales, it's been christened with a partially-Welsh name: Selenochlamys ysbryda.

Ysbryd is Welsh for ghost.

Worm-eating slug found in garden

15 Smart Ways to Beat Jet Lag

No one likes jet lag. We get off a flight feeling wrinkled and exhausted and then head into a day full of meetings or jump full swing into a vacation. Here’s how to reset your body clock and sleep better.

Read more from 15 Smart Ways to Beat Jet Lag

Analysts: More Banks Will Fail

From the New York Times:

“As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount, federal regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail over the next year.

But after a large mortgage lender in California collapsed late Friday, Wall Street analysts began posing two crucial questions: Just how many banks might falter? And, more urgently, which one could be next?

The nation’s banks are in far less danger than they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when more than 1,000 federally insured institutions went under during the savings-and-loan crisis. The debacle, the greatest collapse of American financial institutions since the Depression, prompted a government bailout that cost taxpayers about $125 billion.

But the troubles are growing so rapidly at some small and midsize banks that as many as 150 out of the 7,500 banks nationwide could fail over the next 12 to 18 months, analysts say. Other lenders are likely to shut branches or seek mergers…”

Read the rest of the article here.

Phil Gramm: Pornographer?

Thanks to the folks over at Scrutiny Hooligans for this one:

(quote)

By Arratik

Turns out that McCain surrogate/lobbyist/bank president/sub-prime mortgage crisis profiteer Phil Gramm, who famously referred to the United States of America as a “nation of whiners” last week, was actually doing his part to turn us into a nation of moaners back in the seventies as a producer of sub-Cinemax soft-core pr0n.

This popped up @ The Nation, among other places:

Before Gramm joined the Christian Coalition’s Ralph Reed to call for the defunding of the NEA, before he attacked an opponent for taking money from a gay rights group, and before he was interviewed by the white supremacist Southern Partisan magazine, Gramm was an avidly active investor in soft-core pornography movies.

Gramm’s journey into porn began in 1973, when his brother-in-law, George Caton, rushed to tell him about an exciting low-budget soft-core production called “Truck Stop Women.” A promo poster for the film boasted of its buxom stars: “No Rig Was Too Big For Them To Handle.” Caton, who was in charge of fundraising for the production, asked Gramm to become an investor. To entice his brother-in-law, Caton showed him scenes of Playboy Playmate of the year Claudia Jennings displaying her bare essentials (she is naked throughout much of the film).

These scenes “really got Phil titillated,” Caton told journalist John Judis in 1995. Gramm enthusiastically cut Caton a check for $15,000. Because the film was oversold, however, Caton returned his brother-in-law’s money, offering him an investment opportunity in an upcoming feature

That “upcoming feature” was originally supposed to be a film about beauty pageant judges who have sex with contestants, but that film was shelved at the eleventh hour in favor of another production called White House Madness, a satire of the Nixon Administration (of which, ironically, Gramm was a staunch supporter) that featured a troupe of drag queens (called The Cockettes) and depicted Nixon as someone who wandered around the White House naked. It was a box-office flop.

I don’t know about you, but “failed pr0n investor” is exactly the kind of thing I look for on the resume of a potential Secretary of the Treasury.

(end quote)

I don’t know about you, but “failed pr0n investor” is exactly the kind of thing I look for on the resume of a potential Secretary of the Treasury.

You and me both, you and me both.

Bertha the longest-lived July storm in history

Not exactly what I thought would happen, but the neck hairs are never wrong - Bertha did do something before she was all said and done (and she isn't all said and done just yet).

Tropical Storm Bertha headed back out over open ocean and away from the U.S. mainland Tuesday after it battered Bermuda, knocking out electricity to thousands on the Atlantic tourist island.

It is the longest-lived July tropical storm in history, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Bertha became the Atlantic season's first hurricane, before weakening into a tropical storm.

It is expected to strengthen over the next 24 hours, forecasters said.

The previous longest-lived storm, known as Storm No. 2, occurred in 1960 and lasted just over 12 days, according to forecaster Daniel Brown. Bertha is entering its 13th day.

The storm was centered 360 miles (580 kilometers) northeast of Bermuda Tuesday night, with sustained winds near 65 mph (100 kph), the center said. It was moving northeast at 6 mph (9 kph).