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U.S. Representative Tubb Jones (D-OH):

Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, had a brain hemorrhage and was in critical condition with limited brain function, a doctor said Wednesday.

Tubbs Jones, 58, suffered the hemorrhage while driving her car in Cleveland Heights on Tuesday, said Dr. Gus Kious, president of Huron Hospital in East Cleveland. The congresswoman had been driving erratically and her vehicle crossed lanes of traffic before coming to a stop, police said.

Sad, of course, but better news that had been released earlier:

EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier Wednesday, media outlets, citing "sources familiar with the situation," erroneously reported that Tubbs Jones had died.

Once in a while there are good examples of the necessity of fact-checking.

My thoughts are with her family.

Instate Update, thanks to Shakesville:

UPDATE: According to NPR, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones has died. I'm looking for confirmation. Blub.

UPDATE 2: CNN is now also reporting that she has died. RIP Rep. Tubbs Jones. Would that every member of Congress were like you. Dammit, I feel absolutely deflated.

Damn.

Update again - Apparently still alive.  I'm done with ghoulwatch.

Posted by Earl at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Direct quote lifted from (with thanks to) Think Progress:

Congressman Sali informed us that a solution to the high price of gasoline was to make petroleum from “all those trees in our forests.” … He continued by saying there “could be up to 40 barrels of oil” in a single tree.

40 barrels of oil, at this time (NOW, The PRESENT), probably consisted of 40 acres of trees, with a couple of dinosaur carcasses thrown in.

Once the meteor hit, wiping out most life on this rock with the billions of tons of earth being thrown into the sky and burying it almost instantaneously, the only thing left was a few million years of processing before Dick & W showed up to suck this earth dry.

A single tree, on the other hand, has about 40 years of processing solar energy.  40 years of sucking up solar power unlike the light, sweet crude that our companies love so, which had about a few million years to develop.

Idiot.

Posted by Earl at 07:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was going to comment on the killing of the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, but it's just too weird a story for me.

So....here's where I read about it:

New York Times

Welcome Back to Pottersville

PSoTD

The Huffington Post

Seriously, it creates a total disconnect in my head.  I hope to get through this thing, whatever it is, unable to understand that state of mind.

Posted by Earl at 06:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The old thought that celebrity deaths come in groups of three.

1. Bernie Mac
2. Isaac Hayes
3. Speculation?

It will be a sad day soon.

Posted by Earl at 05:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

W has to go to the opening ceremonies.

W never learned to SIT STILL AND/OR ACT IN A DIGNIFIED MANNER.

Posted by Earl at 04:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Earl at 03:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bernie Mac, comedien, dead at the tender age of 50:

Comedian Bernie Mac died at Northwestern Memorial hospital early Saturday morning, according to Sun-Times Columnist, Stella Foster. He was 50.

Though the cause of death has not been confirmed, Mac had been hospitalized recently for pneumonia. Foster said that she received calls early Saturday morning from a close friend of the Mac family, confirming the reports of Mac's death.

He seemed a man that enjoyed life and it's always hard to lose them.

Posted by Earl at 08:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Breaking news:

A Chinese man attacked two American tourists on the opening day of the Olympic Games, killing one of them before committing suicide, officials said Saturday.

Whenever I hear about a murder-suicide, the first thought in my head is Please, reverse the plan.

Do step #2 first, then take care of the other people.

Posted by Earl at 03:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because we only seem to pay attention when the mile markers are reached:

...in June, the war in Afghanistan roared back into public view when American deaths from hostilities exceeded those in Iraq. In the face of an expanding threat from the Taliban, the conflict is becoming deadlier and much more violent for American troops, who three weeks ago reached their highest deployment levels ever, at 36,000.

June was the second deadliest month for the military in Afghanistan since the war began, with 23 American deaths from hostilities, compared with 22 in Iraq.

The Soviets spent a decade fighting the mujahideen and all they got out of it was...the Vietnam lesson.

I would think we would have learned that one by now.

Posted by Earl at 03:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Earl at 06:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Go and read a fine essay at d r i f t g l a s s.

It's true.

Posted by Earl at 05:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pvt. Ronald A. Gray has been convicted and deserves whatever punishment he will eventually get:

President Bush on Monday approved the first execution by the military since 1961, upholding the death penalty of an Army private convicted of a series of rapes and murders more than two decades ago.

As commander in chief, the president has the final authority to approve capital punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and he did so on Monday morning in the case of Pvt. Ronald A. Gray, convicted by court-martial for two killings and an attempted murder at Fort Bragg, N.C., the White House said in a statement.

I don't have a problem with it being the death penalty, even.

I just find it morbidly amusing that W gets to do what he did at a record pace while governor of Texas:

When Bush was governor of Texas he routinely denied last-ditch pleas for clemency on execution day by systematically hearing no evidence, seeing no evidence, and sealing himself away from any tragic possibility that any evil was done at all.

*

On execution day in Texas, it was the job of Gonzales to give Bush a summary of the case. The summary was the last information standing between an inmate and lethal injection. Gonzales provided 57 summaries to Bush. Gonzales intended for the memos to be confidential, but author Alan Berlow obtained them under Texas public information law.

Berlow found that Gonzales routinely provided scant summaries to Bush. The summaries, according to Berlow, ''repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence."

Heck, W even took the time to mock them once in a while back then...

Posted by Earl at 01:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tony Snow has left the building.

My thoughts, etc., to his family.

Posted by Earl at 07:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All in the space of a couple of hours I learn that Israel isn't going to attack Iran:

The US did not give the green light for an Israeli attack on Iran, Prof. Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official and currently the top defense analyst at the ABC TV network, said Monday.

I learned that Iran is ready to strike back, almost randomly but not, if it does get attacked:

Iran will hit Tel Aviv, U.S. shipping in the Gulf and American interests around the world if it is attacked over its disputed nuclear activities, an aide to Iran's Supreme Leader was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

"The first bullet fired by America at Iran will be followed by Iran burning down its vital interests around the globe," the students news agency ISNA quoted Ali Shirazi as saying in a speech to Revolutionary Guards.

Please keep in mind that Israeli bullets=American bullets for the purpose of this demonstration.

Then I learned that (at least) some people seem to prepare for the future:

A senior Iranian military official said on Sunday the Islamic republic is digging some 320,000 graves in its border provinces for future slain invaders, Iran's English-language satellite channel Press TV reported.

Iran's Armed Forces headquarters has approved the plan to dig graves for enemy forces in case of any attack on its territory, said Brigadier General Mir-Faisal Baqerzadeh, head of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Holy Defense.

"We do not wish the families of enemy soldiers to experience what Americans had to go through in the aftermath of the Vietnam War," said Baqerzadeh, who is also head of Iran's search committee for missing soldiers.

This whole brinksmanship pissing contest is really starting to annoy me.

Posted by Earl at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jurassicpork has, apparently, left the building...

He always did say there would come a time.

Posted by Earl at 05:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our "enemies" seem to rotate but they're always willing to reintroduce us, right?

Continue reading "Nostalgia" »

Posted by Earl at 06:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ET breaks the news that comedian George Carlin has died from heart failure. The man who made famous the "seven words you can never say on television" passed away at 5:55 p.m. Sunday at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, his longtime publicist said. He was 71.

Continue reading "Dammit!" »

Posted by Earl at 01:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Continue reading "This Is Dedicated to the CM-IC*" »

Posted by Earl at 04:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and may god have mercy on your soul for it:

In a home movie, 1st Sgt. Jeff McKinney sings softly to his new son while his wife, Chrissi, gives the baby a bath. McKinney teases tiny Jeremy about this, his first nude video.

Someday, McKinney says, the family will show off the footage to Jeremy’s first girlfriend.

“Cause that’s how our parents did us,” McKinney sing-songs. “You’ll be 15, 16 years old, and you have your first date ... .”

It won’t ever play out that way, though. The McKinneys made the movie during his two weeks of home leave halfway through what was supposed to be a 15-month Iraq war deployment. He spent the break bonding with his new son and talking to his 18-year-old son, James, about going to college.

But everything changed July 11 in the bright sunshine of Adhamiyah, Iraq. That day, while out on a simple meet-and-greet patrol, McKinney stepped out of his Humvee and yelled.

“F--- this!”

He raised the barrel of his M4 to his chin and squeezed off one shot.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Earl at 04:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was my wake-up surprise today:

Tim Russert, who pointedly but politely questioned hundreds of the powerful and influential as moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," died suddenly Friday while preparing for his weekly broadcast. The network's Washington bureau chief was 58.

*

The cause of death was not immediately clear. The network said on its Web site that Russert died of a heart attack, but spokeswoman Jenny Tartikoff later said, "We do not know the cause yet." Russert collapsed while preparing for his show at NBC's studios across town from the White House.

Russert, of Buffalo, N.Y., took the helm of the Sunday news show in December 1991 and turned it into the nation's most widely watched program of its type. His signature trait there was an unrelenting style of questioning that made some politicians reluctant to appear, yet confident that they could claim extra credibility if they survived his grilling intact.

Posted by Earl at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparently, God is going to leave us poor sinners behind!  Along with the knowledge, reason, logic and electricity to continue receiving emails after the rapture!

A new Web site is offering a first-of-its-kind service: sending e-mails to nonbelieving friends and family who are "left behind" after you are whisked away by God in the rapture.

I could probably type for hours trying to get the message across, but I've always been a Trekkie geek-type and enjoy a bit of mystery.  In light of that, I will leave you with this quote:

Khan Noonian Singh: Captain, are you familiar with Lucifer's response to God in Paradise Lost? 

I'm making it extraordinarily easy in my mind...

(With thanks to irregular reader Jason, Destroyer of Beers, for the link!) 

Posted by Earl at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Earl at 03:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Teddy is doing better today, apparently:

"I feel like a million bucks. I think I'll do that again tomorrow," Kennedy quipped to his wife, Victoria, after the 3 1/2 -hour surgery, said Stephanie Cutter, a family spokeswoman.

The surgery was "successful and accomplished our goals," neurosurgeon Allan H. Friedman, who performed the operation at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., said in a statement.

While another old Dem Senator isn't feeling quite so well:

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) was admitted to the hospital for the third time this year on Monday night, this time for overnight observation after suffering a high fever.

Byrd, 90, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, was taken to a Virginia hospital in the early evening and will stay there overnight after feeling ill throughout the day, spokesman Jesse Jacobs said. Jacobs said Byrd had felt “lethargic and sluggish” throughout the day, but attended the lone Senate vote of the day, at 5:30 p.m.

So it goes.

Posted by Earl at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have a coincidence!

Last night I read BJ's post at NewsHoggers and shook my head in sad wonder:

1 in 8 Teach Creationism as Science

This morning I go for a chuckle 'round QT way and what do I get?

Teaching from the choir

Lest We Forget that the Dark Ages Were a Faith-Based Initiative (cont'd):

A national survey has found that 16 percent of biology teachers believe "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so."

And 12 percent say they include this in class as science.

On a side note, I often hear people speak of the Good Old Days.  It's an indefinable era, normally, but since the country is still under the spell of the boomers, the accepted period defining the Good Old Days is the '50s.

The funny thing is when I realize that even I recognize that era as a period of Good Old Days myself, even though I didn't experience a single second of the '50s and things weren't even all that good for all of our citizens back then, either.  The narrative I think of when the '50s are mentioned is the last decent Republican as president and the Russkies beating us to orbit with Sputnik.

The more I read about Ike lately, the more I like the guy.  He was actually smart and, as a war veteran, realized that war should never be a first resort.

He also said this regarding the office of the presidency:

No one should ever sit in this office over 70 years old, and that I know.

And when Sputnik went up and filled the pants of millions of Americans, it seems to me that it suddenly became a good thing to become educated.

Ah, memories...of an era that never was... 

Posted by Earl at 05:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I hate days like this.  Working nights and sleeping days and waking up to news like this:

US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the veteran lawmaker from Massachusetts who is the last surviving brother in the legendary Kennedy family, has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, his doctors said today.

The usual course of treatment for the tumor -- a malignant glioma -- includes combinations of various forms of radiation and chemotherapy, Dr. Lee Schwamm, vice chairman of the neurology department at the hospital, and Dr. Larry Ronan, Kennedy's primary care physician, said in a statement.

The doctors said decisions regarding the best course of treatment for the 76-year-old senator would be determined after further testing and analysis.

But other specialists said that the diagnostic details released by the hospital indicated that Kennedy has terminal brain cancer and most likely less than three years to live -- perhaps much less.

At times like this I almost wish I could pray... 

Posted by Earl at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)