Department Of Doh!

Sick society & I mean it.

Americans have a harder time than residents of several other countries getting after-hours appointments with a nurse or primary care physician without going to an emergency room, a study released yesterday found.

More Good New

BERNIE!

A Bit Late

But my prediction of several years ago appears to be coming true this year.

As Daniel Ortega makes his fourth attempt to win back Nicaragua's presidency in elections Sunday, citizens across this war-battered nation are grappling with the very real possibility that the former Marxist revolutionary could finally succeed.

Good news for Nicaragua & good news for the world

Gassy

More bad news on the global warming front.

The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rose by about half a percent in 2005, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.

It said levels were likely to keep rising unless emissions of CO2, methane and nitrogen oxides were slaswarming front. I suppose the only solace is that we have the abillity to measure the stuff & report on it.

All Good

But get the hell out & vote.

The Senate: "While Senate control is in doubt, with Democrats most likely to win from 5 to 7 seats, we do not think the two sides have an equal chance of winning a majority in the Senate. Instead, we believe that state and national dynamics favor Democrats netting six seats and winning control of the United States Senate."

The House: "Going into the final days before the 2006 midterm elections, we believe the most likely outcome in the House of Representatives is a Democratic gain of 34 to 40 seats, with slightly larger gains not impossible.

Venceramos

No surprise to me. I've always loved Che.

Cuba is the only country in the world today that meets the criteria for sustainable development, according to a report from the World Wildlife Federation. The WWF released a report on Oct. 24 showing that humans are using up natural resources faster than nature can replenish or renew them.
....
Socialist Cuba was the only country to meet the standards for sustainability using two indices, the WWF’s ecological footprint measure and the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index. The HDI is calculated based on life expectancy, literacy and per capital Gross Domestic Product. An HDI value greater than 0.8 is considered to be "high human development."
....
Cuba also has become a world leader in the use of environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. With socialist planning and distribution, there is no incentive to waste resources in pursuit of short-term profit; the only incentive is to plan for sustainable development, stewarding natural resources for future generations.

Well, Well - Neoconservative Edition

Guess who said this?

"The most dispiriting and awful moment of the whole administration was the day that Bush gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to [former C.I.A. director] George Tenet, General Tommy Franks, and [Coalition Provisional Authority chief] Jerry [Paul] Bremer—three of the most incompetent people who've ever served in such key spots. And they get the highest civilian honor a president can bestow on anyone! That was the day I checked out of this administration. It was then I thought, There's no seriousness here, these are not serious people. If he had been serious, the president would have realized that those three are each directly responsible for the disaster of Iraq."

If you guess a good-hearted liberal, you'd be way wrong. What a bunch of whiners we have at this time. & one is all tired of being correctly identified as an architect of Bu$hCo's stupid, vanity war.

Jesus Christ Department

I'm really glad they dropped this deployment, but I have to ask: who gave him his orders in the first place? WTF? The military really is falling apart.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Times Infinity Plus 1

Here's the face of hypocrisy & evil. & he's a ReThug.

The Rev. Ted Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals and one of the nation’s most influential Christian leaders, has conceded that some of the accusations that led him to resign are true, a church official said today.

Really Bad

Bye-bye.

An international group of ecologists and economists warned yesterday that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if steep declines in marine species continue at current rates, based on a four-year study of catch data and the effects of fisheries.

ReThugs Want Old People To Get The Flu

What compassion?

Polls

Good:
AZ-05 (SurveyUSA) Nov. 1
Mitchell (D) 48%, Hayworth (R) 46%

IN-02 (Research 2000) Nov. 1
Donnelly (D) 50%, Chocola (R) 47%

Bad:
VA-Sen (Roanoke College) Nov. 1
Allen (R) 45%, Webb (D) 42%

Good:
IL-06 (Reuters/Zogby) Nov. 1
Duckworth (D) 54%, Roskam (R) 40%

CT-04 (Reuters/Zogby) Nov. 1
Farrell (D) 51%, Shays (R) 44%

American Justice

Oh yeah, we're the envy of the world because of situations like this. This is what happens when you allow a moron like Bu$hCo to appoint judges. There is no justice & there will be no peace. It makes be sick. In the name of all of us, they are going to kill a man who is

apparently brain damaged

Fucking inhuman bastards.

Travel

So I drove down to the Cities yesterday to see the Kid, Son-in-Law & The Twins. Also, I need to install the trim in the babies' room & the radiator cover/changing table. Of course, without my permission, they moved into the room, with all attendant furniture. That makes for a bit of a problem in installing the trim, it isn't that big a room in the first place. Kids, these days.

On the way down, I went past Crex Meadows, a wonderful wildlife area in western Wisco. There were, I believe, thousands of Sandhill Cranes in the harvested cornfields along the highway. Here are a few pics of the birds.

William Styron, R.I.P.

Obit here.