Tiger Woods Seriously Hurt in Crash

MSNBC is quoting Woods' agent as saying the golf great is "fine."

in reference to:

"Authorities say Tiger Woods has been seriously injured in a car wreck in Florida. The Florida Highway Patrol says the PGA star hit a fire hydrant and a tree as he pulled out of his driveway early Friday in his 2009 Cadillac sport utility vehicle. Woods was taken to Health Central Hospital. His condition was not immediately known, though the news release said his injuries were serious."
- Tiger Woods Seriously Hurt in Crash - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Jump in number of global swine flu deaths

"The global number of swine flu deaths has jumped by more than 1,000 in a week, latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) show.

At least 7,826 people are now known to have died following infection with the H1N1 virus since it first emerged in Mexico in April.

Europe saw an 85% increase in the week, with the total number of deaths rising from at least 350 to at least 650.

However, in most cases the virus continues to produce mild symptoms.

The overwhelming majority of patients usually recover, even without medical treatment, within a week."

in reference to: BBC News - Jump in number of global swine flu deaths (view on Google Sidewiki)

FBI: Ex-Doctor in Ohio Admitted Making Pipe Bombs

How do these things happen without anyone noticing.

in reference to:

"Federal agents in Ohio say a former doctor admitted making pipe bombs that were part of an arsenal seized at his apartment. An affidavit filed in federal court in Akron says 56-year-old Mark Campano of Cuyahoga Falls told an FBI agent he "did indeed" build the pipe bombs found this week at his apartment. The affidavit filed late Wednesday does not describe a motive or any possible targets. A message seeking comment was left Friday for defense attorney Donald Hicks. Authorities arrested Campano after an explosion rocked his apartment complex Monday night. Police said he was trying to load shotgun shells when one blew up. Campano's Ohio medical license was revoked in 2006 because of a long history of drug abuse."
- FBI: Ex-Doctor in Ohio Admitted Making Pipe Bombs - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

White House Crashers May Face Charges

They should be thrown in jail for this stunt. But it won't happen. The media would jump all over that. In addition, these low lives will become famous, and maybe wealthy, from this experience.

in reference to:

"The Secret Service may begin a criminal investigation against the Virginia couple who crashed a high-profile White House dinner, an agency spokesman said Friday. Jim Mackin said the possible turn toward criminal charges is one reason the Secret Service has kept mum about what happened when Michaele and Tareq Salahi arrived at the security checkpoint Tuesday. They were not on the guest list for the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Nobody disputes that the two, candidates for a reality TV show, were allowed through security. The Secret Service acknowledges that its procedures weren't followed. Still unknown is the story that the uninvited guests spun to the security officers that persuaded them to allow the couple through. That likely would play a role in any criminal charges."
- White House Crashers May Face Charges - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)

The White House Gate Crashers: What Went Wrong?

It could have been a terrorist or an assassin.

in reference to:

"At least two people who weren't invited, we now know. Just how reality-TV-wannabes Michaele and Tareq Salahi managed to crash last week's first State Dinner (See TIME's photos here.) has been the subject of back-to-back front page stories in the Washington Post and another one in the New York Times. The story raises some serious questions about White House security, given how close they got to the President and the Indian Prime Minister, as well as so many other high-ranking government officials. As of now, the Secret Service is blaming the debacle on a breach at a single checkpoint, though they are being vague on the details. My own experience with these things is both limited and dated. Back in 1999, I attended a similar dinner the Clintons threw in honor of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji. (According to the Washington Post account of that dinner, I got invited under the "White House always throws a bone to reporters who follow the president" exemption. Whatever. I was very, very happy to be there for what turned out to be a very cool experience.) But what I know from that dinner tells me there were a number of places where things went wrong: The first thing to know is what makes entering the White House for one of these big social events different from, say, getting in for a routine interview or a briefing. For state dinners, invited guests are allowed to drive a car up to the building. The guards go over your vehicle, including putting something that looks like a gigantic dental mirror under it, and then you are sent up the driveway to the White House, where a uniformed military officer takes your keys and parks your car."
- UPDATE: Guess Who Came To Dinner? - Swampland - TIME.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

E-mails Don't Prove Global Warming is a Fraud

Nice try.

in reference to:

"Stop hyperventilating, all you climate change deniers. The purloined e-mail correspondence published by skeptics last week -- portraying some leading climate researchers as petty, vindictive and tremendously eager to make their data fit accepted theories -- does not prove that global warming is a fraud. If I'm wrong, somebody ought to tell the polar ice caps that they're free to stop melting."
- RealClearPolitics - E-mails Don't Prove Warming is a Fraud (view on Google Sidewiki)

Britain ‘failed to establish legitimacy’ of Iraq invasion

That's because it wasn't legitimate.

in reference to:

"The US and UK failed to “establish the legitimacy” of the invasion of Iraq within the international community, according to Britain’s former ambassador to the United Nations.Sir Jeremy Greenstock told the Iraq inquiry on Friday that while there was sufficient ”legal cover” for the war to topple Saddam Hussein it was of “questionable legitimacy”."
- FT.com / UK - Britain ‘failed to establish legitimacy’ of Iraq invasion (view on Google Sidewiki)

Teenager lashed for wearing knee-length skirt

It seems like we're going backwards in terms of the rights of women worldwide.

in reference to:

"A 16-year-old south Sudanese girl was lashed 50 times after a judge ruled her knee-length skirt was indecent, her lawyer and family said in the latest case to push Sudan's Islamic law into the spotlight.The mother of teenager Silva Kashif told Reuters on Friday she was planning to sue the police who made the arrest and the judge who imposed the sentence, as her daughter was underage and a Christian.The case will add fuel to a debate already raging over Sudan's decency laws after this year's high-profile conviction of Sudanese U.N. official Lubna Hussein, who was briefly jailed for wearing trousers in public."
- Girl, 16, lashed over knee-length skirt - Sudan- msnbc.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

WHO: Tamiflu still works against swine flu

AP story:

in reference to:

"The World Health Organization says isolated cases of drug-resistant swine flu in Britain and the United States have not changed the agency's assessment of the disease. It says Tamiflu remains highly effective against the vast majority of H1N1 cases. Four cancer patients in a North Carolina hospital tested positive last week for a type of the flu that was resistant to Tamiflu. Five people at a British hospital also didn't respond to the drug after contracting the flu. WHO flu chief Dr. Keiji Fukuda said Thursday that investigations were underway, but that the American and British patients for whom Tamiflu did not work had severely weakened immune systems."
- WHO: Tamiflu still works against swine flu - USATODAY.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Thanksgiving in Afghanistan "Another Day"

"U.S. Soldiers Spend Holiday on Patrol Hoping to Aid Remote Villages"

in reference to:

"Thanksgiving Day for soldiers in this valley ringed by towering snowy peaks began with a 6-mile slog to aid village schools without desks and windows, and ended with five, once scrawny local turkeys soldiers have been fattening up for the past month. "Just another day, another mission," several soldiers said as a 25-man patrol from Able Troop, 3-71 Cavalry Squadron set out on a cold morning under brilliantly blue skies. Others let sentiment seep through their matter-of-fact, stoic shells. "We're with our family just like we would be at Thanksgiving back home," said Staff Sgt. Ben McKinnon, of New Haven, Connecticut, nodding toward the soldiers around him that have daily shared hardship, suffering and some elation over the past year."
- Thanksgiving in Afghanistan "Another Day" - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)

U.S. will be out of Afghanistan by 2017: White House

That means you won't finish the job, Barack. You need to solve this before you leave office (assuming you win reelection). Don't be a loser like Bush.

in reference to:

"The United States will not be in Afghanistan eight years from now, the White House said on Wednesday, as President Barack Obama prepared to explain to Americans next week why he is expanding the war effort. After months of deliberation and fending off Republican charges that he was dithering on Afghanistan while violence there surged, Obama will address the nation on Tuesday on the way forward in the costly and unpopular eight-year war. He is expected to announce he is sending about 30,000 more troops as part of a new counterinsurgency strategy that will place greater emphasis on accelerating the training of Afghan security forces so that U.S. soldiers can eventually withdraw. It appears highly unlikely Obama will offer a specific troop withdrawal timetable, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president would stress that the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan was not open-ended."
- U.S. will be out of Afghanistan by 2017: White House | Politics | Reuters (view on Google Sidewiki)

State-run magazine reports on black jails in China

This is hopeful for China eventually becoming a democracy. A little freedom could bring the whole totalitarian regime down. Just as it did in Russia. But then again, Russia did not have a booming economy. Bottomline: it's a long way to go. Meantime, China continues to be a horrific regime.

in reference to:

"It read like a muckraking expose: A magazine revealed a system of secret detention centers in Beijing where Chinese citizens are forcibly held and sometimes beaten to prevent them from lodging formal complaints with the central government.But the report appeared in the state-run magazine Liaowang (Outlook), which is written for the government elite and published by China's official Xinhua News Agency.For some activist groups, the two state-sanctioned articles published Tuesday signal a possible willingness by the Communist leadership to openly acknowledge a problem it has long denied."
- Newsvine - State-run magazine reports on black jails in China (view on Google Sidewiki)

Transcript: THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW (11-24-09)

Excerpt below. Click link for complete transcript.

in reference to:

"Tonight, a small group of senators in the Democratic Caucus are reaffirming their commitment to killing the Senate health care reform bill, if it includes a public option. The most vocal among them is Senator Joe Lieberman, of Connecticut, who is now repeating his threat to block any bill that includes any version of a public option.With the Senate now less than a week away from debating health care reform, Democratic majority leader, Harry Reid, now has a choice, stand firm on the public option or compromise it to get something passed. Those on the compromise side argue that we should just let the bill pass without a public option so we can get all of the good insurance reform that`s in the bill. But, there`s a dirty little secret about this -- the insurance reform is gone.In order to have insurance reform, you need two things. The first is making sure insurance companies can`t turn you down for any medical reason. That`s called guaranteed issue -- and that`s in the bill. But that`s only effective if you make sure that the coverage is affordable. And that`s not in the bill. As the bill is written now, the insurance companies will still be allowed to gouge their customers if they have illnesses to charge you two or three times what your neighbor gets charged.A lot of the insurance reform in this bill is gone. The only real reform that`s left is the public option. If that`s compromised away, this bill is no longer health care reform. It`s just a huge gift to the health insurance industry from the same people who bailed AIG out, the American taxpayers.Instead of ruining the bill by taking out the public option, why not just do the fair thing? If there are four senators who won`t let us pass the bill with a public option, we have a mechanism to pass it, anyway -- through the budget reconciliation process.If you do that, you only need 51 votes to pass it, which exist in the Senate, instead of 60, just a simple majority. That`s how most democracies work. That`s what we should have done in the beginning. And that`s what Democrats ought to do right now."
- LexisNexis News - Latest News from over 4,000 sources, including newspapers, tv transcripts, wire services, magazines, journals. (view on Google Sidewiki)

UK: NATO to offer 5,000 troops for Afghanistan

That's more than enough. Yea, right.

in reference to:

"British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says 10 NATO nations are ready to offer about 5,000 more troops for the war in Afghanistan."
- UK: NATO to offer 5,000 troops for Afghanistan - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Congressmman John Boehner PAC splurges on golf

"According to FEC filings, the House Minority Leader John Boehner has spent $82,998 on golf outings so far this year "

- Time for Real Change: http://Termlim.com

in reference to:

"According to FEC filings, the House Minority Leader John Boehner has spent $82,998 on golf outings so far this year"
- Wedge issue: John Boehner PAC splurges on golf - Jake Sherman - POLITICO.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Palin has signed 20,000 books, aide estimates

The power of celebrity. No matter how stupid she comes across, people are apparently flocking to her. Not that these people would vote for her. But sensationalism overrides that. Which goes to show that the power of media is overwhelming. And the dumber the better.

in reference to:

"Sarah Palin has signed 20,000 copies of "Going Rogue" during her nationwide book tour, a staffer traveling with the former Alaska governor estimates. Palin will have visited 13 cities and traveled 4,000 miles by the end of Tuesday, with 80 percent of that travel done aboard the "Going Rogue" bus, according to Jason Recher, an adviser to Palin during her vice presidential bid now assisting with book tour logistics. Recher ticked through the statistics while riding the bus to Palin's stop at The Villages retirement community in central Florida."
- CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Palin has signed 20,000 books, aide estimates « - Blogs from CNN.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

ABC's 'Good Morning America' Cancels Adam Lambert Performance

Good for you, GMA.

in reference to:

"Access Hollywood has learned from a rep for Adam Lambert that ABC's "Good Morning America" has canceled the singer's live morning show concert tomorrow morning."
- UPDATED: ABC's 'Good Morning America' Cancels Adam Lambert Performance - omg! - Yahoo! Buzz (view on Google Sidewiki)

Feds: Former US Prosecutor Helped Rub Out Witnesses For Gangster Clients, Ran Drugs And Call-Girls

Government is a lot like organized crime, now a days.

in reference to:

"From federal prosecutor to accused violent gangster, pimp, and drug-dealer...That's the unusual career trajectory taken, say the Feds, by Paul Bergrin, who was indicted earlier this month in a 39-count racketeering indictment. In a drama that could have been made for HBO, Bergrin -- a white-collar defense lawyer who once represented, pro bono, a solider accused of abusing Abu Ghraib detainees -- seems to have allowed his gangster clients to drag him into a world of violent crime. And he may have gone a lot further than Maury Levy ever did for Stringer Bell. Bergrin, a former AUSA with the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey, is charged with leading a criminal enterprise that used violence, intimidation, and deceit to generate millions of dollars, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Among the most eye-catching allegations against him: - That he used a Newark restaurant as a front for a cocaine-distribution network. - That he oversaw a $1,000-an-hour call-girl ring in New York City. - That he had a witness killed in one drug case, and hired a hitman to kill another."
- Feds: Former US Prosecutor Helped Rub Out Witnesses For Gangster Clients, Ran Drugs And Call-Girls | TPMMuckraker (view on Google Sidewiki)

Girl May Have Arranged Classmate's Gang Rape

" A 14-year-old Alabama girl might have helped arrange the gang rape of her ninth-grade classmate and could face charges as an accomplice based on her comments in a televised interview, a district attorney said.

The girl told reporters last week that she and her 14-year-old classmate had planned to have sex with the suspects who have been charged with rape. The girl under investigation is dating one of the three suspects who are 16, 17 and 20 years old.

"The victim told police that the attack did begin as consensual contact," Monroe County District Attorney Tommy Chapman told the Press-Register of Mobile for a Monday story. "But when all three suspects began to join in, she told them no repeatedly, but they did not stop."'

in reference to:

"A 14-year-old Alabama girl might have helped arrange the gang rape of her ninth-grade classmate and could face charges as an accomplice based on her comments in a televised interview, a district attorney said. The girl told reporters last week that she and her 14-year-old classmate had planned to have sex with the suspects who have been charged with rape. The girl under investigation is dating one of the three suspects who are 16, 17 and 20 years old. "The victim told police that the attack did begin as consensual contact," Monroe County District Attorney Tommy Chapman told the Press-Register of Mobile for a Monday story. "But when all three suspects began to join in, she told them no repeatedly, but they did not stop.""
- Girl May Have Arranged Classmate's Gang Rape - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Economy Grows Again, But at Slower Rate

This is the key to employment, GDP growth. And 2.8% is not adequate to get people working. More evidence that the "stimulus package" has not worked.

in reference to:

"The economy grew at a 2.8 percent pace last quarter, as the recovery got off to a slower start than first thought. The Commerce Department's new reading on gross domestic product wasn't as energetic as the 3.5 percent growth rate for the July-September period estimated just a month ago. The main factors behind the downgrade: consumers didn't spend as much, commercial construction was weaker and the nation's trade deficit was more of a drag on growth. Businesses also trimmed more of their stockpiles, another restraining factor. The new reading on GDP, which measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States - from machinery to manicures - was a tad weaker than the 2.9 percent growth rate economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected."
- Economy Grows Again, But at Slower Rate - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)