Fla. Court Refuses to Hear Limbaugh Appeal
By JILL BARTON, Associated Press Writer
Thu Apr 28, 5:49 PM ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday declined to consider an appeal from commentator Rush Limbaugh claiming his privacy was violated when his medical records were seized for an investigation of whether he illegally purchased painkillers.

Prosecutors seized the records after learning that Limbaugh had received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors over six months, at a pharmacy near his oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach.

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Dear Rush,

The first step is admitting you have a problem. Can't you please let Jesus help you admit that there might be something wrong? Come on, let the Light come into your heart, you big druggie.

Slow Economy, Big Profits
Ever notice how Exxon stations are always a good seven to ten cents higher than others? I have. And I think I just found out why:

At last night’s prime time press conference, Bush announced that, "There will be no price gouging at gas pumps in America."

According to the Associated Press, “he spoke on the same day the world's largest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., announced that its profit for the first three months of the year had risen 44 percent to $7.86 billion from the corresponding quarter a year ago.”

Forty-four percent! This in an economy that according to the New York Times is “expanding at its slowest pace in two years”.

It’s a load off my mind that at least the big corps can still make a buck.

Poor Russia
Putin calls collapse of Soviet rule a tragedy
President laments breakup of empire
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
BY MIKE ECKEL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin lamented the demise of the Soviet Union in some of his strongest language to date, saying in a nationally televised speech before parliament yesterday that it was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."

[Perhaps for the Soviet Union?for the rest of the world, especially Eastern Europe, it was a pretty good deal]

In his annual address to lawmakers, top government officials and political leaders, Putin also sought to reassure skittish investors about Russia's investment climate -- just two days before a ruling in the tax evasion and fraud trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

His statements on the collapse of the Soviet Union and its effects on Russians, at home and abroad, come as the country is awash in nostalgia just two weeks before the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe -- a conflict Russians call the "Great Patriotic War."

[Ha! Any student of WWII history knows that Stalin was in league with Hitler. They entered into the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact and Hitler was using Soviet land to practice with Nazi troops and equipment. When Hitler invaded Russia in 1941 Stalin went to bed for three days. He couldn?t believe he?d been tricked so badly. Did you hear me, Mr. Putin? The Great Patriotic War was only great and patriotic because your ally, HITLER, double-crossed Stalin and FORCED you into war.]

Putin, who served as a colonel in the KGB, has resurrected some Communist symbols during his presidency, bringing back the music of the old Soviet anthem and the Soviet-style red banner as the military's flag.

[Putin was a colonel in the KGB? I'm shocked!]

In the 50-minute address at the Kremlin, Putin avoided mentioning the need to work more closely with other former Soviet republics -- in contrast to previous addresses -- and he made passing reference to the treatment of Russian-speaking minorities in former Soviet republics.

[Wait. Hold on a second while my tears flow like a river into the ocean. Those poor Russian-speaking minorities in former Soviet republics. The indignity of it all. I can?t understand why a formerly captive people would want to treat their former captors badly?what is the matter with the world?!]

Click the link to read the rest of the article. Shame on the Associated Press for not telling the whole story. Giving Putin a forum to cry about the Soviet Union?s former glory is nauseating at best.

Headlines
US clears troops over Italy death
US military investigators have cleared American soldiers of any wrongdoing over the killing of an Italian agent at a Baghdad checkpoint, an official says. Nicola Calipari was killed by US forces as he travelled in a car near Baghdad airport after securing the release of Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena. Ms Sgrena, who had been held by Iraqi kidnappers, was hurt in the incident. The US soldiers were "not culpable" according to the US military report, which Italy has refused to endorse.

Read the rest of the article for why the Italian government won?t endorse the findings. The short version is that we can?t get the stories to come out the same. The troops say the car was speeding toward a checkpoint, the Italians say their car had passed a parked military vehicle on the road and were far ahead of it when it fired on them. Underground sources indicate that the U.S. was unhappy with Ms. Sgrena?s propensity for telling reporters how many Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start our occupation.

~~

US closes book on Iraq WMD hunt
The US chief weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer, has said inquiries into weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have "gone as far as feasible". Mr Duelfer also said an official transfer of WMDs to Syria ahead of the Iraq war was not likely. The CIA adviser reported last year that neither expected stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons, nor evidence of recent production had been found.

Please note, if you have not already done so, this guy is the US weapons inspector, not the UN. This is our guy ? a CIA ADVISOR ? going in there and saying, ?Dude, can?t find shit.?

Really makes me feel like the whole Iraq war-thing was worth it, huh?

And, damn, you know what I love? That our guys, the marines and the national guard and all our people over there STILL don?t have enough body armor, STILL have to be brought back as wounded at night so that no one will see them, Bush STILL hasn?t attended a funeral for any of the fallen soldiers, we STILL have an insurgent problem, there STILL isn?t a plan for getting out of there, the Iraqi people STILL see us as occupiers (and let?s face it, who?s surprised by this?) and Bush STILL can?t say that they were wrong about the WMDs and that maybe, just maybe it wasn?t that great of an idea to go into Iraq.

Bolton Bandwagon
Okay.

So let me get this straight. Tom Hubbard, a Bush-appointed and now retired ambassador to South Korea contacted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to express concern for the Bolton nomination.

In fact, When he heard Bolton?s testimony before the Senate panel on April 11, Hubbard said, ?I was not pleased? and he then decided to contact the panel on his own to correct the record.

In the first instance raised by Hubbard, Bolton erupted in anger and slammed down the phone when he learned that the ambassador hadn?t arranged a meeting for him with the president-elect of South Korea during a trip to Seoul in early 2003, according to an account Hubbard says he provided in recent days to staffers on the foreign relations panel.

That?s what you want: a man with the same ability to deal with disappointment and frustration as a toddler.

The second issue Hubbard has is with a speech Bolton gave in which he described life in North Korea as a ?hellish nightmare? and described ?Dear Leader? Kim Jong Il as a ?tyrannical dictator,? comments that prompted the North Korean government to denounce Bolton as a ?bloodsucker? and ?human scum.?

Now, do not assume that Kim Jong Il is my number one guy. However, it should be within the realm of a diplomat to, you know, not piss off any dictators who have nuclear ambitions.

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary (a.k.a. dancing monkey), insists that Bolton has answered these allegations over and over again, but in fact, if you read the testimony, he keeps ?declining to comment? on anything.

And now we have Senator Frist trying to bring us back to the Reformation Europe. It may surprise some of you to know that we founded the United States based on the principal that Church and State should be separated. Why did we do it this way? Because zealots in Europe were trying to tell people that if they didn't believe what they were supposed to believe they would not only go to hell, but be unsuitable to hold any governmental power.

Sound familiar? Because some democrats feel that religious convictions have no place in government, somehow the Right has decided that those democrats are "against people of faith."

Senator Frist, the sentance is too short. We are not against people of faith, we are against people of faith running our lives.

The Founding Fathers were deists. What is the definition of a deist? "One who believes in the existence of a God or supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason."

Look it up if you don't believe me, but don't pretend that you have my best interests at heart.

Romanian hides stolen mobe in vagina
This has got to be the funniest thing I?ve seen in a long time.

Defender of the Faith
From Slate?s Newspaper Roundup:

Everybody leads with the new pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, or as he now prefers, Benedict XVI. "After the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in the Lord's vineyard," said Benedict, a 78-year-old German, who was Pope John Paul II's enforcer for ideology.

Benedict has long inveighed against what he sees as lax standards on morality, doctrine, and the primacy of Catholicism. He's disciplined priests who've pushed for reform, in the 1980s purging liberation theologists; in a letter he issued in 2000, titled Dominus Jesus, he dubbed other faiths "gravely deficient;" and as the Los Angeles Times editorial page details, he wrote that pro-choice politicians should be denied communion.

~~

Well that's just great. I'm thinking that Catholics from all corners of the world will come flocking back to church now that we have this shepherd to lead us.

Down the Toilet
Everything is going down the toilet in one swift flush...

I had a great entry all set and then the computer ate it. Maybe tomorrow.

(Links can be found at the Center for American Progress.)

HOMELAND SECURITY ? ALL THE NEWS THAT'S UNFIT TO PRINT: Every year since 1985 the State Department has published an annual report on international terrorism, described as "the definitive report on the incidence of terrorism around the world." There will be no such report this year. The State Department has stopped publication of the 2004 report "after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985." According to both current and former officials, "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's office ordered 'Patterns of Global Terrorism' eliminated several weeks ago because the 2004 statistics raised disturbing questions about the Bush administration's frequent claims of progress in the war against terrorism." The State Department now says terrorism numbers will be provided by the new National Counterterrorism Center, but don't hold your breath: Asked when that report would be released, spokesman Richard Boucher admitted, "Don't have a date yet. They've agreed to do it; don't have a date yet?. I don't know when."

NORTH KOREA ? BALL IN U.S. COURT: North Korea has shut down its nuclear reactor and plans to remove the fuel to make bombs and "increase our deterrent" against a possible U.S. attack, an official said yesterday. The CIA has estimated the country possesses from two to eight nuclear weapons; reprocessing this reactor fuel could give it an additional six. "The ball is in the U.S. court," said North Korean Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Han Songryol. "We asked the United States to change its hostile policy." As to what America will do with the ball, one less than ideal development would be the confirmation of U.N. ambassador nominee John Bolton. Bolton insulted North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and generally mishandled talks with North Korea so badly as undersecretary of state that he had to be recalled from talks by the Bush administration. He is known in Pyongyang as a "human scum and bloodsucker," as well as the "most undesirable person" that could possibly be named U.N. envoy.

HOMELAND SECURITY ? BUT AT LEAST THEY'LL LOOK GOOD: For the second time in three years, the Transportation Security Administration will be getting new uniforms, "not because the old ones wore out [but rather] as part of its evolving identity." The apparel reform comes as the agency is floating a "plan to possibly cut 400 screeners at Atlanta's busy airport ? just before the busy summer travel season," even though "a much-needed new system to screen passenger records and tag suspicious travelers isn't ready yet." The uniforms are not the only things at TSA being replaced; the agency "is preparing to hire its fourth director in three years." Uniforms aside, two upcoming government reports ? one from the Government Accountability Office and the other from the Homeland Security Department's inspector general ? are expected to state that "the quality of screening at U.S. airports is no better now than before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks."

PATIENTS' RIGHTS ? THE FIGHT TO PROTECT PLAN B: The continued struggle to combat pharmacists seeking to impose their moral beliefs on customers has heated up. There are now "at least 23 states, legislators and other elected officials [who] have passed laws or are considering measures" pertaining to a pharmacy's obligation to fulfill prescriptions for the "morning after" pill, which has yet to be approved for over the counter sale by the Food and Drug Administration. In Illinois, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has "ordered pharmacies to fill prescriptions for women wanting the new 'morning after' pill," but the conservative leader of the state's Senate is encouraging pharmacists to disobey that order. The FDA could go a long way towards solving the impasse by making Plan B available for over the counter use, a move the agency has resisted for political reasons despite the near-unanimous recommendation of its own panel of medical experts.

Tax Returns for the Richie Riches
In case anyone is still unconvinced about the ?alleged? tax cuts for the wealthy, allow me to illuminate the situation with hard dollars and cents.

According to their own tax returns,

President and Mrs. Bush reported $784,219 in total income on their tax return. They paid $207,307 in income tax, $28,846 less than under the pre-Bush tax law.

Vice-president and Mrs. Cheney reported $2,173,892 in total income on their tax return. They paid $365,840 in income tax, $81,336 less than under the pre-Bush tax law.

In percentage terms, the Bushes paid 12 percent less in income tax due to the President?s tax cuts. The Cheneys paid 18 percent less.

And in case you were wondering, the average American paid $742 less than last year.

Three Miscellaneous Thoughts
Liner struck by wave sails again
A luxury cruise liner has completed emergency repairs in the US after being hit by a giant wave in the Atlantic.
THIS is why I don't sail. EVER.

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On This Day, 1955: Albert Einstein dies
Albert Einstein has died in hospital in Princeton, New Jersey, aged 76.
Einstein has been a hero of mine since childhood and I thought today, of all days, we should remember that while he was without a doubt one of the most brilliant minds of his - or possibly our - time, he was also a pacifist. As a German Jew, he fled Europe in 1933 when Hitler was elected Chancellor and he spent the rest of his life in Jersey. I wonder what Einstein would have thought about our current foreign policies.

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Support the Troops
Since I spend so much time railing against the "President" and his Cabal of non-thinking followers, I thought I'd post this link. Let it be known that I love my country, but fear my government. The troops are just doing their job and that's all we can ask of them. The fact that our government has shown them so little respect with regard to health care and job security is reprehensible.