German cat gets deadly bird flu

Scary:

A domestic cat in Germany has become the first European Union mammal to die of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

The cat was found dead at the weekend on the Baltic island of Ruegen, where dozens of birds infected with H5N1 have been found. BBC

Florida wildlife should be treasured

Sometime this weekend, I stood in front of an exhibit at Busch Gardens and watched a throng of people point at a number of white birds that sat in the oak trees above. The birds — white ibises, to be precise — were native to Florida and were as much a part of the display as the individuals pointing at them.

The encounter gave me a pang of survivor’s guilt that stayed with me for the rest of the weekend. Floridians — myself included — are quickly destroying the world around them, and most don’t even seem to notice, let alone care.
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The Cricket President

US President George W Bush said this week “I’m a cricket match person” - and he’ll have a chance to show it at a cricket event during his brief upcoming trip to Pakistan.

Details were hard to come by, but White House aides said on Friday that Bush was expected to mingle with cricket-playing children and meet of the sport’s professional players during his stop in Pakistan.

It was unclear whether the US president, a avid baseball fan, would bat or bowl.

“It is planned as an opportunity for him to watch and learn a little bit about it. But, you know, who knows what he’ll do?” said Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley. “I have not asked him.”

The president himself left no doubt that he’d rather play cricket than see a Bollywood movie, telling reporters on Wednesday that given the choice: “I’m a cricket match person.” AP

So are we supposed to ad this to the ever growing list of what the president says he is? War President, “Uniter, not a divider” and now Cricket President. I feel safer already.

Coming in second

For the entire time the olympics in Turin were on, U.S. TV stations were hyping how well the U.S. athletes were doing in terms of total medal counts. That’s not necessarily bad, but the way in which it was done – think drunk guy yelling: “We’re number ONE! YEAH!” and you get the idea –kept implying that the U.S. athletes just HAD to win because they were so much better, cooler, take your pick.

I mean, can you imagine anyone but the US of A get away with that? I certainly couldn’t imagine the German media pulling something like that. Well, other than that one time in in 1936.

That’s why I thought this was quite funny.

Law to outlaw most abortions passes South Dakota senate

Roe v. Wade is crumbling. This just in from South Dakota:

After more than an hour of fierce and emotional debate, the senators rejected pleas to add exceptions for incest or rape or for the health of the pregnant woman and instead voted, 23 to 12, to outlaw all abortions, except those to save the woman’s life.

(…) To be enacted, the bill, the most sweeping ban approved in any state in more than a decade, requires the signature of Gov. Mike Rounds, a Republican, who opposes abortion.

(…) Mr. Rounds has said he will not comment on whether he will sign the measure until it reaches his desk. It is likely to arrive there by next week. He has 15 days to make a decision. New York Times

in other news: The US Supreme Court will hear a case on partial birth abortions later this month.

Onion

One more reason why The Onion is absolutely hilarious can be read here.

Capitol Hill Blue: Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer

Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago say Cheney was “clearly inebriated” at the time of the shooting.

Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited “visible signs” of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions.

According to those who have talked with the agents and others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up. Capitol Hill Blue

Wishing upon a Battlestar

Art has always been a way in which humans explored their social surroundings, not just described them. This makes it even stranger that television, one of if not the most prevalent cultural means of entertainment, is usually left out when literature or music is discussed.

Those who paid attention to their mothers when they were young know that “television is bad for you.” Naturally, TV can never replace the social interaction that makes people tick, but as time wears on, generations of mothers (and fathers, too) have learned that television is here to stay.

But not everything on the “boob tube” is bad. There is, for example, Battlestar Galactica, a remake of the Glen A. Larson-produced science fiction show that in the late ’70s and early ’80s followed a ragtag fleet of refugees who had survived an attack on their home planets and were now in search of a long-lost colony that went by the mythical name “Earth.” The show offered pop culture-friendly storylines and space combat, yet never managed to find a wide audience and was finally canceled because its budget of $1 million per episode was cost prohibitive. There was a 1980 spin-off show that would best be forgotten entirely, though I distinctly remember getting quite a kick out of the episodes when I saw them for the first time. The show never lived up to its potential, both creatively and commercially.

The show’s newest incarnation, also named Battlestar Galactica (BSG for short), had its debut in 2003 with a successful miniseries jointly produced by U.S. cable channel SciFi and British-based station Sky TV. Under the leadership of Ronald D. Moore, a veteran writer and producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the show has quickly evolved into one of the best on television.
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Crying wolf. Again.

Last week the Bush administration announced that measures — such as the much-debated NSA wiretaps on Americans — were needed and “proved it” by claiming ten terrorism plots had been averted because of measures such as this. This interesting correlation between falling poll numbers for the president and an announcement stressing the threat of terrorism was nothing new.

Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush’s approval ratings reached an all-time high of nearly 90 percent. The nation was under attack and clung to the president for leadership, even though it seemed as if Bush’s presidency was running out of steam mere days before the attacks. A man who had been belittled for weeks entered the classroom at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota on the morning of Sept. 11 and exited as the nation’s “war-time president.”

The strong numbers held steady through most of the military actions in Afghanistan began to taper off. The notable spikes, however, are dates on which terrorism, for one reason or another, was in the news.

It didn’t take long for Bush’s strategists, namely Karl Rove, to figure the political capital this was bringing the president could be, shall we say, “enhanced” by strategically placing the speeches announcing the shocking “new evidence” of terrorist threats that often turned out to be much ado about nothing.
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VP Cheney shoots man in hunt error

I hate it when I almost done with my Sundaily column writing and news like this hit the wires:

The US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has accidentally shot and injured a man during a quail hunting trip in Texas.
The victim, named as Harry Whittington, was on the trip with Mr Cheney at the Armstrong Ranch when the accident happened on Saturday. BBC

The sad thing is not that a hunter got injured but that the guy who did it will likely win political hey out of it with the gun-nuts crowd.

Center for Disease Control issues warning

This is circulating the web via an anonymous email announcement, but it’s so urgent that I will repost it here:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of Sexually Transmitted Disease. The disease is contracted through dangerous and high-risk behavior.

The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim and pronounced “gonna re-elect him.” Many victims contracted it in 2004, after having been screwed for the past four years. Cognitive characteristics of individuals infected include: anti-social personality disorders, delusions of grandeur with messianic overtones, extreme cognitive dissonance, inability to incorporate new information, pronounced xenophobia and paranoia, inability to accept responsibility for own actions, cowardice masked by misplaced bravado, uncontrolled facial smirking, ignorance of geography and history, tendencies towards evangelical theocracy, categorical all-or-nothing behavior.

Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed at how this destructive disease originated only a few years ago from a bush found in Texas.

*cough* satire *cough*

Bush quote on wiretaps, April 2004

Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way.

When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so. It’s important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.”WhiteHouse.gov

Tampa needs to spend less time being creative

I am 27 years old, and I hate living in Tampa. Any other city might brush such a statement off, but in Tampa’s case, it doesn’t bode well, as it also casts a damning shadow over the city’s most recent strategy to market itself to would-be citizens.

In recent years, Tampa has been attempting to re-brand itself as a “creative city,” a trend to be seen in many cities that face an identity crisis after an economic downturn. This tactic often follows the theories of Richard Florida — a man who is half urban planner, half rock star.

Florida coined the phrase “creative class” in the late ’90s in an attempt to describe a mystical group of people who do not hesitate to move across the country in pursuit of not only cool jobs, but also cool locations.
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Trial date set in CIA leak case - after election

Not that I am surprised…

A US judge has set a trial date of next January for a top White House aide who faces charges relating to the leaking of a CIA agent’s identity to the press.

Jury selection for the trial of Lewis Libby starts on 8 January 2007, pushing the case back beyond crucial mid-term elections in November. BBC NEWS

Bush told Blair we’re going to war, memo reveals

This is required reading:

Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was “solidly” behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion’s legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today.

A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme. Guardian