Prime Time

Holiday weekend Sunday.  Some stuff, but not a lot to pick and choose from.  You might be interested in this though, Turner Classic is running a marathon of The March of Time newsreels.

Later-

Pinstripes & Poltergeists.  When I mentioned this on Friday I didn’t realize it was the last episode so far.  The rest of Season 4 starts on the 12th, so if you want to catch up you might want to watch.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Focus of Gulf oil disaster shifts to finding the culprit

AFP

21 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – With a key piece of evidence raised from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico and BP’s Macondo well ruled a threat no longer, the focus shifts to what went wrong and who is to blame.

Had it functioned properly, the blowout preventer would have sealed off the well after the explosion that ripped through it in April and the biggest maritime oil spill in history would never have happened.

The giant safety valve, which is being transferred to a NASA facility near New Orleans after being raised from the ocean on Saturday, could incriminate BP or one of the other firms involved in drilling the well.

2 With busted well dead, BP and partners face multiple probes

AFP

Sun Sep 5, 12:35 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – With a key piece of evidence raised from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico and BP’s Macondo well ruled a threat no longer, the focus is shifting back to what went wrong and who is to blame.

Workers have retrieved the failed blowout preventer from BP’s Macondo oil well, giving US investigators a key piece of evidence as they probe the reasons behind the biggest ever maritime spill.

The raising of the giant safety valve from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico will allow experts to study the device to determine why it crucially failed to shut off the well when BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20.

3 US troops fire back as suicide bombers kill 12 in Baghdad

by Prashant Rao, AFP

41 mins ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) – American troops were among those who fired back to repel a coordinated suicide attack on an Iraqi army complex that killed 12 people on Sunday, days after US forces officially ended combat operations in the country.

The attack occurred in the morning at Rusafa military command headquarters, which only three weeks ago was hit by a massive suicide bombing that killed dozens of young men preparing to sign up for the army.

Accounts varied between witnesses and US and Iraqi security forces, but the capital’s security command said five suicide bombers had approached the compound in a minibus.

4 Suicide attack kills 12 at Baghdad army complex

by Prashant Rao, AFP

Sun Sep 5, 10:55 am ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) – As many as five suicide bombers killed 12 people on Sunday at an Iraqi army complex, the military said, in the first major strike in Baghdad since the US army declared an end to combat operations last week.

The coordinated attack occurred in the morning at the rear gate of Rusafa military command headquarters in the centre of the capital, which only three weeks ago was hit by a massive suicide bombing that killed dozens.

Accounts varied between witnesses and security force members, but the capital’s security command said five suicide attackers had approached the compound in a minibus.

5 ETA declares ceasefire in Basque independence battle

by Katell Abiven, AFP

9 mins ago

MADRID (AFP) – Basque separatist fighters ETA declared a ceasefire Sunday in their flagging, decades-long campaign of bombing and shooting for a homeland independent of Spain.

ETA, blamed for the deaths of 829 people over more than 40 years, said in a video it had decided several months ago that it “will not carry out armed offensive actions.”

The separatists did not say if the ceasefire was permanent and their declaration was greeted with broad scepticism by Spanish political parties, which demand ETA give up its weapons for good and disband.

6 Scandal-hit Pakistan well beaten by England in cricket Twenty20

by Julian Guyer, AFP

2 hrs 55 mins ago

CARDIFF (AFP) – Pakistan’s latest match in their controversial tour of Britain ended in a five-wicket Twenty20 defeat by world champions England at Sophia Gardens here on Sunday.

England, set a seemingly modest 127 for victory, collapsed to 62 for five.

But left-handers Eoin Morgan (38 not out) and Michael Yardy (35 not out) saw England to 129 for five with an unbroken partnership of 67 as they won with 17 balls to spare.

7 Fresh ‘fixing’ claims cloud Pakistan-England match

by Julian Guyer, AFP

Sun Sep 5, 11:20 am ET

CARDIFF (AFP) – A fourth Pakistan cricketer was reportedly being investigated over alleged match-fixing Sunday, with fresh betting scam claims casting a shadow over the country’s match against England.

Britain’s News of the World tabloid said the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has already charged three Pakistan stars under its anti-corruption code, was now probing a fourth player, but did not name him.

The same newspaper last week caused a major scandal by claiming it paid Mazhar Majeed, an agent for several Pakistan players, 150,000 pounds (185,000 euros, 230,000 dollars) for advance knowledge of no-balls in last month’s final Test against England, which could then be bet upon.

8 A month on, Chile miners’ rescue date uncertain

by Pablo Fernandez and Paulina Abramovich, AFP

Sun Sep 5, 6:20 am ET

COPIAPO, Chile (AFP) – Chilean miners trapped deep below ground mark a grim milestone Sunday — a full month since a cave-in cut off their escape route to the surface.

But officials warned it may take even longer to rescue them.

On Saturday, the 33 men for the first time got to speak to their families by closed-circuit videolink, which relays images one way only, from the underground shelter to the surface.

9 Five killed, scores hurt in Dagestan suicide bombing

by Andrei Magomedov, AFP

Sun Sep 5, 5:36 am ET

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AFP) – A suicide bomber rammed into a Russian firing range killing five people and wounding scores on Sunday in the volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan, law enforcement sources said.

The explosives-packed car attacked a military base used by the motor rifle brigade at Dalny near the city of Buynaksk, some 40 kilometres (30 miles) west of the local capital Makhachkala, said the sources, who refused to be identified.

“Five people are dead. Three of them died on the spot and another two in hospital,” a law enforcement source told AFP, adding that the blast had hurt at least another 35 people, two of whom were in critical condition.

10 Obama to propose permanent research tax credit

By Steve Holland, Reuters

1 hr 48 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will ask the Congress on Wednesday to increase and permanently extend a tax credit for business research as a way of boosting job growth, an administration officials said on Sunday.

The proposal would cost $100 billion over 10 years, and Obama would pay for the plan by closing other corporate tax breaks, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Obama administration is scrambling for solutions to tackle a 9.6 percent unemployment rate and invigorate an economy whose recovery from the worst recession in 70 years is in danger of stalling, with congressional elections looming.

11 Earl fizzles as it sweeps through Maritime Canada

By Pav Jordan, Reuters

Sat Sep 4, 8:50 pm ET

HALIFAX, Canada (Reuters) – Hurricane Earl made landfall in Canada on Saturday and fizzled after a series of scares along the U.S. East Coast, flooding roads, felling trees and cutting power to tens of thousands in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia.

One man died in the Halifax region after he swam into rough waters to secure a boat that had come loose from its mooring. He drowned while attempting to swim back to shore.

But the storm, downgraded successively from a fierce Category 4 hurricane, never packed the punch that had been feared earlier in the week, when experts warned of possible widespread damage in a region that includes some 1.1 million barrels per day of U.S. oil refining capacity.

12 Taxpayers may face initial loss on GM IPO: sources

By Clare Baldwin, Soyoung Kim and Kevin Krolicki, Reuters

Sun Sep 5, 11:00 am ET

NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) – The U.S. government is likely to take a loss on General Motors Co in the first offering of the automaker’s stock, six people familiar with preparations for the landmark IPO said.

Subsequent offerings of the government’s holdings may be profitable depending on how investors trade the newly listed stock, the sources said.

But the question of whether taxpayers are ultimately made whole on GM’s $50 billion bailout could be left open for years, the people said.

13 Thousands protest French clampdown against Roma

By Lucien Libert and Nick Vinocur, Reuters

Sat Sep 4, 7:19 pm ET

PARIS (Reuters) – Tens of thousands protested across France on Saturday against a clampdown on immigrants, launching a week of action over policies on which President Nicolas Sarkozy has staked his political reputation.

Demonstrators opposed to measures including repatriation of Roma to eastern Europe waved flags and placards and chanted slogans including “Stop repression” and “No to Sarkozy’s inhumane policies.” Bands and drums made the atmosphere friendly rather than combative.

Critics see expulsions of Roma gypsies as part of a drive by Sarkozy to revive his popularity before 2012 elections and divert attention from painful pension reforms and spending cuts.

14 Minister says Pakistani militants stoking sectarian rift

By Augustine Anthony, Reuters

Sun Sep 5, 11:59 am ET

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pro-Taliban Pakistani militants are trying to create a sectarian rift, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday, as a new wave of violence piled pressure on a government already struggling with a flood crisis.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on two Shi’ite rallies that killed 33 people in Lahore on Wednesday and 65 in the city of Quetta on Friday.

The attacks ended a lull after devastating floods which affected 20 million people. Pakistani officials had said before the attacks that any major violence at such a difficult time was likely to cause deep popular resentment against the militants.

15 Obama says his economic policies halted "bleeding"

By Steve Holland, Reuters

Sat Sep 4, 10:12 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, previewing a big push on the U.S. economy next week, on Saturday defended policies that he said “have stopped the bleeding” and put the middle class on the road to recovery.

Obama, struggling to bring down the 9.6 percent jobless rate, is to spend next week talking up proposals on improving the economy.

He hopes to gain some traction with impatient voters as they ponder whether to toss out his Democrats in the November 2 congressional elections.

16 Future hiring will mainly benefit the high-skilled

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writers

2 hrs 37 mins ago

Whenever companies start hiring freely again, job-seekers with specialized skills and education will have plenty of good opportunities. Others will face a choice: Take a job with low pay – or none at all.

Job creation will likely remain weak for months or even years. But once employers do step up hiring, some economists expect job openings to fall mainly into two categories of roughly equal numbers:

• Professional fields with higher pay. Think lawyers, research scientists and software engineers.

• Lower-skill and lower-paying jobs, like home health care aides and store clerks.

17 Key oil spill evidence raised to Gulf’s surface

By HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 1:25 pm ET

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – Investigators looking into what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are a step closer to answers now that a key piece of evidence is secure aboard a ship.

Engineers took 29 1/2 hours to lift the 50-foot, 300-ton blowout preventer from a mile beneath the sea. The five-story high device breached the water’s surface at 6:54 p.m. CDT, and looked largely intact with black stains on the yellow metal.

FBI agents were among the 137 people aboard the Helix Q4000 vessel, taking photos and video of the device. They will escort it back to a NASA facility in Louisiana for analysis.

18 9 years gone, everyone’s a ground zero stakeholder

By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 12:27 pm ET

NEW YORK – It is a place of sacrifice. A place of mourning. A place people pass by on their way to grab lunch. It’s a place where tourists crane their necks to snatch a glimpse around barriers walling off an enormous construction site – which is also what it is.

Ground zero.

Depending on whom you talk to, it’s a scar on this city where horror still lingers, a bustling hive symbolizing the resilience of a nation, or simply, for those who live and work nearby, a place where life goes on.

19 Chile mine disaster exposes old family feuds

By PETER PRENGAMAN, Associated Press Writer

4 mins ago

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – While a fire warms their campsite, the icy feeling between Cristina Nunez Macias and her mother-in-law is as palpable as the cold Atacama desert.

Both women are here to support the same man, 34-year-old Claudio Yanez, one of the 33 trapped miners in Northern Chile. But they barely acknowledge each other, thanks to wounds created many years ago, and have been fighting over who should get Yanez’s salary and donations that have come from all over Chile.

“We have barely spoken in six years,” said Macias. “And now she thinks the donations and help should go to her? No way.”

20 Want cheapskates to spend? Hawk gizmos that save

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer

1 hr 5 mins ago

NEW YORK – How do you get penny pinchers to spend these days? Pitch products that promise to save them money.

Demand is rising for kitchen and bath gadgets that squeeze out that last blob of toothpaste and help get the suds out of tiny slivers of soap.

Marketers of these gizmos tout how the pennies they save by reducing waste can add up. Retailers are stocking up.

21 Backyard volunteers helping track firefly numbers

By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 15 mins ago

INDIANAPOLIS – The yellow-green streaks of fireflies that bring a magical air to summer nights, inspire camp songs and often end up in jars in children’s bedrooms may be flickering out in the nation’s backyards as suburban sprawl encroaches on their habitats.

Scientists concerned by reports from the public that they are seeing fewer of the luminous insects each summer have turned to a network of backyard volunteers spanning much of the nation to track their range and numbers. Their observations may shed light on whether fireflies are indeed declining – a trend that could dwindle the targets for the childhood rite of passage of chasing fireflies.

As this weekend marks summer’s unofficial end in America, the Firefly Watch volunteers’ work is winding down now that the insects’ annual light show is over in all but southern states.

22 Taiwan’s HTC: iPhone’s `quiet’ challenger

By JOE McDONALD, AP Business Writer

Sun Sep 5, 1:37 pm ET

BEIJING – East Asia is the world’s electronics factory, yet unless they are Japanese, producers are largely anonymous. Now HTC Corp., a Taiwanese maker of smart phones, is moving out of the shadows and trying to establish its own brand name as it competes with Apple’s iPhone.

HTC supplies U.S. carriers Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile but says a year ago only one in 10 Americans knew its name. With the help of marketing by cellular carriers and HTC’s own television ads during the baseball World Series, HTC says that number is up to 40 percent.

“We want to be one of the leaders,” said John Wang, the 13-year-old company’s chief marketing officer.

23 Expert warns of complacency after swine flu fizzle

By MIN LEE, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 9:10 am ET

HONG KONG – A leading virus expert urged health authorities around the world Sunday to stay vigilant even though the recent swine flu pandemic was less deadly than expected, warning that bird flu could spark the next global outbreak.

A World Health Organization official also defended the U.N.’s health body against accusations that it wasted governments’ money and enriched pharmaceutical companies with its strong warnings during the swine flu outbreak’s early days last year.

WHO declared the swine flu pandemic over last month. The latest death toll is just over 18,600 – far below the millions that were once predicted. The head of the global health body has credited good preparation and luck, since the H1N1 swine flu virus didn’t mutate as some had feared.

24 Speaker-in-waiting Boehner balances GOP factions

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 9:02 am ET

WASHINGTON – John Boehner could walk down most American streets without turning a head.

But the perpetually tanned, chain-smoking Ohioan might be the next House speaker and a huge force in national politics, trying to manage an increasingly libertarian-leaning Republican caucus while leading the opposition to President Barack Obama’s policies.

For those who know Boehner (pronounced BAY’-nur), the question is which version of the House Republican leader will emerge as speaker if the GOP takes at least 40 seats from Democrats in November.

25 Craigslist strikes adult services under pressure

By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD, AP Business Writer

Sun Sep 5, 6:51 am ET

Craigslist appears to have surrendered in a legal fight over erotic ads posted on its website, shutting down its adult services section Saturday and replacing it with a black bar that simply says “censored.”

The move comes just over a week after a group of state attorneys general said there weren’t enough protections against blocking potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution. It’s not clear if the closure is permanent, and it appears to only affect ads in the United States.

The listings came under new scrutiny after the jailhouse suicide last month of a former medical student who was awaiting trial in the killing of a masseuse he met through Craigslist, a popular site that lets users post classified ads, often for free.

26 Basque separatist group ETA announce cease-fire

By DANIEL WOOLLS and HAROLD HECKLE, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 1:33 pm ET

MADRID – The armed Basque separatist group ETA, under pressure from political allies to renounce violence and decapitated repeatedly by the arrests of its leaders, announced another cease-fire Sunday, suggesting it might turn to a political process in its quest for an independent homeland.

But the Basque regional government immediately dismissed the announcement as meaningless because ETA failed to renounce violence or announce its dissolution.

“It’s absolutely insufficient because it does not take into account what the vast majority of Basque society demands and requires from ETA, which is that it definitively abandon terrorist activity,” Basque regional interior minister Rodolfo Ares said in the first official comment on the announcement.

27 French bid to ban veils worries allies, tourists

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 4:38 am ET

PARIS – Protests in Pakistan, al-Qaida warnings, skittish Muslim tourists: France’s plan to do away with burqa-style veils is already reverberating far beyond its borders.

A bill to outlaw face veils, aimed at upholding French republican values, is expected to win Senate approval this month. If it passes this key hurdle, French diplomats will face a tough task ensuring the ban doesn’t alienate governments, deter devout foreign shoppers loaded with cash, or provoke Islamist terrorists.

It’s a complex challenge for a country that works relentlessly to preserve its global diplomatic influence, its cherished secular ideals, and its status as the world’s top tourist destination.

28 NZ cleans up after quake that tore new fault line

By ROB GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 6:09 am ET

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – The powerful earthquake that smashed buildings, cracked roads and twisted rail lines around the New Zealand city of Christchurch also ripped a new fault line in the Earth’s surface, a geologist said Sunday.

At least 500 buildings, including 90 in the downtown area, have been designated as destroyed by the 7.1-magnitude quake that struck at 4:35 a.m. Saturday near the South Island city of 400,000 people. Most other buildings sustained only minor damage.

Only two serious injuries were reported from the quake as chimneys and walls of older buildings were reduced to rubble and crumbled to the ground. Prime Minister John Key said it was a miracle no one was killed.

29 Dems’ prospects threatened by economic woes

By LIZ “Sprinkles” SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer

Sun Sep 5, 4:39 am ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Frustrated, discouraged and just plain mad, a lot of people who have lost jobs – or know someone who has – now want to see the names of Democrats on pink slips. And that’s jeopardizing the party’s chances in Ohio and all across the country in November’s elections.

In this big swing-voting state alone, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland is in a dogfight for re-election. Senate candidate Lee Fisher may be even worse off. As many as six House Democrats could lose their jobs this fall. Recession-fueled animosity is dominating every race, giving Republicans hope of huge victories.

In Ohio, like almost everywhere else, voters don’t much care for Washington, Wall Street or anything resembling the establishment. They grouse about every politician, including President Barack Obama, whom Ohioans played a critical role in electing. They fume over the nation’s teetering finances.

30 Greenest state behind the waste-to-energy race

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 1:27 pm ET

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Government officials from around the world used to come to this port city to catch a glimpse of the future: Two-story piles of trash would disappear into a furnace and eventually be transformed into electricity to power thousands of homes.

Nowadays, it’s U.S. officials going to Canada, Japan and parts of Western Europe to see the latest advances.

The Long Beach plant, for all its promise when it began operations roughly 20 years ago, still churns out megawatts. But it is a relic, a symbol of how California, one of America’s greenest states, fell behind other countries in the development of trash-to-energy technology.

31 Racial violence changes student – and school

By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer

Sun Sep 5, 1:15 pm ET

PHILADELPHIA – Duong Nghe Ly can’t wait to begin his senior year at South Philadelphia High School. A day of violence there last year changed his life, and he wants to learn if his school has been transformed as well.

Last Dec. 3, after years of attacks on Asian immigrant students, something finally snapped.

Fueled by rumors, a group of students roamed the halls searching for Asian victims until one was attacked in a classroom. Later, about 70 students stormed the cafeteria, where several Asians were beaten. About 35 students pushed past a police officer onto the so-called “Asian floor,” but were turned back. After school, Asians being escorted home were attacked anyway by a mob of youths.

32 Endangered or not, wolf killings set to expand

By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 1:05 pm ET

BILLINGS, Mont. – Government agencies are seeking broad new authority to ramp up killings and removals of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes, despite two recent court actions that restored the animal’s endangered status in every state except Alaska and Minnesota.

Various proposals would gas pups in their dens, surgically sterilize adult wolves and allow “conservation” or “research” hunts to drive down the predators’ numbers.

Once poisoned to near-extermination in the lower 48 states, wolves made a remarkable comeback over the last two decades under protection of the Endangered Species Act. But as packs continue to multiply their taste for livestock and big game herds coveted by hunters has stoked a rising backlash.

33 Army studies concussions’ effects on bomb techs

By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 12:20 pm ET

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – Motivated by the deaths of two friends in war-zone explosions, 1st Lt. Timothy Dwyer decided to become a bomb hunter.

By joining an explosive ordnance disposal unit, Dwyer put himself at a high risk not just of being killed, but of falling victim to another, more insidious threat: repeated concussions from blasts that don’t kill.

Soldiers from the Army’s 52nd Ordnance Group based at Fort Campbell have undergone hours of exhaustive cognitive testing in the military’s first-of-its-kind study of mild traumatic brain injury. This focus on the soldiers who find and destroy the powerful and deadly weapons is part of a larger effort by the military this year to better track and treat mild brain injuries.

34 Race complicates reservation crime fight

By SUDHIN THANAWALA, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 12:47 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO – For more than two hours on the night of May 16, 2007, Shane Maggi terrorized a Native American couple at their home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, pistol whipping them and firing bullets above the husband’s head.

Maggi, who suspected the couple had stolen his drugs, was convicted by a federal jury in 2008 and sentenced to more than 42 years in prison. But an appellate court here found Maggi did not meet its definition of a Native American and, as a result, had been prosecuted under the wrong federal statute.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Maggi’s conviction in March.

35 Tea party or establishment, GOP looks for gains

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

Sun Sep 5, 9:56 am ET

WILMINGTON, Del. – In the turbulent year of the tea party, Republican Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware set out to jangle no nerves as he ran for a Senate seat long held by Vice President Joseph Biden. It’s the way Republican strategists originally envisioned 2010, a roster of seasoned politicians pointing the party toward significant gains in the Senate.

“He brings our style of civility and independence to Washington and works to develop solutions,” is the soothing, even quaint message on the 71-year-old lawmaker’s campaign website, which shows him in a suit and tie, working alone at his desk. Experience “is hugely important,” he said in an interview.

After two terms as governor and nine as the state’s lone congressman, Castle appears better positioned than other veterans who faced a tea party-backed challenge this year. If he prevails over Christine O’Donnell on Sept. 14 – he and GOP officials have launched a fierce counterattack – he would join more than a half-dozen other veteran Republican officeholders on the ballot in Senate races.

Rant of the Week: Keith Olbermann

Countdown with Keith Olbermann

No, George, we don’t miss you at all.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Punting the Pundits

Punting the Punditsis an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Jimmy Breslin: Jimmy Breslin on the National Mood

There are these sudden loud noises in the hotel kitchen, one, two, three, probably a tray falling, and then there is so much screaming and a hand holding a gun high in the air and Robert Kennedy, who had walked into the gun, is on the floor with his eyes seeing nothing. On this June night in 1968 he has just won a Presidential primary and suddenly he is fit only for a gravedigger’s dirt.

It happens this way when the claws of madness swipe through the sky. In 1919 Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes called it for all time, and crashingly so today, when he wrote, “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.”

And now in New York they are turning an empty lot of the old World Trade Center and a mosque that isn’t built and probably never will be, into national fear. Omaha fights the mosque in Manhattan! Some foamer named Jones says he burns the Koran, and he actually is treated as news. All day on television yesterday you had the aimless babbles of this Beck, who looks like he eats Bibles.

h/t to Gaius Publius @ AMERICA blog, yes, Breslin is a national treasure.

Frank Rich: Freedom’s Just Another Word

Among the few scraps of news to emerge from Barack Obama’s vacation was the anecdote of a Martha’s Vineyard bookseller handing him  an advance copy of Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, “Freedom.” The book has since rocketed up the Amazon best-seller list, powered by reviews even more ecstatic  than those for Franzen’s last novel, “The Corrections.” But I doubt that the president, a fine writer who draws sustenance from great American writers, has read “Freedom” yet. If he had, he never would have delivered that bloodless speech on Tuesday night.

What was so grievously missing from Obama’s address  was any feeling for what has happened to our country during the seven-and-a-half-year war whose “end” he was marking. That legacy of anger and grief is what “Freedom” mainlines to its readers. In chronicling one Midwestern family as it migrates from St. Paul to Washington during the 9/11 decade, Franzen does for our traumatic time what Tom Wolfe’s “The Bonfire of the Vanities” did for the cartoonish go-go 1980s. Or perhaps, more pertinently, what “The Great Gatsby” did for the ominous boom of the 1920s. The heady intoxication of freedom is everywhere in “Freedom,” from extramarital sexual couplings to the consumer nirvana of the iPod to Operation Iraqi Freedom itself. Yet most everyone, regardless of age or calling or politics, is at war – not with terrorists, but with depression, with their consciences and with one another.

This mood has not lifted and may be thickening as we trudge toward Year 10 in Afghanistan. But Obama only paid it lip service. It’s a mystery why a candidate so attuned to the nation’s pulse, most especially on the matter of war, has grown tone deaf in office. On Tuesday, Obama asked the country to turn the page on Iraq as if that were as easy as, say, voting for him in 2008. His brief rhetorical pivot from the war to the economy only raised the question of why the crisis of joblessness has not merited a prime-time Oval Office speech of its own.

Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes: The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond

Writing in these pages in early 2008, we put the total cost to the United States of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. This price tag dwarfed previous estimates, including the Bush administration’s 2003 projections of a $50 billion to $60 billion war.  

But today, as the United States ends combat in Iraq,  it appears that our $3 trillion estimate (which accounted for both government expenses and the war’s broader impact on the U.S. economy) was, if anything, too low. For example, the cost of diagnosing, treating and compensating disabled veterans has proved higher than we expected.

Moreover, two years on, it has become clear to us that our estimate did not capture what may have been the conflict’s most sobering expenses: those in the category of “might have beens,” or what economists call opportunity costs. For instance, many have wondered aloud whether, absent the Iraq invasion, we would still be stuck in Afghanistan. And this is not the only “what if” worth contemplating. We might also ask: If not for the war in Iraq, would oil prices have risen so rapidly? Would the federal debt be so high? Would the economic crisis have been so severe?

The answer to all four of these questions is probably no. The central lesson of economics is that resources — including both money and attention — are scarce. What was devoted to one theater, Iraq, was not available elsewhere.

Dean Baker: Front Page Post Editorial Tells Readers that Dems Would Face Better Prospects With 11 Percent Unemployment

Most political experts believe that a strong economy favors incumbents, but the Post told readers  the opposite in a front page piece that urged Democrats to embrace deficit reduction. The piece noted comments from several Democratic senatorial candidates urging budget cuts, then told readers:

“The new push for austerity could prove too little, too late for Democrats, who fear losing their majorities in both chambers of Congress. In dozens of House and Senate races, incumbent Democrats are struggling in polls, leading political analysts to raise the serious prospect of Republican takeovers in the House and even the Senate.”

Of course the deficits that the country is now running are sustaining the economy. If the deficits were lower then output would be lower and unemployment would be higher. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently estimated that the stimulus has reduced the unemployment rate by between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points.

The CBO estimates imply that if the Democrats had been earlier in their push for fiscal austerity and not pushed through the stimulus, then the current unemployment rate would be between 10.3 percent and 11.4 percent. This Post piece asserts that this situation would have improved their electoral prospects in November, although it cites no one who backs up this position.

The editorial, which is not labeled as such, includes several other unsupported assertions. At one point it told readers that government spending is out of control, commenting that “Democrats vow to bring spending under control,” which of course is only possible if spending is already out of control.

Ezra Klein: Making Social Security less generous isn’t the answer

There are a lot of things Congress doesn’t know right now. What to do about jobs, for instance. Who’ll be running the House come January. How to balance the budget. But there is one thing that both parties increasingly seem to agree on: You should work longer.

Raising the Social Security retirement age has become as close to a consensus position as exists in American politics. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) supports it. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) has said that “we could and should consider a higher retirement age.” And for a while, I agreed with them, too. It seemed obvious: People live longer today, and so they should work later into life. But as I’ve looked at the issue, I’ve decided that I was wrong. So let me be the skunk at the party. We should leave the retirement age alone. In fact, we should leave Social Security alone — unless we’re making it more, rather than less, generous.

Nicholas D. Kristof: America’s History of Fear

A radio interviewer asked me the other day if I thought bigotry was the only reason why someone might oppose the Islamic center in Lower Manhattan. No, I don’t. Most of the opponents aren’t bigots but well-meaning worriers – and during earlier waves of intolerance in American history, it was just the same.

Screeds against Catholics from the 19th century sounded just like the invective today against the Not-at-Ground-Zero Mosque. The starting point isn’t hatred but fear: an alarm among patriots that newcomers don’t share their values, don’t believe in democracy, and may harm innocent Americans.

Followers of these movements against Irish, Germans, Italians, Chinese and other immigrants were mostly decent, well-meaning people trying to protect their country. But they were manipulated by demagogues playing upon their fears – the 19th- and 20th-century equivalents of Glenn Beck.

Most Americans stayed on the sidelines during these spasms of bigotry, and only a small number of hoodlums killed or tormented Catholics, Mormons or others. But the assaults were possible because so many middle-of-the-road Americans were ambivalent.

Maureen Dowd: The Poodle Speaks

Even in the thick of a historical tragedy, Tony Blair never seemed like a Shakespearean character.

He’s too rabbity brisk, too doggedly modern. The most proficient spinner since Rumpelstiltskin lacks introspection. The self-described “manipulator” is still in denial about being manipulated.

The Economist’s review of “A Journey,” the new autobiography of the former British prime minister, says it sounds less like Disraeli and Churchill and more like “the memoirs of a transatlantic business tycoon.”

Yet in the section on Iraq, Blair loses his C.E.O. fluency and engages in tortured arguments, including one on how many people really died in the war, and does a Shylock lament.

He says he does not regret serving as the voice for W.’s gut when the inexperienced American princeling galloped into war with Iraq. As for “the nightmare that unfolded” – giving the lie to all their faux rationales and glib promises – Tony wants everyone to know he has feelings.

“Do they really suppose I don’t care, don’t feel, don’t regret with every fibre of my being the loss of those who died?” he asks of his critics.

snip

There is no apology, but Blair sounds like a man with a guilty conscience.

The Week In Review 8/29 – 9/4

259 Stories served.  37 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.  It should be a Sunday morning feature.

Economy- 30

Sunday 8/29 5

Monday 8/30 2

Tuesday 8/31 1

Wednesday 9/1 7

Thursday 9/2 8

Friday 9/3 3

Saturday 9/4 4

Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran- 55

Sunday 8/29 5

Monday 8/30 8

Tuesday 8/31 8

Wednesday 9/1 14

Thursday 9/2 6

Friday 9/3 7

Saturday 9/4 7

International- 31

Sunday 8/29 11

Monday 8/30 7

Tuesday 8/31 2

Wednesday 9/1 3

Thursday 9/2 3

Saturday 9/4 5

Pakistan Flooding- 7

Sunday 8/29 2

Monday 8/30 2

Thursday 9/2 2

Saturday 9/4 1

National- 79

Sunday 8/29 14

Monday 8/30 14

Tuesday 8/31 13

Wednesday 9/1 12

Thursday 9/2 11

Friday 9/3 5

Saturday 9/4 10

Gulf Oil Blowout Disaster- 12

Thursday 9/2 4

Friday 9/3 5

Saturday 9/4 3

Science- 22

Sunday 8/29 4

Monday 8/30 4

Tuesday 8/31 3

Wednesday 9/1 3

Thursday 9/2 3

Friday 9/3 4

Saturday 9/4 1

Sports- 17

Sunday 8/29 4

Monday 8/30 7

Tuesday 8/31 2

Wednesday 9/1 1

Thursday 9/2 1

Friday 9/3 1

Saturday 9/4 1

Arts/Fashion- 6

Sunday 8/29 1

Monday 8/30 3

Friday 9/3 1

Saturday 9/4 1

On This Day in History: September 5

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

September 5 is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 117 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1882, the first Labor Day was celebrated in NYC with a parade of 10,000 workers. The Parade started at City Hall, winding past the reviewing stands at Union Square and then uptown where it ended at 42nd St where the marcher’s and their families celebrated with a picnic, concert and speeches. The march was organized by New York’s Central Labor Union and while there has been debate as to who originated the idea, credit is given to Peter McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor.

It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland  put reconciliation with the labor movement as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. The September date was chosen as Cleveland was concerned that aligning an American labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.

 1590 – Alexander Farnese’s army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris.

1661 – Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D’Artagnan, captain of the king’s musketeers.

1666 – Great Fire of London ends: 10,000 buildings including St. Paul’s Cathedral are destroyed, but only 16 people are known to have died.

1698 – In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry.

1725 – Wedding of Louis XV and Maria Leszczynska.

1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1781 – Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War.

1793 – French Revolution the French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror.

1798 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law.

1800 – Napoleon surrenders Malta to Great Britain.

1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac’s forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort’s outhouses.

1816 – Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable (“Unobtainable Chamber”).

1836 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.

1839 – The First Opium War begins in China.

1840 – Premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s Un giorno di regno at La Scala of Milan.

1862 – American Civil War: the Potomac River is crossed at White’s Ford in the Maryland Campaign.

1862 – James Glaisher, pioneering meteorologist and Henry Tracey Coxwell break world record for altitude whilst collecting data in their balloon.

1864 – Achille Francois Bazaine becomes Marshall of France.

1877 – Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.

1882 – The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.

1905 – Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, USA, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.

1906 – The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).

1914 – World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital.

1915 – The pacifist Zimmerwald Conference begins.

1918 – Decree “On Red Terror” is published in Russia

1927 – The first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Trolley Troubles, produced by Walt Disney, is released by Universal Pictures.

1932 – The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger.

1937 – Spanish Civil War: Llanes falls.

1938 – Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are assassinated in the Seguro Obrero massacre.

1942 – World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, first Japanese defeat in the Pacific War.

1943 – World War II: The 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Nazdab, near Lae in the Salamaua-Lae campaign.

1944 – Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux.

1945 – Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.

1945 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.

1948 – In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister, As such, he is the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.

1957 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista bombs the revolt in Cienfuegos.

1969 – My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.

1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: the United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thua Thien-Hue Province.

1972 – Munich Massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called “Black September” attack and take hostage 11 Israel athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. 2 die in the attack and 9 die the following day.

1975 – Sacramento, California: Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.

1977 – Hanns Martin Schleyer, is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany by the Red Army Faction and is later murdered.

1977 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.

1978 – Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace process at Camp David, Maryland.

1980 – The St. Gotthard Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world’s longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.224 km) stretching from Goschenen to Airolo.

1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.

1984 – Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.

1991 – The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, came into force.

2000 – The Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry makes its maiden voyage.

2000 – Tuvalu joins the United Nations.

2007 – Three terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Qaeda are arrested in Germany after allegedly planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installations.

Morning Shinbun Sunday September 5




Sunday’s Headlines:

Democrats plan political triage to retain House

Efforts Afoot to Oust Assange as WikiLeaks Leader

USA

The post-9/11 life of an American charged with murder

Oil dispersant effects remain a mystery

Europe

Tough lessons: How teachers are seeking answers at Auschwitz

Mafia cash in on lucrative EU wind farm handouts – especially in Sicily

Middle East

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to be lashed over newspaper photograph

Middle East peace process: High-level talks but with low expectations

Asia

‘Millions’ without aid in Pakistan

Resentment Simmers in Western Chinese Region

Latin America

Tortured Mexican kidnap victim says: ‘I would sit there wondering how people could be that bad’

Democrats plan political triage to retain House

Party may divert its resources to save two dozen incumbents

By JEFF ZELENY and CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON – As Democrats brace for a November wave that threatens their control of the House, party leaders are preparing a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority.

In the next two weeks, Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers.

“We are going to have to win these races one by one,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, conceding that the party would ultimately cut loose members who had not gained ground.

Efforts Afoot to Oust Assange as WikiLeaks Leader

 

Newsweek

As frontman for wikileaks.org, Julian Assange, the floppy-haired Australian computer hacker, has become an internationally celebrated advocate for would-be whistle-blowers. But now that Swedish prosecutors have reopened a rape investigation of Assange and continue an inquiry into allegations that he was involved in “sexual coercion and sexual molestation”–all of which he denies–some fellow WikiLeaks activists are considering asking him to step down from his role as the group’s public face, or ousting him if he won’t leave voluntarily.

USA

The post-9/11 life of an American charged with murder

PATHS TO JIHAD: FROM NEW JERSEY TO YEMEN

By Peter Finn

Saturday, September 4, 2010; 8:36 PM


On the morning of Jan. 26, Sharif Mobley stepped out of his apartment in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, to buy some cereal for his sleeping 3-year-old daughter. The young American from New Jersey was quickly surrounded by eight black-clad, masked operatives from the country’s secret police. Mobley turned to run, but he was shot in the leg and bundled into the back of a white van. When Mobley shouted “I’m an American,” he was hit in the face. As the van sped away, Mobley later told his lawyers, one of his Yemeni captors made a call. The man said only one word, in English: “Easy.”

Oil dispersant effects remain a mystery

BP sprayed chemicals massively in confronting the gulf spill, but scientists aren’t sure how much good – or bad – they did.

By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times

September 4, 2010|8:21 p.m.


In the wake of the BP oil spill, gaping questions remain about a key tool used during cleanup: the nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersants sprayed over the water or onto the gushing wellhead on the seafloor. Do the chemicals help recovery, hinder it – or neither?

Just as dishwashing detergent breaks grease on dirty plates into bits, dispersants help turn a slick of oil into droplets a hair’s breadth in size. In droplet form, oil is more easily pulled under by currents, away from birds, otters, seaweed and other marine life near the surface.

Europe

Tough lessons: How teachers are seeking answers at Auschwitz

As pupils across the country prepare to return to lessons, Paul Vallely joins a group of teachers on an educational trip to Auschwitz to ask: how do you bring the real horrors of history alive in the classroom?

Sunday, 5 September 2010

For me, it is the suitcases. The ancient brown leather is battered and crumpled. But the letters are clear enough. Each bears only the name and date of birth of its owner. Some belonged to adults. But many belonged to children. It is not hard to imagine how the child’s mother selected the bare essentials to pack – the Nazis often provided lists, reminding mothers not to forget their child’s favourite toys – while their father lettered the outside of the case in white paint – to make sure that things went as right as they could for their little one.

Mafia cash in on lucrative EU wind farm handouts – especially in Sicily

An ill wind is blowing over Italy’s green revolution, as the Mafia seek to capitalise on generous grants for renewable energy.  

By Nick Squires in Trapani, Sicily, and Nick Meo

Published: 7:30AM BST 05 Sep 2010


They rise up high above the sun-scorched countryside, looking out over hilltop villages, palm trees, neatly-tended vineyards and olive groves.

But for all their promises of a clean, green future, Italy’s windfarms have now acquired a somewhat dirtier whiff – as the latest industry to be infiltrated by the country’s mobsters.

Attracted by the prospect of generous grants designed to boost the use of alternative energies, the so-called “eco Mafia” has begun fraudulently creaming off millions of euros from both the Italian government and the European Union.

Middle East

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to be lashed over newspaper photograph  

Iranian woman facing death for adultery to be whipped despite Times apologising for using picture of another person

Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Peter Beaumont

guardian.co.uk


Iran has reportedly sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani – the 43-year-old Iranian woman who faces execution after being convicted of adultery – to 99 lashes in prison for “spreading corruption and indecency” after allowing an unveiled picture of herself to be published in a British newspaper.

The claim, which could not be confirmed, comes from her family and a lawyer representing Mohammadi Ashtiani, based on reports from those who have recently left the prison in Tabriz where she has been held for the last four years.

Middle East peace process: High-level talks but with low expectations

On the ground, there is little agreement over the way forward

By Donald Macintyre in Nablus Sunday, 5 September 2010  

The two old friends were both middle-aged, both barbers, and both sons of Palestinian refugee parents who were forced to flee the same village outside Jaffa in the war of 1948. Each had an entirely different take yesterday on this week’s high-profile start to the new round of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Saad Sholi, 45, the owner of the barber’s shop, is a self-confessed political junkie who avidly watched the proceedings in Washington, switching between the al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera satellite TV channels. He was not wildly optimistic about the outcome.

Asia

‘Millions’ without aid in Pakistan

A month into the disaster, food fails to reach estimated three million people, with children particularly vulnerable.

Last Modified: 05 Sep 2010

The United Nations says that three million people affected by floods in Pakistan have yet to receive the food aid they desperately need.

Children are particularly in danger, according to Martin Mogwanja, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Pakistan.

For its part, the Pakistani government has acknowledged that nearly one million people have not received any help of any sort, a month into the disaster.

Some parts of the country are still being hit by fresh flooding. Southern Sindh province remains one of the hardest-hit areas.

More than 20 million people across the country have been affected by the floods, which have killed more than 1,500 people.

Supplies sold

Crime and the sale of donated aid supplies are undermining aid efforts.

Resentment Simmers in Western Chinese Region  



 By ANDREW JACOBS

Published: September 4, 2010


URUMQI, China – The five-star hotels are full, bulldozers are making quick work of dreary slums and billboards for “French-style villas” call out to the nouveau riche. In the year since rioting between the Han and Uighur ethnic groups killed nearly 200 people in this city in far western China, life appears to be returning to normal.

“Don’t worry, everything is peaceful now,” said the perky bellhop at a hotel in the city’s predominantly Han Chinese quarter.

But before turning away, he had second thoughts. “You’d better not go to the Uighur part of town at night,” he said.

Latin America

Tortured Mexican kidnap victim says: ‘I would sit there wondering how people could be that bad’

A man held for ransom by one of Mexico’s most brutal drugs gangs tells of beatings and constant killing of other captives

by Jo Tuckman in Reynosa, Mexico

The Observer, Sunday 5 September 2010


Félix survived his ordeal at the hands of the Zeta cartel, one of Mexico’s most ruthless drugs gangs. But he knows of many fellow migrants who suffered the same grisly fate as the 72 who were shot at an isolated ranch 70 miles from the border city of Reynosa.

“There are lots more dead migrants, they just haven’t found them,” says the 20-year-old Honduran, speaking at a shelter for migrants run by nuns in Reynosa.

Unlike those at the ranch who were travelling in one large group and kidnapped by an armed commando, Félix (whose name has been changed) was alone when he was picked up by a policeman. In an example of the official collusion that human rights activists have long claimed endangers migrants in Mexico, the officer took him to a Zeta safe house and left him there.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Police on alert as Pakistan suicide attack victims buried

by Maaz Khan, AFP

2 hrs 58 mins ago

QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) – Anti-terror police were on high alert in Pakistan on Saturday as mass burials took place for the victims of a suicide bomber who killed at least 59 people at a Shiite Muslim rally.

The bomber was among a 450-strong crowd marching through the southwestern city of Quetta on Friday and blew himself up as the procession reached the main square.

Chaotic scenes followed, with an angry mob starting fires and shooting into the air while others fled or lay on the ground to avoid the gunfire.

2 Nearly a month on, Chile miners face uncertain rescue date

by Pablo Fernandez and Paulina Abramovich, AFP

39 mins ago

COPIAPO, Chile (AFP) – The 33 men trapped deep below ground in a Chilean mine face a grim milestone Sunday — a month since the cave-in that stranded them — as officials warn it could take months more to rescue them.

The men have become national heroes and symbols of survival since rescuers made contact with them. In Chile and abroad, audiences are following their progress in minute detail.

Rescuers and relatives who had held out hope steadily grew to fear the worst, with no word from the men for more than two weeks after the August 5 collapse at the San Jose mine in Chile’s remote Atacama desert.

3 Earl socks Canada’s Nova Scotia, weakens to tropical storm

AFP

1 hr 46 mins ago

MONTREAL (AFP) – A resilient Earl barreled ashore in Nova Scotia as a hurricane on Saturday, Canadian experts said, marking the last gasp of a monster storm that menaced the US East Coast but ultimately failed to do much damage there.

The center of the storm made landfall in southern Nova Scotia shortly after 11:00 am (1400 GMT), buffeting the craggy coastline with winds up to 120 kilometers (74 miles) per hour, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre (CHC).

It then weakened to a tropical storm over land, but pounded communities like Halifax with high winds and rain that left at least 160,000 households without power, Nova Scotia Power said.

4 Powerful quake causes devastation in New Zealand

AFP

Sat Sep 4, 1:03 pm ET

CHRISTCHURCH (AFP) – New Zealand’s most destructive earthquake in nearly 80 years caused two billion dollars’ worth of damage Saturday, felling buildings, tearing up roads and sending terrified residents fleeing into the streets.

Officials said it was “extremely lucky” no one was killed when the 7.0 magnitude quake shook the country’s second-largest city Christchurch just before dawn.

Frightened residents fled from their homes to find streets covered in rubble and glass, but despite the extent of the damage only two people were seriously injured in the city of 340,000 people.

5 Afghans crowd scandal-hit bank to withdraw savings

by Lynne O’Donnell, AFP

Sat Sep 4, 12:07 pm ET

KABUL (AFP) – Afghan officials sought Saturday to head off a run on the country’s biggest bank, reassuring customers of Kabul Bank that their money was safe following corruption allegations in US newspapers.

Branches of Kabul Bank across the country were crowded as anxious depositors joined hundreds of thousands of government employees queuing to collect their salaries, which were being paid through the bank on Saturday.

The privately-owned bank has been the subject of reports alleging large-scale corruption by executives, though the government and central bank have said it is solvent and there is no need for customers to panic.

6 Venice’s ‘couturiers of glass’ stand test of time

by Gina Doggett, AFP

Sat Sep 4, 1:38 am ET

VENICE, Italy (AFP) – With a clientele that includes crowned heads, Archimede Seguso Vetreria, a stalwart of Murano’s storied glassmakers, has no need to change its formula for success.

“We buck the trend. We work traditionally, everything by hand,” said Gino Seguso, son of the late Archimede, the solid glass sculptor famed for his stylised animals, and generations of Segusos before him on the outlying Venetian island of Murano.

“We consider ourselves the ‘couturiers’ of glass,” said Seguso, whose atelier collaborates with top international artists, designers and architects and caters for royalty, heads of state and the likes of Tiffany’s, a loyal client for 60 years.

7 Afridi apologises for ‘fixing’ row

by Julian Guyer, AFP

Sat Sep 4, 12:21 pm ET

CARDIFF (AFP) – Pakistan one-day captain Shahid Afridi apologised Saturday for the scandal engulfing his side’s tour of England after British police questioned three players over an alleged betting scam.

Test captain Salman Butt plus bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif were all released without charge Friday after the interviews at a police station near the ‘home of cricket’, Lord’s in north London.

But the trio — who protest their innocence — are still battling charges under the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) anti-corruption code and have been barred from playing any further matches pending the outcome of their case.

8 BP spill costs hit 8 bln dlrs as crews unearth clues

by Jo Biddle, AFP

Sat Sep 4, 3:25 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – British oil giant BP has spent eight billion dollars to battle the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the company has revealed as its crews retrieved key evidence from the seabed.

Robotic submarines recorded the delicate operation as engineers raised a failed blowout preventer from the ruptured well and began lifting it to the surface in order to hand it over to the US Justice Department.

The US government is conducting what could be a criminal investigation into the April 20 explosion and subsequent oil spill and BP is hoping to shift some of the responsibility to its contractors.

9 Obama says his economic policies halted "bleeding"

By Steve Holland, Reuters

2 hrs 4 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, previewing a big push on the U.S. economy next week, on Saturday defended policies that he said “have stopped the bleeding” and put the middle class on the road to recovery.

Obama, struggling to bring down the 9.6 percent jobless rate, is to spend next week talking up proposals on improving the economy.

He hopes to gain some traction with impatient voters as they ponder whether to toss out his Democrats in the November 2 congressional elections.

10 Taxpayers likely to face initial loss on GM IPO: sources

By Clare Baldwin, Soyoung Kim and Kevin Krolicki, Reuters

Fri Sep 3, 7:33 pm ET

NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) – The U.S. government is likely to take a loss on General Motors Co in the first offering of the automaker’s stock, six people familiar with preparations for the landmark IPO said.

Subsequent offerings of the government’s holdings may be profitable depending on how investors trade the newly listed stock, the sources said.

But the question of whether taxpayers are ultimately made whole on GM’s $50 billion bailout could be left open for years, the people said.

11 Thousands protest at French immigrant clampdown

By Lucien Libert and Nick Vinocur, Reuters

50 mins ago

PARIS (Reuters) – Tens of thousands protested across France on Saturday against a clampdown on immigrants, launching a week of action over policies on which President Nicolas Sarkozy has staked his political reputation.

Demonstrators opposed to measures including repatriation of Roma to eastern Europe waved flags and placards and chanted slogans including “Stop repression” and “No to Sarkozy’s inhumane policies.” Bands and drums made the atmosphere friendly rather than combative.

Critics see expulsions of Roma gypsies as part of a drive by Sarkozy to revive his popularity before 2012 elections and divert attention from painful pension reforms and spending cuts.

12 Minister says Pakistani militants stoking sectarian rift

By Augustine Anthony, Reuters

Sat Sep 4, 1:18 pm ET

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pro-Taliban Pakistani militants are trying to create a sectarian rift, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday, as a new wave of violence piled pressure on a government already struggling with a flood crisis.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on two Shi’ite rallies that killed 33 people in Lahore on Wednesday and 65 in the city of Quetta on Friday.

The attacks ended a lull after devastating floods which affected 20 million people. Pakistani officials had said before the attacks that any major violence at such a difficult time was likely to cause deep popular resentment against the militants.

13 Bomb kills 54 in Pakistan, Taliban threatens U.S.

By Saud Mehsud, Reuters

Sat Sep 4, 1:03 am ET

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber struck a rally in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday, killing at least 54 people in the second major attack this week and piling pressure on a U.S.-backed government overwhelmed by a flood crisis.

Pakistan’s Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast and said it would launch attacks in the United States and Europe “very soon” — repeating a threat to strike Western targets in response to drone attacks that have targeted its leadership.

In Washington, the White House condemned the Quetta attack on a Shi’ite rally and expressed solidarity with the Pakistani people, saying it was “even more reprehensible” because it came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as Pakistan reels from disastrous flooding.

14 Obama to address new economic ideas next Wednesday

By Alister Bull and Jeff Mason, Reuters

Sat Sep 4, 1:07 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Friday he would outline new measures next week to boost the U.S. economy, but analysts were skeptical he would be able to deliver a big enough package to lift growth significantly.

Obama made his remarks after August data showed that jobs — the central issue in November congressional elections — were being created too slowly.

The White House is under pressure to show tangible results in lifting growth and hiring before the November 2 election, when Obama’s Democrats face punishment from voters anxious about near double-digit unemployment.

15 BP: Crews lifting key device from Gulf face delay

By HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writer

45 mins ago

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – Icelike crystals had formed Saturday on the 300-ton blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, forcing BP crews to wait before they could safely hoist the device to the surface.

The hydrates – which caused the oil giant problems when the company was trying to contain the oil spilling into the Gulf – need to melt because they are combustible. Crews must take care not to damage the device, which is considered a key piece of evidence in the spill investigation.

“We don’t want to lift it and risk an uncontrolled release of gas because that’s inherently dangerous,” Darin Hilton, the captain of the Helix Q4000 vessel that’s raising the device with a giant crane, told The Associated Press.

16 Nation’s economic woes jeopardize Dems’ prospects

By LIZ “Sprinkles” SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer

1 hr 26 mins ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Frustrated, discouraged and just plain mad, a lot of people who have lost jobs – or know someone who has – now want to see the names of Democrats on pink slips. And that’s jeopardizing the party’s chances in Ohio and all across the country in November’s elections.

In this big swing-voting state alone, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland is in a dogfight for re-election. Senate candidate Lee Fisher may be even worse off. As many as six House Democrats could lose their jobs this fall. Recession-fueled animosity is dominating every race, giving Republicans hope of huge victories.

In Ohio, like almost everywhere else, voters don’t much care for Washington, Wall Street or anything resembling the establishment. They grouse about every politician, including President Barack Obama, whom Ohioans played a critical role in electing. They fume over the nation’s teetering finances.

17 For US Muslims, a 9/11 anniversary like no other

By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

Sat Sep 4, 1:36 pm ET

NEW YORK – American Muslims are boosting security at mosques, seeking help from leaders of other faiths and airing ads underscoring their loyalty to the United States – all ahead of a 9/11 anniversary they fear could bring more trouble for their communities.

Their goal is not only to protect Muslims, but also to prevent them from retaliating if provoked. One Sept. 11 protest in New York against the proposed mosque near ground zero is expected to feature Geert Wilders, the aggressively anti-Islam Dutch lawmaker. The same day in Gainesville, Fla., the Dove World Outreach Center plans to burn copies of the Quran.

“We can expect crazy people out there will do things, but we don’t want to create a hysteria,” among Muslims, said Victor Begg of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan. “Americans, in general, they support pluralism. It’s just that there’s a lot of misinformation out there that has created confusion.”

18 Shoes, eggs hurled at ex-Brit PM Blair in Dublin

By JOHN HEANEY, Associated Press Writer

Sat Sep 4, 12:09 pm ET

DUBLIN – Protesters hurled shoes and eggs Saturday at Tony Blair who held the first public signing of his memoir amid high security in Ireland’s capital. Hundreds more people lined up to have their books autographed – evidence that the divisions left by Blair’s decade as British leader have yet to heal.

Blair’s new book, “A Journey,” is a best-seller, but it has angered opponents of his policies, especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

About 200 demonstrators chanted that Blair had “blood on his hands” as the former prime minister arrived at a Dublin bookstore. Shoes, eggs and other projectiles were thrown toward Blair as he emerged from a car, but did not hit him. A flip-flop could be seen lying on the roof of a BMW in Blair’s motorcade.

19 Many Pakistanis still waiting for flood aid

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press

Sat Sep 4, 11:17 am ET

DAIRA DINPANAH, Pakistan – Abdul Rehman and his family live under a tree next to a pile of rubble on a newly created island where his house used to be.

In the month since his home was destroyed in the raging floodwaters that inundated Pakistan, he has gotten no aid of any kind from the government or private aid groups to help him survive, he said.

Frustrated and desperate, he joined a protest with dozens of other villagers that blocked the main road in this area 10 days ago. In response, police opened a criminal investigation against him, he said. And he still hasn’t gotten any food or even a tarp to shield his family of six from the blazing summer sun, he said.

20 Earl’s biggest damage in Northeast: business

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 2 mins ago

YARMOUTH, Mass. – Earl’s worst damage in New England was to seasonal businesses hoping to end their summer on a high note.

The tropical storm, far less intense than feared, brushed past the Northeast and dumped heavy, wind-driven rain on Cape Cod cottages and fishing villages, but caused little damage.

It left clear, blue skies in its wake. It was the perfect start to a Labor Day weekend that Cape Cod’s restaurants and hotels hoped to salvage after business was decimated ahead of the storm.

21 Kinect’s Israeli partner sees a remoteless world

By TIA GOLDENBERG, Associated Press Writer

Sat Sep 4, 10:48 am ET

TEL AVIV, Israel – Inon Beracha envisions a world where your movements control the gadgets and devices around you. There’s no remote control to lose, no buttons to push. The air conditioner senses your presence and changes the temperature to your liking.

Controlling your surroundings with the wave of a hand sounds like magic, but Beracha’s company, PrimeSense, is already making headway, thanks to a little help from video games.

PrimeSense’s 3-D camera is a key component of Microsoft Corp.’s Kinect motion- and voice-control technology for the Xbox 360 game system. Coming this fall, Kinect will let people play games and watch movies on the Xbox with no wand, controller, mat or remote. It recognizes users’ gestures and voices, so you can control on-screen characters in racing, action and sports games simply by speaking or moving your body. If it’s a hit, it could pave the way for a remoteless future.

22 Buildings collapse, 2 injured in powerful NZ quake

By ROB GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer

Sat Sep 4, 10:12 am ET

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – Chimneys and walls crumbled to the ground, roads cracked in half and residents were knocked off their feet as a powerful magnitude-7.1 earthquake rocked New Zealand’s South Island early Saturday. The prime minister said it was a miracle no one was killed.

Only two serious injuries were reported from the quake, which shook thousands of people awake when it struck at 4:35 a.m. near the southern city of Christchurch. There were reports of some people trapped inside damaged buildings – though none appeared to be crushed by rubble – and a few looters broke into some damaged shops in the city of 400,000.

Power was cut across the region, roads were blocked by debris, and gas and water supplies were disrupted, Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said. Chimneys and walls of older buildings were reduced to rubble, and Parker warned continuing aftershocks could cause masonry to fall from damaged buildings.

23 Possible talks with Afghan insurgents draw closer

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 43 mins ago

KABUL, Afghanistan – In a further step toward reconciling with insurgents, President Hamid Karzai said Saturday he will soon name the members of a council tasked with pursuing peace talks with rebels willing to break with al-Qaida and recognize the government in Kabul.

Karzai’s announcement was given added poignancy by comments from the outgoing deputy commander of NATO forces in the country that commanders promised too much when they predicted quick success taking the key Taliban-held town of Marjah last winter.

While British Lt. Gen. Nick Parker now sees signs of a turnaround in the turbulent area, he said the military will be more restrained in forecasting success in the future.

24 Muslims take to Minn. State Fair to repair image

By PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press Writer

Sat Sep 4, 10:11 am ET

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. – Despite the smells of fried dough and roasted meat wafting from the Minnesota State Fair, Salim and Zuleyha Ozonder were focused on the people who were leaving, not the food or festivities beckoning from across the street.

Each time a new wave of people exited, the young Minneapolis residents – who hadn’t eaten all day – tried to press into their hands a small, glossy card that read “Islam Explained” on one side. On the other, it had about 180 words of background on a religion whose adherents fear is being misunderstood by too many Americans as violent and depraved.

“You just want people to take the card, spend a minute reading it and say, ‘Oh. They’re not terrorists,'” said 27-year-old Zuleyha. She and her husband, like other Muslims, were fasting during daylight hours for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

25 Death toll rises to 65 in attack on Pakistanis

By ABDUL SATTAR, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 57 mins ago

QUETTA, Pakistan – The death toll from a Pakistani Taliban suicide attack on a Shiite Muslim procession rose to 65 Saturday as critically wounded people died in hospitals, while a suspected U.S. missile strike killed seven insurgents in a restive tribal area.

About 150 people were wounded and some remained in critical condition after the bombing Friday in the southwestern city of Quetta, police official Mohammed Sultan said.

The attack was the second in a week against Shiites for which the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility. A triple suicide bombing Wednesday killed 35 people at a Shiite ceremony in the eastern city of Lahore.

26 Ariz. governor says she was wrong about beheadings

By PAUL DAVENPORT and AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press Writers

Sat Sep 4, 4:11 am ET

PHOENIX – A claim by Arizona’s governor that rising violence along the U.S.-Mexico border has led to headless bodies turning up in the desert came back to haunt her during a stammering debate performance in which she failed to back it up.

Gov. Jan Brewer, who gained national attention defending the state’s tough new immigration law and warning of increasing border bloodshed, has spent the time since the gubernatorial candidates’ debate earlier this week trying to repair the damage done from her cringe-worthy contest against underdog challenger Terry Goddard.

“That was an error, if I said that,” the Republican told The Associated Press on Friday. “I misspoke, but you know, let me be clear, I am concerned about the border region because it continues to be reported in Mexico that there’s a lot of violence going on and we don’t want that going into Arizona.”

27 What now for Gulf? Fire complicates drill debate

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer

Fri Sep 3, 11:24 pm ET

WASHINGTON – What now for the Gulf? News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling.

Just when it seemed the Obama administration might be ready to lift the unpopular ban, the fire raises new questions about the dangers of offshore drilling, leaving the industry wondering when it can get back to work.

“Anything that casts any kind of shadow on the industry right now certainly complicates lifting the moratorium,” said Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University in Texas. “It makes it difficult to continue to say that (the BP spill) is an aberration.”

28 LA artists fight to save city’s legacy of murals

By CHRISTINA HOAG, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 24 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – Every so often, Ernesto de la Loza drives around the city to check on the state of his murals. It’s a short tour these days. Out of 42 swirling, vivid pieces he’s painted, only seven remain, the rest lost to graffiti, whitewash and withering sun.

“It’s really painful,” said the 61-year-old artist whose works depict Angeleno life from Mexican heritage to the dangers of drugs. “People say ‘don’t take it personal,’ but it’s totally personal. They’re my babies.”

At one time hosting an estimated 1,500 pieces of wall art, Los Angeles is the nation’s mural capital, but that’s a fading distinction thanks to prolific graffiti taggers, a legal morass over classifying the artworks as illegal signs, and neglect.

29 AP Interview: Author leaving home next to Palins

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 32 mins ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Sarah Palin can take down the fence.

Palin’s neighbor of three months on Wasilla’s Lake Lucille, author Joe McGinniss, is packing his bags and notebooks and leaving Sunday for his home in Massachusetts to write the book he has been researching on the former governor and GOP vice presidential candidate.

His arrival in May made headlines and drew an indignant reaction from Palin and a visit from her husband, Todd. The Palins even tacked an extension onto an 8-foot board fence between the homes, leaving only a part of their second-story home visible from McGinniss’ driveway.

30 Who’s often dreading college sendoff more? Parents

By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer

2 hrs 46 mins ago

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The hour when Ariana Kramer will begin her college career is fast approaching – and her parents are in an office supply store, disagreeing about hanging files, of all things.

“She’ll need them,” her mother says.

“I don’t think so,” her dad counters.

31 Fired, rehired teachers back at troubled RI school

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press Writer

Sat Sep 4, 12:39 pm ET

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. – Teachers who were fired and ultimately rehired in a dispute that focused national debate over education reform have returned to their Rhode Island classrooms amid hopes that changes they agreed to will help improve student performance at their persistently troubled high school.

The changes at Central Falls High School – where just 7 percent of 11th graders tested last year were proficient in math – include a longer school day, more rigorous teacher evaluations and flexible schedules to provide more classes for struggling students. Teachers were also required to participate in more days of professional development.

Education Commissioner Deborah Gist acknowledged the obstacles facing students in Rhode Island’s smallest and poorest city.

32 Authorities: Fire at Tenn. mosque site was arson

By TRAVIS LOLLER, Associated Press Writer

Fri Sep 3, 8:37 pm ET

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Federal investigators said Friday that a suspicious fire that damaged construction equipment at the site of a future mosque in Tennessee was arson and offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

The future mosque in Tennessee, like other houses of worship for Muslims across the country, has been drawn into a fierce debate surrounding a proposed Islamic community center two blocks from Manhattan’s ground zero, and opponents are becoming even more hostile and aggressive.

The construction site arson frightened members of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. Firefighters had said there was a strong smell of diesel from the fire that engulfed the cab of a dump truck last weekend, and authorities found fresh fuel pooled under a second dump truck, according to an incident report from the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department.

33 Colo. gubernatorial candidate refuses to back down

By STEVEN K. PAULSON, Associated Press Writer

Fri Sep 3, 8:16 pm ET

DENVER – Dan Maes likes to brag about taking down the political machine in becoming Colorado’s Republican gubernatorial nominee. The way he’s going, it may be the only victory in a short-lived political career.

Republicans spent the week desperately trying to get the tea party favorite to quit the race amid a series of embarrassing missteps that culminated with bizarre claims about his shadowy undercover law enforcement career in Kansas in the 1980s.

But Maes vowed to stay, and Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Buescher certified Maes’ place on the November ballot Friday.

Health and Fitness News

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

Since this Summer’s Egg/Salmonella scare and past warnings and recalls about E. Coli contaminations, this article has some very helpful tips and advice on food safety on a tight budget.

Food Safety Tips for the Budget-Conscious

Vegetarian Recipes for Barbecue Season

Vegetarians need not suffer with veggie burgers and tofu hot dogs. Pack vegetables in foil packets, ready to throw on the fire, and accompany them with romesco, the pungent Catalan sauce thickened with nuts.

Photobucket

Ratatouille

Creamy Potato Salad With Yogurt Vinaigrette

Turkish Bean and Herb Salad

Grilled Mushrooms in Foil Packets

Grilled Leeks With Romesco Sauce

General Medicine/Family Medical

Blood Clot Risk From Stents Seen in African-Americans

Study Shows African-Americans May Be at Higher Risk for Blood Clots From Drug-Coated Stents

Aug. 31, 2010 — African-Americans may be at an increased risk for developing life-threatening blood clots after receiving drug-coated stents that are meant to keep their arteries open, new research shows.

The study is published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Selenium May Protect Against Bladder Cancer

Boosting Selenium Intake May Lower Bladder Cancer Risk, Particularly in Women

Aug. 31, 2010 — Adding more selenium to your diet may reduce your risk of bladder cancer.

Scientists reporting in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention say that adults with low blood levels of the mineral selenium are more likely to develop bladder cancer. The lower your levels of selenium, the higher your risk.

Selenium is a trace mineral found in soil. Dietary sources of selenium include plant foods and meats from animals that grazed on grain or plants grown in selenium-rich soil. The nutrient is also found in certain nuts. For example, brazil nuts often contain an abundance of selenium.

Low Vitamin D Linked to Heart Failure Deaths

Study Also Shows Higher Risk of Hospitalization for Heart Failure Patients With Low Vitamin D Levels

Aug. 31, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden) — Low vitamin D levels are associated with a higher risk of death and hospitalization in people with heart failure, researchers report.

The study doesn’t prove that low vitamin D levels place patients at higher risk of dying. Even if the findings are confirmed, low levels of vitamin D may be a marker for some other damaging factor.

The hope is that vitamin D supplements may be able to improve outcomes among people with heart failure, but this still needs to be put to the test.

Seasonal Pattern Is Seen in MS Patients

Study Shows Increase in Brain Lesions in Spring and Summer

Aug. 31, 2010 — Brain lesions associated with increased multiple sclerosis activity appear in patients more often between the months of March and August, a new study shows.

Researchers also say warmer temperatures and solar radiation also seem to be linked to increased activity in MS patients.

First Genetic Link Found for Common Migraine

Aug. 30, 2010 — Scientists have identified the first-ever genetic risk factor for common migraines. People who have a specific change, or variation, in a section of DNA that helps control a brain chemical called glutamate have a significantly greater risk of developing migraines, researchers report

Pill Cuts Risk of Death in Heart Failure Patients

Aug. 30, 2010 (Stockholm) — A pill that slows the heart rate substantially cut the risk of death and hospital stays for patients with severe heart failure, a study of more than 6,500 patients shows. The drug is called Procoralan. It’s already used in Europe to treat the severe chest pain of angina

Marijuana Relieves Chronic Pain, Research Shows

Three Puffs a Day Helped People With Nerve Pain, Study Find

Aug. 30, 2010 — Three puffs a day of cannabis, better known as marijuana, helps people with chronic nerve pain due to injury or surgery feel less pain and sleep better, a Canadian team has found.

”It’s been known anecdotally,” says researcher Mark Ware, MD, assistant professor of anesthesia and family medicine at McGill University in Montreal. “About 10% to 15% of patients attending a chronic pain clinic use cannabis as part of their pain [control] strategy,” he tells WebMD.

But Ware’s study is more scientific — a clinical trial in which his team compared placebo with three different doses of cannabis. The research is published in CMAJ, the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Stem Cells May Help Treat Heart Failure

Study Shows Injection of Bone-Marrow Stem Cells May Extend Lives of Heart Failure Patients

Aug. 30, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden) — Giving people with chronic heart failure injections of their own bone-marrow stem cells appears to improve their heart function and extend their lives, new research suggests.

The benefits of the stem cell treatment were apparent within three months and persisted for the five years the patients were followed, says researcher Bodo-Eckehard Strauer, MD, of Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany.

This isn’t the first time doctors have reported that stem cells may help improve the health of people with heart failure or other heart conditions.

But the 391-patient study is one of the biggest tests to date of stem cell therapy for heart disease — and the first to show that the treatment cuts the risk of death in chronic heart failure, Strauer tells WebMD.

Antidepressant patch doesn’t help smokers quit

(Reuters Health) – An antidepressant drug delivered through a patch on the skin is no better than placebo for helping smokers kick the habit, new research shows.

Eldepryl (generic name selegiline) is used to treat Parkinson’s disease, depression, and dementia, in both pill and patch form. Nicotine craving is a major hurdle for smokers trying to abstain, and selegiline can help maintain levels of brain chemicals like dopamine that are reduced in the absence of nicotine.

“That’s why we hoped that selegiline might reduce the cravings and urges associated with quitting and thus help make it easier to quit,” Dr. Joel D. Killen of Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, one of the researchers who conducted the study, told Reuters Health.

Protein test ups diabetes diagnoses in some races

Reuters Health) – Efforts to adopt a more accurate test for diagnosing diabetes may have hit a snag. Comparing the age-old oral glucose tolerance test to the newer hemoglobin A1c test confirms earlier evidence that race may influence test results, Danish researchers report.

“The prevalence of diabetes differed considerably according to diagnostic method,” they write in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Tight blood pressure curbs little help for kidneys

(Reuters) – Aggressively lowering blood pressure did little to prevent kidney damage in blacks, unless protein in their urine showed evidence of damage in the first place, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Doctors had hoped to show that dropping blood pressures to 130/80 or below would significantly lower rates of kidney problems for African-Americans, who have higher-than-average rates of high blood pressure.

But the updated findings from a long-running study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that aggressive blood pressure control did little more than standard blood pressure treatment geared toward getting the number down to 140/90.

Diabetes drug may keep lung cancer at bay

(Reuters) – The common diabetes drug metformin may hold promise as a way to keep smokers from developing lung cancer, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

They said metformin prevented lung tumor growth in mice exposed to a cancer-causing agent found in tobacco smoke, and because it is already widely used in people, it may be worth further study.

Metformin has been shown to switch on an enzyme that blocks mTOR — a protein that helps tobacco-induced lung tumors grow.

A team led by Dr. Philip Dennis of the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, studied metformin in mice exposed to a potent, cancer-causing agent in tobacco called nicotine-derived nitrosamine ketone or NNK.

Lupus study suggests blood-thinner drugs may help

(Reuters) – Scientists studying the autoimmmune disease lupus have found that blood platelets are key in its development and say their findings in the lab suggest blood-thinning drugs may offer a new way to treat patients.

The researchers found that lupus patients have an excess of platelets — a type of blood cell that clump together to form clots — and, after tests on mice, suggested that treating them with a drug like Sanofi-Aventis’ and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Plavix could prevent flare-ups of the disease.

“These observations open a possible therapeutic avenue for human inflammatory autoimmune diseases — the long-term utilization of antiplatelet therapy,” the scientists wrote in the Science Translational Medicine Journal on Wednesday.

Antibiotic helped fight common wound infection

(Reuters) – An antibiotic that gets its microbe-fighting power from insect proteins was effective at attacking a common infection that afflicts blast victims in war zones, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The antimicrobial peptide – a fragment of a larger protein found in certain insects – helped speed wound healing and clear infections in mice infected with Acinetobacter baumannii, the most common systemic infection in soldiers who have burns or blast wounds.

“This is a bacteria to which resistance develops very, very fast. When soldiers get injuries like blast injuries or burns, they are taken to military hospitals. These bugs (the bacteria) are all over these hospitals,” said Laszlo Otvos of Temple University in Philadelphia, whose findings were published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Warnings/Alerts/Guidelines

They Crawl, They Bite, They Baffle Scientists

Don’t be too quick to dismiss the common bedbug as merely a pestiferous six-legged blood-sucker.

Think of it, rather, as Cimex lectularius, international arthropod of mystery.

In comparison to other insects that bite man, or even only walk across man’s food, nibble man’s crops or bite man’s farm animals, very little is known about the creature whose Latin name means – go figure – “bug of the bed.” Only a handful of entomologists specialize in it, and until recently it has been low on the government’s research agenda because it does not transmit disease. Most study grants come from the pesticide industry and ask only one question: What kills it?

But now that it’s The Bug That Ate New York, Not to Mention Other Shocked American Cities, that may change.

This month, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a joint statement on bedbug control. It was not, however, a declaration of war nor a plan of action. It was an acknowledgment that the problem is big, a reminder that federal agencies mostly give advice, plus some advice: try a mix of vacuuming, crevice-sealing, heat and chemicals to kill the things.

Prescription Drug Use on the Rise in U.S.

Study Shows About 48% of Americans Take at Least 1 Prescription Drug

Sept. 2, 2010 — Prescription drug use in the U.S. has been rising steadily in the past decade and the trend shows no signs of slowing, the CDC says in a new report.

The study, published in the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief No. 42, says the percentage of Americans who took at least one prescription drug rose from 43.5% in 1999-2000 to 48.3% in the 2007-2008 period.

The use of two or more drugs increased from 25.4% to 31.2% over the same decade, and the use of five or more prescription medications jumped from 6.3% to 10.7%.

Osteoporosis Drugs May Be Linked to Cancer Risk

Study Shows Some Increased Risk of Esophageal Cancer From Oral Bisphosphonates

Sept. 2, 2010 — The long-term use of oral bisphosphonate osteoporosis drugs such as Actonel, Boniva, and Fosamax may be associated with a doubling in esophageal cancer risk, but the risk to individual users remains small, researchers say.

Compared to people who had never taken the medications, long-term users of the bone-building drugs known as oral bisphosphonates had nearly double the risk for the rare but deadly cancer in a newly published study.

The findings appear to contradict a separate study published early last month, which used the same data of people living in the U.K. That research failed to find a significant increase in esophageal cancer risk in users of the osteoporosis drugs.

Oxford University epidemiologist Jane Green, PhD, who led the latest research, says more study is needed to determine if bisphosphonate use really does increase esophageal cancer risk.

“But the risk, if it does exist, is small in absolute terms and is not something people taking these drugs should worry too much about,” she tells WebMD.

Weight Loss Pill Meridia Raises Heart Attack, Stroke Risks

Study Shows RIsks Increase in People Who Already Have Heart Disease

Sept. 1, 2010 – People who take Abbott’s weight loss pill Meridia have a higher risk of nonfatal heart attack and stroke, a company-sponsored study shows.

The increased risk was seen only in patients with underlying heart disease. When the FDA learned of the study results last January, Meridia use was restricted to patients without known heart problems.

The European regulatory authorities went further. They banned the drug, known generically as sibutramine and in Europe as Reductil.

Later this month, an FDA expert advisory panel will meet to decide whether Meridia should remain on sale in the U.S.

Special Report: Outgunned FDA tries to get tough with drug ads

(Reuters) – It wasn’t what you would call a casual get-together.

In February 2009, a popular New York blogger attended a brunch with fellow “frazzled moms.” They took in tips from a style expert and listened to a nurse extol the virtues of Mirena, a birth control device sold by Bayer Healthcare.

The nurse was on Bayer’s payroll. In a series of events organized with the help of a women’s website, Mom Central, the pharmaceutical company gathered a captive audience of young mothers. It provided the nurse with a script and had the women fill out a survey before they left.

The sessions earned a stern rebuke from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In a letter to Bayer Healthcare made public earlier this year, the agency faulted the drugmaker for telling “busy moms” that using its intrauterine device (IUD) “will result in increased levels of intimacy, romance and, by implication, emotional satisfaction.”

Besides hyping the product, the nurse failed to disclose potential risks. “Here you have a company hiring a third-party to invite people into a home like a Tupperware party,” said Thomas Abrams, whose department oversees pharmaceutical marketing reviews at the FDA. “That was extremely, extremely concerning to us because this product has risks — risk of infection, loss of fertility. Huge risk.”

Under the Obama administration, the FDA has vowed to crack down on increasingly aggressive marketing tactics — both online and off. But even Abrams acknowledges the agency lacks the resources to sharply curtail misleading drug ads.

Seasonal Flu/Other Epidemics/Disasters

Experimental Novartis drug shows malaria promise

(Reuters) – An experimental Novartis drug can clear malaria infection in mice with a single dose and scientists say it shows promise as a possible future treatment for one of the world’s major killer diseases.

In a study published in the journal Science on Thursday, an international team of scientists said the drug, called NITD609, is effective against the two most common parasites responsible for malaria — Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax — and also against a range of drug-resistant strains.

In experiments on mice with malaria, the scientists found that NITD609 works in a different way from other antimalarial drugs and that one oral dose was enough to clear the disease.

Factbox: Malaria: the mosquito-borne killer

Monkeypox rising in wake of smallpox eradication

(Reuters Health) – Some thirty years after authorities doled out the last dose of smallpox vaccine, the world faces another multiplying menace: monkeypox.

A new study suggests that the monkeypox virus, which the smallpox vaccine also grants immunity against, is now at least 20 times as common as it was shortly after victory over smallpox had been declared.

“The eradication of smallpox was one of the greatest achievements known to man,” lead researcher Anne Rimoin of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health told Reuters Health. “But a consequence of ceasing smallpox vaccinations is that now the world’s population is vulnerable to other (related viruses) such as monkeypox.”

Women, children most vulnerable in Pakistan crisis

(Reuters) – Pakistan’s displaced flood victims say a lack of clean water and high temperatures are causing illnesses sweeping through relief camps with children most at risk.

Almost five million people are currently without shelter following devastating flooding sparked more than a month ago by heavy monsoon rains.

“They are scared, traumatized,” said Bibi Luqmania, 30, whose four children live with her in a tent donated by the charity Islamic Relief. “And it’s so hot in the tent, they cannot stand it. It becomes like an oven during the day.”

Women’s Health

Gene Test, Preventive Surgery Save Women’s Lives

Preventive Surgery Cuts Death Risk for Women With BRCA Cancer Genes

Aug. 31, 2010 — Women who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 cancer genes cut their risk of death, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer by getting preventive surgery.

But to reduce their risk, women must make difficult choices:

   * They must decide whether to get tested for the BRCA mutations.

   * If BRCA positive, they must decide whether to undergo risk-reducing surgery to remove their ovaries and fallopian tubes.

   * If BRCA positive, they must decide whether to undergo risk-reducing surgery to remove their breasts.

C-Section Rates Are High and Getting Higher

Study Shows 1 in 3 U.S. Babies Are Delivered by Cesarean Section

Aug. 30, 2010 — Cesarean section deliveries are at an all-time high in the U.S. and are expected to keep rising, and new government-funded research may help explain the trend.

Nearly one in three babies are now delivered surgically — up from one in five just over a decade ago.

Previously recognized contributors to the rise include delayed childbearing, the rising obesity rate among moms-to-be, and an increase in multiple birth deliveries.

Sex Not on Most New Moms’ Minds

Passions Rekindle for Most in 6 Months, Review Finds

Sept. 1, 2010 — When her ob-gyn said she could start having sex again six weeks after giving birth, writer Heidi Raykeil’s first though was, “Can’t I have another six weeks?”

“I wanted to want sex, but I just didn’t,” she tells WebMD. “I had absolutely no interest.”

More than a year later, when the prepregnancy passion still hadn’t returned, Raykeil began blogging about it. She quickly realized she was not alone.

“I heard from all these women who were feeling the same thing, but nobody was really talking about it,” she says.

Timing of Delivery May Affect Cerebral Palsy Risk

Study Shows Risk May Be Higher for Babies Born at 37 or 38 Weeks — or 42 Weeks or Later

Aug. 31, 2010 — Babies delivered at 37 or 38 weeks — or at 42 weeks or later — are at increased risk for cerebral palsy  compared to those born at 40 weeks, a study shows. Still, the absolute risk of developing cerebral palsy is considered extremely low.

The study is published in the Sept. 1 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Men’s Health

Men With Insomnia May Have Higher Death Risk

Study Shows 4-Fold Higher Death Rate in Men With Insomnia vs. Normal Sleepers

Sept. 2, 2010 – Men with insomnia have a fourfold higher death rate than normal sleepers who get at least 6 hours sleep a night, a 14-year study finds.

The death risk is even higher — over seven times the normal death rate — for insomniacs with underlying diabetes or with high blood pressure, find Penn State researchers Alexandros. N. Vgontzas, MD, and colleagues.

“Insomnia is a serious disease,” Vgontzas tells WebMD. “We show insomnia is associated with physical problems. That is new, and it makes insomnia a health problem equal to sleep apnea.”

Increased death risk was seen only in self-described insomniacs who, when tested in a sleep lab, slept less than six hours a night. People who said they did not have insomnia but who slept less than six hours a night did not have a significantly increased death risk. Neither did self-described insomniacs who slept more than six hours in the lab.

Prostate biopsy can cause urinary, erectile problems

(Reuters Health) – Biopsies taken to diagnose prostate cancer commonly cause temporary erectile dysfunction and, in some cases, lingering urinary problems, according to a new study.

The findings, reported in the Journal of Urology, highlight the fact that even the tests for diagnosing prostate cancer can have side effects.

And men who are undergoing prostate biopsies — as well as those considering prostate cancer screening — should be aware of those risks, experts say.

Pediatric Health

Teen Pot Smoking Won’t Lead to Other Drugs as Adults

Study Shows Marijuana Isn’t a ‘Gateway’ to Other Drugs as Teens Turn Into Adults

Sept. 2, 2010 — New research finds little support for the hypothesis that marijuana is a “gateway” drug leading to the use of harder drugs in adulthood.

Teens in the study who smoked marijuana were more likely to go on to use harder illicit drugs, but the gateway effect was lessened by the age of 21, investigators say.

Harder drugs in the study referred to illicit drugs that include analgesics, cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, inhalants, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers.

The study is published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Parents, Schools Should Talk to Kids About Sex

American Academy of Pediatrics Issues New Recommendations on Sex Education

Aug. 30, 2010 — Kids spend more than seven hours a day glued to the TV or online, where they are bombarded with mixed, unrealistic, and confusing messages about sex, sexuality, and contraception. Parents, pediatricians, and educators need to step up efforts to buck these trends, according to a revised policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The new recommendations appear in the September issue of Pediatrics.

Early day care may promote eczema development

(Reuters Health) – Kids who spend their earliest years in day care may be at higher risk of eczema than kids cared for at home, according to a new study from Germany.

Eczema is a collective term for different skin conditions characterized by a scaly, itchy, reddish rash. From 10 percent to 20 percent of infants and children experience some symptoms of the disease, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Timer may help kids’ bladder control problems

(Reuters Health) – Wearing a programmable wristwatch could help children manage their daytime bladder control problems, a new study suggests.

For children with urinary incontinence, the first approach to treatment is usually behavior modification – sometimes called bladder training or “urotherapy.” Tactics like changing drinking habits and taking scheduled trips to the bathroom can be effective, but often the challenge with children is getting them to stick with a routine.

Aging

Marathons Safe for Older Runners’ Hearts

Transient Heart Changes Seen, but No Lasting Heart Damage, Researchers Say

Aug. 31, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden) — When it comes to your heart heath, don’t let age alone make you reluctant to run a marathon.

So say researchers who found that amateur runners over age 50 — and as old as 72 — experienced some temporary heart changes, but no lasting damage after the 26.2-mile run.

“The results are comforting for older runners,” says study head Fabian Knebel, MD, a cardiologist at the Medical Clinic for Cardiology, Angiology, and Pneumology at the University Medicine Berlin.

Colonoscopy repeats greater with non-specialists

Reuters Health) – Older adults who have a colonoscopy performed by a family doctor, internist or general surgeon are somewhat more likely to need another one within a year compared with those who have the procedure done by a gastroenterologist, a new report finds.

Bad News About Youth Boosts Elders’ Esteem

Study Shows Older People See Rise in Self-Esteem When Reading Negative News on Youth

Sept. 1, 2010 — People over 50 get a self-esteem boost when they read negative news about young adults, a study shows.

Researchers also say young people, when given the choice, would rather read about people their own age and aren’t very interested in stories about their elders, whether the articles are positive or negative.

“Our results reflect that the younger readers did not perceive older people as all that relevant,” study researcher Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, PhD, of Ohio State University, tells WebMD by email. “They’re more concerned with figuring out who they are and where they stand, and those in the same age group appear to provide the relevant comparisons for that.”

Mental ‘exercise’ linked to faster dementia progression

(Reuters Health) – While staying mentally active in old age has been linked to a delayed onset of dementia, seniors who engage in such brain “exercise” may actually have a faster rate of decline once Alzheimer’s is diagnosed, researchers reported Wednesday.

The findings, published online in the journal Neurology, do not mean that a mentally stimulating lifestyle is a bad thing.

Is lower thyroid activity linked to longevity?

(Reuters Health) – A less active thyroid may mean more years added to your life, hints a new Dutch study.

However, the researchers emphasize that the finding, which builds on prior evidence touting the possible link, still does not prove that decreased thyroid function is the fountain of youth — it may just be related to something else that is.

“In an earlier study, we observed that middle-aged children of long-lived siblings have lower thyroid function compared to controls from the general population,” Diana van Heemst of Leiden University Medical Center, in the Netherlands, told Reuters Health in an email.

Nutrition/Diet/Fitness

Physically Unprepared Skiers Face Heart Risk

High Altitudes and Low Temperatures Add to Risk of a Heart Attack on the Slopes

Sept. 1, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden) — As you start your early planning for this winter’s ski vacation, you should be thinking about more than getting the best possible plane ticket and hotel rates — think about your heart, too.

Many people fail to rev up their exercise regimen before they leave — and the sudden burst of activity on the slopes puts them at risk for sudden cardiac death, researchers say.

“Our study of tourists in the Austrian Alps shows that inadequate preparation for the physical exertion required, combined with the effect of high altitude and cold temperatures, led to an increase in heart attacks, particularly during the first two days of vacation,” says study researcher Gert Klug, MD, of the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria.

Adding Omega-3 to Margarine Doesn’t Help Heart

Aug. 30, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden) — Margarine fortified with omega-3 fatty acids does not appear to protect older men and women who have survived a heart attack from having another heart attack or other cardiac event. That’s the bottom line of the ALPHA-OMEGA trial of 4,837 heart attack survivors

Coffee May Combat High Blood Pressure

Chemicals in Coffee Appear to Combat Blood Vessel Aging, Researchers Say

Sept.1, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden) — Older people with high blood pressure who drink one to two cups of coffee a day have more elastic blood vessels than people who drink less or more, Greek researchers report.

As we age, our blood vessels get stiffer, and that’s thought to increase the risk of high blood pressure. The new findings suggest moderate coffee drinking may counteract this process.

Previous research has shown conflicting results as to whether coffee is good or bad for the heart.

The new study involved 485 men and women, aged 65 to 100, who live on a small island called Ikaria, in the Aegean Sea, where more than a third of people live to celebrate their 90th birthday.

“We were aiming to evaluate the secrets of the long-livers of Ikaria,” says study head Christina Chrysohoou, BSc, of the University of Athens.

It Will Make You Want to Cry: Up Date

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Peter Daou points out that the White House is bringing Paul Krugman to tears with its political strategy that has been a failure:

Look: early on the administration had a political theory: it would win bipartisan legislative victories, and each success would make Republicans who voted no feel left out, so that they would vote for the next initiative, and so on. (By the way, read that article and weep: “The massive resistance Republicans posed to Clinton in 1993 is impossible to imagine today.” They really believed that.)

This theory led to a strategy of playing it safe: never put forward proposals that might fail to pass, avoid highlighting the philosophical differences between the parties. There was never an appreciation of the risks of having policies too weak to do the job.

And then it led the administration to keep claiming that the legislation it had gotten through was just right, long past the point when it was obvious that the policies were inadequate.

(emphasis mine)

Keeping the same failed strategy and repeating the same mistake is just absurd. It is a given that when you are so far down in the polls that it time for something daring, yet, as Jonathan Cohn points out, “it depends on who’s talking”:

Is the Obama Administration planning another major initiative to boost the economy? That depends on who is talking. And when.

On Thursday afternoon, press secretary Robert Gibbs announced at his daily briefing that “a big, new stimulus plan is not in the offing.”

A few hours later, the Washington Post reported that administration officials were talking about a second stimulus after all–that it would might include a payroll tax holiday and some sort of tax break for business, and that it might be in the “hundreds of billions” of dollars.

The White House Press Office quickly issued a quasi-denial: “There have been a lot of reports and rumors on different options being considered–many of which are incorrect. The options under consideration build on measures the President has previously proposed, and we are not considering a second stimulus package. The President and his team are discussing several options, as they have been for months.”

Meanwhile, at around the same time, Politico posted its own story on internal deliberations: “The Obama administration is mulling a raft of emergency fixes to stimulate the economy before the midterms, including an extension of the research and development tax credit and new infrastructure spending, according to several people familiar with the situation.”

Finally, following this morning’s jobs report, President Obama announced that “I will be addressing a broader package of ideas next week. We are confident that we are moving in the right direction, but we want to keep this recovery moving stronger and accelerate the job growth that’s needed so desperately all across the country.”

Confused, you bet. Wanna cry, absolutely. These guys sound like political amateurs making you wonder how they even got elected.

Obama was handed an opportunity and the “political capital” to accomplish it. After two years, with inadequate legislation and the prospects of an electoral debacle in November, it is time for some really bold proposals and getting everyone on the same page. I’m not optimistic.

Up Date: Cenk Uygur puts it bluntly:

President Obama spent the first two years of his administration practicing political unilateral disarmament. He laid down his arms to reach out to Republicans, and they ripped his arms off and clubbed him over the head with them.

This idea of playing patty-cakes with the Republicans is enormously naïve. When is this administration going to get it through their thick skulls that they will never work with you?!

Now, if attempts at bipartisanship had no downside, then of course I’d be in favor of it. As a theoretical matter, trying to reach out to the other side and reach consensus sounds lovely. But it does have a downside. You don’t get to make your own case as you’re playing nice with the other side. They’re hammering you day in and day out, and you keep your powder dry. You know what that ends up in — a massacre.

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