From The Planet

News and comment for 8/21


Nation Page

No JonBenet!!!!!!!!

Republicans have lost their way when it comes to many core GOP principles and may be in jeopardy heading into the fall elections, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. says. Hagel, a possible presidential candidate in 2008, said Sunday that the GOP today is very different party from the one when he first voted Republican . It's not what it used to be. I don't think it's the same today."

Well duh! Only those to young to remember would think anything different. I think it is interesting to note that Democrats have been telling them this for years now.

Chuck is getting pretty outspoken these days.

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) went on Fox News Sunday to discuss the Middle East and had tough talk about the situation in the Middle East. Senator Hagel told host Chris Wallace, "We don’t have any good options. We got a mess on our hands in the Middle East."
SEN. HAGEL: "We've got a very unstable Middle East, I think the most unstable Middle East we've seen since 1948, and you can measure that any way you want. The fact is the future of Iraq will be determined by the Iraqi people, just like it was in Vietnam. The answer, in my opinion, is not to just keep feeding more American troops into it"...
"We, in fact, are in probably in a low-grade, perhaps very defined civil war. You've got corruption, everywhere, as bad as it's ever been. You've got uncontrolables that we can't control, we can't deal with. Iran probably has more influence in Iraq than we do".

You mean the Iraqi people will be responsible for Iraqs' future!? What a concept! Civil war? How long until he is accused of “hating our troops?”

The grass roots is rising.

In a year of bad omens for the GOP, the latest batch of disclosure forms filed with the Federal Election Commission offers one more: Incumbency no longer means that embattled Republican representatives can expect to overwhelm weakly funded Democratic challengers with massive spending on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. If anything, the financial figures show that political success can be self-reinforcing. After this year's first-quarter fund raising period, which ended March 31, operatives and campaign funding specialists were struck by how a surge in small, individual contributions was lifting many Democratic candidates -- incumbents and challengers alike -- closer to parity with historically better-funded Republicans.

Thankfully it appears they are getting tired of this shit. Even if it is just other shit. Give us something different. Real Americans like you and I are making a difference.


World Page

Blair feels betrayed by Bush, just like many Americans.

The alliance between George Bush and Tony Blair is in danger after it was revealed that the Prime Minister believes the President has 'let him down badly' over the Middle East crisis. A senior Downing Street source said that, privately, Mr Blair broadly agrees with John Prescott, who said Mr Bush's record on the issue was 'crap'.
The source said: "We all feel badly let down by Bush. We thought we had persuaded him to take the Israel-Palestine situation seriously, but we were wrong. How can anyone have faith in a man of such low intellect?" The rift between No10 and the White House stems from British anger that Mr Bush failed to do enough to pursue the 'road map' to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, which he approved, at Mr Blair's instigation, on the eve of the Iraq war.
"We have been banging on at them for three years about the need to address the Palestinian problem but they just won't engage," said a senior Government insider. "That is one of the reasons there is such a mess now."

Yep, Bush said “Tony, make you a deal”. Then he ignored it when he got what he wanted. Another person discovers he is a liar.


Science and Tech Page

Cheap, clean energy?

A man who claims to have developed a free energy technology which could power everything from mobile phones to cars has received more than 400 applications from scientists to test it.
Sean McCarthy says that no one was more sceptical than he when Steorn, his small hi-tech firm in Dublin, hit upon a way of generating clean, free and constant energy from the interaction of magnetic fields. 'It wasn't so much a Eureka moment as a get-back-in-there-and-check-your-instruments moment, although in far more colourful language,' said McCarthy. But when he attempted to share his findings, he says, scientists either put the phone down on him or refused to endorse him publicly in case they damaged their academic reputations. So last week he took out a full-page advert in the Economist magazine, challenging the scientific community to examine his technology.
McCarthy claims it provides five times the amount of energy a mobile phone battery generates for the same size, and does not have to be recharged. Within 36 hours of his advert appearing he had been contacted by 420 scientists in Europe, America and Australia, and a further 4,606 people had registered to receive the results.

Sadly, all I can say is if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.


Stuff

The Internet buzz over "Snakes on a Plane" turned out to be nothing to hiss about. The high-flying thriller preceded by months of unprecedented Web buildup technically debuted as the No. 1 movie, but with a modest $15.25 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Expectations had been all over the place on how well "Snakes on a Plane" would do. New Line had hoped the movie would debut at least above $20 million, while theater owners had been predicting the movie might come in anywhere from the $15 million range to $40 million. The movie stars Jackson as an FBI agent battling killer snakes that have been put on a red-eye flight to do away with a witness about to testify in a gang murder.

1. "Snakes on a Plane," $15.25 million.
2. "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," $14.1 million.
3. "World Trade Center," $10.8 million.
4. "Accepted," $10.1 million.
5. "Step Up," $9.9 million.
6. "Barnyard: The Original Party Animals," $7.5 million.
7. "Little Miss Sunshine," $5.7 million.
8. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," $5 million.
9. "Material Girls," $4.6 million.
10. "Pulse," $3.5 million.

Breast implants won't fix your life.

...The research, carried out by Dutch scientists, found that there were almost three times the rate of suicides among women who had received breast implants compared with the population at large.
They say that a desire for breast augmentation may, in some women, be a symptom of a far deeper insecurity and low self esteem which, in extreme cases, could trigger a suicide attempt. Dr Veronica Koot, .... said: "We think that some of the women who ask for cosmetic surgery - for instance breast implants - actually do have another problem, and if you operate, it won't help them. "These women should first seek help for their psychological problems before seeking cosmetic surgery."

Even if it does solve one problem it may create new ones. I think you call that conclusion “maturity”.

Sports Page

No tears, no sweat. One month after an emotional victory in the British Open, Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship with a ruthless display of efficiency Sunday, closing with a 4-under 68 for a five-shot victory and his 12th career major. Now, only Jack Nicklaus and his 18 majors stand in the way of Woods' becoming golf's greatest champion.

The dude was Gellin!

I just like the title. That even beats my record!

Kenseth wins..Bristol next week!

(Matt) Kenseth easily kept four-time NASCAR champion (Jeff) Gordon at bay in the final laps of the GFS Marketplace 400...... Tony Stewart, the two-time and defending Cup champion, finished third, and was followed by Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle, all of whom are still fighting for spots in the Chase.
But four other drivers took big hits in their effort to make it to the Chase.
Jeff Burton, the pole-sitter, had engine failure after just 17 laps and fell from fourth to ninth in the standings after a 42-place finish. Kyle Busch dropped two spots to seventh after he bounced off the wall and blew out a tire, leaving him in 39th place on Sunday. Kurt Busch, the 2004 champion and Kyle's older brother, saw his chances of getting to the top 10 fade as he also had tire problems and hit the wall twice. He was 40th and fell from 12th to 14th -- 279 points behind 10th-place Earnhardt. Carl Edwards, who led 32 laps and was running in the top 10 with less than 30 to go, crushed a fender in a collision with another car and fell to 22nd. He moved ahead of Busch to 13th, but is 244 points out of 10th heading into Saturday night's race at Bristol.