The new 104-acre US Embassy compound in Baghdad which is supposed to open in September will be the world's largest and most expensive foreign mission. But there are doubts how safe and effective it will be. The $$592 million compound occupies a chunk of prime downtown real estate two-thirds the size of Washington's National Mall. It has desk space for about a thousand people behind high, blast-resistant walls. One person raising doubts is Edward Peck, a former top US diplomat in Iraq. He asks: "What kind of embassy is it when everybody lives inside and it's blast-proof, and people are running around with helmets and crouching behind sandbags?"
'Support' stopped six bucks ago
OLBERMAN: Mr. Bush says a 3% raise provides a good quality of life for service members and their families. Sketch for us the financial profile of the average service member’s family if you would be so kind.
TODD BOWERS: No problem. Average servicemember — you join the military as a private. You get $1300 a month. You got expenses that you have to cover for. You got to take care of family members, car payments. It essentially adds up. This 3% raise would give them approximately $29 extra dollars, alright. Point five percent gives them an extra $6 dollars. We’re talking about $6 for someone that is serving over in Iraq and Afghanistan that is away from their families. It’s not too much to ask.
OLBERMAN: Six bucks?
BOWERS: Six bucks
Change it to Tel Aviv, Pennsylvania
The US House of Representatives authorized a sum of 205 million dollars for financing joint US-Israel missile defense system projects, Israel Radio reported early Saturday morning.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., had tried unsuccessfully to strike a Murtha earmark from an intelligence spending bill. The item would restore $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center, a facility in Murtha's Pennsylvania district that some Republicans say is unneeded.
By a nose
Curlin edges Street Sense by a nose in this photo finish to win the PreaknessCannibals
'Gay-haters' to picket Falwell's funeral
But the protesters were a no-show in New Braunfels on Wednesday because they chose to travel to Virginia in preparation for demonstrating at Falwell's funeral, said member Shirley Phelps-Roper, who is also an attorney for the church. "There are dead soldiers everywhere," Phelps-Roper said. "You don't have a very high-profile, cowardly, lying false prophet like Falwell dying every day."
Okay, what's the punch line?
FOX News review of Michael Moore's new documentary 'Sicko', "brilliant and uplifting".
'Liz' keeps Hitler's bounty
Elizabeth Taylor will be allowed to keep a Van Gogh painting allegedly stolen from a Jewish woman by the Nazis after she fled Germany in 1939, a US appeals court ruled on Friday. The two-time Oscar-winning actress bought the "View of the Asylum and Chapel at Saint-Remy" for 257,600 dollars at a Sotheby's auction in London in 1963. The painting -- now estimated to be worth between 10-15 million dollars -- has been the subject of a legal wrangle in recent years, with descendants of its former owner claiming it rightfully belongs to them". Raw StoryMaking it comfortable
Here's a look inside California's death chamber of the future. (Click here for a virtual tour of California's current and future execution chambers.)
Hold on a minute!
'Liberals' are not all behind this so-called 'comprehensive immigration' bullshit! This from 'Joanne98' at the Democratic Underground - with a lot comments that agree. Right on, Joanne!
A man of God? What God?
"If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God's word and had desired to do the Lord's will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made," Falwell boomed from above his congregation in Lynchburg. "The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line." Falwell's jeremiad continued: "The true Negro does not want integration.... He realizes his potential is far better among his own race." Falwell went on to announce that integration "will destroy our race eventually. In one northern city," he warned, "a pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife." - read Max Blumenthal
More on God
Authorities in northern Iraq have arrested four people in connection with the "honor killing" last month of a Kurdish teen -- a startling, morbid pummeling caught on a mobile phone video camera and broadcast around the world. The case portrays the tragedy and brutality of honor killings in the Muslim world. Honor killings take place when family members kill relatives, almost always female, because they feel the relatives' actions have shamed the family. In this case, Dua Khalil, a 17-year-old Kurdish girl whose religion is Yazidi, was dragged into a crowd in a headlock with police looking on and kicked, beaten and stoned to death last month.(Watch the gruesome attack here.)
Cheney visits his boss
In Saudi Arabia, Cheney met with King Abdullah at a royal palace in Tabuk on Saturday. Cheney was given a red-carpet arrival ceremony at the airport. At the palace, as he and the king exchanged pleasantries...Today a long time ago
Auschwitz I served as the administrative center for the whole complex. It was founded on May 20, 1940, on the basis of an old Polish brick army barracks (originally built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire). A group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów became the first residents of Auschwitz on June 14 that year. The camp was initially used for interning Polish intellectuals and resistance movement members, then also for Soviet Prisoners of War. Common German criminals, "anti-social elements" and 48 German homosexuals were also imprisoned there. Jews were sent to the camp as well, beginning with the very first shipment (from Tarnów). At any time, the camp held between 13,000 and 16,000 inmates; in 1942 the number reached 20,000. The entrance to Auschwitz I was—and still is—marked with the ironic sign “Arbeit Macht Frei”, or “work (will) make (you) free.”
18 year old girl climbs Mt. Everest
Samantha Larson just became the youngest American to climb Mount Everest at the age of 18.The Limbaugh/HD Award
This week's winner of the Limbaugh/HD Award is Republican strategist and Pat Buchanan's cross-dressing younger brother, Bay Buchanan.
Bay, who is rumored to be dating Ann Coulter, wrote a book on Hillary Clinton entitled, The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton .After 'days of research' - Bay diagnosed Hillary with 'narcissistic personality style'?
'Bay' ain't no doctor but (s)he sure is a liar and a worthy recipient of this week's Limbaugh/HD Award.
Congratulations Bay. You're #13.
Past winners of the prestigious, but infamous,
Limbaugh/HD Award
Used car salesman - John Boehner - 5/13/07
Uncultured Wussy - Bill O'Reilly - 5/6/07
Mr. Overrated - Rudy Giuliani - 4/29/07
Turd Blossom - Karl Rove - 4/22/07
The Decider - George W. Bush - 4/15/07
Lying Chickenhawk VP - Dick Cheney - 4/8/07
Mr. Straight Talk - John McCain - 4/1/07
Attorney General - Alberto Gonzales - 3/25/07
Fox mouthpieces Sean Hannity and
Victoria Toensing - 3/18/07
Fox News guy - Brit Hume - 3/11/07
VA Secretary - Jim Nicholson - 3/4/07
Rep. Michele Bachmann - (R-MN) - 2/25/07
