Gas Well on Fire in Texas: Update #2

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Monday June 07, 2010 · 1:53 PM PDT

2010/06/07 · 13:53

No great info just yet but here's a live video feed from the local news:

DALLAS - A gas well explosion in North Texas is sending enormous flames and plumes of smoke into the sky.

The fire broke out at about 3 p.m. at 2101 County Road 1120 in Hood County.

The blaze was so intense that it could be seen from at least 30 miles away. Additionally, Sky 4 helicopter pilot Mike Warner said he could feel the heat from nearly a mile away.

MrSandman

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Sunday April 05, 2009 · 12:04 PM PDT

2009/04/05 · 12:04

Having just returned from Spain where it has been my pleasure to have formed relationships with my professional colleagues over many years, we speak frequently and candidly of politics.

The project that brings us together for these many years is government-sponsored, surviving changes in both national and regional governments. Many of these colleagues are of the Spanish equivalent of the middle class (albeit with health care); some are life-long civil servants; some have not had their jobs continue when the political winds have changed. Throw in an occasional cultural minister here and there and a regional president or two and these acquaintances span all sides of the political landscape. As the years have gone by, the discussions have become more open, more personal and more difficult.

On 9-11, after the attack on the World Trade Center, the first international call to our office in NYC was from the President of the region where our project is based. Others soon followed: Were we safe? What did we need? Solidarity. We are with you.

MrSandman

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Wednesday March 18, 2009 · 3:20 PM PDT

2009/03/18 · 15:20

You know all that "trade secret" garbage about how the recipients of bonuses had to remain private?? How the competition could steal top producers if names and bonus amonts were known?

Well the NY State Supreme Court thinks otherwise:

A New York state judge ruled Wednesday afternoon that New York’s attorney general could disclose the names of executives at Merrill Lynch who received 2008 bonuses ahead of Bank of America’s acquisition of the brokerage firm, rejecting arguments that the information was a trade secret.

"The record does not support the intervenors’ claim that the employee compensation information is a trade secret," Justice Bernard J. Fried of New York State Supreme Court wrote, referring to Merrill and Bank of America. He ordered them to turn over the list of names.

MrSandman

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Thursday March 05, 2009 · 5:04 PM PST

2009/03/05 · 17:04

Promises, promises. I, for one think the Obama administration is intent on delivering massive changes.

WASHINGTON - Driving a last nail into a $13.5 billion coffin, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Thursday that the nearly completed Yucca Mountain site in Nevada is no longer an option for storing highly radioactive nuclear waste.

Instead, Chu said, the Obama administration believes the nearly 60,000 tons of waste in the form of used reactor fuel can remain at nuclear power plants while a new, comprehensive plan for waste disposal is developed.

::snip::

"What's wrong with Yucca Mountain, Mr. Chu," McCain asked at an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on support for scientific research.

"I think we can do a better job," replied the Nobel Prize-wining physicist.

McCain asked whether it was true that Obama — as well as Chu — view Yucca Mountain as no longer an option.

"That's true," replied Chu.

MrSandman

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Thursday November 20, 2008 · 5:14 PM PST

2008/11/20 · 17:14

The Blackwater billions may be coming home to roost. You remember those guys -- the private contractors with the big guns, bad attitudes and bodacious pay??? You know, the ones who were immune from prosecution?

Not anymore. According to the State Department

That so-called Status of Forces, or SOFA, agreement, which gives the Iraqi government only limited jurisdiction over U.S. troops and Defense Department civilians, excludes Defense Department contractors, two officials said.

The officials spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity after giving the same information to representatives of 172 invited contracting companies in two separate meetings earlier Thursday in Washington.

"Contractors and grantees can no longer expect that they will enjoy the wide range of immunity from Iraqi law that has been in effect since 2003," a State Department official said, reading from the text of a statement presented to the contractors.

MrSandman

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Thursday October 23, 2008 · 7:30 PM PDT

2008/10/23 · 19:30

I am old enough to remember this series and wise enough to know I shouldn't acknowledge. The basic premise was that the "guests" who landed didn't get what they wanted; they got what they needed.

Barack needs to go home. To the grandmother who helped raise him -- to the person that taught him that

Although he made his mark thousands of miles from the Honolulu apartment where she helped raise him, Obama and others credit Dunham — whose birthday is Sunday — with instilling in him an appreciation for education and hard work, and with setting an example of thrift, practicality and tolerance.

MrSandman

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Wednesday June 04, 2008 · 3:30 PM PDT

2008/06/04 · 15:30

Picture a cozy weekend at Camp David for President Obama, Vice President Hillary Rodham Clinton and their lively spouses.

They'd talk policy and politics in the confines of the rustic retreat. After the long campaign and all the bruised feelings, Michelle Obama could finally reach out to Bill Clinton, as she recently said she's been wanting to do.

To be exact, she said: "I want to rip his eyes out."

Then added: "Kidding."

At least some journalists are seeing how ludicrous this marraige-made-in-hell would be. A bit more:

Now that Clinton is angling to become Obama's running mate, the question arises how two frosty rivals and their seething camps might come together without sticking flag pins into each other.

It's all pretty awkward right now.

MrSandman

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Thursday May 15, 2008 · 6:56 PM PDT

2008/05/15 · 18:56

The blatant assault on peace and stability reached an apogee of insanity today with the comments of President Bush. The implication is that men and women who value these things above war are "appeasers".

The attack, Mr. President, was not only levelled at Barack Obama but at you as well:

Bush has tried to stay out of the 2008 presidential race, and White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Thursday that he didn't mean to directly criticize Obama.

"I would think that all of you who cover these issues and have for a long time have known that there are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with people that the president ... thinks we should not talk to," she said.

MrSandman

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Wednesday March 12, 2008 · 9:32 PM PDT

2008/03/12 · 21:32

Okay, I really don't do candidate diaries. Or at least only one in a moment of weakness and it sucked.

Maybe I'm a little pissed at finding out Kristen is the girl next door to my office and knowing that it will obliterate any substantive discussion of politics (as well as quiet walks home) since the reporters were twelve deep. One was desparate enough to ask for an interview simply because I was a body.

So I'm testy tonite. I watched KO. And then I see this:

That was his (Obama's) choice," she says. "There was no rule or requirement that he take his name off the ballot. His supporters ran a very aggressive campaign to try to get people to vote uncommitted."

MrSandman

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Saturday March 08, 2008 · 7:03 PM PST

2008/03/08 · 19:03

We’re all aware of Hillary’s insult to Mississippi:

She called Iowa a "special burden" for her campaign and said it was her "hardest" state.

"I was shocked when I learned Iowa and Mississippi have never elected a woman governor, senator or member of Congress," she told the paper Monday. "There has got to be something at work here."

"How can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi?" she asked rhetorically, adding that the Magnolia State lacked "the communitarianism" and "openness I see in Iowa."

Yeah, okay. Read: Why hasn’t Iowa elected a woman to national office? Mississippi lives in the dark ages (and I use that term deliberately). But Iowa? Certainly Iowa is more progressive, smarter, more willing to support change. More willing to support, well, me.

And then I read the Bill twofer from today . . .

MrSandman

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Wednesday March 05, 2008 · 5:46 PM PST

2008/03/05 · 17:46

Panhandlers in New York City are hardly a rarity but I’ve had this eerie feeling that I’ve seen more panhandlers on the streets than usual. Usually, I avoid them at all costs; scams are rampant and, in my early days here, I fell for more than one. Now I give to groups that help the homeless and politely decline the rest.

Somehow, tonite was different. A reasonably well-dressed older man approached and asked for help in getting food and I reached in my pocket for a dollar. Having been reading candidate diaries, I was real tired of fights.

"What do you think I am?? A bum?? I don’t want your money, I just want some food."

MrSandman

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Friday December 28, 2007 · 10:46 AM PST

2007/12/28 · 10:46

In an FU to the troops and Congress, Buch has announced his intention to veto the defense policy bill:

Bush's action, which apparently caught congressional leaders off guard, centers on one provision in the legislation dealing with Iraqi assets. The legislation would permit plaintiffs' lawyers immediately to freeze Iraqi funds and would expose Iraq to "massive liability in lawsuits concerning the misdeeds of the Saddam Hussein regime," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.

"The new democratic government of Iraq, during this crucial period of reconstruction, cannot afford to have its funds entangled in such lawsuits in the United States," Stanzel said in a statement.

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Gas Well on Fire in Texas: Update #2

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Chu On This: $13B Later & Yucca is Dead

Contractors Lose Immunity in Iraq

Fantasy Island: Da Plane, Da Plane

A Peek Inside the Obama-Clinton White House

President Carter, With Total Respect, It's Time to Endorse

Clinton On MI: Aggressive Campaign by Uncommitted

Decoding A Twofer Insult to Mississippi

“In Jesus’ Name, Just Help Me Get Some Food”

Bush to Veto Defense Bill