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We are on our way to a VERY bad day for markets all over the world in the light of Bear Stearns selling to JP Morgan for a measly $2 a share.
The Asian markets (Japan, Korea, Aust, NZ) are already down near or over 2% in the first hours of trading.
(well, the numbers are getting worse as I type)
Our effort to save her were heroic, yet Nataline Sarkisyan died tonight only hours after Kossacks helped to force CIGNA to pay for her liver transplant.
Original effort yesterdayand here
The Guardian notes:
The family of a California teenager plan to sue her health insurer which refused to pay for a liver transplant until hours before and she died on Thursday night.
Her family's lawyer, Mark Geragos, will ask the Los Angeles district attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna HealthCare, arguing that the firm "maliciously killed" Nataline Sarkisyan by its reluctance to pay for her treatment. The company reversed its stance after protesters called for a rethink, but the decision came too late.
Salon today has posted a stinging review of how the Bush Administration in general and the Justice Department in particular have been secretly expanding executive powers through the manipulation of the standard practices of hiring US Attorneys to fill vacant positions.
The Justice Department's firing of US attorneys working on sensitive cases is not news here, but Salon may be the first spark of a fire rising in the MSM:
Under any circumstances, the Bush administration's sudden, explicitly political dismissal and replacement of United States attorneys in judicial districts across the country would be very troubling -- both as a violation of American law enforcement traditions and as a triumph of patronage over competence.
But as the story behind these strange decisions unfolds, a familiar theme is emerging. Again, the White House and the Justice Department have been exposed in a secretive attempt to expand executive power for partisan purposes. And again, their scheming is tainted with a nasty whiff of authoritarianism.
While we have been bathering on about the cost of the war on terror, the Republicans, led by the brilliant political mind of Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), have outflanked us.
It seems the war could easily be paid for if the IRS would only do the obvious - collect back taxes from PIMPS!
Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, wants the Internal Revenue Service to chase after pimps and sex traffickers with the same fervor it stalked gangster Al Capone for tax evasion.
Go ahead, Kossacks. Bang your collective heads on the table of shame! How could we have missed this?
Grassley, R-Iowa, would hit pimps with fines and lengthy prison sentences for failing to file employment forms and withhold taxes for the women and girls under their command.
Hit pimps? Grassley, you are a master of irony. We bow to you.
::more::
Radar Magazine reports that a certain George W. Bush, Jr. was arrested for the vague charge of "unlawful practice of medicine."
But THIS George W. Bush, Jr. on the indictment has a birthday that is month's apart.
Since George W. Bush's first presidential campaign, journalists have been trying to verify reports that the president was once arrested on a cocaine posession charge. Now, for the first time, court records obtained by Radar may be able to shed some light on the mystery. Filed in 1986, the same year that the president claims to have given up drinking, the documents clearly show that a George W. Bush Jr. was convicted in a Midland, Texas court on a vague "unlawful practice of medicine" charge. Only thing is, it appears to be the wrong George W. Bush."
More below the fold (plus court papers!):
Take this example of tit-for-tat Hillary-pillory: Texas Hates Hillary
= 7,355,296 (2004) - 5,963,657 (2000) = 1,392,639 new voters (99% precincts counted, no provisionals or absentees).
So, we have 1.39 million new voters, and Kerry loses by 376,923 votes? Thus, he lost an overwhelming majoirty of them, or he lost an overwhelming majority of regular voters - much, much more than Gore lost.
We have 77,197 fewer third party votes, but Kerry loses the vast majority of these?
Exit polling numbers show that Kerry had more Hispanic and Cuban support than Gore did, and Kerry lost?
Most exit polls in Florida showed Kerry leading, yet he loses by a massive 5%?
But any state that was previously Gore in 2000 (or even a close call), and then went Bush in 2004, should be investigated.
Obviously, these are actually arguments against the measure, but uses over-the-top reverse psychology.
By the third one, I think it becomes a bit too much.
The NYT weighs in:
But even if the election goes off without a hitch (oh, but to dream!), I can still see Bush paying back his fundies base by appointing a new justice durting the congressional recess. Why not? His friends will think he's hero. They are already making the argument that he is obligated to fill the position before the body is cold: (below the fold)
The wacko fundies say P&G's backing of the measure amounts to the support of gay marraige:
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