Latest advisory shows her with 65 mph winds STILL after a journey over land that usually de-energizes pre-hurricane low pressure storms.... likely has to do with some of Fay's journey has been over the ever-wet Everglades of Southwest Florida...and she's now sitting at the door of Lake Okeechobee.  The lake is in need of rejuvenation from the plentiful rains that Fay is bringing, but also worth considering the rejuvenating effect of the lake's hot August water feeding Fay further...not sure if that possiblity is considered by the weather gurus.

She's been an interesting storm so far, leaving mayhem in Cuba and spawning a damaging tornado in my town early this morning...leaving one horse wondering where her barn went

http://www.wptv.com/...

The Harvard Political Reviewlast night released an interview with Karl Rove.  The very last question caught my eye:

Q. ...you recently said you believe Roger Clemens was telling the truth in his congressional testimony. What makes you believe him, and why do you think this issue has split along partisan lines?

Rove: You know, I’m not necessarily certain it has split along partisan lines. But I don’t know, I just know him, I’ve been around him, and he strikes me as a person of enormous integrity and decency. I just find his testimony more convincing than the former trainer. Roger Clemens just strikes me as a person of integrity.

When Karl Rove issues a proclamation about somebody having integrity, well the little hairs on your arm just about stand up.

Why in the world and when has Karl Rove "been  around" Roger Clemens?  I'm not thinking that Karl would have also had an (alleged) affair with a teenage Mindy McCready.  So I did some Googling...

The rumor mill has been in full gear all day about whether or not the Bosox are going to throw in the towel on Manny Ramirez and ship him out of New England.  Latest buzz is a three way trade with the Marlins and Pirates bringing Manny to South Florida, Jeremy Hermida to the Pirates and Jason Bay to Boston as the principals with some prospects and cash thrown about as well.

Trade deadline is tomorrow, Yanks picked up Pudge Rodriquez for a middle of the road middle reliever earlier today....

Not sure if this is a publicity ploy, most likely this film doesn't need it.  Has the Joker had the last laugh?

A police spokeswoman said: "A 34-year-old man attended a central London police station this morning by appointment.
"He was arrested in connection with an allegation of assault."

Truth is stranger than fiction....

"History never repeats itself but at best rhymes...." - Mark Twain  18??

"We have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan, and I believe this has to be the central focus, the central front, in our battle against terrorism"  - Barack Obama  2008

"We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war." - Zbignew Brzezinski, 1979

Fresh on the heels of Barack Obama's historic pre-election trip to Afghanistan this weekend and Obama's call for a more concerted effort to focus resources and more troops on the Afghanistan fronts come words of warnings from former US National Security Advisor and prominent Obama supporter Brzezinski

A poor child born in Germany, France, Canada, or one of the Nordic countries has a better chance to join the middle class in adulthood than an American child born into similar circumstances.

The U.S. ranks second among 177 countries in per-capita income but 12th on human development, according to the global Human Development Index, published annually by the United Nations Development Programme.

Each of the 11 countries ahead of the U.S. has a lower per-capita income than the U.S., but all perform better on the health and knowledge dimensions.

The U.S. infant mortality rate is on par with that of Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, and Poland.

If the U.S. infant mortality rate were equal to that of first-ranked Sweden, twenty-one thousand more American babies would have lived to celebrate their first birthdays in 2005.

6 weeks ago, the FDA indicated several types of tomatoes as the likely cause of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened over a 1000 people.  They've not yet narrowed down the culprit and  there are indications that jalapeño peppers or cilantro are to blame.

A real spicy mess.  And now tomato growers, many of whom have been plowing under their fields of ripe fruit (the cost of harvest and transport outweighs the depressed market prices the loss of demand has created) want restitution.

Saying sales of their crops are still down 30 to 40 percent, Florida tomato growers are lining up congressional support to seek restitution for millions of dollars in losses linked to the nation's salmonella outbreak.

"We believe it is maybe $100 million or more in Florida," said J. Luis Rodriguez, trade adviser for Florida Farmers Inc.

Rodriguez said Thursday that Florida growers, many with multistate operations, plan to work with members of Congress such as Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Panama City, to seek an appropriation. He expects it will take about 6 weeks to tally the losses.

There's good reason to look more closely at the situation.

and that means political pressure on John McCain can only get worse and very interesting.  Virtually the entire State of Missouri's elected officials have come out against the takeover, with Senators  Claire McKaskill and Kit Bond assuring InBev that "This Bud's not for you".

Senator Barack Obama put his toe in the waters today during an emergency plane landing in St. Louis, indicating that he felt the American icon brewery deserved American owners.

McCain has been notably silent on the deal and there's a good reason he's on the fence.

His wife stands to make a ton of money on the deal.

His salon, he told me, is meant to suggest Versailles. His main guest suite, which I did not personally inspect, was designed as an exact replica of the presidential suite of the George V Hotel in Paris.

He is especially proud of his two-story library, which is a scaled-down version of the library at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. Cherubs dance on the ceiling, leatherbound collections line the bookshelves and the wood-paneled walls were once “an acre of mahogany.”

His staff lights fragrant candles throughout the house to greet his arrival from work each day. He led me into his private humidor, selected two La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel stogies for us to smoke and seated me at an onyx-and-marble table in the study. The room opens onto a patio, a putting green and a beach. On the table was a brochure for (his) newest airplane, a Gulfstream G550. It cost him, he told me, $54 million.

New York Times, July 6, 2008

It's no secret that Charlie Crist likes making big deals (witness last week's secret 'til the last minute "rescue" of the Everglades, a deal that smells fishy on the surface and needs more vetting)  

Today the Florida Supreme Court agreed with Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio that the high-rolling Governor was clearly outside his jurisdiction when he signed a lucrative "compact" with the Seminole Tribe operating the Seminole Hard Rock Casinos outside of Fort Lauderdale and in Tampa and five other casinos on tribal lands throughout the state  That compact, signed late last year, allowed the tribe exclusive rights to offer blackjack, baccarat and Vegas style slots at its two properties, in exchange for guaranteed payments to the state of 100 million dollars.

The governor did not seek advice or approval from the legislature and Rubio cried foul.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum joined his colleagues in California and Illinois in filing a lawsuit today against Countrywide Financial for "deceptive marketing of loans to boost company profits" and unfair trade practices.  

Our legal services programs throughout the state have seen a large number of clients who are now in default on mortgages written by Countrywide. It appears to us Countrywide did no due diligence and accepted applications which were patently fraudulent and reflected no ability on the part of the borrowers to make the required payments,” said Marc Taps with Legal Services of North Florida. “We cannot help but conclude that the most financially unsophisticated segment of the population was targeted by the brokers who knew Countrywide would write these mortgages.”

Florida Congressman Tim Mahoney won't ever be accused of not supporting veterans....Mahoney's campaign just put out a flier labeled: “Honoring Those Who Defend Our Freedom" touting Mahoney’s record on veterans’ issues.

There's only one problem.  The photograph on the cover of the flier, purporting to depict an elderly veteran with a chestful of medals, actually is one of a former Soviet soldier from the Cold War era.

Looks like Tim Mahoney is learning all about Karma.  

via TPM, this is too good to pass up...particularly when the United States Department of State starts running interference for Miami arms dealers who are just past their teen years...

The Albanian government and U.S. embassy in Tirana were working together to disguise from the NYT that China was the country of origin for the ammunition that our favorite 20-something Florida arms dealers were buying from an Albanian arms dealer and shipping to Afghanistan under a U.S. government contract, for which same dudes were indicted last week for violating the Arms Export Control Act.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmem...

Move over Tim Russert, non-stop news coverage on the way on this breaking story

Jamie Lynn Spears, sister of pop singer Britney, has given birth to a baby girl, according to a person close to the Spears family.

The person asked not to be identified because the family has not yet announced the baby's birth.

The 17-year-old was the star of Nickelodeon's Zoey 101.

The Spears family announced in December that Jamie Lynn was pregnant.

The father is Casey Aldridge, a pipe-layer from Liberty, Mississippi. The couple announced an engagement several months ago.

I put an Obama bumper sticker on my car yesterday.  There have been a slew of emails around my local Obama group describing keyed cars and cars being spat upon, those cars have been displaying signs and stickers extolling Obama as the owner's choice for President.  I'm proud of my choice and in the back of my mnd I'm now thinking of responses if I were to come across some lowlife doing something to my car for that reason.

As a guy approaching 50 who exercises infrequently, Tim Russert's passing is weighing on me this morning.  My own son just graduated college, just as his son Luke did recently.  Unlike Tim, I don't have any concerned doctors, and just passed my physical with flying colors.  I'm fortunate but know that luck is a fleeting thing.

A sense of pride hit me just now while I was reading the morning newspaper and was reminded that today, June 14, is Flag Day.  There is no other country in the world that could offer a journalist like Tim Russert and there is no other place on earth that could possibly offer a candidate for President like Barack Obama.

Oh, he's a maverick alright.  Ever hear of the IRI?.... If you haven't, you need to know what they've been up to, apparently operating what's been called a shadow foreign policy movement, operating on the fringes... wasn't that the job of the CIA?

From Sourcewatch:

Loosely affiliated with the Republican Party, the International Republican Institute (IRI) works closely with the the National Endowment for Democracy and United States foreign policy instruments, including the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development, to support economic and political development programs around the world. The organization is almost exclusively funded by the U.S. government and related agencies.
IRI's stated mission is to "support the growth of political and economic freedom, good governance and human rights around the world by educating people, parties and governments on the values and practices of democracy." However, it has also been linked to efforts to foment a violent military coup in Haiti.

to

.... help you handle the bad news and take advantage of the good.

from www.fleischersports.com

Q.   How do you know an NFL coach is lying?

Theme of the day at DK, continued courtesy of the NY Times...for better or worse, it's newsworthy, timely and we need to get the laundry aired out sooner than later so we can all focus on the prize...

The handiwork of Mark Penn

Backed by Bill Clinton, Mr. Penn pushed for aggressive attacks on Mr. Obama, something other advisers resisted. At one point, Mr. Penn argued that Mrs. Clinton should find subtle ways to exploit what he called Mr. Obama’s “lack of American roots,” referring to his Kenyan father and his childhood years in Indonesia and even the offshore state of Hawaii, the campaign officials said. Mr. Penn recommended that Mrs. Clinton own the word “American” — she should talk about the “American century” and her “American Strategic Energy Fund,” and so forth. She should add flag symbols to her logo, he suggested.

http://www.nytimes.com/...