THE NIGHTOWL NEWSWRAP

May 8, 2008 by Kingston


There is digit face to a downbound economy the nursing insufficiency that our aid grouping has been struggling with has been mitigated somewhat as grouping who had mitt the employ are backward to the earth for different (mostly economic) reasons. “We are sight a temporary modification of the nursing shortage,” says Jane Llewellyn, evilness chair of clinical nursing concern at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. But, she says, “as presently as the frugalness turns up we’ll wager them staying bag again.”



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There is one upside to a down economy the nursing shortage that our healthcare system has been struggling with has been alleviated somewhat as people who had left the job are returning to the field for various (mostly economic) reasons. "We are seeing a temporary lessening of the nursing shortage," says Jane Llewellyn, vice president of clinical nursing affairs at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. But, she says, "as soon as the economy turns up we'll see them staying home again."

The affluent see what aWol refuses to...the US is in a recession. That was the finding of the Annual Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America. “Results demonstrate that America’s ‘leadership cadre’ and successful households believe strongly that we are in a recession. Moreover, confidence in themselves and America’s prospects have fallen six or seven percentage points since December and over 30 points in the past three years,” said Jim Taylor, vice chairman of Harrison Group, a market research and strategy firm in Waterbury, Conn.....Four in five polled in the survey, which examined the opinions of 638 households representing the wealthiest 10% of the U.S., said this perceived recession resulted from the “free and easy” availability of debt, with Wall Street and Washington equally to blame.

Four hundred bucks for hand towels? Embattled OCS director and loyal Bushie Scott Bloch spent that princely sum on monogrammed hand towels for his office washroom. A mouthpiece attempted to justify the opulent expense. "Scott, as a presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed member of the administration gets an allowance for things," spokesman Jim Mitchell explained. "He paid about $300 for some towels that had the OSC seal on it. He took a couple home, which he paid for himself." Besides, Scott is such a regular guy and thrifty fellow that he shunned the car and driver that are perks of the job.

The pundit class might want to actually check a source or three if they are going to attack the "reality based community" That is exactly what James Kirchick didn't do when he wrote an op-ed for the Politico yesterday, in which he confidently asserted that "[T]he “reality-based community,” as self-satisfied liberal bloggers call themselves, was a term created in direct response to the “faith-based community,” what the Bush administration called recipients of money from its Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives." Well, Mr. Kirchick, the actual source of that quote was an unnamed Bush aide, interviewed for a New York Times Sunday Magazine article by Ron Suskind, and it was meant to be derisive of those of us who like our reality, well, real: The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” (H/T Think Progress)

Another American Soldier has been killed in Anbar. The military offered no other details. It was the seventh American fatality in recent days after months of a restive "pseudo peace" brought about by the formation of "awakening councils" that were funded, formed and armed by the American forces in Iraq.

One of these things is not like the other Max boot thinks that the concrete walls that the American military is installing around neighborhoods are comparable to gated communities in the United States. Max Boot is a fuckwit extraordinaire, no matter what country he wakes up in.

If there is a bigger douchebag than Max Boot, it's Mike Pence (Chickenhawk, Indiana) In a hearing convened by the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties to look into the authorization of torture by the aWol administration, Pence derided non-coercive methods as "Oprah Winfrey methods" and pretty much implied that if you ain't in favor of torturin' them there moozlims, yer just a big ole pussy. His bio lists no military experience, so his ass has never been on the line, so it's real easy for him to chuck convention and throw the doors wide open for captured American personnel to be tortured. When that happens, and it will, I suggest we take all these putrid fucks and recreate what our personnel were subjected to because bloodthirsty, sadistic pussies like Pence are in favor of torture.

Corporations find that Olympic sponsorship is a double-edged sword They play it up in China and play it down in the west, hoping to avoid inflaming a citizenry prone to product boycotts.

Maybe McSame should, you know, try paying attention? Speaking to a crowd in Rochester, Michigan this morning, John McCain went on a rant about human trafficking and said he would assemble a task force to combat the problem. Just one hitch in his git-along...there has been a task force on human trafficking has been in effect since 2000. Not only that - in 2001 McCain opposed the earmark that funded the panel.

Maybe because I had Letterman on while I was surfing around looking for items to round out this roundup, when I came across "John McCain's top-ten out-of-touch moments" at Crooks & Liars I called it a night, once I was done laughing hysterically.

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THE NIGHTOWL NEWSWRAP

May 7, 2008 by Kingston

I crapper advert when they were titled “fallout shelters:” Just before the cocain sirens sounded, edifice caretaker Floyd histrion got the warning from personnel — a cyclone was reaching correct for the town’s easy and broad school. histrion had a instrument of his own: Unlike most another schools in Arkansas, the digit Carlisle schools hit specially fashioned inland hallways — dubbed tornado-safe flat — where 750 students cowered until the storms passed by Friday. “You haw never requirement it, but that digit instance that you do that you don’t hit it, it’s something you can’t better from,” histrion said. The cocain yet veered abse

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I can remember when they were called "fallout shelters:" Just before the tornado sirens sounded, school superintendent Floyd Marshall got the warning from police -- a twister was coming right for the town's elementary and high school. Marshall had a weapon of his own: Unlike most other schools in Arkansas, the two Carlisle schools have specially designed interior hallways -- dubbed tornado-safe rooms -- where 750 students cowered until the storms passed by Friday. "You may never need it, but that one time that you do that you don't have it, it's something you can't recover from," Marshall said. The tornado eventually veered away from the shared campus of the schools at the last moment, but Gov. Mike Beebe acknowledged the importance of the rooms on a visit to the city Monday. "I'd like to see them everywhere. I'd like to see them as much as possible," Beebe said. "But at this juncture, we're not in a position to mandate them everywhere, unless you have the money to be able to give them to everybody." Julie Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Education, acknowledged that many schools throughout the state do not have the safe rooms. She said officials do not keep a count of how many schools have them.

Shining that turd, one glorious smile at a time: As the newspaper industry—and print media in general—struggle to survive in the age of digital news, the business has found an unlikely ally: the nation's gravest housing crisis in recent memory. While newspaper executives have for years complained that online resources—like Craigslist—are cutting deep into their classified advertisement revenue, the foreclosure crisis has created a much-needed revenue stream for at least one struggling newspaper. From the Washington City Paper: Foreclosure notices are filling in where condo sales and auto deals once held sway. "There are definitely more than we've ever seen," says Ginger Stanley, executive director of the Virginia Press Association. "I've been in the business 30 years." Here's what Stanley's talking about: On March 13, the Washington Post's classifieds section totaled 22 pages, approximately 14 of which were devoted to what are technically known as "trustee's sales."

Yes, folks--Nancy is taking care of business: For the estimated 60 million Americans suffering from mental illness, treatment can be an elusive and costly ordeal. Many health care plans don't cover mental care, and those that do usually provide lesser benefits for mental disorders than for physical ailments. Co-payments, for mental patients, are usually higher. In addition, the last major federal law tackling the problem is 12 years old. Now Congress is hoping to fix some of that. Bills passed in both the House and Senate would require most employer-based health plans to eliminate the current pay discrepancies between coverage for mental and physical conditions. Supporters say that equating the two -- and thus establishing "parity" -- is long overdue. Helping their push, the stigma that's contributed to the legal discrimination has slowly faded as scientists uncover the biological and genetic causes of mental disorders. "There is no shame in mental illness," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) said following passage of the House bill in March. "The great shame would be if Congress had not taken action." Someone's gotta help the 28% who still approve of President Bush, you know.

San Diego's mayor wants an investigation to determine if Blackwater misrepresented itself during the process of obtaining permits to open a military training facility in Otay Mesa. “Questions have been raised as to the appropriateness of this location for the uses planned by Blackwater and the means used by the company to acquire the necessary permits from the City,” the mayor wrote in the memo to the city's chief operating officer in which he requested the investigation. “Specifically, allegations have been made that the company potentially used misleading names . . . to inappropriately disguise the true identity of the occupant.” The permits were obtained by Raven Development Group, a Blackwater affiliate.

Good luck shaming the shameless Rep. Tom Cole (R, OK) head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, took republican house members to task today, chiding them for failing to support republican candidates in congressional bids, saying those who have not helped “ought to be ashamed of themselves.” Sure they should. But most of them lack the capacity to feel shame.

Brownback takes a prominent role in the McCain campaign: He is going to co-chair The National Catholics for McCain Committee, along with former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating. "Committed to the protection of innocent human life, he is a leader Catholics will be proud to support," Brownback said when the announcement was made.

Deforestation magnified the effects of the Myanmar cyclone Coastal development has happened at the expense of Mangrove forests that used to act as storm breaks. Secretary General of of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said that the combination of more people living in coastal areas and the loss of mangroves had exacerbated the tragedy. "Encroachment into mangrove forests, which used to serve as a buffer between the rising tide, between big waves and storms and residential areas; all those lands have been destroyed," the AFP news agency reported him as saying. "Human beings are now direct victims of such natural forces."

Another record-setting day for oil futures with the price climbing to $122.73 on speculation that prices have only begun to climb, based on a report from Glodman-Sachs that predicts $150-200 bbl oil by 2010. Oil prices are just cents shy of being double what they were one year ago, a signal, according to analysts at G-S that oil prices are experiencing a "super spike."

I bet he wishes he had activated his cell phone's keylock feature a soldier in the middle of a firefight in Afghanistan pressed against his phone just right, and redialed his mother in Oregon. She wasn't home at the time, but her answering machine picked up and recorded three minutes of battle. She heard gunfire, cursing and calls for more ammo before the machine cut off the message. How unnerving would that be, to return home, see the blinking light, press play, and hear that message?

Serbs go to the polls Sunday to elect members of parliament The election is a referendum on nationalism vs modernity, east vs west, the future vs the past. Liberals have turned their back on Vojislav Kostunica, the prime minister who helped overthrow Slobodan Milosevic, but who has since adopted his harsh nationalist rhetoric. Liberal intellectuals fear that embracing nationalism will result in Serbia becoming a pariah nation. One western diplomat was blunt in his assessment: "For the West, this election is a choice between bad and worse."

Something tells me that the first victims of Indiana's voter suppression law aren't who the Supremes meant to disenfranchise. The Romans on the court were dismissive and contemptuous - the burden to get an ID wouldn't be undue, they said. Today, a dozen nuns were turned away at the polls in South Bend, Indiana for not having the appropriate ID. I hope they chase the bastards through their dreams, wielding rulers, every night, so long as that horrible voter disenfranchisement law stands.

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