Any vascular surgeons out there tonight? I have a subclavian vein story for you...it goes like this: my right one keeps occluding and stenosing which is a fancy way of saying that it is f@#$ed up. There's no good reason for this, and 15 angios and a failed veneous bypass later, it's still not fixed. I'm sure we'll get there, but in the meantime...

WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?

My problem this week?  The lovely medication warfarin sodium that goes by the trade name Coumadin.

I paid my electric bill today... I found it a little high, but that is a separate story.  What interested me most about this bill was the insert American Electric Power is required to provide to its customers: information about its fuel mix and emissions.

It was no surprise to me that coal was the number one fuel used for energy generation in Virginia, but...

Hurrah! We've reached the final installment of my summary of the IDA Saddam & Terrorism report.  You can find Part 1 here..., Part 2 here... and Part 3 here..

So far, we've learned that while Saddam had many ties to terrorist organizations and definitely made trouble for his neighbors, evidence does not suggest that he was in ANY position to be a real threat to the United States.

I joked in Part 1 that I read the report, so you don't have to, but..

No, actually you should read this report.  You can find it here... on the right-hand side (big  pdf!)

I think you should read it because anything the current administration doesn't want you to easily access must be GOOD stuff. Read it and start asking questions...

What follows is a summary of "The Business of Terror" and the conclusions of the entire paper...

On this anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, I offer this, the 3rd installment of a summary of the IDA report on Saddam and terrorism.  Part 1 is here... and part 2 is here...

I joked in Part 1 that I read the report, so you don't have to, but..

No, actually you should read this report.  You can find it here... on the right-hand side(big pdf!)

I think you should read it because anything the current administration doesn't want you to easily access must be GOOD stuff. I mean, they canceled a press conference about the release of the report so as to avoid being asked questions about it. So read it-- get informed about what is in this report and perhaps more importantly, what is NOT in this report. Then ask questions... ask Congressmen what they think of the report...ask journalists to ask questions of administration officials...keep asking.

Yesterday, I posted a summary of the first part of the IDA's Saddam and Terrorism report that the administration was originally going to release with a little fanfare, but then pulled the press plug and slipped it out quietly.  You can find that summary here...  I joked that I read the report, so you don't have to, but..

No, actually you should read this report.  You can find it here... on the right-hand side(big pdf!)

I think you should read it because anything the current administration doesn't want you to easily access must be GOOD stuff. I mean, they canceled a press conference about the release of the report so as to avoid being asked questions about it. So read it-- get informed about what is in this report and perhaps more importantly, what is NOT in this report. Then ask questions... ask Congressmen what they think of the report...ask journalists to ask questions of administration officials...keep asking.

What follows is a summary of the second main part of the paper: State Relationships with Terrorist Groups.

No, actually you should read this report.  You can find it here... (it's on the right hand side- BIG pdf!)
I think you should read it because anything the current administration doesn't want you to easily access must be GOOD stuff. I mean, they canceled a press conference about the release of the report so as to avoid being asked questions about it. So read it-- get informed about what is in this report and perhaps more importantly, what is NOT in this report. Then ask questions... ask Congressmen what they think of the report...ask journalists to ask questions of administration officials...keep asking.

Let me start off by saying that I am dedicated to electing Democratic candidates for office from my local school board all the way up to the President of these United States.  I will vote for the presidential nominee from our party in November, whether it is Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
I have never understood the folks who threaten to take their toys and votes and go home when they don't get their way...

But I have to tell you...

I REALLY miss John Edwards!

Please do not recommend this diary, please recommend theLiveBlog Mothership here.

The Senate Intelligence Committee version of the FISA bill that includes immunity for the telecoms got  through the cloture  vote today.  Drational has the background on closing the cloture vote here.  Roll call here.
Senator Dodd has promised a filibuster. Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold have promised to help in this effort so far.  Boxer yielded an hour of her time to him, and his aides were also approved for some time.

CALL YOUR SENATORS now to ask them to support Dodd, and vote for the Senate Judiciary version that does not include immunity.

You know it's big when an anti-religion is being discussed at the American Academy of Religion...

The Flying Spaghetti Monster, a fabulous pseudo-deity, was created to...

An Oregon State physics graduate named Bobby Henderson stepped into the debate by sending a letter to the Kansas School Board. With tongue in cheek, he purported to speak for 10 million followers of a being called the Flying Spaghetti Monster -- and demanded equal time for their views.

"We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it," Henderson wrote. As for scientific evidence to the contrary, "what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage."

challenge intelligent design.

A lot of good teaching goes on at dailyKos.  But a lot of it doesn't get read by everyone who wants to read it, because diaries scroll by so fast.
This series is about diaries that teach and about things you want to learn.  Could be any subject - an academic subject, a skill, a hobby, almost anything - but not diaries that simply inform, or it would include all of daily kos.

(mommyof3 will be your substitute teacher today in plf515's absence)

This little article caught my eye a little while ago.

The US government cannot account for 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to an investigation carried out by the Government Accountability Office.

Oh...so, we've LOST that many weapons in a country where it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell friend from foe.  This is unacceptable!
Join me below for some more info on this... we may be arming the insurgents...?

I am heartened by E.J. Dionne Jr.'s Piece in the Washington Post today...

It is not perfect, but it gives good basic history on the marriage between evangelical christians and the Republican party...

Since 1980, white evangelical Christians have been seen primarily as a Republican voting bloc. They delivered more than three-quarters of their ballots to President Bush in the 2004 election.

That is no accident. In 1979, a group of conservative activists led by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and Morton Blackwell, a Republican National Committee member from Virginia, went to the Rev. Jerry Falwell, urging him to organize what became the Moral Majority.

Their primary goal was not religious but political: to enlist evangelicals behind conservative Republican candidates. Blackwell candidly called evangelicals "the greatest track of virgin timber on the political landscape." The activists reaped a mighty load.

It also highlights that there are folks in the evangelical fold who want religion and spirituality to be the focus- NOT politics  How refreshing!