State Farm accused of Katrina racketeering
Federal lawsuit claims insurance company manipulated damage reports

NEW ORLEANS – State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. engaged in a “pattern of racketeering” by manipulating engineering reports on Hurricane Katrina damage so the company could deny policyholder claims, lawyers for a group of Mississippi homeowners allege in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Wednesday’s lawsuit on behalf of Mississippi Gulf Coast homeowners is the first in which Scruggs and his legal team accused an insurer of violating the civil Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act, commonly known as RICO.

Ah. Insurance companies as a criminal conspiracy. Who’d a thunk it?

Iraq now ranked second among world’s failed states

Anyone who didn’t see this coming, go to the back of the class.

Government watchdog says Bush ignored law after 30% of signing statements

The Government Accountability Office issued a report showing that US government agencies ignored Congressional legislation on 30% of the occasions when President George W. Bush issued a ‘presidential signing statement’ after signing bills into law. The report was released today by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“The White House cannot pick and choose which laws it follows and which it ignores. When a president signs a bill into law, the president signs the entire bill. The Administration cannot be in the business of cherry picking the laws it likes and the laws it doesn’t,” the President Pro Tempore of the Senate said. “This GAO opinion underscores the fact that the Bush White House is constantly grabbing for more power, seeking to drive the people’s branch of government to the sidelines….We must continue to demand accountability and openness from this White House to counter this power grab.”

You can “demand” all you want. Issue subpoenas, hold hearings, yeehaw. The only way you’ll keep King George from doing whatever the hell the diseased little voices in his head demand is to remove him from power.

Impeach. The only way- the only way- to stop this.

Baby monitor picks up video from NASA

PALATINE, Ill. – An elementary school science teacher in this Chicago suburb doesn’t have to turn on the news for an update on NASA’s space mission. She just turns on her video baby monitor.

Live video of the mission is available on NASA’s Web site, so it’s possible the monitor is picking up a signal from somewhere.

First Tang, now live to baby monitors. Go Team NASA!

U.S. attorneys fallout seeps into courts
Defense lawyers in different cases are raising new questions about government prosecutors and potential political biases.

WASHINGTON — For months, the Justice Department and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales have taken political heat for the purge of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Defense lawyers in a growing number of cases are raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients. In court papers, they are citing the furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may have been infected by politics.

Gee, ya think?

The Jefferson Memorial is sinking into the mud of Washington:

Jefferson Memorial’s Signs of Sinking Raise Fresh Alarms

Up on the surface, the signs of the trouble at the Jefferson Memorial are small:

Underground, though, the problems may be huge: Slowly, almost imperceptibly, parts of the complex seem to be sinking into the mud.

Heh.

The must see movie of the year. Watched it this weekend (nice fathers day surprise!) and while it contains all the hallmarks of a Michael Moore film- humor, irony, and confrontation- it does so in a more balanced manner than his previous films.

Some people- but sadly, not too many- might find “Sicko” surprising, but most of us know too well the insanity of our health care system in this country. The combined forces of big medicine and Congress, along with the blathering bunch of nitwits we call a media have successfully instilled in us the notion that in order to be healthy, you must be rich. The fact that most of the rest of the civilized world has figured out a way to pay for health care for everyone without running their country into the ground seemingly escapes us.

But in reality, it doesn’t escape anyone. As long as our countries health is a for profit system, then sick poor people will have either a poor quality of life- or die. And every morning, some white shirted ASSHOLE straightens his tie, or checks the hem on her skirt, and marches into work and gets busy saving the company money by denying claims, revoking policies, or by making premiums so hellishly expensive that normal people can’t pay. Every day thousands of “just doing my job” pricks make their stockholders another .000021 of a penny, and another family is ruined.

How do you look in the mirror? Do you have no shame? Michael Moore does. Watch Sicko.

In today’s White House press briefing, reporter Helen Thomas asked Tony Snow if there are “any members of the Bush family or this administration in this war.” Stunningly, Snow claimed that President Bush is actually on the “frontlines” of the war in Iraq:

SNOW: The President.

Fuck you Tony Snow, and the monster you work for. Fuck you.

Tony Blair hinted today at new restrictions on internet journalism, saying online news coverage had become “more pernicious and less balanced” than traditional political reporting.

In a farewell lecture on public life, he said that much of the media behaved like a “feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits”.

Maybe if you weren’t a simpering little dog, riding King Bush’s coattails into the Hague, the media wouldn’t be so mean to you, you warmonger.

Regulate this, jackass.

Left without a pretext for a military assault on Iran, the Bush administration finds itself in a position where it needs to prepare the world opinion for mass genocide with a compelling reason. With its control over the media, it is accomplishing this by denouncing Iran as the killer of American troops while causing civil unrest in Iraq. Tragically, the majority of the public has been paralyzed by fear and believes that the letting of blood is the only cure that will rid them of their unfounded panic. Iran’s woes are not limited to the ambitions of the neo-cons.