And then there’s the small matter of the Democrats giving Bush II $120 BILLION DOLLARS, no strings attached, guaranteeing that he’ll be able to continue his wars for at least the next two years.

Could they scream “fuck you” any louder to the people who voted for them in November 06?

What a bunch of pathetic, despicable, pusillanimous assholes.

Please DO NOT STOP posting the Infantry Drill Regulations. They are GREAT!

Man, that gas story is depressing. "Jack Jones, a financial counselor in Berkeley, said he drives 36 miles each way to get to work in San Francisco."

I don't live in the Bay Area, but that just doesn't seem possible, even if you took the two farthest points in SF and Berkeley. And why doesn't this d-bag take the damn train?

Yeah, that gas story was depressing.

I keep fearing we'll hear about some survey that asks Americans the question, "If gas prices continue rising, would you sooner sell off your first born or drive less?" And the results will be something like:

• 39%: Sell off first born
• 42%: Drive less
• 11%: Don't know
• 8%: Already sold off first born

Rising Toll of 9/11: For the first time, a person’s death has been linked to inhaling dust from the fallen Twin Towers.

see also: "Ground Zero Hazards: Environmental and Health Impacts of the WTC Bombing"

Meyerhoff's a little too thin and maybe a little too passionate for his own good, but he's pretty cute. It's going to be a rough time for him in prison.

#3 Not too far fetched. I have a friend who lives in Santa Monica and works in Thousand Oaks. She drives about 45 miles each direction. She says sometimes her commute home takes 2 hours, but watching the sunset from her apartment is worth the drive. (She plans on buying an electric car as soon as one is available.)

elswinger, I'm afraid that doesn't mean too much to me, as I don't really know where those places are. Is it possible to drive 36 miles from anywhere in the city limits of SF to anywhere in the city limits of Berkeley? And I'm probably going to come off as a self-righteous prig here, but your friend is part of the problem. 4 hours, 90 miles (and give or take 3 gallons of gas) a day for a sunset that she probably misses most days because she's still stuck in traffic? Honestly, I think that's unconscionable.

Jokes on them, I've been donating for years.

Bradley:

This was not the first time a person's death was linked to the inhalation of dust from the falling WTC twin towers (along with the dust from WTC 7, the 47-story steel-framed skyscraper not hit by planes which fell precisely into its footprint at near-free-fall speed later that afternoon), it's just the first time New York City's chief medical examiner has publicly announced such a link.

The New York Times article to which you linked begins:

New York City’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, has for the first time directly linked a death to exposure to dust from the destruction of the World Trade Center.

See "Within 7 Months, 3 Sept. 11 Workers Die", SFGate, 2006-06-17:

All three men died in the past seven months of what their families and colleagues say were persistent respiratory illnesses directly caused by their work at ground zero.

[...]

The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is tracking the health of 71,000 people exposed to Sept. 11 dust and debris, said last week that it is too soon to say whether any deaths or illnesses among its enrolled members are linked to trade center exposure.

[...]

David Worby, an attorney representing more than 5,000 plaintiffs suing those who supervised the cleanup over their illnesses, said 21 of his clients have died of Sept. 11-related diseases since mid-2004. He said he was not authorized to release their names, but represented people who toiled at ground zero, at the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island where trade center debris was moved, and at the city morgue.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Worby said. "Many, many more people are going to die from the aftermath of the toxicity."

Meyerhoff didn't "receive" 13 years, he earned it.

I think five years would have been fine (Perhaps an appeal is in order?), but you can't set fire to things and expect people to look the other way.

What is it about Eugene, anyway? I went to Berkeley, but the locals there seem tame compared to the lu-lus in Duckville. WTF?

And how many years should the Red Bushie who worked for the DOJ and testified yesterday get for HER crimes.

In my day we used to line traitors like her up against a wall and shoot them, during times of war ...

Interesting that in WWI, the sheer slaughter enabled by the industrial revolution also served at the overlap of horse-drawn (and human-manouvered) artillery

http://www.firstworldwar.com/photos/graphics/cpe_moving_germ_gun_01.jpg

to the self-propelled gun

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/images/wespe_9.jpg

Wrong.

The only self propelled artillery in World War One was a prototype the British built on the chassis of of their tank. AFAIK it didn't see any combat.

The Wespe you linked to is a WWII vehicle (German 105mm howitzer on PzII tank chassis)

Yes, I AM a history geek and 1890-1945 is my specialty ;)

What most people don't know is that even in WWII the horse was heavily utilised by the German army. Other than their Panzer and Panzer Grenadier Divisions the bulk of their army relied on the horse for transport of nearly EVERYTHING, not just artillery.

True KX - I should have been more clear. In WWI you ended up with the *beginnings* of the terrestrial 'iron horse' for artillery -

http://www.chakoten.dk/images/eng_art_2935.jpg

which sounded the beginning of the end of the horse as a primary means for moving artillery. The expense, relative slowness/newness of the technology and challenging terrains still made the horse useful throughout WWII (and for Germany, the last option standing, as the big bombers began concentrating on German industry). But the arc of development of artillery + motorized transport continued, leading to today's all-in-one models -

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/kalustoesittely/media/1082977433_152_TELAK_91.jpg

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