BREAKING NEWS

[Guardian Angel]

I pray also that the young man will survive the ordeal, but we need to pray for the families who were effected by this cruel turn of events that they also may survive the pain and suffering the misunderstanding brought.

[Pat Testa]

I can identify with those people...when my daughter was in the hospital we were given false hope through mis-communication with the doctors and the ups and downs that we experienced were heart wrenching. To have your hopes realized and then dashed...I can imagine the families are in a terrible state...my sympathies go out to those families.

[andmac]

It is going to be interesting to see how all this plays out and just who miscommunicated to whom..... I really feel sorry for those families who were given false hope and relief..... of course, the first headlines of the Titanic Disaster also said everyone was safe....but in the mine case, they knew at the very moment was was going on....

[Butterfly]

Joy, then sorrow

Amid outrage over conflicting reports from the deadly Sago Mine disaster, the mining company's top executive said Wednesday he regretted allowing family members to believe for hours that their loved ones had survived.

A choked-up Ben Hatfield, chief executive of International Coal Group, said company officials mistakenly allowed family jubilation over erroneous reports that the miners were alive "to go on longer than it should
have."
Story

[SpiritMan]

11 US Troops Killed in One Day in Iraq
     By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and John O'Neil
     The New York Times

    Friday 06 January 2006

    Baghdad - Attacks by insurgents killed 11 members of the American forces and as many as 130 Iraqis in Karbala and Ramadi on Thursday.

    Most of the deaths were caused by two huge suicide bombs. They followed attacks on Wednesday that included a suicide bombing at a Shiite funeral, and pushed the two-day death toll over 200.

    The violence rekindled fears of a return to mass sectarian killings after a relative lull and prompted Iraq's most powerful Shiite political faction to warn of retribution and indirectly blame the United States for the bloodshed.

    An American soldier and a Marine were among the more than 50 people who died in the Ramadi bombing, the military said in a statement released Friday morning.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010606I.shtml

[Bingo]

I heard on TV this morning that several American troops died yesterday in Iraq. Some of the troops were just arriving that day and others were preparing to return home. But the hardest hit by death were Iraqi people. I heard someone say I don't care how many of them died.  
(Iraqis)

I think I do care how many of them died. I saw a chubby baby sitting in the street with blood on his little face. The insurgents don't seem to care how old or how young or who else rides along the train of death as long as they can kill Americans.

[SpiritMan]

GOP coalition launches drive to replace DeLay
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff  |  January 7, 2006

WASHINGTON -- A coalition of conservative and moderate Republicans launched a formal bid yesterday to replace Representative Tom DeLay of Texas as House majority leader, as lawmakers scramble to cope with the fallout of a widening ethics scandal on Capitol Hill.
 
The group's leaders said more than 15 House Republicans signed the petition within hours of its circulation yesterday afternoon, and said they hoped to gather as many as three dozen signatures by day's end. Organizers said they would continue to gather signatures over the weekend, aiming for the 50 they need under House Republican rules to force a closed-door discussion and call for leadership elections.

Story

[Guardian Angel]

I saw an interview last night, on the news, about seniors who have the new drug coverage insurance being told that the insurance doesn't cover a lot of their drugs.  I couldn't find anything on the net.  Perhaps some of you sleuths could locate something about it.

[SpiritMan]

Seniors encounter problems with Medicare drug benefit
BY TONY PUGH
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Many of Medicare's poorest and most sickly patients are going without their medications because of administrative glitches, misinformation and confusion surrounding the new Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Experts had warned that many of the 6.4 million low-income people who get benefits from Medicare and Medicaid could miss out on their life-sustaining medicines when their drug coverage shifted on Jan. 1 from Medicaid to private plans sponsored by Medicare. In interviews, advocates for the elderly as well as lawmakers and seniors themselves indicated that that's happening.

Some, such as Deborah King of New York, were placed automatically in new drug plans that don't cover their medications. Others were getting stuck with extra out-of-pocket fees because their new enrollment status couldn't be verified.

Medicare's contingency plan for patients who aren't enrolled in drug plans also is proving problematic. The agency wants pharmacists to give these customers short-term refills at no cost and bill Medicare later. But some pharmacists don't know about the agreement, and others are balking because they fear they won't be reimbursed.

"There's almost nothing that isn't going wrong," said Jeanne Finberg, an attorney for the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Oakland, Calif. "People are crying. They're calling their legislator's office in tears."

These problems and jammed phone lines that prevent pharmacists from confirming customers' plan enrollments mean that many patients can't get their medicine.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13567980.htm

[Guardian Angel]

Thanks Spiritman for locating that story.  Once again this administration has screwed things up for those who need it the most......

[pesoto74]

Officials: DeLay to Quit Leadership Post
WASHINGTON - Embattled Rep. Tom DeLay decided Saturday to give up his post as House majority leader, clearing the way for new leadership elections among Republicans eager to shed the taint of scandal, two officials said.

These officials said DeLay, R-Texas, was preparing a letter informing fellow House Republicans of his decision. These officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt the formal announcement.
Story

[SpiritMan]

US Lifts Longtime Drilling Ban on Alaskan Wildlife Habitat
    By Janet Wilson
    The Los Angeles Times

    Thursday 12 January 2006

    The Department of Interior on Wednesday approved oil and gas drilling on Alaska land considered such sensitive wildlife habitat that it was first protected by former Interior Secretary James G. Watt under President Reagan, and by four Interior secretaries since.

    The decision - decried by Native American, hunting and environmental groups - comes just weeks after the US Senate rejected drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, about 200 miles to the east.

    Bureau of Land Management staff said the decision was made after three years of study and in response to requests by Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.

    The plan, signed by Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Chad Calvert, will open up more than 500,000 acres in and around Teshekpuk Lake on Alaska's oil-rich North Slope. BLM officials estimate the northeast National Petroleum Reserve, including the lake area, may contain as much as 2 billion barrels of "economically recoverable" oil.

    The area is a critical stop for molting geese on the Pacific flyway, with as many as 90,000 birds resting in flat wetlands in the summer. Up to 46,000 caribou also use areas near the lake for calving and migration paths.

    Although many Alaskans welcome drilling as an economic boon, some native leaders in the state blasted the decision.

    "There are a lot of frustrated people in our community right now," said Dora Nukapigak, who lives in the small Inupiat Eskimo village of Nuiqsut, at the eastern edge of the reserve, where many people depend on caribou as a food source. "It's a very sensitive area. It seems like regardless of what we say or do with BLM, they'll do what they're going to do anyways, and that's drill."

    Former Interior Secretary Watt, often derided by environmentalists for other actions, protected more than 200,000 acres of the goose-molting area north of the lake from oil and gas drilling in the early 1980s. His successors under Reagan and President George H.W. Bush maintained those protections. Under President Clinton, Bruce Babbitt expanded bans against drilling around and on the lake to more than half a million acres.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011206B.shtml

[Butterfly]

 

[SpiritMan]

Late entry in House GOP leader race
 Rep. John Shadegg cites need for 'clean break from scandals'

Carl Hulse, New York Times
Saturday, January 14, 2006

Washington -- Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona made a late entry into the race for House Republican leader Friday, suggesting that his two rivals did not represent a "clean break from the scandals of the recent past."

Shadegg joined Reps. John Boehner of Ohio, chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, and Roy Blunt of Missouri, the acting majority leader, in the race to assume the post vacated by Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas.

"Members of our Republican conference disagree about policy and tactics, but we stand together in our respect for this institution, our hatred of corruption and our support for the basic principles of our party," Shadegg said in a letter to fellow Republicans.

He starts out far behind his rivals in rounding up firm commitments for an election among House Republicans now set for Feb. 2, but he holds the potential to shake up the base of support for both men and deny either a decisive first-ballot majority.

Boehner, who trails Blunt in the number of representatives who have publicly pledged their support, could benefit from another candidacy if it sparks defections from Blunt's camp, so he welcomed Shadegg's entry.

"His entry into the majority leader race is further proof that the conference isn't happy with the status quo," Boehner said in a statement.

Story

[SpiritMan]

By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a new poll commissioned by After Downing Street and conducted by Zogby International.