In a move cheered by Aljazeera, the US Congress has sent a message to our men and women serving in Iraq: You are worthless, your lives are worthless, your families are worthless, we want more power.

Congressional Democrats have signaled a willingness to directly challenge and curtail Bush’s warmaking powers

Yeah, that’s unbiased and fair reporting: curtail Bush’s warmaking powers. Thanks, WaPost, for that brilliant analysis.

It is quite surprising that Ms. Pelosi had time to lead this “revolt”, pulling herself away from negotiations to get a larger plane.

Here are the Republicans that don’t care about the lives of our troops:

• Mike Castle (Del.)
• Howard Coble (N.C.)
• Tom Davis (Va.)
• John Duncan (Tenn.)
• Phil English (Pa.)
• Wayne Gilchrest (Md.)
• Bob Ingles (S.C.)
• Tim Johnson (Ill.)
• Walter Jones (N.C.)
• Ric Keller (Fla.)
• Mark Kirk (Ill.)
• Steve LaTourette (Ohio)
• Ron Paul (Texas)
• Tom Petri (Wisc.)
• Jim Ramstad (Minn.)
• Fred Upton (Mich.)
• James Walsh (N.Y.)

It continues to amaze me that Ron Paul can be elected in the State of Texas. Or that he is listed as a Republican. The guy has no conscience, zero respect for our military.

If you are of any faith of any type, pray for our men and women that are in harm’s way today. It is a far more dangerous task that they are undertaking today because of our US House of Representatives. Make no mistake - American soldiers will die because of this vote today. Ideals do matter.

House Dems on Iraq: “Let’s quit!”

House Passes Resolution Opposing Bush’s Plan to Send More Troops to Iraq

“Today, in a loud voice, the Congress of the United States said to the president: ‘We need a new direction in Iraq,’” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., after the 246-182 vote.

Seventeen Republicans voted in support of the resolution while two Democrats voted against it.

While few disagree that the post-invasion situation in Iraq has been poorly handled, the only Democrat “solution” is quitting. Euphemisms still abound, of course, but what else can one label pulling out before the job is done?

“The bipartisan resolution today may be nonbinding, but it will send a strong message to the president: We here in Congress are committed and supporting our troops,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California on the House floor. “The passage of this legislation will signal change in direction in Iraq that will end the fighting and bring our troops home safely and soon.”

Other Democrats have openly surrendered.

“What we now have in Iraq is a defeat. We cannot achieve the illusions of the Bush administration that we will be able to create a stable unified liberal democracy in Iraq that is pro-American,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. “Instead, we have sectarian fighting, death squads and a disabled Middle East that threatens to be engulfed by the nightmare that we have unleashed.”

If Osama bin Laden is still alive, he is enjoying a good, long laugh right now.

How did your Representative vote? Take a look here.

On Wednesday, the Texas Senate passed a measure known as SCR 20 which busted the constitutional cap on state spending. Once Senate leaders realized that a constitutional amendment couldn’t pass, they did an end run around the Constitution, despite the efforts of Sen. Dan Patrick, who had this to say:

Make no mistake; we busted the spending cap on Valentine’s Day of 2007. This time it was to allow the state to pay for the “Great Tax Shift of 2006.” Next year, we will have at least $14 billion in new money to fight over. Will the taxpayers come out on top or will the “needs” of the state prevail? I don’t have confidence in government to do the right thing when it comes to lowering the overall tax burden on its citizens. There is a long track record to support my skepticism.

It has been said that my vote against SCR 20 was because I don’t understand the budget. It is true - I don’t understand why we are hell-bent on spending 17% more in this budget than the last. I don’t understand how we can tell people, with a straight face, we have cut taxes when the overall tax burden has actually increased. The taxpayers don’t understand either, and they are the ones paying for the lessons.

Valentine’s Day 2007 in the Texas Senate was hugs and kisses for more spending and bigger government!

Here’s a PDF of Dan’s entire statement.

Remember, you can’t spell “screw 20 million Texans” without “SCR 20.”

One month ago:

Houston’s former Mayor and Police Chief Lee Brown has been hired to help handle New Orleans’ growing crime problem.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says Brown’s company will evaluate the city’s police department and help establish community police policies.

Brown says that should take about six months.

Last night:

Nine people shot in less than seven hours

Six people were shot inside a Mid-City nightclub Friday morning just hours after a triple shooting in Bywater.

The clock is ticking, but Lee P isn’t too good under time constraints:

After leaving the mayor’s office in 2002, Brown spent a year as a “scholar in residence” at Rice University writing a textbook on community policing. It has yet to be published. Brown said he’s done with the research, now he just needs to finish writing.

And by “finish,” he means “start.”

I’m going to do something we don’t normally do–republish an article in full–but I feel confident the author, Mike Gallagher, would approve:

I’ve just been told a heartbreaking story. And it’s one of those stories that usually end in total helplessness, but since I’m fortunate enough to have a forum like this weekly column at Townhall.com, I hope you’ll engage me for a minute or two and allow me to share this awful tale with you.

This morning, I heard from an old friend of mine, someone I knew many years ago when I was a young man in Ohio. I could hear the pain and anger in his voice, even after not talking with him in a number of years.

One of his closest friends, a young man named Nicholas, was killed in Iraq last month. This hero soldier had recently married his sweetheart and was home on leave when he and his wife welcomed their new baby into the world. A few weeks later, Nicholas lost his life in Iraq while fighting for his country.

As many soldiers before him had done, Nicholas had requested that if he wound up paying the ultimate sacrifice, he wanted to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington, of course, is sacred ground, the ultimate resting place for thousands of our nation’s bravest and finest Americans.

My friend drove from Ohio to D.C. to say good-bye to his friend. The ceremony was simple and poignant, the tears flowed freely. As the family left the cemetery, he lingered a bit at the grave with some other friends. They just couldn’t comprehend that their buddy was gone. Still can’t, in fact.

What they witnessed next was something that will haunt them forever.

With the family gone and the area cleared out, my friends watched as four civilian workers began to handle the casket. The honor guard was gone, the military escort had left. Just four workers and a beloved soldier, husband, father, and friend in a casket.

The men struggled to lift the casket and put it into the vault, which was up on some kind of a forklift. Evidently, the walls of the grave that had been dug were collapsing and they weren’t able to lower the casket into the ground. They watched as the men basically dumped the casket, like a load of garbage, into the vault. It crashed into the container, and the forklift spun it around like a top. My friend said there could be no doubt that Nicholas’ body would have been thrown around in the casket. In fact, he believes that the casket would have been damaged considering the way the men tossed it around in the container.

These witnesses cried out in anger and anguish. They went to Arlington’s administration office and encountered a sympathetic officer. “What would you like us to do?” he asked my friends. “We want the body exhumed so that Nicholas can be straightened out in the casket, the men who did this to him should be reprimanded, and there should be some kind of protocol change so that someone can oversee these soldier’s burials so that this can’t happen again to anyone else”, they said.

The officer was patient and kind and sympathetic, my buddy told me. But he indicated that none of that is likely to happen. He told him that there are, on average, 22 funerals a day at Arlington. This was probably an isolated case, he said. It would be too expensive to exhume the body. And there would be no plans to change their protocols.

Not long ago, there was a huge controversy that arose when an airline passenger saw a military casket loaded onto a baggage cart. She wrote a column that expressed her belief that the casket was loaded onto a cart with other luggage, an assertion the airline disputed. But at no point did the woman claim that the casket was tossed around or the body disturbed.

In this case, my friend insists that several civilian workers threw around their close friend like a rag doll. Their hearts were torn out over what they saw. They asked for, and expect, some kind of response. This isn’t the kind of person who will run to a lawyer threatening a lawsuit. He just wants to make sure his friend’s body is treated respectfully and that nothing like this can happen to anyone again.

On the phone, my friend began to cry. He called me, after all these years, because he didn’t know who else to turn to.

I don’t exactly know who to turn to, either. I certainly know some Congressmen and Senators who might be able to help. Maybe someone who reads this column can make some suggestions.

But I promised my friend that I would tell you his story.

At least that’s a start.

Unacceptable.

There was only one soldier named “Nicholas” from Ohio killed in Iraq last month–Army Spc. Nicholas P. Brown.

Contact your congressional representative and insist that this be resolved.

Neighbor, how long has it been since you’ve had a big, thick, steaming bowl of strange news? Well, that’s too long. Let us remedy that situation starting with something from the “Has Bramanti ever been to Australia?” File.

Man Grabs Shark With Hands; Blames Vodka

SYDNEY, Australia — A man who caught a 4-foot shark with his bare hands off an Australian beach said he only tried the feat because he was drunk on vodka.

“He was just thrashing around in the water … starting to turn around and try to bite me and I thought ‘well, it’s amazing what vodka does’,” Kerkhof said.

Ah, the joys of inebriation. Next, we find relief for the kiddies at Disney.

‘Tigger’ Won’t Face Any Charges

The video showed Tigger apparently punching Jerry Monaco Jr. in the face and knocking him back, and prompted an Orange County sheriff’s investigation into the incident.

That’s silly. Everyone knows Tiggers don’t punch, they bounce! Next up we find a woman who failed her drivers test before she took it.

80-Year-Old Woman Crashes Car Into DMV

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. — An 80-year-old woman crashed into the Department of Motor Vehicles building in Deerfield Beach when she went to take a state-ordered driver’s license retest, according to officials.

The car went over a concrete parking block, onto the sidewalk, through a metal parking sign and into the windows of the office.

Smith was cited for careless driving.

“So…uh…did I pass?”

And finally, we find a new market in Florida for mood-lifting medication.

Ruptured Sewer Line Causes Road Depression

No, this is not the latest fad in mental health diagnostics, just a stinking hole in the ground.

The break has caused a depression in the road, which was originally believed to be a sinkhole.

So if your work week was tough, just remember it could have been worse. You might be in Florida patching a pungent pothole right about now.

The following just arrived in our inbox:

Dear David Benzion

Please consider the following press release in your next publication

Thank You
Bradley Petersen
Founder & Chairman
Total Benchmark Solution
www.totalbenchmarksolution.com

Maybe I’m becoming a softy.. but fine, here ya’ go:

Total Benchmark Solution, LLC. (TBS) is proud to announce that Arrowhead Hospital in Glendale, Arizona, is a recipient of the Total Benchmark Solution Best Acute Care Hospitals Award, based upon quality measure data provided by U.S. healthcare organizations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS for the Annual 2005 time period.

“Using Total Benchmark Solutions proprietary Quality Benchmark solution tools, TBS has analyzed all the relevant CMS Quality Measures and found that Arrowhead Hospital has clearly demonstrated its capabilities as a top quality performing hospital in the areas of Heart Attack, Heart Failure and Pneumonia Care” said Bradley Petersen, TBS Chairman and Founder. “Arrowhead Hospital’s rankings show that they are taking the right steps towards improving the quality of care in Glendale and throughout Arizona” added Petersen. Only two hospitals in the State of Arizona received this distinction, Arrowhead Hospital and Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale.

The CMS Quality Initiative aims include the desire to refine and standardize hospital data, data transmission, and performance measures in order to construct a single robust, prioritized and standard quality measure set for hospitals. The ultimate goal is that all private and public purchasers, oversight and accrediting entities, payers and providers of hospital care use the same measures in their public reporting activities.
TBS loaded the data obtained from CMS into its proprietary Quality Benchmark Solution application to provide the rankings of hospitals within various peer groups. TBS determined the Best Acute Care Hospitals by benchmarking and ranking all hospitals nationwide on 18 core measures for the data provided for the January 2005 to December 2005 timeframe.

“Personally, I was delighted but not surprised to hear that Arrowhead Hospital is among the nation’s best acute care hospitals. I believe that our staff’s commitment to quality care is unparalleled in this region” said Jon Bartlett, CEO of Arrowhead Hospital. “We’re pleased that there are now several resources that allow the public to objectively analyze different quality measures, and we encourage anyone who makes healthcare decisions for their family or business to take advantage of the information that is available” further stated Bartlett.

Arrowhead Hospital is located at 18701 N. 67th Avenue, in Glendale, AZ and Arrowhead is an Accredited Chest Pain Center, a Primary Stoke Check Center, as well as most other major specialties.

Happy, Mr. Peterson?

Well, it certainly was an interesting week with numerous topics addressed in the comments. The commenters were, shall we say, very busy.

My very own personal fav was:

Shannon Says: February 15th, 2007 at 3:19 pm e

Mainly being an observer here I have to wonder something. Are some of the people here jurks in real life or is it just an online persona? And if it is just an online persona is that considered an mental problem or just an outlet?

The answers to your questions are not known. I lean towards the psychojerk deal…but it could be a Bipolar thingy…..cause the ones I have met are really nice folks in person. But maybe only because there’s usually a lot of notice before the BHH’s take place….giving all of us plenty of time to get back on our meds.

Although I like this one too:

• fasternu426 Says: February 9th, 2007 at 1:12 pm e

  mariaw,

  No need to proof read. Most here are either drunk or ride the short bus.  

Think you got a better one? Let me see it.

Read more

According to the Houston Independent School District, you are too stupid to be trusted with your child’s nutrition:

The Houston Independent School District confiscated students’ homemade peanut butter sandwiches after a nationwide recall of some brands thought to be contaminated with salmonella. The district replaced the sandwiches with school-made ones containing an untainted brand.

HISD, the largest district in the state, plans to continue seizing all peanut butter sandwiches today “just to make sure parents have received the information and know about the recall,” district spokesman Terry Abbott said.

“We may have stopped a lot of kids from getting sick today,” Abbott said.

Terry Abbott, national hero.

Christian Galvan, a student at HISD’s Clifton Middle School, said she appreciated the district’s warning, though it came a couple of bites too late. She already had tasted her friend’s peanut butter sandwich when a teacher approached them in the cafeteria and said, ” ‘Don’t eat that! Don’t eat that!’ “

Galvan was then immediately Life-Flighted to Ben Taub for an emergency stomach transplant. Better safe than sorry, you know.

In a related story — I swear I am not making this up — the Food and Drug Administration is adding photographs to its recalls. Apparently, descriptions like “peanut butter with ‘2111′ on the lid” were too vague. So now we have pictures like this:

This is a jar of peanut butter with “2111″ on the lid.

And he’s going to poke all your daughters on the way out:

His crusade against cancer, including a controversial order to vaccinate schoolgirls against a virus linked to cervical cancer, is partly personal, Gov. Rick Perry revealed Thursday.

Several family members have been stricken with one form or another of the disease, Perry said. His father had prostate cancer, his mother, colon cancer, and his sister, bladder cancer. All are in remission.

None of which, by the way, are caused by HPV infection.

“Every generation of Perrys, back to the 1850s, has died of prostate cancer. I’m going to get it,” Perry said.

Now it all makes sense! A governor’s personal health problems should totally be the basis for mandating expensive vaccines against noncommunicable diseases! That’s so much easier than combining a sober look at the proper role of government with a careful cost-benefit analysis.

Phew…it’s been a long week, folks. But at least we’re not here:

Solutions for Schools and Families– Genia Development provides intelligent, sensitive and practical solutions to parents and educators, including psychotherapy & counseling, parent coaching, staff and parent workshops and both home and classroom environment design.

All services can be customized to fit your needs. Let us help you meet the challenges of caring for children. Contact us at 832-286-3308, or learn more at geniadevelopment.com

Get paid to tell us what you think– Register to participate in one of our focus groups; earn money telling us what you think about politics, your community and consumer goods. Click here to learn more and sign-up!

——————–

——————–

Dawn Wolf Design– LST’s full-service graphic designer of choice. Talented, professional, competitively priced; a generous LST volunteer, we could not recommend her more highly. | 713-781-8900 | website

——————–