Like most residents of Chapman, Kan., Bemis huddled in her basement the night of June 11, when a tornado destroyed scores of homes in this town of 1,250.

Recovery efforts are in full swing, and residents say they will remake Chapman better than it was before.

But the efforts to rebuild the community now face an obstacle townspeople did not expect: Federal reconstruction rules are forcing many residents to rebuild without the basements that sheltered them through the storm.

Well that makes sense...

www.kansascity.com | 07/29/2008 | Rules force many in Chapman, Kan., to rebuild without basements

Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke the law by using politics to guide their hiring decisions for a wide range of important department positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility and independence, an internal report concluded Monday.

Go to jail. Go directly to jail. To not pass the bar. Do not collect legal fees.

Justice Dept. Report on Hiring Finds Violations - NYTimes.com

So, I'm just going to lay this out very simply, even though in the linked video, Olbermann appears to consider this too distasteful to do more than just touch upon (and indeed, there are bigger fish to fry first).

An "interview" is supposed to be a question and answer session between a reporter and the interviewee, right? So that the reporting is basically saying, "the reporter asked this question, and the person being interviewed gave this particular answer to that question", right?

So, in what lunatic alternate dimension does this become "an interview is a creative reinterpretation of what we think we'd like this person to have said in response to these questions" and make Katie Couric's interview session with John McCain, as aired not a massive breach of journalistic integrity because basically, what they aired showed McCain giving an entirely different answer to the question asked about the troop surge.

In short, what CBS aired was decidedly fiction and "news" is supposed to be non-fiction.

McCain has problems with facts and timelines. Kinda like Reagan in his second term, after Alzheimer's started to effect him.

So, doesn't CBS believe in 'journalistic integrity'?

Get to the end, it seems like Dave is seriously asking whether war crimes charges would be correct.

Letterman - Jane Mayer "The Dark Side" 7/23/08

RealtyTrac, based in Irvine, California, said the national foreclosure rate in the second quarter was one foreclosure filing for every 171 U.S. households.

Those home ownership numbers coming back as foreclosures. This defines an economy tanking.

Foreclosures double from last year | U.S. | Reuters

In his email to Mukasey today, Arnebeck writes: "We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that if he does not agree to 'take the fall' for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed lobby law violations."

"This appears to be in response to our designation of Rove as the principal perpetrator in the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act/RICO claim with respect to which we issued document hold notices last Thursday to you and to the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform,"

Ahhhh... RICO....

The BRAD BLOG : Rove Threatened GOP IT Guru If He Does Not 'Take the Fall' for Election Fraud in Ohio, Says Attorney

MSHA levied $1.6 million in fines against mine operator Genwal Resources, Inc. for a series of violations it characterized as highly negligent and showing reckless disregard. It also fined the company's engineering firm, Agapito Associates Inc., $220,000 for showing reckless disregard in its design.
Assistant Labor Secretary Richard Stickler said it is the largest fine the agency has levied in a coal mine disaster.

Gee. Kill 6 people, get a $1.8 million dollar fine? That's all? Let's see what happens in the wrongful death lawsuits... Tort reform! Tort Reform! Go screw.

Reports: Crandall Canyon doomed by poor design, inadequate oversight - Salt Lake Tribune

Security guards collected garbage bags full of sunblock at the entrances to Yankee Stadium over the sweltering weekend, when temps hit 96 degrees and the UV index reached a skin-scorching 9 out of 10 - a move team officials said was to protect the Stadium from terrorism.

Wow... Can we bilk people for more $

SUNBLOCK BAN AT YANKEE STADIUM CAUSES BURNING PROBLEM - New York Post

Couric: Senator McCain, Senator Obama says, while the increased number of US troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?
McCain: I don't know how you respond to something that is as-- such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane [phonetic] was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others.

Waitawhataminute? Because of the surge we what? Oh, you mean this guy? Yeah, we did a great job protecting him.

Let's get the facts straight. First, one of the primary generators of the "Anbar Awakening" was that they were pissed off about the Al-Q in Iraq types not caring who they blew up, Sunni, Shiite, US troops, didn't matter. Part two was us giving them cash, guns and ammo without strings to police their own area, and we cut our actions in the area down to going after the Al-Q in Iraq types. That had ZERO to do with the surge.

Second, if anything the surge has HURT that movement by redirecting the money and troops out of Anbar and into Baghdad.

Third, the point of the surge was to buy time and improve stability for the Iraqi government to get their shit together and take over their own immediate security. On that level, the surge has been a complete failure. The casualty rates hit a marked decline in October of last year, but those are US casualties, not Iraqi casualties for which we can't get numbers. In the meantime, there has been little to no motion from the Iraqi government, except for some no-bid contracts given to Exxon, Shell etc. for maintenance on oil facilities that aren't safe to go to. In the meantime, we can't get agreement on what happens after the end of the year when the UN mandate we used to go in expires.

In the meantime, we're losing the war in Afghanistan. Casualty numbers there are up, the Taliban is in resurgence, and the real Al-Qaeda is in full swing.

Between this, the Irag-Parkistan border comment the other day, Czechoslovakia, the repeated lack of knowledge on who is supporting whom in Iraq (then getting corrected and screwing it up again), getting pretty much everything backwards on the economy, the gas tax holiday, drilling expansion that won't change the price of diddly squat, the birth control/Viagra thing, and god only knows what else, I'm starting to wonder if we're looking at Alzheimer's. He gets told one thing and something else comes out.

This is not an "age" question. This is someone who no longer appears to have command of his mental faculties.

Marc Ambinder (July 22, 2008) - McCain Disputes Obama Account Of The Surge

Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who has long led the conservative forces of his state, has been denied his customary position as a voting delegate to the Republican National Convention -- and it's being done by an even more conservative bunch.

Just wow...

Conservative Senator Denied Delegate Slot For Not Being Right-Wing Enough