NASA satellites have obtained new images of the California wildfires, illustrating the immense scale of the blazes. Read more »

“I personally think Bill Clinton destroyed the Democratic Party.”
Excerpts from a Radar Magazine interview with the man behind Daily Kos by Jebediah Reed

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Right wing bloggers and talk radio commentators engaged in a vicious smear campaign against 12-year-old Graeme Frost and his parents after the partially disabled boy made a radio address imploring President Bush to reverse his veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The tactic backfired as revulsion spread even among Republicans. The liberal Center for American Progress Newsletter covered the controversy in great detail today, with links to many sources that document how the firestorm unfolded.

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The first federal inquiry into boot camps and wilderness programs for troubled teens cataloged 1,619 incidents of abuse in 33 states in 2005, a congressional investigation released Oct. 10 reveals. The study, by the Government Accountability Office, also looked at a sample of 10 deaths since 1990 and found untrained staff, inadequate food or reckless operations were factors. In half of those cases, the teens died of dehydration or heat exhaustion.

Investigators counted “thousands” of abuse allegations against the facilities using lawsuits and Web sites, but there is no central clearinghouse. States submit incidents to the federal database on a voluntary basis. Five of the 10 programs where teenagers died under questionable circumstances are still operating — sometimes under a new name or in a different location.

There are no federal rules governing residential facilities for children, and some states do not license such programs. The findings are scheduled to be presented at a hearing of the House Committee on Education and Labor, whose chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., requested the investigation.

Go to original  by  Ken Dilanian, USA Today

Go to original.

We probably have all heard of the Daily Kos “fellows” program, where six people were given “prizes” (their attorney’s word; it allowed avoidance of progressive concepts like employer responsibilities, shielded liability, etc.). But in each case, the individual had something else to do other than blog: two were writing books ostensibly to be published by Moulitsas’s publishing arm, one was writing software for Daily Kos, another organizing the Yearly Kos convention. So we still hadn’t gotten to pure blog-for-pay, although the air was thick with envy.

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This project is an attempt to create a unique moment for a blind person who might happen across one of these bits of braille graffiti. Read more »

Consider this: In a survey earlier this year, 64 percent of Americans say they spend more time with their computer than with their significant other. Meanwhile, 84 percent said they were more dependent on their computer than they were three years ago.
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Just what you need to get busted
as a terrorist
in the name
of Christ, I guess.

Go to original (in Korean).

Have TV journalists learned anything from the last several years?
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska’s northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice.
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…in Burma:

Q And the protests, themselves, seem to have been stilled. What do you make of that?

MS. PERINO: Well, unfortunately, intimidation and force can chill peaceful demonstrations. And reports about very innocent people being thrown into detention, where they could be held for years without any representation or charges, is distressing; and we understand that some of the monasteries have been sealed. Now, obviously, this has, again, a chilling effect on protestors, but we would ask that everyone show restraint and allow those who want to express themselves to be able to do so in Burma.

Go to original The Mahablog » Irony Is Dead

Thanks to Glenn Greenwald and Keith Olbermann for catching this.

ATLANTA — The new iPod Nano is hot. But one Douglasville man said his old Nano got even hotter — hot enough to burst into flames.”So I look down and I see flames coming up to my chest,” said Danny Williams.

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