Birmingham Blues

The Washington Post has several follow-ups on yesterday’s horrendous article about outpatient care for our soldiers:
The Hotel Aftermath
Army Fixing Patients’ Housing
Hospital Addresses Soldiers’ Complaints
It’s a shame that unflattering press coverage is what it takes to get some action, but I’m all for major improvements ASAP.  These soldiers have given their health for their country; it’s the [...]

If you can read this article without weeping, you are far tougher than I.  How can we countenance treating wounded soldiers this way?
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his [...]

Here’s the official White House transcript of the interview.  Of course, Cheney and the interviewer refer to waterboarding as “dunking the terrorists”, so they could leave Tony Snow room to parse for the press.  “Dunking the terrorists?  It’s not torture; it’s just like bobbing for apples.  Well, yeah, you’re being forced to do it, and you can’t [...]

A man having “marital problems” decided to solve them today by murdering his three children and then killing himself — after he called his wife to let her know what he had done.  “Marital problems”?  Let me guess.  He was a controlling, abusive asshole, and she was getting ready to leave him and take the [...]

So a woman writes an unauthorized “tribute” to Clay Aiken and then sues him when he criticizes it.
Jeannie Holleman, 50, says she is a lifelong friend and neighbor of a Raleigh family that were friends with Aiken’s mother, Faye Parker, and took her in when Parker and her young son left her abusive husband.
In [...]

A congressional report shows that the military has been pursuing nearly 900 soldiers to collect $1.2 million in debt incurred through no fault of their own.
WASHINGTON (AP) - After suffering paralysis, brain damage, lost limbs and other wounds in war, nearly 900 Army soldiers ran up $1.2 million in debt because of the military’s “complex, [...]

…for those of us who thought we shared this planet with decent, rational people: a West Virginia police chief is facing a lawsuit that alleges he prevented CPR on a gay man who had had a heart attack because the chief assumed the man was HIV-positive (he wasn’t).
Billy Snead was furiously trying to save [...]

Tom DeLay has been named to the House subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department — the Justice Department that’s investigating the Abramoff influence-peddling scandal. He also got Duke Cunningham’s old seat on the Appropriations Committee. I guess he can still inspire fear among his colleagues.

Matthews spent almost the entire hour last night trying to get us all outraged because Hillary Clinton used the word “plantation” in a speech. First, he put up Trent Lott, who refused to cooperate. Then he tried again with Rev. Al Sharpton and Ron Christie. As Sharpton pointed out, Chris had to [...]

Shakespeare’s Sister has several posts on a story out of Oregon about a 17-year-old girl who reported a gang rape and was subsequently convicted of filing false charges — even though she never recanted her story. According to published reports, prosecutors determined that there was not sufficient evidence to charge the three men [...]