Firedoglake made this witty observation

The Preznint seems to have arrived at a fairly novel diplomatic solution to the mess in Pakistan.

   "I just spoke to President Musharraf before I came here, and my message was very plain, very easy to understand. And that is: The United States wants you to have the elections as scheduled and take your uniform off," Mr Bush said.

Damn, George. Aren’t you going to ask him out to dinner first?

Now, it seems, Musharraf has agreed to this tryst, and to allow some sort of election before Feb. 15.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf told his national security council today that parliamentary elections would be held before Feb. 15 and that he would give up his military uniform before taking the oath of office for his new term as president of Pakistan.

Oh, did I spell elections wrong?

I can barely get my arms around this one. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association being cited as if it shows that being fat is good. I haven't read it, just saw the Post article. I don't know the individuals who did the study, whether they are Bushies or what; or if this was funded by McDonalds or what.

But here's the tipoff: when I saw the claim that "fat" protects you from dying of TB, it was abundantly clear what the problem with this study is: they confused the fact that chronically ill people get thin, with the idea that being fat protects you from chronic disease.

So don't go running to the pantry for a row of Oreos, people. We need you ALIVE.

NY Tymes:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 — For more than five months the United States has been trying to orchestrate a political transition in Pakistan that would manage to somehow keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power without making a mockery of President Bush’s promotion of democracy in the Muslim world.

On Saturday, those carefully laid plans fell apart spectacularly. Now the White House is stuck in wait-and-see "watch and learn" mode, with limited options and a lack of clarity about the way forward. eagerness to learn the ins and outs of declaring martial law/national emergency.

General Musharraf’s move to seize emergency powers and abandon the Constitution left Bush administration officials close to their nightmare: envious, with dreams of an American-backed American military dictator who is risking civil instability in a country with nuclear weapons and an increasingly alienated public.

Pretty big quake in Mt. View/peninsula; biggest I've ever been in, though only 6 years in California. No reports of injuries so far, anecdotal reports of minor damage.

Report on KTVU says 5.6, the biggest since Loma Prieta. Epicenter NE of San Jose, 7 miles east of Milpitas. I think must be on the Calavaras.  Wikipedia says there has not been a major quake on the Calavaras in recorded history; it is not a locked fault, meaning it slides along pretty freely, and so major earthquakes are unlikely. TeeVee confirms it was on the Calavaras. Also says minor damage. Two light poles down in San Mateo. Dams and reservoirs in the area seem unharmed. Levees will be checked tomorrow. 15 aftershocks so far (11pm).

There are liteally dozens of earthquakes in the Bay Area every week, 98% are not even perceived by the public.  They are published on Fridays in the Chrony. This was not one of those. While not a killer (as far as we know) this one tonight was a real shocker for many.
USGS MAP of epicenter HERE.

We'll have the opening lineups as soon as I can find the channel that the game is on. In the meantime, how about that Alex Rodriguez.....getting his name on the TeeVee during the world series game...the guy is a jackass...am I wrong? is this worse than yelling at an infielder who's trying to catch a popup? The man is an idiot. And by going for free agency, he's gonna lose money, compared to what the Yanks could have given, including the money they still get from the Texas Rangers.

Now, where is the game?

Go, Rocks!!  This is gonna be a great comeback.

[crossposted at Over the Line, Smokey!]

Now I would not ordinarily write a diary which consists of a comment on a post on some other blog. But this is so extraordinary and so important to "the truth" about what is going on in Iraq, in the Bush administration, and in the military, I just had to put it out there where people might be directed to read this. Greenwald often doesn't post on Sunday, so many might not go there today, and would miss this important item.

Background:
Greenwald has spotlighted the recent conversion of the military "information" service into the Bush way of doing business: secrecy, punctuated by leaks and exclusive interviews given to rightwing blogs and pundits. Witness, for example, Gen. Petraeus' dog and pony show on Fox News network, and the leaking of documents to the Drudge Report.

Apparently Gen. Petraeus' mouthpiece, Col. Steven Boylan, has built up some hate that he just had to vent:

I guess, from the indictment, they went to war with the inventory they wanted, not the inventory they had.
Maybe this explains why the troops never quite had enough body armor. And, of course, if these guys are actually crooks, what sort of dealings got them the exclusive contract?
link

Two former top executives of the leading supplier of body armor to the U.S. military were indicted today on charges of insider trading, fraud and tax evasion in a scheme that netted them nearly $200 million, federal prosecutors said.

This was diaried this morning but some parts of the diary were in error, and, this new study needs to be widely recognized as an exceedingly bad sign. This is probably the worse news for the world since Dick Cheney's warmongering speech this weekend. [chuckles weakly]

The global carbon dioxide balance is actually MUCH WORSE than was thought when the latest predictions were made on the progress of global warming/climate change.

MUCH WORSE.

I will elaborate below; but when I read of this new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, I immediately thought of Thomas Friedman's latest piece in the New York Times: This is no longer about changing what kind of lightbulbs you use. This is now about who will lead.

crossposted at Over the Line, Smokey!

Hidden in a story which is primarily about Turkey is this much more important information. Washington Post has these accounts of US attack on Warsaw, 1941 Sadr City, in Baghdad:

U.S. Reports 49 Fighters Dead in Sadr City Raid; Residents, Officials Say Victims Are All Civilians

The U.S. military said its troops killed 49 fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, one of the highest death tolls for a military operation since President Bush declared an end to active combat in 2003.

,,,Iraqi officials and residents of the vast Shiite enclave, loyal to powerful anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, said 13 people were killed and all of the victims were innocent civilians, including children.

Gee, what is going on with Mikie and the NY Times? It's time for the big push to bomb Iran, and Michael Gordon hasn't done an anti-Iran piece in over two months. Today, the AP (sort of a second line warmongering organization), taking its lead from the "Voice of America" propaganda network reports that the Army is accusing Iran of "being aware" of lethal IED shipped "from Iran" to "Afghanistan", where presumably they would be used to "kill American soldiers." I'm sure that Disney, Fox, and the other whources will be all lathered up, without bothering to wonder why the Shiite Imams would want to aid the Taliban. Why is the NY Times not running the story?
Does the NY Times/Bill Keller actually have some stones? has Michael Gordon been taken off the snakes on a exclusive US military plane? Is he now riding with the poor McClatchy reporters? without canapes?

This may be of interest to only myself, clammyc, Armando and Bob fucking Johnson. But I doubt it.
I was recently upbraided for putting the word "fucking" in a diary title. Despite the fact that the expression is used everyday by millions, if not an actual majority of Americans (somebody do a poll) (and certainly a majority of Democrats), and the fact that the title was a takeoff on a well known DKos catchphrase.
Link

Regular swearing at work can help boost team spirit among staff, allowing them to express better their feelings as well as develop social relationships, according to a study by researchers.

Lookit here, Al Gore; it's time to decide whether the planet fries or not.
And there is only one person who keep can it cool and that's you.

A new Canadian study suggests more drastic measures needed to reduce/stabilize global warming: a 90% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2050.
link

"Our results suggest that if a 2.0-degree C warming is to be avoided, direct CO2 capture from the air, together with subsequent sequestration would eventually have to be introduced in addition to sustained 90 per cent global carbon emissions reductions by 2050," the University of Victoria team concludes.

Bush's Environmental Pollution Agency political commissars showed their devotion to profit and politics by approving, in the classic Friday afternoon announcement, the use of methyl iodide aka iodomethane aka Midas.
the LA Times calls it:

Despite the protests of more than 50 scientists, including five Nobel laureates in chemistry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday approved use of a new, highly toxic fumigant ....

which is
   

Ranked as one of the most hazardous compounds (worst 10%) to ecosystems and human health.

There is no joy in Cubville.

The Cubs are trailing the Diamondbacks in the best of 5 series, 2 games to nil. Playing at home for the first time in the series.

Bottom of the fifth, one out, bases loaded by walks, Cubs down 3-1; Levon Hernandez is just wild. The crowd is just insane. Cubbie Mark DeRosa works the count to 3-1, then swings at an 86 mph sidearm "sinker" that was around his ankles, and grounds into a double play.

It's the curse. or can they come back?

Use this for live blogging/open thread....
HOWABOUT THEM ROCKIES!!!

In a surprise move at 7am Pacific Time today, internet mogul/lefty/commie/pinko/entrepreneur/guru Markos Moulitsas Zúniga changed the mens rea, the opus magnus, the casus belli, the goal of the colossally successful website/online community/bunch of assholes called Daily Kos, from "electing Democrats" to "being nice to Republicans."

No longer would words and expressions like "turdblossom", Rethugs, Republican Culture of Corruption, lawbreakers, investigations, impeachment, chimp, bad boys, bad decisions, or even "naughty, naughty..." be tolerated at Daily Kos. "Tsk, tsk" was the strongest comment which would be allowed.

by 9am,the halls of Kos were empty. Oh, sure, cskendrick posted a lame diary on "how to serve fois gras to your boss", and there were a couple of open thread entries debating the chances of the Red Sox this year. But overall, activity on the site dropped 93.4%. "Delete my fucking account, kos" diaries appeared for an hour or so, and Armando stopped by to post a one word diary: "Yawn."

By 1130 am, advertisers began to cancel ads; within three hours, revenue fell by 94%.

Garrison Keillor, a great Democrat, a great writer, a great American and a great entertainer, has been chosen to receive the Steinbeck Award. I cannot think of a better recipient. Any of you who have not listened to Keillor read his book "Homegrown Democrat" are deprived.

Link

In 1996, with the backing of Elaine Steinbeck, the writer's third wife, the Center created the annual "Steinbeck Award: 'in the souls of the people.'" That phrase from Chapter 25 of The Grapes of Wrath captures the writer's enduring legacy as an engaged artist. From the 1930s on he wrote about "the people," his heart open to the longing, loneliness, despair and triumph of those on the edges. Americans were his people, and his last book, America and Americans (1966) expresses his enduring love for a democratic nation:

(Read Steinbeck's inspirational message, below)

Sorry if this is already generally known....Just heard this on NBC. Keith Olbermann had an emergency appendectomy on Friday.  Must have been one of those"gut feelings."
I hope that Bush/Cheney don't have any pressing business for Keith to sign off on, while he's doped up.  Apparently he is doing okay.  And I'm sure he has adequate health insurance.
Good luck onya, Keith, enjoy the morphine while it lasts.

Let's send a good luck card : countdown@msnbc.com
I'm sure there is another email for him personally; anybody got that?
Kolbermann@msnbc.com h/t Kevin Holsinger.

Please get this on the rec list, friends. I seldom beg.

The Lancet study was right. Well, knock me over with a feather! A poll conducted by the Brits:

...estimates 1.2 million Iraqis have died since the war began.

According to the ORB poll, a survey of 1,461 adults suggested that the total number slain during more than four years of war was more than 1.2 million.

ORB said it drew its conclusion from responses to the question about those living under one roof: "How many members of your household, if any, have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003?"

Based on Iraq's estimated number of households -- 4,050,597 -- it said the 1.2 million figure was reasonable.

Lancet study