Office of the Independent Blogger

Recently, I’ve been walking down the street and have, as always, been met by people with flyers. I always take them politely and I typically read them. Of late, I’ve received a handful from Lyndon LaRouche supporters and I said, “Are you kidding me? Lyndon LaRouche has Grassroot supporters out in the open, and they’re young men who should know better?

It really made me rethink humanity!

Now, listen, Dear Reader, I must let you know, there ff there’s one thing I hate in politics, it’s a hypocrite, and that is you, David Vitter.

A Republican US senator, known for advocating Christian family values, has apologised for the sex scandal that linked his phone number to a Washington prostitution ring. Louisiana Senator David Vitter told reporters that he will go back to work, despite calls for him to resign. He claimed his undescribed sins occurred several years ago, and that his enemies were dredging up the scandal to hurt him.

But it’s okay, because you’re doing the Lord’s work and so you can be forgiven. Bill Clinton? “Impeach him!” Vitter cried in the Nineties, but he isn’t going to humbly step down for a better man, no sir, because his prostitute is better than Bill Clinton’s intern. You know, Clinton’s intern was Jewish. There you go! Different situations and all that!

Excuse me while I go worry about terrorism.

As you probably remember, the Iraqi Prime Minister suggested last weekend that they could do without American assistance. His top aide took that back today.

How about they stop posturing and start governing? I know George Bush brought democracy to Iraq, but that doesn’t mean they should emulate George Bush democracy.

In Japan, there was an earthquake this weekend. Fortunately, the damage appears minimal, but I’d like to express my thoughts on the matter and say I hope they can recover, and America helps to that end.

There’s a conspiracy theory floating around the Internet about the anthrax attacks on Congress after 9/11. It alleges that the Government sent anthrax to Tom Daschle and Pat Leahy in an effort to silence their opposition to the PATRIOT ACT. It’s a very interesting read with very interesting sources, and while I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true, I’m not going to give it much thought. Just thought I’d pass it along with this news story about the Russian spy who was poisoned in Britain.

The poison that killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko was sprayed into his tea, a waiter who served the man’s table at a hotel bar said in an interview published in a British newspaper on Sunday. The witness account in The Sunday Telegraph is the first to be made public, and provides new details on how the poison, a highly radioactive substance called polonium-210, might have been delivered. Norberto Andrade, the head barman at London’s Millennium Hotel, said he believes he was deliberately distracted as he tried to serve a gin and tonic to the table where Litvinenko was sitting with Andrei Lugovoi, a Russian businessman and former KGB agent, and two other Russians, Dmitry Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, on Nov. 1, 2006.

Though he did not see it happen, Andrade told the Telegraph he believes that at that moment the poison was sprayed into a pot of green tea on the table. He said investigators later told him that traces of the poison were found all over the table and floor and on a picture above where Litvinenko was sitting, leading him to conclude that the poison must have been sprayed. “When I was delivering the gin and tonic to the table, I was obstructed,” the paper quoted him as saying. “I couldn’t see what was happening, but it seemed very deliberate to create a distraction. It made it difficult to put the drink down.

You know, Intelligence is such a fascinating world, and I’ve always had a large interest in it. Because of this interest, I’ve always rather appreciated George H.W. Bush’s handling of the CIA as he cared for the organization and was, of course, the head of it. That’s one of the many reasons I’ve always preferred George H.W. Bush to W. Bush, as Bush doesn’t care about intelligence as much as he should. You probably don’t need more evidence to that effect, but the day provided it.

An independent oversight board created to identify intelligence abuses after the CIA scandals of the 1970s did not send any reports to the attorney general of legal violations during the first 5 1/2 years of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism effort, the Justice Department has told Congress. Although the FBI told the board of a few hundred legal or rules violations by its agents after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the board did not identify which of them were indeed legal violations. This spring, it forwarded reports of violations in 2006, officials said. The President’s Intelligence Oversight Board — the principal civilian watchdog of the intelligence community — is obligated under a 26-year-old executive order to tell the attorney general and the president about any intelligence activities it believes “may be unlawful.” The board was vacant for the first two years of the Bush administration.

That’s disturbing, and it shows us the President’s lack of regard for the CIA as well as his lack of respect for the law.

The Iraqi Prime Minister says: “we can manage without America.” I say: You can’t even manage with America, Mr. Prime Minister. You aren’t The Beatles breaking up with a grand track record: you’re an independent group that never got off the ground, and you’d be wise to do all you can to woo the studio before it’s too late for you.

There’s a new bin Laden video out. He doesn’t say much in it. (”God loves Martyrs,” “Mohammed wanted to be a Martyr,” “Thank you for being my Martyr.”) He does look fatigued, and he only appears very briefly. With the news that al-Qaeda’s been busy of late and intelligence has the same concerns I do (with a ton more documents, of course), I wonder what the point of bin Laden’s message was.

You see, Osama bin Laden doesn’t appear unless he’s sending a specific, coded message to someone, but it’ll be years before we know. If we’re lucky.

In other, politically parallel-important news: Bush is going to veto a bill meant to expand children’s health insurance. My thoughts? Children, more than anyone, deserve all the help that can be given, and if the President vetoes this, he’s shameless and wrong.

Now, Dear Reader, I ask you to forgive me for not mentioning this sooner: Lady Bird Johnson has died. I haven’t got a great deal to add. As far as I’ve read (and I’ve read plenty about her), she was a smart woman, and a kind woman, who was a great influence on her husband. I know plenty of people in Washington had nothing but respect for her, and I do as well.

God Bless you, Lady Bird. Take care in Heaven, and say hello to Lyndon. He did his best.

Nancy Grace showed footage of Nancy Benoit and Miss Elizabeth from their WCW days. You’re familiar with Nancy Benoit, but Miss Elizabeth was married to “The Macho Man” Randy Savage in real life (as well as on the air) until they divorced and she wound up in a relationship with another wrestler named Lex Luger. She died of a drug overdose a couple of years ago and some have blamed Luger for it, and that’s a brief look at her personal public history. Her public public history was as one of the great female managers in wrestling history. One thing she wasn’t in public or private, though, was Johnny Grunge’s wife.

Grace seems to think so, though, as she referred to her as such.

All of these incidents? The media allowing the Ultimate Warrior to testify, the misleading “Young Death” numbers, the other interview deaths, the steroid commentary, Shrill O’Lielly’s attack on an edited Linda McMahon video, Nancy Grace’s inability to identify the people she’s talking about? Remember them next time Dick Morris is telling you that Condi Rice is going to run for President on Fox and CNN is reporting whatever it is they’re reporting.

A couple of Republicans (most specifically Mike Huckabee) are doing battle with filmmaker Michael Moore. Huckabee said, “Moore’s a big fat guy. I used to be a big fat guy. It’s people like us that cause insurance prices to bloat in imitation of us.” Moore’s producer said, “He just wants his poll numbers to bloat.” I said, “Yeah, and it’s probably the wrong way to go about it. Poor Mike Huckabee might be the only worthy candidate in the Republican field.” Rudy Giuliani said:

“If you try to do socialized medicine, a la Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama or Michael Moore, you’re going to end up with a disaster.”

I said: I see what you did there! You are slick, you clever rascal! But hey, listen. You’ve got much bigger problems to deal with. You see, the largest firefighter’s union just issued a video attacking your handling of the September eleventh attacks, and they’ve got truth and drama on their side, to boot. Now I don’t know if you noticed it or not, Rudy, but you have absolutely no credentials — Republican or otherwise — aside from, “I did a good job on 9/11.” The truth is you did, but not really, and it definitely shouldn’t make you President.

And you know what? I think this’ll be his undoing. This is why I prefer Republican strategists to Democratic strategists. Republicans will rip your strengths apart and leave you standing there. Democrats? They’ll take it when it’s given them and refuse to dish it out because they’re afraid of releasing the news that they had a lower GPA than the President in College. And yes, I am looking at you, Senator Kerry.

Vince McMahon told the wrestling locker room, according to news reports, that they need to clean up their act, say no to drugs and speak to the WWE’s Grief Counselor about the Benoit situation or anything else going on in their lives. It’s a start, but McMahon will have to do far more than that to convince some of us that he wants to change the culture in wrestling, let alone that he wants to. The “Just Say No!” approach is just a band-aid. Wrestlers aren’t abusing drugs because they can’t say no — they’re abusing drugs because they have no off-season, work with injuries that would put a man on paid-leave in most businesses, and travel hundreds of miles every other night to put even more of a beating on their body.

Before I get to Nancy Grace, allow me to present background information on dead wrestler Johnny Grunge, good friend and neighbor of Chris Benoit. He was in ECW’s “Public Enemy,” and he was a fine wrestler with many friends in the business. He died of a sleep apnea, but Nancy Grace has been covering his story — if you recall, he died, after Eddie Guerrerro did, which left Benoit feeling friendless and miserable: it’s one of the things his friends point to as a cause of his madness — and saying that Grunge didn’t die of an apnea because you can’t die of an apnea.

I ask you, then, Dear Reader, to Google the term, “Sleep Apnea Deadly” and see what you get. Then tell me that you’re comfortable with the reporting that goes on in this country. If you can sleep well tonight, I salute you, and I salute you if you can sleep well, trusting the media, knowing that of their list of wrestlers who have died before they were fifty, they’ve got men like Owen Hart who fell off a scaffold; Bruiser Brody who was stabbed in Puerto Rico and poisoned by the bile in his own kidneys; Yokozuna, who died because he was Yokozuna, amongst other examples. (Google his image.)

On a Benoit note, Benoit’s Doctor — Doctor Astin — had Benoit’s chart with him when the first raid by the police started. The police think he was trying to tamper with it, presumably to cover up the ungodly amount, and mix, of drugs he was prescribing.

I don’t typically comment on news stories like this one but everybody and their mother has something to say about it and I thought I’d say two things after the quote.

A Chicago reporter parted ways with a local television station after a CBS 2 exclusive video aired showing her in a bathing suit and at the home of the husband of a missing woman. Craig Stebic is the husband of a Plainfield woman who’s been missing since late April. As of Tuesday evening, Amy Jacobson is no longer part of the WMAQ-TV, NBC 5 news team. CBS 2’s Alita Guillen has new details about Jacobson’s departure after a social visit to the Stebic home. Lisa Stebic was last seen by her husband, Craig Stebic, on April 30, and there has been no sign of her since despite an intense investigation and repeated searches.

One: Jacobson put her children into harm’s way by taking her to the home of a man suspected to be a murderer (who, I would guess, is a murderer).

Two: Jacobson is not a reporter. She is a “presenter.” A pretty face on the television delivering the news to the public and nothing more. That’s what the BBC says, too, and I’m sticking to it.

Three: She’s lost all journalistic integrity, if she ever had any, and has absolutely no ethical ground to stand on. In all likelihood, she was sleeping with this man, and even if she wasn’t, she’s out of line and deserves to lose all work in journalism forever. Unfortunately, she won’t, and she’ll return, with the passage of time, as well as the appointment of new Head bureau chiefs.

The White House is releasing its Iraqi Progress Report today and they’re going to say, “They’ve met half their goals. They haven’t the other half.” My first response is: “A .fivehundred record isn’t even good enough in the baseball world, let alone where thousands of lives and millions of dollars are at stake.” My second response is: “Good for the Iraqis. I hope it’s true and they’ve met significant goals, even if it’s an awful percentage.” My third thought is: “This is why I’ve always supported withdrawal of most of our soldiers but leaving some to supervise and help operate.” I think it’s all out of our hands now, as the Iraqis must step up to the plate and you can’t do that by hitting for them all the time. We should’ve given them more control ages ago, and nothing’s changed since to convince me that we’re better suited “fighting” for them rather than advising and fighting with them.

Of course, they’ve managed to divide themselves and fight one another instead of working to end the conflict with one another. Instead, they’re pulling inside jobs on their local banks (stealing two hundred and eighty two million dollars) rather than working together to protect their future.

Recently, I was chatting a friend that I go to White Sox games with and the death penalty came up. He linked me to this website and said, “It’s my homepage.” We talked about the death penalty and shared our thoughts on it with one another. Neither of us is a supporter of it. I immediately thought of our conversation when I read this,

Under scrutiny around the world over the quality of its food, drug and consumer goods, China confirmed yesterday it had put to death the man who had come to symbolize the country’s shame. Sixty-three year old Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, was executed after taking more than $850,000 (U.S.) from drug companies – allowing them to take their drugs directly to market without testing. The fraud resulted in at least 10 deaths, but likely scores more.

Zheng’s execution sent a strong message to the country and to the world that China is serious about clamping down on an explosion of corruption and fraud that has brought it untold damage in markets around the world. But whether it can actually stop the damage remains to be seen. Even the SFDA itself is skeptical. “As a developing country, China’s food and drug supervision began late and its foundations are weak,” SFDA spokesperson Yan Jiangying admitted during a press conference yesterday. “Therefore the food and drug safety situation is not something that we can be optimistic about.”

More prosecutions are expected, and, very likely, more revelations. Only last week one of Zheng’s key accomplices, Cao Wenzhuang, was also sentenced to death, with a two-year suspension that could evolve into a life-sentence under Chinese law. Four others were given varying sentences. Zheng’s execution came swiftly. He had been found guilty and sentenced on May 29. His appeal failed on June 22. Yesterday, few Chinese had sympathy for Zheng.

“I’m not surprised at all with the sentence,” Prof. Wang Yigao of the Hunan Academy of Sciences told the Toronto Star last night. “Officials like Zheng who are goofing off in government should be shot more often.”

It almost reads like a satire, especially the last paragraph, but that’s more a testament to the farcical tragedy that is the death penalty (and the Chinese government) than it is to any humor.

Fox News advertised Linda McMahon, wife of Vince McMahon, as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor tonight. The problem with that was, Linda is in China, and there’s no way she could make it (not that she had agreed to — she hadn’t, as far as I can tell, and it wouldn’t make sense for her to agree to when she’s in China and knew she would be for months now). Now, what do you think Fox News did (and, as far as I can tell, intend to do right from the beginning)? If you answered, “They aired an interview of her from 2002 and mixed it with clips of ‘Backyard Wrestling,’ (which is not representative of professional wrestling and has absolutely nothing to do with Benoit’s murder-suicide unless we’re going down the “Wrestling Creates Monsters!” route) you’d be right!

I guess Shrill O’Lielly didn’t get the memo from Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes and Douglas Feith: It’s Steroids, Stupid! which is still the wrong message, but at least it’s their message, consistent and true (for them) even if it should be: It’s Journalism, Stupid! Treat It As Such. Worship It. Treasure It. Before Someone Takes It Away.

On case-related news,

WAGA-TV in Atlanta has just reported that federal investigators have seized all medical records of Dr. Phil Astin and patients Larry Pfolhl (Lex Luger), Marcus Bagwell, Mark Jindrak, Bob Howard (Bob Holly), Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit, Mike Durham (Johnny Grunge) and Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio). The station also reported that M.J. and O.G., the two wrestlers involved in the indictment of overprescribing pain killers were, as speculated, Mark Jindrak and Gutierrez.

That Doctor is a bad man.

I regretfully inform you, Dear Reader, that I’ve been hired by the Office of Internet Relations in the White House Office of the Press Secretary by the acting secretary to the White House Deputy Press Secretary on orders of the White House Press Secretary to provide commentary on the President’s behalf in order to maintain an informed and orderly nation. Before I begin, I must ask you, Dear Reader, to turn up the classic song, (Spin) Doctor Doctor, Give Me The News: I’ve Got a Bad Case of Trusting You and become an informed r(R?subliminal)epublican citizen.

(Spin) Doctor Pratt (not to be confused with TV Doctor Pratt) on the news that the President ordered Harriet Miers not to testify before Congress despite their summons: “The President is committed to the advancement and success of women in free and soon-to-be free societies everywhere. To that end, he has requested that former Counsel Harriet Miers not appear before the Congress. Many Americans have criticized the President as ’stubborn’ and reluctant to learn from, let alone concede to, his mistakes, but this shows us the President refuses to set women back another fifty years. He learned from the first time he set them back fifty years: with Miers’ nomination to the Court.”

(Spin) Doctor Pratt on the news that the military clumsily posts sensitive, classified information to the public via the Internet: “The President is committed to democratic values everywhere. To accuse the military of endangering our military with malice or incompetence is to misunderstand: the President is endangering our soldiers with liberal thought, and so we can trace the ‘problems’ to the Founding Fathers though it must be re-stated that we don’t believe there to be any problems: the President simply believes in the first amendment, as do his critics, which makes their criticism a baffling one.”

(Spin) Doctor Pratt on the news that the former Surgeon General (under President Bush) is leveling the Administration with criticism, including the claim that Bush made him mention Bush three times per page per speech; forced him to attend political meetings; suppressed his reports on stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues, and second-hand smoke; and, most disturbing of all, told him to avoid the Special Olympics because Ted Kennedy and his family were involved with the organization and, “Why would you want to help those people?”: “The President has no comment.”

Benoit’s doctor has been connected to the death of Michael Durham who is known as Johnny Grunge of the old ECW tag-team, The Public Enemy. And yes, Dear Reader, that doctor and others like him are facilitating the destruction of human lives and families because they’re willing to give prescriptions by the barrel to professional athletes for extra dollars and in hopes of brushing up with fame for five minutes. There’s more important news out, though, and that’s that some tests have been completed” on Benoit’s toxicology report.

A spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, John Bankhead, told The Associated Press that his agency was waiting for all the tests to be complete before sharing the results with investigators in Fayette County. “We’re going to discuss what we find with local investigators and they can determine what they want to release,” Bankhead said. District Attorney Scott Ballard did not immediately return a page to his cell phone seeking comment. Police have said Benoit strangled his wife and son, placing Bibles next to the bodies, and then hung himself on a piece of exercise equipment in his suburban Atlanta home the weekend of June 22.

Authorities found anabolic steroids in Benoit’s home, leading officials to wonder whether the drugs played a role in the killings. Some experts believe steroids can cause paranoia, depression and violent outbursts known as “roid rage.” Since the deaths, toxicology tests have been conducted on Benoit’s body to determine if steroids or other drugs were present. Blood-alcohol tests also were conducted on his body, and chemical tests were conducted on the bodies of the wife and son, Bankhead said. The wife’s body was decomposed, preventing some tests on her body from being done, though Bankhead declined to be specific. The GBI has been handling the testing for general drugs and alcohol, while an outside lab was hired to do the testing for steroids, Bankhead said. He declined to name the lab or say which of the tests have been completed.

“There is going to be some interpretation of what was found,” Bankhead said, without elaborating.

The last quote baffles, of course, but I take it to mean: “yes, we found steroids in his system, but a lot of other different, more-consistent-with-rage-and-tempers-and-depression drugs.” We’ll see what happens when the full reports are out, though, but there’s still more news coming out of this story: Doctor Astin’s office has been raided a third time for information on his dead patients, and Johnny Grunge’s wife has gone out on record to criticize Doctor Astin, as he should be.

There is another bit of news I’d like to touch upon before we head into the media. Famed wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer is saying that a handful (at most) of people at the top of WWE knew about the murder-suicide on the night WWE aired its Tribute Show to Benoit and is criticizing them for claiming not to have known when, he says, he knew by six o clock. I’m not sure what to make of the news — wrestlers had all sorts of things to say, and Triple H, who is married to the boss’ daughter and holds all the politics clout…well, he had nothing negative to say about Benoit, nothing tentative, and so I wonder if it simply isn’t true, or if it was all speculation.

Like I’ve said before, WWE had a short amount of time to make a decision: air a tribute? Tribute show? Let the show go on? Ignore it for a day? Whatever they came to would be criticized heavily, and so I cut them slack in airing an emotional tribute when all the confirmed news they’d known was, “He and his family are dead.”

Briefly, I’d like to direct you to the Larry King transcript, where he interviewed John Cena of WWE, Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Ted DiBiase and Steve Blackman, even. He asked fair questions and got fair, straight up answers. It’s how an interview should be done — without an agenda, without pointed questions. He asked about steroids and made other points, but he didn’t scream at his guests — “DON’T YOU KNOW HE WAS TAKING ENOUGH STEROIDS TO GROW A HIPPO? ISN’T THAT CONVINCING AND SHOCKING?!”

And since we’re on the subject, we should touch upon Fox’ continuing coverage of Chris Benoit’s death, as it’s just as important as the Larry King show.

On Friday Night’s “Hannity and Colmes,” wrestlers “Leaping” Lanny Poffo, “Superstar” Billy Graham, and Jacques Rougeau were interviewed on the program. Here are the highlights:

- Alan Colmes mentioned the survey from the U.K. that states that 104 wrestlers, under the age of 50, have died in the last decade. Colmes read a WWE response, “We are in the process of reviewing this list and the many others that are circulating around the internet. We intend to comment on these lists in the near future.”

- Colmes butchered Lanny Poffo’s name, but he corrected him. Poffo said he met Chris Benoit on three different occasions, and spoke to friends Rick Martel and Nora Greenwald about Benoit, and they said he was the last person they’d expect to do something like this. Lanny said he was torn up that a seven year old boy is gone in this tragedy.

- Rougeau said he knew Benoit in WCW, and puts the blame, “100% on steroids.” He said he was in the WWF for 10 years, and says it’s a rough life when you are away from your family 25 days out of each month. He said lots of guys go to the bars after the matches, and mix alcohol with other drugs they are using.

- Poffo said there is an epidemic out there, called “it’s not my fault syndrome.” He said to make it in life you must be yourself and be unique. Poffo said he was proud of his 21 year career, and traveled all around the world.

- Rougeau said he never used steroids, but for ten years was around guys that used them. For an example, Rougeau brought up the Road Warriors. He said Hawk pushed him up against the wall after a match, but apologized five minutes later. Jacques said if a wrestler weights 250 in June, and then weights 265 in July, you know what’s going on.

- Graham joined the program and defended Road Warrior Hawk by saying he was using a large amount of cocaine, in addition to his steroid use and use of other drugs.

- Graham mentioned Dean Malenko’s comments on Raw, how Chris Benoit had a knack of disappearing from conversations. He said Benoit was devastated by the death of his friend Eddy Guerrero, and literally cried on his shoulder about what is wrong with this world. He said that was insight into his mental issues.

- Poffo was asked about steroids in wrestling and if they are necessary, and Poffo said it is important to be unique, because that’s what people will pay to see.

- Jacques said when he started in wrestling 30 years ago, he had 19 ½” arms, and today, he has 19” arms. He said the Rougeau family has done well without using steroids. He talked about his successes in the ring including defeating Hulk Hogan, and said he never needed steroids.

- Jacques said it’s the night life that has killed a lot of guys.

- Graham said it’s a matter of choice. He said he choose to use steroids, starting in 1966. He said he enjoyed taking steroids.

- Colmes asked Graham about Daniel, and wondered if he had Fragile X Syndrome. He said he isn’t a doctor, but knew he was shy. Graham said he could have been undersized. He said undersized kids have been prescribed human growth hormone to help them grow.

- Graham said the Bibles at the scene showed anguish by Benoit. He felt Benoit was taking himself and his son to another place.

- Poffo said he almost declined the offer to do the show because he thought he’d get too emotional. He said Benoit didn’t leave a suicide note, so we can only speculate what was going through his mind. He gave a message to the kids, “if you play, you must pay.” He said you must know the Consequences for everything you do.

- Jacques ended the segment by saying “stay away from steroids.”

It was a much better show than the rest of what’s been on Fox, but I take exception with Rougeau’s comments. I’ll accept them as having less an agenda than the media’s, though, as he was a wrestler, but I think he’s as wrong as can be. “100%” blame on steroids? No way.

This news alarms me as on intuition alone I’ve worried about a terrorist attack occurring in the United States this summer or fall. I’ve particularly worried about, say, a nuclear explosion or another strike that can level a big city, but that’s in part due to my personal belief that nuclear proliferation is the most important and urgent issue in the world today and it is partly due to the common knowledge that terrorists have sought weapons of mass destruction for a long time.

It’s a little scary to see the Department of Homeland Security Director acknowledge that the threat and possibility are there and he shares my gut fear, but if the DOH goes public with such knowledge, it makes you wonder.

In more pleasant news we have this.

Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news) prepared to unveil the first carbon-composite 787 Dreamliner on Sunday amid a flurry of 55 new orders for the lightweight, fuel efficient plane. European, Middle Eastern and Australian carriers trumpeted new purchases at various Boeing events in Seattle, as the U.S. plane maker got ready to host 15,000 or so employees, customers and suppliers at its nearby Everett, Washington, plant.

All are waiting for the first glimpse of the mid-sized, long-range jetliner, which is the company’s first all-new plane in 12 years. The jet will not look radically new on the outside, but beneath the just-dried paint lies a structure 50 percent made up of carbon composite materials and another 15 percent titanium, making the plane much lighter and fuel efficient than existing jetliners of the same size. The use of fatigue-resistant and rust-free composite materials means air in the cabin can be more humid, leaving passengers less dried out and jetlagged after a long flight.

The lighter weight and newly designed engines made by General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE - news) and Britain’s Rolls-Royce plc (RR.L) mean air carriers will save about 20 percent on fuel costs. Airlines have jumped at the plane after years of struggling to turn a profit, and Boeing is rapidly closing in on 700 orders, worth more than $100 billion at list prices.

First orders won’t be sent until next May, but that’s not that far away at all, and it’s encouraging to see businesses take environmentally sound approaches to business without government prodding. It makes you wonder what would happen if the government did give them pushes in the right direction.

Republicans would probably have you believe they’d stop work and go out of business overnight.

Cindy Sheehan, they hardly knew ye, and you they, but I — I have always known, my dear, that you were a snake and a maniac, and now they who supported you through your megalomania, even they now know because you are threatening the Speaker of the House with your presence in her next election if she doesn’t introduce Articles of Impeachment against President Bush in the next two weeks.

I can hardly fathom how anyone thought you were some kind of hero at any point in any place. I’ve always said, you used your son’s death for sleazy political purposes that ran against his own views, even, and nobody should take anything you say seriously. You’ve turned your son’s tragedy into your own through your delusions of grandeur, and you’ve become as power-hungry as the man you despise. Worst of all — you think you can defeat the Speaker of the House or do her damage?

Woe is the world. Woe! And to all the Democrats who may be stunned by this news, I present you the Parable of the Snake.

A woman was walking down the road when she found a crowd which was beating a trapped snake to death. “Stop!” she screamed, “Stop! Let it live!” and despite their insistence that the serpent was lethal and couldn’t be left to live, she took it home where she cared for it for months, slowly nursing it back to health, at which point she lived with it in harmony for a few months until one day, she came home and it bit her. She cried in agony and died shortly thereafter but before she succumbed to the poison she asked, “Why?” and the beast replied, “Lady, you knew I was a snake when you found me!”

Word of the Lord.

According to the latest People magazine, Nancy Sullivan-Benoit, too, had a history of violence. “Years before” marrying Chris, the magazine reports, she pulled a knife on her now ex-husband Kevin Sullivan, who was also a wrestler and a promoter (in fact, he booked Nancy and Chris into a storyline relationship that turned into a real-life storyline that led the Boys to say that Kevin Sullivan “booked his own divorce”). This, of course, leads me to believe that the violence between the couple might well have been a mutual truth. That is certainly the case in many relationships where couples will fight one another. It is of course true that there are relationships where there is only one abuser but in others, it is a two-way street. You might ask, “Why didn’t they leave one another?” and I don’t know the answer any more than you do. Probably a mixture of love and a sense of responsibility to each other would be my guess, but it’s just a guess. That isn’t to gloss over Benoit’s hideous crime or justify it — not at all, not at all — but the story begins to make more sense if it’s looked at as a domestic dispute gone terribly wrong. At this point, I’m absolutely unwilling to believe that Benoit planned any of it, which I base on the nature of domestic violence, the time between each killing, and the alcohol he was found laying next to.

If you’re interested in reading the story in People, go, in order: here, here, here, here, here and here. It’s an excellent piece, although the photos in it left me feeling cold and hollow.

A few days ago, I believe I mentioned the news that Nancy Benoit left a note in a security deposit box saying that if something happens to her, Chris is the man. Fox News is reporting that that is false as told them by the investigators. So Nancy left no note saying that Benoit was the one, if she were found dead.

There is nothing else to report today. I must tell you now, though, Dear Reader, that I will be gone tomorrow to the University for Orientation. If I have Internet access, I’ll post. If not, expect my return on Tuesday, and I’ll have an update on John Cena’s appearance on Larry King along with whatever further news breaks. This weekend’s been a slow one for news as the talk shows are, for the most part, off.