Copying some files

Copying some files here at work and have some time to blog it up a bit. or not... I just wasted all the time answering old emails that I'd flagged in gmail. Bless that little program.
The List on washingtonpost.com of what's in and out for 2006 is amusing.

This article on the West VA mining deaths is heart-wrenching.

Anger and grief replaced jubilation as the families of the trapped West Virginia miners learned today that initial reports of the men's survival were wrong and all but one had died.
The announcement, made at a Baptist church close to the mine in the town of Sago, came three hours after the West Virginia governor, Joe Manchin, said he had been told 12 of the 13 miners had survived after an explosion.

This discussion of the cult called scientology is interesting.

Reading, Pa.: Why is Scientology opposed to mainstream psychiatric treatment and associated drugs such as Paxil and Lexapro?
Richard Leiby: It's important to get this one out of the way first. Many people are coming to hear about Scientology only through Tom Cruise's recent, highly publicized condemnations of psychiatry and psychiatric medications. He is essentially following a script set in place by Hubbard many years ago --Hubbard openly declared war on the psychological and psychiatric profession in response to its doubts about the theories he put forth in his breakthrough 1950 book, "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health."
Many medical practicioners (including psychiatrists) considered Hubbard a dangerous quack. He, in turn, considered shrinks to be butchers, not healers. He incorporated his hatred for psychiatrists in his spiritual views, claiming that the "psychs" were part of an evil alien force that helped to enslave humanity millions of years ago.
Hubbard wrote in an internal policy bulletin in 1982: "The psychs have been on the [time] track a long time and are the sole cause of decline in this universe...They destroyed every great civilization to date and are hard at work on this one."

Bush catches a break and can say that the NSA went above his head in the Spying controversy, accorind to this article in the NYT.

Bush administration officials said on Tuesday that General Hayden, now the country's No. 2 intelligence official, had acted on the authority previously granted to the N.S.A., relying on an intelligence directive known as Executive Order 12333, issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. That order set guidelines for the collection of intelligence, including by the N.S.A.
"He had authority under E.O. 12333 that had been given to him, and he briefed Congress on what he did under those authorities," said Judith A. Emmel, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. "Beyond that, we can't get into details of what was done."

And Abramoff's future as a witness starts to scare crooks all over Washington (wait, that's everybody).

Abramoff was among the lobbyists most closely associated with the K Street Project, which was initiated by his friend Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), now the former House majority leader, once the GOP vaulted to power. It was an aggressive program designed to force corporations and trade associations to hire more GOP-connected lobbyists in what at times became an almost seamless relationship between Capitol Hill lawmakers and some firms that sought to influence them.