Scientists today announced the discovery of an extraordinarily preserved "dinosaur mummy" with much of its tissues and bones still encased in an uncollapsed envelope of skin.

Preliminary studies of the 67-million-year-old hadrosaur, named Dakota, are already altering theories of what the ancient creatures' skin looked like and how quickly they moved, project researchers say. (See pictures of the mummy dino and its preserved skin.)

Further investigations may reveal detailed information about soft tissues, which could help unlock secrets about the evolution of dinosaurs and their descendents, the scientists added.

For now, the team continues to examine the rare specimen, which included preserved tendons and ligaments, and to prepare scientific articles on the find for publication.

"This specimen exceeds the jackpot," said excavation leader Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Britain's University of Manchester and a National Geographic Expeditions Council grantee.

Most dinosaurs are known only from their bones, which are seldom found joined together as they would be in real life.

But "we're looking at a three-dimensional skin envelope," Manning said. "In many places it's complete and intact-around the tail, arms, and legs and part of the body."

Clinton Volunteer Quits Over Obama Email

[Judy Rose, a Clinton coordinator and Democratic Party official in Jones County, Iowa, forwarded it without comment to eight people on Nov. 21. Rose referred requests for comment to one of the recipients, Grace Zimmerman, who serves with her on the Jones County Democratic Central Committee.

Zimmerman said Wednesday that Rose sent it to the members of the committee to "show people how dirty politics is" and did not agree with the content of the e-mail.

"Oh heavens no," Zimmerman said in a telephone interview. "She just wanted the people who were concerned with the politics of Jones County to be aware of it."

Zimmerman said the Clinton campaign never talked to Rose about why she sent it but simply demanded her resignation after another recipient decried the e-mail in a post on the liberal blog Daily Kos.]  

Clinton chairwoman dismissed over e-mail on Obama

Read the actual e-mail here.

[If it doesn't address the central problem of insurers denying claims and care, then doctors will simply stop accepting insurance and demand payment in cash, as this Irvine clinic has already done. ]

Look for this trend to spread across the country.  Most doctors offices and clinics have between two and six employees who spend the majority of their time dealing with insurance companies, paperwork and their bureaucracies. I know that hospitals around the country are headed in the same direction, and I have knowledge of one in particular Broward General Medical Center, a public hospital in Broward County Florida, one of the best trauma centers in the country, which has constructed an entire new wing that is specifically reserved for cash customers only. I'm told by reliable sources within the hospital that no insurance whatsoever is accepted as payment for patients in this huge new wing.  I can only assume that they have chosen this route in hopes of offsetting the cost of all the uninsured patients they treat in Broward County.  But that is only charitable supposition.
(In the interests of full disclosure, I will say that I was once indebted to Broward General for a sum in excess of $1.7 million.)  

  Medicare is a prime example of what were headed for, since the vast majority of private physicians, or at least quality private physicians, don't except Medicare. And why should they, when private physicians have the option of cherry picking patients who have premium health insurance or pay cash.  Why would any doctor want to treat 40 or 50 patients a day, when they can make the same money treating 15 to 25 a day. As a result many private physicians and their employees look upon Medicare patients with disdain.

  People on Medicare are relegated to clinics and doctors who largely constitute the bottom of the barrel in the health-care spectrum.  Many doctors would actually prefer to provide their services pro bono, rather then deal with Medicare, since they take so long to pay and are such a hassle to deal with, apparently.  Just ask Ron Paul, he was refusing to take Medicare and Medicaid long before it was fashionable, opting to treat his patients free of charge, or set up a payment schedule. Though I believe in his case his refusal was on ethical grounds.

And Clinton wants to mandate/force Americans to pay these insurance companies, who will surely relegate their clients (they don't call them patients, because it makes it easier to screw them using this designation) to the lowest-cost health-care providers i.e. the worst, lowest level of care, or they won't be able to find health care at all, which has become commonplace for people on Medicare who live in locations where there are few choices, like rural areas, or urban inner-city areas, as more and more doctors refuse Medicare.

Of course the World Trade Center bombings are a uniquely tragic event, and it is vital that we never lose sight of the human tragedy involved. However, we must also consider if this is not also a lesson to us all; a lesson that my political views are correct. Although what is done can never be undone, the fact remains that if the world were organised according to my political views, this tragedy would never have happened.

Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.

Not only are my political views vindicated by this terrible tragedy, but also the status of my profession. Furthermore, it is only in the context of a national and international tragedy like this that we are reminded of the very special status of my hobby, and its particular claim to legislative protection. My religious and spiritual views also have much to teach us about the appropriate reaction to these truly terrible events.

Countries which I like seem to never suffer such tragedies, while countries which, for one reason or another, I dislike, suffer them all the time. The one common factor which seems to explain this has to do with my political views, and it suggests that my political views should be implemented as a matter of urgency, even though they are, as a matter of fact, not implemented in the countries which I like.

Of course the World Trade Center attacks are a uniquely tragic event, and it is vital that we never lose sight of the human tragedy involved. But we must also not lose sight of the fact that I am right on every significant moral and political issue, and everybody ought to agree with me. Please, I ask you as fellow human beings, vote for the political party which I support, and ask your legislators to support policies endorsed by me, as a matter of urgency.

It would be a fitting memorial.

POLL:
Whom must we never forget?
    Me     20%
    Me     12%
    Me     19%
    Me     30%
    Me     18%

Washington - Tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, crates of machine guns and rocket propelled grenades are just a sampling of more than $1 billion in unaccounted for military equipment and services provided to the Iraqi security forces, according to a new report issued today by the Pentagon Inspector General and obtained exclusively by the CBS News investigative unit. Auditors for the Inspector General reviewed equipment contracts totaling $643 million but could only find an audit trail for $83 million.

The report details a massive failure in government procurement revealing little accountability for the billions of dollars spent purchasing military hardware for the Iraqi security forces. For example, according to the report, the military could not account for 12,712 out of 13,508 weapons, including pistols, assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.

This dishonest.

Report: Israeli Defense Officials Knew At Least a Month Ago About NIE Findings, Weeks Before Bush Claims He Was Informed
Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher, BuzzFlash, December 6, 2007

According to the authoritative Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, "Israel has known about the report for more than a month. The first information on it was passed on to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and to Shaul Mofaz, who is the minister responsible for the strategic dialog with the Americans. The issue was also discussed at the Annapolis summit by Barak and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and it seems also between Bush and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert."

To say the least, this would put Bush in the unexplainable position of claiming he just found out about the NIE, while his administration had told the Israelis weeks ago that the Iranian nuclear bomb program was stopped in 2003. In short, Bush is basically wanting us to believe that he was the last to know about this "bombshell" intelligence finding.

Furthermore, the one mainstream media company that regularly seeks out the story behind the story (McClatchy Newspapers), reported this story on Nov. 4: "Experts: No firm evidence of Iranian nuclear weapons."

Yet, Bush would have us believe a diligent newspaper reporter knew about the NIE findings before he did.

This is just one in a long series of lies and deceptions that the Bush Administration has inflicted on the American people.