In news from Danger Room, David Axe mentions that Ospreys Iraq-Bound and I had seen this from Associated Press:

The Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 and 10 Ospreys left Monday from New River Air Station next to Camp Lejeune aboard the USS Wasp, Marine Maj. Eric Dent said. A typical Osprey squadron has roughly 200 Marines.

USS Wasp and the other vessels in her class are some of the handiest things around as they have great search and rescue capabilities in addition to their primary military purpose. These are the vessels of choice if there is a disaster with water access. The USS Bataan could have done great things in New Orleans after Katrina if the Hedgemony had allowed it.

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I went over to the Senate Vote page to see how individuals voted on three items today: the Webb amendment, the habeas corpus amendment, and the “we hate free speech” sense of the Senate resolution¹. I gave Senators a point for a “yes” vote on each of the two amendments, and a point for a “no” vote on the resolution, and built a table. The people with a “2” voted “yes” on all three.

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Badtux, the snarky penguin, has an easy to understand table comparing universal Medicare and the Hillary Clinton proposal [which is a re-packaged version of the plan Mitt Romney introduced in Massachusetts].

Have a look at RomneyHillaryCare vs. Medicare For All: A comparison, kick the tires.

The good news is that there is time to look at what’s happening in Massachusetts to see how this might work out.

According to the BBC, Osama bin Laden [number one on all of the charts with a bomb] found time for another recording date and just released his latest cut: Bin Laden urges Pakistan holy war

Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has called on Pakistanis to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf.

In a new audio tape, Bin Laden promised what he called retaliation for the storming of the radical Red Mosque in the capital, Islamabad, in July.
…

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Invest 93L which may, at some point, become tropical storm Jerry is a collection of low pressure areas around Florida. One of them is in central Florida, one off the coast of Jacksonville, and an associated upper level low in the same area. It is probable they will all merge into one system in the Gulf.

Other than the fact that they are generating a lot of rain, they bear watching by everyone from Texas to the Florida Panhandle as they are expected to turn tropical in the Gulf. How much of a storm develops is dependent on too many variable at this point, but they can’t pull an Humberto yet.

Every other storm in the name list is male this year, and I wouldn’t want to have a beer with any of them.