Daily news mashup for Sunday, May 13, 2007
The bulk of today's news, compressed into a single paragraph:
Happy Mother's Day. Speaking of mothers, Bush visited Jamestown to celebrate its 400th anniversary, but there's no word on whether he said the Queen was there in 1607. More governors are coming forward to say the National Guard is stretched so thin, they aren't able to respond to domestic emergencies; meanwhile, two more Tennessee Guard units are being mobilized for Iraq. If Granny has a pacemaker, she won't be able to jam to Jay-Z or Metallica on her iPod, and she'd better not eat any fish from Lake Winnebago. In fact, none of us should. It turns out the refusal to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices has caused drug prices to skyrocket. What a shock. The two madmen in charge of the US and Iran continue to dance around each other; meanwhile, Russia signed a deal with some of the 'Stan countries to secure a gas pipeline that the US really, really wanted. Over 1.5 million Turks took to the streets, protesting in favor of the separation of mosque and state. Again. "Law & Order" has been renewed for its 18th season, and I've still never seen a single episode of it. British scientists have created plastic blood that could be used in an emergency. NASA unveiled a full-scale model of the oh-so-sexy Webb Space Telescope, due to launch in 2013. And Bush kissed an orchestra conductor on top of her head.