In a difficult though not unusual situation, Elizabeth Edwards is again showing the ultimate in grace under pressure.

Her complete statement is posted at Daily Kos.

Not to condone John Edwards' underlying actions, back in 2006, it does look as though the MSM are leaping at the chance to criticize--of all things--the Edwards' decision to stay together on the campaign trail in 2007 and 2008.

Why, or how, would it have been somehow better for Edwards to campaign alone, and to leave his ailing wife at home alone with the children?

The specious argument, of course, is that Edwards made ...   more »

An interesting run-down on Sen. John McCain’s track record in public life, as summarized by Rex Nutting at MarketWatch:

Some of the starchier grafs:

“Like the current occupant of the White House, McCain got his first career breaks from the connections and money of his family, not from hard work.

The son and grandson of Navy admirals, he attended Annapolis where he did poorly. Nevertheless, he was commissioned as a pilot, where he performed poorly, crashing three planes before he failed to evade a North Vietnamese missile that destroyed his plane. McCain spent more than five years in a prison ...   more »

Unanswered questions in the ‘lone anthrax attacker’ theory--

Buzzflash has just helpfully re-posted an excellent article from January 2002, “Fort Detrick’s Anthrax Mystery” (by Laura Rozen, who provided much of the meat in Valerie Plame’s tell-little book about the CIA leak).

 
Looks as though the piece could have been titled “Fort Detrick’s Other Anthrax Mystery.”

 
The article begins,

 
“On Oct. 2, Ayaad Assaad, a U.S. government scientist and former biowarfare researcher, received a call from an FBI agent asking him to come in for a talk. It was well before anthrax ...   more »

More follow-up on that Los Angeles Times suggestion that Dr. Bruce E. Ivins stood to gain financially from an anthrax panic, because of anthrax-related patents he held:

 
Looks thin.

 
Always bearing in mind that anything is possible . . .

 
Still, Ivins’ name appears more often in patent records as someone who supplied anthrax to other researchers, as referenced in their patent applications and successful patents (see my previous post), than as an inventor himself. Even when Ivins does show up as an inventor and would-be patent holder, moreover, it is always with other researchers. There is ...   more »

Following up on that ‘patents’ item in the LATimes, suggesting a possible profit in future from patents on anthrax vaccines: True, Cui bono is always one avenue in investigating.

 
But . . . Ivins is not looking good for this angle, though.

Take a look:

 
Checking patent office records for the name Bruce Ivins, we find that Dr. Ivins has been named 11 times as a supplier of anthrax to other researchers for use in vaccines, most recently in two patent applications for nanoemulsion vaccines on July 31, 2008. The identical boilerplate language found in the ...   more »

See compilation and some interesting posted replies at

www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/08/02/the-biowar-story-not-told-in-the-aftermath-of-a-scientists-suicide/
   more »

Just after posting on anthrax, I received the following from Brad Friedman at www.bradblog.com. Bradblog says that the Washington Post--which, apparently learning a lesson from the Hatfill debacle, has run some very intelligent and humanely balanced reports on the anthrax investigation following the suicide of Dr. Ivins:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6239

I read the referenced Friday article in the print edition (PG County) and thought, like Brad, that it raised some serious questions.

Today and yesterday the Post ran some further information, largely from unnamed sources (govt) contra Ivins and from named friends, neighbors and co-workers pro Ivins. Whatever the upshot, it ...   more »

Among unanswered questions about those unsolved anthrax mailings of 2001, one stands out: was the anthrax mailer necessarily the person who ‘weaponized’ the anthrax?

 
In other words, was it really a top-flight scientist who placed finely milled anthrax powder in ordinary envelopes, and then put the envelopes into the U.S. mail to be delivered, apparently, to several media outlets and to two Democratic senators?

 
In numerous accounts following the reported suicide of Dr. Bruce E. Ivins of USAMRIID, this question seems not to have been addressed. The conclusion reached by several (?) unnamed sources is that the anthrax ...   more »

The news gets weirder and weirder. Just as Friday draws the week to a close, the news comes out that another government-employed scientist suspected--apparently--in the 2001 anthrax mailings has apparently committed suicide.

And in much more trifling news, the newest attack by noise-machine media cohorts on Barack Obama is that Obama is perceived, by Rupert Murdoch at least, as too fit and thin to be elected. This one is truly off the wall. Aside from any more important point, I've seen Murdoch, and to do him justice, he is by no means obese himself. For what it's worth, Murdoch himself ...   more »