Countdown Newsletter 7/26/05: LIFTOFF!

[Patsy Stone]

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Tonight on Countdown
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Space shuttle Discovery blasted off into orbit Tuesday, opening a new chapter in space history more than two years after the Columbia tragedy grounded NASA's shuttle fleet. "Our long wait may be over," launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts just before liftoff, "so on behalf of the many millions of people who believe so deeply in what we do, good luck, Godspeed, and have a little fun up there." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8562942/

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.

Police experts were examining suspicious material found Tuesday in a north London flat recently visited by one of four men suspected of planting bombs on London's transit system. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8687124/

Investigators have identified a suicide bomber in the weekend attacks that killed scores in this Red Sea resort, saying he was an Egyptian with Islamic militant ties, security officials said Tuesday as investigators questioned dozens more people. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8671549/

The Democratic Leadership Council, an organization of influential party moderates, on Monday named Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to direct a new initiative to define a party agenda for the 2006 and 2008 elections. The appointment solidified the identification of Clinton - once considered a champion of the party's left - with the centrist movement that helped propel her husband to the White House in 1992. It also continued her effort, which has accelerated in recent months, to present herself as a moderate on issues such as national security, immigration and abortion. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-dlc26jul26,0,1878987story?coll=la-home-headlines

A woman who told police she wanted to be a "cool mom" pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges Monday for having sex with high school boys at parties where authorities said she supplied drugs and alcohol. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8704758/

The photographer who took topless bondage-themed pictures of Cameron Diaz before she became a star was convicted on Monday of forgery and attempted grand theft in his failed plot to sell the pictures back to the actress for millions of dollars. http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1506378/07262005/story.jhtml

That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
The owner of pet pigs has been convicted of violating the city's nuisance ordinance following complaints from neighbors about the obnoxious odor of the animals. Debra Fields kept two 300-pound hogs - Bacon and Molly - as family pets in her home in Hobart, Indiana. "The issue before the court is not whether the defendant may keep her pigs, but whether the odors generated are something her neighbor must accept," City Judge William Longer wrote in a ruling last week. "They are not." The two pigs could generate as much as 35 pounds of solid waste and several gallons of liquid waste every day. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PET_PIGS?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
So Bacon and Molly will have to find a new home; if they're lucky, not on someone's plate.
-- Carey Fox

Keith blogs: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

Countdown Home: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

More:
Scrambling to prevent a U.S. version of the recent terror attacks in London, the New York Police Department dispatched its own explosives expert to Britain to study the suicide bombings, officials said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8709083/

The White House will make public the bulk of documents related to Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr.'s service as a lawyer in Ronald Reagan's administration but will withhold papers generated during his time as deputy solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush to preserve privileged internal deliberations, officials said last night. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8705657/

The sons of two of the four scouting leaders killed in an electrical accident at the Boy Scout Jamboree have gone home to Alaska, officials said Tuesday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8705262/

Temperatures surged past 100 degrees Monday in several cities across the Midwest and heat warnings were issued throughout the country, but forecasters said Tuesday there might soon be a break from the sizzling temperatures. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8699446/

Climate change could make future hurricanes stronger, but whether the effect is measurable is still a matter of debate. It is also unknown whether it will change the total number of storms. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8245668/

[gkhouston]

1. okay, now this is creepy as hell

I thought "sports parents" were bad... or the parents who push their kids into other activities the kid's only minimally interested in so the parent can vicariously re-live their own youth and "get things right" the second time around, but the mom handing out booze and drugs and sex so she could be part of the "in" crowd with a bunch of teenagers when she's 40 is simultaneously icky and sad. This woman should not have reproduced before growing up, herself.

(Off-topic: I did see some moms doing the "my daughter, the star" crap when my little one had her dance recital last May. Pretty sickening to see them fuss over the kids as if a talent scout was in the audience, just waiting to sweep their 4 to 8 year-olds off to instant stardom. :eyes: My monkey girl, alas, was not among the raptured. During the routine she did with her class, she sneezed three times and fell flat on her ass. Luckily, it didn't upset her in the least and we were sitting far enough back that she couldn't tell we were laughing behind our hands. I think we need a little more work on that ladylike grace thing. :7 )

[demjuli]

2. This mother is certainly a candidate

for "Worst Person in the World!"

[Berry Cool]

3. Yeah, too bad Keith wasn't AROUND tonight to give it to her!!!!

This is yet another sad example of adults who are not willing to be parents and are trying to relive their own teenage years through their kids...trying to do things differently the second time around...they can't parent their kids because they are too busy trying to BE LIKE THE KIDS. Pathetic. They don't want to be like MY mom (who had ESP and eyes in the back of her head and always knew what all her kids were up to at any given time and was sure it was no damn good)...they want to be "Stacy's Mom." They want the admiration and respect of teenagers...because back when they WERE teenagers, they didn't get it. They don't understand that a) the respect of most teenagers is not worth earning; b) most adults will never earn the respect of a teenager; and c) it's just TOO DAMN LATE.

OK, so you think you missed out on having a fun teenage life. You probably didn't, but go ahead and think so if you want to. Doesn't matter. It is too late to try to live it now. Time to grow up.