The Seattle Times: (h/t miss kitty)

Eighth Congressional District candidate Darcy Burner's Eastside home went up in flames today.

The fire started between 7 and 7:30 a.m. on the 3600 block of West Ames Lake Drive Northeast near Redmond, fire authorities said.

The cause of the blaze remains unknown.[..]

Her 5-year-old son, Henry, came into her and her husband's bedroom around 7 a.m. screaming there was a fire in his room, Burner said.

"I scooped him up and got him out of the house," she said. Everyone, including the family's golden retriever Bruce Wayne, made it out uninjured, but their cat did not survive.[..]

Burner said she hadn't yet considered whether the fire would impact her campaign.

"I am today focused on my family and just really grateful that my family is OK," she said. "Tomorrow I'll wake up and figure out what comes next."

Goldy has more...

UPDATED: If you'd like to help, www.helpdarcy.com has been launched: (from email)

People can leave comments of support (we'll collect a large sample and put them on a physical message board which we will give to the family) upload photos of the family to replace the recorded memories that burned, use the actblue link to make a contribution, etc. Eventually we'll also post a list of things the family needs when Darcy gets that to us. We'll also add more tools and features as needed.

Never Make Your Move Too Soon from the album of the same name (h/t miss kitty)

More Ernestine Anderson here, here and here.

EURweb:

Jazz vocalist Ernestine Anderson, who once worked with Quincy Jones and Ray Charles, is facing foreclosure on her home in Seattle after falling behind more than $30,000 in payments and penalties, public records show.

Family and friends of the singer are pleading for $45,000 in donations to save her Central District home, reports the Associated Press.

James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Seattle, said counselors will try to find out how Anderson got a loan that now asks for a monthly payment of $5,000. Gayton said Anderson's monthly income is $1,000 from Social Security, and at her age of 79, her performances are limited

Ms. Anderson has only until June 30 to come up with a payment or lose her home. An account has been set up at Bank of America. Donations can be made at any branch to The Ernestine Anderson Fund.

BBC: (h/t miss kitty)

At least 1,000 residents of the central Somali town of Dusamareb have held a protest against a deadly US attack.

The missile strike on Thursday killed the leader of a group which the US links to al-Qaeda. At least 10 others died when a house in the town was hit.

One of the protest organisers said people feared further strikes by US forces on the town.[..]

In Dusamareb, people protested against Thursday's US strike, shouting slogans such as "Down with the Bush administration".

One of the organisers, Abdirasak Moalim Ahmed, told the Associated Press news agency: "Our town has been severely affected by the recent US attack and still we fear because planes continue to fly over our city."[..]

Al-Shabab, which the US says is linked with al-Qaeda, controls parts of central and southern Somalia.

The group says it is a purely Somali movement and denies involvement with al-Qaeda.

Is anyone else suspicious of the ease in which the Bush administration paints any and all Islamist movements under the umbrella of "al Qaeda"? Fool the American people once, shame on you. Try to fool the American people over and over and over....

I took pen in hand and, fully caffeinated, was all ready to write something profound and challenging, but I'd filled up the very last page in my Journal with affirming thoughts about the happy, happy day when Ann Althouse actually returns my calls, dammit, even though I wrote really small, and my downstairs copy of The Purpose Driven Life came right to hand, so I took it down and opened it (nice big print).... And thought up some truly merveilleux snark, but the margins were too narrow to contain it. So I didn't actually write anything down. Maybe tomorrow.

I wish I'd said this, but Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes got there first:

[In Mother Knight, Vonnegut has] a beautiful image about how the fascist mind works even in the face of insurmountable logical contradictions. It's like the gears of a cuckoo clock with a couple of teeth filed away on purpose. The clock simply skips that tooth and the gear slips effortlessly into the next groove.

And I wish I'd said this: "When your team is the biggest loser in a generation... It's the little things that make you happy."

These: 1) "Reason 101 why Kirk is better than Picard:"; 2) "Managed to freecycle a wicker kitty bed, the hanging gun rack we had no more room for (and was too small for our collection anyways) and my old 3 person dome tent."; and 3) "To my surprise, the entire issue was devoted to primate foraging strategies."

Or this helpful suggestion to round out botulism-merchandiser Wal-Mart's new line of Christianist toys:

Lot's Wife Salt Doll: Fun to play with...and to lick! Pull the string on her back and Boston's "Don't Look Back" plays.

Or this:  "So, for the record, 'spanking guru James Dobson' will now be referred to here as 'wife-beating apologist James Dobson'." Oh heck, this too: "I don't understand this sign Mitt Romney is waving. MOMA isn't in Chelsea, it's in Midtown, so ... What? Oh."

And finally this:  "Shows what you can do if you do not give in to bitterness."

Guest Bloggerativity: Visit The Department of No! They Would Never Do That! in The Mighty Corrente Building, but be sure to bring your own foil and bucket.-Lambert

Comment at the link above, or send answers, tips, bouquets, brickbats to lambert_strether1 AT yahoo DOT com.

(Wikipedia)

11AliveNews (h/t miss kitty):

Yolanda King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, has died. She was 51.

King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. The family did not know the cause of death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said.

"She was an actress, author, producer, advocate for peace and nonviolence, who was known and loved for her motivational and inspirational contributions to society," the King family said in a statement.

On June 17, 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech where he referenced Yolanda as "my little girl": Download | play (thanks to Hugh J. for the audio)

Guardian: (h/t miss kitty)

The Army refiled charges Friday against a lieutenant who refused to serve in Iraq, about two weeks after his first court-martial was declared a mistrial.

First Lt. Ehren Watada, 28, who refused to deploy with his unit last June, faces the same allegations he initially faced - missing movement and conduct unbecoming an officer - and could be sentenced to a dishonorable discharge and six years in prison if convicted. The Army has not set a date for a second court-martial.

``We're back to square one,'' Fort Lewis spokeswoman Leslie Kaye said.

Watada's first trial began early this month but ended abruptly when the judge, Lt. Col. John Head, said he did not believe the soldier fully understood a pretrial agreement he signed admitting elements of the charges. As part of that agreement, the Army dropped two of the charges against him, lowering his potential sentence to four years.

Watada's attorney, Eric Seitz, said he would seek to have the charges dismissed as a violation of the Constitution's protection against double jeopardy.

``When it's not going well for you, you can't just call a mistrial and start over again,'' Seitz said. ``No matter how much lip service they give to wanting to protect my client's rights, that just doesn't exist in the military courts.''

Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek said double jeopardy did not apply in this case because the first trial was never completed.

From the Laugh Factor:

After Fox News Channel's repeated trumpeting out of John O'Neal; Bill O'Reilly left it up to his "fans" to decide if he should interview Kitty Kelly.

Book Unflattering to Bush Draws His Campaign's Fire

Anticipating a barrage of unflattering accusations and innuendo about President Bush's personal life in a soon-to-be-published book by the celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley, the Bush campaign has opened a wave of advance counterstrikes intended to undermine her credibility

A representative of the White House recently called Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News, to discourage that network from broadcasting interviews with Ms. Kelley about the book on its "Today'' program and on its MSNBC cable program "Hardball With Chris Matthews,'' a network executive said.

Doubleday, the book's publisher and part of the Random House division of Bertelsmann, said it stood by Ms. Kelley's reporting. The publisher said in a statement that Ms. Kelly met with Ms. Bush for a four-hour lunch on April 1, 2003, where an unnamed third party heard the conversation, and that Ms. Kelley's editor, Peter Gethers, discussed the same material with Ms. Bush over the phone.

Lou Colasuonno, a former publicist for Ms. Bush, confirmed that he was the third party at the lunch and contradicted her denial. "I have not seen the book, I have only seen news reports," Mr. Colasuonno said. "According to what I have seen, what has been reported, I would not dispute that."