The Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC) opened a 40-bed domiciliary residence for homeless veterans on June 30, 2008. The new facility, located at 7329 Fannin Street, features 14 apartments with kitchenettes and a 40-person dining facility.

“We are committed to the struggle against chronic homelessness among our nation’s veterans,” said Edgar L. Tucker, MEDVAMC director. “This new domiciliary residence is another way for the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center to bring veterans in need of assistance together with the wide range of programs and services VA provides.”

MEDVAMC’s Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans (DCHV) Program provides medical care and rehabilitation services in a residential and therapeutic setting to eligible ambulatory veterans challenged by medical conditions, psychiatric disorders, or physical injuries who do not need hospitalization or nursing home care.

The opening ceremony occurs this morning but a few residents are already living in the complex:

Houston’s Veterans Affairs formally will open the short-term housing complex for 40 veterans during a ceremony this morning.

Eight veterans already have moved into their new quarters in the previously vacant apartment complex in the 7300 block of Fannin.

Applications to fill up the 14 units still are being accepted.

Residents must adhere to a strict regimen of group therapy, job training or other services tailored to their individual needs. They will be allowed to stay at the short-term facility for up to six months.

“It’s a treatment facility, it’s not a lodging facility,” said Sally Eddins, Houston VA’s domiciliary chief.

Sadly, veteran’s account for an estimated 25% of the nations homeless population.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Senator No retired from the Senate in 2002 and suffered a series of serious health issues:

The Heritage Foundation’s president, Ed Feulner, hailed Helms as “one of the most consequential figures of the 20th century.”

“Along with Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, he helped establish the conservative movement and became a powerful voice for free markets and free people,” Feulner wrote.

“The defeat of Soviet communism and the rise of Ronald Reagan would not have happened without his intrepid leadership at decisive times.”

Senator Helms was awarded The Heritage Foundation’s highest honor in 2002:

“In an age when political one-upmanship is more fashionable than political statesmanship, Jesse Helms is an exception. Sometimes his voice has been a lonely one speaking out for the Founders’ vision of limited government and traditional values. For 30 years, he has earned the right to be called the Honorable Mr. Helms.

“A dedicated, unflinching and articulate advocate of conservative policy and principle—yes, one tough cookie—Senator Helms is driven by a sincere love of country and a sense of duty to make all of America a better place.

“But for all his toughness, there is also a warmth and tenderness—a love not only of country, but also of people. There is the loving husband, married to Dorothy for six decades. There is the proud father, with three equally proud children. And there is the gracious Southern Gentleman, who is just as respectful of the woman who cleans his office at night as he is to world leaders, colleagues and official visitors.

“This is Jesse Helms: a towering public figure that history will always recognize and remember for his kindly and courtly demeanor, his unbending patriotism, his commitment to principle, and his dedication to Duty, Honor, Country and Family.”

Update:
The reaction, from the “compassionate” left, via the Democratic Underground is typical:

NC_Nurse
Let the grave dancing commence…:popcorn:

Connie_Corleone
I thought he was already dead. Oh well. Good riddance The world is a better place without him.

Newsjock
Old bastard probably couldn’t bear living under a Negro president. Rot in hell, you anti-American piece o’ crap.

Riddler
Good riddance to another racist homophobe. As a native and life-long resident of North Carolina, I viewed this man as an embarrassment to the state that I love, and someone who pandered to the most disgusting, vile, hate-filled elements of our society. I’m glad to see our state now rid of this pox. Now as soon as the entire Bush, Cheney and Rove clans are eradicated from this earth, it will be a much gentler planet.

GreenTea
bout fucking time, these old republican racist, fascist fucks live way too long…Fascist like George Schultz is still fucking alive, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, George HW Bush, will these lying, hateful, greedy fucks die already!

Harvey1
Helms was a NAZI. I’m glad the Nazi scum has finally gone to Hell. Thank Christ Helms, Reagan and Heston all got the Alzheimer’s they richly deserved.

Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.

The ruling comes as part of Google’s legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement.

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the ruling a “set-back to privacy rights”.

The viewing log, which will be handed to Viacom, contains the log-in ID of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details.

While the legal battle between the two firms is being contested in the US, it is thought the ruling will apply to YouTube users and their viewing habits everywhere.

The EFF is monitoring the case:

The court’s order grants Viacom’s request and erroneously ignores the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and threatens to expose deeply private information about what videos are watched by YouTube users. The VPPA passed after a newspaper disclosed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rental records. As Congress recognized, your selection of videos to watch is deeply personal and deserves the strongest protection.

You have to wonder if Viacom will launch lawsuits against YouTube users once they have this data in hand.

Update:
The Guardian’s Kevin Anderson notes my concerns and points to an equally troubled Christopher Dawson:

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but a lot of people watch videos on YouTube. While Viacom claims that it only wants the logs to determine if more people, in the aggregate, watch videos that infringe on copyrights than original materials, there is nothing to stop Viacom from using the data RIAA-style to go after users.

What if teachers in your schools showed a video they found on YouTube that contained content from an MTV broadcast? Or a documentary produced by a Viacom property?

I’m looking forward to a statement from Viacom concerning their intentions. Are they going take legal action against YouTube users? Can they share and or sell this data and do they intend to do so? Do they intend to make any of it public? How will they secure the data once it’s in their possession? If you’re a YouTube user you might want to contact Viacom to express your displeasure.

The Motley Fool has a warning for Viacom in what it’s calling one of the week’s dumbest stock moves:

This move should not be interpreted as a sign that Viacom will be suing individual YouTube users, though privacy activists will rightfully rake Viacom over the coals. Here you have a media giant that leans on viral videos from time to time through VH-1 and its comedy news shows, and now it’s going for the YouTube jugular? Anyone remember when the major record labels began demanding user IP data and suing individual file swappers? Life hasn’t worked out so well for the music companies since then, has it?

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has a few words for the judge as well:

I say this with the utmost respect, but Judge Stanton is a moron.

Sustained!

Update II:
There is some good news. The court has placed strict limitations on Viacom’s use of the data:

The court’s protective order stipulates that data turned over to Viacom by Google must be used for the sole purpose of proving Viacom’s claim against Google that YouTube is a hotbed of pirated video content, the sources said. Viacom will not have direct access to the YouTube user data, the source said. Access is restricted to outside counsel and experts.

Viacom, therefore, is forbidden from targeting individual users in the manner of the RIAA’s lawsuits against individuals found to be downloading illegal music.

Good news, but there are still extremely troubling precedents being set here and who’s to say how user data will be used in future cases?

Mr. Obama’s ads show he’s aware of his vulnerability on two fronts: his liberal values and his meager achievements. Yet he should be more cautious with these weaknesses. His bio ad says he was raised with “values straight from the Kansas heartland,” though he grew up in Hawaii. He claims to have passed three bills, but fails to mention that two were in the Illinois state Senate and that he didn’t vote on the third in the U.S. Senate. His new ad praises welfare reform, yet he opposed the legislation when a Republican Congress passed and President Clinton signed it.

On the bright side, he can leverage his sweet 92% rating from the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association to pad things a bit.

Others Blogging:

Dean Esmay
Although I still think McCain has his work cut out for him, and odds are against him, Obama is not unbeatable, funding advantage or no.

Protein Wisdom
Rove does highlight (as ABC News and others have noticed) that Obama’s ads portray him as having supported welfare reform when in truth he was against the 1996 law, even calling it “disturbing.” If John McCain had not decided to go to Columbia the week before Independence Day and his campaign was not going through a major shake-up (noted here yesterday and by the New York Times and others today), perhaps he could have seized on this misrepresentation to paint Obama as not only out of the mainstream on welfare but also dishonest about his record.

Commentary
It is up to McCain to do more with less and use free media more effectively. So while it is true, as Rove notes, that “Cash matters, but being a good candidate and right on the issues matters even more,” people don’t always figure out on their own who is right on the issues.

The Afghans and the Americans, bulky in battle gear, cram into chairs and delicately sip milky tea from tiny white cups, balancing saucers on their knees.

Hakim Wali is the elder in Narizah, the village suspected of being a Taliban haven. A black-and-gray turban matches the gray-flecked jet-black beard of his deeply lined face.

The men discuss tribal feuds over local chromite mines and Wali’s complaints that government promises of projects, such as a dam, remain unfulfilled.

Karr says $50 million in U.S. aid was given to projects controlled by provincial officials.

“It would be better if you gave the projects to a foreign country,” Wali says. “There is so much corruption in the government.”

“If we always do everything for them, the government and their people will never know how to do it,” Karr says.

Wali is unmoved, insisting the government knows how to rule, but not justly: “They should build a government everyone can participate in.”

“We can’t build a government for you,” Karr says. “You have to build it for yourself.”

The elder persists: “You should put pressure on our government.”

Karr, patiently: “The pressure needs to come from the people. If we put pressure on them, as soon as we leave they are just going to revert to their old ways. The government is a servant of the people.”

“If we put pressure on them, they say we are al-Qaida,” Wali says, laughing.

Karr tells him if a man “doesn’t like the way the government is being run … he should run for office himself … so he can make sure it gets done right.”

Wali quotes a Pashtun proverb. “The summer doesn’t come with only one flower.”

“One of the proverbs we have is that the world is ruined when good men sit idly by,” Karr replies.

“We really appreciate that you are here for us,” Wali finally says. “You cooperate with us, and we will cooperate with our own government to make it better. This is our country and we should do something.”

Betsy Hiel and Justin Merriman are filing additional reports for the Tribune here.

“Iran will not attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz and we will not allow them to close the Strait of Hormuz. I can’t say it anymore clearly than that,” Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, told a conference on Gulf naval security in Abu Dhabi.

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in remarks published last week that Tehran would impose controls on shipping in the Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway if it was attacked.

Any such move by Iran would be viewed as an act of war and the response would overwhelming. Iran will not act first here but it’s almost a given that they’ll do everything in their power to strike back at our fleet and commercial shipping, with fast boats and missiles, if attacked.

Quanell X, of the New Black Panther Party, said the grand jury was racist because only one minority was on the panel.

“Where were the African Americans on that jury? Where were the Hispanics on that jury?” he said. “Grand juries are not reflective of the racial makeup of Harris County. There is no way under the sun in Harris County that a black man could have done the same thing that Joe Horn did under the exact same set of circumstances and not be placed in the jail.”

Grand jury proceedings are secret, including the makeup of the panel.

Quanell X said he did not condone what Torres and Ortiz did.

“We don’t believe you use criminal behavior to stop criminal activity. What Joe Horn did was a criminal act,” he said. “This was a wild and out-of-control western-thinking, gun-toting man who saw the opportunity to be judge, jury and executioner and he did what he did. And the Harris County district attorney’s office let him get away with it. But we’re not going to let him get away.”

Quanell X has planned a march and protest to the district attorney’s office at 5 p.m. on July 10. He said his group is also investigating civil action against Horn.

I caught the results of Quanell’s first Joe Horn protest on video. That video, which shows Joe Horn’s neighbors rallying to oppose Quanell’s tactics, was covered by The Drudge Report, Glenn Beck, and countless others:

At least three are dead in the attack - more injured:

The rampage in western Jerusalem lasted about five minutes before a police officer climbed up the side of the swerving bulldozer and fatally shot the driver — a Palestinian from an East Jerusalem village with a criminal record, police said.

A bus was pushed onto its side with a gaping hole in its center during the incident on Jaffa Road, a busy thoroughfare. It is not known if the dead were on the bus or not.

Police said the attack was not planned, but they are treating it as a “terrorist incident,” and not an accident. They added they have no motive for the attack.

This video appears to show the end of the attack, and the bulldozer’s driver:

One bystander caught part of the attack with a mobile phone:

The driver of the bulldozer was a Palestinian construction worker:

“The employee of a contractor company working on the street here in Jerusalem directed his bulldozer in the direction of civilian vehicles - a bus and cars that are on the street all the time yelling Allah al-akbar, apparent to us based on things we have experienced in the past,’ said Daniel Seaman, a spokesman for the Israeli government. “This is undeniably a terrorist attack.”

Police say the attacker was a Palestinian who lived in East Jerusalem who held Jerusalem identity papers. Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have access to Jewish West Jerusalem and carry out nearly all construction work in the city.

In March, another Palestinian from East Jerusalem attacked a Jewish seminary not far from where today’s incident took place, killing eight students.

I guess you have to give them credit. They’re pretty good at finding new and exciting ways to kill for Islam.

An IDF soldier was killed Tuesday in the middle of a farewell ceremony held in honor of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in attendance of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other state dignitaries.

The soldier fell from a vantage point he was occupying on a high building and a bullet misfired from his gun.

According to Israel Radio, the incident happened no more than 200 meters from where Olmert was standing.

Separately, two female soldiers fainted.

Initially, the prime minister’s security personnel withdrew their handguns and rushed Olmert and Sarkozy to the French president’s plane, fearing a terror attack.

Zaka is calling it a suicide:

Israel Radio said the soldier who was shot was stationed 100 metres to 200 metres (yards) away from the plane. Two women soldiers who witnessed the shooting fainted and were treated by medics.

Israel’s volunteer medical service Zaka said the soldier apparently committed suicide.

It’s tragic either way but if it is a suicide at least he had enough sense not to try and take anyone else with him.

Update:
The Daily Mail has photos and TimesOnline has video.