Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2011/05/31/weiner-on-being-hacked-hey-it-happens/
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Slaughter Believes Weiner
Rep. Louise Slaughter, a powerful New York Democrat, tells NRO that she is confident that Rep. Anthony Weiner, her Empire State colleague, did not share a lewd picture via Twitter.
“Why would he do a stupid thing like that?” Slaughter chuckles. “Anthony Weiner is as smart as a whip.”
Is she sure he did not snap that infamous photo? “I don’t doubt for a moment that it was not him,” she says.
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268494/slaughter-believes-weiner-robert-costa
One identity or more?
Given the discussion about Facebook enabling other sites to use its comment infrastructure — and what that means for identity and anonymity in discussion — I thought I’d share some of what I’m saying about the question of multiple identities in my book, .
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One tactic to cope with the fear of exposure and [...]
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One tactic to cope with the fear of exposure and [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/buzzmachine/~3/fCKFABXsUqI/
Sarah and the Donald
They’re apparently getting together in New York tonight. I really hope that conversation produces a new and better idea for a reality show, because I am getting awfully bored with lame competition formats and so-called dips into real life that don’t include anyone behaving badly. I should note that goes double with depictions of gooftastic [...]
Source: http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/05/31/232211/sarah-and-the-donald/
The brittle financial American middle class ? 50 percent of Americans would be in financial trouble if $2,000 of expenses came up in 30 days. By 2020 the world?s richest households will control $202 trillion in wealth, 4 times current global GDP.
As you can see the country's not broke in available money, but broke in morally responsible way!
This economic recovery has excluded working and middle class Americans which begs the question, what really defines a financial recovery? In past and distant recoveries the economic gains were widely distributed amongst all Americans. Most realize that income gains will never be equal simply because in a market based economy those with certain desirable skills will be rewarded more than others. Yet in the last decade the banking sector has co-opted the government to turn it into a welfare state for the large banks. Desirable qualities are now replaced by predator diseased qualities of ripping off the taxpayer for bad market based bets. That is why recent data showing that nearly 50 percent of Americans are unable to come up with $2,000 in 30 days if an emergency came up is startling. $2,000 for most is the basic monthly expenses on food, home, and other little items. So half our country is living one paycheck away from financial collapse. 44,000,000 Americans are living with food assistance from the government already. Keep in mind the recovery has been going on now for close to two full years. According to the NBER the recession was over in June of 2009. The fact that $2,000 is enough to bankrupt half of American households tells you about the new state of our economic recovery.
“(WSJ) The survey asked a simple question, “If you were to face a $2,000 unexpected expense in the next month, how would you get the funds you need?” In the U.S., 24.9% of respondents reported being certainly able, 25.1% probably able, 22.2% probably unable and 27.9% certainly unable. The $2,000 figure “reflects the order of magnitude of the cost of an unanticipated major car repair, a large copayment on a medical expense, legal expenses, or a home repair,” the authors write. On a more concrete basis, the authors cite $2,000 as the cost of an auto transmission replacement and research that reported low-income families claim to need about $1500 in savings for emergencies.”
The above data fits into the mold that average Americans are simply falling behind the elusive curve. The average per capita income for the United States is $25,000. People get somewhat surprised when they hear this figure because it seems low for the most wealthy nation in the world. We invented Cribs and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous for crying out loud. Yet most that are surprised do not live in the bottom half and keep in mind many of these families are in the two income trap. Meaning both spouses have to work in order to keep things moving financially:
For the rest of the article and charts go to the link provided:
- added by:
kennymotown - 73 comments
NewsBusted: Barack O'Bama?
Good morning, NBers. We hope everyone's Memorial Day was a thoughtful and restful one. And what better way to start one's week than an all-new episode of NewsBusted! Check it out below the break, and make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Topics in today's show:
-- Does Obama know which year it is?
-- President auto-signs Patriot Act extension
-- Barack O'Bama
-- Do Israelis support Obama's border plan?
-- DNC chair, who drives an Infiniti, says GOP wants everyone driving imports
-- Romney sends leftover pizza to Obama
-- Lech Walesa won't meet with Obama
-- Carla Bruni's pregnant
Starring: Jodi Miller
Production: Dialog New Media
Source: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb-staff/2011/05/31/newsbusted-barack-obama
30 Years In, We Are Still Learning From AIDS
At first it seemed an oddity: a scattering of reports in the spring and early summer of 1981 that young gay men in New York and California were ill with forms of pneumonia and cancer usually seen only in people with severely weakened immune systems.
(click on the link for the full article)
- added by:
Vierotchka - 18 comments
Source: http://current.com/news/93255303_30-years-in-we-are-still-learning-from-aids.htm?xid=RSSfeed
Jellyfish put sting into holiday weekend at some Florida beaches !
Mother nature fighting back, ouch thats got to hurt!
(CNN) -- Hundreds of people trying to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend on Atlantic beaches in central Florida encountered an unwelcome surprise: swarms of purplish, stinging jellyfish.
More than 800 people at beaches from Cocoa Beach to Cape Canaveral have been stung, Brevard County Ocean Rescue officials said.
Assistant Chief Eisen Witcher said the reports began coming in Friday, but as the Memorial Day weekend got into full swing, the numbers increased dramatically.
"Saturday, we got about 200 reports. Sunday, we got another 250," he said.
All weekend long, countless numbers of jellyfish washed up on shores, standing out against the sand due to their distinctive hue.
"They're very visible because of their color," Witcher said. "They come in large amounts, very large groups."
Witcher said Brevard County shores are more familiar with Portuguese man o' war and cannonball jellyfish, not this current species, which he said he believes are called mauve stingers.
"This time of year, this can happen when the conditions are perfect for jellyfish to wash up. You have an onshore breeze combined with an east swell."
The stings cause itching, burning and rashes and can sometimes spur an allergic reaction.
For the rest of the story go to the link provided:
- added by: kennymotown
- 8 comments
Monday, May 30, 2011
Miley Cyrus rips Rick Santorum
Santorum suddenly just got cooler.
Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2011/05/27/miley-cyrus-rips-rick-santorum/
#Weinergate update: Coed being scrubbed from Google.
OK, I admit it: when I heard this morning that Rep. Weiner had supposedly sent a coed a picture of his (encased) genitalia via Twitter, I assumed that somebody was just having his or her little joke by hacking into the man’s account and indicating that Weiner is, as I put it, one of the bigger d*cks in Congress.� But that was before Ace of Spades demolished this argument utterly (H/T: Neil Stevens) (remember, folks [and bad Moe!]: identity theft is a crime), so now I am taking this seriously as a possible scandal, and I found something interesting going on.� Somebody’s scrubbing the recipient’s Internet presence, even as we speak.
The coed’s name (one Gennette Cordova) was (obviously) easily accessible, thanks to the wonders of screenshots (such as the ones done by Doug Ross, via The Other McCain), so it was a fairly trivial exercise to do a search for her name, prior to May 2011.� Turns out she’s a writer for her local college: examples here and here and here.� Except that Cordova’s name is no longer on those articles: compare this to this, and this to this… and compare this to this, which has an extra layer of scrubbing going on.� That last one is most interesting, because it’s the one that Lee Stranahan over at Patterico noted was an article apparently written by Cordova that talked about how sites like Twitter and Facebook would allow people opportunities to meet their ‘celebrities.’
Whether or not those sites also allowed one specific person an opportunity to meet one particular, specifically-directed set of celebrity genitals at one remove is still up in the air: but I am very much wondering why it was suddenly necessary to remove Ms. Cordova’s name from all of her article bylines.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
By the way: Weiner has apparently not actually done anything about his account being hacked, past making jokes about somebody committing identity-theft on a sitting Congressman’s online presence.� Odd, huh?
Source: http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2011/05/29/weinergate-update-coed-being-scrubbed-from-google/
Daniels Explains
And says that he probably could have beaten President Obama:
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has taken himself out of the running for president, but he says he believes he could have defeated Barack Obama for a second term.
“Yes, I think so,” Daniels said when asked whether he could have beaten Obama on ABC’s “This Week.” “I mean no one can know.”
Daniels said that his decision to not run was based on his family’s desire for privacy and security, which he said would inevitably have been lost in a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
“We’ve got young women, three of them that have been married not too long,” Daniels said. “They’re looking forward to building lives, starting families and this was just a – a disruption that – that they were very, very leery of. And who wouldn’t understand that?”
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268367/daniels-explains-robert-costa
DNC Chair: If it Were Up to the GOPers, We?d All Be Driving Foreign Cars (Guess What She Drives)
**Written by Doug Powers How economically un-American and devious is the Republican field of presidential candidates? They’ve already managed to control the automobile purchasing habits of Congresswoman and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the chairwoman of the DNC, ripped into Republican presidential contenders who opposed President Obama’s 2009 bailouts for [...]
GOP Rep claims Obama elected because of ?white guilt?
WASHINGTON – Freshman Republican Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) said the only reason Barack Obama was elected president is that he's "articulate" and "black."
"Why was he elected? Again, it comes back to who he was. He was black, he was historic. And there's nothing racist about this," Walsh told Slate's Dave Weigel in an interview. "It is what it is. If he had been a dynamic, white, state senator elected to Congress he wouldn't have gotten in the game this fast. This is what made him different."
The Illinois Republican added that journalists "were in love with him because he pushed that magical button: a black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole white guilt, all of that."
Walsh argued that the "white guilt" factor and Obama's African-American ethnicity is why media will continue to "protect" him in the 2012 election.
"I pity the candidate running against him, because it will continue," he said. "That profession will protect him, and they will crucify whoever the Republican nominee is."
In his six months as congressman, Walsh has appeared on prime time cable news or Sunday talk shows 28 times, Weigel reports, more than any other freshman. An unabashed tea partier, he said this week on Fox that Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) should be "ashamed of himself" for speaking out against the GOP plan to phase out Medicare.
"Folks like this were ELECTED, that's very Shameful!!!"
- added by:
KB723 - 110 comments
Source: http://current.com/news/93252752_gop-rep-claims-obama-elected-because-of-white-guilt.htm?xid=RSSfeed
No Matter How Far Wrong You've Gone/ You Can Always Turn Around
http://nonlinearresonance.com/currents/index.php?topic=88.0
The great Gil Scott-Heron has died suddenly, at 62. May he rest in peace, at last. Below, The Revolution, the title track from last year's exquisite, "I'm New Here," and more...at http://nonlinearresonance.com/currents/index.php?topic=88.msg368#msg368
Source: http://www.commondreams.org/further/2011/05/28
- added by:
ZiggyStrange - 3 comments
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Public Parts: atomize & reform
I’ve been rewriting the introduction to Public Parts — both because it needs it and because of events in Egypt and elsewhere. This segment, from the end of the introduction, is related to the post below. I thought I’d share it with you as it adds some more thinking on the same topics:
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Technology [...]
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Technology [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/buzzmachine/~3/7ZOhbarJ5y8/
Gutenberg of Arabia
At the critical climax of the Egyptian revolution, one of its sparks, Google’s Wael Ghonim, told his followers on Twitter that he would not speak to them through media but instead through the Facebook page he created, the page he’d used to gather momentum for the protest, the page that had gotten him arrested, the [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/buzzmachine/~3/R7xNA2KuJTg/
Savage Nation vs Halfwit State (cont)
I wrote two years ago about the British Government’s decision to ban Michael Savage from the United Kingdom. In his letter to Secretary Clinton, Congressman Allen West points out that Her Majesty’s Government chose to add to a list of Russian mass murderers and Hamas terrorists the name of a law-abiding citizen of the United States – and, as I pointed out back in 2009, did so on an utterly cynical and fraudulent basis.
I’ve lost touch a bit with the case since then, but I can’t say I was surprised to discover this week that the new “Conservative” Home Secretary has upheld the exclusion order of her Labour predecessor. The letter from a bloke called Michael Atkins, for the Treasury Solicitor, is a remarkable document – not least the reference in 3 (c) to the “allegation” (as Atkins puts it) that Savage “has many homosexual friends and respects Islam as a great religion”.
Why should admission to the United Kingdom be conditional on either of these no doubt splendid attributes? Is there a minimum number of homosexual friends you need to get past Heathrow? Indeed, how many of the many immigrants to Britain who “respect Islam as a great religion” have “homosexual friends”?
I can’t help feeling (in light of my own experience up north) that it was a waste of time for Savage’s counsel to get into the weeds with HMG on this stuff. The issue here is a once free society’s grotesque embrace of ideological enforcement at the border. A land that was once the crucible of liberty betrays its own inheritance. How could any English solicitor, even a government hack, write the following?
Your client has not provided any evidence to show that he did not commit the unacceptable behaviour.
But the Home Office has never specified what if anything Savage “committed”. In civilized societies, the burden of proof is on the accuser. Here it’s not even clear what Savage is required to disprove. So much for the presumption of innocence. Everything about this squalid business underlines how quickly free speech is shriveling in Europe and how comfortable governments have grown with the ideological regulation of public discourse. Shame on Britain.
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268346/savage-nation-vs-halfwit-state-cont-mark-steyn
Memorial Day video salute to our troops in Afghanistan
Several videos showing our troops in Afghanistan on this Memorial Day weekend.
http://corksphere.blogspot.com/
- added by:
BillCorcoran - 1 comment
Friday Links
Gallery: moment of impact.
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about male lactation.
Hand sanitizer marketing genius of the day.
A rare inflated-buttock accident.
The Miniature Life of Food and Drinks.
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268267/friday-links-debby-witt
Adam Kokesh body slammed, choked, police brutality at Jefferson Memorial May 28, 2011
On May28, 2011 Television host Adam Kokesh and several other activists participating in a flash-mob were arrested at the publicly-funded Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Their crime? Silently dancing, in celebration of the first amendment's champion; a clear violation of their right to free-expression. In an excessive use of force, video was captured of Adam being body slammed and placed in a choke for his non-crime.
Watch the shocking video here:
http://www.politicalfailblog.com/2011/05/police-brutality-at-silent-flashmob-at....
"Like" Political Fail Blog & Join the conversation on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/politicalfailblog
- added by:
Pfailblog - 21 comments
Saturday, May 28, 2011
"Black Holes are the Engines that Create New Universes"
“Our own Universe may be the interior of a black hole existing in another universe.” In a remarkable paper about the nature of space and the origin of time, Nikodem Poplawski, a physicist at Indiana University, suggests that a small change to the theory of gravity implies that our Universe inherited its arrow of time from the black hole in which it was born.
Poplawski says that the idea that black holes are the cosmic mothers of new universes is a natural consequence of a simple new assumption about the nature of spacetime. Poplawski points out that the standard derivation of general relativity takes no account of the intrinsic momentum of spin half particles. However there is another version of the theory, called the Einstein-Cartan-Kibble-Sciama theory of gravity, which does.
(read the rest at link)
- added by: Vierotchka
- 11 comments
Chris Christie?s Time to Run
Let me put an editorial note here that this is not in any way, shape, or form an endorsement of Chris Christie. It is, rather, my assessment of his chances for the Presidency should he choose to pass on 2012.
The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, claims he has no intention of running for president in 2012. I believe that 2012 is the only time Chris Christie will be a highly viable candidate. Should Chris Christie not run in this presidential cycle, I believe this will be the last we will hear of Chris Christie for President.
I think Chris Christie is going to all have a very difficult time winning reelection in New Jersey in 2013. By then, New Jersey’s debt and economic problems will still be large, even if Chris Christie is successful in this term. Likewise, we can expect a more concerted and unified effort among Democrats and allies like unions than we saw even in 2009. Given New Jersey’s nature as a Democrat leaning state, I think Christie will have a hard time getting reelected. Were he to lose, it would be three years before the next presidential election making it even harder for Chris Christie to be seen as a viable presidential candidate.
But let’s assume that Chris Christie does win reelection. The buzz surrounding Chris Christie right now largely exists in the vacuum of another high-profile governor who could run for office. Should Sarah Palin or Rick Perry enter the race, the Christie buzz would be significantly tapped down.
Remember as well that the viability of a Chris Christie candidacy in 2016 is premised on the fact that the Republicans do not win the White House in 2012. I actually think Republicans will win in 2012, and should they, Chris Christie will not be a viable candidate against an incumbent Republican president in 2016.
To continue the argument about Chris Christie’s future viability, we must assume that a Republican does not win in 2012 and Barack Obama is reelected. Assuming that, we must first take out the major Chris Christie buzz of this year which is largely premised on the perceived lack of a high-profile, stellar candidate. Push Chris Christie into the 2016 cycle and he is confronted with a field of candidates including potentially governors from New Mexico, Nevada, Louisiana, South Carolina, Texas, and, should their popularity recover, Florida and Ohio.
In that list of potential candidates for 2016, Chris Christie’s record in New Jersey may not stack up as well. Likewise, we should not dismiss the fact that much of Chris Christie’s popularity comes from YouTube videos done rather well by his staff. Very few have done a detailed examination of Chris Christie’s record and how it matches up to his rhetoric. Should he be found wanting on the rhetoric to record ratio, it would be another dent in his armor.
Notwithstanding that, looking at his potential rivals in 2016, Christie is by no means a sure win and, will in fact, be not nearly as fresh a face on the scene as many of the other governors on the list. Additionally, should the Democrats really perceive Chris Christie to be a threat, they can spend the next several years working to undermine his credibility in New Jersey to negatively affect with Republican primary voters nationwide.
I have always thought the greatest incentive for Chris Christie to run for president is the lack of a high-profile, stellar Republican candidate in 2012. Had we a rock star this time, the Christie buzz would largely dissipate because he’s not even a one term governor. If the Republicans win in 2012, his viability in 2016 goes away entirely and if the Republicans lose in 2012, he still must winning reelection in New Jersey and then enter into a potentially crowded Republican field in 2016 with much fresher faces who will arguably have much better records as governors simply because they were not governor of a state like New Jersey.
Therefore, should Chris Christie wish to run for president ever, I believe he better reconsider 2012 rather quickly.
Source: http://www.redstate.com/erick/2011/05/27/chris-christies-time-to-run/
Morning Briefing for May 27, 2011
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. Why Conservatives should oppose The NAT GAS Act
2. Did Union Bosses Lie To Their Members About Obama?s Gun Control Ambitions?
3. The Medicare Crisis is Here
4. Obama Calls for ?Patience and Persistence? on his Unapproved, Directionless War in Libya
5. Good News / Bad News for Debbie Wasserman Schultz!
1. Why Conservatives should oppose The NAT GAS Act
HR 1380, otherwise known as the ?NAT GAS Act?, is bipartisan legislation (sponsored by 105 Democrats, 83 Republicans) supported by billionaire T. Boone Pickens that would provide billions of dollars in tax incentives for the production and use of natural gas vehicles. Several fiscal conservatives in the House have been duped into thinking this is a good bill but I hope that they immediately withdraw their names as co-sponsors. Putting aside the fact that market-distorting tax credits destroy the system of free enterprise, and are opposed by the Club for Growth, I wanted to highlight one specific part of the bill.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. Did Union Bosses Lie To Their Members About Obama?s Gun Control Ambitions?
In 2008, most union bosses had to work hard to convince their union members to vote for Barack Hussein Obama. Despite the fact that the Machinists? union boss Tom Buffenbarger considered Obama a ?thespian? and ?Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times,? others union bosses like the SEIU?s Andy Stern were wholly on board the Obama bandwagon early on. Another of Obama?s major supporters was the AFL-CIO?s Richard Trumka, who told union members that they were racists if they did not vote for Obama.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. The Medicare Crisis is Here
For years now, the American people have been treated to a single response from Democrat lawmakers and executives when it comes to reforming our bloated, foundering retirement programs: There Is No Crisis. That?s been the mantra of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and many other Democrats since George W. Bush attempted to stave off the collapse of the taxpayer-funded retiree safety net - the crisis isn?t here yet, so it?s certainly no time to act! Heaven forbid that action would be taken in advance, so as to avert an impending crisis; after all, we all know that the truly wise build their ark after the rains begin, rather than before.
The fact is, the crisis is here - particularly for Medicare, which is so far underwater it would take several United States? to pay off just what is owed right now to those who have already paid into the system (and who are therefore owed benefits at some point). As usual, though, the Democrats - who, as the owners of the Senate and the White House have the responsibility to act or to accept the justified blame for system collapse - are not only covering their ears and eyes and declaring that no crisis exists, but are attempting to demonize any who dare point out fiscal and medical reality while scaring seniors into voting Democrat lest they be thrown off cliffs by evil, murderous Republicans (yes, the same evil, murderous Republicans who ?want you dead? so they can ?make money off your corpse,? and whose ?health care plan is [for people to] die quickly?).
Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. Obama Calls for ?Patience and Persistence? on his Unapproved, Directionless War in Libya
Let me begin with a moment of candor: I?d honestly be surprised if a majority of the American people even know that America is at war in Libya. I?d be far more surprised if any significant number of Americans know that our self-declared unitary executive has disregarded his legal requirement to secure approval from Congress in order to continue his war beyond the already-passed 60 day mark, which passed by a week ago.
That?s right: Obama?s ?kinetic military action? in Libya (which you may or may not have heard of; he finally broke several weeks? silence on the topic in the last few days) is now in its third month, with no end or clear goal in sight. This isn?t much of a surprise to anybody whose been paying attention, of course ? save for the President and his inner circle, who apparently believed that a few Tomahawks and F-15E sorties would have a 42-year dictator running for the hills in abdication within mere days, and who seem stunned that the NATO airstrikes being carried out on behalf of?well, of the not-Qaddafi side haven?t yet resulted in an end to this civil war.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. Good News / Bad News for Debbie Wasserman Schultz!
The bad news: she didn?t realize that she was calling members of her own party ?anti-woman? before she started screaming to The Weekly Standard?s John McCormack about how people who voted to defund Planned Parenthood are anti-woman!
Source: http://www.redstate.com/erick/2011/05/27/morning-briefing-for-may-27-2011/
The Smart Girls ?Get It.? How About Giving Them A Hand by Getting Involved?
There are a number of RedState contributors who are involved with�Smart Girl Politics who could have posted this, but it seemed apropos to post this as a way of saying ‘thanks’ to SGP for taking the lead in starting a National Voter Registration Drive.
In an e-mail sent out on Thursday, SGP outlined the goals:
Year after year, polls have shown that Conservatives outnumber Liberals almost two-to-one, so why is the number of those actually registered to vote so much closer? �Because Liberals do a great job at getting their boots on the ground and registering voters. Let’s face it, they elected the Organizer-in-Chief by doing just that. �It is time that Conservatives get on the ground and begin to build new voter rolls, an essential factor in securing electoral gains.
Smart Girl Politics Action is ready to take action and we are starting TODAY. SGPAction is proud to announce our new National Voter Registration Training and Campaign Program. Over the next few months, we will be training hundreds of conservatives how to succeed at registering new voters and we need your help.
The zombies of OFA are already out there working to win in 2012 [they just took their first scalp in NY-26] and you know the Left is hardly finished ‘fundamentally transforming’ America.
SGP could use your help. They need boots on the ground to help register voters, and they need the financial resources to do it.
Consider making a donation, as well as getting involved*.
[*An added bonus when helping SGP:�They don't wear�patchouli.]
To those of you at Smart Girl Politics:�Thank You for taking the lead on this.
HT: Haystack @ The Concord Project
_________________
?I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.? Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
Republicans Totally Not Disappointed with 2012 Candidates At All
Every time I look at the field of Republican candidates for president, I find myself distinctly... underwhelmed. Apparently it's not just me:
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/0Pj1VG45cT8/
Tweeters: I want a witness tag
A proposal:
It would be terribly useful if there were a separate convention for tweets from witnesses to major events so their reports can be separated from the discussion that follows. How about !jpquake for witnesses vs. #jpquake for discussion?
Moments after the tragic earthquake hit Japan, folks are reporting on TV, people turned immediately to [...]
It would be terribly useful if there were a separate convention for tweets from witnesses to major events so their reports can be separated from the discussion that follows. How about !jpquake for witnesses vs. #jpquake for discussion?
Moments after the tragic earthquake hit Japan, folks are reporting on TV, people turned immediately to [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/buzzmachine/~3/-40YOKZQEtU/
Friday, May 27, 2011
Gays in the Military...Troops May Fear Sharing Beliefs
SAN DIEGO -- Military chaplains are concerned troops could be punished for expressing objections to homosexuality once the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is lifted.
Leaders of 21 religious groups that provide chaplains to the U.S. military on Monday sent a letter to the chiefs of chaplains of the Navy, Army and Air Force. They want Congress or the Pentagon to guarantee troops won't be punished if they openly discuss their objections to homosexuality.
"This is already an assault and a challenge on individual conscience and some Soldiers may think it's forcing them to abandon their religious beliefs or being marginalized for holding to those beliefs," said Douglas E. Lee, a retired Army brigadier general and chaplain, whose signature was the first on the letter.
Chaplains who preach at base chapels that homosexuality is a sin will still be entitled to express their beliefs during worship after the military's adopts its new policy allowing openly gay troops, according to training materials given to Marines.
But the organizations say it is not enough to state that service members and chaplains remain free to exercise their faith in chapel services. http://www.military.com/news/article/chaplains-troops-may-fearing-beliefs-on-gay...
- added by:
congoboy - 13 comments
Take us at our word, not our bombing runs
The manner in which we justify bombing "bad people" as we define them does seem to get ever more circular in its logic.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/HVWcBjXmXHs/
A Hippocratic oath for the internet
First, do no harm.
That is the message I would like to bring to the e-G8 summit on the internet gathered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy this week in Paris.
I am apprehensive about a meeting of government and industry that begins with the presumption that they wield authority over the internet, the people’s internet. [...]
That is the message I would like to bring to the e-G8 summit on the internet gathered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy this week in Paris.
I am apprehensive about a meeting of government and industry that begins with the presumption that they wield authority over the internet, the people’s internet. [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/buzzmachine/~3/G2671EFaCjY/
GOP Response To Town Hall Backlash: Ban Recording Devices And Censor Citizen Journalists
The premier political story of the past few months has been the Republican plan to dismantle Medicare and the resulting voter backlash. In town halls across the country, voters are expressing their anger at the GOP priorities of ending Medicare, extending tax breaks for the wealthy, and protecting subsidies for oil companies.
ThinkProgress has reported extensively from town halls in Florida, Wisconsin, Arizona, and elsewhere. In addition, citizen journalists have attended town halls and reported about them online, allowing others who couldn’t attend in person to see the event.
However, some congressmen are concerned about what could happen if citizen journalists repost their town halls on the Internet. At least two members of Congress have taken extraordinary measures to shut down the spread of information.
ThinkProgress readers passed along the following photos, taken outside town halls held by Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) and Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV). Barletta specifically barred citizen journalists and other non-credentialed media from recording the event, while Heck took a more encompassing approach of “no recording devices” at all:
When Republicans won back the House in 2010, one of their central promises was “to make Congress more transparent.” However, when it comes to their own congressional events, the same standard apparently does not apply.
Indeed, with members like Lou Barletta and Joe Heck barring citizens from recording the events and preventing those who couldn’t attend from seeing what the congressmen had to say, one has to ask: what are they trying to hide?
Update At his town hall, Heck reportedly faced a rowdy crowd upset about his vote for the Medicare-ending House Republican budget. When pressed, he backed away from the plan a bit, saying, “I’m not saying it’s the best idea, but it’s the only one and the best being proposed now."
(Can anyone tell me why Tea party can carry weapons,guns, and military replicas and we can't even have a tape player ?!)-figg
(some great comments at Think Progress and source)
- added by:
figgdimension - 64 comments
Took You Long Enough
After 34 years, the voters of West Bengal have given the Communist party the boot. Excellent, hurrah, etc. Socialism is a big part of what has kept India so poor for so long (as I argue here).
I have a little personal experience with these reds. On my first day in New Delhi, I was walking down the street to my newspaper office when I ran into the middle of a Communist protest of some sort: red banners, hammers and sickles, the works, as far as I could see. Must have been 50,000 people or more. Lots of angry fist-pumping. The scene was dramatic enough that the word for a protest march (morcha) is one of the few Hindi words I remember. (The rest are mostly rude.) Communists are depressing: It made me want to turn around and go home. At the office, a few desks over, was George, a very angry Communist. It being the late 1990s, I hadn’t expected to meet very many professing Communists outside of the University of Texas faculty — I thought they were just museum specimens. George came to hate me. I like to think I gave him good reason.
I’ve always liked the fact that, India being India, one Communist party isn’t enough. There’s the the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and there once was a Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). The CPI(M) is the one that just got beat in Bengal. There is today a Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, and a Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War, which is an illegal party cum terrorist outfit. There’s also a Communist Party of India (Maoist). There’s the Workers Party of India, the Democratic Socialist Party, the Marxist Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and the Revolutionary Communist Party of India, too. (I prefer the two-party system, all in all.)
I’ll give this to the commies in Calcutta, though: They have a sense of humor. During the Cold War, they took to renaming streets in Calcutta, and you’ll find the U.S. consulate there on Ho Chi Minh street, formerly Harrington. (Similarly, you’ll find the Cuban dictatorship’s official outpost in New York City, just down the street from National Review, at Equisna Al Hermanos Rescate, Brothers to the Rescue Corner.)
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268231/took-you-long-enough-kevin-d-williamson
WI Republicans will have to be courageous one more time
No guarantee of a state Supreme Court appeal.
Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2011/05/26/wi-republicans-will-have-to-be-courageous-one-more-time/
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thanks for Basically Nothing, Sunstein
Amen to Iain’s post on Cass Sunstein’s regulatory review.
Would you like to know what federal regulation says about what you can and cannot do with an imported monkey? If so, read on.
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268215/thanks-basically-nothing-sunstein-kevin-d-williamson
When I was the ghoulish gawker
By popular demand (well, one tweet), here’s the tale of my journalistic function during the last big royal wedding, of Chuck to Di.
At People magazine, I was assigned to write obits for the couple in case an IRA attack struck the wedding. Recall that London still fell victim to sporadic terror and there was [...]
At People magazine, I was assigned to write obits for the couple in case an IRA attack struck the wedding. Recall that London still fell victim to sporadic terror and there was [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/buzzmachine/~3/Q2AGZPbop2M/
NPR?s inevitable conflict
Vivian Schiller, CEO of NPR, was just forced to resign by the network’s board. I don’t know what the spin will be, nor am I privy to the internal politics. But I will say that this is an indication of more trouble ahead for NPR on a few fronts.
First, the network lost a visionary [...]
First, the network lost a visionary [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/buzzmachine/~3/oIFsUTJLxow/
Re: Keeping His Head on a Swivel
Jonah, I’m afraid your post requires me to tell my favorite brush-with-greatness story — one which I know you have heard on at least one or ten occasions. Apparently, Eric Idle doesn’t share Will Ferrell’s aversion to his own quotes.
I was in Philadelphia about a decade ago on business, arguing my first appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The night before the oral argument, I was meeting my law partner in the hotel lobby to go out to dinner. As I was waiting near the elevator, I noticed a fellow walking toward me, and I realized it was Monty Python’s Eric Idle, who was then on tour with his “Eric Idle Rips Off Python” Tour.
Idle stopped next to me to wait for his own dinner party. So I’m standing a few feet away from a comedy legend, and I know I have to say something to him. But the one thing I refuse to do is quote Python to him. Something about that just struck me as unnecessarily obsequious. There is an acceptable level of obsequiousness in these settings, but I wasn’t going to cross the line!
So I simply introduced myself to him and commented that I regretted that I was not able to attend his show the next evening in Washington, D.C., but I was, you see, in town for an argument. Without missing a beat, Idle responded, “Is that the five minute argument or the full half hour?” Stunned that Eric Idle was quoting Monty Python to me, I recovered from the momentary freeze to respond, “Just the five.” To which Idle responded, “Very good.”
I told Idle that I had resolved that the last thing I would do upon greeting him was quote Monty Python, to which Idle answered, “I do it all the time.”
A great moment from a comic genius.
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268126/re-keeping-his-head-swivel-shannen-coffin
Public Parts: atomize & reform
I’ve been rewriting the introduction to Public Parts — both because it needs it and because of events in Egypt and elsewhere. This segment, from the end of the introduction, is related to the post below. I thought I’d share it with you as it adds some more thinking on the same topics:
* * *
Technology [...]
* * *
Technology [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/buzzmachine/~3/7ZOhbarJ5y8/
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Mansour Tweets, Herman Cain Takes A Novel Path, and Zealotry #EERS
Tonight on the Erick Erickson Show I’ll delve into the Rebecca Mansour tweets. I also want to hit on Herman Cain on the Sean Hannity Show last night and on the nature of zealotry.
The show starts at 7:05 p.m. ET on WSB. You can listen live at http://wsbradio.com and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.
Consider this an open thread.
Florida Gov. Scott?s Unpopularity Will Be Trouble for GOP Presidential Candidate in State
It will be interesting to watch what impact Scott's extreme unpopularity will have on the 2012 presidential election. Florida is by far the biggest swing state, and will likely be a must win for the Republican presidential candidate.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/q1vb0JDEL5s/
'The Queen'
We already knew President Obama and Britain don’t mix, but this is just embarrassing:
Surely we have protocol officers who could have prepped him for this occasion.
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268053/queen-michael-walsh
Finally Science Gets it Right, Introducing: Handjob Bot
There are many ways to tell when you’ve finally become an unquestioned, dominant global super power. Maybe you’ve dropped a couple nuclear warheads on an enemy, kicked some dirt in their face and asked their quivering corpses, “Now what?!” Perhaps you export all of your worst social trappings to the four corners of the world and poison cultures with dreams of throwing away everything that’s made them special as a people in search of a dream of blue jeans and Coke-a-cola in a bottle. Either one of these are sure fire signs that you’re King Shit and the world needs to get used to the cold hard fact that they’re just going to have to take it for a while.
Most of the time when a power reaches this level, it takes a while to fully realize just when and where they staked their claim to heavy weight super power status. It’s the kind of thing usually best left to historians to pinpoint years, even decades later. And while I’m no history scientist, I think I can nail down for you right here and now exactly when China announced to the world that they were taking their place as masters of the planet. And it is here: China is making robots to stick it’s dick in, and there is fuck all we can do about it.
A couple weeks ago at what the Chinese cleverly called a “medical supply expo”, but which I know full well is China’s 4th Annual Invitational Handjob Robot Design Competition, they revealed this year’s winning entry, the “Automated Semen Collector”. Said to be designed for “patients who have trouble getting erect, or feel uneasy with the traditional erotic magazine and plastic cup method of semen collection” and that “this new medical breakthrough may provide some welcome relief.”
I don’t pretend to understand Asian culture and anyone who does is just seeing how long you’ll believe all of the crazy things they’re making up on the spot. In my extensive research on the subject of Japanese sexuality I have discovered that they have a thing for plaid skirts, that no intercourse is consensual or free of tentacles and that their reproductive organs are a cruel jumble of blurry squares. I know very little about Chinese fornication specifically, but based on their development of penis fondling robots, I think it’s safe to say that they are of a similar mind.
I get that the Asian culture is very repressed which causes such violently crazy sexual deviance to emerge when you peel back the surface, but I don’t understand how a jerk off machine in a doctor’s office could possibly be a more welcome, less uneasy experience than ogling pixellated school girls and depositing your communist goo in a cup the way America’s god intended it! But I also know that this is just sour grapes from a man who doesn’t have a robot to stroke me off while trying, and failing, to figure out what exactly to do with my hands the entire time. And it’s just made to sound all the hotter when I read the sensual copy that accompanies this Pleasure Nurse:
The patient stands before the machine and puts his penis, flaccid or erect, into the tube-shaped protrusion, whereupon it moves forward and back automatically like a piston. The inside of the tube is lined with a soft silicon material that provides gentle stimulation until ejaculation is reached.
And I know that I personally would be very disappointed if the machine itself did not recite this bit of text over and over until it’s mission had finally been accomplished or the subject tore itself from its grasp, unable to ever stop screaming again. Which ever punned first.
But bigger than national pride or the future of our nation’s economic independence, news of this kind is, I think, the most important reason we need to pay back our debt to China as soon as possible. Just imagine for a second that you had the technology to make robots to jerk you off and someone else had the money you could be spending to make them. Me, in that situation; I’d be super pissed.
So the sooner we get China their money back, the sooner we can get to work on trying to close the gap in this substitute arms race. We’re America damn it, we can do anything we put our minds to and I say to you here and now that by 2021, we can, we will, we MUST put an American made suck bot on every red white and blue penis in this great land of ours! Our time has not yet passed, you hear us China?! Our robots have not yet BEGUN to suck! USA! USA! USA!
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VanFullOfCandy - 77 comments
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