Saturday, January 31, 2009
HHS Nominee Daschle Faces Tax Questions..
ABC News has learned that the nomination of former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to be President Obama's secretary of health and human services has hit a traffic snarl on its way through the Senate Finance Committee. The controversy deals with a car and driver lent to Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend -- a chauffeur service the former senator used for years without declaring it on his taxes. It remains an open question as to whether this is a "speed bump," as a Democratic Senate ally of Daschle put it, or something more damaging...Link
Still going the wong direction..............
WASHINGTON – The Republican Party chose the first black national chairman in its history Friday, just shy of three months after the nation elected a Democrat as the first African-American president. The choice marked no less than "the dawn of a new party," declared the new GOP chairman, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. Republicans chose Steele over four other candidates, including former President George W. Bush's hand-picked GOP chief, who bowed out declaring, "Obviously the winds of change are blowing."...Link
15 Years Later, CBS Finally Aired Bill Hicks..
From wikipedia..On October 1, 1993, [comedian Bill] Hicks was scheduled to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman for the twelfth time, but his entire performance was removed from the broadcast -- the only occasion, up to that point, in which a comedian's entire routine had been cut after taping. Both the show's producers and CBS denied responsibility. Hicks expressed his feelings of betrayal in a hand-written, 39-page letter to John Lahr of The New Yorker. Although Letterman later expressed regret at the way Hicks had been handled, he never appeared on the show again. The full account of this incident was featured in a New Yorker profile by Lahr. This profile was later published as a chapter in John Lahr's book, Light Fantastic...LinkThe Letterman Show:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 2
Keynes Fan..............
All Things Considered, January 29, 2009 · John Maynard Keynes is an unlikely hero for our time. Keynes, a British economist who died more than 60 years ago, inspired President Barack Obama's plan to save the U.S. economy with a massive round of government spending. The British economist published his big theory, the one underpinning most of what Obama intends to do, in 1936. By the 1980s, many believed Keynes' ideas were utterly discredited. But he is the man who came up with the then-radical notion that a government can pull a country out of a deep recession by spending a lot....Link
Friday, January 30, 2009
Will he talk....................
According to Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), should Karl Rove continue refusing to give testimony, the House of Representatives will "presumably" hold him in contempt, landing Rove in jail. When House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) issued a Monday subpoena against former Bush Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove regarding his alleged involved in the political prosecution of an Alabama governor, and the firings of nine US Attorneys, he likely expected a fight...Link
What's the beef?.......
Brazil has quickly become the largest exporter of beef in the world, but they are not satisfied with their current market share and plan to increase production. The plan flies in the face of their supposed commitment to tackle climate change. The country is currently the fourth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, 75% of which stem from deforestation...Link
McConnell: GOP becoming 'regional party'......
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a blunt warning to Republicans Thursday: Their party must regain lost supporters plus blacks, Hispanics and voters on both coasts — or risk becoming a permanent minority party with a limited power base.
“We’re all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters, seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us,” McConnell said in a speech at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting. “And we should be concerned that, as a result of all this, the Republican Party seems to be slipping into a position of being more of a regional party than a national one.”...link
“We’re all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters, seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us,” McConnell said in a speech at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting. “And we should be concerned that, as a result of all this, the Republican Party seems to be slipping into a position of being more of a regional party than a national one.”...link
Tensions Rise...............
North Korea announced Friday it is scrapping all political and military agreements with South Korea, accusing Seoul of pushing relations to the brink of war. The communist state said all agreements on ending confrontation would be nullified, including one covering their Yellow Sea border -- the scene of bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002...Link
Obama retains all options with Iran...........
President Barack Obama prefers diplomacy with Iran but preserves "all his options," the White House said Thursday, refusing to rule out military strikes despite promises of a new rapprochement. Asked if the military option was still on the table with regard to the Islamic republic, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "The president hasn't changed his viewpoint that he should preserve all his options."...Link
Mr Blagojevich is gone............
Mr Blagojevich said he was "saddened and disappointed" by the verdict but "not at all surprised" and would fight to clear his name.He was charged with trying to sell the seat vacated by Barack Obama when he was elected president....Link
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Dedicated to the man who threw a shoe....
Many Iraqis considered it poetic justice when a journalist tossed his shoes at President George W. Bush last month. Now the bizarre attack has spawned a real life work of art. A sofa-sized statue of the shoe was unveiled Thursday in Tikrit, the hometown of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.link
Molesting a Racoon......wtf....
The practical logistics of molesting a raccoon are completely lost on us. One drunk Russian man, however, gave it the old college try, and the result was exactly what you might imagine -- the raccoon bit off the man's penis....Link
Fingers point towards US.............
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia and Premier Wen Jiabao of China had strong words for certain entities over the state of the global financial system at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.Recent financial conditions are attributed by Wen, in his statement, to "inappropriate macroeconomic policies of some economies and their unsustainable model of development characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption; excessive expansion of financial institutions in blind pursuit of profit; lack of self-discipline among financial institutions and rating agencies and the ensuing distortion of risk information and asset pricing; and the failure of financial supervision and regulation to keep up with financial innovations."....Link
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
House Passes 'Stimulus' 244-188..............
In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night with spending increases and tax cuts at the heart of the young administration's plan to revive a badly ailing economy. The vote was 244-188, with Republicans unanimous in opposition despite Obama's frequent pleas for bipartisan support."This recovery plan will save or create more than three million new jobs over the next few years," the president said in a written statement released moments after the House voted. Still later, he welcomed congressional leaders of both parties to the White House for drinks as he continued to lobby for the legislation...Link
Release secret Bush memos..............
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling on the Justice Department to release Bush administration documentation pertaining to torture, surveillance and other controversial national security policies....Link
Obama nominee promised Bush officials......
A Republican senator says that President Barack Obama's attorney general nominee, Eric Holder, privately offered assurances that no Bush administration officials would be prosecuted for torture if he was confirmed.The claim was printed Wednesday in a conservative-leaning Washington, D.C. newspaper....Link
Schools can expel students that seem gay....
A California appeals court ruled Monday that a Christian high school can expel students perceived to be lesbians, upholding a 2008 lower court ruling that there were "no triable" elements to the case....Link
It's up to Obama..............................
Subpoenaed by Rep. John Conyers to testify before Congress, Karl Rove has left the debate over whether or not he is protected from testifying to Barack Obama.The former Bush strategist had previously refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee by claiming that executive privileges allowed him to keep his conversations with the president private. With Bush out of office, Rove instructed his lawyer, Robert Luskin, to ask the Obama White House whether the same privileges currently exist...Link
Incentive..............
A Pentagon report that 61 former inmates from Guantanamo Bay have "returned to the battlefield" doesn't seem to be scaring anyone. Matthew Alexander, a former senior interrogator in Iraq, told Keith Olbermann last night on MSNBC's Countdown that Guantanamo Bay is a persuasive argument for al-Qaeda in recruitment of fighters in Iraq. Matthew Alexander led the team of interrogators who found Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in August 2006. Since returning from Iraq, he has been outspoken about the tactics that the US military uses to interrogate prisoners. His book, How to Break A Terrorist, outlines his experience with the "deeply flawed, ineffective, un-American way the US military conducts interrogations in Iraq."....Link
Reluctant Republicans 'swoon' over Obama..
President Barack Obama put his vow to govern without partisan rancor on the line Tuesday, after holding exclusive talks with increasingly truculent Republican lawmakers about his massive stimulus plan.And strangely enough, Congressional Republicans are aflutter over the "respect" being shown to them by President Obama, even as they continue to criticize the economic stimulus plan...Link
Mega-banks Could Fail Despite Bailouts.....
Martin Weiss writes: The time has come to issue one of my sternest warnings to date: Bank of America and Citigroup could fail despite the most radical government rescues of all time.Right now, after recent close calls with instant death, these two megabanks are on life support, receiving massive transfusions of government capital. But they're still hemorrhaging, and no one in Washington has found a cure...Link
Timothy Geithner was sworn..............
WASHINGTON - Timothy Geithner was sworn in Monday night as the nation's new treasury secretary, shortly after winning confirmation despite personal tax lapses that turned more than a third of the Senate against him. Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve Bank chief, becomes the nation's 75th treasury secretary and one of the point men President Barack Obama will be counting on to help pull the country out of its worst financial slide in generations....Link
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Bush Was a Big-Government Disaster........
Now that George W. Bush has finally left office, here's a challenge to a nation famous for its proud tradition of invention: Can somebody invent a machine capable of fully measuring the disaster that was the Bush presidency?....Link
A VERY REAL NEW WORLD ORDER.......
It is hard to believe, but a majority of Americans (including Christians and conservatives) seem oblivious to the fact that there is a very real, very legitimate New World Order (NWO) unfolding. In the face of overwhelming evidence, most Americans not only seem totally unaware of this reality, they seem unwilling to even remotely entertain the notion....Link
You can help End the Fed..........
End the Fed is trying to get a million signatures for Ron Paul's "Abolish the Federal Reserve Bank Act" that he is going to reintroduce this April. End the Fed wants everyone to help gather signatures. This is not an electronic petition - there is a printable brochure and petition to hand to people on the End The Fed site. Come on Folks we can do this. Let's show DC that not all of the American people have been dumbed down by the media.....link
There is already enough evidence..........
Monday, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak told CNN's Rick Sanchez that the US has an "obligation" to investigate whether Bush administration officials ordered torture, adding that he believes that there is already enough evidence to prosecute former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld...Link
House Judiciary Chairman subpoenas Rove...
Invoking President Barack Obama, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has subpoenaed former Bush Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove about his alleged involved in the political prosecution of an Alabama governor and the firings of nine US Attorneys....Link
Monday, January 26, 2009
This kicks ass....................
Tony Benn to BBC "If you wont broadcast the Gaza appeal then I will myself"
Expect rise in US casualties................
The Obama administration warned the US public yesterday to brace itself for an increase in American casualties as it prepares to step up the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan....Link
Israel vows to back soldiers...........
JERUSALEM – Special legal teams will defend Israeli soldiers against potential war crimes charges stemming from civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip, the prime minister said Sunday, promising the country would fully back those who fought in the three-week offensive..Link
Feds subpoenaed Blago...................
He tried to keep them secret, but the threat of a lawsuit forced embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to reveal dozens of federal subpoenas against him and his administration – including demands for information about his contacts with top Obama advisors...Link
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Google and its agenda in Washington........
Reporting from Washington -- Another inauguration took place in Washington this week -- Google Inc. officially became a political power player.In October, Google was only hours from being sued by the Justice Department as a Web-search monopolist. Today, less than three years after it made its first Washington hire, the Internet giant is poised to capitalize on its backing of President Obama and pursue its agenda in the nation's capital....Link
America on Inauguration Day: Panoramic Photo.
The image was made by a special panoramic camera using a vertically oriented linear digital sensor array that scans the scene horizontally, much like the linear sensor in a Xerox copier or a desktop flatbed scanner. Check out all the familiar faces in the crowd, especially behind Obama. I think a few of them are asleep....Link
Why the Gitmo policies may not change........
There may be less than meets the eye to the executive orders President Obama issued yesterday to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and prohibit the torture of prisoners in American custody. Those pronouncements may sound dramatic and unequivocal, but experts predict that American policy towards detainees could remain for months or even years pretty close to what it was as President Bush left office....Link
Saturday, January 24, 2009
US-led forces kill 15 militants.............
KABUL (AFP) – US-led coalition forces said Saturday they had killed 15 militants in an operation in eastern Afghanistan, as a NATO soldier and two civilians were killed in separate bomb blasts across the country...Link
Indian Ocean to see solar eclipse..............
PARIS (AFP) – A few lucky people in the Indian Ocean will be treated to a rare event on Monday when an annular solar eclipse will transform the Sun into a dark disc with a blazing ring-shaped corona around its rim.In solar eclipses, the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow on the terrestrial surface...Link
California jobless rate hits 9.3 percent...
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's unemployment rate jumped to 9.3 percent in December from 8.4 percent in November and 5.9 percent a year earlier as job cuts swept across most industries, with recession tightening its grip on the most populous U.S. state, state officials said on Friday.California's December jobless rate marked a 14-year high for the state and was significantly higher than the month's national average of 7.2 percent, underscoring a surge in job losses over the last three months of 2008, said Patti Roberts, a spokeswoman for the state's Employment Development Department...Link
Starbucks and Civilian National Security Force..
Starbucks wants to make it easy to join Obama’s proposed paramilitary brown shirt volunteers. “Starbucks will honor each person who pledges with a free tall brewed coffee beginning Wednesday, Jan. 21 through Sunday, Jan. 25. The goal of the effort is to raise pledges in excess of one million hours of service from all over the country,” a Starbucks press releases states...Link
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