Friday, November 14, 2008

Headlines - Friday

Yet another 84,868 homes were lost to foreclosure in October, according to a report released Thursday.
 
The number of U.S. workers drawing jobless benefits hit a 25-year high this month. The Labor Department said jobless claims rose "by an unexpectedly steep 32,000 last week to 516,000, the highest since the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks."
 
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Tighty righty wingnuts really are batshit crazy. Now they're trying to say that Obama's Selective Service registration is fake, just as they've been trying to say that Obama's birth certificate is a fake. Bizarre conspiracy theories seem to be all they got nowdays... that, and copulating like rabbits at an early age while condemning "liberals" as immoral, anyhow.
 
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"After nearly eight years of a president who could barely form a coherent sentence, much less a strategic thought...what Obama's election means is that brains are back. Sense and pragmatism and the idea of considering-all-the-options are back. Studying one's enemies and thinking through strategic problems are back. Cultural understanding is back. Yahooism and jingoism and junk science about global warming and shabby legal reasoning about torture are out. The national culture of flag-pin shallowness that guided our foreign policy is gone with the wind. And for this reason as much as any, perhaps I can renew my pride in being an American." Michael Hirsh,    Link
 
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More from a recent Condi Rice interview:
When I go to Europe, I no longer see any difference in the view that a stable and secure Iraq is in everybody's interest, and that an Iraq that is democratic and in which Saddam Hussein, that brutal monster that caused three wars in the region, including dragging us in twice, that used – who used weapons of mass destruction against his own people, that an Iraq that is democratic and friendly to the West is better for the Middle East. I don't see much disagreement about that.
Dragged us in twice? How's that? By refusing to threaten us with non-existent nukes as well as not sharing his missing WMDs with his terrorists pals he didn't have? Is that a new definition of passive-aggressive or something?
 
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Racists are having a field day with the news that Barack Obama's mother-in-law will in all likelihood be moving with his family into the White House. This begs some questions. What's wrong with the first family being an extended family? What's wrong with having a grandmother help take care of her grandchildren? This is definitely a departure from the old Washington-way of hiring an illegal domestic worker.
 
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President-elect Obama Resigning From The Senate: Effective Sunday
 
Below is a statement from President-elect Barack Obama
 
"It has been one of the highest honors and privileges of my life to have served the people of Illinois in the United States Senate. In a state that represents the crossroads of a nation, I have met so many men and women who've taken different journeys, but hold common hopes for their children's future. It is these Illinois families and their stories that will stay with me as I leave the United States Senate and begin the hard task of fulfilling the simple hopes and common dreams of all Americans as our nation's next President," said President-elect Barack Obama.

The Senate will be poorer for it. No word yet on his replacement, but here are some possibilities:

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr (D-IL)
Illinois Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth
Illinois State Sen. President Emil Jones
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)
Attorney General Lisa Madigan
Lieutenant Gov. Pat Quinn

 
I'd pick Tammy Duckworth. She deserves it.
 
President-elect Barack Obama walks with US veteran Tammy Duckworth at the Veterans Day memorial service in Chicago.
 
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Robert Byrd is stepping down from Appropriations Committee and Biden, who chaired the Foreign Relations Committee is obviously moving on as well. It seems every Democrat in the joint is trading up or ascending to a new chairmanship, and of course there is the question of what to do with Traitor Joe, who is in charge of the Homeland Security Comm. 

The fine irony, of course, would be if Lieberman, despite his apostasy, is allowed to keep his post -- and there's chatter he might cut a deal to forfeit only his Armed Services subcommittee chairmanship -- but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), now heading a subcommittee in charge of cleaning up toxic waste sites, is, by seniority rules, left out.

So, let's see: She pretty much equaled Obama in the Democratic primary race, with nearly 18 million votes, but lost. She nonetheless was out there all over the battleground states -- even Nebraska -- rallying the troops for Obama. And she gets bupkes? Nada? Zip?

If the decision on Holy Joe is really being left to the caucus, and they're really too thick to grasp the dimension of the inappropriateness of leaving His Holiness in place, free to vent his contempt for the whole lot of them, then they're even lamer and more useless than we already suspected.
 
Update: Hillary is being considered for Secretary of State!
 
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I'm sorry to keep harping on the Mormon church, but in addition to magic underwear, here are some things people need to know:
 
Mormons officially oppose the ERA.
Mormons issue statement opposing MX missile deployment; worried Zion will be nuked.
Official Mormon statement
urging members to oppose marriage equality.
Church
refuses to sign letter condemning torture.
Torturing the Gay Away
 
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Georgia Senate race

Neither Chambliss nor Martin earned more than 50 percent of the vote, so there will be a runoff on December 2. 

Survey USA has a new poll out of Georgia:, which shows remarkable interest in this race.

Georgia will hold a run-off election for United States Senate on Tuesday, December 2nd. Will you vote in the run-off election?

Yes 87; No 8; Not sure 5

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The National Enquirer is at it again - this time they're after Cindy McCain.

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FDA reviewing food imports from China 

You think it's necessary? I mean sure, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people have been sick and OK, some died. But besides that, shouldn't we ignore all of that and help our favorite trading partner in case they might help companies build even cheaper products? That seems to have been the policy for years, hasn't it?

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AIG to pay top management over $500 million: Tell me again why we saved this company?

I wonder if all the people who think we have to keep shoveling even more cash into the pockets of corporate executives because "they create jobs" are happy that the huge bailout given to AIG with THEIR tax dollars is going to make sure top executives get their nice fat end-of-the-year payments?

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A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, many bishops spoke out on abortion more boldly than four years earlier, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back. A few church leaders said parishioners risked their immortal soul by voting for candidates who support abortion rights.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/11/sc_priest_no_communion_for_oba.php

The most important consideration? More important than national security, foreign relations, the economy, the enviornment, healthcare, restoring the rule of law, rescinding torture, and keeping Caribou Barbie's Dominionist self out of the office that Dick Cheney perverted combined?

I used to think PETA activists were a bit unhinged for putting the interests of mink above mankind, but that was before I got wind of the anti-abortion frothers. At least the mink have functioning nervous systems and can suffer. Not so with embryos. And PETA members don't run around claiming that by supporting candidates who don't put animal rights above all other policy concerns, you risk the torture of your immortal soul for all eternity. If they do, they're not taken seriously enough for me to have heard about it.

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Sarkozy brings the funny

The only deterrence that still matters:

With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia's Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. "I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls," Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. "Hang him?" — he asked. "Why not?" Mr Putin replied. "The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein."

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: "Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?" Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: "Ah — you have scored a point there."

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That must have been awkward

Yesterday Joe Biden met with "the most dangerous vice president we've had."

joe.gif

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Yesterday Bush spoke at a UN event on "inter-faith dialogue," or, as he put it, "the transformative and uplifting power of faith." He started by thanking... wait for it... King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia, and that's really all you need to know about that.



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The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is issuing a statement saying that if the Democrats protect abortion rights, it will be taken as an attack on the church itself. Yes, bishops, because it's all about you.

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HuffPo

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A white supremacist charged with plotting to kill President-elect Barack Obama and other black people wants his indictment dismissed, arguing that the federal grand jury that charged him had too many black members.

It argues that the 23-member grand jury that returned the indictment had just two white members and could not have been fair and impartial.

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Navy gets all-clear to harm whales

In a defeat for environmentalists, justices say sonar does not have to be turned off when whales are near. Foes say sonar panics whales, makes their ears bleed and may spur them to beach themselves.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Supreme-Court-to-Navy-Use-the-Sonar.html 
 
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Cracking the code
 
 "Sitting here in these chairs that I'm going to be proposing but in working with these governors who again on the front lines are forced to and it's our privileged obligation to find solutions to the challenges facing our own states every day being held accountable, not being just one of many just casting votes or voting present every once in a while, we don't get away with that. We have to balance budgets and we're dealing with multibillion dollar budgets and tens of thousands of employees in our organizations." SP
 
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