Saturday, November 22, 2008

Headlines - Saturday

 
See the Rude Pundit's take on the turkey slaughter - warning: foul language alert! 
 
And speaking of foul language, here's a hilarious entry submitted by Jeff:
 
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John McCain had better be planning on using instrumental music from the 19th century for his next Senate seat run. After a lawsuit he filed against singer/songwriter Jackson Browne in the U.S. District Court in California this week, he'll probably alienate any musicians who haven't already asked him to stop using their songs during his failed presidential bid.
 
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The military has ordered 4,000 electric vehicles from General Dynamics and BAE:   
 
If our own big 3 automakers had jumped on this train they wouldn't be begging for a handout. 
 
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UN - Gaza on the brink of humanitarian disaster:  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/21-5
 
Since 1973, US taxpayers have shelled out about $1.6 trillion to Israel -more than $5,700 per person.  
 
2006 - Israeli girls signing rockets for Lebanon
 
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Here's a resolution, hot off the presses from Jerrold Nadler, Chair of the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee: H.RES.1531, "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the President of the United States should not issue pardons to senior members of his administration during the final 90 days of his term of office," Sponsor: Rep Nadler, Jerrold (introduced 11/20/2008). There is a petition promoting this resolution, through which you can write to your representative and senators at
http://democrats.com/nadler-pardons 
 
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Imperial Sugar "Back in Business"

In the best Corporate American tradition of deny, deny, deny, as Lenny Bruce put it, John Sheptor, CEO of Imperial Sugar whose refinery in Savannah exploded last winter in a fire that killed 13 people, today broke ground for a new building to replace the one that was destroyed. As part of the ceremony, CEO Sheptor, who VP Graham H Graham said threatened to fire him if he said anything about just how bad conditions at the plant really were, and who ignored over 200 OSHA safety violations and citations in the space of two years, actually got down on his knees and led what remained of the workers in offering a prayer for those he had killed.          http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2008/11/imperial-sugar-back-in-business.html

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The United States has some serious problems: an ugly war, a shaky economy, a bad government (on the way out, at last). It's been a rough eight years. So of course it must be someone's fault, and Daniel Henninger has a simple explanation: blame the atheists. Especially blame the atheist's successful war on Christmas. He says, "A nation whose people can't say 'Merry Christmas' is a nation capable of ruining its own economy." You see, we've all lost the important values of "responsibility, restraint, and remorse" that Christianity inculcates.

Wait, what? The country has been run for the last eight years by a gang of amoral atheists? Bankers are atheists? All those people who borrowed money unwisely are atheists? Christians don't default on loans, don't exploit lax banking rules, don't start wars, don't torture?

I would like to visit Mr Henninger's alternate dimension.

Here on my planet, of course, this country has been run by the evangelical wing of the Republican party, the vast majority of the population are Christians, it's almost impossible to get elected to positions of any power without being a professing theist, and the religious right has been deeply tangled in political decisions, while atheists do little more than write books. Nobody has banned "Merry Christmas" — militant atheists like Dawkins (and Myers) happily put up Christmas trees every December, although of course we do regard it as an entirely secular holiday.

I'm not at all concerned about people who say "Merry Christmas", and don't really think whether you say the magic mantra or not has much of an effect on the economy. I'm much more worried that the editorial staff at the Wall Street Journal, who all seem to be delusional loons, might be influencing the management of our economy.

Maybe Mr Henninger needs to read Kathleen Parker, who at least has noticed that the Republican party has become the god-walloping know-nothing party, and that maybe that has something to do with the state of the nation.

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The recession is so bad The Weather Channel is laying off some untold number of staff.

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Are you ready for 2012 polls? Well, too bad. Gallup is already doing 2012 polls. And guess what? GOP Faithful Like Palin, Romney, Huckabee in 2012

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Jim Matheson (D-UT) has some great priorities - h/t Dick:  http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_11044746

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Tom Englehardt - The Pentagon's Argument of Last Resort on Iraq.

Mahdi Army veterans don't want us hanging around until 2011, and warn of a new insurgency if we don't leave. 

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Saturday toons compiled by Bob Geiger.

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Unbelievable: (Bloomberg) -- The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup.

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Hot Air says it commissioned Zogby to do a poll to show Obama voters were "ignorant" because they hadn't absorbed the wingnuts' favorite smears about Obama during the campaign.

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It's no shock that the right-wing freaks always target women with their extreme anti-choice agenda. Now they are trying to set back the medical world 200 years.

A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job discrimination laws. http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/hillary-clinton-and-patty-murray-introd

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Unable to Sell Homes, Elderly Forgo Assisted Living http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/us/22home.html?_r=2&th&emc=th

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Why isn't he in prison?

Today's Wall Street Journal features an op-ed from former White House Adviser Karl Rove that's filled with cautions and advice and ruminations on the obvious offered up to Barack Obama. 

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4,204 soldiers killed in Iraq; 629 in Afghanistan.

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A suspected U.S. missile strike killed five militants in a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold in northwestern Pakistan today.

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