Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Headlines - Tuesday

Paging Bobby Jindal ....
 
h/t Leanne - Alaskan volcano Redoubt is erupting. You can follow its progress here:  http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php
 
Stay safe, Gary & Leanne! I can't help but notice on the site there is info on the Ted Stevens International Airport. How many felony convictions does a person have to have there before their name gets taken off the airport?
 
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Hormones in your beef? That's ridiculous! 
 
 
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While the administration and top military brass wring their hands over allowing gays and lesbians to serve, they are asleep at the wheel when it comes to publicly taking on the problem of male service members who are sexually assaulting their female colleagues. Bob Herbert in the NYT.

According to Rep. Louise Slaughter, (D-NY), when she speaks to women in the military who have been raped and tried to report it, the response is "Oh, you don't want to ruin that young man's career, do you? "

I think this is the crux of the paranoia over the lifting of DADT. These sick macho bastards who abuse their female colleagues and get away with it believe that gay male service members are suddenly going to line up to violate them.

That's a lousy excuse for discriminating; how about just following the Uniform Code of Military Justice and letting women in the ranks know that you are going to prosecute these sexual assaults?

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"In September, when Lehman was allowed to fail and AIG knew it was going bankrupt, Tim Geithner had a seat at both tables. He reportedly was the major architect of the original loan to AIG, the one that has since ballooned into $170 billion."  Henry Blodget,  Link  

I don't know if that's true or not, but Geithner is severely damaged goods and I cringe every time I hear Obama say, "Heckuva job, Timmy."

Timothy Geithner - making Countrywide execs rich again: http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/23/timothy-geithner-making-countrywide-executives-rich-again/ 

 
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The GOP media machine openly questioned whether it was appropriate for President Barack Obama to travel to Los Angeles this week, when his "business" should be on the economy, the implication being that Obama was not capable of multi-tasking. It's an easy mistake, given the previous president could not watch tv and chew pretzels simultaneously. However, American News Project producer Harry Hanbury decided to take a look at the real business of Congress: fundraising. Collecting as many invitations as he could find, Hanbury found no less than two dozen fundraisers taking place over the course of a single day in DC and tried to visit them all: http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/while-rome-burnsthe-real-congressiona

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Schizoid credit card companies:
 
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The good people of Orlando, Florida have decided to join other cities in making it a crime to feed poor and hungry people caught up in this recession. Story here.
 
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The man who heads an institution with an official top exorcist is asking Africans to "shun witchcraft", and to reject fear-mongering talk of evil entities…
 
I wonder, Mr. Pope, if you consider Satan to be an evil entity?
 
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Saudi clerics call for women to be banned from magazines, televisions and newspapers: Story here.
 
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Photos that make the Rude Pundit want to down a handful of Lunesta with a 12 pack of Goose Island Ale:

 

That's a group of people at a foreclosure auction outside Chicago this weekend.

"With more than 2,500 bidders, over 400 foreclosed homes sold for a total of nearly $21 million..Up for bidding was a 3-bedroom Franklin Park home, once valued at nearly $600,000. The bidding on that one started at $29,000." Foreclosure auction houses are doing stellar business.

Sure, let's talk some more about bonuses because it's helping us all so very much.
 
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The Ogallala Aquifer: saving a vital US water source - the Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir that gives life to the fields of the Midwest, is disappearing. In some places, the groundwater is already gone. And scientists say it will take natural processes 6,000 years to refill the reservoir.
 
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I heart Bernie Sanders
 
Back in February, Obama nominated Gary Gensler, the former Goldman Sachs employee and derivatives cheerleader, to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Gensler's nomination sailed through the Senate Agricultural Committee but Senator Bernie Sanders has placed a hold on the nomination (as has a second senator who is as yet unnamed). A statement from Sanders's office said:
While Mr. Gensler is clearly an intelligent and knowledgeable person, I cannot support his nomination. Mr. Gensler worked with Sen. Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan to exempt credit default swaps from regulation, which led to the collapse of A.I.G. and has resulted in the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history. He supported Gramm-Leach-Bliley, which allowed banks like Citigroup to become "too big to fail." He worked to deregulate electronic energy trading, which led to the downfall of Enron and the spike in energy prices. At this moment in our history, we need an independent leader who will help create a new culture in the financial marketplace and move us away from the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior which has caused so much harm to our economy.
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"It appears that Obama is at sea when it comes to economic-recovery planning. We're stuck not only with a socialist but seemingly an incompetent one."  Regressive toe-sucker Dick MorrisLink  

Hey Dick - why do we need a "economic recovery plan?"
Because your asshole bankrupted America with his giveaways to the super-rich.  

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GOP predicts doomsday if Obama budget passed Link

Excerpt:
Congressional Republicans on Sunday predicted a doomsday scenario of crushing debt and eventual federal bankruptcy if  Obama's massive spending blueprint wins passage...Senate Republicans predicted $20 trillion 
annual deficits and a weakened dollar if Obama get his proposed $3.6 trillion budget plan passed.

"The practical implications of this is bankruptcy," said Sen. Judd Gregg, (Regressive-NH). "There's no other way around it. If we maintain these Budget proposals which over 10-years, this country will go bankrupt. People will not buy our debt; our dollar will become devalued."

Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who sided with Obama on his $787 billion economic stimulus plan, said she couldn't support Obama this time. "It would double the public debt in 5 years, triple it in 10 years... That is not sustainable. It poses a threat to the basic health of our economy," Collins said.  

If you're old enough to remember 1993, they said the same thing about Clinton.

"If Clinton's radical, Stalinist plans are enacted, the BUDGET DEFICIT WILL BANKRUPT AMERICA!"

But what really happened?

"If Clinton's radical, Stalinist plans are enacted, THE STOCK MARKET WILL CRASH!"

But what really happened?


 

"If Clinton's radical, Stalinist plans are enacted, JOBS WILL BE LOST!"

But what really happened?


 

But the Democrats refused to list the facts and Bush took power and broke the world.

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President Obama just announced that Harold Hongju Koh, the head of Yale Law School and a human-rights official in the Clinton administration, will be the legal adviser to the State Department. That's big news as the administration proceeds with its review of interrogations, detentions and renditions policy. Koh, recall, dramatically testified at Alberto Gonzales' confirmation hearing to become attorney general in 2005, calling the infamous August 2002 Office of Legal Counsel memo authorizing torture "perhaps the most clearly erroneous legal opinion that I have ever read" and a "stain on our national reputation." With Koh advising the State Department, expect a great deal of emphasis on international human rights law. Read the rest of this entry

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Where the bleep is the Secret Service? Why is it that a college kid could get visited by the Secret Service for wearing an anti-Bush T-shirt, but a member of the U.S. House of Representative can exhort her mouth-breathing minions to take up arms against the Obama Administration - and that's OK?

"Just curious, but where were all these god-fearing rugged individualists when Bush decided to spend 3 trillion dollars bombing a stone age country back into the stone age and listen-in on their childrens' sex calls to their lonely wives when they were serving in Iraq, and torture innocent people and then throw them into jail for 7 years with no rights? Oh right, they were busy having sex in bathroom stalls and banging prostitutes in diapers."

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After accepting illegal and unethical behavior for years from President Bush, the right wing has finally come around to advocating for the impeachment of a President. On Sat. March 21, more than 4,000 people gathered in Orlando for a "tea party" protest to denounce what they called "wasteful Washington spending." The Orlando Sentinel quoted one attendee saying, "They need to shove that bum out," referring to Obama. 

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The "tea party" protests nationwide are being coordinated by the conservative public relations firm Freedom Works, which is run by former Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX). The tea parties are also being supported by Newt Gingrich, through his organization American Solutions For Winning the Future. Members of Congress, such as Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), have appeared at previous rallies. In addition, Fox News' Glenn Beck promotes the protests, and has launched a website publicizing the events.

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At least 9 of the top 10 at AIG have returned their bonus. 

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A beauty of a piece from our friends in Canada, telling the 'rabid right' it's time their pieholes. Yes!! Read the whole thing here.

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Headline of the day (Daily Telegraph): "Doctor Who Strapped Ecstasy Pills to Scrotum Allowed to Resume Practice."

 

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