Thursday, June 18, 2009

Headlines - Thursday

Government efforts to curb climate change could soon spur an oil crisis more severe than those already experienced, the head of oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips has said...Mulva acknowledged that climate change was a "serious problem" but said attempts to limit the use of fossil fuels through taxes and restrictive regulations will simply raise the cost for the consumer and harm the economy.
 
Yes, I'd hate to see those tens of billions in profit suffer from efforts to save the freaking planet, you greedy bastard. 
 
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In a vote that should go down in recent histories as a day of shame for the Democrats, on Tuesday the House voted to approve another $106 billion dollars for the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and increasingly Pakistan). To put a fine point on the interconnection of the iron fist of U.S. militarism and the hidden hand of free market neoliberal economics, the bill included a massive initiative to give the International Monetary Fund billions more in U.S. taxpayer funds.

What once Democrats could argue was "Bush's war," they now officially own. In fact, only five Republicans voted for the supplemental (though overwhelmingly not on the issue of the war funding). Ron Paul, who made clear he was voting against the war, was a notable exception.
 
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Remember how all those right-wing pundits proclaimed the Minutemen as being just like a neighborhood watch? Michelle Malkin called it "the mother of all neighborhood watches." Lou Dobbs labeled it "this country's biggest neighborhood watch program". Bill O'Reilly declared: "Talking Points applauds the Minutemen. They are in the great tradition of neighborhood watch groups."

Boy, that sure is some neighborhood watch: 

Accused ringleader Shawna Forde told her family in recent months that she had begun recruiting members of the Aryan Nations and that she planned to begin robbing drug-cartel leaders, her brother Merrill Metzger said Monday in a telephone interview from Redding, Calif.

"She was talking about starting a revolution against the United States government," he said.

Here is a recording of the 911 call made by the victim who survived - the mother of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores, who was shot "two or three times" while her mother lay nearby. As she's on the phone, you can hear the killers return and open fire on her again, and hear her return fire:

 
While graphic, I think that 911 call needs to be played on an endless loop on tv so people know what kind of domestic terrorists we are dealing with. 
 
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The US Global Change Research Program yesterday released a new comprehensive report Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States. The full report, as well as a number of summary materials are available at the (recently redesigned) USGCRP web site. The key findings in the new report are listed here.
 
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Ex-Gitmo Prosecutor Calls For Torture Special Prosecutor

ACLU Executive Dirctor Anthony D. Romero has teamed up with former Guantanamo military commissions prosecutor Darrel Vandeveld to write a bluntly concise op-ed in Salon. Vandeveld resigned his post due to ethical problems with the tribunal system.

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/014185.php

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How credible is the CIA claim that exposing the interrogation practices of the CIA will hurt national security?

The officials say the CIA is urging the suppression of passages describing in graphic detail how the agency handled its detainees, arguing that the material could damage ongoing counterterrorism operations by laying bare sensitive intelligence procedures and methods.

From what we've seen, the damage isn't what our opponents will think, it's what we think of the CIA when we see how much time they spend covering their a**es for the bad decisions they made and the screwed up actions they took. Sorry, mistakes in judgment (ie: torturing the wrong guy) doesn't mean you have the right to hide your mistakes.

It's time to own up to your mistakes so we can finally move on. Otherwise they just sit there and fester.

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The murder of George Tiller has brought some vile people creeping out from under the woodwork…especially the kinds of nasty minds that like to dress up in clerical collars. Check out this sermon by a Presbyterian minister for a great example of deploring a murder while praising the murderer's motives.

Did ya read the whole thing? Did you pick up on the fact that it's ok for anti-choicers to kill, and it is appropriate for them to execute abortion doctors, we just need to wait until the civil authorities declare it's time to line them up against the wall? And Tiller's murderer's mistake was being insufficiently brave enough to attack the nation's leaders.

Praise Jesus.

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Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo, reminds us that healt insurance is not the same as health care. Health care is about treating you...making you better. Health insurance is about making money for the company and letting you die if you are too sick because it would affect their bottom line. You get sick...your insurance company will drop you like a hot potato...as some in Congress are finding out:

...an investigation by the House subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers Wellpoint Inc., Unitedhealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.

It also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that
employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.

...a Texas nurse said she lost her coverage, after she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, for failing to disclose a visit to a dermatologist for acne...
latte times

Every expedient now under consideration leaves in place precisely all the faults and failings of the current system. Every single one. Nothing changes. NOTHING. Witness:

...Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.-

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Forrest Bush

Bush weighs in on Gitmo:

"The way I decided to address the problem was twofold: One, use every technique and tool within the law to bring terrorists to justice before they strike again," he said, adding that the country needs to stay on offense, not defense. On Guantanamo, which while in office Mr. Bush said he wanted to close, the former president was diplomatic.

"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

I, for one, am really glad Obama dropped his plan to send all of these guys to therapy instead of trying them for alleged crimes. Nice double negative, btw, Bush.

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Wonderful:

Two months after prosecutors abandoned the criminal conviction of former senator Ted Stevens, the Justice Department unit that polices public corruption remains in chaos, coping with newly discovered evidence that threatens to undermine other cases while department leaders struggle to reshuffle the ranks.

There is not one part of the government that is not a smoking ash heap after the last eight years.

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After initially stating that he wanted President Obama to "succeed" and that he owed Obama his "silence," President Bush yesterday decided to reverse course and criticize the President. The former President took aim at Obama's desire to introduce a public health insurance option for Americans:

"There are a lot of ways to remedy the situation without nationalizing health care," Mr. Bush said. "I worry about encouraging the government to replace the private sector when it comes to providing insurance for health care."

Asked by the evening emcee at the 104th annual Manufacturer and Business Association meeting if he finds the new president's policies "socialist," Mr. Bush started then stopped.

"I hear a lot of those words, but it depends on…," he said, breaking off. He later offered a more diplomatic assessment: "We'll see."

Former Gov. Howard Dean, a strong advocate of a public plan, responded to Bush's criticisms this morning on NBC's Today Show. "We've had a government system for 50 years," Dean said. "The Republicans didn't like it then — it's called Medicare. Everybody over 65 is already in the government system. Let the people who are under 65 make a choice." 

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Rare ghoul/candy striper appears in Senate hearing:

It only appears right around the summer solstice

Who is this monster who beat up homeless Willy Wonka and stole his jacket? Oh it's just your kindly Senator Bob Bennett from Utah, asking the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee if they would like some licorice sticks. They're in the back of his van. His windowless van.

Sexy update: Oh ha ha it's Seersucker Thursday in the Senate! It's a tradition of some sort!  

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The public still likes President Obama well enough, but they'd like to know what he's going to do about the budget deficit that he inherited and has had FIVE WHOLE MONTHS to eliminate. [US News and World Report]
 
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Wonkette:

GOP paid son of John Ensign's Mistress $5,400 During Era of Sexytime

Why can't he do something funny like try to rape and strangle a waitress?

We knew there had to be a "paying off some 19-year-old boy" aspect of this dull John Ensign story, and here it is: A Republican committee paid Nevada Senator John Ensign's illicit girlfriend's son $5,400 during the SAME EXACT TIME Ensign and the lady were humping. This teen-ager was given the dirty GOP money for "research policy consulting," which is even more bogus-sounding than our business expenses. ALSO: Our friends at the Las Vegas Gleaner inform us that Ensign was putting his peen into this lady before he was legally separated from his wife.

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

John and Darlene Ensign were separated from April to July 2008, the senator's spokesman, Tory Mazzola, confirmed Tuesday evening.

That would indicate the affair began five months before the couple separated and ended a month after they got back together.

AND ADDITIONALLY: Ensign is the "star relief pitcher" for the GOP's fancy baseball team performing right now at Nationals Park, and he didn't show up for the game. COME ON DUDE IT IS FOR CHARITY STOP BEING A DICK SO MUCH.

 


 

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