Headlines - Monday

                                                                              Iraq

Winning hearts and minds with your tax dollars: Iraqi police get motivational speech by Army soldier: http://www.arabiatube.com/video/3117/Iraqi-police-get-motivational-speech-by-Army-solider

###

For those of you who hoped — or worried — that the Obama administration would mean a big cut to defense spending, think again.

The Office of Management and Budget " has approved a nearly $60 billion increase in the Pentagon's base budget between fiscal years 2011 and 2015," InsideDefense.com reports.

That includes an extra $15 billion for the next fiscal year — "a 2.7 percent increase after inflation. This boost "would bring non-war related military spending in FY-11 to $556.4 billion."

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/12/obamas-financiers-okay-extra-60-billion-for-pentagon/comment-page-1/#comment-78642

"Unforseen DOD health care costs" - that wouldn't exist if we weren't fighting two unwinnable wars. Plenty of money for that and health care for Congress, but none for the rest of us poor saps. This country and its priorities are FUBAR.

###

Raise your hands if you're surprised by this: 

It looks like we might not be leaving Afghanistan in 2011 afterall. 

###

I can see why Obama nominated her for the Broadcasting Board of Governors

According to President Bush's former press secretary, Dana "I don't know what the Cuban missile crisis is" and "we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term" Peroxide, Bush's refusal to sign the Kyoto climate change deal in 2005 set the stage for current climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

"Because [Bush] declined to go forward with Kyoto, which is ultimately the right thing to do because the major economies like China and India weren't at the table, he worked to get them at the table and now this meeting is the next logical step in that process," Perino told Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/perinos-logic-bush-responsible-copenhagen-cl

 

 

###

 

The miracle of the Bush economy: 130 banks have failed so far this year. In 2007 the grand total was three.

 

###

 

 

 

###

KABUL--The Taliban said in a statement Saturday it would provide a "legal guarantee" that they would not intervene in foreign countries if international troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

The Taliban have "no agenda of meddling in the internal affairs of other countries and is ready to give legal guarantee if the foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan," the group said in a statement emailed to news organizations.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126002422466878409.html

 

Since they have stated all along that they do not like our presence in the Middle East, it would make sense to perhaps listen to them, but instead, we are sending tens of thousands more troops.

 

### 

 

You may recall the somewhat bizarre response of the Pentagon to the news in June 2006 that three prisoners at Gitmo had somehow managed to hang themselves simultaneously in one of the most watched, patrolled and monitored prison sites in the world. The facts were bizarre: prisoners somehow had been hanging for two hours with rigor mortis when they were discovered; and their bodies were found to have a rag stuffed deep down their throats. But the strangeness and pathos of this event was only matched by the virulent anger of the Pentagon which immediately accused these defenseless and dead prisoners of "asymmetrical warfare" against the US.

 

Seton Hall University School of Law has now completed an exhaustive study of the entire affair. Much more disturbing than the actual deaths was the response of the authorities. Something is very awry here: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/12/three-corpses-at-gitmo-there-is-no-explanation.html

Obama administration seeks to kill Gitmo lawsuit - says Supreme Court's Gitmo ruling doesn't apply to detainees who committed suicide: http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/12/05/obama-administration-seeks-to-kill-gitmo-lawsuit/

###

Welcome to the Hypocrisy Hall of Fame!

Hypocrisy Alert: 68 House Republicans Take Credit for the Economic Bills They Opposed

Welcome to the Hypocrisy Hall of Fame! These Republicans have been caught trying to celebrate the benefits of projects they opposed in President Obama's recovery bill, the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations bill, and the Omnibus Public Land Management Act.

"With the economy showing early signs of recovery, it's no wonder that more and more House Republicans are scrambling to take credit for the benefits they opposed," said Ryan Rudominer, National Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Times are tough.   Hardworking Americans need solutions, not more hypocrisy from the Republican Party of No."

68 of those scaly bastards making points from something that wouldn't even have happened if they'd had their way. Every time I think I've managed to plumb the depths to which these clowns will sink, they dig the hole a little deeper.

A list of all the rectal openings and their little projects at the link.  might want to avoid eating while reading.

###

 

Taco Bell's new green menu, where nothing served comes from nature.

###

 

Here are some pretty impressive sculptures made out of butter.

 

###

###

 

Cool slide show of nine icy jellyfish.

 

###

 

"V" isn't fiction! Aliens are among us!

See? Her lizard skin is breaking through:

Still doesn't explain why "Asians make her uncomfortable". . . or does it?

###

 

 

The bloody hands of $enator Ben Nel$on: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2009/12/bloody-hand-of-enator-ben-nelon.html

 

###

 

Unemployment Down .2%, Crisis Over! http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2009/12/unemployment-down-2-crisis-over.html#more

 

###

 

 

The number of the beast

The sign of the Last Days? It's not 666 -- it's a seven-figure number.

Here's a report of a deal for a forthcoming book, from the subscription-only Publishers Lunch:

Authored of Liberal Fascism and syndicated conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg's THE TYRANNY OF CLICHES, to Sentinel, at auction, in a major deal, reportedly for $1 million....

Yes: Jonah Goldberg. The Doughy Pantload. One million dollars for his next book. The Apocalypse will be along any minute now.

 

###

 

Skippy's environmental news stories Sunday: http://xnerg.blogspot.com/2009/12/environmental-news-stories-sunday.html

### 

Because we didn't have enough direct lines to God when Bush was president

Sarah Palin says the United States should rededicate itself to seeking God's will, arguing that a humble spirit could help leaders get more answers on issues such as health care, energy and national security.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/12/palin_says_nation_should_rededicate_itself_to_god.php?ref=fpc 

Just as Chimpy thought that freedom meant you had a choice of stores to go to, Mooselini thinks that freedom means imposing her religious agenda onto an unsuspecting nation.

She is the American Taliban.

###

The irreplaceable Bill Moyers on how the separation of war powers in the U.S. Constitution was designed to make it more difficult, not easier, for the nation to indulge in war. 

###

###

A healing moment for Iran and Iraq. "A man who as a baby survived a chemical attack on the Iraqi city of Halabja in 1988 has been reunited with his mother. Ali Pour was taken to Iran by Iranian soldiers who stormed the Kurdish city days after the gas attack by Saddam Hussein's forces. Mr Pour, now 21, had to wait for the results of a DNA test before it could be determined whose son he was. His mother, whose husband and six other children had all died in the attack, fainted when she heard. Five thousand people were killed in the Halabja attack, considered one of the worst atrocities of Saddam Hussein's regime. Five other families were waiting to hear from a judge whether Mr Pour was their missing son, but Fatima Mohammed Salih, 58, was found to be his real mother. "I'm in a dream," Mr Pour said as he comforted her, according to Associated Press news agency." 

### 

A silent coup d'état has already happened in the U.S. 

I call it silent, and not bloodless, since it has been anything but bloodless.  To the contrary, the brutal efficiency of this Coup has resulted in countless casualties in the U.S. heartland.

It's sad to see so much confusion out there.  People don't understand how's possible for Obama to appoint scores of Goldman Sachs (and other Wall Street bankers) to government positions.  The same people responsible for creating ponzi schemes to steal trillions of dollars from the country's coffers (the taxpayers).  How is it possible to keep the country in a perpetual state of war for the direct benefit of war profiteers?

If people reflect and take off their ideological blinders, it's possible to see that our entire government (Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary) has already been taken over by Oligarchs here in the U.S.  And none of this happened by coincidence.  And it's going to get worse:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/6/811233/-A-Silent-Coup-dtat-Has-Already-Happened-in-the-U.S.

###

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial on climate change.

How many papers in the entire US carried the article? ONE. What a pathetic joke though it shows just how powerful the teabagging, anti-science crowd has become in the US and how they work to manufacture doubt. How exactly does a country show leadership in the world when there's such a rejection of the modern world? The teabaggers don't care if the US is the laughing stock of the world, as long as they have their Bible.

###

Obama talks to Dem Senators for 30 minutes about health care reform - doesn't mention public option once.

I personally don't care about the public option, I want single payer. But thanks a lot anyway, Barry.

###

What Barack Obama really thinks of the White House Press.

###

 

            Forcing a monkey to laught at your jokes is widely considered to be a violation of animal rights.

###

 

Perhaps this is why Barack Obama was allowed to win: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/12/perhaps-this-is-why-barack-obama-was.html

 

###

 

 

###

 

For all of the moaning over the deficit from the right

 

When you listen to the "conservatives" bemoan the Federal deficit, try to keep in mind a few things.

1. The FY 2009 budget, which ran until September 30th of this year, was drawn up by the Bush Administration.

2. The FY 2000 budget reduced the Federal debt. The idea of the Federal government not being in debt so much scared the piss out of the conservatives, including then-Fed chairman Greenspan. They wanted the Federal government to be crippled by debt. That is why George W. Bush wanted his tax cut. The very last thing that the Republicans wanted to see was a prudent Federal government that could live within its means. And so, like the pack of predatory vandals that they were (and still are), they set about wrecking the place.

When you look at Federal debt as compared to the GDP, the trend was clearly down since the the end of the Second World War until Ronald Reagan became president. Only one American president since the end of WW2 made a clear dent in the Federal deficit: Bill Clinton.

More: http://eb-misfit.blogspot.com/2009/12/for-all-of-moaning-over-deficit-from.html

 

###

Once again, the only honest Senator, Bernie Sanders, is standing up for the rest of us this time by putting a hold on the re-nomination of Ben Bernanke to be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Bernie even has an online petition to give him some backup: http://www.mockpaperscissors.com/?p=26941