It appears that a Turkish company has perfected the invention of "liquid glass" in a breakthrough that will likely make it and its German patent holder fantastically wealthy. With the United States pouring billions into these wars (while cutting educational budgets) and countries like China spending equally on new research, we will increasingly be the consumers rather than the inventors of such new technology. Story here.
In the attack, at least nine of the unmanned warplanes fired some 18 missiles against the tiny village of Deegan, in Datta Khel, killing at least 17 people and injuring numerous others. The toll is expected to rise as the attacks, which hit multiple homes, left many people buried in rubble around the village.session with Obama, and he spent the next hour and a half depantsing them. Pretty funny stuff."
- John Cole Link
- Atrios Link
they claim is just an empty suit with a TelePrompter should make you feel sorry for them."
Mark Kleiman Link
or Kerry) or pissy (like it might with Democrats in Congress). It comes across like a patient,
sane adult talking to crazy children. Which is exactly what it is." Doug J Link
Democrats need to realize, meanwhile, that sometimes the message isn't going to sink in until the sixth or seventh time that you repeat it. Before Tuesday's State of the Union, for instance, the White House had almost literally never mentioned that the stimulus contained a huge tax cut -- they shouldn't expect the public to believe it any more than Warner Brothers should expect a ton of people to go out and see their new movie if they only begin advertising it 48 hours beforehand.
President Obama had some advice for Democratic senators at a conference in D.C. today: stop watching TV and reading blogs."If everybody here turned off your CNN, your Fox -- just turn off the TV," he said. "MSNBC, blogs. And just go talk to folks out there instead of being in this echo chamber where the topic is constantly politics."
http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2010/02/being-terrified-is-no-way-to-fight.html
The New York Times notes the rising popularity of Christian groups sponsoring violent mixed martial arts bouts, a trend brought about by attempts to bring "real men" back into the gentle nellie church. And don't you know Focus On The Family has shoved their claws into this.Recruitment efforts at the churches, which are predominantly white, involve fight night television viewing parties and lecture series that use ultimate fighting to explain how Christ fought for what he believed in. Other ministers go further, hosting or participating in live events. The goal, these pastors say, is to inject some machismo into their ministries — and into the image of Jesus — in the hope of making Christianity more appealing. "Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too," said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. "But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter."
The outreach is part of a larger and more longstanding effort on the part of some ministers who fear that their churches have become too feminized, promoting kindness and compassion at the expense of strength and responsibility. "The man should be the overall leader of the household," said Ryan Dobson, 39, a pastor and fan of mixed martial arts who is the son of James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, a prominent evangelical group. "We've raised a generation of little boys."
This made me laugh out loud:
The Special Olympics is disputing the White House claim that its chairman, Tim Shriver, accepted Rahm Emanuel's apology for calling liberals "retarded."Seeking to damp down the controversy over Rahm Emanuel's reported, months-old use of the word, a White House official yesterday told me and other reporters that Emanuel had called Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver to apologize.
"The apology was accepted," the official said yesterday.
The vice president for communications at the Special Olympics, Kirsten Seckler, told me that this account of the conversation is "inaccurate."
"Tim didn't accept his apology," she said. "Tim can't do that. He can't accept an apology on behalf of all people with disabilities."
What about people who are so disabled they will not understand the insult or the apology? Does this mean Rahm's apology can not ever be officially accepted? Or in those cases, will their caretakers be required to accept the apology? Ben's post is then updated multiple times until it is decided that six apparatchiks from the Special Olympics do, in fact accept the apology.
We are really to the point that a Chinese takeover of this nation is in our best interests.
I support this idea from Matt Taibbi: The Committee of Banned Words.
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Jeb Bush is back, and some think he's looking presidential.
The investigation, which was confirmed by three current and former officials speaking on condition of anonymity, follows a report in The New York Times in November that top executives at Blackwater had authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials to buy their support after the shooting. The newspaper account said it could not determine whether any bribes were actually paid or identify Iraqi officials who might have received the money.The Justice Department has obtained two documents from the State Department, which had security contracts with the company, that have raised questions about Blackwater's efforts to influence Iraqi government officials after the Nisour Square shootings, according to two American officials familiar with the inquiry.
One document, a handwritten note, shows that a Blackwater representative told a senior official at the American Embassy in Baghdad that the company had hired a prominent Iraqi lawyer to help the firm make compensation payments to Iraqi victims of the shootings, a practice encouraged by the State Department.
According to the document, as described by the two government officials, the Blackwater official said the firm had hired the lawyer hoping that the lawyer's close ties to top Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, would help Blackwater obtain a license to continue operating in Iraq.
Stay on these f**kers, and never stop. Jeremy Scahill can't save the world from these crusading thugs all by himself. Glad to see the DoJ giving him an assist.
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Health care industry front group cheers death of the public option with large WaPo ad
One of the most aggressive industry front groups fighting to defeat health care reform has been the Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR), run by disgraced hospital executive Rick Scott and represented by the same public relations (CRC Public Relations) firm that brought us the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/03/cpr-ad-wp/
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The Party of No hates our troops.
"Now that Obama has supported repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell, John McCain has no choice but to flip-flop on it" – headline on the web.
McCain, 2006: "The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to."
The military, 2010: "We ought to change the policy."
McInsane, 2010: "Wharrrgaarrrrbll! That Islamofacistfrancohomosocialist commie durrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! So I say NO!!"
You soulless bastard.
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Repug rep Duncan Hunter on allowing gays to serve openly: "You'll open the military up to hermaphrodites."
Yes, he really said that. Hermaphrodites.
Oh, and conservatives are petrified of gays, who may not just look at them, but attack them in the shower:
HUNTER: "Yeah, I think that the majority of people in the military … have more conservative backgrounds and I think that it would go against their principles and it would frankly make everybody a little bit uneasy to be in these close situations, how you go into combat, you know, the shower situation, the bathroom situation, just, you know, very mundane details - things that we have men and women separated, you know, because we don't want to have that sexual distraction. That exists for the homosexual aspect of things, too."
He said moistly, adjusting himself.
Another live wire, Senator Saxby Chambliss, says that repealing DADT will lead to "Alcohol use, adultery, fraternization, and body art."
What is he, high, or intentionally stupid? Tattoos and alcohol use? In the armed forces?? No freaking way! And do NOT get me started on rethuglicans having the NERVE to talk about adultery.
Next: use of bombsniffing dogs could lead to bestiality, op-eds Rick Santorum.
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LabRat on DADT: Man Up.
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Harry Reid: Republicans are undermining national security
The Party of No is continuing to put party before country by blocking homeland security nominations even while terrorists are plotting domestic attacks, says fired-up jellyfish.
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The payout is about 19 percent of the $23 billion in revenue the company made from its investment banking and capital markets divisions, according to the Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Each banker and trader will collect an average $300,000 to $500,000 for 2009, a figure close to what Bank of America paid in 2006, its peak year for such payouts, the report said.
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