Wednesday, November 14, 2012

November 14

 
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Petraeus investigation ensnares commander of U.S., NATO troops in Afghanistan: The FBI probe into the sex scandal that prompted CIA Director David Petraeus to resign has expanded to ensnare Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced early Tuesday.
 
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NatGeo: Thousands of elephants die each year so that their tusks can be carved into religious objects. Can the slaughter be stopped?
 
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secdee from the union.jpg
 
 
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Should negotiations break down to avoid the $500 billion rash of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, 53 percent are inclined to blame Republicans in Congress while 29 percent single out Obama.If nothing else, that strengthens President Obama's hand in not making a deal before year's end, particularly since the House GOP rank and file seem to be already rejecting the idea of a leadership compromise with Obama.
 
Putting responsibility on House Republicans for a lame-duck failure will make negotiations with the new Congress (which will be minus a few of its current tea partying nihilists) that much easier. They could be forced to the table without the cuts to entitlement sweeteners offered up in previous negotiations.
 
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Politico - 'Poll - Blame GOP for cliff diving'

Politico:

Americans are prepared to blame Congressional Republicans any failure to avert the fiscal cliff, according to a poll on Tuesday.

While 51 percent of Americans don't expect a deal, Democrats have substantially more faith than Republicans in the ability of President Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans to compromise, according to the Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll. Two-thirds of Republicans aren't anticipating a deal, and only a quarter expect one. But a plurality of Democrats — 47 percent to 40 percent — expect Obama and the GOP to reach an agreement.

Congressional Republicans are likely to face the blame for any impact: 53 percent of Americans said the GOP would be at fault, compared with 29 percent who said the same of the president. Ten percent said both would be to blame. The gap is even bigger among independent voters, only 23 percent of whom would blame the president.

Consider that math: 51% believe we'll sail off the fiscal cliff and 53% blame Republicans — before any failure at all. Nothing has happened yet and already people are blaming Republicans. If Republicans were hoping people haven't been paying attention, they're going to be disappointed. Republican obstructionism has become so ingrained in people's minds that they expect it.

Republicans are going to have to spend a lot of time on image repair. They've dinged their reputation much worse than they'd probably imagined.

 
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Lessons not learned: Arizona Republicans sue to block ballots in Latino precinct.
 
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Remember when MoveOn.org got smoked in 2007 for running an ad which labeled
David Petraeus as 'General Betray Us'? Well, he has, hasn't he?
 
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No coffee??!!!1!!??
Forget about super-sizing into the trenta a few years from now: Starbucks is warning of a threat to world coffee supply because of climate change. ... The company is now preparing for the possibility of a serious threat to global supplies.
Now, if the only threat was to that bitter burnt shit that Starbucks sells, I'd not care. But obviously, Seattle Swill is made by the company and has little to do with the actual coffee beans.

Can it get worse? You betcha! No chocolate!!
It looks as though climate change is going to take a bite out of chocolate production, according to a new study by scientists at CIAT. ... The cocoa report predicts a one-degree Celsius temperature rise by 2030, increasing to 2.3 degrees Celsius by 2050. This is enough to inhibit the development of cocoa pods, which could send yields crashing and prices soaring.
If this happens, you might not want to live to see it, especially if you were a climate-change denier. You could wind up hanging from a lamp-post.
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Ahead of negotiations over the so-called "fiscal cliff" and what promises to be another fight over raising the debt ceiling, 63 CEOs representing the largest U.S. corporations, including several Wall Street firms, launched a campaign to supposedly "fix the debt." However, this campaign calls for additional corporate tax cuts by switching the U.S. to what's known as a "territorial" corporate tax system, along the lines of that proposed by Mitt Romney.

According to a report by Institute for Policy Studies, the corporations involved could gain up to $134 billion in windfalls if Congress approves such a system, which exempts foreign earnings from the U.S. corporate income tax:

– The 63 companies that are publicly held could gain up to $134 billion in windfalls. The biggest potential winner is General Electric, which would earn $35.7 billion on its overseas earnings of $102 billion.

A territorial tax system actually rewards businesses that offshore jobs and investments. Corporate tax rates are already at a 40-year low of just 12.1 percent. Revenue from corporate taxes has plunged, despite a 60-year high in corporate profits.

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Tea Party "Activists"

It is so much fun to watch the Party of Personal Responsibility point fingers and self-implode, isn't it? It certainly is! Today's finger-pointing blame-game session comes courtesy the Tea Party, which has engaged in about a week of sober reflection and concluded that the GOP lost because Mitt was too moderate. No, really:

Tea party supporters are angry at the GOP for embracing as its presidential nominee a "moderate" like Romney. For undermining "true conservative" candidates. And for "choosing to ignore" the conservative agenda.

READ MORE »

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