Headlines - Friday

Wingnuts circulating this as proof that Sotomayor is a socialist:

Commenter on Media Matters: Maybe she should have quoted from St Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. Then they could put up descriptions of Danny Thomas instead of Norman Thomas.

 

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The Rush & Cheney show accelerates military desertion of the GOP.

 

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Sarah Palin loves wildlife

 

After Palin's henchmen executed 14 poor pups last summer - with a shot each to the head - and more than 250 wolves were killed during the recently concluded 2008/2009 aerial gunning season, Palin's administration is resorting to even more extreme tactics to kill wolves. This summer, poison gas bombs will be thrown into dens and snares will be set at the mouths of dens to kill off newborn pups to prevent wolf numbers from increasing. 

 

What kind of sick bastards sign up for these jobs?

 

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Israel dismisses US demand on settlements -

Bibi Whatayahoo promises to dismantle illegal outposts:

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/05/28/despite-us-objections-israel-to-continue-settlement-expansions/

 

Let's give them some more money. 

 

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US Army base shuts down after rise in suicides

 

The commander of Fort Campbell army base in Kentucky has ordered a three-day suspension of regular duties to focus on a spike in suicides among his troops amid concern over a wider trend across the armed services.

The "stand-down" on Friday entered its third day at Fort Campbell, which is home to the famed 101st Airborne Division and has recorded the highest rate of suicide in the army, with at least 11 confirmed or suspected suicides.

Brigadier General Stephen Townsend announced the stand-down to focus attention

http://rawstory.com/08/afp/2009/05/29/us-army-base-shuts-down-after-rise-in-suicides/

 

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Because you can never be in too many wars

 

"The US and South Korea put their military forces on high alert Thursday after North Korea renounced the truce keeping the peace between the two Koreas since 1953. The North also accused the US of preparing to attack the isolated communist country in the wake of its second nuclear bomb test, and warned it would retaliate to any hostility with 'merciless' and dangerous ferocity.

Read more: http://www.truthout.org/052809R

 

Update: North Korea fires another missile.

 

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4,304 soldiers killed in Iraq; 690 in Afghanistan.

 

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You can analyze your Netflix rentals here.

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A goldmine of GOP stupidity

 

This post is about the right and their reactions to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to fill David Souter's seat on the Supreme Court. But let me start out by making one salient point; it's important to remember that Newt Gingrich is a horse's ass. He was forced to resign as Speaker of the House and, when re-election became impossible, decided to retire. He's often rumored to be considering running for president, but those rumors probably originate with Gingrich. Even if he did run, he would have no hope of ever winning. Newt is merely a media whore of the first order, a ridiculous, pompous nobody with an inflated sense of self-worth and a confidence in the wisdom of his own opinions that's shared by pretty much no one. Why we're supposed to give a crap what Newt thinks is a mystery to me. Yet there he is, on cable news talking head shows almost daily, repeating the most inane talking points out there.
http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/05/goldmine-of-gop-stupidity.html

 

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When all else fails, we humans pray. That fails, too, but at least it gives us the satisfaction of doing something.

 

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Milestones in majority rule

2009 - California Supreme Court rules in favor of love segregation.

1882-1969 - At least 3,446 blacks lynched by the majority in the US.

1942 - President orders internment of people with Japanese ancestry living in coastal areas.

1896 - US Supreme Court rules in favor of racial segregation

1890 - US Army kills 300 Lakota who refuse to stop doing the Ghost Dance and return to the reservation.

1860 - Proud Southerners launch war to defend practice of slavery.

1857 - Supreme Court rules that blacks are property and must be returned to their owners.

1852 - At the request of Gov. Brigham Young, the Territorial Legislature passes a bill legalizing slavery in Utah Territory, thereby establishing slavery outside of the South and foreshadowing future Mormon exercises in God-ordained persecution of minority populations.

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Another clue to the identity of the anti-christ: he will be gay.

 

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Asked to spell, 'posture', the contestant requested that the word be used in a sentence. "You have the worst posture of anybody I've ever seen," was the reply.

 

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Why did Medal of Freedom-winner George Tenet create a false record on the day after he "quit'?

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/27/why-did-tenet-create-a-false-record-on-the-day-after-he-quit/#more-4206

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Rich white guy from a privileged family that lost his bid for the presidency but won't go away, 'won't rule out Sotomayor filibuster.'

Barring any surprises, which is unlikely as Judge Sotomayor has been through the confirmation process twice before, the antics of the GOP and their Wingnut fellow-travelers are almost guaranteed to drive the GOP's share of the Hispanic vote down to maybe 20%. When you add in the overtly sexist comments that will also be made about Sotomayor, the GOP's percentage of the female vote will also shrink.

At this rate, the GOP's demographic is going to end up being not much different from the typical voters for David Duke.

Heck of a job, Mittens.

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There's racism, there's glorious racism, and then there's supernova racism. Welcome to the last catogory, "reader": An alleged reader letter to John Derbyshire.

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A wish that Obama be assassinated? Sometimes I forget just how batshit crazy people can be.

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When it comes to the price of oil, we're always screwed:

The price of crude oil once again seems to be defying the economic forces of gravity.

There's plenty of evidence to suggest prices should be falling. In industrialized countries, storage tanks are overflowing, with enough supplies to cover 62 days of use, about 10 days more than usual. Economic weakness continues to depress world demand, which is on track to fall for the second consecutive year. And oil-producing countries, while restraining output, are adding to production capacity. New Saudi Arabian wells coming on line this year will exceed the entire production capacity of Texas.

But instead of dropping, the price of crude oil rose to more than $65 a barrel yesterday, the highest in more than six months. And some analysts said it could rise even higher as the summer driving season arrives. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said this week that a $75-a-barrel price was within reach.

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Bubble Boy shows up at The Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan to blame someone else for the recession, mention 9/11, the democracy that 'may lead to the spread of democracy throughout the Middle East' - thanks to his decision to invade Iraq, and to defend waterboarding:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/29/bush-i-miss-white-house-f_n_208939.html 

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There's a 13% chance you're not making your house payment

Remember the Housing Bubble and the gazillion bullshit mortgages that caused the entire global economy to collapse and send us into a terrible World Depression? It's still going down! The housing crash, that is — one in eight homeowners is now either in default or in foreclosure, a new record!

And now that subprime foreclosures are "only" 43% of the failed loans, prime borrowers have an equal percentage of defaults — 19% prime fixed-rate and 24% prime adjustable-rate mortgages. (The rest are FHA loans and whatever.)

Florida leads the nation in pathetic failure, once again, with 11% of all mortgages in foreclosure. Nevada and Arizona take the silver and bronze (of failure), and California is looking relatively less doomed with 5.2% of all home loans in default.

New home sales tanked again, mortgage rates are creeping back up, and nearly half of all existing home sales are "distressed," as in foreclosures or short sales or bank-owned or auctions. The median sale price plunged to $169,000 nationwide, 9.5% less than last year — the biggest drop since the Great Depression and only the second decline on record since then.

In other words, Expert Economists say the bottom is here, maybe 5% more price declines this year, and everything is recovering nicely by 2010, the end. Of course, these are the same economists who never saw this coming, because of course you can just loan $400K to an unemployed dishwasher so he can "buy" a stucco box hours from anywhere because that same house will of course be worth $450K next year and the guy can refinance, forever, right?

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Spanish bullfighting fans witnessed the ultimate ring horror on Wednesday when matador Israel Lancho was gored. According to press reports, Lancho had a 25 centimeter-deep stomach wound that surgeons operated on. He's now said to be in serious condition:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/28/israel-lancho-spanish-bul_n_208906.html

Funny how it's only considered the 'ultimate ring horror' when the bull is winning.