Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Headlines - Wednesday August 11

 
Levi Johnston to run for mayor of Wasilla.
 
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JUNEAU, Alaska – A plane carrying former Sen. Ted Stevens and ex-NASA chief Sean O'Keefe crashed into a remote mountainside in Alaska, killing the longtime senator and at least four others, authorities said Tuesday.
 
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The narcissitic Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich has always come across as a slimy weasel and now there's even more reason to despise this man given the interview his ex-wife gave to Esquire.  Here is his ex-wife Marianne Gingrich after Newt admitted he was having an affair.

He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.

He'd just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he'd given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.

The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, "How do you give that speech and do what you're doing?"

"It doesn't matter what I do," he answered. "People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live."

Tolerate the affair?  Does it get more narcissistic than that?

Newt Gingrich, just another family values type of guy.

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Not even James Taylor saw fire and rain like this. "The death toll from landslides in north-west China has risen to 337, with 1,148 people missing, state-run Xinhua news agency says. The landslides in Zhouqu county, Gansu province, were triggered by torrential rains that hit the area on Saturday. Landslide debris blocked a river, which burst its banks, sending water, rocks and mud down several hillsides and on to homes. Earlier on Monday evening the toll had stood at 137, with 1,348 missing. The landslides in Gansu came as China was struggling with its worst flooding in a decade, with more than 1,000 people reported dead and millions more displaced around the country. In Gansu, the landslides tore down apartment blocks, and buried houses and streets under deep layers of mud."

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It's the food, stupid. "Global warming is cutting rice yields in many parts of Asia, according to research, with more declines to come. Yields have fallen by 10-20% over the last 25 years in some locations. The group of mainly US-based scientists studied records from 227 farms in six important rice-producing countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, India and China. This is the latest in a line of studies to suggest that climate change will make it harder to feed the world's growing population by cutting yields. In 2004, other researchers found that rice yields in the Philippines were dropping by 10% for every 1C increase in night-time temperature. That finding, like others, came from experiments on a research station. The latest data, by contrast, comes from working, fully-irrigated farms that grow "green revolution" crops, and span the rice-growing lands of Asia from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to the outskirts of Shanghai. Describing the findings, which are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), lead researcher Jarrod Welch said: "We found that as the daily minimum temperature increases, or as nights get hotter, rice yields drop." "

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Climate Change - The Consequences of Doing Nothing

Democratic Rep. Ed Markey has an idea I like.

"An iceberg four times the size of Manhattan has broken off Greenland, creating plenty of room for global warming deniers to start their own country," Markey said in a statement. "So far, 2010 has been the hottest year on record, and scientists agree arctic ice is a canary in a coal mine that provides clear warnings on climate." [...]

He said it was "unclear how many giant blocks of ice it will take to break the block of Republican climate deniers in the US Senate who continue hold this critical clean energy and climate legislation hostage."

Scientific studies link human activity with the phenomena of shrinking sea-ice and yet deniers deny.  There are many things in life you can be wrong about and still recover from.  These include investing in a bad stock or choosing a wrong spouse.  While each has it's own unique period of recovery, the fact remains that you can lick your wounds and move on if you so chose.  Climate change unfortunately does not grant one that same luxury.  Choosing to do nothing about a warming planet and melting ice caps is a decision which carries fatal and irreversible consequences.

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"How does anyone need 30 rooms for a mother-daughter trip?" Racist Ralph Alter, saying Michelle Obama shouldn't have Secret Service protection even tho death threats by Republicans against the Obamas are up 400% Link  
 
Hey Racist Ralph, she's not anyone - she's the First Lady.
I swear, they want all the darkies dead. 
 
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Marc Perkel: The Constitution prohibits banning the building of a mosque near where the World Trade Center was because all religions have to be treated equally, as they should be. So I say ban all religious places of worship equally around where the twin towers were leveled by religious terrorists.

If we banned all religions equally, it would then be constitutional. 
 
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"Those of us who supported Prop 8 and worked for its passage did so for one reason: We truly believe that Marriage was instituted by God for the specific purpose of carrying out God's plan for the world and human society. Period." Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Senior Child Rape Coordinator, LA Division,    Link
    
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How the country is throwing itself into the arms of mediocrity. Over at the Lake.
 
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Bob Herbert: Putting our brains on hold.
 
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The Grand Aqua Buddha Bong of the United States Senate

Sen. John Cornyn
Chair. National Republican Sentatorial Committee

Dear
Sen. Cornyn,

By now, I'm sure you've heard about this story:

The strangest episode of Paul's time at Baylor occurred one afternoon in 1983 ... According to this woman... "He and [Rand Paul] came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They'd been smoking pot." After the woman refused to smoke with them, Paul and his friend put her back in their car and drove to the countryside outside of Waco, where they stopped near a creek. "They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him," the woman recalls. "They blindfolded me and made me bow down to 'Aqua Buddha' in the creek. I had to say, 'I worship you Aqua Buddha, I worship you.' At Baylor, there were people actively going around trying to save you and we had to go to chapel, so worshiping idols was a big no-no."
Some might view such an abduction as anti-Christian and unconstitutional (as any Teabag-American scholar will tell you, the Constitution allows the use of force only when witnessing for Christ). I disagree. I think Paul was simply testing the young woman to see if she might secretly be an Aquatic Buddhist, like the blacks, like Obama. There's nothing anti-Christian or unconstitutional about that--it's performing God's work.

You should bring this technique to the Senate. I'm picturing a big Buddha shaped hookah centered in front of the Majority Leader's podium. One hundred smoking tubes would emanate from it, each ending at a Senator's desk. You'd use it to ensure each Senator's suitability before each vote by making them take a toke and then commanding them to bow before the Grand Aqua Buddha Bong of The Unites State Senate (GABBUSS). As long as no one rises to so, it's cool to go on with the vote, but if anyone bows, you'll need to send them to Gitmo.

You might also consider replacing the Senate cafeteria's bean soup with big bags of Cheetos.

Heterosexually yours,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot



Elsewhere: Smart people use fancy science to call us racists. Poll: "[E]ven as we account for conservatism and partisanship, support for the Tea Party remains a valid predictor of racial resentment." 

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House Democrats on Tuesday pushed through a $26 billion the jobs bill to protect 300,000 teachers and other nonfederal government workers from election-year layoffs. The bill would be paid for mainly by closing a tax loophole used by multinational corporations and reducing food stamp benefits for the poor. It passed mainly along party lines by a vote of 247-161.
 
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Maybe instead of painting the disappointment of the left as craziness and betrayal, Robert, you should consider that the fault might lie at the administration's feet, you know where increased spying on citizens is, and the un-closed Gitmo, and a host of other issues are mouldering.

So far, the only campaign pledge that has been acted upon is to increase the troops in Afghanistan.

I don't think what you really need to do at this point is to make your base dislike you even more, Gibbs. Here's a hint: shut yer trap. Or resign.

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George W. Bush is making another trip to Haiti, probably so he can shake hands with black people and then wipe himself with Bill Clinton's shirt. The Caucus
 
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Newt Gingrich just wants America to give him cookies

Newt with his latest wife.

What's it like being hateful and desperately doing anything to give yourself enough support for a presidential run? "I wake up in the morning and I know that somewhere there's a cookie. I don't know where it is but I know it's mine and I have to go find it. That's how I live my life. My life is amazingly filled with fun." Newt Gingrich, folks. Yes, there are many fun tidbits in this sad article about this terrible human being. MORE »

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Yes, of course the judge admitted a false confession elicited by torture and a rape threat. Playing the farce of a trial adds constitutional destruction to a war crime abomination. "A former child combatant has gone on trial at Guantanamo Bay, the first detainee to face military justice under President Barack Obama. Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, now 23, is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier during a gun battle in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15. He alleges that he was tortured into confessing to the murder. A UN envoy, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said the trial would set a dangerous precedent for child soldiers worldwide. However, the judge said the prosecution must show that Mr Khadr had had intent to commit a crime, and he told jurors they could consider his age in making their decision. Mr Obama had promised to close the controversial detention facility by January this year."

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As older Americans become paupers, talk of cutting Social Security.

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It's started: employers are using the continued high unemployment rate to destroy middle-class wages. Want a job? Then you better count yourself lucky to get shitty, dangerous work at minimum wage with no benefits. It's the Randian wet dream...

Kevin Drum:

The Wall Street Journal reports that even with unemployment at 9.5%, employers are having trouble finding workers:

In Bloomington, Ill., machine shop Mechanical Devices can't find the workers it needs to handle a sharp jump in business. Job fairs run by airline Emirates attract fewer applicants in the U.S. than in other countries. Truck-stop operator Pilot Flying J says job postings don't elicit many more applicants than they did when the unemployment rate was below 5%.

Sounds puzzling. Unless you read the rest of the story. The truck stop job, it turns out, pays minimum wage. The airline job requires you to move to Dubai. And the machine shop company pays only $13/hour but requires people with very specific skills. When they set up a ten-week training course of their own, they got plenty of applicants and 16 out of 24 graduated. But apparently we've gotten to the point where blue collar employers are barely willing to invest even ten weeks in training new workers for high-skill entry level positions.


Read the whole thing.

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I'm going to say it again:
David Stockman (Reagan's trickle-down guy)
said 25 years ago that trickle-down was a SHAM
and STILL the Dems can't find a way
to make them PAY
for that lie.

If *I* ran the DNC,
the GOP would have a 30-year mortgage
trying to pay down for that mega-lie.
 
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Sarah Failin denies rolling eyes at that teacher. Watch this.
 
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"Haven't you heard? In my universe,
hypocrisy is not a vice, it's a virtue!"
 
 
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Wisco: Teabaggers really don't understand money.
 
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