Speaking today at the US Senate, incoming Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta insisted that Iraq was already preparing to request the continuation of the US occupation beyond the end of 2011. He insisted the Iraqi government would submit a request soon.
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The Sarah Palin documentary, "The Undefeated," is getting a national release this summer at AMC movie theaters.
"The Undefeated is the ideal candidate for digital theatrical distribution," said Jonathan Dern, president of Cinedigm Entertainment Group, which is managing the release, in the press release. "Given Palin's ardent following throughout the country, digital cinema allows us to be extremely precise and efficient in our distribution strategy, bringing this much-anticipated film directly to interested theatre-goers."
After premiering in Iowa and then other key primary states this month, the film will be released in Dallas, Denver, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Atlanta, Orange County, Phoenix, Houston, Indianapolis, and Kansas City, among other cities on July 15.
Let's hope it does half as well as Atlas Shrugged. I can't wait for the reviews.
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Rep. Weiner says he has no plans to resign. I say leave it up to his constituents, who are mostly supportive.
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Digby
Krugman:
So Joe Lieberman is proposing that we raise the Medicare eligibility age. That's a truly cruel idea; as it happens, I know several people who are hanging on, postponing needed medical care, hoping that they can make it to 65 before something terrible happens. And if I know such people in my fairly sheltered social circles, just imagine how widespread such stories must be.
There are a ton of people like that and with this job market there are likely to be a whole lot more to come. If you lose your job, you lose your insurance and if you lose your insurance over the age of 55 it's very expensive to buy it. Now, the new health care plan will eventually end things like denial for pre-existing conditions and rescission, but it's not going to help with those expensive premiums for quite some time (if ever.) And people over 55 tend to start having some health problems which make those premiums more expensive.
Like Krugman I know quite a few who are hanging on for dear life and just hoping against hope that whatever's wrong with them doesn't kill them before they get a new job or qualify for Medicare. Raising the age makes no sense at all. In this economy with the system in flux it should be lowered to age 55 --- a position, by the way, that Joe Lieberman used to have (until he agreed that sticking it to the hippies in the health care debate was more important):
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The Obama Administration issued a memo today extending Medicaid protections to same-sex couples.
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Mario: God – Political Junkie
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Here's Colbert drilling Tom Ridge about fracking: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/389134/june-09-2011/tom-ridge
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Krugman: "Rule by Rentiers"
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Alaska finally released 24,199 pages of emails from Sarah Palin's term, and news organizations are crowdsourcing their reviews. Here's a round-up of the different places to search emails. McClatchy has a backgrounder on what's been found so far, and her local paper is live-blogging their findings. The Times has a searchable database of scanned emails. Mother Jones instigated the dump, and here's their explanation of how it came to be, and their roundup of interesting emails.
Sarah Palin and her legal team spent two and half years combing these emails for pages they wanted to withhold and for redactions to protect the privacy of some people. But you want to know whose information they left in? ... Any person who wrote to criticize the Governor has their email and phone number out for the Palin cult to attack. Sarah Palin once again used a seeming "attack" on her (aka, a request for transparency) as an opportunity to turn the guns of her internet vigilantes on her detractors. This is an outrageous compromising of those citizen's privacy and safety. ... Yes, they are private citizens, not public officials."
What a nasty, nasty bitch.
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National Enquirer via Gawker, so usual concerns about accuracy:
IN a devastating act of ultimate revenge, a dying Elizabeth Edwards recorded a bombshell secret videotape for prosecutors – nailing her cheating husband John as he will stand trial on charges that could land him behind bars for 30 years. That's the stunning secret behind the federal indictment brought against the disgraced former presidential candidate on June 3 -– following a two-year grand jury investigation into whether he illegally used campaign funds to cover up his affair with his then-pregnant mistress Rielle Hunter. "Elizabeth wanted to exact revenge against John for destroying their 33-year marriage and family by cheating with Rielle," source close to the scandal told ENQUIRER. "It was Elizabeth's idea to secretly record a video and tell what she knew of the affair and John's horrific betrayal."
That will leave a mark.
Say what you will about Edwards, but at least he was having a right proper affair with an actual female and trying to be discreet about things. He met a groupie on his campaign trail, she threw it at him, and he was willing to play ball. Weiner, on the other hand was all "I'll just send random chicks on the internet pictures of my cock for the lulz. ROFLCOPTER! What could go wrong?" Fucking idiot. That's a great use of twitter, you clown. Doesn't everyone know twitter is for heaving insults at establishment media types and hoping they block you?
Some of our political leaders have all the maturity of a teenage sexter.
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Now that this man has been brought to justice, I say we redouble our Tommy Chong efforts
This was certainly worth it:
A former spy agency employee agreed late Thursday to plead guilty to a minor charge in a highly publicized leak prosecution, undercutting the Obama administration's unusual campaign to prosecute government officials who disclose classified information to the press.The National Security Agency official, Thomas A. Drake, had faced a possible 35 years in prison if convicted on felony charges under the Espionage Act. Instead, he agreed to admit to a misdemeanor of misusing the agency's computer system by providing "official N.S.A. information" to an unauthorized person, a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. Prosecutors said in the written plea agreement that they would not oppose a sentence under which Mr. Drake would serve no time.
A formal plea hearing was set for Friday morning in Baltimore. The presiding judge, Richard D. Bennett of the district court, could impose a sentence of up to a year in prison. But legal experts said it would be highly unusual to impose a prison term when the Justice Department was not seeking incarceration.
The deal represented the almost complete collapse of the government's effort to make an example of Mr. Drake, who was charged last year in a 10-count indictment that accused him of obstructing justice and lying to investigators. It is uncertain whether the outcome will influence the handling of three pending leak cases or others still under investigation.
Ten counts and 25 years to a misdemeanor charge with a slap on a wrist. Sure seems like someone was overdoing things and wasted years and millions prosecuting someone who should have just been fired.
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Anyone who believes that Republicons support small business
Why does he care, you might ask? Probably because Miller-Coors Beer donated $22,000 to his campaign and they want that provision enacted.
Walker must be a really cheap politician to buy if you can get him to gut an entire sector of small business for that piddly amount. The Koch brothers have more than that under their sofa cushions.
It kinda defeats the purpose of making us take off our shoes and feeling us up when the baggage screeners don't bother checking for bombs, doesn't it? "The Transportation Security Administration is moving to fire more than 30 of its security personnel at Hawaii's Honolulu International Airport after the discovery late last year that they were not properly screening checked bags for bombs, the TSA said Friday. ... A dozen more TSA workers face suspension, the TSA said. Those slated for firing included workers responsible for the actual screening, several supervisors and the federal security director for the Honolulu airport, the TSA said. ... "TSA holds its workforce to the highest ethical standards and we will not tolerate employees who in any way compromise the security of the traveling public," TSA Administrator John Pistole said in a statement announcing the actions."
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is standing by his vow to block any candidate — specifically Elizabeth Warren — for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, his aide said yesterday. Addressing charges of sexism, McConnell's spokesman said "It's not sexist. It's not Elizabeth Warren-specific. It's any nominee."
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"Once Iraq becomes a very rich and prosperous country…we would hope that some consideration be given to repaying the United States some of the mega-dollars that we have spent here in the last eight years," Rohrabacher told journalists at the US embassy in Baghdad.
"We were hoping that there would be a consideration of a payback because the United States right now is in close to a very serious economic crisis and we could certainly use some people to care about our situation as we have cared about theirs."
Rohrabacher "raised the issue in a meeting with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki" although the AFP did not report what would most likely have been Maliki's bemused response. But it's beyond absurd for Rohrabacher to demand that Iraq pay back the United States for, in retired Gen. Colin Powell's terminology, "breaking" its country. If anyone is responsible for that, it's George W. Bush.
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The Incidental Economist: After hyping its outlier study claiming 30% of employers will drop health insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act, McKinsey refuses to provide details or methodology on its research.
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A terrified Iraqi girl cries after her family is killed at a checkpoint in Iraq. Photo by Chris Hondros.
Let's not forget what real obscenity looks like. Don't get distracted by the media version.
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