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02-28-09 - Like Most Other Republican Pols, Little Bobby Jindal Has a Very Long Nose:
- Our "Liberal Media":
- The Corporate Media Is Shamelessly Pretending Racism Died When Obama Got Elected (alternet)
- Military-Industrial Complex:
- Jeremy Scahill: All Troops Out By 2011? Not So Fast; Why Obama's Iraq Speech Deserves a Second Look (alternet)
- UK Iraq hero goes on the warpath (independent/uk) "Victoria Cross holder condemns government failure to care for veterans suffering post-combat stress."
- Progressive Forces Push Hard to Keep Dems Accountable (alternet)
- Great Police Work! - We're in Big Trouble!
- Man Gets Handed Ticket For Saving A Couple of Lives! (youtube)
- Phony War on Drugs:
- Israelis at center of ecstasy drug trade (haaretz) "In recent years, organized crime in Israel, some with links to criminal organizations in Russia, have come to control the distribution of the drug in Europe . . . . The same document also points out that Israeli criminal groups have a hand in the distribution of ecstasy in North America."
- New Accountability Now PAC intends to Challenge Elected Dems (huffingtonpost) "Some of the most prominent names in progressive politics launched a major new organization on Thursday dedicated to pinpointing and aiding primary challenges against incumbent Democrats who are viewed as acting against their constituents' interests."
- NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans (apod)
02-27-09 - Tiresome RW Religious Wackos - What Would We Ever Do Without Them?
- The same old Religious Right, with a few new tricks: Part 1 (onlinejournal)
- Obama Set to Undo ‘Conscience’ Rule for Health Workers (nytimes)
- Despicable James Dobson Resigns from Focus on the Family (washingtonmonthly) -- What a guy! "Few modern figures on the political scene hate quite as many people, with quite as much intensity, as James Dobson. Gays, minority faiths, the First Amendment, Girl Scouts, SpongeBob Squarepants ... if you don't think, act, or believe as Dobson does, you're an enemy. (One of my personal favorites is when Dobson insisted that gay marriage 'will destroy the Earth.' He wasn't kidding.) . . . his contributions to the discourse and political world have been nothing short of toxic. He's been a force for division and animosity, cloaked in vaguely theocratic terms."
- Word from the Porn Belt: Do as I Say, Not as I Do (firedoglake) "However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds." -- It turns out that none other than Orrin Hatch's Mormon-dominated great bigoted state of Utah is the nation's leading consumer of broadband pornography.
- Barack's Gang - Bush-Lite:
- Obama administration backs telecom immunity (sfgate)
- Military-Industrial Complex:
- Why the Dark Secrets of the First Gulf War Are Still Haunting Us (alternet) -- George H.W. Bush used the old 'bait and switch' on Sadaam Hussein in 1990. In response to Sadaam's question about a U.S. response to Iraq's invading Kuwait over it's encroachment on Iraq's oil, Bush's ambassador to Iraq told Sadaam the U.S. took no interest in Arab-Arab conflicts -- but when Sadaam actually invaded Kuwait, Bush responded immediately with half a million troops The Bush Crime Family knows but one way: everything for the Bushes, by whatever means necessary.
- Mrs. Multibillionaire War Profiteer Richard Blum, aka Sen. Dianne Feinstein, favors incisive investigation into Bush crimes to see what we did wrong and how we could commit them better next time. (emptywheel) "The purpose here is to do fact-finding in order to learn lessons from the programs and see if there are recommendations to be made for detention and interrogations in the future," -- Who'da guessed it of this big-business queen whose principal comment after their 'nice talk' before his Senate confirmation hearings was that now Justice John Roberts was a 'nice man.'
- Global Broiling:
- Droughts 'may lay waste' to parts of US (guardian/uk) -- Inhofe is such a dangerous and complete fool -- bought and completely paid for by the CO2 polluters who he is in the Senate to serve.
- Americans destroying the lungs of the planet for the feel of squeezably soft toilet paper (guardian/uk) "Barely a third of the paper products sold in America are from recycled sources — most of it comes from virgin forests."
- Comet Lulin and Saturn near Opposition (apod)
02-26-09 - Unveiling the Matrix - Getting to Know Your Government:
- Bolivia gives details of CIA activity (dailynews.lk) -- Will Obama try to heal our damaged relationship with our southern neighbors? Perhaps, if he stops listening to his neocon advisers, but so far, the prospects appear somewhat limited. (google search CIA SA - Obama SA)
- The Fruitcake GOP Opposition:
- Max Blumenthal: Will Revelations About Bobby Jindal's Weird Secret Past Destroy His Political Career? (alternet) "Jindal boasted of participating in an exorcism that purged the spirit of Satan from a college girlfriend? So far, Jindal's tale of 'beating a demon' remains behind the subscription wall of New Oxford Review, an obscure Catholic magazine; only a few major blogs have seized on the story." -- Being a Rhodes Scholar doesn't necessarily mean your feet are firmly planted in reality -- or even sanity. It merely means you are very smart. Too bad being smart and being reality-based aren't necessarily interlocked. Sounds like he and fellow fruitcake Sarah Palin would make quite a team -- to govern a distant deserted island far, far away.
- Republican Colorado state senator Schultheis says HIV testing for pregnant women rewards ‘sexual promiscuity’ and therefore won't support the bill (thinkprogress)
- During deliberations regarding overdue protections to state workers, Republican Colorado state senator Renfroe compares being gay to committing murder (thinkprogress). -- Will someone please tell me how this country ever became so completely ignorant as to elect idiots such as these bigots to public office. It makes me wonder if next time I look out the window, I'll see people leaping from branch to branch and swinging in the trees by their tails.
- Our "Liberal Media":
- Greenwald: The "Americans want bipartisanship" myth (salon) "By a 17 point-margin, Americans think it's more important that Obama 'stick to his policies' than try to dilute them in order to attract Republican support in pursuit of 'bipartisanship.'"
- Military-Industrial Complex:
- Norman Solomon: Obama Freeing Up Resources... for More War (commondreams) "Get the message? In his first speech to Congress, the new president threw down a 90-month-old gauntlet, reaffirming the notion that committing to war halfway around the world -- in Afghanistan and now in Pakistan too -- will make Americans safer. With drumrolls like that, the mission could outlive all of us. And so, a colossal and fateful blunder, made by a very smart leader, arguably our best and brightest, is careening forward with the help of silence that defers all too readily to power. This is how the war in Vietnam escalated, while individuals and groups muted their voices. Many people will pay with their lives."
- Is Closing Guantanamo Just a Bait and Switch? (firedoglake) "'the Bagram bait and switch,' where the administration was trumpeting the closure of a camp [Gitmo] housing 242 prisoners, while scaling up the Bagram base to house 1,100 more. . . . There are still perhaps as many as 18,000 people in legal black holes."
- Very Bad News: Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base Will Be Obama's Guantanamo (alternet)
- Lendman on Israeli Atrocities and Apartheid: Targeting Israel with Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions, and Prosecutions (sjlendman)
- Conjunction of the Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars (apod)
02-25-09 - Wealthy Elite Rule Ripping Off Our Health:
- US Lags 10 Years Behind Europe in Regulating Toxicity of Everyday Products (democracynow) "The stuff is an array of ingredients that . . . are determined to cause cancer, . . . reproductive damage, and . . . mutation of human genes. They’re called CMRs. . . . Back and forth, back and forth, there’s been massive lobbying by the American chemical industry to try to prevent the Europeans from moving forward. . . . We get the toxic toys . . . electronics . . . material that other countries around the world are protected from." America is now the dumping ground.
- Religious Wingnuttery Beyond the Pale:
- Report gives Texas schools failing grade in sex education (mcclatchydc) "The overwhelming majority of Texas schools use scare tactics and spread myths in place of teaching basic sex and health information that students can use to protect themselves and others . . . . Most Texas students receive no instruction about human sexuality apart from the promotion of sexual abstinence." -- The damage to these kids is incalculable and utterly shameful. I believe any Texas 'sex education' victim should have the right to sue the state for willful negligence in this crucial area of their education and should be able to sue for damages if an STD or unwanted pregnancy has occurred.
- Parsing the president's language:
- It's Not Universal Health Care, but… (politico) "To the casual listener, President Barack Obama's promises on health care Tuesday may have sounded like an unequivocal vow to get all Americans health insurance coverage by the end of 2009. But in reality, that's not exactly what he pledged Tuesday night. , , , Obama's speech contained several caveats and deliberately avoided language that could box in Obama . . . . Parsing his statements even more closely, Obama never actually said he would get insurance coverage for all, just 'quality, affordable health care.' . . . Already some who favor universal coverage are watching Obama's words - and actions - very closely."
- Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Obama Has Confused Saving the Banks with Saving the Bankers (democracynow)
- Global Warming - While the Urgency Is Increasing, Obama Is Backtracking:
- Scientists Find Bigger than Expected Polar Ice Melt (commondreams) "These assessments continue to be refined, but it now appears that both the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass and thus raising sea level, and that the rate of ice loss from Greenland is growing. . . . During the survey in 2007 and 2008, special expeditions in the Arctic also found an "unprecedented rate" of floating drift ice, providing 'compelling evidence of changes' in the region." Urgency is greater today than just two years ago.
- Climate Change Risk Was Underestimated (commonground) "If the associated risks are larger, the necessity is also larger to reduce the greenhouse gases emissions . . . ."
- Climate change timetable slips as Obama backtracks on 2008 deadline (guardian) "Campaign pledge to quickly pass laws to cut emissions faltering in the first weeks of his presidency" Robert Gibbs, also indicated on Monday that Obama was easing up on his timetable for climate legislation. He told reporters the president would support moves by Congress to act on global warming "whether that's this year or next year".
- Military-Industrial Complex:
- Brutality continues at Gitmo:
- Sadists at Gitmo increase the abuse since December (reuters) -- Obama should crack down hard on these sadistic abusers NOW.
- Report Contradicts Gov't Claims of 'Humane' Detention (ips) "A leading human rights organisation charges that contrary to recent U.S. government reports that found prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba being treated humanely, they are in fact 'deteriorating at a rapid rate' due to 'harsh conditions that continue to this day, despite a few cosmetic changes to their routines.'"
- Greenwald: Was Binyam Mohamed brutalized at Guantanamo in the last month? (salon) "Binyam Mohamed will return to Britain suffering from a huge range of injuries after being beaten by US guards right up to the point of his departure from Guantánamo Bay [on Saturday. Feb 21], according to the first detailed accounts of his treatment inside the camp."
- Guantánamo: We Need the Truth (guardian/uk) "Without transparency about Binyam Mohamed's torture, the damage done will linger for years after the camp's closure. ,,, We must not be squeamish or turn a blind eye to what has happened to him. Over seven years he has been shackled and blindfolded, flown to dark prisons across the world and kept incommunicado. He has made allegations of systematic torture, and says he had up to 20 or 30 cuts made into his penis and genitalia, with chemicals poured on the wounds for extra pain. In Guantánamo, reports suggest he was routinely humiliated and abused, resulting in long periods on hunger strike in protest. In all this time, Mohamed was never charged with a crime."
- Israeli Atrocities in Gaza - A Lone Voice Crying in the Wilderness:
- Congressman Brian Baird wants military aid to Israel reassessed (sanfranciscosentinel) "Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington state, visited Gaza last week with fellow Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and was struck by 'the level of destruction, the scope of it, specifically the civilian targets - schools, hospitals, industry.' Baird also said Israel had 'apparently willfully destroyed any capacity of the Palestinians to rebuild their own infrastructure.'"
- Two Tails of Comet Lulin (apod)
02-24-09 - President Obama's February 24th Address to Congress and the Nation (c-span)
- Class Warfare By Limiting Healthcare Choices Only to Corporate Rapists:
- Howard Dean: Real Health Reform ‘Rises And Falls On Whether The Public Is Allowed To Choose Medicare’ (wonkroom) -- And won't the Republicons' heads explode if Medicare becomes an option? Socialism! Socialism! -- Republicons are always trying to conflate democratic socialism (that is, government programs for the benefit of all of the people) with fascist regimes of 20th century Europe. The reason is very simple: The GOP is the point organization for the super wealthy elites who are robbing this country blind. They hate any government spending that benefits the population as a whole because it means less money from programs that benefit themselves, such as armaments for war. They are now and have been constantly engaged in very real class warfare against the rest of us since at least the mid-1800's. They even tried to launch a coup d'etat against FDR in 1933, just as they are now behind the massive corporate media propaganda campaign against everything good that Obama tries to do for the country as a whole.
- Read Fascists, Then and Now, Stalk the FDR Legacy (tpmcafe) for a taste of what socially conscientious leaders like FDR and Obama face as they try to improve the lives of 'we the people'.
- Is “Social Security” Reform The Price For Health Care? (firedoglake) "Jane talks to Shuster about Social Security, and the possibility that it may be offered up to Republicans as the price for Obama's health care plan."
- Social Security “Reform”: Are They in It for the Money? (firedoglake) "Let's cut to the chase here. Social Security doesn't need a fix to make it keep helping seniors, even according to the very conservative estimates of the Social Security trustees . . . ."
- Our "Liberal Media":
- Study: Network news coverage favored Republicans from 1992-2004 (thinkprogress)
- NY Times goes out of its way to print what it knew was a GOP misrepresentation (theplumline)
- Rupert Murdoch apologizes for controversial NY Post cartoon (cnn) -- Neocon multibillionaire Murdoch should be held criminally liable for any further incendiary commentary or graphics in any of his far-flung media empire outlets (including Faux News) that could be construed to incite some loony to try to harm or assassinate President Obama or any of his family.
- Barack's Gang:
- Homophobic Bigotry Run Amok:
- Utah Senate basically shuts down over anti-gay remark (americablog) "The reason the Utah Senate is falling apart at the seams over one anti-gay comment is become [sic, should be 'because'] Utah, thanks to the Mormons, has now become a hate state. If Utah wants to clear its good name, then it needs to pass comprehensive legislation granting equal civil rights to its gay and lesbian citizens. The bigoted Mormons claim that they only oppose actual marriage for gays, but don't oppose granting gays civil rights such as the right to have civil unions. Great. Then do it. Pass a statewide law, with massive support from the Mormons, granting gays in that state civil unions. Then we'll talk about repairing Utah's reputation that the Mormons obliterated."
- When Asked Whether He Would ‘Consider’ Gay Civil Unions, New RNC Chairman Michael Steele Replies, ‘What Are You, Crazy?’ (thinkprogress)
- Barnard's Loop around the Horsehead Nebula (apod)
02-23-09 - Civil Rights - Marriage Equality -- Bringing Sanity Where Little Exists:
- Our "Liberal Media":
- Class Warfare Through Devastating Trade Agreements and Egregious Tax Cuts:
- Haiti: A mud eating population warns the world (en.afrik) "Haiti is an augury to the developing world" -- Aside from the unnecessary Haitian poverty created by rapacious international trade agreements, this is a preview of what global warming will bring to much of the world, except there may not be enough water to make the mud cakes.
- Obama will not immediately repeal Bush tax cuts (thinkprogress) -- Obama afraid of getting flak from the wealthy elite puppeteers
- An Etruscan Vase Moon Rising (apod)
02-22-09 - Barack's Gang - Looking a Bit Like Obusha:
- Obama Sides With Bush: Tries to Kill E-Mail Case (commondreams)
- Orion Nebula: The Hubble View (apod)
